I've been busy I

You may have noticed I haven't blogged very much of substance since I got back from Spain. It's not that I've spent two weeks unpacking, or even going through all the mail, both e- and snail- (though that did take me a lot of time). Mostly it's been because I've been too busy doing stuff to write about it. Here's a quick rundown:

5/13: New York Philharmonic: Cellist Yo-Yo Ma playing Bartók's Rhapsody No. 1, and Brahms' Double Concerto, with Colin Jacobsen on violin, followed by John Adams' Naive and Sentimental Music. With David Zinman conducting, this proved to be quite entertaining despite a bit of jetlag. The Bartók was my favorite--Ma really got into it. But he seemed rather distracted during the Brahms, frequently looking at someone in the violin section. The violinist was one of the young musicians Ma frequently combines with--Jacobsen was quite good. After intermission, most of the audience returned for the Adams piece. I like a couple of his works, Short Ride in a Fast Machine and The Chairman Dances: Foxtrot for Orchestra. This one, however, was not one I'd spend time listening to again.

5/15: Eli R. Green presenting his paper, The Discourse of Trans Identities: Tackling Terminology at Trans NYC. I first met Eli last fall when I spoke at the "Trans* in the City" program, which he runs at the Hetrick-Martin Institute. From a purely academic standpoint I think fellow MHB-er Angus Grieve-Smith's Transgender Verbal Hygiene is a better treatment of the subject. Angus did give a summary of it during the discussion that followed. One idea of Eli's I did really like was his preference for "gender diverse" over "gender variant," as the latter implies the binary gender system. Afterwards some of us adjourned across the street for drinks.

5/16: Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera. After hearing singer/songwriter Grace Millo last winter, I got to hear her more famous sister, Aprile Millo. She was great--and huge. She's put on a lot of weight since the last time I saw her--so much so, that it was difficult to believe her as the supposedly super-attractive Tosca. But her singing was wonderful. James Morris was just as good as the villain Scarpia, though Eduardo Villa's Cavaradossi did not come close to their performances.

5/17: I started with the Crossdressers International open house. Then Clover Honey and I made a quick visit to Will Clark's Porno Bingo. From there we went to the O.W. Bar to see Sherry Vine perform. We got there late (how unusual: a drag performance that starts on time). Sherry's great. She can really sing well. After that we went across the street to the Townhouse Bar. After passing through the front room (and the disapproving looks from some of the older gay guys there) we went to the piano bar in back, where we enjoyed a pleasant hour or so listening to (and singing along with) Michael Ferreri.

to be continued