On, Wisconsin! (hic)

I'm drunk. 5 Gin and Tonics are the culprits, though I have no idea how much of the last one I actually consumed.

The occasion was the Wisconsin-Michigan State basketball game, which was a quarterfinal of the Big Ten Tournament. A bar, relatively close to where I live, has been hosting telecasts of University of Wisconsin (my alma mater both undergrad and law school) football and basketball games for the last 2 or 3 years. I never went before--I could watch most of the games at home, and they were mostly on the weekends, which are reserved for couple's activities, per the compromise with my wife. But she was doing something else last night, and the telecast was only available on a pay channel--I'd have to pay I think $90 for a half-season package to watch it at home. So I went to the bar to watch it.

I wasn't quite OITP (Oldest In The Place, a frequent occurence)--I did find a guy who had graduated 6 years before I did. But most of the others were young enough to be my children. I was talking to a couple guys from the Class of 2002--which means I had finished law school, come to NY, worked as a lawyer for 5 years, and switched careers to computer programming before they were born.

The game was pretty much of a yawn. Wisconsin scored the first 10 points, and were never less than 5 points ahead. The final score was 70-53. I walked home afterwards--not taking advantage of the bar's deal where everything is half price if Wisconsin wins.

It's 7 hours later, and I'm still pretty drunk.

Television alert!

In the last couple months the soap opera "All My Children" (AMC) has featured a transgender character, Zarf/Zoe. Zarf realizes he's really a woman when the woman he's in love with turns out to be lesbian.

I said it was a soap opera.

Ridiculous plotline notwithstanding, AMC has tried to get its TG character right. They have consulted with TG and LGBT groups, and the actor playing Zarf/Zoe, Jeffrey Carlson, has done a lot of research on his own. (I last saw him on Broadway in Tartuffe.) Also, it happens that one of the AMC writers is the friend of a trans friend of mine, and there's been some good communication there in keeping things as real as can be, within the strictures of a "daytime drama."

The show decided to show Zoe going to a TG support group meeting. But instead of trying to script one, they brought in a half-dozen real trans people, and shot an improvised session. My friend Betty Crow (the subject of the recently published She's Not the Man I Married by Helen Boyd) was one of them. The group leader was played by Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of She's Not There--whom I know a little from the myHusbandBetty discussion boards, where I'm a moderator.

It will be shown this Thursday and Friday, Mar 8-9. It's on ABC at 1:00pm ET (and PT, I guess). It may only be 5 minutes or so each day, and most probably will focus on Zarf/Zoe. How much of the real people's stories will be shown is unknown.

I was invited to the wrap party after they shot it, and got to meet everyone. Some of the people's stories are very moving. I hope they get aired. I've got my video recorder all set up.

Weird websearch of the day

Google had this blog first for DIET JELLO GLOB. Runner-up: disposable choir robe, which had me 16th--down from first, a year-and-a-half ago.

R-VFC: The Singer/Quand j’étais chanteur

My second film at the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2007 was The Singer/Quand j’étais chanteur. The synopsis was somewhat interesting, and Gérard Depardieu is a superb actor, so I went. In this film he plays a small town dance hall singer. He did all his own singing--which is just about the only thing to recommend this mess of a movie. That, and looking at his co-star Cécile De France, one of those few women who can cut their hair very short and still look absolutely gorgeous.

Plat du jour

On a superstretch limo.