Posted on

Week 7: Buster Film Fest

Today at Film Fest, Buster Keaton in The Cameraman and Spite Marriage. The Cameraman is one of the few Buster films shot in NYC, and is great for anyone interested in vintage footage of 1920s New York – it’s also one of the last best Buster Keaton performances of this era. Spite Marriage has one singularly brilliant scene, of newlywed Buster putting a very, very drunk wife to bed.

Posted on

Macabre Notes on Beauty

This piece isn’t light reading, but I thought it said something about beauty that was truly stunning.

It was shortly after the British Red Cross arrived, though it may have no connection, that a very large quantity of lipstick arrived. This was not at all what we men wanted, we were screaming for hundreds and thousands of other things and I don’t know who asked for lipstick.

Posted on

Queer Carnival

Last month I discovered something called The Carnival of Bent Attractions, which was hosted this past month at A Delicate Boy’s blog, and I’m a part of it.
Do check out some of the other posts that were highlighted as part of this month’s Carnival, because there’s a lot of interesting stuff there, like Jay Sennett’s stuff on MWMF, the woman who reports on why her gay friends thinks it would suck to be straight, Nina Smith on the economics of lesbian motherhood, and those lovely feminists in Wales on the intersection of queer & feminist politics.

Posted on

Dark Odyssey #5

We almost didn’t go to Dark Odyssey this year for a variety of reasons, but as it turns out, femme tops top everyone: Tristan told me we had to, so we did. When we were leaving, and I was getting really choked up and was sad to be going, I knew I wouldn’t ever think of not going again. What Tristan and Greg and all the many perverted presenters, staff, and attendees create on a campgrounds – nearly out of nothing – is really singular, in my experience.
There were plenty of familiar faces missing this year – some in the middle of new book publicity, others dealing with personal stuff or health concerns, and many, many people were missed. But people stepped in to fill the gaps, and it was as if Betty and I had an omen of what a good DO it would be when we found ourselves, the first night that we got in, talking to one of the staffers we’d just met about Neil Gaiman.
Betty read Stephen King’s IT the whole time we were there, and I’ll let her blog about how meaningful she found that book this time around.
Continue reading “Dark Odyssey #5”

Posted on

Trans Partners' Drop-In

I will be co-moderating the GIP’s Trans Partner’s Drop-In group this fall, and I’m really pleased to be getting to do this kind of work, since I’ve been talking about doing a partners’ group anyway.

Here are the details:

When: Wednesdays – Beginning October 4

Time: 7:30-9:00 pm

Where: The Center, 208 West 13th Street, New York, New York 10011
(212) 620-7310, www.gaycenter.org

What: Trans-Partners/Trans-Amorous Drop-in is a 10-week group for people of all genders to discuss and explore their attractions to and relationships with trans-identified or gender non-conforming individuals. The group is open to people currently in partnerships with trans-people, people formerly in partnerships with trans-people, and people who are exploring their attraction to trans-people.

How: Registration is not required. There is a $5 suggested donation, but no one will be turned away for lack of ability to pay.

Posted on

Ms. Science and the Autumnal Equinox

Because she rocks, Megan wrote this piece for me (and you) to celebrate the Autumnal Equinox, which is today.

This year, the Autumnal Equinox occurs at 12:03 am EDT, September 23rd. Most of us know that Autumnal Equinox marks the official (read: astronomical) end of the Summer and beginning of Autumn, and that on that day we are supposed to have the same amount of daytime and nighttime (hence the whole equi-nox bit). But what else does it mean? What is an equinox, anyway? And why did you say it happens at three minutes after midnight, Ms. Science? Well, Timmy and Janey, I’m glad you asked.

During the course of a single day, the Earth’s rotation causes celestial objects–the Sun, Moon, planets, stars–to rise in the East and set in the West. So far so good. However, if you watch celestial objects over longer periods of time–days to weeks–you’d see something very different. The Sun, for example, appears to move eastward one degree per day with respect to the background stars, due to the Earth’s orbit about it. That is, if you could see the Sun in front of the much more distant stars, the Sun would appear, over the course of a year, to trace out a path eastward. Astronomers call this imaginary line across the sky the ecliptic.