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Thursday, April 29, 2004
Chatting Pet Peeves & Venting Is it just me, or is it the lamest thing when someone chats with you online and starts asking you questions as though they know who you are under the guise of a generic screenname... like when they call you by first name and say "How was X and Y the other night?" and then they won't tell you who they are or how they know you? Or how about someone who asks you all kinds of questions about what you do for a living... and then when you ask "And how about you?", they respond with "I'd rather not say." My response? "Cool, then I'd rather not chat with you." If you're THAT closeted or THAT sketchy you are probably not someone I would enjoy chatting with. Of course I get people who say hi to me because of reading my blog... And I love conversations with those people. They tend to be very genuine and when I ask how they found me or how they know X and Y, they say, "I read your blog." And then I go, "Oh, OK. Cool!" and move into a real give-and-take, open conversation. I've made some great friends and acquaintances through my blog. But whether they mean it or not, some people just come across as sketchy. If I say, "Who are you?" or "How did you know about that?" and you respond by saying, "it's a small town" or "I'm a friend of a friend" I'm probably just going to say something mean and go for the "X" on the chat window. Can there be any other reason to play the I-know-more-about-you-than-you-know-about-me BS besides enjoying playing head games and getting a kick out of irritating people? Seriously. I suppose its one of the negatives that comes with chatting online... when people can be as anonymous as they want to be. But can't we hope for something better from people? | private feedback | (0) public comments Wednesday, April 28, 2004 Wedding Dress Blues Some things are just too funny for words... like this. Thanks, Sally! | private feedback | (0) public comments Branding 101 There was a day when companies would kill to have their name so closely associated with a type of product or service that the product category itself was actually referred to by the corporate brand. (Think Kleenex, FedEx, BandAid, and Xerox among many others.) But these are different times, in which competitors sprout quickly and, oftentimes, companies don't have the time or strategies in place to securely plant their flag before others pose a challenge. Which is why this article caught my attention (well, that, and promoting the consistent use of design to create brands is what I do for a living). It seems that TiVo is not very happy that almost every digital recording service on the market is referred to as "TiVo" even though it is not. I admit, I've fallen victim... I mean who wants to say, "I recorded Sex and the City on Time Warner's DVR service" when you could just say, "I TiVo'd Sex and the City"? Maybe people don't even realize the difference, and powerful brands are built through years of concerted pr/marketing efforts... years that TiVo doesn't have. This has TiVo shaking in their boots. And the question is, "What do they do now?" If TiVo executives really think the difference is in their added-features... that having a device that anticipates the kind of shows you'll want to watch as opposed to just recording the ones you tell it to... then TiVo had better start their media campaign quickly, get in the face of customers, and reclaim the name "TiVo" as their own. Some other interesting sites about branding, if you're so inclined... as I am. [BrandWeek.com] [BrandChannel.com] [The Kleenex Brand Story] | private feedback | (0) public comments Republicans: Just keep talking about 9/11... ... no matter what the REAL issue is. Karen Hughes, white house puppet, is disgustingly brazen in her comments about abortion. In response to a question on the abortion issue in the current presidential race, she responds that U.S. attitudes on this issue have changed since 9/11. "I think after September 11, the American people are valuing life more and realizing that we need policies to value the dignity and worth of every life. And I think those are the kind of policies that the American people can support, particularly at a time when we're facing an enemy, and really the fundamental difference between us and the terror network we fight is that we value every life." But can she really believe that garbage? [Full Article at CNN.com] | private feedback | (0) public comments Tuesday, April 27, 2004 There's hope for Nashville yet Following on my earlier post about Dolly Parton, I have always had a hard time making the mental separation between my love of country music and the artists' political bias... Nashville is the GOP's Hollywood, and country artists tend to skew republican. From WMCStations.com: A new group calling itself the Music Row Democrats is trying to shake the perception that country music is a bastion of political conservatism aligned with the Republican Party. Bush is a country music fan who has invited several Nashville acts to perform at his inaugural parties, including Brooks & Dunn, Travis Tritt and Hank Williams Jr. Others, including Reba McEntire, have contributed to his re-election campaign. When the Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines criticized Bush before a London audience last year, some country stations dropped the band's songs from their playlists and fans destroyed their CDs. "A lot of us felt bad that we didn't step up and defend them - their right to say whatever they wanted to," said Don Cook, a music producer and founding member of the Music Row Democrats. "I think it's terrible, and it's one of the things that motivated me to get this organization together." Membership has swelled quickly to more than 700 people. A few recording artists are involved too, including Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris. [The full article] | private feedback | (0) public comments Dolly Parton If you're looking for a way to enliven those particularly dreary household chores like ironing and dishes... do them to Dolly Parton's "9 to 5." It did the trick for me. *smile* I just bought "Ultimate Dolly Parton" which I can only guess is a play on all of those once wildly popular "Ultimate" CD's like "Ultimate Blues" and "Ultimate Dance"... blah blah. It's such an interesting CD because it has songs from the 70's, 80's and 90's... supposedly all of her best. My Dolly Parton frame of reference only goes back to the 80's... so my favorites are songs I've encountered in my lifetime... track #4 "I Will Always Love You" , track #8 "Here You Come Again" , track #15 "9 to 5" , track #18 "Islands in The Stream" , track #19 "To Know Him Is To Love Him" , and especially track #20 , "Why'd You Come In Here Lookin' Like That?" If the CD were truly "Ultimate" it would also have "Straight Talk" the song from her movie with the same name... and "PMS Blues" from her "Heartsongs" album. Perhaps "Ultimate" was a bit of a misnomer. | private feedback | (0) public comments Monday, April 26, 2004 Moron of the Day At a meeting of southern republicans, Representative Jennifer Carroll opened her remarks with a joke about the former first lady. She is quoted as saying that Hillary Clinton was visited by the ghosts of three presidents -- Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln -- and asked each what she could do to help the nation. Carroll said Lincoln's ghost told her to "Go to a theater." Lincoln was assassinated inside a theater. But Carroll refuses to apologize, saying she never used the words assassinate, kill, or maim. Gee, well if she didn't use those words then she couldn't possibly have been inferring them, right? But, what could she have meant then... if she didn't mean for Hillary to get killed then I guess I don't get the joke. [Write Representative Caroll and ask for her apology. Hillary is our Senator!!] | private feedback | (0) public comments Gay Geocities.com I'm a whole lot prouder to be hosting my site at Geocities this afternoon. I attended a luncheon today at Cornell's Business School whose speaker was Michael Fleming, Executive Director of the David Bohnett Foundation. David Bohnett was the founder of Geocities and also openly gay. He donated money to begin this foundation which is doing tons of positive work in the business and LGBT communities including funding organizations that have promote marriage equality and the positive portrayal of lesbians and gay men in the media. | private feedback | (0) public comments Sunday, April 25, 2004 The most interesting movie I've seen in a while...  Interesting, of course, does not mean best. The best movie I've seen in a while is still Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. (It may take quite an extraordinary picture to bump that from it's position.) But this afternoon I saw what could easily be called the most interesting and unique movie, Dogville, starring Nicole Kidman and a pretty stellar supporting cast.
Directed by a Danish Director who has been on record with such comments as, "I would love to start a 'free America campaign,' because we've just had a 'free Iraq campaign,'" it is pretty apparent that the director doesn't hold Americans and America in very high esteem. The movie is filmed almost as though you're watching a play (it's filmed on a sound stage with chalk outlines for where buildings and objects like gooseberry bushes would be, which sets up this weird dynamic of the audience being omniscient while the actors behave as though there were walls). A woman (Grace, played by Nicole Kidman) flees from an oppressive existence where she is expected to commit acts that she considers unhuman, to an isolated mountain town named Dogville. The town, as a group, votes to accept her into their community and shelter her, even as they worry they are doing so at the detriment of their safety. (What if the powerful people who are looking for Grace find her in Dogville?) She attempts to repay the townspeople for their generosity with labor. Of course, her presence in the town begins to create a stir beyond her control. People begin to take advantage of her vulnerability and offers of help, especially as it becomes more "risky" to host her. They demand more of her. Eventually some of the men begin to take sexual advantage, truths are twisted and she is punished by the town who votes collectively on every action they take against her. Groupthink takes center stage, and by the end, her plight in this small town is so ridiculous that no rational person could justify it. But it continues because noone speaks against it. The entire movie culminates in a climactic scene in which most of the movie's truths and secrets are revealed. I didn't see the twisted ending coming, though the person I saw it with said it was predictable. I won't divulge, but Grace learns some deep philosophical lessons and we as an audience learn some lessons... not necessarily redeeming, positive, or optimistic. While the Director has stated that the movie could take place "anywhere", the credits support the claim that the movie might be skewed to what the director thinks of Americans in particular. And if we're honest with ourselves, he may have some good points. If you want a film that is definitely art, and inspires some amazing post-movie processing, go see Dogville... if you can bear to sit for a movie that is three hours long and feels like it. | private feedback | (0) public comments This has to be a first All the reading on the Commons and walking around Cornell's campus yesterday afternoon resulted in a sunburn on my forehead. That's right... a sunburn... in upstate New York... in April. A friend said to me this morning, "Looks like you got a little sun." Unbelievable. | private feedback | (0) public comments Friday, April 23, 2004 Is this for real? The Library of Congress wants to archive my blog? I got this email today: To Whom It May Concern: The United States Library of Congress builds and preserves a universal collection of knowledge for Congress and the American people. The Library's traditional functions, acquiring, cataloging, preserving and serving collections of historical importance to foster education and scholarship, extend to digital materials, including Web sites. The Library selected your site for collection, inclusion and preservation in the historic collection of Election 2002 Internet materials. The Library wishes to make the Election 2002 collection of archived Web sites available to offsite researchers by hosting the collection on the Library's public access Web site. The Library hopes that you share our vision of preserving the historical record of the Election 2002 presence on the Web and that you will agree to include your archived site among the collection that will be available to researchers from across the world. URL collected between July 1 and December 1, 2002: www.geocities.com/shaneee If you agree to permit the Library to provide offsite access to your materials through the Library's Web site, please click on the following link: [Edited like Bush's Presidential Daily Breifing or a Donald Rumsfeld Interview] If you have questions, comments or recommendations concerning the Election 2002 collection, please e-mail the Library's MINERVA Virtual Archive project at your earliest convenience. Did you read that, peeps... "the library selected"... my teeny weeny blog as having "historical importance". That, or they just want an official record of an out gay guy on file with the federal goverment. [The Library of Congress Election 2002 Archive] | private feedback | (0) public comments Thursday, April 22, 2004 Quote of the Day "As a taxpayer, I don't believe this book should be in here. This book is not morally right. If it was a Playboy or some dirty magazine, would you have that in here?" Dustin McCollough, an Indiana man and "practicing christian" who is organizing a petition to have King & King, a children's book about a gay prince, removed from the county library system. He went on to refer to the book as "filth."  I recently went to our local library and sought out this book after a similar scandal a few months ago in Wilmington, NC. I wanted to see what all of the fuss was about. Of course, being Ithaca, we have no less than three copies of this book along with "Daddy's Roommate", "Daddy's Wedding", and "Heather Has Two Mommies". So I read it... and I'm sure that I don't have to tell you, it is FAR from filth. In the book, a stereotypically overbearing mother pushes her son to get married. In the search for a princess he finds he is disinterested by all of them... and falls in love with another prince. The writing is witty and endearing.
I encourage everyone who reads this to see if their local library has a copy of King & King and if they don't... then buy it and donate it! Wilmington, NC put "King & King" under lock and key. So much for the free library system. We all have the same right to find things that we don't agree with offensive. But we DO NOT have the right to go censor or hide the things that we don't agree with... | private feedback | (0) public comments Tuesday, April 20, 2004 Quote of the Day "I cannot endure it when you consort and converse with other young people. I demand exclusivity!" Adolf Hitler in a letter to his "best buddy" August Kabizek. (Apparently Hitler was a dictator of a boyfriend as well.) Cinemax's film, The Hidden Fuhrer: Debating the Enigma of Hitler's Sexuality explores whether or not Adolf was Gay. And wouldn't that just be super-convenient for conservative zealouts if they could lump Hitler into the gay community? Gotta make you wonder... there are rumors floating around about Abe Lincoln but do you think it would be as palatable to mainstream america to make a movie exploring HIS sexuality? Hitler seems a little more "safe" to probe, no? | private feedback | (0) public comments Monday, April 19, 2004 Quote of the Weekend "Look! You've got grey hairs! Three on this side... and two on this side." My friend Lori... to me... as we're walking out of a cafe Saturday afternoon. I'm actually not surprised, considering the year that I've had. But at least they're still countable. *grin* | private feedback | (0) public comments Sunday, April 18, 2004 Connie and Carla  While everyone else in Ithaca, it seems, was rushing to the theater to see Kill Bill Vol. 2, I was gunning to see Connie and Carla. The basic premise can be described by what happens in the first ten minutes...two women (dinner theater singers) witness a mob hit and they need to hide. So they flee to the other side of the country in hopes of blending in. They discover they can earn a living (while pursuing their love of singing) by pretending to be drag queens. Drama, comedy, and some fun "drag" performances ensue.
Nia Vardalos (of My Big Fat Greek Wedding fame) plays Connie, Toni Collette plays Carla, and David Duchovny plays a disappointing but ultimately redeemed character named Jeff who becomes Connie's love interest. As much as I wanted to love Vardalos' Connie, she was almost always upstaged by Collette's Carla who... well... just plain looks better in "drag". If you can get past the rapid succession of events in the beginning that gets the women settled in L.A., then you can probably enjoy the rest of the fluffy and sweet story and the few really genuine and hilarious scenes scattered throughout that make the movie worth watching.  Friday, April 16, 2004 Quote of the Day "We didn't think that would be a wise use of paper." A senior Log Cabin Republican official about why no invitation was sent to any Bush administration member to speak at their annual meeting... realizing it would have been a waste. | private feedback | (0) public comments Wednesday, April 14, 2004 The Secret Lives of Birds  When I was little I spent lots of time in the spring and summer on my grandparents' farm. And I was fascinated by all of the wildlife. The deer, the racoons, rabbits, the birds... mostly the birds. I have always had a fascination with birds of all kinds. At the farm, I would climb trees to catch a peek at just-hatched robins. And god-forbid if a nest fell out of the tree, I would try (always unsuccessfully) to raise the babies on my own. And then there was that time I found a wounded pigeon under the railroad bridge and took it home.
I can't even begin to count how many times I snuck down to the fenceline where Grandma had hung nesting boxes for bluebirds and swallows. The boxes usually opened on the side or top so that you could clean out the nests in the fall, and were hung just at a height I could peek into. I dunno how she did it, but Grandma always caught me trying to sneak a peek as the nests were being built... eggs were being laid... and babies were hatching. She used to holler, "Shane Michael! Get away from those boxes! If you scare those birds away they won't take care of their babies!" I'd slink back up to the house. Ahhhh, good times... And what prompted this bizarre blast-from-the-past post, you ask? I just found a cool Web site at Cornell's Lab of Ornithology that has installed web cams in various nesting boxes so that you can watch birds start and raise their families. Check it out, it's kinda neat! | private feedback | (0) public comments Quote of the Day "I don't want to sound like I have made no mistakes. I'm confident I have. I just haven't -- you just put me under the spot here -- and maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one." Dubbya, at his televised news conference last night when asked if he could think of a mistake he's made in office. Aren't these things practically scripted to the hilt nowadays? Don't reporters submit their questions in advance? What is this "you just put me under the spot" bullshit? But we finally found a thing that Dubbya and I can agree on, we're both confident that he's made mistakes. | private feedback | (0) public comments Tuesday, April 13, 2004 April Showers... I had a bunch of errands to do on campus today... pick up stuff from clients, return overdue books to the Alternatives Library, and grab some lunch... and the entire time it was steadily raining. In all of my moves, I seem to have misplaced the multiple umbrellas that I used to own. The one I bought when I was in NYC and found myself wandering in the rain... the one I bought when I was in Chicago and found myself wandering in the rain... hmmm, maybe I just need to check the weather report more often. So, on an impulse, I ran into the campus store to buy the first Cornell University branded thing I've ever owned... a very brightly colored red-and-white umbrella. Now I'll be a proud... and dry alum! | private feedback | (0) public comments Monday, April 12, 2004 Cell Phone Blues  My first cell phone was the cutest little thing. I loved it for about nine months until the microphone stopped working. I could hear the people that I was talking to, but they couldn't hear me. Sometimes I could tilt my head a certain way and solve the problem. I was obviously jiggling wires inside and making a connection that had come undone. Anyway, when I called T-Mobile and told them what happened, they said that my phone was under warranty and that they would send me a new one... of the same model. So the switch was effortless, I loved my "new" phone and things were hunky-dorey...
Until about nine months after getting that phone. Then, the same malfunction happened. So I called T-Mobile to complain. This time, since they had sent me a refurbished phone, it wasn't under warranty. And the rep politely informed me, "This is a common problem with these phones, but we don't offer a warranty on any refurbished merchandise." (Mind you, I didn't know that I had received refurbished merchandise.) At the time, money was tight and there was no way I could afford a brand new phone when they weren't going to give me a break on it. While still in the honeymoon phase with my cutie patootie new cell phone... on a night out in Syracuse, I met a guy who worked for a cell phone company. At one point he asked who my cell service provider was (it wasn't the company he worked for) and he said, "Gee! I have this phone that you could use. And its much better than yours! You can come over to my apartment and get it." (Ha, Ha! I know what you're thinking, but save your assumptions for another blog. *grin*) So I had this phone that certainly didn't LOOK better than my phone and it didn't seem to have amazingly better features than my phone (except for maybe voice dialing, which I never used). But I figured, WTF, I can have a back-up phone. It resided in a desk drawer for a very long time and I basically forgot about it.  So I wasn't in too sorry a shape after all. I had my back-up phone... which I am currently still using. I have never gotten around to rreplacing it. And this phone is a piece of work. The screen shows literally two lines of black text... it resembles an old Volvo in it's boxy appearance and frankly, I'm embarassed to pull it out and make a phone call. It took me months to figure out the volume control, and I still don't know how to "reject" phone calls like I could on my first phone. (There was some morbid sense satisfaction in pushing the button for "reject" when certain individuals would call.) And the lame little screen still says, "VStream" for Voicestream, the precursor to T-Mobile. People actually comment on how old my phone looks.
 Enter my business partners... and our new office... (and an IRS refund burning a hole in my pocket). Our business took over the partners' home phone line because they already had published it on their business cards. And, they acquired new cell phones... exhaustively researching their carrier and phone options. The other day I was talking to Pam and asked how I should spend my IRS refund. I basically had a few options... either a cell phone... an iPod... or a mini-vacation. She immediately said, "Get a new phone! You should look at the Motorola V300, that's the one I really wanted." So I went to the T-Mobile site... found it... and I called and ordered it, all in the span of five minutes. I was done with my old phone and just needed the prodding from someone to make the call. I had put it off long enough.
Now, I can't wait for it to arrive. I'm going to have a cameraphone... and cooler rings... and a color screen... and AIM... and games... and *deep breath* Who needs a vacation!? | private feedback | (0) public comments Life This is probably like the millionth time that I've felt guilt about falling behind in my blog. In the last few days I've seen movies, gone to dinner parties and concerts, hiked, confessed a crush, played dominoes with drunk undergrads, gone to birthday celebrations, mended fences, danced in unexpected places, eaten more pizza than I care to admit, and read a controversial children's book to see what all the fuss was about... And that was all yesterday evening. Heheheh, I'm kidding, but there is some pleasure knowing that I'm out living my life as opposed to blogging about it. | private feedback | (0) public comments Friday, April 09, 2004 Kerry gets Gay Endorsement The National Stonewall Democrats have endorsed John Kerry for President.  [Full article at Gay.com] | private feedback | (0) public comments Just thought it was funny  [Credit to Wonkette] | private feedback | (0) public comments Thursday, April 08, 2004 The same lesson, over and over No matter how many times I say I'm not going to let myself get caught up in something... and I'm not going to let myself get excited by what I THINK is happening... I still do. And I fool myself until what I THINK is going to happen, very obviously doesn't. All because I can't help being an optimist and romantic at heart. (That might not make any sense to you, but it makes perfect sense to me.) Here's to disappointment and the lessons it teaches us. | private feedback | (0) public comments Wednesday, April 07, 2004 Quote of the Day "I think she ought to be ashamed of herself. The mayor is not only going outside the law of the United States, she is going outside of the law of nature. She is trying to use the law to force a distorted view of sexuality on the community." Robert H. Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute, in response to Ithaca's Mayor Carolyn Peterson proclaiming her support for same-sex couples. Last night, Mr. Knight was at Cornell debating Elizabeth Birch, former director of the Human Rights Campaign, on the topic of gay marriage. (Amazingly, I only hollered once at Mr. Knight during the debate, when he hinted that Ms. Birch may be going to hell for her interpretation of the bible. Niiiiiiiice, right?) [Read the full article] | private feedback | (0) public comments Tuesday, April 06, 2004 Lunchtime Conversation I went to lunch with my business partners, Serge and Pam. I had mentioned going to see Dawn of the Dead last week and what started as a free form movie review turned into a strategizing session for what we'd do if we ever ran into a horde of Zombies. Where would we go? Would we have enough food? What kinds of things could we do to keep ourselves safe? How would we kill all the Zombies? How long can Zombies last before they expire? And would we kill ourselves before we ran the risk of becoming one? We realized we needed to do some more research. To be honest, the conversation raised more questions than answers... and ended with Serge proclaiming, "Zombies suck." Amen. Zombies DO suck. [Play the Dawn of the Dead Barricade Game] [The Federal Vampire & Zombie Agency has information about Zombies] | private feedback | (0) public comments The Movie Marathon Continues Last night after dinner at the Boatyard, Nathan and I were trying to figure out what to do at 9:30 on a Monday. The obvious answer (when you don't have cable TV) is, "See a movie!" The only films that were playing with late enough showtimes were HellBoy, The Prince & Me, and Jersey Girl. I read them off and Nathan said, "So we'll go see Jersey Girls? You obviously want to see that one." I was like, "Why do you say that?" He said, "Your voice changed when you got to that one on the list and you've mentioned it like three times." I smiled and said, "Oh, really?" *big cute grin* So we went with Jersey Girl. And if you have a high tolerance for cheese (I do), you should check this movie out. There are defintely redeeming qualities... J. Lo plays a really great, albeit sadly short, role. George Carlin is pretty funny. The little girl is a cutie patootie. Liv Tyler is adorable. And Ben Affleck as a blue-collar worker... do I have to say anything more? (I kept thinking all through the movie, "I've shaken his hand!") [View the Trailer] | private feedback | (0) public comments Monday, April 05, 2004 Quote of the Day "I think it's entirely who you are from birth, personally." John Kerry, Presidential Candidate, when asked whether or not he believes people are born gay. The presumptive Democratic nominee went on to say he favors civil unions to give people partnership, inheritance and other rights. | private feedback | (0) public comments Sunday, April 04, 2004 Speedy Update... Wednesday Dinner at Viva. Finally found someone who would see Dawn of the Dead with me. (Thank you, cutie!) Disturbing and suspenseful... the best kind of horror movie. Thursday Stonewall Democrats presentation went really well. Forgot to pass out the email list sign-up sheet. Oops! Friday After work... started at Chili's, followed up at Bistro Q, and then Common Ground for a bit. Got to dance and was still in bed by 12. The recipe for a great night! Saturday Enjoyed a few minutes of the "Drop Beats, not Bombs" demonstration on the commons. Met some friends for lunch at Lost Dog. Oklahoma State lost to Georgia Tech in another nail-biter game on Saturday afternoon. I'm bummed, but confirmed that games are much better in person than on television. Saw "Pieces of April". Very moving and Patricia Clarkson was great! Highly recommend it! Sunday A bunch of people getting together to watch "Meet the Press"! Why didn't we think of this sooner? Discovered Julie Brown who sings such classics as, "Cause I'm a Blonde", and "The Homecoming Queen's got a Gun". I've been going, "Stop it Debbie! You're embarassing me!" all day. Brunch at Maxie's. Fantastic eggs benedict! Went to bowling banquet to support my friends. Got some of the prize money even though I only bowled three of the 28 weeks. Very sweet of them. Played darts and photohunt. Forgot how much fun photohunt is. Up Next Tomorrow is my last day at the part time job... gotta do something to celebrate! | private feedback | (0) public comments Thursday, April 01, 2004 Finally! Its taken years, but my favorite favorite a capella group that performs in drag is finally performing IN ITHACA!!! The Kinsey Sicks are coming to Cornell on April 10th and 11th! Two summers ago, on a trip to Provincetown, I went to a concert, bought an album, met them briefly, and fell in love. They are absolutely amazing! Please check out their web site and try to come if you can. THE KINSEY SICKS NORTHEAST COLLEGE TOUR! Saturday, April 10: Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 8:00 pm, Appel Commons on Cradit Farm Drive Limited tickets available to the public. To get yours (maximum 4), email Mike Barry at mjb44@cornell.edu and put "Kinsey Sicks" in the subject line. Sunday, April 11: Cornell University -- Kinsey Panel Discussion 2:00 pm, Tatkon Center's Large Classroom The Kinsey Sicks will present a panel entitled, "From Over-Achievas to Singing Drag Divas: How Four Men Fashioned Creative, Political, and Glamorous Careers in a Highly Unqueer World."  Public Speaking & The Stonewall Democrats  I've been thinking a lot lately about how I'd like to take a class on something that could really be of use to me... like public speaking. Speaking in front of crowds makes me freeze up. I get tongue tied, or just forget what I'm going to say. I can't really string together a coherent sentence if I don't focus and keep myself in check. And up until now, I've just accepted offers to speak in front of groups as they come, essentially forcing myself to combat the phobia and with time, overcome it.
Which brings me to what I'm doing tonight... I'm making a presentation to the City Democratic Committee which I'm assured can have attendance of anywhere between 10 and 50 individuals (all very active in the party), about my goal of starting a local chapter of Stonewall Democrats. I think I can fill the time... a self-introduction, a few minutes about the marriage equality issue and actions that are being taken locally, my desire to start a group that will not only work on the marriage equality issue but be a solid foundation of support for politicians doing positive work on LGBT-issues, and my ideal of having a consistent and vocal presence in the local Democratic party. I've made a little hand-out... and am looking forward to sharing a personal experience of going to Syracuse's Pride celebration last year only to find the only political group that was represented was the Log Cabin Republicans. EIW. So, no biggie, the only folks I know for sure are on the agenda are myself and the mayor... I just hope I come first on the program. She's a hard act to follow. *grin* As for the Ithaca Chapter of a Stonewall Democrats group, this is the very beginning phase, simply putting out feelers and getting a sense for the interest in the community. The more I talk to people about it, the more excited I become. If anyone in Ithaca or the surrounding area reads this post and is interested in keeping up to date on the progress (or helping organize this) drop me a line through my feedback form. [National Stonewall Democrats] [Download my handout (PDF file)] | private feedback | (0) public comments Quote of the Day "Constitutional amendments should be used to expand freedom, not restrict it." Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King Jr. calling gay marriage a civil rights issue and denouncing a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban it. She continued, "Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection..." "A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages." | private feedback | (0) public comments Jammin' Last night, I discovered the most fantastic dance song, "You Promised Me" by In Grid. I've already downloaded every version of it I can find. Thanks, Nathan! | private feedback | (0) public comments Thanks! ... for the link. Check out BansheeNC's online journal. | private feedback | (0) public comments |
Hey! I'm Shane... a proud gay progressive Democrat who has recently relocated to New York City from Ithaca, NY. As I am no longer in Ithaca, I haven't quite decided the fate of this blog. Drop me a line!
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