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With the 2009 Gay Pride weekend festivities only two weeks behind us here in Atlanta, today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution breaks the shocking news that Southern Voice, the weekly newspaper that for more than three decades has been the publication of record for this city's LGBTQ community, has shut down as of this week. Its owner, Window Media, was forced to stop the presses on SoVo and all of the other gay papers it owns around the nation—including the Washington Blade and New York Blade, both of which I read regularly when I lived in DC and NYC—due to financial insolvency. SoVo reporters and other employees showed up at work today to find the building locked and a sign on the door telling them to come back later for their personal effects and to discuss severance. The full story is here.
Advertising losses were apparently not the problem, unlike so many other newspapers in recent years that have been bled of ad dollars by the Internet. Ad sales were picking up after a dismal first half of the year, but the company itself was reaping the consequences of ill-advised over-expansion in buying one gay rag after another over the last decade or so.
Atlanta's queer community is far too large and vibrant to permit this sudden vacuum of news and activism for long. But until another new paper arises to take SoVo's place, or another company buys it and resumes publishing it, the community here will be without a key means of sharing information, connecting with one another and mobilizing for action...and the other cities affected will be as well. And in this tumultuous time of social change for persons of minority sexuality, it's a loss the community can emphatically not afford.
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Normally, I have at least a modicum of grudging respect for Charles Krauthammer. Among the many right-wing pundits who daily cause sudden spikes in my blood pressure, he is one of the tiny handful who actually has, on rare occasions, a legitimate point to make...and usually makes it without the demagoguery, spin and/or outright falsehood all too common among his fellow conservative mouthpieces.
But today's column of his, published in my local paper, makes me want to purchase a round-trip airfare to DC for the express and sole purpose of bitch-slapping his wheelchair-bound ass. In it, he complains that in discussing last week's shocking massacre at Fort Hood in Texas, in which a Muslim US Army psychiatrist (there's a bit of choice irony for ya, eh, Dr. K?) is charged with 13 counts of murder, the fact that the suspect was of the Islamic faith and had previously expressed some rather alarming views is apparently beyond the journalistic pale.
Oh, really, Chuckie boy? Leaving aside the perfectly reasonable desire undoubtedly held by most mainstream journos to (a) be objective and fair and (b) avoid fanning the flames of anti-Islamic hatred among non-Muslim Americans that have burned all too intensely since the 9/11 attacks eight years ago, why don't we discuss the fact that you, Dr. Krauthammer, are in fact Jewish...and a Conservative Jew, at that? Surely this is bound to color your views with respect to anyone Arab and/or Muslim, given that whole pesky Middle East thing with Israel and the Palestinians and practically the whole rest of the region. Not so nice when the sandal's on the other foot, is it now?
The fact is (and you can look it up via Google or Lexis/Nexis) that most of the experts in military psychology so far quoted on this do not believe the accused shooter was in fact any sort of Al Qaeda or Hezbollah agent, but simply a very conflicted and stressed soldier. I do not in any way, shape or form condone his actions, but to assume he is a terrorist solely on the basis of his faith and statements relating thereto is a slap in the face to the millions of perfectly peaceable, law-abiding Muslim folks who go about their daily lives without shooting up the joint all around us. But then, by this time those folks are probably (and sadly) long used to that sort of slap from the rest of us.
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The City Too Busy to Hate is apparently too busy to vote as well. Thanks to a stunning level of voter apathy, turnout for the elections held here in Atlanta this Tuesday past was, even by the standards of an off-year election with no federal offices contested, positively dismal, according to the local paper's next-morning report. Only 24 percent of registered voters residing in the city showed up at the polls, helping to force the eight-way mayoral race (or six-way, depending on who's reporting) into a runoff Dec. 1. That's right; over three-quarters of this city's electorate couldn't even be bothered to take a few goddamned minutes out of their days to perform a civic duty only asked of them once a year. And that doesn't even mention all the adult citizens eligible to vote who couldn't even be bothered to register in time; once again, our future is decided by a minority of a minority!
This despite the fact that this majority-black, majority-Democrat city could well elect its first Caucasian mayor in over three decades—and its first Republican in over 1.25 centuries!—in this election. Front-runner Mary Norwood, currently a city council member, is seeking a promotion to the top job. She faces off against state senator Kasim Reed, a black Democrat, in the runoff after neither of them could muster the 50 percent plus one votes required to win outright. Several other African-American candidates, including current council president Lisa Borders, divided their community's vote while Norwood made some inroads with them as well as dominating the white vote. Two-term incumbent Shirley Franklin, the city's first woman mayor, must step down due to the city charter's term limits come January.
This means that for the second year running, Atlantans will be asked to return to the polls a second time within a week of the December holiday season's opening. Turnout for that day is liable to be even worse, given most people's hectic schedules that time of year; the same problem last December cost us a chance to oust GOP U.S. Senator Saxby "Shameless" Chambliss. And it also means a full four weeks more of the mayoral campaigns making "robo-calls" to my home at all hours of the day, running TV and radio ads exhorting voters to pick their candidate (and likely slamming the opponent) and junk mail from them and assorted other groups in my mailbox. The sole consolation I have is that all my fellow Atlantans who shirked their civic duty two days ago will share the same fate.
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Neither the Songbird nor I shall be attending this weekend's silver-anniversary Ohio Valley Filk Fest, alas. Her business here in Atlanta and my need of $$$ for a newer vehicle to get to and from work both make such a trip a non-starter for us this year.
So who is going, or already there? And who else is making other plans? Post here and bring your favorite filkroom beverage and a song selection. In honor of this year's OVFF Guest of Honor, Duane Elms, I'll start things off with his "Don't Push That Button" and the requisite traditional bottle of filker's mother's milk.
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Editorial Page Editor
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
72 Marietta Street N.W.
Atlanta, GA 30303
Dear Editors:
Years ago, in discussions on the Internet's Usenet newsgroups, a rule known as "Godwin's Law" was first codified. It states that in any political discussion, the minute either party makes a comparison to Adolf Hitler or mentions Nazis, the discussion must end, as it has passed the point of any hope for its resolution by reason or logic.
C. Thomas Sowell invokes Godwin's Law in the very first paragraph of his latest screed against what he considers "indoctrination" by allegedly liberal teachers in our nation's classrooms, printed in today's edition of your paper. In theory, this immediately forfeited any serious consideration of his expressed views. Nonetheless, in the name of fairness, I slogged through the rest of the column hoping to find some semblance of a new or cogent argument....and unsurprisingly, found none.
I know Sowell's right-wing views well from having had many of his previous columns inflicted on me; but even for "Uncle Tom," this is a new low. Not even at the height of the previous presidency's abuses of power did I or anyone I know ever compare George W. Bush to Hitler, Stalin or Mao. Sadly, Sowell is only reflecting the foamy-mouthed loathing of conservatives nationwide for Barack Obama. I realize you are trying to present a wide spectrum of views, but must you fan the flames?
Sincerely, TCC
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...and I may need a TARP loan to get them back. As noted yesterday, I haven't been on LJ in at least two weeks, so if you posted anything you really wanted me to see, assume I've missed it. I shudder at the thought of how long it'll take to scroll back through that many days' worth of postings by my already-ginormous, ever-growing friends list. (Sincere apologies to all the friends whose birthdays I missed noting, and I hope you all had good ones.)
So help me out, here, willya? Pick the one or two most important things you've posted in the past couple of weeks and put a condensed Reader's Digest version here. No crises at work lately, though I'm still trying to find my own wheels since the Songbird's green car died on me this past summer. And we haven't been out to much that's fun lately, aside from the Norcross Art Festival last weekend and catching up with our returning fave TV shows. What's doing in your neck of the woods?
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I logged in tonight and discovered it has been over two weeks since my last post. If you have not seen my Facebook messages, this may have caused you to wonder if something bad has happened to me. I apologize for causing any anxiety; I have been somewhat busy in my hours outside of work, as the Songbird has been home since the next-to-last weekend of September for reasons she has asked me to let her explain to you on her own page, in her own time. Suffice to say for now that both of us are fine and neither of us is in any danger, physical, economic or otherwise.
Meanwhile, both of us offer deepest sympathies to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) batyatoon and sdelmonte, who lost the first child they had been trying so hard for so long to conceive yesterday, after only three months or so of pregnancy. She will also probably tell you more in her own time, so please don't pester either of them for details. Here's hoping the next one comes easier...and stays longer.
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The citywide flooding appears to be worsening; Northside Drive, not far from me, is under yards of water in spots. If you live around here, please let me know you're okay ASAP. Thank you.
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I just want to wish braider a very happy birthday today...and debgeisler a belated wish for the same, as hers was yesterday.
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Avast! Today be th' annual Talk Like A Pirate Day, swabbies! Bein' as I'm a musical sort o' pirate type, I always likes to have me a bucket o' shantys and songs to celebrate th' day with. Startin' off, o'course, with filkertom's—err, I mean Cap'n Smitty's official anthem o' the day, we're gonna be playin' "Th' Last Saskatchewan Pirate" by Th' Arrogant Worms, "Privateers of the Public Airwaves" by Th' Foremen (fer those o' yez with a political turn o' mind), "Th' Lincoln Park Pirates" by th' late Steve Goodman, and anythin' else we can rustle up that fits the theme. Ye'll be able to hear at least some o' these lovely melodies on me blip.fm station today. There's also this hilarious video starrin' that lovely wench of a teen superspy, Kim Possible, facin' her scurviest dog of an enemy in a whole new piratical persona.
How are ye plannin' t' observe the day on board your ship? Let me know here. (And ye better be plannin' to...or else yer walkin' th' plank!)
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Hard on the heels of the sad news about the passing of Mary Travers, now comes word that another '60s icon, Henry Gibson of Laugh-In and Boston Legal fame has now died as well, of cancer...and only four days before what would have been his 74th birthday (21 September). The full story can be found here. From his whimsical poetry recitals on the old Rowan & Martin yukfest to his befuddled Judge Clark Brown facing down the likes of Alan Shore on BL, Henry was always watchable, usually funny and occasionally poignant.
Okay, Universe, can you please stop killing off pieces of my childhood for now? Kthxbye.
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It is with shock and sadness, both in exceedingly large quantities, that I must report the passing of an icon of both the folk music genre and the social justice movement. Mary Travers, for over four decades the brassy-voiced heart of the singing and activist group Peter, Paul and Mary, has died at 72 following a prolonged struggle with leukemia, while undergoing treatment at a hospital in Danbury, CT. Yahoo! News reports the obituary here.
My Songbird and I have both been humongous fans of PPM for decades, and actually had the good fortune to see them in person on one of their final live tours together, here in Atlanta a few years ago. Mary was among the handful of major figures in the 1960s folk revival, along with her bandmates Noel "Paul" Stookey and Peter Yarrow, who walked their talk on marches, picket lines and sit-ins for liberal causes as much as they sang on stages and at rallies. It can be truly said of her that she changed millions of lives for the better, many of whom she never even met.
More will be added to this entry later when I have time, but for now...my heart, thoughts and prayers are with Noel and Peter, Mary's family and the rest of those who loved her. Thanks, ma'am...and may you swing that hammer and ring that bell eternally in heaven's choir. And I think the finest memorial she could have—and would probably want—would be for all of us to continue the work for justice and peace she began (as their box-set title says, "Carry It On").
UPDATE, 4:44p: maugorn has posted an incredibly eloquent tribute to Mary's influence on his life and his music here. Like him, I have found my own singing and composition styles deriving more than a little from hers.
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Blip.fm users were the first I saw putting up this story, but the only major news website I could find at first to confirm it was Faux Noise Fox News. If they told me the sun rises in the east, I'd want to check CNN and MSNBC to be certain.
But now the latter site has truly confirmed it here, straight from the man's own publicist: Actor/singer Patrick Swayze has died today, just weeks after his 57th birthday, of the pancreatic cancer that has been ravaging his poor body for more than a year. Most remember him for his song "She's Like the Wind," or for his star-making turns in era-defining 1980s films such as Dirty Dancing with Jennifer Grey or Ghost with Demi Moore. But the role where he stood out most for me was probably his most outrageous: he was one of three big-name actors willing to tweak their masculine big-screen-hero images by playing gay drag queens in the film adaptation of the off-Broadway hit play, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. (Neither IMDB's nor Wikipedia's pages on the film credit it as a stage adaptation, but I happened to be living in NYC just after its author, Douglas Beane, finished trying it out on the boards there.)
Patrick's character, Vida Bohéme, was by far the class act of the three (Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo's characters were decidedly more earthy), although John looked far more convincing as a woman than either Pat or Wes. From all accounts, this was a reflection of the way Pat was in real life. The story in the film is only superficially about cross-dressing and homosexuality, though; its real subject is finding the freedom—and the courage—to be yourself, and being willing to accept someone else's eccentricities and see them as a person. The film plays like a Yank version of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the Aussie indie flick which preceded it by barely a year and has a similar plot (except for one of the three being a post-operative transsexual).
For this alone, I find Mr. Swayze's memory worthy of respect, his passing of note...and his loss of mourning. My heart, thoughts and prayers go out to all who knew and loved him in this most difficult hour, especially his family. Goodbye, sir, and thank you from a world full of misfits and oddballs, sexual and otherwise.
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Happy birthday today to two longtme off-LJ friends, otherdeb and singingpatient! Best wishes for the day to the both o' yez.
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The man who made the landmark TV series M*A*S*H most of what it was, Larry Gelbart, was late last year reported to have died. He responded with a brief and typically pithy e-mail debunking the report. Sadly, the news of his death has come again...and this time it appears to be true. The screenwriter responsible for the laughs in the 11-year CBS skein, as well as many films including Oh, God! and Tootsie and the Broadway hit A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum, passed away of cancer at 81 in his Beverly Hills, CA home yesterday. The Associated Press carries his obituary here.
Launched during the height of our country's long involvement in the Vietnamese civil war, M*A*S*H had been based on a popular film of the same name, which in turn was based on a novel by Richard Hooker. The series became a decade-long course in why war should be avoided...and, I firmly believe, one of the driving forces behind our finally exiting Vietnam in the mid-'70s. Gelbart and his fellow writers had the ability to make us laugh even in the face of graphic depictions of the horrors of war.
My heart, thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends and professional co-workers in this most difficult hour. Thank you, sir...and say hello to McLean Stevenson for us when you get up there.
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As I sit in the Hyatt lobby bar area (a much better "con suite" than the actual one two floors up, chiefly because it's way bigger, has WiFi and serves alcohol) watching the last few minutes of Dragon*Con '09 tick away into history, I find it difficult to attempt an hour-by-hour recount of my activities (should have posted sooner, but was too tired and sore after getting home last night and sleeping in this morning). Therefore, I am settling for a more-or-less chronological account of the highlights.
( We cut because we care. )
If you were there and I missed seeing you (entirely possible in the over-40,000 crowd staff estimates was there), tell me what your Dragon*Con was like.
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Heard an interview on NPR's weekday-afternoon news show All Things Considered today some of you might find interesting...for one reason or another, depending on your political leanings. Author Sam Tanenhaus, expanding a recent article from The New Republic into a full-length book, The Death of Conservatism, argues that what we know today as "movement" conservatism in the US bears strikingly little resemblance to traditional conservatism as it was practiced even as recently as a few decades ago, let alone in the days of its nominal founder Edmund Burke...and that the current "revanchist" form of the doctrine has essentially committed political suicide over the last few years by its own acts:
Why Liberals Should Lament the Death of Conservatism in America
Now if only we could convince Limbaugh, Hannity, Norquist and Coulter et al. to buy this guy's line... Personally, I do agree that the sort of Burkean conservatism he recalls does indeed make us on the liberal side "think better," and that having both sides expressed in public policy and debate is healthy for society. I would not, however, mourn for so much as a picosecond if the movement as it exists today—or its minions in the Republican Party—truly were to be doomed to extinction. Would to all the gods that ever were, are or will be that it were so.
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shocked
annoyed
busy
angry
envious
embarrassed
irritated
okay
awake
silly
sad
(but it's a good tired)
thoughtful