'love,Daisy'I almost forgot the last day of June and doubly spacey, like Daisy Buchanan in the Great Gatsby, I also forgot the first day of summer. Which is already so ripe and gorgeous in Durham right now.
6.30.2009
bloglog
'love,Daisy'I almost forgot the last day of June and doubly spacey, like Daisy Buchanan in the Great Gatsby, I also forgot the first day of summer. Which is already so ripe and gorgeous in Durham right now.
blogger slacker
It's this charming Durham heat that just makes me want to nap in a tub of iced tea. Tomorrow pie!
American Dance Festival caps
Dance journeys
Choreographer Mark Dendy provided the stylish site work preceding Shen Wei Dance Arts performance at the Durham Performance Arts Center this weekend. Dendy’s troupe was everywhere- partnering the trees outside, doing Cirque acrobatics on railings, bouncing on the gallery stairs, and dance cruising in the lavs. The urbane fun was in perfect contrast to Shen Wei’s challenging introspective dance journal 'Re.'
The full company work in three parts, is based on the choreographer’s impressions revisiting sites in Cambodia and his native China. Chronicles of people, places and notably the changing sociopolitical landscape.
Part 1 is an ethereal movement mediation for 8 dancers against a video backdrop of clouds and scored to chants. It is lulling with slow cadence. Wei sites bodies moving with oxygen deficiency and a lowered center of gravity of the Tibetan Steppe. At one point a woman body moves like the air is being sucked out of her. As the dancers moved in more formation and picked up the pace, paper shards swirl around them from disturbing the Mandala maze, an effect that creates gorgeously momentary stage pictures. As danced, some of the passages seemed rote, but perhaps that was the desired transcendent goal.
Part 3 of the piece was a direct reference to different perceptions cultural turmoil, it is playful, even with visual references to Wei trying to be a contemporary choreographer under China‘s official gaze. Dancers are locked into odd angle wrestling holds. Unison line is subverted by a dancer who tries to break out of the regimented formations, which eventually spreads more individual expression. Wei’s unique technique is especially evident in the more violent passages that highlight dancers’ torso fluidity and cohesive group pulse.
Part 2 has the troupe in multicolored unitards under an ornate Chinese scroll, and they seems like extensions of the ornamentation as they go into dramatic limb locks. The costumes come off for a transcendent journey into the human heart, body and soul, rendered in beatified images from the Silk Road where Wei spent 40 days traveling from Bejing to Xion.
Choreographer Mark Dendy provided the stylish site work preceding Shen Wei Dance Arts performance at the Durham Performance Arts Center this weekend. Dendy’s troupe was everywhere- partnering the trees outside, doing Cirque acrobatics on railings, bouncing on the gallery stairs, and dance cruising in the lavs. The urbane fun was in perfect contrast to Shen Wei’s challenging introspective dance journal 'Re.'
The full company work in three parts, is based on the choreographer’s impressions revisiting sites in Cambodia and his native China. Chronicles of people, places and notably the changing sociopolitical landscape.
Part 1 is an ethereal movement mediation for 8 dancers against a video backdrop of clouds and scored to chants. It is lulling with slow cadence. Wei sites bodies moving with oxygen deficiency and a lowered center of gravity of the Tibetan Steppe. At one point a woman body moves like the air is being sucked out of her. As the dancers moved in more formation and picked up the pace, paper shards swirl around them from disturbing the Mandala maze, an effect that creates gorgeously momentary stage pictures. As danced, some of the passages seemed rote, but perhaps that was the desired transcendent goal.
Part 3 of the piece was a direct reference to different perceptions cultural turmoil, it is playful, even with visual references to Wei trying to be a contemporary choreographer under China‘s official gaze. Dancers are locked into odd angle wrestling holds. Unison line is subverted by a dancer who tries to break out of the regimented formations, which eventually spreads more individual expression. Wei’s unique technique is especially evident in the more violent passages that highlight dancers’ torso fluidity and cohesive group pulse.
Part 2 has the troupe in multicolored unitards under an ornate Chinese scroll, and they seems like extensions of the ornamentation as they go into dramatic limb locks. The costumes come off for a transcendent journey into the human heart, body and soul, rendered in beatified images from the Silk Road where Wei spent 40 days traveling from Bejing to Xion.
Stonewall lives
June 29,
The 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots and for the fist time it seems like it is a national observance, with the mainstream mega media press paying attention to this as it relates to where we are today regarding legislation of gay civil rights laws. The mood of the country has moved past the legislation. A majority of people feel that gays should be able to serve openly in the military for instance. So the government is hedging its bets to move forward by lock-stepping into homophobic myths entrenched in the national fabric. Those myths are smashed every day by gays living openly just as they were smashed when the Stonewall girls smashed the windows of hate 40years ago.
The 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots and for the fist time it seems like it is a national observance, with the mainstream mega media press paying attention to this as it relates to where we are today regarding legislation of gay civil rights laws. The mood of the country has moved past the legislation. A majority of people feel that gays should be able to serve openly in the military for instance. So the government is hedging its bets to move forward by lock-stepping into homophobic myths entrenched in the national fabric. Those myths are smashed every day by gays living openly just as they were smashed when the Stonewall girls smashed the windows of hate 40years ago.
6.27.2009
6.25.2009
6.19.2009
bloglog - undone, so undone -
My iceage
My famous fridge which still takes defrosting, has again reached critical mass to the horror of select family and friends. Last year, the ice beast grew so large that it broke the aluminum door (think 1955) and the undertray. 6 months ago the mass swallowed the temperature dial and ensconced the light bulb resulting in a completely eerie amber light effect, which makes me feel like I'm in a German expressionist film for some reason. I got out the ax and hacked away at the ice utter thinking I would recover the dial. No luck. The iceman does not cometh!
My famous fridge which still takes defrosting, has again reached critical mass to the horror of select family and friends. Last year, the ice beast grew so large that it broke the aluminum door (think 1955) and the undertray. 6 months ago the mass swallowed the temperature dial and ensconced the light bulb resulting in a completely eerie amber light effect, which makes me feel like I'm in a German expressionist film for some reason. I got out the ax and hacked away at the ice utter thinking I would recover the dial. No luck. The iceman does not cometh!
6.17.2009
Politictictic
Reassured somewhat that President Obama stated that his administration will seek to repeal DOMA and getting in there, off-handedly, that he found it "discriminatory."
I to believe that he is trying to step through the political morass to reach the goal, even if it doesn't appear that way at this moment, but the timing will never be right and every day of delay is justice denied.
His explanation of why only partial federal medical benefits for spouses of gay and lesbian government employee was prohibitive because of existing law....wrapped in red tape...around institutionalized homophobia.
“This is only one step,” Mr. Obama said. “Unfortunately, my administration is not authorized by existing federal law to provide same-sex couples with the full range of benefits enjoyed by heterosexual married couples.”
In the words of the other great communicator 'Mr. President tear down this wall.' if for nothing else that the wallpaper is flaking.
I to believe that he is trying to step through the political morass to reach the goal, even if it doesn't appear that way at this moment, but the timing will never be right and every day of delay is justice denied.
His explanation of why only partial federal medical benefits for spouses of gay and lesbian government employee was prohibitive because of existing law....wrapped in red tape...around institutionalized homophobia.
“This is only one step,” Mr. Obama said. “Unfortunately, my administration is not authorized by existing federal law to provide same-sex couples with the full range of benefits enjoyed by heterosexual married couples.”
In the words of the other great communicator 'Mr. President tear down this wall.' if for nothing else that the wallpaper is flaking.
6.16.2009
dancemetros
The battlement doors open and a woman on a chestnut horse enters the Armory of the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry. She is the promotory to the serene setting of ‘Battle Hymns’ a dance oratorio by Pultizer Prize winning composer David Lang collaborating with Leah Stein Dance and The Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia. This work is both an artistic achievement and profound meditation on war. Laing adapts lyrics from Stephen Foster making them more intimate and scores stirring words from Lincoln and a Civil War letter from a soldier to his wife.
Leah Stein’s choreography is both undecorated and expressive. Regimented formations break away to the dancers scattered, frenzied and bringing human order to chaos. Symbolized movement of camaraderie and bodies being attacked led to unwritten battlefield scenarios. The movement is cumulative and a completely interlocking component to the sea of music that floats through. At points the dancers move in and out of the choir.
Two climatic passages- one a man stands in front of a military vehicle with shopping bags recalling Tiananmen Square, the dancers load in a vehicle and are spilled in violence friezes and a central passage with the regimentation moving at double speed with violent variations. Lang’s sonic architecture fills the hanger space of the Armory as well as our hearts and minds.
This premiere is part of Peregrine Arts ambitious HIDDEN CITY series of performance events at Philadelphia landmarks both active and fallow.
Leah Stein’s choreography is both undecorated and expressive. Regimented formations break away to the dancers scattered, frenzied and bringing human order to chaos. Symbolized movement of camaraderie and bodies being attacked led to unwritten battlefield scenarios. The movement is cumulative and a completely interlocking component to the sea of music that floats through. At points the dancers move in and out of the choir.
Two climatic passages- one a man stands in front of a military vehicle with shopping bags recalling Tiananmen Square, the dancers load in a vehicle and are spilled in violence friezes and a central passage with the regimentation moving at double speed with violent variations. Lang’s sonic architecture fills the hanger space of the Armory as well as our hearts and minds.
This premiere is part of Peregrine Arts ambitious HIDDEN CITY series of performance events at Philadelphia landmarks both active and fallow.
6.15.2009
DOMA Nation
The Justice Department filed a brief this week seeking the dismissal of a legal challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act in a federal court in California. Would that be the same DOMA that protects Britney Spears' 48 hour Vegas wedding and Texas sects that allow multiple wives?
Democratic party head Howard Dean (D-Ver) speaking about the Obama adminstration upholding the DOMA which has language equating same sex marriage to among other things pedophilia, child rape and incest. Dean said such language is not acceptable and something must be done about it now. He told Rachel Maddow that he believes Obama isn't aware of the language. He also believes that the president is pro gay civil rights and that this presents Obama's credo of 'fierce urgency of now.'
"I think this is a bad situation here...but I have no doubt that the Obama administration will do the right thing." Dean told Rachel.
We'll see. It is no less than shocking that the Obama administration would allow a court document to be filed in its name that contained such vile characterizations of gay people. Unacceptable and revolting.
Democratic party head Howard Dean (D-Ver) speaking about the Obama adminstration upholding the DOMA which has language equating same sex marriage to among other things pedophilia, child rape and incest. Dean said such language is not acceptable and something must be done about it now. He told Rachel Maddow that he believes Obama isn't aware of the language. He also believes that the president is pro gay civil rights and that this presents Obama's credo of 'fierce urgency of now.'
"I think this is a bad situation here...but I have no doubt that the Obama administration will do the right thing." Dean told Rachel.
We'll see. It is no less than shocking that the Obama administration would allow a court document to be filed in its name that contained such vile characterizations of gay people. Unacceptable and revolting.
diaryentry
"The revolution will be televised" even when television is state run, thanks to the desire to be free and new tech media.
6.13.2009
6.12.2009
bloglog
Bit overwrought that, but those men are my time travelers from a poem cycle I started about ten years ago that I've been trying to edit with some sort of linear sense. Later I have them in at a circuit party in a k hole delirium circa 2002. They are less dramatic on drugs.
from Sassafras diary 1858
If I taught you to steep tea
If I couldn’t get
To drink with me.
If I hear some such murmur
While you
Wait to drink it
If your face draws in this
Late day light
If I then let you lay
The shade and tealeaves
Across my body
Soaking the past off me
If then we are
If then.
later then
When my fevers came
You crawled in the mud
From middle-night
Until dawn
Digging up the deepest
Sassafras root
From the dried mud
Hills and I heard
You boiling those root
In our iron pots
And I heard you blowing
The sticks that fired its smoke
You came in to me
Carrying the root like snakes
And steeped them over
My sweated
body until
Those vapors
searing to skin
And when I was
So dried-up inside that
I saw the torturers from my
Life tumbling in front of my eyes
And eating my soul
I came in and out of the fevers
and saw you
Lay over me dripping
Water from your mouth
Between my blistering lips and eyes
And you bled out the poisons
And demons from
My head and
The devils in flight
from my putrified body.
tried to
Break your body
This land,
When you
When you
Were rabid eyed
By seeing nothing but
the miracles of the sky
Didn’ come to you
As you glared down the sun
That scarred your eyes and
scorched you skin
When you finally screamed
I lived.
Those days and night
Hours on hour
When you drunk all
Of the liquor that was supposed to
Keep us warm the whole winter and
Ran Out into the woods naked
Against the snow and I found you
Frozen on the rocks under
That rotted damn with
Your blood froze on your brow
Your eyes grotesque
Like they were seeing death
And miracles at the same time
Your face sunken as a three day corpse
I carried you on my shoulder
Across the river and
Couldn’t feel my feet or hands
Ice was breaking off of my hairs
And all I heard was it my breathing hard
And the crunch of my footfall
We made our way and you
Slid over my arms and I held you
And screamed like a mother damned
Cradling her dead child.
I tied you to the bed
Next to the fire rocks
And I read the Christian Bible all day
And night for days and nights and
All moments were one
Then I chanted
The Buddhist prayers I learnt
On the ships in the Devil seas
Out of Cape Horn
I said these prayers to you
Over and over and the Trantrdics
Of seed soundings of ages
That I heard from Pyra on
The Indian Ocean
Sri ram, shivaya Ram
Ram shivaya ram sri ram
I screamed and
Couldn’t fall silent
Till I yelled into a trance
Till I
I found this book of yours
With other prayers from the Jews
And saying from the Gypsy slaves of Europe and
I prayed over them
Prayed and prayed when you were
Firing through the terror
The torments of your soul
On you face and
Your body stiffened
Pitching like the sea
Your organs seemed to want to burst
Out of your body
And I gave up
And I gave up
And I gave up and I cursed all those gods
And I screamed
And I clawed at something to grab
When you woke
When you woke
When you woke, you growled
“Get me out of these fucking ropes you fucking welp.”
And then you just
Were cleaved to my neck
Licking my skin and then you were with me again
You were.
When green faded
In with the winds and
The rains, swooping through
With a wave of the
The sun and you came asway
Over the hill
Your torso like
Liquid marble
Commanding the fields themselves
This again
Just as I saw you at first
And you came down
To me
As the wind timed
The shade by us and you knelt
At my feet
Took my arm and I saw
The western sky in the steel flecks
In your coal eyes.
The next winter I knew
How you
Were dead inside even when
You said the same things and we did
The same things, but you had no life
Even when I had learned your ways
I knew you were here but I lost you again
I stood in the black autumn creek
Every night where we first loved each other.
Night when you passed
Out on that holy fire
And I shivered
That I would hate you
I must finish my life and
Go back on the sea and I prayed that
If then
Your soul would return.
I saw flames
On the water
Heard the vile echoes
Seep, seepseepseep through your flesh
That was red and wet with
Firelight
Standing over that flame
Like a god cast out
Through miracles visited on this night
So we cast out to sea
As if we were
If then.
Sassafras diary 1858
If I taught you to steep tea
If I couldn’t get
To drink with me.
If I hear some such murmur
While you
Wait to drink it
If your face draws in this
Late day light
If I then let you lay
The shade and tealeaves
Across my body
Soaking the past off me
If then we are
If then.
later then
When my fevers came
You crawled in the mud
From middle-night
Until dawn
Digging up the deepest
Sassafras root
From the dried mud
Hills and I heard
You boiling those root
In our iron pots
And I heard you blowing
The sticks that fired its smoke
You came in to me
Carrying the root like snakes
And steeped them over
My sweated
body until
Those vapors
searing to skin
And when I was
So dried-up inside that
I saw the torturers from my
Life tumbling in front of my eyes
And eating my soul
I came in and out of the fevers
and saw you
Lay over me dripping
Water from your mouth
Between my blistering lips and eyes
And you bled out the poisons
And demons from
My head and
The devils in flight
from my putrified body.
tried to
Break your body
This land,
When you
When you
Were rabid eyed
By seeing nothing but
the miracles of the sky
Didn’ come to you
As you glared down the sun
That scarred your eyes and
scorched you skin
When you finally screamed
I lived.
Those days and night
Hours on hour
When you drunk all
Of the liquor that was supposed to
Keep us warm the whole winter and
Ran Out into the woods naked
Against the snow and I found you
Frozen on the rocks under
That rotted damn with
Your blood froze on your brow
Your eyes grotesque
Like they were seeing death
And miracles at the same time
Your face sunken as a three day corpse
I carried you on my shoulder
Across the river and
Couldn’t feel my feet or hands
Ice was breaking off of my hairs
And all I heard was it my breathing hard
And the crunch of my footfall
We made our way and you
Slid over my arms and I held you
And screamed like a mother damned
Cradling her dead child.
I tied you to the bed
Next to the fire rocks
And I read the Christian Bible all day
And night for days and nights and
All moments were one
Then I chanted
The Buddhist prayers I learnt
On the ships in the Devil seas
Out of Cape Horn
I said these prayers to you
Over and over and the Trantrdics
Of seed soundings of ages
That I heard from Pyra on
The Indian Ocean
Sri ram, shivaya Ram
Ram shivaya ram sri ram
I screamed and
Couldn’t fall silent
Till I yelled into a trance
Till I
I found this book of yours
With other prayers from the Jews
And saying from the Gypsy slaves of Europe and
I prayed over them
Prayed and prayed when you were
Firing through the terror
The torments of your soul
On you face and
Your body stiffened
Pitching like the sea
Your organs seemed to want to burst
Out of your body
And I gave up
And I gave up
And I gave up and I cursed all those gods
And I screamed
And I clawed at something to grab
When you woke
When you woke
When you woke, you growled
“Get me out of these fucking ropes you fucking welp.”
And then you just
Were cleaved to my neck
Licking my skin and then you were with me again
You were.
When green faded
In with the winds and
The rains, swooping through
With a wave of the
The sun and you came asway
Over the hill
Your torso like
Liquid marble
Commanding the fields themselves
This again
Just as I saw you at first
And you came down
To me
As the wind timed
The shade by us and you knelt
At my feet
Took my arm and I saw
The western sky in the steel flecks
In your coal eyes.
The next winter I knew
How you
Were dead inside even when
You said the same things and we did
The same things, but you had no life
Even when I had learned your ways
I knew you were here but I lost you again
I stood in the black autumn creek
Every night where we first loved each other.
Night when you passed
Out on that holy fire
And I shivered
That I would hate you
I must finish my life and
Go back on the sea and I prayed that
If then
Your soul would return.
I saw flames
On the water
Heard the vile echoes
Seep, seepseepseep through your flesh
That was red and wet with
Firelight
Standing over that flame
Like a god cast out
Through miracles visited on this night
So we cast out to sea
As if we were
If then.
Sassafras diary 1858
6.11.2009
bloglog-
waiting for the city rain and checking out the truly inspiring Staten Island P.S. 22 chorus videos on YouTube. The teaching talents of Gregg Breinberg is obviously transformational and impossible not to watch these kids without a lump in your throat. The new Mr. B directs the music program with incredible heart using songs like Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing' and Coldplay with no sheet music. (there is also synergy being fueled by his piano/guitar playing that the kids obviously respond to). PS 22 chorus will be onstage with Stevie Nicks tonight at Madison Square Garden singing her classic 'Landslide' which she said brought her to tears when she saw it. Hard to make a rock star cry.
dancemetros
Pennsylvania Ballet hasn’t performed La Sylphide in 20 years, but nothing has mossed over. The Scottish castle is toasty with that antlered chandelier as imposing as the Academy’s famous crystal hanger. Those lads and lassies are brightly kilted for the odd highland fling. Frances Veyette gets some fine character movement in as Madge the witch and part time yenta. Here he is cooking up reptiles over the cauldron in the moor, he gets his minions lethally drunk and dancing amok. He vanishes the riff-raff and the cauldron with a crooked finger. If only one had him at the bars.
6.09.2009
6.08.2009
tonytonytony
The 3 Billys win best actor Tony. Their message to dancing boys- PREPARE!
LOTN-Neil Patrick Harris drafting through the show to nail the ending number with his GREAT show voice to realtime lyrics provided by Marc Shaiman (who else)to melodies from 'Tonight' and 'Luck be a Lady' to wit-
This show could not be any gayer
If Liza was named mayor
and Elton John took flight.
stage
Caught up with the Tony Awards and Liza was indeed shaky, but she was probably dodging sets & industry bullets. She looked dazed making her way in the opening number in a Vegasy spangly black ensem and belted out 'And the World Goes Round' a song that is indeed hers at full warble. It really was a great lead in to the cast of 'Hair' who used the opportunity to get their message to the world of peace, love and singlehandedly could bring back shag. All of the performing shows and presented joined them for 'Let the Sunshine In' and suddenly it was a happening. As slick as the Tonys now are that movement energy and chorus is something that can't be rehearsed.
6.07.2009
Global pride
The BBC is reporting on China's first ever gay pride event. Although it is not in the public square, it is not being banned by the government. The two women who head up the team organising Shanghai Pride are both Americans who live have lived in the city for a few years.
Class for Class
And the performance to beat over the weekend was the luminous atleticism of Roger Federer winning his first French Open and only the 6th man to win all grand slams.
LOTD
Dave & Charles blogging the Tonys realtime for the NYTs
D.I. Doing her best impression of Liza Minnelli: Liza Minnelli. “This is exquisite,” she says. No way there’s a dry eye in that house.
D.I. Doing her best impression of Liza Minnelli: Liza Minnelli. “This is exquisite,” she says. No way there’s a dry eye in that house.
6.03.2009
Stage
'I've got to get to New YOork'Those fabulous society cave-ins Edith Bovier Beale and Little Edie Beale have decamped in high style (turned low rent) East Hampton environs in an inventive multi-tech set at the Roberts Theatre. The Philadelphia Theatre Company opens the creaky shutters of the musical version of Grey Gardens.
I finally figured out why the documentary film and now this musical has such a gay following- its camp appeal, Kennedys and Bouviers natch, but also because it is Whatever Happened to Mommie Dearest.
Call to Arms
Johnny Symons' new documentary ‘Ask Not’ is a potent j’accuse against the military's ban on gay Americans serving openly. The film couldn‘t be more timely, just as gay America waits for President Obama to dismantle DADT as he had promised to do. It will be broadcast in most PBS markets on the Independent Lens series June 9.
Gay audiences know Symons from 2002 festival circuit hit ‘Daddy & Papa' his own gay adoption parent story. ‘Ask Not’ is less emotional in its dissection of the flashpoints of gays serving in the US military.
Interviews with retired officers to active duty boots on the ground in Iraq, the film not only illuminates the hateful absurdities of the military policy, it presents the real lives of the gay soldiers.
“The army doesn’t want me because I’m gay, and my gay friends don’t want me because I’m a soldier.” An African American San Franciscan stoically observes as he prepares to deploy to Iraq. His reality encapsulates what gay American soldiers have to suck up.
Symons’ ground video from Iraq that speaks volumes about the real conditions soldiers face on the line. Summed up movingly by a gay soldier who said. “You can turn off your emotions, you definitely can turn off your sexual feelings.”
And that is just the starting point. Since DADT, more than 12,000 military have been oppressed, harassed, brutalized, slandered and eventually kicked out under DADT. “These aren’t abstract numbers, these are real people.” another soldiers says standing in protest on the Capital Mall.
But, Symons’ tries not to preach to the choir, this is a call to arms. He follows volunteer inductees from ‘Right to Serve’ that stages sit-ins at recruitment centers, challenges GLBT Americans to return to GLBT activism.
The opposition presents the same tired arguments- unit cohesion, morale and men being stalked in the showers- reasons that are more out of touch with reality than ever before. Yet the same arguments are being put forth and may succeed in keeping DADT in place.
Symons follows several soldiers and recruits trying to cope with DADT, victims of discrimination and the cesspool of homophobic politics. Summed up by a soldier this way “A policy that protects …homophobes.”
Gay audiences know Symons from 2002 festival circuit hit ‘Daddy & Papa' his own gay adoption parent story. ‘Ask Not’ is less emotional in its dissection of the flashpoints of gays serving in the US military.
Interviews with retired officers to active duty boots on the ground in Iraq, the film not only illuminates the hateful absurdities of the military policy, it presents the real lives of the gay soldiers.
“The army doesn’t want me because I’m gay, and my gay friends don’t want me because I’m a soldier.” An African American San Franciscan stoically observes as he prepares to deploy to Iraq. His reality encapsulates what gay American soldiers have to suck up.
Symons’ ground video from Iraq that speaks volumes about the real conditions soldiers face on the line. Summed up movingly by a gay soldier who said. “You can turn off your emotions, you definitely can turn off your sexual feelings.”
And that is just the starting point. Since DADT, more than 12,000 military have been oppressed, harassed, brutalized, slandered and eventually kicked out under DADT. “These aren’t abstract numbers, these are real people.” another soldiers says standing in protest on the Capital Mall.
But, Symons’ tries not to preach to the choir, this is a call to arms. He follows volunteer inductees from ‘Right to Serve’ that stages sit-ins at recruitment centers, challenges GLBT Americans to return to GLBT activism.
The opposition presents the same tired arguments- unit cohesion, morale and men being stalked in the showers- reasons that are more out of touch with reality than ever before. Yet the same arguments are being put forth and may succeed in keeping DADT in place.
Symons follows several soldiers and recruits trying to cope with DADT, victims of discrimination and the cesspool of homophobic politics. Summed up by a soldier this way “A policy that protects …homophobes.”
LOTD
Overheard at Sweat Gym when that international news story Susan Boyle was on tellie about how she was rushed to the hospital for 'nervous exhaustion'
"She went from zero to Diva in three shows."
maybe those moonbeams shooting out of her head were too much to bear.
"She went from zero to Diva in three shows."
maybe those moonbeams shooting out of her head were too much to bear.
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