Trans Legal Defense and Education Fund is a really organization, and their annual gala & fundraiser is coming up. I’m told it’s a fun, classy affair.
It will take place on Monday, June 3, from 6:30-8:30 PM, at the Art Directors Club Gallery at 106 W. 29th Street.
The FB Event page is here.
Also, if you’re trans & would like to go but can’t afford it, email me & I can put you in touch with someone who might be able to help.
Qween Amor was assaulted in Union Square on May 7th, 2013. The suspect is now in custody. Immediately after this video was taken, her suitcase (pictured, red) was stolen. It contained her amplifier, laptop, and all other possessions.
S/he needs help to purchase a new amplifier/boombox, so that she can continue performing & sending her message of love. Contributions can be made via paypal to: QweenAmor@gmail.com.
It thrills me to no end that I am going to a retreat this weekend with a bunch of students from NYC. Why? Because I won’t have to talk so slow and constantly regulate my enthusiasm and keep myself from interrupting. I won’t have to count to three when someone is done speaking just to make sure I’m not interjecting too quickly. I’m not particularly good at doing those things, mind you: I’m still from New York and have all the speech patterns Deborah Tannen talks about in this article.
A Californian who visited New York once told me he’d found New Yorkers unfriendly when he’d tried to make casual conversation. I asked what he made conversation about. Well, for example, how nice the weather was. Of course! No New Yorker would start talking to a stranger about the weather—unless it was really bad. We find it most appropriate to make comments to strangers when there’s something to complain about—“Why don’t they do something about this garbage!” “Ever since they changed the schedules, you can’t get a bus!” Complaining gives us a sense of togetherness in adversity. The angry edge is aimed at the impersonal “they” who are always doing things wrong. The person is thus welcomed into a warm little group. Since Californians don’t pick up this distinction between “us” and “them,” they are put off by the hostility, which they feel could be turned on them at any moment.
But around other New Yorkers I can fucking relax and expect people to be a little louder, a little more dramatic, to clip my sentences and know, when I clip theirs, that I am only showing enthusiasm. More
Well, we’re off: for a week in NYC, the GLAAD Media Awards, visit with family, friends, and the teeming masses.
I’ve missed every goddamn one of them, doncha know.
(I will probably Tweet more than Facebook while I’m away. Honestly, the longer I’m off Facebook, the happier I am.)
Sylvia Rivera Law Project is trying to make sure that trans inclusive care is part of NYS Medicaid, and are asking people to send a letter to the Health Department explaining your story and why this need is so great.
You can get the form from SRLP, or all the info is below.
They were Brooklyn kids, can you tell? Sweet and tough all at once.
(& Yes, we all still miss the big galoot in the photo, & we miss him a lot.)
They were in their early 20s when this one was taken, & they’re sitting on the stoop of a family home on Jerome Street, somewhere near Pitkin Avenue.
My friend Alex takes really cool photos, like these two of Eli.
No matter what you thought of him or his politics, Ed Koch was an indelible sign of New York – especially the one that came back from the brink.
When he ran first for mayor, New York was practically falling apart. The city was still reeling from the financial crisis of the mid-1970s and the looting that accompanied a major blackout in the summer of 1977.
“The city was being held together by chewing gum,” recalls historian Jonathan Soffer. “He created a feeling of optimism. He created a feeling that the city could come back.”
I ran into him once at Balducci’s, where he complained to me about the peaches not being ripe enough.
I’ve written about him before (& even about the Sting connection) but just discovered the film made about him – with John Hurt playing Crisp – is available to see on Logo for free!
I’m off for 2 weeks in NYC today, so if I don’t blog much, you know why.
Deli Man Trailer from Erik Anjou on Vimeo.
Sadly, Appleton doesn’t have a deli, not a real one, anyway, & I haven’t seen any in other parts of the state, but I can’t say I’ve looked too carefully, either.
WI does have supper clubs, which are cool like delis in an entirely different way.
There’s a photographer in New York who wanders around the city photographing people; he calls his work “Humans of New York” and they are very, very cool photos.
Cat on Head Man is a recent favorite.
HONY is doing a 10-day fundraiser for the victims of Hurricane Sandy, the proceeds of which will go to a charity called Tunnel to Towers that is located in Staten Island – started by the family of a firefighter who died on 9/11. They have been doing really great work in the past few weeks.
So, give if you can.
Oceanside, NY, is my hometown.
The personal reports I have been hearing from friends going home to help parents clean up after the storm, from my brother and other friends and their relatives who are still in town, are heart-breaking. One of my friends went home to throw out almost every family photo album — because they were stored in the basement. Even once people re-build and cleanup, so many things will have been lost forever.
Do help if you can. From the makers of the video: “Hurricane Sandy destroyed our beautiful town, but not our amazing spirit! If you would like to help you can contact Oceanside Community Service http://www.schoolhousegreen.org/OSIDECOMMUNITYSERVICE.html or send checks made out to Oceanside Community Service and send them to 145A Merle Ave. Oceanside, NY 11572.”
If you do, tell them the Kramers sent you.
Here’s some more raw footage of the day after Sandy.
And a huge thank you to Oceanside, CA, our sister city, who mobilized to raise funds.
The horse wrangler who managed FEMA under Bush is criticizing Obama for responding “too quickly.”
Romney, in the meantime, is ignoring all comments or requests for clarifications on his previous comments that he would get rid of FEMA.
Here’s a good article explaining why disasters, and disaster relief, are inherently political.
“New York is as beautiful and diverse and glorious as an old-growth forest. It’s as grand, in its unplanned tumble, as anything ever devised by man or nature. And now, I fear its roots are being severed.” – Climate change journalist Bill McKibben, writing for the Guardian.
Chilling.
911 is receiving 20k calls an hour; normal is 2k/hr.
The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel is flooded.
The Gowanus Canal flooded its banks (that’s a Superfund site, folks, hugely toxic).
Much of Manhattan has no power. More than a quarter of a million people don’t.
The Carousel in DUMBO was breached.
Long Island is under several feet of water, as is the Jersey Shore. My niece reports 42″ on the ground floor of my sister’s house in Bellmore.
Five people have already died.
The NYC Subways may be closed for a week or longer; there’s 4′ of sea water in the tunnels.
On the other side of the world, a storm has killed 30 people in Viet Nam and the Philippines.
People gathered in Times Square with a massive sign that said END CLIMATE SILENCE.
Mayor Bloomberg’s Spanish is really, really terrible.
Love to you all on the East Coast. Stay safe.
Stay safe, East Coast. Please do all report in as often as possible, please.
The NYT is posting a new photo every minute.
The most extraordinary description of this storm – from a weatherman who claims not to be prone to hyperbole – is here.
There’s this messed up news about the possibility of the Gowanus Canal flooding into Brooklyn.
You can even watch various live feeds in & around NYC.
And NCTE has put out a great guide (pdf) for trans people in the midst of these kinds of storms – basic information on emergency shelters, contact numbers, and lists of supplies that wouldn’t be on most guides for hurricane preparedness.
Love to all my friends & family on the East Coast. I hope this doesn’t suck half so much as it sounds like it’s going to.
Sorry I didn’t post this past week: I went to NYC for a few days to see my mom in the hospital & to go see this guy:
It’s been 20 years since the last time I saw him live, and it was amazing.
Just go ahead & bite me if you have a problem with NYC being the best place in the world.
(Thanks to my colleague Monica Rico for the suggestion.)
