Category Archives: Uncategorized

(Community Matters) Three sets this coming Thursday at the Dive Bar.

(Community Matters) It’s disappointing to read that members of the Fourth Estate continue to promote discrimination against LGBT Americans and Texans. It’s cowardly to hide behind a statement about whether marriages are recognized in a particular state. We expect more out of the profession of journalism – at least the courage to state one’s true position.

A gay Texarkana couple’s request for a wedding announcement was denied by a local newspaper (Texarkana Gazette) his week on the grounds that the paper only includes ‘marriages that are recognized by the states in which it circulates.

(Community Matters) 

Shanah Tovah

(Community Matters) So good to catch up with our dear friends Joyce Christian and Rudy Green. Rudy’s moved to Miami where he’s the Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer at the University of Miami.

(Community Matters) Harvard Business Review:  You’re Probably Wrong About Millennials.

(Community Matters) more to think about than agree with at this point.

from Politico’s Playbok:

CLICK DU JOUR: PETER HAMBY’s 95-page reported paper, “Did Twitter Kill the Boys on the Bus? Searching for a better way to cover a campaign,” written when the CNN political reporter was a spring fellow at Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy : “[John] Dickerson’s take: ‘If I were running an actual news division, I would probably ban people from Twitter in some way.’ That Dickerson, one of the more forward-thinking and tech-savvy reporters in the business, would even consider such an idea speaks to how frustrated many campaign veterans are with today’s shoot-first-and-update-later style of political journalism. David Carr of The New York Times said he would enact a curt but elegant Twitter policy if he were running campaign coverage: ‘Tweet less, dear colleagues.’ ‘I unfollowed a lot of political reporters, because you are tweeting for your colleagues, you are not tweeting for me,’ Carr said. ‘I would say, put the phone in your pocket. Start focusing on the people that are in front of you. Don’t worry about so much what the other guy is doing. Be willing to play off the ball.'” http://hvrd.me/17yDiRD

–DAVID CARR’s “The Media Equation” column on the Business front of today’s N.Y. Times, “Campaign Journalism In the Age of Twitter “: “At 32, [Hamby] is deeply immersed in the digital frontier of modern journalism – with a somewhat provocative presence on Twitter … According to Mr. Hamby, Mitt Romney’s campaign … fenced off the candidate from the very people he needed to reach. ‘With Instagram and Twitter-primed iPhones, an ever more youthful press corps, and a journalistic reward structure in Washington that often prizes speed and scoops over context, campaigns are increasingly fearful of the reporters who cover them,’ he writes … The reporters and editors Mr. Hamby spoke to for his … report said that the Romney campaign’s decision to fence off its candidate and to staff its press effort with equally young people was a grievous tactical error. Because the staff on the bus or plane would not really confirm or deny anything, that left many idle hands that created much mischief. In an attempt to exercise total control over the message, the campaign lost all control in bits and pieces, so when things went wrong, as they did during Mr. Romney’s European visit, they went very, very wrong. …

“The death of the hallowed political reporter Jack Germond a few weeks ago served as a vivid reminder that the hallowed day story – a totemic representation of How It Was – has given way to a mosaic of posts on Twitter and blogs that form a running, constantly updated feed. … Hamby suggested that politicians who came of age in the Twitter era – Gov. Chris Christie, Gov. Martin O’Malley, Senator Marco Rubio and others – will have an advantage over Hillary Rodham Clinton, who relies on a command-and-control approach in which information is carefully doled out and any journalistic offenders are disciplined.” http://nyti.ms/15xDqOs

(Community Matters) Think about it – Liz Cheney, a candidate willing to toss the rights of her sister (or even at least publicly) to get elected. Geez. I don’t really get why folks make these Faustian bargains for political office but suppose it’s their definition of power & prestige.

Politico Playbook: 2014 WATCH – “Mary Cheney Criticizes Her Sister on Same-Sex Marriage,” by N.Y. Times’ Jonathan Martin : “Mary Cheney, the younger sister of Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Senate candidate, sharply criticized her sister’s stance on same-sex marriage and urged her own Facebook friends to share the message. Posting on Facebook on Friday evening, Mary Cheney, who is gay and married her longtime partner last year, wrote: ‘For the record, I love my sister, but she is dead wrong on the issue of marriage.’ Their father … supports same-sex marriage … Earlier Friday, Liz Cheney revealed her position on same-sex marriage, a topic she has kept relatively quiet about since declaring her candidacy in July against incumbent Senator Mike Enzi, Republican of Wyoming.

“‘I am not pro-gay marriage,’ Liz Cheney said in a statement responding to an apparent push poll against her in Wyoming. ‘I believe the issue of marriage must be decided by the states, and by the people in the states, not by judges and not even by legislators, but by the people themselves.” … Liz Cheney’s stance underlines the degree to which full-throated support for same-sex marriage, even in a libertarian-leaning state like Wyoming, still poses a political risk in a Republican primary. Mr. Enzi opposes legalizing same-sex marriage.” http://nyti.ms/170Cs19

Mephistopheles always collects. 

(Community Matters) An uniterruptable practice, is Steven’s writing his daily pages. I’m not always invited to read but these were just too beautiful not to – and he let me. Even bigger deal he’s letting me share these.

any surprise why I love this guy more & more nearly every day?

(Community Matters) With Mom & Dad at the HRC Gala in 1996 (I think) when I received the Bill Ramsey Award (kna the Bettie Naylor Award)

 It’s also the year Bettie Naylor was cruising my mother. When I explained she was my mother, Bettie asked me to distract my father.

(Community Matters) 

Happy Birthday, Kirk

in Chicago night of 2008 election

I consider Kirk one of my best friends . . . but he once wrote me this note: “I just saw a report that they’ve closed all the beaches around Cape Cod because of sightings of several Great White sharks. I think it’s a government scare tactic. Would you mind going to take a dip in order to determine the truthfulness of the story?” sent from my iPad  – just saying

(Community Matters) Fantastic to dine with Sonya & Reid Cramer on Tuesday night and stay at my home  away from home, The Tabard Inn. Wednesday morning, met at Georgetown University at 8, March started about 9:30, arrived at security to Lincoln Memorial/Mall at 10:15ish, 3 hours to get through security. Met lots of folks, especially Larry & Karla Bright from Fish & Wildlife who I’ve already connected to Frank & Dale Loy and Drew Scheberle. Listened to speakers. Had ride to the airport at 3pm but Pres Obama didn’t start speaking until 3:10. Lucky I’d arranged for him to wait on me or wouldn’t have made it back home in time for dinner with Steven, Michael & Kip – probably a couple hundred thousand looking for rides immediately after.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

sappy piece I wrote on the way home

(Community Matters) A new, important Austin-based seed-stage venture capital firm  – Brett Hurt and Jeff Harbach.

Very excited for Austin and my dear friends Brett & Jeff.