Tag: movies

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Even More Decline of NYC

Becca Tucker is clueless, of that I’m sure. This article she wrote – about stalking Claire Danes – is about as low as low gets. & Ignorant. To me, it’s typical of this new breed of New Yorkers who come here to be near the money and the fame and the art & who don’t understand the premise: that we, as New Yorkers, get to live around the talented, the rich, & the famous BECAUSE WE DON’T BOTHER THEM.

Celebrities come here in order to disappear a little, without hiding behind walled gates and guards. A lot of creative people want to be around people living, going to work, waking up in time to make the donuts. It’s why, I think, there are so many film-makers and writers and poets and performance artists here; we thrive off of each other’s ideas but also off of the buzz of life around us.

The point isn’t that you can stalk Claire Danes. Tons of famous people live here and would be easy enough to stalk, and that includes people who are famous for anything and everything you can imagine. But they live here because New Yorkers are famously cool and relatively unimpressed with fame; it’s a sign of your own couth, here, to not be so overwhelmed with seeing someone famous that you can keep your cool. You might smile, or even politely ask for an autograph if the person is an especial hero, but for me, the real joy has always been in watching someone I admire show up at an event I went to (like watching a Buster Keaton move with David Byrne, or seeing a Bill Irwin show while seated a couple of rows behind Robin Williams, or even seeing Rufus Wainwright with David Bowie en scene).

I mean, *of course* famous people are here, and accessible, and sometimes they even buy their own groceries. This is New York, and hello! – that’s the fucking point. It’s perfectly acceptable to wait to meet celebrities when they’re on – like at a stage door or a premiere, or a book signing or lecture or performance – but not when they’re walking their dog.

Get some manners, people. Or go back to where you came from.

(via Feministe)

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Mara Keisling on C-SPAN

If you haven’t seen it yet, Mara Keisling’s appearance on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal last week is worth viewing, and apparently isn’t going to be online forever, so do go watch it within the next week or so.

(You want the 11/10/2007 show.)

My favorite bit is when the woman calls to talk about how the founding fathers were Christian, & how Mara shouldn’t be allowed to talk at all, & Mara drinks her coffee stone-faced like Buster Keaton, the smile only showing at the very corners of her mouth, after which she explains, again, that the Bill in fact exempts religious institutions. (It’s at about 1:17 or so.)

& As one caller put it, I agree with him: Mara is a brilliant woman, and I’m happy to see her doing advocacy. That anyone said, “you can’t be a full person if you have to hide all the love in your life,” on Washington Journalis amazing, but I’m pleased as punch it was someone talking about LGBT rights.

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TV Boyfriend (No, Not That TV)

My friend Guy always refers to the men he has the hots for on TV (& the more-than-occasional musician) as his “TV boyfriends.” I know there’s a guy from Grey’s Anatomy that made the list lately, but I never watch it so I don’t know which one it is. A while back it was Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day.

So since I kinda miss being with a guy sometimes, I’ve decided to have my own TV boyfriend as a way of indulging the beauty of men without risking actually doing anything with any.

Anyway, since all I ever watch is Animal Planet (& yes, Cesar Milan has his moments of hotness) and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Vincent D’Onofrio – he’s the guy who plays Robert Goren – is pretty much my ongoing TV boyfriend. Out of curiosity, or some kind of erotic masochism, I found some clips of him on YouTube, but this one is – damn. It’s just about the hottest kiss I’ve ever seen. So now, even though I’ve never seen the movie it’s from, I’m not sure I can.

For those that bat for the other team, here he is in a 1998 film making out with a guy.

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Kids These Days

At least here at Merrimack, they’ve got it good, even though they probably don’t know what’s right under their noses.

They get free films, for instance. I’ve been going to see them, which is kind of funny considering I don’t like most movies most of the time & don’t go see them – not American movies, anyway, or anything contemporary. They’re rarely worth the $10.

But Tuesday night I saw Deepa Mehta’s Earth, which is about the Partition of India in 1947, into India & Pakistan, and which came with Independence. It’s a stunning movie, & I’ve been thinking about the plot and themes and scenes and characters since I saw it. It’s a terrifying film, but deeply moving as well.

Last night I saw one of the earliest Theda Bara films, A Fool There Was, in which she plays her legendary vampire character, and afterwards they’re screening a documentary about her. A Fool There Was made so much money that it helped launch Fox Studios. It’s such a lovely rare treat to get to see a silent film on the big screen.

& In a couple of weeks, they’re screening a film about Dorothy Day, though it’s not the one that I missed when it played at the Brecht Forum in NYC.

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He’s Come a Long Way, Baby

Charles Busch‘s current production of Die Mommy Die! was reviewed in The New York Times today:

Directed by Carl Andress, “Die Mommie Die!,” which runs a peppy 90 minutes, is infused with the good-natured comic brio that has made Mr. Busch a drag artist whom middle America can embrace. Even theatergoers who don’t catch the copious old-movie quotations, verbal and physical, should enjoy Mr. Busch’s hair-trigger comic timing and rubbery mugging, which brings to mind vintage Lucille Ball. (The association is underscored by Mr. Busch’s choice of red wigs, designed by Katherine Carr.)

I’ve seen a bunch of Charles Busch’s shows over the years – including Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, The Lady in Question, Shanghai Moon and Times Square Angel – and always find them smart and fun. I even met Joan Jett in the bathroom at one production! So do go if you get a chance, or rather: make the chance.

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On ENDA, on National Coming Out Day

This is the text of the talk I gave in Denver on Tuesday. It probably won’t surprise anyone that I’ve been busting at the seams wanting to have a say in all of the dialogue going on about ENDA. At least I don’t think it should surprise anyone, not by now.

**

First, let me thank Ed and Jordan and all the students who asked them to bring me here. It’s a pleasure to be here in celebration of National Coming Out Day, a pleasure to see all of you gathered, celebrating who you are. Thanks to all the crossdressers, the gays, the lesbians, the genderqueers, the trans men & women, MTF and FTM, & to their partners. Thanks to all of you who are family, or friends, or allies, for being here.

Betty and I have been on tour a lot this year because I had a book published in March, and we’ve gotten a chance, once again, to meet a lot of people and to talk to a lot of trans people and partners, and this year, we’ve met more gay and lesbian people who aren’t trans than we did before. And it’s been a pleasure all around in hearing people’s stories of their own gender variance, or the stories of how they came out to loved ones, or of their first big crush or the moment when they realized they were trans or gay or lesbian or how they came to understand the first identity they understood themselves to be was not quite accurate in the long run. What I love to hear the most is about how queer people find one identity fits for a while and then not at all; like Oliver Wendell Holmes’ chambered nautilus, queer people build themselves bigger chambers, bigger categories, labels that are not so confining, over time.

That’s how it’s been for us, certainly. By the time people get used to what we’re calling ourselves our identities have shifted a little, changed usually by experiences we never expected and wouldn’t trade for anything. Continue reading “On ENDA, on National Coming Out Day”

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SoCo Keynote: Jenn Burleton

SOUTHERN COMFORT CONFERENCE 2007
KEYNOTE ADDRESS – SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15TH, 2007

One Community, One Family

by Jenn Burleton, TransActive Education & Advocacy, Portland, OR

Thank you to the organizers of this amazing conference and in particular, Cat Turner, Lola Fleck and Elaine Martin. And I must thank my longtime friend, Mariette Pathy Allen. My life has been truly blessed as a result of knowing her and sharing many adventures with her…some of which are suitable for sharing with the whole family.

When Cat Turner called back in January and invited me to come to Atlanta I was of course, very honored. I was also surprised. After all, we’d never met. I’d never attended a previous Southern Comfort Conference and I am not, in my opinion anyway, one of the gender community heavy hitters.
Continue reading “SoCo Keynote: Jenn Burleton”

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End of Month

To close out the month, a Buster Keaton montage set to Radiohead’s music:

Do watch till the end for a classic Buster moment.

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Five Questions With… Marilyn Frank

Marilyn Frank has been sharing her story with wives at Fantasia Fair, IFGE and Tri-Ess seminars since 1982. She married her husband Len in 1954 and didn’t learn about the cross dressing until 1964, 10 years and 3 children later. At that time the only information available to her was Virginia Prince’s book The Transvestite and His Wife (now titled The Cross-dresser and His Wife) which she still finds to be one of the best books written.

1) First, Marilyn, I want to thank you on behalf of all the partners out there, for stepping up at a time when most of us weren’t even in high school yet. Without women like you & Peggy Rudd, the struggle to have partners’ issues recognized would be a lot more difficult. So what caused you to do the educating you did?

In the 1970’s I was a volunteer on a crisis intervention hot line in Morris County, NJ. When I became Director, I questioned some of the professionals in the group, who did not know much about cross dressing, but were able to assist me in finding people who did know. During this time we came upon Tri-Ess, and then in 1980 Len read the article in Playboy about Fantasia Fair and in 1981 we spent a few days at the Fair. I had many discussions with Ariadne Kane about the wives’ needs, and this brought Niela Miller to the Fair and that’s where my true education began. Since it had been a very lonely road not only for Len, but for me, I decided I would reach out to help others, so that’s when I started facilitating a wives group at our local Tri-Ess Chapter, which I did for for over 10 years. I also was instrumental in starting the wives’ program at the first IFGE Convention. My philosophy is that every time I help someone, I help myself. It’s true the marriage had its ups and downs where the cross dressing was concerned, but for us it was a small part of our overall marriage. We have always had good communication, enjoy many of the same things and do have a sense of humor (that helps).

Continue reading “Five Questions With… Marilyn Frank”