Monthly Archives: September 2010

(Community Matters) I may not have the full story yet but received a copy of an Equality Texas’ blog posting saying St. Edward’s is excluding them from an on campus internship day. I’ve written to our four friends on the board of trustees. Hard to believe they’d support such discrimination. I’m gonna assume the story is incomplete until I hear more.

(Community Matters) You ought to check it out. Be creative, even naughty. You’ll see what I mean.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

(Community Matters) Well, turns out Christwire.org is a spoof.  Though, intended as satire, it’s been taken seriously by both sides –  I recently cited their posting “Is My Husband Gay”

Their target, they say, is not Christians but those who do not question what they hear on the news.

Hat Tip: Stud Muffin

(Community Matters) for those unfamiliar with Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City Series, it is epic.  There were so little engaging, affirming contemporary LGBT popular literature in the 70s and 80s, it was like water in the desert.  Rarely are return visits as gratifying, yet I can’t wait to find out. The new book in the series Mary Ann in Autumn will be released Nov 2

Twenty years have passed since Mary Ann Singleton left her husband and child in San Francisco to pursue her dream of a television career in New York. Now, a pair of personal calamities has driven her back to the city of her youth and into the arms of her oldest friend, Michael “Mouse” Tolliver.

Mary Ann finds temporary refuge in Michael’s backyard cottage, where she licks her wounds and takes stock of her mistakes. Soon, with the help of Facebook and a few old friends, she begins to reengage with life, only to confront fresh terrors when her checkered past comes back to haunt her in a way she could never have imagined.

More than three decades in the making, Armistead Maupin’s legendary Tales of the City series rolls into a new age, still sassy, irreverent, and curious, and still exploring the boundaries of the human experience with insight, compassion, and mordant wit

(Community Matters) is on the rise, around the country, around the world.  Even politicos are feeling emboldened enough to joke about it online – Montana Tea Party President here

(Community Matters) Michael Mitchell and I went to the Intergalactic Nemesis preview performance last night and liked it.  Jason Neulander and company have created a fun, engaging and smart piece.  Imagining a more intimate theater setting, bags of popcorn, oversized, spiked drinks, watching from the balcony . . .  I recommend tonight’s and tomorrow’s performances – dress causally, have a couple of drinks beforehand and laugh out loud

(Community Matters) The latest Stratfor update below the jump

Two points that stand out: 1) this report’s dismissal of Israeli-Palestinian peace as important to broader Middle East peace seems contradictory to their analysis in the previous blog posting(earlier today), and 2) Ehud Barak’s statement “West Jerusalem and 12 Jewish neighborhoods that are home to 200,000 residents will be ours. . .”

If we ever get this far, more real, potential trouble is Israel’s very aggressive annexation of West Bank territory into the West Jerusalem city limits.  Combined with the need for access to the 12 Jewish neighborhoods, this potentially chokes off what Palestinians consider East Jerusalem, even undisputed parts of the West Bank.  There’s also an A1 annexation plan I’d like to better understand.  Again, the analysis below the jump

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(Community Matters) It’s hard to imagine the logistics and mechanics of such an auspicious undertaking.  If you have a prayer list, a meditation chant or just rub a rabbit’s leg now and then, hope you’ll include good wishes for these negotiations – peace between Israel & the Palestinians would change the world.   (photo: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Obama, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah II; photo by APs Charles Dharapak)

Stratfor’s perspective below the jump – I find this analysis immensely helpful, albeit cynical as one would expect after all the false starts.  Note the perspective of Hamas as supported more by Arab states than Iran (contrary to the public rhetoric). What this analysis doesn’t allow for is that miracles do occur when sparked by great vision, tenacity and leadership:

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(Community Matters) Sarah Palin expose in Vanity Fair by Michael Joseph Gross

There’s a long and detailed version of what they had to say, but there’s also a short and simple one: anywhere you peel back the skin of Sarah Palin’s life, a sad and moldering strangeness lies beneath.

Such falsehoods never damage Palin’s credibility with her admirers, because information and ideology are incidental to this relationship. Palin owes her power to identity politics, pitched with moralistic topspin. She exploits the same populist impulse that fueled the career of William Jennings Bryan—an impulse described by one Bryan biographer as “the yearning for a society run by and for ordinary people who lead virtuous lives.”

Those who once felt close to Palin have followed her public transformation with a confused range of emotions. The common denominator is sadness. “People who loved Sarah Palin are disappointed,” said one woman in Wasilla, “because they found out that Sarah Palin loves Sarah Palin most of all.”

(Community Matters) The new establishment

This year Vanity Fair anoints Zuck [Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg] as our new Caesar. He rules from the imperial capital of Palo Alto, California, the Rome of our nascent millennium.

from Mike Allen: 1. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook 2. Steve Jobs, Apple 3. Sergey Brin, Larry Page & Eric Schmidt, Google 4. Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. 7. Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York, Bloomberg L.P. 9. Evan Williams & Biz Stone, Twitter 11. Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway 20. Johnny Depp, actor 21. Brian Roberts, Comcast 23. Lady Gaga, singer 25. Tom Hanks, actor, director, producer 26. Bill Keller, The New York Times 27. Robert Thomson, The Wall Street Journal 28. Dan Doctoroff, Bloomberg L.P. 29. Jon Stewart, The Daily Show 30. Jamie Dimon, J. P. Morgan Chase 33. Richard Plepler, Sue Naegle & Michael Lombardo, HBO 34. Oprah Winfrey, Harpo Productions 35. Bono, singer, humanitarian 42. Arianna Huffington, the Huffington Post 53. Mike Allen, Politico [hat tip: Leibo] 54. Gretchen Morgenson, The New York Times 60. Jann Wenner, Wenner Media 62. Charlie Rose, Charlie Rose 77. Frank Rich, The New York Times 87. Andrew Wylie, the Wylie Agency 93. Nikki Finke, Deadline Hollywood

(Community Matters)

Happy Birthday, Kirk

(Community Matters) Spent last night tasting gins with Graham Reynolds at Peche on W 4th St.  Who knew there were so many gins, so many production styles, so many variations of content?

First, Peche: this is a unique bar well worth being on everyone’s list – beyond knowledgeable bartenders.  Carter Wilsford was our bartender last night; he was the liquor buyer for Specs.  Claims to know over 3,000 liquors, and our conversations suggest he does.  My drinking companion is no intellectual slouch either – about liquors, art, politics or any number of matters, so those two provoked & answered lots of questions.

We tried seven gins (just tastes, three sips max of each); there were probably 30 or 40 gins on the shelf.  1) Citadel (French) – lighter, flowery, batched distilled rather than continuous*.  I liked this one, probably my third favorite. 2) Oxey – pressure distilled*, heavier, brighter, introduction of fresh fruits.  My first or second favorite, have to retaste, 3) Bluecoat – was fine, 4& 5) Boomsa, a Genevar style (aka Holland style)  gin, tried the young and the old – preferred the old.  Malted.  Not favorite.  Didn’t like the young, 6) Brokers – quite clean, crisp, a steeped gin (like Beefeaters which is historically one of my favorites). this is probably my favorite, quite simple and traditional.  7) Junipero – the most juniper.  Over the top, like Bombay Saphire

Again, Peche, can’t recommend it enough.  The food too.  I had a lamb burger to die for, with an extraordinary, sauteed green tomato on top.  I 86ed the fried egg.  And the company – well, I admit to having a boy crush.  Excited about Graham’s & Peter’s compositions and playing for Metropolis at the Seaholm next week.  Michael & I attending the Intergalatic Nemisis preview on Thursday (which he composed and will play), and there are very interesting gigs shaping up, including a new commission in November and a most unique creation/collaboration for FuseBox.

* the bartender was talking about heads, hearts and tails in the distillation process and how batch distillation produces a cleaner liquor as you are able to separate the heads and tails from the heart. Also discussion about pressure vs heat distillation and how pressure allows for the introduction of fresh fruit