Archive | July, 2009

BlogHer Keynote Twitnotes

By on July 31, 2009 in Metacommentary

afternoonChicago

Summer afternoon, westward downtown Chicago as viewed from the Sheraton. Fourth in a four-part series of images of this exact same scene at various times of day (here’s morning, sunset, & night).

Whilst I continue to marinate my lengthier observations about last weekend’s BlogHer conference in Chicago, here for posterity are my notes of the two keynote chats I Twittered, in forward chronological order (as v. Twittery reverse).

The first was a conversation onstage (and with the audience) between Tina Brown (founder, editor-in-chief, The Daily Beast), Donna Byrd (publisher, The Root), and Ilene Chaiken (creator of The L Word, and the now-offline Our Chart.com).  BlogHer co-founder Lisa Stone interviewed them and moderated the discussion.

Twit-notes of the Saturday morning keynote conversation here.

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A multi-org statement on the California marriage equality fight

By on July 29, 2009 in APB, On marriage and commitment

And I couldn’t agree more with it. (Statement’s after the photo below; first a little context.)

I just got this statement in the mail from Our Family Coalition, of which I am a very supportive and proud member.  In the note accompanying the statement, Judy Appel of Our Family also said:

We have also expressed our solidarity with a strong coalition of organizations representing LGBTQ people of color, youth, and families who have called on our community to prepare past 2010 by issuing a statement entitled “Prepare to Prevail.”

There are other groups and leaders who are beginning to the lay the groundwork to get a repeal of Prop 8 on the ballot for 2010. While we disagree with their current strategy decisions, we applaud their dedication and passion for equality.

No matter when we go to the ballot, one thing can be sure, we will be right there fighting for and supporting LGBTQ-headed families.

Also agreed.

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A welcome sign

By on July 27, 2009 in Mostly a picture, Re: the lil' monkey, Sunrise Sunset file, Visual aids

welcomehomesign

This note from the girlchild greeted me on the dining table when I walked in the door last night, just after sunset. I was gone four days and three nights, far far away.

“I LOVE YOO BABA AND I OLSO WIHC YOO WR HER.” Or, to the trained eye: “I love you Baba and I also wish you were here.”

More travelogue to follow, after my kissey lips and my huggey arms have caught up with their several days’ kid deficit. I swear their vocabulary doubled and their limbs are twice as long since last I had a good bead on ‘em Thursday morning. They grow up so fast.

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‘Bye, Chicago

By on July 26, 2009 in Metacommentary, Mostly a picture

byeChicago

You’ve been good to me.

Above, Saturday’s Chicago skyline, facing westward not long after the official BlogHer conference ended. Officially.  Unofficially, a good time continued to be had by all.  (A wee hint of room 3116 hovers in the reflection.)

Next year, BlogHer’s annual conference will be August 6-7, in New York.  By the end of our lesbo blogger brunch on Sunday morning, we were agreed we want to invite our comrades in the blogosphere who are able to go to keep the day after BlogHer free — Sunday, August 8 — to stay in town for confabbing and conspiring together.

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Weekend bonus shot, 07.25.09

By on July 25, 2009 in Mostly a picture, Weekend bonus shot

comidafinalmente

LGBTQ “Birds of a Feather” lunch table at the BlogHer convention, Chicago, IL.

BlogHer/Chicago 09 Dispatch #4. This looks worse than it really was. No, the LGBTQ table at BlogHer did not host just one lone, sad diner (me). It was a whole tableful of garrulous gals, chit-chattin’ and crackin’ each other up and whatnot. I’m just a hella slow eater.

Note to any LGBTQ BlogHer folks — or even LGBTQ bloggin’ Chicagoans a-readin,’ — we’re going to brunch at the West Egg Café tomorrow morning at 9. Check this LesbianFamily.org post for further details, RSVP even so we know if we need to get there early to get a large party on the waitlist (no reservations).

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‘Mornin, Chicago*

By on July 25, 2009 in Metacommentary, Mostly a picture

morninChicago

[*Update: now with new & improved "live Tweets" of the Keynote mentioned below. For the Tw-illiterate, you need to go to the very bottom of the string of Tweets (Twats, Twits) and read upward. But it ends with a pair of my favorite Twits/Twats/Tweets ever.]

BlogHer/Chicago 09 Dispatch #3. I decided for both of these pictures, for purposes of propriety, to exclude the hoo-ha in the hotel room in the foreground.  You know: the garter belts, the handcuffs, the empty JD bottles on their sides, the model release forms.  The stuff of bloggery.

I’ll try to “live Tweet” the keynote this morning with Donna Byrd (the Root.com), Tina Brown (the Daily Beast), Ilene Chaiken (the L word etc.). Over here.

  • Live Twit/Twat/Tweet of the BlogHer Keynote, 25 July 2009:
  • Tina Brown, Donna Byrd, & Ilene Chaiken 
  • interviewed by Lisa Stone.
  • (To be read bottom to top.)
  • Yes, it was in service of a larger point, about marketing saturation etc. But I got a little, shall we say, *frisson* as I told her.10 minutes ago from web 
  •      
  • I would like now to brag to the LesboTwitoVerse that I told Ilene Chaiken TO HER FACE that I don’t watch her show & never did.11 minutes ago from web
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‘Night, Chicago

By on July 25, 2009 in Metacommentary, Mostly a picture

nightChicago

BlogHer/Chicago 09 Dispatch #2. Yes, it’s the view from my room, on the 31st floor in the air, thankyouverymuch. I think about Joni Mitchell’s song “The Arrangement” every time I press the button in the elevator. (Thanks to the Know It All Brother-In-Law swinging me his frequent traveller points, without which I’m pretty sure I’d be on no floor at all ‘cept a Chicago friend’s.)

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Flights of fancy

By on July 24, 2009 in Miscellaney, Nonsense fun

Dispatch from BlogHer/Chicago 09 #1: Just a quick note to be filed in the “I don’t get out often enough” file: some tidbits from the SkyMall magazine. No tidbits yet regarding the conference because Evening 1 all I did was eat some wonderful free food, sip some wonderful free wine, hug many people excitedly, come up to my room, and then get only partially requited with the internet before crashing.

One thousand bloggers in the same hotel may be a wee strain on the system. Credit to the crack BlogHer events planning tech crew and the Sheraton, who has been feverishly installing/upgrading/what have you. I understand there may be a bellhop or two whose job this weekend is to lean precariously out a window holding a satelite dish in juuuuust the right position.

Now on to the quick note, before I rejoin the happy fray. There will be the jet-setters among you who are out and about all the time, and are utterly dulled to the jaw dropping wonder of the SkyMall magazine. But by my calculations, it has been just over two years that I took a plane somewhere. So I was utterly unprepared for the garden sculptures section of the magazine, which featured, yes,  a GARDEN SASQUATCH.

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