Okay, but I still prefer my old copy of Les poulets n'ont pas de chaises -- Chickens don't have chairs, a great book of completely surreal French comics published by, who else, Grove Press, in 1969.
Meanwhile "buck buck b-buck, we should take our bucks elsewhere and boycott Utah and LDS owned business." There a list to a link in a post below.
Back in the 70s, when the post-Stonewall gay movement was young and feeling the rush of a number of successes, the air started to go out of the energy. GLF ceased to exist. GAA meeting attendance had fallen precipitously. And then the orange juice queen squeezed our newly claimed rights out of Dade County. And the movement had a public figure who energized us and organized us.
Thank you Mormons. You've done it again.
The lgbt movement had become complacent. We are served by organizations that for the most part have a moribund leadership. So many queer folk think that because corporations are willing to advertise to us that we have our rights. Uh, no.
More important than marriage rights, we can still be fired all over the country, with no recourse, because we don’t have employment rights, housing rights or any of the anti-discrimination laws other groups are protected by. While I have fought for marriage equality here in NYC, in much of the country, marriage is not the first issue on the table. Discrimination laws. Hate crime laws. These come first. However, the Mormons have woken up the anger of the vast population of queer folk in places where relative equality has led to complacency. And this means marriage is the order of the day.
Certainly, I understand very deeply the reasons for marriage equality. The man I wanted to marry was a foreign national, and to stay in this country he had to deal with lawyers, visas, work regulations…a maze of madness that was nothing compared to post 9/11 insanity. There are many who live overseas with their partners simply because they do not enjoy the rights of any bi-national heterosexual couple. These folks are heartened by the new awakening of queer rage. And these Love Exiles are organized.
So let’s talk about queer rage and our enemies. Alison Stateman writes in Time Magazine about the dangers of being on a gay enemies list. Give me a break. Nixon had an enemies list. Me? I just want to know who considers my rights expendable, so I can be certain not to spend my money with their businesses. Yes, they have their right of free speech — which the court has decided includes monetary contributions to political campaigns. And I have my right to know who is saying what — and respond accordingly.
Which means I want to know what businesses are Mormon owned. I don’t want to stay at a Marriot thank you very much. I also want to know how many TV and radio stations are owned directly by the LDS church. I want to know which supermarket chain is Mormon owned.
That’s my right. I’m a man who likes to do business with people I like. Which means I don’t want to shop at companies I know contributed to opposing my rights. That said, if I were an employer, I would not discriminate against a Mormon in a job interview. Hell, I once hired an evangelical Christian who took his vacation to do missionary work and who volunteered with Campus Crusade for Christ. He was a good writer, and that was all I cared about. It’s not like I wasn’t out at the office. Everyone, everywhere I have ever worked, has known I’m gay. And the relationship with this employee was interesting to say the least — after all, I’m a member of several faith communities, and I was happy to talk to him about the Gospel of Thomas, among other things. This is where minds change and relationships evolve, one person at a time.
Which brings me to another development today: the Bangor Daily News reported “that more than 120 religious leaders from 14 different faith traditions across Maine have formed the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry in Maine.”
That’s big news. And it’s news that doesn’t get out so well. Here in New York, Empire State Pride Agenda’s Pride in the Pulpit has hundreds of congregations and leaders of faith representing a whole host of denominations and faith traditions, including Methodist ministers in Syracuse, Reform rabbis in Westchester, Roman Catholics in Utica, Buddhist priests in New York City, and proud people of faith throughout New York State.” Yes, you read that right, Roman Catholics.
So I want my community to remember that people of faith are not the enemy. Organized religion isn’t even the enemy. Organized bigotry is the enemy. And bigots can use the already existing infrastructure of organized religion to pursue their agenda.
The Mormons though, are indeed a special case. This is a religion that had to have a prophetic revelation that only came under the duress of legal action, so that black people would be treated equally. It was Mormon doctrine that blacks could not be Mormon priests.
This gets into the dicey area of freedom of religion and the world of the Flying Spaghetti Monster revelations of the Book of Mormon. And it’s not like the denomination of Judaism that I am affiliated with (Conservative) doesn’t have its own issues — with women only being ordained within the last 20 years, and queer folk only being accepted in the last year. But those are fights within these religious organizations. It is when a religious organization takes those beliefs and brings them into the public political process that I take issue.
Want to start a religion where women can’t officiate? Sure, go ahead and good luck to you. Just don’t try to then pass laws that women can’t vote, hold executive jobs, or don’t have control of their own bodies. Want to invite blacks to tithe but not accept them in leadership positions? Go ahead, see where that gets you. It’s your religion and we don’t regulate it. But step into the public square with your organized bigotry and I promise I will do everything in my power to fight you.
And step into the public square and you expose yourself to public scrutiny. The LDS is crying unfair that lgbt groups are targeting their business. Boo hoo.
Writers Alison Stateman see cases like Scott Eckern, who resigned from his position as the artistic director of the California Musical Theatre in Sacramento when his contribution to Yes on 8 was revealed as evidence of a gay mafia that controls who works where.
No Alison. We’re not in charge. We just choose who we want to do business with. And that may have consequences. Don’t like it? Well, pardon me, ENDA, the Employment Non Discrimination Act, which protects lgbt people on the job, is not law. That doesn’t look like power to me. Scott Eckern chose to resign in the face of protest. I could be fired tomorrow and have no recourse.
And so, to my brothers and sisters in this chaotic movement in response to 8, don’t forget that there are also other important battles we have to win. There are gay throwaway kids living on the streets who need our support. There is homophobia in minority communities that needs to be addressed. And coming out for a demo on a nice autumn day isn’t enough.
The Mormons may have made us angry. So did orange juice queen Anita, and that made us, uh, concentrate. Now, as we fight for marriage, we need to look at really building relationship — with others in faith communities who are our allies.
All blessings, and life, flow from One Source — a Source that is beyond time and space — and which has sustained us and brought us to this moment.
Yes, we did.
Yesterday was spent phonebanking for Obama with my friend John down at UFT headquarters near Wall Street.
We called voters in swing states. PA. FL. Then tonight we were off to Room Service in Chelsea where the local queer Dems were holding an election party to watch the tally as the polls closed.
It was a wild scene that began with some tension that lifted as the count clearly headed in our direction. When Christine Quinn took the stage after CNN called the race at 11pm, the crowd was screaming (including one man who vented his fury at Quinn for voting with the mayor on extending term limits). I left at 1am, after our new President spoke to the crowd in Chicago. I still don't know where we are in CA on Prop 8. But I do know this, while the road ahead in this country will still be hard, and while we are clearly still a country very divided, we have a leader who is clearly about healing division. Here at home. And abroad. And that is a real reason to say the Shehecheyanu prayer.
Businessweek reported that in October there were 40 invitations on Evite for Depression parties -- no details as to whether, like the old "Harlem Rent Parties" of the '30s whether guests were expected to help pay the month's mortgage to keep the hosts from becoming homeless...which brings us back to our month-long contest for a new Bush era name for the Hooverville. Details and prizes below. Meanwhile, some other depressing facts from Businessweek about the new Depression: Netflix reports a 10% rise in rentals of The Grapes of Wrath, while unemployment statistics rise to 6.5% (not counting the underemployed). And today the Chinese government, taking a page from FDR, announced a stimulus package of over $500 billion. Bush? MIA, just like he was in the National Guard.
Too bad that Proposition R, the ballot measure in San Francisco to rename the local water treatment facility "The George W. Bush Sewage Treatment Plant" failed to pass. But you still have a chance to give Dubya an enduring memorial by renaming the Hooverville for his incompetent leadership. Entries accepted through Thanksgiving (tho today, the day after the election, feels like Thanksgiving to me). Details follow:
In the 1930s, as the Depression threw millions out of work — and foreclosures threw thousands of families out of their homes — shantytowns sprung up all over the country, makeshift shacks and sheds thrown together from discarded wood and packing material to house the newly homeless in vacant lots, public parks, wherever they were tolerated. Sometimes they weren't tolerated and the police acted to hide the problem in the name of cleaning up the neighborhood. Right. Well. This is a familiar story in New York City.
These shantytowns were called Hoovervilles, after the president who presided over the worst financial disaster in American history — until Dubya's deregulation led to our current ongoing crisis. Above you can see the Hooverville that sprang up in Central Park. But there were local Hoovervilles all over the country. You can actually download an excellent presentation on the subject for Oklahoma schoolkids at Oklahoma Council on Economic Education site.
This brings us to an art installation in Madison Square Park created by Tadashi Kawamata, and paid for by the Madison Square Park Conservancy. Shacks, "tree huts" have been built and installed as art. Reminiscent of treehouses I knew as a kid, my first response on seeing one was delight. Then, as I looked around and saw them in several trees, all I could think was that the money spent on this so-called art could have been given to Habitat for Humanity, which actually makes houses for people. But then, the board of the Conservancy all probably have so much money, for them this is simply play. I think it is in extremely bad taste. Of course, for some already living on the street, these are better digs than what they've got and are in move in condition. I supposed they're guarded at night just so that won't happen.
What is worse, I think it is an unintended harbinger of what is to come in our public parks none too soon. Except that they probably should be renamed for Dubya. Or maybe Greenspan. So this brings us to the contest: What do you think the new Hoovervilles should be called?
I'll pick 3 winners for first, second and third prizes. To be awarded the day after Thanksgiving. What are the prizes?
First Prize: $100 donated to Habitat for Humanity in your name, and a copy of the B52s CD Cosmic Thing. Why that CD? Loveshack, baby.
Second Prize: $50 donated to Habitat for Humanity in your name, and a copy of the B52s CD Funplex. Why? Cause it's a revolution I can dance to.
Third Prize: $25 donated to Habitat for Humanity in your name. No CD. Wish I had put my 401k in CDs. Don't you?
Oh yeah, I'm the judge! So my family can't enter.
The ongoing Chinese food scandals have now rocked the U.K. sex toy market. Seems that melamine in dangerous levels has been found in a chocolate flavoring used to make the sucking all the sweeter. A spokesman for the British Food Standards Agency, in alerting the nation to this clear and present danger, said:
Even better, Ann Summers, the owner of the sex toy chain (and of course, chains are sex toys) gave me even more of a laugh with this quote:
"As a responsible retailer we have tested all of our chocolates and even before the FSA alert was issued had taken all relevant steps to remove the chocolate willy spread product that could be affected by this issue."
Just how are they testing the willy spread? And do they need help?
Okay, this has been on my mind for months. Those WaMu ads with the cool black guy who isn't at all like those old white guy bankers who are out to take your money. I remember watching them and thinking about the demographic shift in the country. How all these Mr. Monopoly type bankers look like the Republican convention — old, rich and out of touch. And how the WaMu guy looked like "us" -- the average guy. Not so different from the Apple ads of Mac vs. PC really, young, hip, relaxed and oh, if you didn't notice, black. A brilliant execution of a common strategy to differentiate the product.
And then, as the primary season ended it looked like the election was in fact cast by the WaMu ad agency, with Obama as WaMu and McCain as those Mr. Monopoly old white bankers. Well, in some ways, McCain is Mr. Monopoly -- regulation be damned, the little guy be damned, let's take
care of Keating, the S&Ls and oh by the way let's not regulate this bailout. Except in the real world, WaMu is a bank like all the others that has jumped off the edge of the building like a lemming following its greed. The campaign was just an advertiser's way of creating a non-bank image for another institution that didn't handle our money well. Still it was a good campaign, and now, both sociologically and historically interesting.
Citi tried to do something similar with their Live Richly campaign, which quite to the contrary of its critics, ran headlines that demonstrated Citi understood that the rich life was not about money, but about love, creativity, connection. They did it with words more than image though, it was an intellectual campaign, a cool campaign, like the client who bought it. I know the agency understood the message of connection and creativity as true wealth. And maybe even the marketing client understood it, but certainly what they also understood was that the creative strategy was a way to say something that differentiated the perception of the bank. However it didn't make a whit of difference to the behavior of the bank as we all know.
So don't read anything into today's worst bailout of a bank since the last Depression (note I say last Depression because if you don't think we're headed for some seriously bad times, you should get off the Zoloft) with regard to their advertising and the outcome of either the bailout or the election. I simply point out the way race and age were used in the WaMu ads to define a difference. I'm curious to know the demographic of most of the customers those ads brought in as WaMu expanded like so many Duane Reades throughout Manhattan.
Tangentially, Duane Reade is also in trouble and has been for months. Like Starbucks, they have too many locations, paying too much rent, so they cut back service which makes people want to go to them even less. However, we have to go since they killed the small pharmacists. Grumble. Grouse. Curmudge.
I'm an Obama supporter, and a serious Democrat -- after all, I'm a queer Jewish Buddhist, which in Pastor Muthee's eyes makes me a witch and an agent of Satan. Truth is I worry for the country no matter who wins, since après Bush le déluge.
No, the interrobang is not a new style of violent interrogation akin to waterboarding. It is a punctuation mark created by a real Mad Man, advertising executive Martin K. Speckter in 1962. A combination of the question mark and exclamation point, it is used at the end of a sentence to convey astonishment, disbelief or to ask a rhetorical question.
The word itself comes from a combination of the printer’s jargon for the question mark “the interrogation point” and the exclamation point — the “bang.” Unfortunately, the use of an interrobang at the end of the question in the headline is appropriate, since the fact that we are torturing prisoners is astonishing, unbelievable, and unfortunately true as Jane Mayer's appalling book, “The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals,” proves beyond a doubt. Perhaps we will read a headline that ends with an interrobang someday that says "Bush Administration Officials Arrested For War Crimes!?"
Speckter's new punctuation mark never caught on, even though Specter used it in ads his agency created for accounts like The Wall Street Journal. Seems much more appropriate to use for a tabloid though.
It actually appeared on a typewriter (not however the Hermes model used by Douglas Adams that is currently up for auction) in the 60s. It was on a Remington that I’d like to add to my collection of Empires, Royals, Olivettis, Hammonds, Olivers, Smiths and Franklins. (Yes, I am afflicted with the collecting bug, and as a writer, typewriters speak to me.
And typographers include it with some fonts. It’s even available on many computers. On a Mac, four different versions can be found in the wingdings 2 font. Simply hit the ` ~ key, the ] } key, the 6 ^ key, or the - _ key and you'll be able to add this unusual punctuation to your documents.
I have to say, I don’t like the use of it in advertising. It’s kind of cheap, like the star burst, which is hated by creatives and loved by clients everywhere. In fact, a rather amusing ad was posted today to adsoftheworld by an agency in Columbia that addressed just this issue of the star burst. You can see it below — it adds to my collection of print ads that use a toilet as the location of the action.
However, I do think the interrobang works well in comic books, and one typographer has created a
variation of the interrobang for the Fritz font that I like very much, seen at right. And I do think the more traditional(!) interrobang works well in a
tabloid. Both are less formal venues. Which brings me to this venue: while the interrobang exists in some Unicode fonts, I can’t seem to be able to use it here except as a graphic. Too bad.
Then there is the symbol that appears almost entirely on the web: the copyright question mark. I have yet to determine its proper use though. Unlike copyleft, which offers up the usage of the material for non-profit use with proper attribution, I assume the copyright question mark is used when a web publisher uses material of uncertain copyright status, and wishes to make that known.
So what would a copyright interrobang mean?
Häagen Dazs has placed an entertaining if somewhat long video on YouTube to drive viewers to a site about the urgent problem of colony collapse and mass die-offs of bees.
The die off is just another sign that we are destroying our environment, and that the system that supports our own food chain is in serious danger. But that’s not why I bring up the campaign.
As an advertising creative, I get frustrated when an interesting and fun idea to publicize an important issue is ruined by poor user experience. Just another sign that the social network environment is being polluted by poorly thought through work.
At least the video is fun. But if you decide to go to the site, helpthehoneybee.com it’s first and foremost a site for Häagen Dazs, that requires yet another click to if you want to do something to help. So once you click again, you get another introductory screen, no product this time, but you still have to click again to “join the mission.” To top it off, loading time is for the animation is slow and the show isn't worth the wait. But I waited for two reasons — first because the cause interests me. And of course out of professional intereste.
So finally we get to a page with bees in a field and a hive menu that takes yet another minute to reveal itself. Finally there is a choice that says “How You Can Help.” First time I click on it, all I get is an instruction to explore the meadow. Tells me that different plants and flowers are important. Stop the presses on this news. So I try the “How You Can Help” menu again.
This time it takes me to some copy that offers me a lesson plan (I didn’t see where this was directed to teachers, but okay) and several other paths to take: Plant a Seed, Donate, Help The Beekeepers, and Tell A Friend.
Seems donating might be something to do to help. Click there and you learn Häagen Dazs is giving money to two
universities to study the problem. And you can too. Okay, so if you decide to donate to Penn State you’re sent to a Penn page that doesn’t refer to bees at all. You’re just giving money to the university. Not very satisfying. But you’ve taken a lot of time to learn that Häagen Dazs is giving money to solve this problem. They could have told me that at the end of the video. Well. What else? Okay, if you click back on the main menu to learn what else they are doing they repeat the donation claim, and then mention their new ice cream flavor, Vanilla Honey Bee.
Tell A Friend? Here is at least a fun viral component where you get to design your own cool looking bee and send it to friends so they can learn Häagen Dazs is giving money on a slow and clunky site. Not very original, but cute nonetheless. Why do I feel Ben & Jerry would have done a better job?
Good idea. Lame execution. And I don't feel that I've helped the bees in any way. I feel I've taken a long time for a PR message. Not so sweet guys.
The New York Times today reported that Buddhism may be
dying out in Japan. I am not in a position
to be able to determine the accuracy of that report, however I did want to comment on something Kazuma Hayashi, a Buddhist priest, said about the custom of selling posthumous honorific names to families of the recently deceased:
“I know that, originally, that’s not what Buddhism was about,” Mr. Hayashi said of the top name. “But it’s a brand that our customers choose. Some really want it, so that means there’s a strong desire there, and we have to respond to it.”
There is so much wrong with that statement I don't know where to begin. There is the reference to people who come for his services as customers. This may be a problem of translation though. The Japanese okyaku can be translated as either "guest" or "customer," however I suspect customer is indeed what Mr. Hayashi meant.
Then he said that he sells these names because people really want it, there's a strong desire. Uhhh, pardon me, but isn't Buddhism about letting go of desire? Certainly any Zen priest could tell you that. Of course, Buddhism is so debased in Japan there are sects that teach believers that chanting can bring them material wealth. Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
The Buddha did not chant to change the path of the deceased. But of course, just as Christianity picked up local customs and gods and incorporated them into local expressions of the faith, Buddhism radically changed as it moved from northern India through China to Japan. The Japanese in fact see no contradiction be being both Shinto and Buddhist, but then Shinto is a religion and Buddhism, at least as taught by the Buddha, was a way of life, a practice. Not a religion. All the rites and rituals came later. This doesn't really matter though today since it has become a religion for so many. Complete with deities the Buddha wouldn't recognize. But this is a bigger subject.
Then there is the issue of Buddhism as a brand. This is one of my personal bugaboos. Buddhism is not a brand. The Democratic party is not a brand. A candidate is not a brand. This is the infection of consumerism into religion and politics. And I am afraid my industry, advertising, is probably very guilty in bringing this way of thinking to the world. Still, every time I hear a pundit on CNN refer to something like "the Kennedy brand" my blood boils (clearly I am not meditating enough).
The posthumous sale of indulgences is what led to schism in the Roman church in the middle ages. It drove people from the church. And clearly it is having a similar effect in Japan in Buddhsim.
Buddhist priests in Japan own the family temple and hand down the job to their sons, since they marry.
Another unique wrinkle in Japanese Buddhism. I have nothing against 
priests marrying. I think the Catholic church would be a happier place if priests were allowed to marry again (as they did, even popes were married, until the early middle ages). But this is simply Buddhism as the family business.
We all seek comfort when someone we love dies. Even more so when a child dies. In Japan, the custom is to purchase a statue of the bodhisatva Jizo, who is said to intercede on behalf of the souls of dead children (and aborted fetuses) in hell. As you can see from this photo from Kamakura's famous Hase Temple, business is booming.
No wonder that Japan people are turning away even as more Americans look to Buddhism as a refuge from consumerist culture and materialism.
Well, actually, the photos that follow this are rather disturbing — it's a series of photos the Boston's Globe's blog called The Big Picture published showing the Chinese Army doing anti-terrorism exercises in preparation for the Olympic Games. These pictures scare me. (Though the photos on the Segway are both hilarious and terrifying at the same time.)
Mind you, it is indeed raining Chinese men. Remember, the one child policy and the preference for male children has led to a wild imbalance in the male/female ratio in China. So there are literally millions of men who will not find a wife. That's a lot of frustrated men in the armed forces — which to me seems like a recipe for worldwide military disaster.
Where is the international homosexual conspiracy to convert when you need it?
Now I have to admit it — I have in fact cavorted with a member of the Red Army. Well, the Red Army Ballet Troupe. One day walking down MacDougal Street in NYC I met the attractive eyes of Jin Xing, a choreographer, dancer and colonel in the Chinese Army's famous ballet corps (shown here at left pre-op). Later — after our own pas de deux — I learned that he had been in Japan earlier that year where he had a met a friend of mine there who it seemed no matter who I met when I lived in Tokyo, he had met the guy already. And it was still happening after I'd moved back to NYC! Well...in any case, Jin Xing went on to become rather famous as China's first MTF transexual. Personally, I think it was a pity. While many sex changes are for deep internal reasons, I believe this is not so different than what happens in Iran today, where gay men prefer to endure sex change operations (which is acceptable) rather than be identified as gay — and thus subject to death under Islamic law. I seem to have wandered far afield...
So getting back to the men on the field above, I suspect that very few of them would turn up at The Web Bar in New York should they find themselves magically transported here (or part of an invasion). But I have to say, that might well be a solution for many of China's population and social problems. And who knows, I might get a boyfriend out of it. Not.
