THE REST OF LAST WEEK, BRIEFLY

TUESDAY, 12/6: My wife and I went down to the LGBT Center for the monthly (en)gender (formerly MHB) couples discussion group, run by Helen Boyd, author of My Husband Betty: Love, Sex, and Life with a Crossdresser. There were about 20 people there, including about 7 couples--almost too big for a discussion.

After that I went (sans wife) for a quick drink with some of the people at the nearby Art Bar (which we like to call the Aardvark because someone had mis-heard it that way.) We were in a very nice rear room, which I didn't know the bar had.

Then four of us walked down a few blocks to the Perry Street Theater, where Eddie Izzard was trying out some new stand-up comedy material. Izzard is a crossdresser, though he wasn't crossdressed for this performance, and I don't think he mentioned anything about it. I had quite a bit of trouble understanding his British accent--I kept wanting to get the remote control and turn on the closed-captions. Since I didn't understand a lot of what he was saying, I tended to doze off. One bit I think I did hear was how the story of Mary's virgin birth of Jesus was based on the possible mistranslation of a word in Classical Greek, the original language of the "New Testament." Izzard said that the word could mean "virgin," but it could also mean "young maiden"--changing "the virgin Mary gave birth" to "the young maiden Mary gave birth," which is a very different thing.

Unfortunately, I think Izzard got his facts a little confused. The verse he quoted uses a Greek word that could only mean "virgin." The ambiguous word was in Hebrew, in the Book of Isaiah--which many Christians believe is a prophecy of the coming of the messiah. It is there where the possible mistranslation occurred.

WEDNESDAY, 12/7: In the afternoon I went to a meeting of a delegation representing the NYS GENDA Coalition with Dan Conviser, the counsel to the NY State Assembly Central Staff. There we gave him some background on the bill (my part was to outline some of examples of the discrimination gender-variant people have encountered), and answered some of his questions. Lisa Mottet, from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, joined us to explain what other states and localities had done in this area. She also presented a list of the Fortune 500 companies that had added gender identity and expression to their non-discrimination policies--with the ones that are headquartered in NY State highlighted. We also wanted to find out if the rumors that the Central Staff had some objections to the wording of the bill were true.

After the meeting I went shopping for a bit, and then I returned to the Crossdressers International (CDI) apartment for the usual Wednesday open house. Wendi made split-pea soup and pepper steak for dinner. Both were very good. I changed out of my skirt suit into a less formal outfit. After the open house some of us went down to the Monster Bar in Greenwich Village, for some drinks and Jesse Volt's drag show. This week, however, Jesse's show was replaced by a fundraiser for Kyle, the Monster bartender who had been viciously beaten by some homophobes on his way home from work a few weeks ago. Jesse did hostessing duties for this also. It started with a group from the NY Gay Men's Chorus, who not only performed but presented $250 which they had collected for Kyle. A couple of individual acts followed, and Ariel Sinclair did a number. Jesse returned to the stage with her signature Cher lip-sync impersonation. Finally four of the Monster bartenders, calling themselves "MenVogue," did a drag number. They looked great (well one did look rather guy-ish). (One of them told me later it was only his third time in drag--though I suspect they may have gotten some amount of help from Jesse and Ariel.) They danced quite well--obviously they rehearsed a lot.

There was a silent auction for some paintings which was announced. Wendi put in a bid on one of the Wicked Witch of the West--she said it reminded her of her aunt. They also announced an auction for "A Date with a Straight." One of the Monster managers, Seth, said he wanted to help out Kyle by auctioning off a date with him--except he was straight. Jesse asked him how far he would go on the date. Obviously it was something Seth hadn't thought about. I decided I'd try to get him out of his predicament (and also help Kyle, of course), by bidding for the date. I got outbid, and had to bid a higher amount, but I won! Seth will be my date for the CDI Holiday Dinner next Wednesday. Tee-hee.

We hung out at the bar for a while, and I got a bit smashed. Then some of the Monster people said they were going out to the Splash Bar, and I tagged along. That was my big mistake. They started doing shots (Jagermeister--yecch), and I joined in. I got totally smashed. Eventually I got myself into a cab to get back to CDI. I remember the cabdriver talking to me to keep me awake. When I got back in the apartment it was all I could do to take my coat and shoes off, before I fell asleep. I woke up at 7:30 in the morning, still a little drunk.

THURSDAY, 12/8: After changing back to boy-mode I went home and slept a couple more hours. Then I got cleaned up and shaved and went back to the CDI apartment to dress again. This time is was for a dinner of the VegOut Meet-Up group, at the Organic Harvest Cafe.

I'm not a vegetarian, but I this is another way I try to put the "T" in "LGBT." I went to one of these dinners a few months ago. It was about eight people, the group was pretty quiet, but I had a nice time. As I expected, I was the only TG person there--though the group leader said her partner was FTM, and they had attended Southern Comfort together.

But I knew that Alex, the leader, would not be there this time, as she had RSVP'd "no." In fact, I was only one of three "yes"es, plus there were four "maybe"s. But I was coming with fellow CDI member Madeline, who actually is a vegetarian. As it turned out, it was good that I brought someone, as only one other person showed up. As for the restaurant, it was more of a take-out place. They used to have a few small tables, but they had recently been replaced with a narrow counter around the perimeter--not very conducive to conversation. The food was good, though.

After we finished eating Madeline and I went down to Lips for a drink. We stayed for the show (and watched Jesse Volt try to deal with a very sullen customer). By then I was very tired, after what I had done the evening (and morning) before. So we called it a night.

FRIDAY, 12/9: I had an afternoon doctor's appointment for my quarterly check-up (my bone scan was improved, except for my wrists--he wants me to add hand weight exercises to my recumbent bicycle/rowing machine usage. And I got a flu shot.)

In the evening my wife and I went to a performance of the New Amsterdam Singers. A friend of ours is a member, and we go to a lot of their concerts. This was their best I've heard. Called "Voices Alone--A Century of A Cappella Classics," it included the Mass in G Minor by Ralph Vaughn Williams. Even though some of the pieces were recent, all of the music was melodic. We got there early, and sat in the front row, where we could distinguish the individual voices. The soloists were very good--some have beautiful voices. After the concert we returned home with another couple we know (she sings in a different chorus) for dessert and coffee. It was a very enjoyable evening.

SATURDAY, 12/10: After a quick Japanese dinner we went to the New York Philharmonic. Before the concert we went to a coffee and cookies reception with a few of the orchestra members. We were invited as "Friends" of the Philharmonic, i.e. we made a significant donation beyond the cost of our subscription. It was held backstage, in what is really the orchestra's lounge. In fact, Principal Violist Cynthia Phelps (who still looks very much like the California high school cheerleader that she used to be) was in the corner wearing jeans, having Chinese food with her children--she hadn't known the room was going to be used for the reception. We had a nice conversation with Erik Ralske, one of the orchestra's French horn players. He told us about how new members of the orchestra are chosen, and what exactly the principal hornist does.

After about a half hour there, we were escorted through the orchestra's executive offices to the main lobby. We checked our coats (where the extremely handsome but somewhat befuddled coat checker gave me $30 change for the $20 bill I used to pay our $9 total. I had him correct it.), and went upstairs. The concert was conducted by Rafael Frübeck de Burgos, who certainly cuts a distinguished figure, as a 70-something conductor should. After two orchestral excerpts from Wagner, they played Camille Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 2, with Andre Watts as soloist. Watts has fully recovered from his cervical disc problems of last year, as well as the burst blood vessel in his brain in 2002. I've never heard him play better, and I've been enjoying his playing since I first heard him when I was in college nearly 40 years ago. The final selection was a pair of suites from Manuel de Falla's ballet El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat).

I enjoyed all of the music very much. The Wagner excerpts (from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Tristan und Isolde) were quite familiar, as was the Saint-Saëns, particularly the second movement. The Falla work was new to me, as far as I can remember, but I liked it very much. Frübeck led it all with great energy, and the orchestra obviously liked him also--they refused to stand with him to receive the audience's ovation, letting him get all the applause.

We went out and reclaimed our coats--where the still-handsome but still-befuddled coatchecker confused the bag and coat check numbers and tried to give my wife someone else's coat.