Archive | February, 2008

Love is a rebellious bird

By on February 29, 2008 in Mostly a picture, Re: the lil' monkey, Seraphim/dakini

Elmo’s World?

Okay, no. Different tack. Sleater-Kinney?*

Nope, Carmen. To be exact, Carmen’s first dittie, “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle.” A.k.a. the “Habañera,” here rendered with signature gusto by La Divina.

Last weekend we heard the Metropolitan Opera’s Saturday radio broadcast of Bizet’s ever-popular opera as I was making blueberry pancakes, and the lil’ monkey was transfixed. The Met broadcast was something my mother used to listen to long ago when she was young. She used to do her ironing to it. For this reason alone — that I picture my mother, a young woman, in an apartment about a half-mile north of here, humming under her breath as she pressed the wrinkles out of the very few, likely very worn dresses she owned — for this reason alone, I have a soft spot in my heart for the Saturday Met broadcast. While she’s not here when I listen, she’s still here, somehow.

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Equality for All News Alert

By on February 28, 2008 in APB

In her Weekly Political Roundup two weeks back, Dana at Mombian reported that “Two conservative groups in California have filed proposed ballots that would amend the California Constitution to define marriage as one man-one woman regardless of how the state Supreme Court rules.” Her link is to the San Jose Mercury News piece on it.

This week’s Task Force email Update picks up the story, and conveys that The Task Force Action Fund has donated generous funds and field organizers to the efforts of Equality for All, which is fighting the measure. The Task Force urges Californians to get involved. (At the least: beware of trolls asking you to sign a petition to get this measure on the ballot, and then report them after you give them a dressing-down and scurry away!)

In its entirety, here’s Equality for All’s News Alert:

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Tee hee (2)

By on February 27, 2008 in Mostly a picture, Re: the lil' monkey

3punkys

Can’t even remember what she was chuckling at. Could have been:

“Why did the chicken cross the road?” (At which I relax my defenses a little bit: it is a chicken, after all, and not a poopy diaper)

“To get to the poopy diaper!” (Aaargh! Fooled again!)

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Paw madly in area below

By on February 26, 2008 in Baba familias, Re: the bairn

Back when we had two dogs, and one of them was a manic, hypervigilant Australian Cattle dog-Shepherd mix and the other an impressionable lab mix, we saw a lot of action whenever someone approached the house.

First one dog — most of the time, quite naturally, the hypervigilant one — would espy someone (friend or foe, it mattered not which) through the living room window, and promptly get all up in a lather. Which lather would inspire the other one to a frenzy. Which frenzy would in turn thrill the first one into an even bigger tizzy fit. Which tizzy fit would embolden the other one to more dizzying heights of agitation, and so on. This festival would then move to the vicinity of the door, and when the intruder/friend’s footfall drew nearer and nearer, they would commence to shredding the door and the wall next to it. This would intensify if anyone had the audacity to ring the doorbell.

For a time we would try to command the dogs not to do that. Down! Get down! Stop barking! Don’t scratch the door! Things of this nature. None of it worked.

Then it dawned on me that we could have a system that worked with them, rather than against them. I carefully printed out a sign that read: “PAW MADLY IN AREA BELOW,” and affixed it directly next to the door, above the spot they most feverishly pawed. Thereafter I would watch, smugly, as the whole scene would repeat itself, and the dogs would do exactly as I had directed.

Simplicity itself. I was a king in my own home again.

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Monday eye candy

By on February 25, 2008 in Mostly a picture, Re: the lil' peanut, Seraphim/dakini

I may be speaking for only myself when I say that a little cheering up is in order. Lawrence King’s death (and the poisonous homophobia / misogyny that spawned it) still sits heavy on my heart. Plus my nephew’s birthday is coming up. Nephew that’s in the ether, that is. Would have been thirteen tomorrow.

So. Another boy here in their stead. So far, so good. Actually, so far, so jam-packed with joie de vivre. So much joie de vivre, in fact, that he has a ton left over, enough to share. Here, have a bite.

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Weekend bonus shot, 02.23.08

By on February 23, 2008 in Mostly a picture, Weekend bonus shot

Boy in the bath, Berkeley, CA.

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About a boy

By on February 22, 2008 in Anima animus

It takes a certain kind of fortitude — a kind I know I lack — to be able to read about the murder of 15 year-old Lawrence King, and not stop in your tracks. In fact, I’ve been stopped in my tracks about it for over a week. For those who aren’t familiar with the story, here’s the gist: Lawrence King was a junior high school kid from Oxnard, CA (roughly 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles, a military/industrial/port town). He was recently “out” as gay, and had begun to come to school wearing articles of feminine clothing and make-up. He had been frequently subject to harassment from other boys at the school but had been, according to his friends, withstanding it without losing his self-respect or conviction.

On Monday last week he was in a lunchtime fight with several boys, including the one who would bring a gun to school with him the following day. At issue was King’s sexual orientation (so say student witnesses). Last Tuesday, in his first period computer class, in front of two dozen other classmates, Lawrence “Larry” King was shot in the head, twice. On Wednesday he was declared brain dead. He was taken off of life support, after his organs were harvested for donation, a week ago today. Brandon McInerney, the 14 year-old shooter, was apprehended later the same morning of the shooting, and currently awaits trial. (The prosecutor is seeking to try him as an adult, under a provision of California law that allows for adult trials for minors who commit serious crimes, but the Transgender Law Project and the National Center for Lesbian Rights oppose his being tried as anything but a child).

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Milk drunk

By on February 20, 2008 in Mostly a picture, Re: the lil' peanut

And lovin’ every minute of it.

Heaven knows I’d have liked to have stayed up to the wee hours lovingly rendering our first-ever mid-year meeting with our Preschool folks, but a modicum of good sense regarding my upper respiratory health, or rather current lack thereof, dictates that instead I actually sleep when normal people do (peep the Wikipedia entry on “hemoptysis” if you dare, but I won’t respect you any the less if you screech to a halt when you get to the word “sputum”).

Instead of the buncha words I’d have liked to post, I offer this here image of the lil’ peanut, taking a break from his favorite nosh. What’s in his thought bubble?

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