Invert(e)

November Publishing Notes

The buzz: Charles Busch’s new play, The Third Story, will debut off-Broadway January 14, 2009 at the Lucille Lortel Theater in the West Village. ** The inaugural production of the Shameless Theater Company, a new theater company in London which will focus on works with gay themes, will be American Briefs, a series of short works by US-based playwrights, followed by Busted Jesus Comix, based on the real-life story of a Florida minor prosecuted on obscenity charges for writing a comic book, and The Choir by Australian playwright Errol Bray, about the castration of young boys.

Giovanni's Room bookstore in Philadelphia, Pa. celebrated its 35th anniversary in October. Ed Hermance is the store’s co-owner. Giovanni's has 12,000 titles in its active inventory. It holds 50 readings a year and a photograph of the author James Baldwin, who once visited the store, hangs behind the front counter. Giovanni's is the second-oldest gay-and-lesbian bookstore in the country, behind only New York's Oscar Wilde Bookshop. ** The 38-year-old feminist bookstore Amazon Bookstore Coop is changing its name to True Colors Bookstore. Ruta Skujins is the store’s new owner. According to the terms of an out-of-court settlement reached in a 1999 trademark infringement lawsuit brought against online retailer Amazon.com by the feminist bookstore, rights to the Amazon name reverted to the Internet retailer if ownership of the 2,800-square-foot bricks-and-mortar store in south Minneapolis changed hands.

I Voted (But Just Once, Darling)

Well, I finally did it. I voted.

I'm excited for this whole election to be over. For many reasons. One of these is just so Palin will SHUT THE FUCK UP! Or at least SHUT THE FUCK UP for about two years...when she starts her candidacy for President...

And McCain, uhhhhrrrrrrrrrrewwww...ew ew ew...my ears start bleeding every time I hear his voice.

I voted. But just once.

Huh?

Well, I've received three ballots this time. Yup. Three.

I prefer to vote by mail. It seems that even though I've registered with my correct address in Sonoma County--and despite the fact that Alameda County could never figure out how to get my ballot to me when I actually lived in Oakland and the county--they've sent me a ballot this year. And Sonoma County sent me two! They're not only efficient enough to send one, I got a bonus ballot!

It's soooooooooooo tempting to send in all three but I'd rather do it just once and hope that my vote actually counts. I know California (apparently) doesn't matter in the Presidential race but there are lots of important other state and local matters that I want my vote counted for.

VOTE! But just once, darling.

How to Get Fired (in one easy lesson)

Truth be told, it wasn't in just one easy lesson. It had been coming for some time, but this was the incident that sealed my fate and put the last nail in the coffin of my teaching career.

I was teaching at Weld Central Jr./Sr. High School out in Keenesburg, CO - close to the corn maze I last blogged about - three sections of Expository Writing, one Sci-Fi class, one Media Studies class and I was the Drama sponsor (hmmm, how stereotypical). I wasn't out, but I wasn't exactly in, either.

Over the summer, I had taken two of my students to a Theatre Arts convention at Ball State University in Muncie, IN along with two busloads of student thespians from Colorado. They did the first act of William Mastrosimone's "The Woolgatherer," performing well enough to impress the head of the Colorado State Thespian Organization.  A few months later, when it came time for the State Thespian Conference, he remembered them and offered us a Main Stage slot on Saturday night - a full-length play of our choice to be performed for the entire conference.

Tranny Triptych

This is Morty Diamond's new short film, "Tranny Triptych" starring Morty and Glenn Marla and edited by Ethan Weinstock. 

Morty has made two feature length films, "Trans Entities: The Nasty Love of of Papi and Wil" and "Trannyfags."

He's also the editor of the anthologies From the Inside Out: Radical Gender Transformation, FTM and Beyond and the forthcoming Gendered Hearts.

Enjoy!

The end of truthiness?

Okay, before we get to this long-delayed blog post, you first have to click on this link:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2008/10/27/john-hodgson.html

Go ahead, skim through that magnificent interview with John Hodgman that I just read.

Okay, now that you have thoroughly enjoyed its wonderfulness, let me tell you how that ties in with anything.

I have been kind of emotionally exhausted lately, and not really in the mood to do much of anything, hence the lack of blog posts. Today, in a brief squirt of enthusiastic zeal, I decided that I would start putting up word definitions as blog posts, complete with etymology, etc. The thing is, I would make up the etymology, if not the entire definition.

Kind of like what Hodgman does, bless his sexy little nerd soul.

Mayhap I will not limit myself to definitions and etymology. For example, I am always pleased to share with visitors the story of the founding of Cleveland, Ohio.

When Anne of Cleves, King Henry VIII's fourth wife, consented to his request for an annulment, he granted her a generous settlement.

In addition to owning property throughout Britain, she also went on an expedition to the "new world," where she and her party established a small settlement on the Cuyahoga River, at the shore of Lake Erie.

Calling it Clevesland, she divided her time between the frontier and London, and was there when Henry's daughters Mary and Elizabeth rode into town, with Mary as queen. Both young women briefly visited Clevesland, and Elizabeth's fascination with far-off lands led her to patronize explorers, funding many an expedition.

There is a bit of wall near the river in what is now the industrial Flats that is believed to be the only remaining portion of Anne's small castle. Engraved in the stone is her signature:

Of course, over time, the S was dropped and the city of Cleveland was born.

And now you know.

The Queering of the Corn

Traditions.

There's nothing like them. They're reassuring, they're affirming and they serve as markers in our lives - and they're especially important around the holidays. Okay, so it's not exactly the holidays yet, but the grocery stores here have already started putting up their accordion-folded crepe paper turkeys for Thanksgiving. Our newest tradition (an oxymoron if I've ever heard one) is doing Fritzler's Corn Maze up near LaSalle, CO. Yes, a corn maze.

For the uninitiated, it's just what it says it is - a themed maze in the midst of a cornfield. We like our diversions simple here in the flyover states. Last year's maze was a portrait of country singer Chris Le Doux - this year's was the more prosaic "Thanks, Mom and Dad." You enter at the bottom then, guided by five or six signposts with ridiculously simple questions giving you the barest indication of what direction to take, try to find your way out. It's a wonderful, bucolic way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon in fall.

Keith, John, Ryk and I drove out yesterday, had a huge farmer's lunch at the Pepper Pod in Hudson, where I used to teach high school (a time in my life that deserves a blog of its own, but I'll settle for a post later on this week), then headed another 30 miles north to Fritzler's. After paying our money and getting our questions - American History for us, but they even have a set of questions on Scripture for those who can't abide godless corn mazes - we entered Phase 1 (Dad).

$46,790 and Democracy Now! Headlines

$46,790!

That's how much we (taxpayer's money) are paying to have a portrait of former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld painted to be hung in the Pentagon.

You've got to be fucking kidding! $46,790 for that douchbag.

I understand he's part of history and needs to be painted like all the other...douchbags before him. And in the world of real art, that's not too high. But he's a horrible, horrible man.

Here's a clip of the Democracy Now! headlines segment for October 23:

Battleground Ohio and Democracy Now! Headlines

Battleground Ohio.

Battleground Ohio.

Battleground Ohio.

Ian and I lived in Cleveland last year for a while. Ohio is seriously depressed. Many of our friends there worry about how to pay the gas bill each month so heating isn't turned off. How much money did each candidate raise last month--just last month? Obama raised $150 million. I know he beat McCain but I'm sure McCain's figure is still huge. Now I realize it's not how it works (and I know the hungry bitch election machine takes money) but just imagine how much good just part of that could do for the Rust Belt of America if invested directly to those people they are trying so desperately to reach.

Here's a clip of the Democracy Now! headlines for October 22:

Standing Up and Fighting Back

I don't know why it surprises me anymore. I should be inured to it by now. Maybe it bothers me so much because these guys were so fucking defenseless, but I can't stop thinking about Milton Lindgren and Eric Hendricks of Indianapolis, IN. They weren't just gay-bashed, they were slaughtered - blood all over the house and both of them dead from blunt force trauma. Hate crime? You bet. Their cable and telephone lines had been cut repeatedly and a few days before the murders, the word "fagot" (how come none of these bastards can spell?) had been spray-painted on the door. Milton Lindgren was 70. Eric Hendricks was 73 - and wheelchair bound.

For some reason, this cuts me deeper than Matthew Shepard. Maybe it's all the footage of the McCain/Palin rallies I've been seeing inciting frustrated Americans to racial hatred - sure, they may be screaming "terrorist" and "baby-killer" now but you know as well as I do that it's a short hop from there to "faggot." And those of us who live in gay neighborhoods and work with other gay men and women get kinda smug after a while. We figure it couldn't happen here, right?

Well, it does.

Idiotic Hore

Patti Smith changed my life last night.

Please, God, let that be true.

I almost didn’t go. Without a new CD from Patti and her band, I figured we’d be hearing a fairly typical setlist from her, and since I’ve seen her so many times now, starting way back in 1976—a few days after Radio Ethiopia came out—it seemed as if I might not regret missing this particular show. Obviously, I am an idiot.

It was a night of great rock n roll, this storm of sonic textures, over which Patti’s vocals alternately soared, trembled, floated, whipped up, and cut through, but it was also a whole lot more. She didn’t read Rimbaud to celebrate his birthday, she invoked his spirit and rose to the occasion. Songs that began with an ephemeral quality ended up with the emotional weight of a sledgehammer, yet remained as graceful as the first note. She truncated two songs, particularly jawdropping in the case of ‘Gloria,’ excising one of the most famously outrageous intros in the entire rock n roll cannon:  “Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine.” Hard to say which is more blasphemous:  doing that song as it’s written, or slipping directly into the part where she “just gets bored, till I look out the window, see this sweet young thing . . . .’ I mean, scripture is scripture, no?

Sacrificed Virgin Souls and Democracy Now! Headlines

Dinner was delicious.

We had cheese and chile tamales, refried beans, rice, guacamole, tostados, and chipotle salsa. I had iced tea and Ian had Coke.

We watched Keith on MSNBC while we ate.

For dessert we sacrificed two neighbor virgins then fucked like happy little bunnies in the mess of what was once alive and innocent. I ate their souls then downed an Alka-Seltzer chaser.

Here's a clip of the Democracy Now! headlines for today:

Back to Mike

It looks like the person we've all come to know as Christine Daniels is de-transitioning, and has returned to work as Mike Penner.

Kevin Roderick of highly-respected LAObserved.com reports late Monday that “Eighteen month after writing a column about becoming Christine Daniels, veteran sportswriter Mike Penner has quietly returned to work at the Los Angeles Times, according to multiple sources close to the LAT’s Sports staff.”

Anyone know any more than this? All of the articles/blog posts written by Christine Daniels are gone - sports ones, as well as the ones about the transition.

If anyone has more information, let me know. As far as I know, this is the most famous person to de-transition I've ever heard of, and it's surely going to cause additional confusion to people who are just starting to get why people transition in the first place.

So - why do people de-transition? I've met people who did because they couldn't find a job as a female, especially if/when there were dependents in the picture. Others realize they weren't transsexual - and that is the point of RLT, after all, & that means it's working.

TEMP!

I totally love Matt Taibbi.

Ian and I are big Rolling Stone fans. On top of the good, bad, and ugly of all things music, Rolling Stone is always one of—if not the best—places for current events and political writing in print.

And Matt Taibbi regardless of topic always gives me a perverse thrill.

Two issues ago (okay, I'm a bit behind on blogging), RS published an article of his that totally captures what is most wrong about Palin as a VP candidate.

"Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she's a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more than that, she is a horrifying symbol of how little we ask for in return for the total surrender of our political power. Not only is Sarah Palin a fraud, she's the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV — and this country is going to eat her up, cheering her every step of the way. All because most Americans no longer have the energy to do anything but lie back and allow ourselves to be jacked off by the calculating thieves who run this grasping consumer paradise we call a nation."