Michfest, Paris, and Twitter

The topic of Mich Fest (aka Michigan Womyn's Music Festival) is hot on everyone's minds and internets these days. I honestly don't know when it is -I'm assuming it's coming up soon, and over my queer lifetime I have mostly stayed out of the heated debates as I have never in my life had any desire to go, and always figured it was not worth the time or energy to demand transgender inclusion in such a staunchly woman-born-woman separatist space. "Woman-born-woman," a complicated term if one feels they were born a "woman" with a biological difference, and wait isn't the category "woman" a social construct? Am I late to this conversation, or what? Am I a femstudies undergrad? But this year, despite the now 4 year old change in policy I've managed to encounter a few interesting responses to the issue of transgender women on The Land....

 

Annie Danger: An open letter to my friends who attend the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival

And, Tom Leger's xtra normal video called 'Let's Talk About Michigan" (if you don't know, this was made in a text-to-movie site/program where you plug in dialogue and simple gestures onto prefab animated figures, then pay to publish it. FYI, Greg did a shot-for-shot remake of our Hair Breakdown Special with robots and it was amazing! We were too cheap/broke to publish it). I think Tom's video is so witty!





And just for a glimpse into where the womyn are at with the trans-inclusion conversation, check out Michfest's website Transgender forum.

Besides all that, nothing much going on here except that me and my beloved are LEAVING FOR PARIS ON WEDNESDAY for 3 whole entire weeks! I've never been off the continent so I am so totally stoked, you have no idea! I'm sure I'll document it by way of millions of pictures, Flip videos, Facebook status updates, and maybe even a "Falling In Love... with Chris and Greg" Parisian Special! We LOVE a Special!

And, FYI, JIC you wanted to know, and I'm not even sure why I did it given that I don't have any sort of equipped mobile device, but I joined TWITTER. I'll TWEET you from Paris!

Extraordinary Pregnancies

This is the video I screened at the National Queer Arts Festival, Original Plumbing Event last month!

Extraordinary Pregnancies revisits the "First" Pregnant Man, Thomas Beatie and his wife Nancy, rescripting their vulnerable yet guarded interviews with the big shots of tabloid media.

TONIGHT: Outfest-Platinum Original Plumbing Party

Tonight's the night of the Outfest-Platinum Original Plumbing magazine release party for issue #3 at the REDCAT theater in Downtown, LA. The pre-reception starts at 8:30PM in the REDCAT lobby at which time guests may gather for drinks and face-to-face chats with Amos and Rocco, the co-editors of the mag, other performers and videomakers (such as myself) AND peruse the books from The Miracle Bookmobile-which I happen to be particularly excited about! The bookmobile will be parked just outside the lobby glass, in the adjoining parking structure. My good friend and LA host, Besser quickly put me to work in LibraryThing.com cataloging and "social-tagging" (a new term for me. for you, too?) the two boxes of book donations from my household that Greg and I so-painlessly checked aboard the easiest flight of our lives from OAKland to BURbank airports. God bless, you Southwest. And Goddess bless you, lezbrarians! Check out the tag cloud for the books in the collection. Pretty hilarious, and affirming to me and my affinity for bookish queers everywhere!

Hope to see you tonight, mystery blog readers!




A couple of the books you may find FREE for the taking from Miracle!

No Justice...

no peace.
just us.

I'm in LA, but got my eye on Oakland. I am not one that believes the criminal justice system can or will offer "justice" to the people but the verdict of involuntary manslaughter for the case of Officer Mehserle, shooting an UNARMED BLACK MAN, LYING FACE DOWN on a BART platform is an insult.

Here is a small bit of thoughtful reading/watching material about this whole mess of a racist, fucked-up verdict:

The American Prospect, Oscar Grant A Victim of American Fear by Adam Serwer

The AK Press blog, Justice for Oscar Grant by Zach [pictures of the downtown Oakland aftermath]

Youth Radio blog, A Broken Window, That's Not a Human Life, That's Not Violence

Democracy Now


Please feel free to send me links to more news coverage and critical writings on this subject.

Will you receive justice, Oscar Grant?

Oakland is on the edge of its seat waiting to see what the jury decides for Officer Mehserle, the cop who shot and killed Oscar Grant as he lay face down on at the Fruitvale BART platform a couple New Years Eves ago. There's a call for assembly circulating that asks for people to gather at 14th and Broadway at 6PM in Downtown, Oakland on the evening the verdict is to be read, which may possibly happen as soon as tomorrow. There is much concern that such an assembly could lead to more rioting instigated by so-called by "outside agitators" and more private property destruction. So, the Oakland PD is out in full force, freshly trained and ready to fuck some people up or at least intimidate them into passivity, and many storefronts downtown (even as far north as Grocery Outlet on Broaday, near 29th) have boarded up their window glass anticipating the worst. But no matter what the verdict; 2nd degree murder, manslaughter (voluntary or involuntary), or acquittal, it's not going to restore anbodys faith in the law or its enforcers. It certainly won't undo the trauma of witnessing a very public execution by a white cop of a prone black man, and it's not going to bring that black man (or any "disposable" person killed at the hands of a cop) back to life. R.I.P. Oscar Grant III.










A recent Colorlines article by Juliann Hing that breaks down the potential outcomes of the case.

Silence = Filth

A nasty, and semi-educational video about gay sex slanguage brought to you by some very talented local arteests turned mime. Shot on location in SF's own Rainbow Grocery Co-op, even! I'll be honest, I still don't know what an Alysa Milano is but I'm determined as hell to find out, maybe from one of the many blogs/online forums on which this hot-off-the-deck video is already featured!