Protest Prop 8
Tomorrow there are rallies against Prop 8 happening all over the country! Go to www.jointheimpact.com for more information about the rally near you.
There’s a Wiki so you can easily find your local contacts and events.
In NYC, the rally will happen at 1:30 at City Hall.
Get out there, people! Bring your friends, family, ministers, allies, teachers – whoever is willing.
(Although I have to say I’m sure I’m not the only one wondering why all this wasn’t happening before Election Day.)
Not a Goomba*
I was just bitching on the MHB boards that nearly all the only portrayals of Italian-Americans is mafia related, and people pointed out a few others – like did you know Elaine on Seinfeld was supposed to be Catholic? Nice try, but she wasn’t. Other than Ray Romano, Fonzi and Al from Happy Days, there seems to be a real dearth of the rest of us that isn’t Sopranos-esque.
* Goomba, or goombah, is a term used to describe a stereotypical Italian-American, & in a few dictionaries, implies a connection to the mob. & Yes, it’s also the name of one of the bad guys in Super Mario.
I didn’t have any goodfellas in my own Italian family, and we’re even Sicilian / Calabrian. I tend to describe my dad as “the other kind of Italian” because he is – more Joe DiMaggio than Godfather. Mostly if it’s not mafia it’s about food, or more likely, it’s about both. But honestly, is there a culture where the food isn’t important? My Big Fat Greek Wedding got closer to my experience of being Italian-American than any of those goomba movies.
& These days, in New York, there’s about three blocks left of Little Italy; Chinatown has been encroaching for years, and Italians left the city – for everywhere. (Though the midwest could use a few more, because finding inexpensive, good Italian food in Wisconsin leaves you at Pizza Hut. ugh.) But at least now there’ll be a museum of the whole Italian-American experience, located where Little Italy used to be.
(Thanks to Nettie, Caprice, VM, & Donna, all of whom put in their two cents.)
Drink for NOLA
My friend Sherri started a very cool non-profit organization that provides families restarting their lives after a natural disaster with the basic furnishings that make a house a home. Their goal is to transform 36 houses in New Orleans in November 2008.
So they’re having a fundraiser (like you do)
- THURSDAY OCTOBER 16th, 2008
- The Bar @ THE CUTTING ROOM, 19 West 24th Street
- OPEN BAR from 8-9
- Auction
- Suggested donations $25 / $50 / $100 – You can donate online or at the door
- If you can’t attend please donate to H2H
For more information, check www.HousetoHomeProject.org.
Gendered Dining
I really do love the NYT. They put me in touch with rare tribes of people & exotic types of lives I wouldn’t know otherwise: in this case, the fine dining set, who worry about whether women are served first.
I didn’t even know that was the tradition, prole that I am.
Five years ago, she said, she often had to fight to get servers to let her be the point person for a group of men and women dining together. Servers had a stubborn tropism toward the men.
But lately, she said, that hasn’t been as true, especially downtown, where she has noticed that if she makes the first eye contact with a server and seems the most inquisitive and purposeful, the server notices, and responds to it. “Body language is recognized in a way it wasn’t before,†Ms. DeLozier said. “I think it’s possible for a woman to take the lead now.â€
Those nutty folks downtown, treating women & men as equals. Still, a point I’ve made in the past & which this article shores up is that the more formal you get, the more gendered things are. My usual example is formal clothes – traditional tuxes/suits vs. gowns and LBDs – but dining, and wine selection, are apparently other good examples. What interesting to me is that when the restauranteurs have tried to de-gender things, the diners have asked that they serve ladies first. You can lead a snob to water…
7 Years
In Denver airport, in the line waiting for security, a man & his wife have their stuff searched. At issue is her prescriptions because they’re the wrong size bottles. She explains they’re anti-anxiety drugs she needs for the flight. Guard asks if she takes them only for flying. Husband replies, “Everyone in New York is on anti-anxiety drugs you know.”
We know.
Let’s Start with Seven, in Seven
In a week’s time, straight Americans will be standing up for LGBT Rights – here in New York, including Brooklyn, but also in California, Colorado, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, etc. The basic idea is that straight people will attend vigils – and other media-making events – in order to bring attention to the political issues facing LGBT Americans.
This is a damned good idea (and it’s brought to you by Atticus Circle, and Soulforce).
You can get involved by signing up here, and you can email your friends about it, too.
NYC Soundtracks
MSG has a contest going – like American Idol – of musicians who play in the NYC subways. They aired 16 for the first round, which has already been aired, & yesterday they revealed the 8 that got the most “change.” That’s how you vote for them – you drop virtual change in their baskets, at the MSG website. Eventually they’ll eliminate all but one.
Clever idea, & some really good musicians. Do check it out. You can start by catching up with Episode 1, and you can find more information about the voting and how they chose the musicians, also on their website.
Just a Guy
Our downstairs housemate of the past 5 years or so left today, to move to his hometown, where he got offered a job he couldn’t turn down. I’ve been friends with him nearly two decades; he’s the one who made my wedding gown, and who watches our cats and feeds our fish while we’re away, and saying I will miss him is the understatement of a century.
I’m also a little envious that he got that job, the one that you’d leave NYC for, and that he’s going home to have his close friend and family nearby. There is a certain disjointedness in my life these days, and I know that mine will not come together in the ways his is – my parents are retired in FL and there’s no way on God’s green earth I would ever move down there, and even if I did, it wouldn’t be home. Maybe that’s a good thing. Instead I stay here in Brooklyn, with my sister 20 blocks away and more friends than I can count.
Except, of course, the one I’ll be missing starting today.
Footloose: NYC Style
I know this may be hard to believe for people who don’t live here, but it is illegal to dance in bars in NYC. Really. Places have to have a cabaret license in order to allow dancing. The law’s 82 years old, which means it was created in 1926, which means it was probably created in the midst of Prohibition to combat speakeasies, and we never removed it.
Well go figure, but Mayor Bloomberg is talking about looking into it.
(I’ve dated myself with the Footloose reference, no? Amazing what a huge deal that movie was at the time.)