Category: uncategorized

Some assorted bits and bobs:

In Monday‘s Boondocks, Granddad tried to talk to the boys about gay marriage. Today he’s still trying. Heh. Good stuff. Who knows what he’ll say (or won’t say) next. (Thanks to Terrance for the heads up.)

The cover of this week’s New Yorker has a man and a woman at a bridal shop, both trying on wedding gowns. I don’t know exactly how I feel about it, though; it seems to miss the political edge of recent events. Or does it? I don’t know. Another cover on the same theme from a decade ago seems more positive (if a bit simple). The current issue also features a commentary on the recent Baylor Lariat editorial supporting gay marriage and the university president’s reaction.

Former Dawson’s Creek star Michelle Williams has joined the cast of Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, a movie based on a cowboy love story in the collection Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx. (Check it out. It’s a good read.) Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal have been cast as the leads. Filming begins in May, and the movie is due out next year. Can’t wait. (Related article on Salon.com.)

Yay: Pier 1 commercials featuring Queer Eye‘s interior designer, Thom Filicia, will start airing tomorrow, according to a Times article on the rising visibility of gay celebs in advertising. (Link via Jon.)

Lastly, this isn’t specifically queer, but how ’bout that new Gap commercial with Raoul Bova, for “stress free” khakis? Rowr. Quite a worthy successor to Will Kemp. Okay, I need to watch it again. It’s definitely stress-relieving, I know that much. (Link via Beaverhausen.)

[Update: VH1 has produced Totally Gayer (what an unfortunate title), a follow-up to its queer media romp from last year. Next showtime is tonight at 8 p.m.]

Here I am making small talk about the weather. I know, how banal. But ooh, it’s snowing! I used to be obsessed with weather forecasts, but I’m not so much anymore, so this took me by surprise. I suppose that’s understandable anyway; last weekend it was sunny and gorgeous. Now it’s snowy and well, still kind of gorgeous, but not the kind of gorgeousness that you run around wearing shorts in. And the latest view on the Bay Area cam: clear as a bell.

By the way, I’m reminded of a New Yorker cover I came across recently, dated March 11, 1995. It shows a lion getting into a cab, and a lamb getting out. Cute.

[Update: That’s it, snow’s over. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.]

Talk about straight allies:

[Kaethe] Hoffer and [Matt] Morris are a straight couple from Evanston, Illinois, who fit the “oddly passionate about gay rights” bill. So much so that when the two got hitched in 1999, they opted not to make their union legal. Although they had a big, beautiful church wedding, they never applied for an actual marriage license because they object to what they call the “discriminatory application of the laws.” They liken the existing ban on gay marriage to the anti-miscegenation laws that prohibited interracial marriage decades ago. And they won’t support a law that treats gay and straight people differently.

“By discriminating against gay men and lesbians,” says Hoffer, a lawyer by training, “the law undermines its own integrity.”

But last Friday, she and her husband finally made their marriage legal–in Boston. When the state Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry last November, Hoffer and Morris thought about flying to Massachusetts to get a marriage license as a show of support. When the SJC affirmed its original ruling in an advisory opinion last month, they booked the plane tickets.

(Link via Queerday.)

I love Georgia–the typeface, that is–but I’ve switched back to Verdana for now, just ’cause I felt like it. I might do some substantial redesigning come spring. Or not. We’ll see.

Also, I’ve added a San Francisco cam (from SF Gate/KRON 4) in the sidebar there, mostly to satisfy my occasional pangs of homesickness. Thanks to the time difference, it’s nice to come in to work, bring up my homepage, and watch the sun rise on the west coast–provided there’s no fog, of course.

[Update: according to the “Does Your Weblog Own You?” quiz, my blog owns only 31.25% of me. Whew. Still, I swear, it must have a down payment on the remaining 68.75% or something. (Link via Republic of T.)]

[Update 2: I have a blog pet-peeve that has to do with pop-up comments. (So those of you who don’t have them as part of your setup, never you mind.) It irks me when links in a pop-up comment window (say, a commenter’s website) will open in that very same window, which is small and often not resizable. A while ago I took care of it like this, though there are for sure other ways: in my comment templates, I inserted <base target=\”_blank\”> somewhere up between the <head> tags, so that links would open in a new window. And to make sure that clicking on the “post” and other buttons wouldn’t open new windows as well–we don’t want that–I inserted target=\”_top\” in the <form> tag. See, I told you my blog owns more of me.]

There’s a snippet of Kerry’s latest public remarks that I find encouraging:

Most in the audience cheered, but [Sen. John Kerry’s] questioner was not satisfied.

“My point is homosexuality is an idea,” she said. “You have never heard a doctor say, ‘Mr. and Mrs. John Doe, you have a bouncing baby homosexual.’ It’s an idea.”

Mr. Kerry replied: “Well, I know the deep beliefs, I respect, I’m a Christian, I’ve read the Bible, and I know you can find the clauses that go both ways. I’m not here to argue that with you.”

He continued: “The only point I want to make to you is, I’ve talked to enough people–some of whom fought for their country in war–and I’ve talked to many of them who didn’t discover their own sexuality until they were 35, 40 years old, and it wasn’t because they made a choice, it was because they found out who they were. And I think you have to respect that that is the nature of it. And you can look at it, and argue it, but you know what, that’s irrelevant to the argument. American citizens deserve the protection of the equal protection clause.”

Kerry’s position on gay marriage is still to be scrutinized, but these remarks demonstrate one of the things leader is supposed to do: educate, not discriminate.

And here I thought making fun of my last name was over in sixth grade, say. This morning I go in to Starbucks to get a caramel macchiato and a doughnut, and the otherwise perfect and perky cashier returns my credit card and asks, “Do you smoke?” Those of you who know my last name will understand.

Har har. How lame. Yeah, like I haven’t heard that one before. Rather than be all light-hearted about it, as I usually am in situations like this, I surprise myself by responding with a feigned ignorance of what the hell she’s getting at. “No,” I say, almost grimly. Ha.

“Oh, ’cause I was just wondering…” She tries to pick up the falling shreds of conversation. Of course, the fellow patrons within earshot know neither my name nor the subsequent point she’s trying to make, so the burden of momentary awkwardness lies squarely on her, where it belongs.

Recently I’ve noticed a couple of changes to the Amazon.com wish list. First, you can prioritize and sort your items on a scale of 1 (“must have”) to 5 (“don’t buy this for me”). The default rating is 3 (a lukewarm “like to have”). In my case any utility this might have remains unrealized; right now I’m too lazy to go back through each thing on my list and ask myself, “Is this a like-to-have? or a must-have?”

The other change–at least I think this is new–is a printable view: all items are listed on one page, with minimal information and without individual pictures, though since there’s no indication of media type anyway, it’s sometimes difficult without the picture to tell whether the title of an item refers to a book vs. CD vs. DVD, etc. Still, it’s nice to have a printed list when you’re out buying presents in a bricks-and-mortar store, and I think it’s actually more handy for your own wish list. Often when I’m at a bookstore, I think, if only I had a copy of my list to remind me of the things I’ve been meaning to check out.

Another good read, this one on a decidedly different note: “Where Is My Gay Apocalypse?” by SF Gate’s Mark Morford, who is always a riot.

There have been more than 3,500 gay-marriage ceremonies in San Francisco so far. Hundreds more are just now kicking up a storm in Oregon and in beautifully rebellious little burgs around New York state. And, yet, nothing. No chaos. No rain of terror. Not even a lousy heat wave. Sigh.

Some homosexual couples have been married for more than three weeks now, living in utter godless sin as they drive their cars and shop and laugh and cry and go to work and pay their taxes and wonder about their dreams. Lightning has not struck them dead. The Hellmouth has not opened wide its gaping maw, hankering for some of the City’s trademark Sourdough o’ Sin. I am dumbfounded.