Here's a nice little image to send to your favorite President

When I was done laughing at this, after I'd sent my thank yous to who ever created the image, I completely forgot where I got it from... that's what I get for hopping from link to link to link to read as much as I can before I have to log off. Some days it doesn't take much to make me happy.

On my way to the LA Times Festival of Books...

The LA Times Festival of Books and the Miami International Book Fair have become two of the largest literary gatherings in the United States; all the more unusual considering that both cities get a considerable amount of flack for their cultural deficiencies. The LA Times Festival is actually the newer of the two, and considerably more monolingual, although not entirely.

I'll be gorging myself on books, books and more books all weekend, and won't get a chance to post 'til Monday night at the earliest.

I'm curious to see just what is going to happen on Monday with the proposed immigrant boycott. I guess technically the Mayflower descendants could all take the day off, too. Maybe a reality check for this country would be in order and everyone whose ancestors came through Ellis Island or Angel Island were took to take the day off.

School administrators and local elected officials have been imploring people to stay on the job and at school, and make their voices heard in a nice, orderly, Mattachine society fashion later in the day. Juneteenth was not originally a national African-American holiday. It was from Texas, where the slaveowners made certain that they got the harvest in before telling the slaves that they were --ahem-- already free.

I can just see Harriet Tubman asking for permission before carrying her precious cargo to Canada, or Rosa Parks waiting for permission to get her seat on a bus after a long hard day at work.

Permission, eh?

I remember a poignant museum exhibition of empty boats found by the Coast Guard in the Florida Straits; and how many people remember the people who died not asking for permission trying to get over the Berlin Wall?

I hear that New Hampshire parents are suing to keep a book about the two male penguins who tried to raise a baby out of the schools. How about replacing it, for the time being, with a nice, All-American account about how babies were ripped from their mothers arms as their parents were sold off to different owners? Or child labor a hundred years ago...

I made the mistake of reading stories about the Holocaust before I went to bed...

There are a lot of nicer things to think about while staring at the ceiling all night than mass graves and pogroms and death camps...

That today is a beautiful Spring day is practically surreal after reading those accounts of mostly children and teens from across Europe who survived the Holocaust. The one thing in common was their overriding faith in the goodness of humankind despite the horrors they lived through, and hope for the future.

Then today I find the website of an old friend, artist Manny Cosentino, linked to the header above, with a painting of one of the first streets in Silver Lake that I ever saw, dappled in sunshine. A much nicer image to meditate on than the ones I can't yet shake out of my head...

Remember, too, that tomorrow night is Dining Out For Life (http://www.diningoutforlife.com) in cities all across the country. So you can do good just by eating. And no matter what, ya gotta eat, right?

So, the La Times has finally discovered that gentrification is causing conflict...

I might not have picked up last Friday's LA Times at all, were it not for a post by boi From Troy (click on the header above for a link to his blog). While his politics and mine diverge on most points (although we seem to share an obsession with Matt Leinart), he reprinted part of a Column One story by John Glionna on the conflict in the Castro as gays find themselves at odds with new arrivals.

While the article did cover the issue in some depth, I found it kind of sloppy--and about 25 years late. From South Beach to West Hollywood to Greenwich Village to the Castro, changing demographics and the question of whether the ghetto has served its purpose and is obsolete have been fodder for many an argument.

I could go on for days with my own opinion without adding much to the debate. Suffice it to say that people who move to the Everglades and complain about the swamp come in all shapes and sizes (and colors) of stupidity. Decorum servbes a purpose, true, but when straights were reading the obits to get bargains on homes lovingly restored by gay men, the mainstream dailies hadn't yet noticed the issue...

So, I'm a species, eh?

Thank goodness my nieces are out of the Palm Beach County school system.

At an April 5 meeting, school board chair Tom Lynch called gay students "a protected species."

He later apologized for the remark --after it received widespread attention. The Express Gay News pointed out, however, that Lynch has exhibited similar lapses in judgment; the Sun-Sentinel reported that the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council has called for his resignation.

Maybe Lynch would do well to bone up on the materials readily prepared by education groups on hate speech and bullying in schools.

I'd like to think that if he were to run into that little fairy from the Dodge Calibre commercials, he might discover what it means to belong to a class of people subjected to hate and harassment. Remember the Twilight Zone movie where Vic Morrow and two other actors were killed? A bigot found himself trapped living the experiences of the very people he was denigrating.

But that only hapens in fairy tales.

Thank you, Rev. Nelson B. Rivers III and the NAACP

The Reverend Nelson B. Rivers III, chief operating officer for the NAACP spoke out in South Carolina during a Democracy Day event about... democracy.

Rivers spoke out against all forms of discrimination, including against Latinos, immigrants, gays and lesbians, and the poor.

Too often, leaders on the front lines of the civil rights movement get bogged down in a "my discrimination is bigger than your discrimination" or "how dare you compare your experience to ours" division that only serves to keep the status quo firmly in place. No one has to agree on every item on a community's plate, or no one will ever get anywhere. Recognizing that discrimination has occurred, and working to rectify that inequity, ought to be the focus.

The NAACP has been criticized in some quarters for being late to [return to] the issues facing other communities. Well, better late than never. There are battles that, often enough, when we look around and realize that a clear majority of people agree to work together right the wrong, that the wrong crumbles away before the battle.

Requiem for the TWN

I mentioned in passing the recent loss of Update and The Weekly News. I ought to say more in particular about just how important a publication like TWN is--or was.

Few publications in the GLBT community last for 29 years. And fewer still hold themselves to the caliber of journalism that TWN did.

South Florida has been trying with greater determination in recent years not to be taken as a cultural backwater. With some four million people in the tri-county urban area, South Florida deserves more independent books and media of quality.

Books and Books is one of the finest independent bookstores in the country, and the Express Gay News does an admirable job of delivering news to the community. But it takes more than what they alone can do. Not so long ago, African-Americans could only read newspapers smuggled by railroad porters from the North. With the anniversary of the Shoah approaching, we can see where lack of access to information and media leads a society.

A silly little fairy causes a great big stir!

I mentioned recently how I enjoyed the new Dodge Calibre commercials where the big macho guy gets it for denigrating the fairy... and sure enough, Commercial Closet (click on the header above for a link to their site) doesn't see anything positive about the ad.

I'm not gonna get into the endless debate about "political correctness." A good deal of the backlash against that I'd wager is part of an orchestrated campaign to put boys in blue and girls in pink, women back in the kitchen an darkies picking cotton as they sing to their masters on the porch of the big house. You know who you are.

Granted, it is a fine line --and very thin ice-- where allowable use of such language slides into intentionally demeaning speech and behavior.

I'm one to take note of who uses such speech and when (and how often), but to allow some latitude for the benefit of a doubt at the same time.

We've all heard the joke about "what do you call the [Jewish, African- American, woman, gay man, etc.] who leaves the room?.... "

I got my new T-shirt printing kit just in time for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling...

A recent post on one of my favorite Miami blogs brought up the whole "Che" image imbroglio. I was fortunate enough to have met Mr. Korda in La Habana before he passed away--he claimed he never made a penny off that iconic image, by the way.

What really concerns me, is how people of all ages wear that image of Che with little knowledge of what the man was. Maybe they've read the Motorcycle Diaries, or seen the movie. But they don't know that he was also a cold-blooded murderer. One wonders which images of the 20th century will represent us in a few hundred year's time, and what it will say about us.

According to Henry Weinstein's piece in the Times, the Supreme Court has held that Americans must tolerate offensive speech. Some limitations were permissible, however.

And yet, school districts in Vermont and Florida have curtailed programs aimed at curbing bullying because of parental complaints that the programs were somehow promoting homosexuality. I wonder if the same parents would be objecting if the programs had been sponsored by the NAACP or other national human rights organizations.

So it's okay to beat up and harass people you don't like--just don't put it on your T-shirt.

"Star Trek" gets "Lost"

Word was released from Paramount this weekend that J.J. Abrams will produce the next Star Trek film, and write the script with his past collaborators Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. I have a sneaking feeling that Star Trek is going to boldly go where it has never gone before.... and it won't be down the hatch.

Are YOU ready for the Big One?

Sharon Bernstein had an real eye opener of a story in Friday's LA Times. Nobody in California has been expecting FEMA to come when the next big quake hits (and it will hit), but we've always thought local government officials were prepared. After all, they live here too. As one of my fellow jurors said to me confidently a few weeks ago, "the government wouldn't let people build there if it wasn't safe, right?"

Ask the folks in South Miami-Dade who were there when Andrew hit.

Two-thirds of San Francisco Bay have been filled in over the past 150 years. Liquefaction of the soil will be a prime cause of serious problems--and few parts of the state do not have construction on some sort of fill, from UCLA to much of San Francisco, and our three largest airports in the state.

Preparedness by local officials varies widely from community to community. Dad gave each of us a Red Cross emergency kit at Christmas --I encourage you to give one to everybody you care about. I suspect when it happens, I'll be across town from home; it's not crazy to have a spare emergency kit in your trunk.

So much news from one little weekend...

First off, something light by Jake Novak from the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles:

Top Ten Judas Gospel Shockers

The text of the apocryphal Gospel of Judas entered the public sphere this month after surviving suppression by the early Christian church, centuries in the desert, the greed of looters and purgatory in a bank vault. And while National Geographic and the New York Times offered the "official" translation, our own Coptic scholars are nearly certain they've unearthed 10 startling revelations.

10. Judas says he had nothing to do with Jesus' death --but he did devote his life to trying to find the "real killers."

9. John the Baptist was not a licensed lifeguard.

8. Judas admits leaking Jesus' identity to the Romans, but only after he got clearance from Dick Cheney's great-grandfather.

7. Mel Gibson got it wrong: The real bad guys were the Presbyterians.

6. Scorsese had it wrong, too. The real, last temptation of Christ was mocha rum crunch gelato.

5. Jesus would have approved of gay marriage--if Matthew and Mark weren't always fighting and getting into snits.

4. All the food at the last supper was low-carb.

3. Mary wouldn't have remained a virgin if Joseph could have gotten some Viagra in 40 B.C.E.

2. As he was dying on the cross, Jesus had a painful vision foretelling that, someday, Target stores wouldn't use the word "Christmas" during the holiday season.

1. After all that, Pontius Pilate's check bounced.

The plot thickens...

Well, according to a news story in Friday's Miami Herald, three Cuban-Americans involved in militant exile groups all claim to have never heard of illegal weapons dealer Robert Ferro. There's every possibility that Ferro was not, as he claimed, a member of Alpha 66 (not that any of us will ever know for certain), but for none of the three men interviewed to claim to have never heard of him? That stretches the limit of credibility just a bit. The real gall of it is that Ferro could presume that he could fall back on the excuse that the weapons were for the liberation of Cuba, as if that excuses everything. That's right up there with the "homosexual panic" defense that murderers use when they get caught using their victim's car and credit cards, more often than not on a two or three state spree --and yet attorneys keep trying to make the homosexual panic excuse plausible, year in and year out. Ferro's excuse doesn't explain, of course, why he was selling weapons to people out of his antique shop. The Cuban liberation defense is small potatoes to some of the outrageous things that have occurred in Miami court rooms... and it wouldn't hold up to the light in probably 49 out of 50 states (and possibly in Florida north of Flagler County).

For the Ernesto Diaz, the Alpha 66 spokesperson quoted in the story to posit that Cuba would hatch such an elaborate plot to discredit Alpha 66 is an insult to the intelligence of Americans (especially ADAs). I'm sure it has been repeated 'round the streets and over the airwaves of Miami-Dade county enough for some gullible people in the community to consider it plausible.

"At these moments, Alpha is being respectful of U.S. laws, and our training camps are within the guidelines of U.S. laws," Diaz is quoted in the story. So, then, is that an admission that Alpha 66 is not --other than at these moments-- respectful of and within the guidelines of U.S. law?

I keep thinking of all those innocent people in Upland sleeping next to a virtual weapons depot, and the police officer and innocent woman shot by Ferro's guns (and who knows how many other crimes?); and Ferro's wife claiming on camera that she had no idea what her husband was up to. That takes a lot more denial than Jack Twist and Ennis del Mar's wives had in Brokeback Mountain, doesn't it? Not that I would expect her to admit she knew, participated in, or even suspected that something was going on. And what could she have done, had she an inkling of what her husband was up to? But remarkably they're both back home, living under the same roof. I can't begin to imagine the reception they'll be getting from the neighborhood.

Are there Cuban spies in Miami? Well, duh... I've lost track of how many real spies have been tounded up in recent years. Are there plots and counterplots constantly being hatched (even if rarely carried out)... Has there been discussion about the damage that this does to the reputation of reputable Cuban-American businessmen and the Cuban exile community as a whole? There are millions of honest, hardworking people who get suspicious looks from their co-workers and neighbors when something like this erupts. And of all the exile communities in the United States for years it's been the Cuban-Americans who get this rep. The airwaves of Spanish talk radio in Miami must be crackling with buzz over this --and one can only imagine the hushed conversations taking place offline! When legitimate Cuban-American gentleman do business, it's one of the few places in America where a simple handshake is worth more than a ton of legal contracts. Or is that all a thing of the past? If Ferro is just a crook, can we let him be just a crook, or must the media portray him as a Cuban-American crook?

lt's a lot more colorful than debating why gasoline is pushing past $4 a gallon. And it does take our attention, briefly, off of what's going on in Washington.

If you aren't angry, then you're not paying attention

Can you believe that they released that character to go back home once they took away his guns and ammo?
If the ATF had discovered that an African-American had an arsenal in his home, his bullet-ridden corpse would be full of holes from Federal agents, even if he claimed he was going to send the weapons to Darfur to defend the people that the American government has been reticent to protect.

Had it been a Vietnamese exile belonging to one of the paramilitary groups working to liberate their homeland, he'd at least be cooling his heels at the Terminal Island prison or the Downtown Detention Facility.

And don't get me started on the (as yet still peaceful) organizations advocating that the U.S. acknowledge and apologize that they overthrew the sovereign government of Hawai'i, then restore their independence.

We're in a city filled with exiles from political strife from all over the world. LA has the largest population of some 30 different nationalities outside of their homeland. When it warrants 30 seconds on the nightly news, it's guaranteed that the elite have already smuggled their assets into American banks. You should have seen Chinatown the 48 hours after the British Foreign Office announced they were going to proceed with the handover of Hong Kong to China (not that there hadn't already been a very visible transfer of assets and population to LA by then).

But Alpha 66 is selling guns and munitions to criminals. Alpha 66 is responsible for a police officer and an innocent woman being shot. When Cubans were killing other Cubans in Miami for daring to exercise their right of free speech, the hardliner exilios had to shoot down an airliner filled with innocent people in order to get prosecuted. Until then, they'd largely left non-Cubans alone.

Even if this guy wasn't acting on behalf of Alpha 66, the claim that he was stockpiling weapons for an assault on his homeland from the otherside of the continent has been given equal time by the local media. Of course, the media in LA is less familiar with the day-to-day insanity of Miami of the 70s and 80s. The only political assasination LA has had in the last twenty years or so was when Armenian radicals murdered a Turkish diplomat.

Is Alpha 66 conducting a secret war against the United States? Or has the monitoring-from-a-discreet-distance policy of the Feds backfired? Did they need a suitable number of civilian casualties to mount before they could do anything? If this guy is using his tenuous connection with Alpha 66 as a paper-thin defense for his actions, why is he sitting back at home after they took away his arsenal? This guy had enough weaponry to arm a Hell of a lot of criminals on the street! He had machine guns, for crying out loud! How many Hell's Angels and gang bangers made trips to his antique shop to purchase guns?

If this is the best that our government can do to keep a lid on the carnage on our streets, what the Hell do we expect them to find all those missing weapons from the former Soviet arsenal?

As the saying goes, You aren't paranoid if they're really out to get you.

________________________________

I need to think of something mindless and silly to keep from being pissed, because experience has shown me that it is not in my best interest to walk around looking angry. So, as they would say on Monty Python, "And now for something completely different."

Those recent Volkswagen commercials have had me rather jittery, no matter how many times I've seen them --and I always buckle up. On the flip side, the commercial for the Dodge Calibre where a fairy turns a dumb clod into a drag queen has me cracking up every time I see it. The vintage couture adds a nice campy touch. I wonder what the Velvet mafia in GLAAD think about it.

This weekend, we're heading over to the Brewery for the biannual Artwalk --there's a link to their website on the header at top.

I have mixed emotions about learning about the loss of two more gay publications, the San Diego Update and South Florida's The Weekly News. While San Diego California's second largest city) continues to be served by a variety of GLBT publications, most notably the Gay and Lesbian Times, South Florida's gay community cannot afford to lose a single source of news and information, even in this electronic age. The loss of any gay business anywhere in the country doesn't help our community.

Uh oh...

So this guy has over a thousand weapons in his nice, upscale suburban home, including machine guns and explosives. There was enough stuff to overthrow a couple of small countries there. And no matter what his supposed patriotic aims were to help liberate his homeland, a police officer and the ex-wife of a man who was stalking her were the first (known) victims of his cache.

And of course, it's just a coincidence that that area he lived in has long been known as a stronghold in California for White supremacist groups.

This is why I don't waste my time with horror movies... reality is way scarier.

Time was, judges in Florida would export convicted prostitutes to California; now it's Cuban para-military nutcases. The real estate in the Keys where they used to train I guess is just too pricey for them to use anymore. Now we know why Miami is getting so calm these days...

The day after...

In reading about various accounts of the anniversary of the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, I came across an attribution of the poem I posted yesterday to Larry Williams. Given that most people in the City think it was written by some "anonymous" person, I'll take it for what it's worth.

One thing I'm sure of is that my neighbors will be happy to never again hear Jeannette MacDonald (or Judy Garland) singing "San Francisco."

Click on the header above to a link from today's SF Chronicle, about preventing the "Ugly American" syndrome. PS-- the same concept applies for Americans traveling in America, too.

April 18, 1906, 5:12 a.m.

From the ferries to Van Ness
You're a God-forsaken mess,
But the damndest finest ruins--
Nothin' more or nothin' less.

Larry Harris, 1906

Happy Passover/Easter

photo from 'Doc. Thorhauer'

Happy Passover and Easter ... how'd ya like to find eggs hidden up there? I linked the header with City Hikes, who have a number of trails around The City, some of which even lifetimetime natives have never seen. The sunrise from Twin Peaks is... well, words don't do it justice, so you'll just have to imagine...

"My Lucky Star" by Joe Keenan

I just finished Joe Keenan's newest novel, My Lucky Star. Like his first two novels, My Blue Heaven and Putting on the Ritz, it was a rollicking, funny ride from beginning to end. Perhaps it was even more enjoyable because he so delightfully skewered the motion picture industry as only an insider could.

The rains that we've been waiting for all week are still pummeling Northern California, but today is Chamber of Commerce picture postcard perfect. The news said it might hit the 80s, but they didn't say that was going to be before breakfast.
I'm supposed to be introspective and pensive during my birthday week, but I'm reminded by the world around me that after 25 years of sobriety you get 25 years and a day. No balloon drop; no one hands you the keys to a convertible. Life goes on, just as it did yesterday, and the day before that. Yet, it is a time to reflect, and remember, that but for the grace of God, I wouldn't even be here to enjoy it or be bored by it.

Anniversary Prayer

Dear God, I had another anniversary today, one more year in recovery. It has been difficult at times, but it has allowed many blessings. I am a human being again. I feel new strength in my body, spirit and mind. The world has never looked so good. I have my friends' and family's respect. I am productive in my work. I do not miss the slippery people and places. When I have been tempted, You, my Higher Power, have sustained me. I have found a home in the Fellowship and friends support me. Stay close by me, God. I thank you. This is the life I love.

April 12, 1981- April 12, 2006. This is where my journey began, at the Friendship Bell in San Pedro. On a clear day, you can see from Mt. Baldy to Catalina Island.

photo: elefuntboy

All Americans are immigrants

As I left the courthouse yesterday, I found myself amidst traffic gridlock due to an enormous demonstration against immigration legislation pending in Congress.

Most people upon meeting me assume erroneously that I was born in the United States. I have no discernible accent. I have even taken it on the chin many a time by those who think I am trying to act WASP. I have been ostracized and attacked by people who think I'm trying to be something I'm not or I shouldn't be what I am. I make no apologies for my heritage or my diction. I speak the English my parents taught me (both my parents were bilingual: English/French and English/Spanish). My heritage puts me more in line with the "American Salad Bowl" of ethnicities than most people I meet.

Today is one of those days when I feel out of sorts. I'm feeling out of sorts in the gay ghetto, and as most of my generation are prematurely dead, I've not many peers to relate to, or who could relate to me.

The 25th anniversary of my sobriety is tomorrow, and I know this is part of why I am out of sorts. Even in some of the meetings, I feel more the outsider than I belong. I never did Crystal Meth, the drug du jour in recovery circles. Fortunately, we have over three thousand meetings here in LA. I have a place. I do belong.

ever have one of those days?

Sorry for that dead link to Towleroad in my last post. Blogspot for some reason won't let me in to see what needs to be corrected.

Jury service is over for (at least) the next twelve months, not that I have any problem with doing my civic duty. There is some joy in being part of the process, contingent, alas, on what I deem to be a truly fair and equitable outcome in the proceedings, which in this case did not happen. An expert on spousal abuse testified, yet the other jurors seemed not to hear what he was saying. And everyone appeared to have forgotten that the defendant was DRUNK. If history tells us anything, this will be only one in a string of skirmishes with the law, and the next time, perhaps, he'll get the appropriate verdict.

...and a boo and hiss to Beny Alagem

Alagem, who purchased the Beverly Hilton Hotel, wants to tear down the iconic Trader Vic's, which has stood for years at the intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards. While the hotel was so-so in it's architectural style (some preservationists will likely bristle at that), Trader Vic's has been a landmark for Angelenos, and a symbol of Mid-Century modernism --even for those who had little or no interest in historic preservation or architecture. Fortunately, the developers, stunned at the degree of community outrage, have reportedly been in some sort of negotiation to save the Trader Vic's. So soon after losing the Cocoanut Grove Nightclub at the Ambassador Hotel, it demonstrates how tenuous our connections with our history are.

Someone has reportedly made a "Greetings from Brokeback Mountain" postcard (I want one! Hint! Hint!).

Jury Duty, Room 253, 1:35 p.m. Theatre of the Absurd:

A television in the jury pool room is blaring "The People's Court" to entertain the folks waiting to be assigned to a trial. No one else seems to find this odd.

About those Gnostics; if the recently discovered Gospel of Judas is the text which proves he was no traitor, thus putting into focus the origins of anti-Semitism by St. Augustine and others in an orchestrated campaign to vilify Jews ...what will have to happen in order to force a re-evaluation of the vilification of gays? I expect the usual scholars are probably already working on it.

Wednesday night's Lost did not disappoint. Twists and turns and yet new revealations; and knowing that any cast member could get killed off at any moment only made it more edge-of-your-seat television. I should say that Matthew Fox doesn't really have to take off his shirt--the torn-off sleeve showing his biceps and the perennial beard stubble seem to work just fine. Not that I'd have a problem, natch, if he were to wear a little less clothing now and then.

The Evidence, immediately following, featured just the kind of on-location shots I was hoping for (did you see the Sutro Tower in the background?) The backstories of the characters are clearly more interesting than the hook that is supposed to set this cop show apart from all the others. Only, I can't get why a M.E. the age of Martin Landau would still be working for the City/County. Would Civil Service allow someone of his age to work, I wondered, even if it was to take advantage of some irreplaceable expertise his character had? It's not easy bringing up the Holocaust, and I wouldn't have been surprised if one of the writers had been sitting on that story line for ages trying to work it in a show.

Last night's Numb3rs, one the other hand left me pretty disturbed. I left the room without even turning off the set. That was just a little too graphic and violent for my taste. No, it was a lot too graphic. I keep waiting for that show to improve a notch or two, but they seem to think it's doing just fine. While I'm not a body fascist, David Krumholz might wanna realize he can't get by on that doe-eyed baby face forever, and get a trainer. He's gotta be the only actor his age in Hollywood on a hit show who could stand to (how should I put this delicately?) lose a few pounds. Geeks can be hunks, too. His agent would appreciate it; sooner or later, after all, he's gonna have to audition for another show, and the competition is fierce in this town, where pretty faces are a dime a dozen. Silly thing to pick on --he is a fine actor, but I just don't want to think about last night's storyline if I can help it.

Let's hear it for those Gnostics

By now, everyone probably knows that Los Angeles philanthropist and gay activist Tom Gregory has purchased the postcards from Brokeback Mountain to go along with his purchase of the shirt (someone else got Jack Twist's pickup truck). He has said that he's creating a special frame for the artifacts to re-create the closet that held the shrine created by character Ennis del Mar to Jack Twist.

They'll be exhibited a couple of times in LA and San Francisco; then, to see them you'll probably have to be a member of the Velvet Mafia to get an invite to the Bohnert/Gregory home, which happens to be Gary Cooper's onetime home.

William Shatner has donated $25,000 to Habitat for Humanity, and Liz Taylor gave the NO/AIDS Task Force the gift of a fully outfitted mobile medical RV for her 74th birthday. Neither were looking for publicity when they made the gifts. See? We do have people in Hollywood who do nice things. Really nice things.

One moment it's warm and sunny, the next it showers

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If April showers bring May flowers, we're gonna get hay fever

On my way to the Gay & Lesbian World Travel Expo in WeHo... I stopped to post on the way. It is wet out there. Not much by SF or Seattle standards, but enough to make a 17 minute trip take over an hour.

As I was leaving the house, Larry Mantle was hosting an interesting segment on the schism between African Americans and Latinos on KPCC's Airtalk (there's a link on the left) that I wish I could have listened to. I'll check out the site later for the transcripts. Seems like belatedly (but better than never) the issue is being talked about by people who have an earnest desire to do something about it. The erosion of political activity among people of color in LA the last few years has been appalling. Seeing Mayor Villaraigosa Sunday at the Thai New Year's celebration a few blocks from where I live, and him mentioning that Los Angeles has the largest population of some 30 ethnic groups and nationalities out of their home countries is cause for more hope.

I found the site for Queer Writers (http://www.queerwriters.com) while I was surfing. Seemed like a good link to include, although I haven't yet had the chance to read it in depth.

The Queer Media Conference is coming up in New York, but since I'm stuck on the West Coast, I'll have to hope they post some of the proceedings online. I'll add a link to the left. Getting time to organize those things; but there's never enough time to do everything on my agenda. Where on earth do those guys ever have the time to surf for porn? There's so much other stuff to do, and never the time to do it.

Jury Duty

But what was up with Desperate Housewives last Sunday? Now they've insulted virtually everyone in a twelve step program in America, and I'm still not exactly feeling the love for the story arc of Bree's gay son Andrew van de Kamp. What adds to the oddness of his character is that Marc Cherry has said in interviews that the Van de Kamps are based on his own family... so is he pulling his own covers? Is Andrew going to grow up to be an evil Hollywood producer? High camp is one thing, but this show is wobbling.

The storylines introduced in Grey's Anatomy immediately after, by comparison, were a hoot. And this week's Lost still has me scratching my head, which is a good thing where that show is concerned. Just when you think you know which way it'll go-- it says gotcha! and veers off in another direction entirely. Just so long as I get my quota of Matthew Fox shirtless scenes, I don't much mind how confused it makes me. Frankly, J.J. Abrams ought to be the toast of the town for coming up with this whole concept. ABC better realize when they've got a good thing.

I'll be at the computer very irregularly this week as I'll once again be fulfilling my obligations as a citizen. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let me volunteer for Dubya's war crimes trial...