Tuesday: Democratic women, comedy(?), thai food

Tuesday I went to Therapy for the "first annual" (ahh, optimism) Stonewall Democrats of New York Women's Event, "A Celebration of Women in Politics."

I'm always a little leary about going to "women's events," as some are transphobic. But there was no question here--the invitation I received explicitly said transwomen were welcome. Then Stonewall Dems president Dirk McCall said men could come too, when he announced it at the 20th anniversary celebration. (The first women's event after 20 years? What took them so long?)

So after the question of whether I would be welcome was settled, my next question was, what to wear? This being a political event, I decided to keep it pretty conservative--a royal blue silk blouse paired with my black-on-black paisley slacks. I ended up getting compliments on both.

My final question was, what kind of turnout the event would get? I don't know that much about the club, really. I've been to only a handful of their events in the last four or five years. I actually joined just this last year. One thing I did notice is that there were relatively few women attending the events. (I get the feeling that LGBT groups are no different than any other mixed-gender organizations--men tend to predominate.) It turned out to be pretty well-attended. There were a fair number of men there. There were three of us transwomen also--joining me were Clover Honey (who is on the Stonewall Dems Board of Governors), and Melissa Sklarz, who arrived late after attending something at Gracie Mansion. Notably absent was Diana Montford, who is on their Board of Directors. Clover was happily telling everyone that the television show she appears on, Under the Pink Carpet, might be shown here in New York on one of the public TV channels.

I had a nice conversation with Eliyanna Kaiser, aide to Assembly Member Dick Gottfried, prime sponsor of the Gender Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA). Then I talked with Carol Polcovar, artistic director of the Fresh Fruit Festival. She's all excited about the upcoming world premiere of her new play My Mother Told Me I Was Different: Voices from the Rebellion, a docudrama about Stonewall in the words of the people who of lived it.

Finally, I chatted with Tom Hickey, the former chair of the LGBT Issues Committee of the New York County Lawyers Assn., before Clover and I went upstairs to claim seats for the presentations.

First up was comedian Michele Balin. I had seen her on a segment with Clover from Under the Pink Carpet. She was quite funny. Then came the award presentations, and this being a political event, the inevitable speeches. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn could not be present to accept hers, as it's "budget time." Councilmember Rosie Mendez was present though. Finally one went to Lisa Canistracci, owner of the lesbian bar Henrietta Hudson. One thing seemed to puzzle a number of the presenters and awardees. The award, a 10" lucite obelisk, was rather phallic-shaped. A couple of them made remarks about it--I think one even used the term "strap-on." I'm wondering if this was due to the fact that most of the work organizing the event was actually done by a man--Patrick Yacco, from the law office of Yetta Kurland, the Host Committee Chair and Stonewall Dems Corresponding Secretary.

After the ceremony Clover and I said our good-byes to people, and then made our way around the block to Vlada. We got drinks and waited for the show. Soon a rather lame host/comedian got up and introduced a very lame gay Indian (like from India) "comedian." I use quotes, because he really wasn't very funny. Even worse, he had to refer to a loose leaf notebook to remember his "jokes." Next up was Allison Castillo. Actually, she was pretty good--though still not quite in the class of Michelle Balin. Finally the host returned for his lame act.

By then we were quite hungry, so we went back to Ninth Avenue and had a decent dinner at a Thai place.

Plat du jour

To make this car go faster, you yell "Mush! Mush!"

Another goat in trouble

Goats are really having it rough, lately. First this, now British Army Demotes Mascot Goat, Billy:

LONDON (AP) - A British army regiment's ceremonial pet goat (picture) was demoted in disgrace after it marched out of line before a host of dignitaries during a parade to mark Queen Elizabeth II's birthday, a military spokesman said Saturday.

The military mascot, a 6-year-old male goat called Billy, was downgraded from the rank of lance corporal to fusilier - the same status as a private - after army chiefs ruled his poor display had ruined the ceremony earlier this month at a British army base in Episkopi, western Cyprus.

Lance Cpl. Dai Davies, 22, the goat's handler, was unable to keep control during the June 16 march. The mascot darted from side to side, throwing soldiers off their stride, Capt. Crispian Coates, a spokesman, said by telephone from the base in Cyprus.

"The goat, which has been the regiment's mascot since 2001, was supposed to be leading the march, but would not stay in line," Coates said. "After consideration, the commanding officer decided he had no option but to demote Billy."

Ambassadors from Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands were among those who attended the march along with U.N. dignitaries.

Since the goat's demotion, soldiers of a lower rank are no longer expected to salute Billy as a sign of respect, Coates said.

Capt. William Rose, a soldier present at the parade, said the goat "was trying to head-butt the waist and nether regions of the drummers."

The 1st Battalion, The Royal Welsh, has had a long tradition of traveling with a pet goat used in ceremonies. The Welsh regiment was presented with a goat from the royal herd in 1746, and Billy is a descendant from the same bloodline, Britain's Ministry of Defense said.

A total of 11 ceremonial pets - including a ferret, an Indian black buck and a ram - are kept by the British army, but regiments do not take the mascots to combat zones. British legislators were told last month that keeping the pets costs the equivalent of $55,000 a year.

Plat du jour

We certainly know what kind of lawyer owns this one--unless it's talking about an illuminated reptile (which, come to think of it, is still a good description for a lawyer for some people.)

Weird websearch of the day

stagehand stagehands madison square garden 2006 lists my blog as 11th. Interestingly, if you eliminate the "stagehands" from the search, you get many more results, and I'm nowhere near as high. Not that I ever wrote about a stagehand or stagehands in Madison Square Garden--it's just that I have written about the two subjects in different articles.

With or without the "stagehands," I think it's a kind of unusual thing to search for--the results are all over the place. Lots of the results are like mine, where it's just a coincidence that I've written about two different things, and the search engine (Yahoo in this case, though I tried it with Google and got similar results) put the two together.

What also makes the search weird is that it came from Arizona.

Die Mommie Die!

Monday I went to a staged reading of Charles Busch's Die Mommie Die! at the historic Hudson Theatre. This was a benefit for The Actors' Fund of America, the 124-year-old human services organization dedicated to helping all those in the performing arts and entertainment world.

Though mostly known from its 2003 movie incarnation (which I haven't seen), Die Mommie Die! was originally a play that had a short run in Los Angeles in 1999. This was its first appearance in New York.

There is over-the-top, and then there's over-the-over-the-top. That's what this play is. As Busch (who was the writer and star of both the play and the film) described it, Die Mommie Die! is a cross between Greek tragedy and Hollywood kitsch. Over-acting is suggested, if not required. Add to that the fact the this was a reading--there were laughs generated just by the handling of the scripts, which the actors frequently relied on. There were mispronunciations, mis-readings, and bad word emphases aplenty, and the audience understood and laughed--no one expected a polished performance here.

The biggest star on the stage was Christopher Meloni, best known for his eight years on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as well as his role as Chris Keller in HBO's prison series, Oz. He seemed the most under-rehearsed. Also in the cast was Jayne Houdyshell, who was nominated for a Tony in the recently closed Well. She did a fine job as the maid, but mostly she reminded me of Conchata Ferrell. Jenn Harris did a great job as the daughter.

I was a bit surprised by Busch's performance, however. Too often he dropped his voice (both in volume and pitch) for this line or that. But it wasn't for any particular type of line. It seemed to be totally random. Of course, I really don't know if this is typical of him--I've somehow managed never to have seen him act before. I did see the one play he wrote that made it to Broadway, The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, but he wasn't in it.

On the other hand, his costumes were gorgeous. Of course, who I'd really like to look like was Harris, in her 60's mini-dresses.

It was really a lot of fun. Afterwards I went down to Lips for a little dinner. I had a nice conversation with a couple of crossdressers, one of whom was from Texas making her first public appearance presenting as a woman. The other was someone from New Jersey who was showing her around. And I can again confirm that Bianca Leigh, the Lips Monday bartender/DJ/singer, is still alive.

Plat du jour

An admiralty lawyer?

Update on Kevin Aviance

Drag performer Kevin Aviance was beaten in gay bashing a couple weeks ago, as I noted in here. A large rally and march protesting the increasing violence against LGBT people was held Saturday.

Kevin was well enough to appear at that, but it's going to be a while before he can perform again. (I've seen various reports of the extent of his injuries, but even the least of them include a broken jaw and knee--which will certainly put a singer-dancer out of action.) He has no insurance for the medical bills.

They've gotten his personal website up again, and you can make a donation via PayPal through that (you don't need a PayPal account, just a credit card). Or you can mail a check to the address at the bottom of his page.

Also Crossdressers International is making its summer barbecue into a fundraiser for Kevin. We'll have excellent food, courtesy of professional chef Michael. Wednesday, July 19. The theme is South Pacific, so get out those grass skirts and coconut shell bras!

Plat du jour

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I've been busy--the last

There's no way I'm ever going to get caught up with posting about what I've been doing, even "briefly." So I'm just going to list the rest my activities, with maybe a one or two sentence explanation. If anyone wants to read more about any of these, leave a comment. I'll try to expand on what I said. But I'm not going to have much time for that this week. It looks like I'm going to be busy the next six evenings in a row.

6/3: Lorin Maazel conducting the New York Philharmonic in the final subscription concert of the season: Elliott Carter's Dialogues for Piano and Chamber Orchestra, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, soloist. 97-year old Carter came out to take a bow; Igor Stravinsky's Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, Aimard soloist again; Hector Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique. Great; Encore (extremely unusual for a subscription concert): Berlioz' Roman Carnival Overture.

6/6: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts at Southpaw in Brooklyn. After dinner with friends. Joan was wonderful--and looked super. I loved her cover of Androgynous.

6/7: Started with a board meeting of the LGBT Law Assn. Foundation, where I was appointed treasurer. Then I went to the annual Crossdressers International (CDI) Prom Dinner at Primitivo. Very nice food, super service.

6/9: All Dolled Up, an off-Broadway play set in the 60's about a crossdressing mobster, seen with a couple of friends from CDI. Full of clichés, but cute. Dinner afterwards at the good but expensive West Bank Café. We were treated to a round of drinks by the owner of Dave's Tavern, where we often go after our Wednesday Open House.

6/10: After a good but over-priced dinner at Sandomenico, a performance of Sergei Prokofiev's Cinderella by the American Ballet Theatre. Fun.

6/11: Stayed home and watched the Tony Awards.

6/12: Adequate dinner at Café Un Deux Trois, then a benefit show for the Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre, Broadway Salutes Yiddish. Among the honorees, 95-year old Bel Kaufman, author of Up the Down Staircase (one of my favorite books in high school)--I never knew she was the granddaughter of Sholom Aleichem. Notable performers: Leonard Nimoy (his online biographies say little or nothing of his work in Yiddish plays in Los Angeles in the 50's), Theodore Bikel, Tovah Feldshuh--who sang some numbers from her current play, Hello Dolly. After intermission, backed by the Billy Joel band (sans Billy), numbers from the Broadway/touring casts of Movin' Out, Mamma Mia! and Jersey Boys--the latter still recovering from celebrating their Tony wins the night before.

6/13: After a meeting with the LGBT Law Assn. president and our bookkeeper, I went to a celebration of the 60th anniversaries of Air France and KLM transatlantic service at the newly expanded Morgan Library. Nice hors d'oeuvres, plenty of champagne. We got to see J.P. Morgan's study and his private library room, with one the Library's three Gutenberg Bibles.

6/14: A cocktail party at the apartment of the managing director of the Fresh Fruit Festival. A small gathering of the "Leaders, Movers and Shakers of the LGBT Community." I hardly think I qualify for that--unless they're referring to my breasts. Anyhow, they were looking for ideas, and did a soft sell for people to join their board of advisors. Like many of these non-profit board memberships, there is the expectation that one raises or donates a certain amount of money each year--a commitment I'm not ready to undertake. Afterwards I caught up with some of the people from the CDI Open House down at the Monster Bar. Actually, I arrived first, and had a nice talk with Charlie, the owner. Eventually we went downstairs for Jesse Volt's show. This included a performance by Bianca Leigh, whom I can definitely confirm is not dead. I chatted a little bit about it with her afterwards.

6/16: After a late morning appointment with our lawyer and a quick salad lunch, we went to the New York Public Library to see two exhibitions. The first, in its final days, was Letters to Sala, A Young Woman's Life in Nazi Labor Camps. This was a remarkable collection of postcards, letters, photos and other documents that a Polish Jew managed to accumulate and keep during five years in seven different forced-labor camps. It's pretty much all online at the above URL. I never knew very much about the labor camps, as opposed to the concentration and extermination ones--just about all I knew was from the movie Schindler's List. This was informative and very moving.

The second exhibition was French Book Art/Livres d'Artistes: Artists and Poets in Dialogue. Shown were very limited edition collaborations of writers (usually poets), and artists--some of them very well-known. We went on a tour given by a Library staffer. This really only hit the high points--and I was distracted because it was so cold in the hall. If I go back I'll take a sweater.

6/17: The American premiere of the 1969 French film Army of Shadows. This is the story of a group of French Resistance fighters in World War II--not so much about their actions against the German occupiers, but their own struggles with informers, capture, internal secrecy. It is a dark, chilling story.

6/18: Dinner out with a cousin.

Wow. I'm tired just writing all this. I'll try to stay more current.

End of an Era

I have let my subscription to TV Guide lapse. I first subscribed over 36 years ago, when I got the first television of my very own, a 12" black and white portable. (I think it's still working. I gave it to a friend of mine when I got my second TV, a 19" color set. She's blind, and doesn't use it, but she has it around just in case a visitor wants to watch something.) I have continued the subscription pretty much continually ever since then--though I remember one period when I didn't renew, because it was being delivered too late. I just bought it at the supermarket.

There are two reasons why I no longer find it useful. First of all, it doesn't tell me what's on. With the advent of cable television, TV Guide was no longer able to provide complete listings. They did try. They published separate editions for each cable system, at least here in New York. But there still wasn't enough space for all of the minor channels.

Now they've given up, in favor of their online guide. But even there, they don't give detailed listings for things like the local access channels. These are available on the on-screen guide from the cable company itself--which has made all external guides pretty much redundant. The only reason I go to the online TV Guide is because it is much easier to do a search there than on the television.

Still, the hard-copy TV guide has a lot of articles about various shows--which I never read. Why? because of the second reason I'm not renewing my subscription: I just don't watch that much TV any more. There are no series I keep up with--not even the ones on HBO, that I did for a while. We do like to watch some of the Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! programs on PBS. But otherwise the only time I have the TV on is to watch a recorded movie or for very specific shows: a sports event here, an awards show there, occasionally a documentary of some sort--though my wife watches more of them than I do.

So a TV Guide subscription has become rather useless, one more thing to stuff the mailbox and clutter up the apartment. I used to be a huge TV fan, watching dozens of hours a week, keeping two VCRs busy. Now, I doubt I average even an hour a day, not counting recorded movies. It is the end of an era.

Weird websearch of the day

list on country western male artist no hit songs in the 60's lists my blog as second. Of course this person was doing an MSNsearch, which is nowhere as good as Google. Google doesn't have me anywhere in the top 100, which makes much more sense, since I never write about country western music.

Plat du jour

Close up:







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Pigs 1, Goats 0

From the Associated Press:
Woman Challenges Anti-Pig Law and Wins

Town Orders Man to Find New Home for Goat

7,000 visitors!

Today this blog logged its 7,000th visitor. I guess I passed 6,000 when I was on vacation.

Thank you all for dropping in. Now if only a few more of you would leave comments I'd be even happier.

What's he been smoking?

Cheney Sees GOP Winning Midterm Elections
In his dreams.

Unless the Republicans rig the elections.

GENDA passes Assembly?

I'm hearing unconfirmed reports that the Gender Non-Discrimination Act, A7438, passed the New York State Assembly today. I hope the reports are true.

UPDATE: It looks like this is a false rumor.

From the weird websearch department

Someone doing a Yahoo search for gazelle running into tree clip found my blog. I'm first on the list--despite the fact I only mention the clip. I don't actually have it.

This one came up quite frequently for a while. It's been quiet lately. But it leads me to wonder, does this clip really exist? The search points to a news story where a Wal-Mart exec showed it at a talk he gave, back in 2004. So the answer is yes, it does exist. But there doesn't seem to be any link to it on the internet.

Public service reminder

Estimated income tax payments are due tomorrow.

Plat du jour

I guess the people at the DMV don't know French. This means "your ass," as in "up your ass."

I've been busy IV

I'm still trying to get caught up with blogging my activities since my vacation. Part 4:

5/30: I went on a guided tour of the Girodet: Romantic Rebel exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which had opened a few days earlier. French painter Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson bridged the gap between the Neo-Classic style of his teacher Jacques-Louis David and the Romantic movement that followed. This is the first retrospective in America of the relatively little-known artist. I had never heard of him.

The tour was a special after-hours one organized by a French organization my wife is active in. Our group had the exhibition to ourselves (and a few museum guards to watch us). There were actually two tours, one in French, and one in English (thank goodness--I can understand French moderately well, but I would still miss a lot on a tour like this). Unfortunately, while I could understand her, our tour guide seemed ill-prepared. She indicated she knew almost nothing of Girodet before this exhibition. Furthermore, she seemed not to have rehearsed her talk at all--she continually forgot portions, and had to rely on reading from a text she had prepared.

Girodet certainly had tremendous technical skills. Even his earliest works showed this. But he quickly started painting wild historical and mythological scenes--though he had no trouble going to a conventional style to do portraits. There aren't a huge number of paintings in the exhibition--at least two of his most famous ones are too large to fit on a plane. There are more drawings than oils. Because this was a guided tour, I didn't get a chance to linger and examine some of the pictures as I would have liked to. If I get a chance I'll go back.

5/31: Started with the regular Wednesday Open House of Crossdressers International (CDI). Afterwards three of us went down to the Village to the Monster Bar for Jesse Volt's Follies. This week she had a good old fashioned drag show, with "the antics of" (as Jesse always introduces her) ShaBoomBoom, and Trai LaTrash. No "Ass is Tight" audience participation bit--which I always find boring. She even brought me up to the stage to show off what I was wearing--which was just a pair of black and white floral print capri pants and a U-neck t-shirt. She skipped telling the audience about my CDI connection, which she used to do. I think the new owner doesn't like her to mention that. After the show I had a nice chat with Trai.

6/1: The Stonewall Democratic Club of NYC 20th Anniversary Celebration: This years marks the 20th anniversary of both this club and that of the passage of the NYC Gay Rights Law. The two were celebrated at a fundrasiser/celebration at the lovely Via Restaurant on West 21st St. I went down there with Clover Honey, who is also in the Stonwall Dems--though a bit more active than I.

The big attraction of the evening was the presence of several of the city council members who voted for the Gay Rights Law, and Mayor Ed Koch, who supported it and signed it into law. The restaurant was pretty crowded, but I managed to get a good vantage point for the presentations of the certificates marking the occasion. Some were a bit long-winded, both on the presenters' end and the recipients'--but a few contained quite interesting recollections. One of the former council members was someone I worked for briefly in the mid-70s, before he was elected. I got a chance to come out as a trans-person to him. I'm not sure he really remembered me, but he seemed quite comfortable with my presentation as a woman.

After the presentations the crowd thinned out a bit. The yummy mini-pizzas and chicken and beef skewers came out rapidly, and made a nice meal. I got a chance to have a nice converstion with Tom Hickey, the former chair of my New York County Lawyers Assn LGBT Issues Committee, and still the director of the Name Change Project of the West Village TransLegal Clinic, where I'm a volunteer lawyer.

Afterwards I went down to the Lips Restaurant for a nightcap. Jesse Volt was doing her last show of the evening. I got a chance to thank her for bringing me up on stage at the Monster the previous night.

6/2: We were supposed to go to a cocktail party, but it was being held on an outdoor terrace so they cancelled it because of the rain. I was not very disappointed--it had been a long week.

Homeland non-security

Someone went to a meeting at the Homeland Security headquarters using a fake I.D. The date of birth on it didn't even match the one he had previously given them. He got in anyway. This really makes me feel safe.

Then they went out and lost 3-0

Bush Calls U.S. World Cup Team

CAMP DAVID, Md. (AP) - The U.S. World Cup soccer team got good luck wishes from the world's most powerful sports fan Monday when President Bush dialed them up before their opening match against the Czech Republic.

Bush called the team from Camp David, Md., where he was getting ready to begin a two-day summit on Iraq with his top national security and military advisers.

The affairs of state may have gotten in the way of Bush watching the midday game live, but he was able to reach the team at their hotel before they left for their pre-game warm-up. Coach Bruce Arena and most of the players listened on speaker phone, said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.

"He told them that they had prepared well and urged them to play hard, to keep their heads up and that he can't wait to see them win," Perino said.

Photo Op: Bush goes to Baghdad

So President Bush (or, as Garrison Keillor calls him, the Current Occupant), made a surprise trip to Baghdad, so he could be on the other side of a video-conference between the U.S. and Iraqi officials. Big deal. Who is he trying to fool--the Iraqi government "leaders" he's trying to prop up, or the America people, a majority of whom believe a stable government in Iraq is impossible?

Plat du jour

A politician from the Bronx?

Kevin Aviance beaten in gay bashing

Singer Kevin Aviance was attacked and beaten by a gang of thugs last night. They called him a faggot while they pummelled him, breaking his jaw. (I find it interesting that the Daily News finds the word "faggot" an unprintable epithet. I think I like that.)

I've seen him perform two or three times. I'd call him more of a gender-bender than a real drag queen. He doesn't present as a woman, at least when I've seen him.

But this kind of thing scares me. While I don't remember ever finding myself in the East Village alone at 1:30am like Aviance, occasionally I am out alone that late in other areas. And I am frequently out alone earlier. I try to be safe, but sometimes it's scary if I can't find a cab quickly.

Here we go again

Alberto Becomes 1st Named Storm of Season











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Question of the day

What ever happened to sizes A and B batteries?

Plat du jour

A volleyballer?

Is this better than being Bert?

I can't seem to eliminate this blank space. Please scroll down.

After finding out that the Sesame Street character I most resemble is Bert, I now find the most Star Trek character I'm most like is Geordi LaForge. But I'm equally like a Redshirt--an expendable character who gets killed in an early encounter with whatever enemy the main characters happen to be battling. In neither case do I resemble them that much though--only 55%.
I think I prefer being Bert.
Your results: You are Geordi LaForge
You work well with others and often fix problems quickly. Your romantic relationships are often bungled.
Geordi LaForge	55%
An Expendable Character (Redshirt)	55%
Jean-Luc Picard	50%
Deanna Troi	50%
Data	47%
Uhura	40%
Spock	37%
Chekov	30%
Leonard McCoy (Bones)	25%
Beverly Crusher	25%
James T. Kirk (Captain)	20%
Mr. Sulu	20%
Mr. Scott	15%
Will Riker	15%
Worf	15%

Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character am I?" quiz...

I got promoted!

Well, my prediction in February, when I was chosen to be assistant treasurer of the NY LGBT Lawyers Assn. Foundation became true a lot sooner than I anticipated. The treasurer resigned a couple weeks ago, and last night the board made me treasurer. Now I'll really have some work to do.

Ugh!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Pic of the day: Like mother like daughter

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Gap advertising

I bought some everyday pants from the Gap, just regular black khakis. Whenever mine wear out I order a couple more pairs. I have to do this online, because they seldom carry my size (28" inseam) in the stores. This time what arrived had their label sewn on the outside, over the right rear pocket. It's pretty small, gray and fairly unobtrusive, but I'm still walking around advertising the Gap.

I didn't volunteer to be a walking billboard. I haven't noticed them decreasing the price any to compensate me for doing their advertising. I suppose I could try to cut the label off, but that might look worse. Grump, grump, grump.

Mindboggling statistic of the day

Barbie doll unlikely to grill steak: Canada court

Mattel Inc. relies on Barbie dolls for about a third of its global sales, with the average young Canadian girl receiving two a year.

I guess his name wasn't Daniel

Lion Kills Man Who Went Into Kiev Zoo Cage

Jun 5, 10:38 AM (ET)
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - A lion killed a man who climbed into its enclosure at the Kiev zoo, police said Monday.

The lion attacked the 45-year-old Ukrainian late Sunday after he used a rope to climb down into an enclosure with four lions, said police spokesman Volodymyr Polishchuk.

Ukrainian TV channel NTN broadcast interviews with witnesses who said the man told them that he believed God would not allow the lions to hurt him.

Polishchuk said the man, who was not identified, was acting aggressively and one of the lions seized him by the throat. The man died at the scene.

Zoo officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Plat du jour

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I've been busy III

Someday I'll catch up.

5/24: After another great dinner at Marseille, we went with a friend to see Faith Healer. I liked playwright Brian Friel 's Dancing at Lughnasa, when I saw it 15 years ago, and this had a super cast: Ralph Fiennes, Cherry Jones and Ian McDiarmid. What I didn't realize was that this was a revival--a revival of a play that lasted only 20 performances after it opened on Broadway in 1979. I found out why it lasted only 20 performances. It was simply one of the worst dramas I ever had the misfortune to see. No matter how good the performers (and they were all excellent), when you start with a bunch of unsympathetic characters just reciting their memories of past events, slowly, teasingly, adding a little fact here and there, everything out of sequence, so the audience doesn't really know what happened until after 2+ hours, it does not make for good theatre. I should have known that having Lord Voldemort and Emperor Palpatine on the same stage would produce something very evil.

5/26: Mission Impossible III--not bad, really. Since I agreed 100% with Michael Phillips' review in the Chicago Tribune, you can go there for a more detailed opinion.

5/27: New York Philharmonic Music Director Lorin Maazel conducting. The concert started with Hector Berlioz' Harold in Italy, Symphony in Four Parts for Orchestra with Solo Viola, after Byron (that's quite a title). Philharmonic Principal Violist Cynthia Phelps did the solo part. I like Berlioz' music a lot, but this one doesn't generate as much excitement as some of his other work. This was a good performance both by the orchestra and soloist--though I suspect Pinchas Zukerman might get something more out of this piece than Phelps, who seemed a bit restrained. She did wear a great dress, though, an unusual one for a soloist--most usually wear solids, but this was a print. Phelps (who would have no trouble convincing anyone that she was a cheerleader in her California high school days--which she was), however, could pull it off. After intermission it was Gustav Mahler's First Symphony--with its Frère Jacques third movement theme. Maazel's conducting kept everything flowing nicely.

5/28: The Da Vinci Code. I haven't read the book, and I did my best not to learn anything about the plot beforehand. About the only thing I did read about the film was the difficulties they encountered filming in the Louvre. So everything was pretty new to me--which I suppose is the reason why I wasn't totally bored by this mess (well, that and looking at Audrey Tautou). Since I don't happen to believe in the divinity of Jesus, the plot had some plausibility to me, but the gaps of logic were too many. All of the characters were more characatures--Tom Hanks playing the semi-befuddled American professor sucked into this thing, Paul Bettany playing the evil monk, and everyone else having at least two motives for doing anything. Ian McKellen did stand out as the most convincing character. I found Alfred Molina's bishop even less convincing than his Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway. I did like the cinematography--they shot Paris well. But, I really have to wonder about one thing though--are French detectives prohibited from shaving?

The sheep need the bears' PR people

Bears' Return to Pyrenees Cheered

Some marchers chanted "Bears, shepherds, sheepdogs - let's live together."

Notice they didn't include the sheep.

After brown bears disappeared from the Pyrenees in the 1980s, authorities released three bears in the region in 1996, and one of them killed 165 sheep last year.

Why democracy doesn't work in the Arab countries

The AP is running an article outlining the setbacks the Arab reformers have been experiencing in trying to liberalize their governments. Basically, the US has let up on pressuring the governments to change, because we're bogged down in Iraq.

The article goes on, though, with some comments from Arab liberals that confirm exactly what I've been thinking for quite a while: most Arabs are just not ready for democracy, especially Western-style democracy that values individual liberty so highly. When they do get a chance to choose their governments, they tend to vote for conservative religion-based parties that want to restrict their liberties, not enhance and protect them.

I think this first became known in Algeria a number of years ago. As I remember it, the people were about to or had just voted for a party whose platform called for the institution of religious law. The military would have no part of it, and executed a coup d'état. There was great debate about whether we should support such a non-democratic action--shouldn't we support a democratically elected government over a miltary dictatorship? No, I thought. Not this time. We should not support a government that will not protect individual human rights, regardless how it comes to power--the tyranny of the majority is still tyranny.

The AP article quotes Arab reformers echoing my thoughts: until there is a large middle class, democracy won't work there. They also point out that many Arabs are more concerned with settling scores with the West, from the Israel/Palestine question all the way back to the Crusades. I think they left out the problems of intra-Arab ethnic and religious clashes. The Sunni insurgents in Iraq aren't fighting to return Saddam Hussein to power, but they are fighting to keep the majority Shiites out of power--something they had under him.

But I think the biggest thing is the lack of a large, well-educated middle class, people who will expect their government to protect what they do have, not to give them what they don't have. Bush's attempt to impose democracy on Iraq will fail because of it. In fact, a great many of the small Iraqi middle class are leaving. They know what will happen when, sooner or later, the U.S. leaves.

Plat du jour: She's a real doll

Am I showing my age with this one?

Guns kill people. Sometimes people you know.

I've heard the arguments of NRA-types how letting people carry guns makes things safer. Bullshit. Maybe it's true out in the wide open spaces, but in crowded cities it's an unnecessary, dangerous hazard.

Clyde Haberman's column in today's New York Times, "Statistics, Ballistics and Lunacy" (subscription necessary), tells of the death of a woman in upper Manhattan due to a stray bullet, fired by a guy in an argument. (news story) Two groups of three men decided to end their sidewalk dispute with pistols, in the middle of a crowded shopping district, firing three or four shots. None hit their intended targets. (This assumes that any of the shooters did intend to hit a target--maybe they were just trying to scare off their opponents, or to make a statement. Could they all have been such bad shots that they couldn't hit someone a few feet away?) But one bullet traveled on and hit a woman walking along, minding her own business, a block away.

I knew the woman, at least I did twenty years ago. She wasn't a close friend even then, but I knew her. We had some friends in common, and eventually she joined my group of people who liked to end the work week with a nice TGIF dinner. We'd eat and drink and talk and wind down. She had some, er, unusual ideas about certain things (e.g. wearing a blazer over a lacey dress made it businesswear), but as eccentricites go, she was about par for the course for our ensemble.

But people started getting interested in other things, and the dinners petered out. I last ran into her on a subway platform maybe 15 years ago. We had a very brief conversation and went our different ways. Since then I had no contact with her--though a couple of the friends-in-common did mention her once in a while.

Now she's dead, and though she hasn't been even a small part of my life for a long time, I feel a loss--more of a loss than I would feel if she had just died from natural causes. It's not just the loss of someone from my past. It's the loss of someone, not too unlike myself, who died doing something in my city that I do all the time: she was just walking down the street, at 1:15 in the afternoon, in a crowded shopping area. I feel the loss of my own personal safety.

Why? Because someone was carrying a gun, and used it. Was it carried just for protection? Did the shooter have more sinister motives? We don't know. He hasn't been caught. Haberman listed a number of similar, recent deaths here due to "idiots" with guns. But he also points out the nice, level police statistics on shootings here in New York. Which seems to indicate one thing to me--a higher proportion of the shootings are from stray bullets. Which makes me feel a loss of personal safety even more. There are things I can do to decrease the chances of getting shot by someone shooting at me, but what can I do to minimize the chance of getting shot by someone not shooting at me?

The more guns there are, the easier it is for idiots to get their hands on them. The more idiots have guns, the more stray bullets there will be flying around, killing law-abiding people. Guns don't make things safer for law-abiding people, not in a crowded city. They just kill people.

Neat freak? Me?

I took the Sesame Street Personality test (link below). They think I'm Bert. I think their test is a little off (I had to correct a misspelling in the results, besides.) Take it at your own risk.

You Are Bert

Extremely serious and a little eccentric, people find you loveable - even if you don't love them! You are usually feeling: Logical - you rarely let your emotions rule you You are famous for: Being smart, a total neat freak, and maybe just a little evil How you live your life: With passion, even if your odd passions (like bottle caps and pigeons) are baffling to others

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

I'm going to have to start reading comic books again

Batwoman Is Back As a Lesbian

Yay, Sydney!

Butt busters prowl Australian streets
I think smoking should be like sex: it should only be done in private among consenting adults.

Plat du jour

Is Luda an animal lover? Or are we just being told to find a luda and pet it?

Oh, no! Not that! Please, anything but that!

Paris Hilton Plans Reggae, Hip Hop Album

I've been busy II

5/19: New York City Ballet. This was actually a fundraiser/development program, "An Evening With Friends at the Ballet," put on by their Business and Professional Committee--though I don't think it raised very much money: Admission was just $19 per person over the cost of the ticket (I did buy a raffle ticket for $5 more). It consisted of a backstage tour, a talk by a couple of the dancers, and a buffet dinner, before the performance. We went to one of these last winter (though I don't think I got around to blogging about it). The tour was better this time--the tour leader was more knowledgable, and the group was smaller, so we could go the costuming area, instead of just the wings. The dancers' talk was OK--things like how the dancers (both male this time) got into ballet (they tagged along with their sisters to dance class). The real reason I wanted to go to this again was to see Christopher Wheeldon's American in Paris, set to Gershwin's music. I really liked it, with its colorful portrayal of Paris in the 50's. The first two ballets, by Balanchine, I slept through. I'm just not terribly fond of ballets where there is no story, just people dancing to the music. This was similar to my experience at the one last winter, where the attraction was composer Igor Stravinsky's Firebird, with costumes and sets by artist Marc Chagall.

5/20: Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris: We went to this off-Broadway production with three French couples--though only two of the songs are sung in French. I liked it immensely. Brel's bitter songs of love gone wrong and the waste of war are still relevent. I never saw the legendary cabaret production back in the late 60's (it was before I moved to New York), but I have seen a filmed performance, and one they did in Town Hall nearly 20 years ago, featuring Karen Akers. The current production is actually staged, and this works better than just having the performers standing and singing. Curiously, one of the performers, Gay Marshall, is someone I saw back in high school 40 years ago (gulp)--she is the younger sister of one of my classmates, whom I knew only slightly. Afterwards all four couples went next door for a very nice dinner at Caminosur.

5/22: After a conference call of the steering committee of the NYS GENDA Coalition, where we mapped out our strategy for the final month of the state legislature's session, I went down to Arlene's Grocery for a performance by Lisa Jackson + Girl Friday. They've been doing a series of free shows there every Monday this month (you can still catch her tonight). They were great, and the packed house loved it. Lisa has toned down her performance just a touch from February--it still shows her personality, without falling into rock performer clichés. The band is soooo together. The only thing I would have liked was a bit more solo work by the band--those guys are good! Afterwards I hung around to say hello to Lisa (and I did talk with drummer Freddie "Boom Boom" Sanchez briefly), and had another drink which I shouldn't have had. Then I went up to the O.W. Bar to catch drag queen Kenny Dash's Bingorama. Actually, what I went for was a supposedly surprise birthday party for her. I did manage to stay for that (instead of a cake they passed out tiny White Castle hamburgers!) and one game of bingo, but I knew I had drunk too much so I called it a night.

5/23: First I attended a Continuing Legal Education class at the City Bar Assn on Employment Discrimination Law: Workplace Rights & Protections Relating to Sexual Orientation & Gender. Then I cabbed it downtown to catch the end of an event of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club honoring Queer Eye's Kyan Douglas and Scott Stringer, the Manhattan Borough President. Clover Honey was there shooting a segment for Under the Pink Carpet--she even interviewed me, briefly. Mostly I stood talking to Eliyanna Kaiser, just off the plane from Paris--and sporting a new engagement ring. She is an aide to Assembly Member Dick Gottfried, the prime sponsor of the Gender Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA). Sherry Vine, Trai LaTrash and Mimi Imfirst each sang a number--though hardly anyone listened. Afterwards Clover and I went to Foodbar for a late dinner.

there's more

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

Websearch of the day

First someone was looking for pictures of her legs. Now someone is looking for edie falco ass pictures. As I said before, I don't have pictures of any part of her.

But this did cause me to remember that I have seen her ass, and all the (dimly lit) rest of her, in Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune on Broadway.

Plat du jour

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What about transwomen? II

I'm not the only one who thought it worth commenting on the sentencing of a 5' 1" sex offender to probation because he was thought to be too short to survive prison. A lot more people have chimed in. The various interest groups responded as one would expect: a group fighting sexual assaults said it showed more concern for the criminal than for the victim. The Secretary of the National Organization of Short Statured Adults thought it was good that "somebody [was] looking out for someone who is a short person," but the organization has disavowed those comments (and has dismissed the guy who made them). The state ACLU director however, pointed out that there was no constitutional protection on the basis of height, and said no one had ever complained to them about height discrimination.

Very predictably, the prison authorities disputed that the defendant would be in danger, pointing out that there are shorter male inmates in their general population. I kind of doubt they were convicted of having sex with a 12-year old, though--child molesters don't fare very well in prisons, regardless of height. The prison spokesman also pointed out there were protections for inmates who feel threatened. What that generally means is voluntary solitary confinement--not a very attractive alternative to someone facing 10 years.

I think the larger question is whether our criminal justice system is incarcerating too many people to begin with. The U.S. prison population is soaring, especially with drug offenders--people who frequently get no help in combatting their addictions while incarcerated. They come out of jail in worse shape than when they went in, and frequently return to their old habits, and get caught again, to serve even longer prison terms. The prisons are packed, and there is no hope of protecting the weaker inmates, other than by solitary confinement.

My feeling in this case is that the judge did the right thing. Her strict terms of probation (together with the sex offender registration laws) have a decent chance to keep the defendant from repeating his crime. We need more judges who can figure out ways to keep the prison population down, while still protecting the public. And I firmly believe that potential lengthy prison terms do almost nothing to deter these crimes. We are not talking about people who sit down and rationally consider the risk/reward ratio of satisfying their desire to have sex with a child. To be blunt, they are thinking with their pricks, not their brains.

As for legally male transwomen, I think they should be kept separate from the general male prison population--and probably from the general female one, also. I have heard the New York State prison system has a unit for such people. But the New York City system recently closed down its unit for gay and trans male inmates. They said they could protect these people in the general population. I'm very skeptical. The Sylvia Rivera Law Project has protested the closure.

Shocking websearch

actress bianca leigh dies reached this blog earlier today. I was horrified. Sure enough, the Internet Movie DataBase (IMDB) lists her date of death as January 7, 2006 on its entry for her. Bianca, whom I've heard sing many times, who was such a surprise to my watching Transamerica, who serves me drinks as the Monday night bartender at Lips, was dead? And I hadn't heard anything?

But then I said to myself, "Wait a minute." I've seen Bianca since January. I searched my blog and found a post indicating I had seen her in March. IMDB must be wrong.

Googling further, I see she is going to be performing on Fire Island this summer. I also found reviews of two plays she did since January, here and here.

I have sent off a correction to IMDB. I hope they fix their site soon. This is very disturbing.

UPDATE: IMDB has removed the date of death from its entry for Bianca.

Plat du jour (which really was on the menu at the restaurant last night)

Indecipherable.
UPDATE: Maybe it's not indecipherable. It appears to be an operator in Visual Basic--at least in Turkish.

New blog link

I have added a link to Victoria Marinelli's wonderful blog, Running With Symbols. Read it. Learn something. Be amused. Victoria rocks.

What about transwomen?

Judge: Man Is Too Short for Prison
A 5'1" Nebraska man convicted of sexually assaulting a child was sentenced to 10 years probation because the judge thought he was too small to survive in prison. I wonder if the judge would have done the same for a transwoman who still would be sent to a men's prison because she hadn't had complete genital surgery? Her chances for safety in prison would be no better than his. Maybe less.

I also wonder what the exact height limit is.

Plat du jour: guest submission

My friend J., who writes the Midwestern Transport blog, found this one. It was on a big SUV in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Her comment: "i guess connecticut artists are doing much better than us folk in nyc."

At the Port Authority Bus Terminal

Your party wants to say good-bye.

Another for my dangerous place list

2-Year-Old Hit at Ga. McDonald's Dies
Add McDonald's to Denny's, Wal-Mart (a two-time loser) and Starbucks to my list of dangerous places to avoid.

Weird websearch of the day (yesterday, actually)

Somebody was looking for oxford suspenders electrician and found my blog. As far as I know, neither the British nor the American meaning of "suspenders" involves electricity, so what this person was really looking for I have absolutely no idea.

Plats du jour: grad tags?

Me? I was WIS 70.

Websearch of the day

pictures of edie falco's legs found my blog.

Sorry, but I don't have any pictures of her legs. Or any other part of her.

Plat du jour

Yes, Kim should get some tender loving care.

Another '60s rock 'n' roller dies

Freddie Garrity, of Freddie and the Dreamers, has died--another one of the rock 'n' rollers of my teen years.

It makes me feel old.

My name for them: freeloaders

There's a story in today's New York Times, No View, No Garden, Just a Wall (registration required), about two neighboring upper east side Manhattan families who are feuding over one family's building of an extension to their home that blocks the view of the other family--a view of the first family's garden, which goes behind both properties. Both sides have gone to court over the matter.

I'm no expert in the New York City Building Code, and I wouldn't care to hazard a guess as to whether this particular extension is legal, but I'm pretty sure of this: They are probably entitled to build something on their land. The second family is not entitled to a view of the first family's garden. They didn't pay for it.

One can buy these rights. They're called easements, and they can entitle one to traverse a neighbor's property, or merely to have the view (an easement for light and air). But they have to bought from the owner of the property in question. Here, the complaining family, and the previous owners of their property, never did so.

Thus, all this time they've been getting a gift, a free view. Now they're unhappy it has ended. I'm not surprised--I've heard this kind of complaint before here in New York a number of times. People think they are entitled to views just because they've always had them. But they're not. One side of my apartment is on the lot line, overlooking a walkway to the rear of the next building. I know that the building could be extended right up to my windows--not that it's very likely. But if it did happen, I know I'd have no legal standing to complain.

And the second family here is not complaining about that, at least not in court--they are claiming the extension is illegal on other grounds. But what they're really unhappy about is the loss of their view. Well too bad. Their free view is no more. They should be happy they had it as long as they did.

Plat du jour

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Still a PITA

In the wake of my wallet loss, I'm now updating all of the places that automatically bill my Discover card with the new card number. Though I'm a lot more organized than before, it's still a PITA.

Bush is one to talk

Bush Wants Newcomers to Learn English

"What the president has said all along is that he wants to make sure that people who become American citizens have a command of the English language," Snow said.

The way Bush so frequently murders English, making up the most Presidential words since Warren Harding coined "normalcy," he could use some English lessons.

Better yet, he could actually start reading books.

Plat du jour

I think this stands for the New York Road Runners Foundation.

Observation of the day

The US dime does not say how much it's worth, like the penny ("one cent"), the nickel ("five cents," though you have to look very hard on the new ones) or the quarter ("quarter dollar"). It just says "one dime," as if everyone in the world is supposed to know what that means. They don't. Just ask some foreign tourists.

Plat du jour

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Covering all the bases

An AOLer found this blog by searching for tv cd ts group meetings nyc caprice bellefleur.

Plat du jour

I have no idea what this one means.

Interesting blogsearch

Someone at USA Today did a blogsearch for bra seat belt and got my post below, among others. Is someone there writing a column or something? Stay tuned.

When in Tampa, wear a bra

Seat Belt, Bra Save Woman From Gunshot
If I should ever decide to return to Florida (an event of low probability) and wind up in Tampa, I'm definitely going to wear a bra. My steel-ribbed corset should help protect me even further.

Sometimes Democrats get in trouble, too

Now there's a Democratic congressman facing a bribery investigation. I try to be fair. Not all of the crooks in Congress are Republicans, and Louisiana congressman William Jefferson may be one of the Democratic ones. But the large majority do seem to be Republicans.

BTW, I apparently lost my Google position for "republican in trouble." Maybe this post will help restore it.

Icky websearch of the day

thick tushy blog I don't even want to think about this one. At least I was on page 5. Of course, that means this person went through a lot of results until s/he got to my blog.

Plat du jour: Is Ros perennially late?

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Mexico's Fox concerned about U.S troops on the border--ha!

Mexico's president Vicente Fox is concerned about the border with the USA becoming "militarized," after President Bush's plans to send the National Guard came out. Gee. I wonder why. Could it possibly be that this would impede the flow of un- or under-employed Mexicans into the U.S., where they a) are no longer his problem; and b) send back lots of money to bolster the Mexican economy? (I'm just guessing, but are these border crashers Mexico's most profitable export save maybe oil?)

I depart from the liberal camp on the question of illegal aliens (I'm not going to call them "undocumented workers," like they merely overlooked their paperwork.) I'm a lawyer, and I have high respect for the law. It disturbs me greatly when people enter our country illegally, or overstay their visas illegally. Frankly, I don't know what to do with the ones who are already here. The lawyer in me wants to round them up and deport them, but I realize the practical problems with that. However, I do think we should be doing more to secure our borders, to keep the situation from getting worse.

So send the National Guard. Better yet, use the troops we have over in Iraq, who are wasting their lives while that country grinds its way into civil war.

Plat du jour

Previous installment of this series.

Two headlines = zero

In the High Tech News section from the AP on my excite.com home page the following two stories appear consecutively:

• High-Definition Video Could Choke Internet
• Web Video Compression Could End Congestion

Another one who puts a question in a websearch

how can i tell my sister in law i want to be like her but i am a man who crossdresses was an AOLsearch (naturally) that found my blog--I was first and second for this one.

Dynamic flickr spell

I have changed my template to make the "glob" in pictures that I get from flickr dynamic. If you don't like the way it looks just refresh the page.

So now I don't have to change my template every day to put in a new set.

Waiting for my weight

I never completely trust what my scale says the first day back after traveling, especially from Europe. A 30 hour day, 8.5 of which were spent sitting in an airplane, tends to distort things a bit. Nevertheless, what my scale did say today was that I gained all of half a pound during my two weeks in Spain.

I'm not surprised. I was bit careful in what I ate while I was away, and I did do a lot of walking. I knew I couldn't have gained much, just because of the way my clothes fit. The problem is, I gained weight before my trip--five pounds since January, and I certainly wasn't anywhere near where I want to be back then. I have to somehow figure out how to exercise for 1.5-2 hours a day and have time to clean my office.

Of course, it would really help if I didn't eat so much. I'm so weak.

I'm back

I'm back in New York, after an eight-hour, three movie flight. Right now I've got to go out and get some groceries, unpack, look at the mail, etc. But I will blog some later--if I'm still awake. I gained 6 hours, so it's really like 10:20pm for me already.

What time was that flight again?

Report from Spain IV: The second mishap of our trip occurred Tuesday. I confused the time of our flight to Granada with the time of the one we will be taking back to New York from Madrid, 11:00am. Actually, our flight out of Barcelona was scheduled for 10:25. It didn't help that my e-ticket was in Spanish, and I didn't recognize the column headed SAL meant departure time. We arrived at the airport some time before 9:45--in plenty of time, we thought. We waited in the slow-moving Iberia Airlines check-in line. When it was finally our turn, the agent said it would be a miracle if we made the flight. We were dumbfounded. We asked why, since the flight left at 11. No, she said, it leaves at 10:05--just to make matters worse, they had changed the departure time after I got the tickets, without notifying me--why not, I don't know. They certainly had my e-mail address.

We still had a few minutes though, and I think we might have made it, except that we had to pay the overweight charges for our luggage. And unlike in America, they don't don't handle payments at the check-in counter. We had to go over to the Iberia sales counter to pay. So we went over there, and waited for a couple of Romanians to buy tickets to somewhere. We finally paid, took our receipt back to the check-in counter, got our boarding passes, and ran to the gate. There was no hold-up at security (which seemed much more laid-back that in the U.S.).

But we were too late, the gate personnel sadly informed us. This was one of those bus-to-the-plane deals, and they had already called for a bus just for us, but the plane had already moved out.

We were told to go to Belt 22 to reclaim our luggage. We went there, and watched a planeload of people get their bags. But ours weren't among them. I checked over by the lost luggage counter, but they weren't among the few they had there. Back at Belt 22, my wife flagged down an Iberia staffer, and she said they usually sent the returned bags to Belt 20. She advised us to watch both belts, but if ours didn't come in 15 minutes to see her at the lost luggage desk. We did that, but nothing of ours came on either belt.

I stayed and watched the three lonely unclaimed bags on Belt 20 make their unending circumnavigations, while my wife went to the desk. Eventually she returned and said our bags had been located (thank goodness), and they would be put on Belt 28--which was all the way at the other end of the baggage claim area. So we trekked over there, and found Belt 28, which stood motionless. So we sat down to wait. Ten minutes or so later, the belt started up, and we were finally reunited with our luggage.

Then we went back to the Iberia sales desk to see about another flight to Granada. The line wasn't too long. But when we gave the agent our boarding passes and explained what had happened (first in my wife's Spanish, then in her English), the agent was totally perplexed. As far as their system went, once the boarding passes were issued the tickets were used, so she couldn't exchange them. She came out of the sales booth and said she had to go over to the supervisor's office. She came back (rather quickly, actually) and told us that our tickets had been re-validated. Furthermore, they would do our re-booking at no charge, on the excuse that they had changed the departure time from 10:25 to 10:05 without notifying us.

The next flight was at 4:30. There was actually room on it.

We got our new tickets and headed back to the check-in counter, first removing all of the tags on our luggage from the missed flight. I hoped we could find the same check-in agent as the first time, but she wasn't there. But the check-in was easy anyway. There wasn't even a question of the over-weight charge--our prior receipt worked just fine.

So it was just a matter of waiting. We went back upstairs, through security again. Still laid-back. We found a sit-down restaurant and sat down. One of my three lambchops actually had a significant amount of meat on it. I wondered about the steel table knives--there was nothing to prevent someone from pocketing one and boarding a plane. I said that security was laid-back. But I think they are more worried about suicide bombers than hijackers at this point.

There were still nearly three hours until boarding time. There are a huge number of stores at the Barcelona airport--it's a shopping mall, basically. My wife got a cute skirt, and a pantsuit she had been wanting for a while. I got a newspaper and a little 8.50€ chotchka to remind me of the fun(?) I had in Barcelona.

Song of the Day (Monday): I Left My Wallet in Barcelona

Report from Spain III: Report from Spain II actually told of what we saw in Barcelona before my first report if you can follow that. This post details what occurred immediately after I posted that.

We left the internet place and decided to have some dessert. (This was after the over-priced mediocre paella at the tourist-trap restaurant we had wandered into.) We found a place and had sacher-torte and coffee. We then decided to take the subway back to our hotel. Big mistake.

I was the victim of one of the notorious pick-pocket gangs of Barcelona. It was the classic stall and distract method when the victim is getting off the subway. A wide, heavy guy got between me and my wife as we exited. She was out on the platform yelling while he blocked me, ostensibly to let a woman off. In the five or ten seconds it took him to do this, someone else got my wallet and my money clip, which was probably nestled in the wallet. I never felt a thing, despite having my wallet in my supposedly safe front pocket. He then moved out of my way, and I got off the train. Thirty seconds later at most I realized my wallet was gone, and I immediately knew what had happened.

They got all my credit cards, my ATM cards, and my driver's license. What they did not get was very much cash. My money clip had all of 10 euros in it. My large bills were safe in my other front pocket, along with my passport. There was also $41 in my wallet--my usual "emergency money." So they got about $54 in all. Assuming this was a crew of three, they averaged $18 each--less any service charge for converting the U.S. dollars.

We returned to the hotel, and I then started the hassle of trying to get new cards. I got the phone numbers to call from my wife's cards. (Hint: to make a collect international call in Spain, dial 1005.)

Citibank, American Express, then Chase for my Amazon Visa (Second hint: Make a list of all your card numbers and contact phone numbers and leave a copy back in your hotel room--I wish I had done this.) Complicating things was the fact that we were leaving for Granada the next morning. Since we were only going to be there three days, I was hesitant to have the replacement cards sent there, so I had them sent to the hotel in Seville, our next stop. Citibank and Amex were no problem. Chase faxed the data to Visa International. They said I'd receive a call from Visa International within "a few hours." Ten hours later we checked out of the hotel--no call from Visa International. We later checked our messages on our answering machine back in New York. That's where Visa International called.

Report from Spain II

Hi all! It's been quite a week, since my last post. I don't know how much I'm going to be able to post right now, since I'm on a computer at my hotel in Seville out in the hall for all of the guests to use, and I don't want to hog it.

Even though I have been able to hook up my camera to the computer, and view my photos on it, I don't seem to be able to upload them. So no pix right now.

First let me expand a bit on our time in Barcelona. It's a marvelous place. Antoni Gaudi's fantastic "moderniste" architecture is amazing, and there's plenty of other beautiful buildings to lend support. His Casa Batllo is unbelievable. It's hard to imagine that a family actually lived there. His Casa Milà, actually an apartment house, has a wonderful permanent exhibit in the attic about his work, and they have made one apartment into and example of what it would have looked like 100 years ago, with period furniture. Of course his amazing cathedral, which they've been working on for the better part of a century, draws huge crowds, but I liked his smaller works better--though his Park Güell was fun.

I'm going to divide up my posting, so it's not going to be one huge report. Stay tuned.

¡Hola!

We made it to Barcelona in one piece (each)--with way too much luggage. Why did I ever think I needed 5 pair of pants for 15 days? I spent 10 weeks in Europe back in 1969, and I think I had two pair.

Anyhow, we leave here tomorrow, already. Barcelona is lovely. I never knew about the great architecture here.

Traveling with other people is not the greatest--somebody always wants to do something different, and decisions can take a while to make. People do things in different ways. We were here with two French couples who live not too far. They used the tourist bus (those double decker things) for transportation. Sure, you get a commentary, and it usually gets you where you want to go, but it´s slow. We wasted at least a couple of hours going around and around the city, instead of just going directly via the subway and buses. Oh, well.

Tomorrow we fly to Granada--assuming the plane can make it off the ground with all our luggage. Í'll try to blog some more there. Right now we're in some public intenet cafe, and my Euro is running out.