Another Queer Jewish Buddhist

The power of coalition politics vs. the "new gay movement 2.0"

JoeMyGod today reported on State Senator Diaz issuing a statement of support for Rick Warren. He then quoted one of our supposed new leaders, Jeff Campagna, of the Facebook group The Power as saying:

"As the leader of the movement to call on Diaz and his cronies to be good Democrats and to support their party's takeover of the New York State Senate, I'm disgusted to hear that Diaz is now using Rick Warren's invitation to the invocation as evidence that bigots like himself are welcome at the table."

Sorry, this is where facebook groups and silent protests fail. As a way to get out information fast, Facebook can't be beat. As a way to canvas a new generation, terrific. But who cares about Rick Warren, who actually affects no legislation in NYC. Diaz is the target, and to just ask people to write Change.gov about Warren is waste of time. There are a lot of big names attached to The Power group. I know they are doing more, and want to work smarter than this.

For example, ESPA has built a coalition with unions whose members live in the district Diaz represents -- because they understand that it's not just about us, it's about workers. So Elizabeth Benjamin at the Daily News reports that:

...some 8,000 Bronx members of 32BJ will receive direct direct mail pieces targeting two of the so-called Gang of Three - Senator-elect Pedro Espada Jr. and Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. - in an effort to crank up pressure on the dissidents to come back to the Democratic fold and back Malcolm Smith for majority leader.

The mailers, which are in both English and Spanish, are part of a wider campaign by a number of labor interests that were instrumental in helping the Senate Democrats win a majority of seats this fall for the first time since 1965 and don't want to see the fruits of their labor scuttled by three renegades.

Other union members of this pro-Democrat alliance include: Unite-HERE/ New York Hotel Trades Council, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and the Communications Workers of America.

All will be sending mail to their respective members to "prioritize a progressive agenda which puts the agenda of working families ahead of their own," according to 32BJ spokesman Eugenio H. Villasante.

Yep, we've got unions, strong unions, working with us. Because we have joint goals and a partnership that has been nurtured over time. This is what went wrong in California -- there was no outreach to minority communities or working class people. This is activism as narcissism. If you don't find common cause with people, then they sure aren't going to be there when you need them.

I may have worked on Madison Avenue for the last 30 years, but I come from lower middle class Brooklyn. And I know the power of unions, coalition building and simple door to door, face to face organizing. You don't get that from a Facebook group. Yeah, I know, I am old school. Or just old. But the web is only one tool in the arsenal. If you forget that you actually have to reach out to real people, they won't see us or our cause as real.

Yeah, a facebook group can fill a street full of people who are angry real fast-- people who can carry placards and march. But then what do you do? To quote Joan Baez singing about Joe Hill: organize.

Jubu News

Well, other bloggers have picked on the S.J.Parker story — the story appears in a thread on Jubus in a Thai website that also notes the posting by Shravasti Dhammika that I responded to last week. The blog Going For Refuge also picks up the Parker story, and comments on it from a more personal POV. The Precious Metal blog, that covers stories of interest to Buddhists, including good coverage of Burma and Tibet, re-publishes the story whole, without comment, though its readers have a lot to say on the subject that's amusing. Tibetblogs.com picks up the Precous Metal posting whole, with the comments from the blog. Whereas over at Heck of A Guy, the focus on the Parker story shifts to Leonard Cohen, who the author is a real fan of.

In queer jubu news, a lesbian couple in Michigan was searching for a rabbi to marry them (sounds like the opening of a joke, I know). And because one of the partners came from a mixed marriage (not meaning a man and a woman but a Jew and a Gentile) the rabbi wouldn't perform the ceremony. This is actually the case at my synagogue, where there have been queer commitment ceremonies for years, but only for couples where both partners were Jewish. The reason? You are making an agreement, a covenant or b'rit, and this kind of sacred covenant requires that you be Jewish. Anything else is simply a contract. Secular.

As it turns out, they found a Jubu cantor (who is also an acupunturist) to do the ceremony. Mazel Tov! If only the Jubu cantor was a gay guy! I'd be on my way to Michigan to ask for a date.

Jubu Review: Recent Web Activity

I'm always on the lookout for others who write about the Jewish Buddhist phenomenon.  An article that recently appeared  on Ground Report notes that:

A majority of the board of directors of a leading Buddhist magazine, Tricycle: A Buddhist Review, are ethnic Jews. Half of the 10 Buddhist abbots to take charge of the Zen Center of San Francisco over the last 40 years were of Jewish ancestry. 

This quantifies what has been reported anecdotally, and certainly has been much of my experience. And not unlike the the story in Chaim Potok's classic novel The Chosen, where two Jewish boys (one Hasidic and one not) not only become friends but eventually trade places in their relationship to the faith, the article tells the story of Rabbi Alan Lew and his friend Norman Fischer. In the 70s both of them studied Zen together under Berkeley Zen Master Sojun Mel Weitsman (who also grew up Jewish). Everyone thought that Lew would follow in his teacher's path and become a Buddhist priest, while Fischer would become a rabbi. The opposite happened. Though Lew's books, much influenced by his Zen practice, bring meditation to the tribe in ways that work for those who might find the practice somewhat suspect — placing it firmly within the tradition. In fact, Lew's book on the High Holiday's "This Is Real And You Are Completely Unprepared" has to be one of the finest books on the subject. And today Fischer is a high-ranking (there's an interesting Buddhist concept) Buddhist priest going under the name of Zoketsu. Check out the article — there is much more of interest there.

Meanwhile, over at didJEWknow, it is reported that while most American Buddhists are of Asian descent, approximately 30% of converts (another peculiar concept that does not really apply to Buddhism unless one would consider taking refuge conversion) are/were Jewish. In this story Rabbi Lew makes another appearance, along with Jubu regulars Jock Kornfeld and Ram Dass (who is really a HinJew but since he is also quite queer he's a Queer Jubu Hero — and why quibble over the HinJew title, since I consider Buddhism a Protestant reformation of Hinduism anyway). This post also covers the dramatic story of Buddhist nun Aya Khema, who was born Jewish in pre-war Germany, escaped the Nazis only to be interned by the Japanese. She was ordained in the 70s in Sri Lanka. One quibble I have with the author of this blog however is that he consistenly refers to Jubus as Bu-Jews, which is certainly in currency. But like any Lilliputian, I am ready to go to war over this stubborn insistence on a divergent locution (may I be free of anger and ill-will....).

Last, somewhat tangentially, over at the Indwelling Spirit Blog, a site that covers LGBT Christian concerns, queer Lutheran Pastor Dan Hooper writes about some other locutions — recent colloquial phrases current in the queer religious community (including Jubu) along with their definitions. Some of them are quite funny and sad at the same time, such as this entry:

gay church, n. jocularly, a gym. Editorial Note: Popularized by, if not originated by, the American television sitcom Will & Grace. Occasionally, in various nonce uses as in the 2004 citation, the term is applied to other places or activities stereotypically associated with homosexuals.

Now I never really watched Will & Grace (heresy! burn him!) so this is a new one on me and pretty funny. But of course, it led me for the first time to consider another meaning for the title of the show. The definition also reminded me of a phrase from an affirmation satire book from the 90s I love: I Am My Own Best Casual Acquaintance:

My body is a temple.
Want to come over for midnight mass?

And that's the Jubu webweek review.
 

Masturbation in Advertising

Advertising about advertising. Advertising about advertising that sucks up to creative directors. Talk about masturbation.  Perhaps that is the point here — a visual pun that manages to give some creative egos hard strokes (though in a very creepy way). Come again?

Maybe this is just an international appeal for Congress (or ad execs) to support adding trans protection to ENDA. With well known creatives (Bogusky, Droga, etc) willing to appear as in the middle of MTF transition. Somehow I think not. Then there's that sort-of rainbow logo. What?

And why isn’t there a foot in wide stance under the wall from the other stall in the D. Droga version? They’re missing an opportunity to be even more scatologically topical.

I have no idea what the point of this work from an Italian advertising, uh, blog? agency? is. But I suppose they might believe they succeeded in getting buzz simply because I am writing it. But this is infantile attention getting in the most tasteless way. It's one thing to be a star fucker, but to be a star masturbater takes things to a whole new level.

Copywriters know how to write a blog...

Over at Joe My God earlier today there was a request for readers to share what their own blogs are about. I always love to look at what people who read there are writing themselves, so it was a good way to get all the URLs in one place. It's amazing how much smart writing there is...and sometimes isn't.

There is of course the 95% Rule. 95% of everything is going to be bad. Advertising. Movies. Blogs. That's just what it is. And then there is the DSM diagnosis of the age and my generation: narcissistic personality disorder. When that meets the web there is an explosion of verbiage (a word this copywriter hates because copywriters write copy, authors write books and stories, and people who can't write spew out verbiage whether they are copywriters, authors or not) that is depressing.

So it is with great pleasure that I link to a blog unlike the rest. One that gave me a good laugh. Written by a copywriter whose work I know and admire. (And for those of you who have raised an eyebrow at this point, no, I'm not talking about myself.)

What ever became of…? Google & Wikipedia changed the game.

There used a series of books that helped nostalgia buffs find out "What Ever Became of...," Ruth Etting, Billy Gilbert, Edna Mae Oliver and the like. The author was Richard Lamparski, and I knew about this witty little series filled with stories about these faded stars of yesteryear — celebrities who would be considered D-list today only appearing in a cable channel reality show) because the first friend I made in Gay Youth was Michael Knowles, who did legwork, research and photography for Richard and receives credits in a number of the volumes.

Today of course, new books would be redundant. Just the other day I was curious about an 80s alternative rock group I loved called Human Sexual Response . I went directly to Wikipedia. Lo and behold, there was a complete entry on them along with follow ups of what became of members of the band after they broke up. For that matter, there is a website devoted to photographs of the graves of the famous, the infamous and the almost forgotten celebrities of the past. Pere Lachaise comes to the web.

And then there’s Google. We all know the guilty pleasure of Googling oneself. Or the disappointment. But what is really interesting is the way we find each other. Last year found a man I hadn’t seen since 1981 when I moved to Japan. He had returned to live in the town in Tennessee where he grew up, and by Googling his name, eventually I came across an entry that had to be him. And just yesterday I received an email out of the blue from a woman I hadn’t seen or heard of since 1981. Of course, there is also the weird experience of finding other people with your name on Google and their very different lives. While my old colleague did reach me by email, she also thought she had heard me on a podcast she downloaded from another site created by a man with the same name as me, another Mark Horn who also happens to write about advertising and business among other things!

At the moment, I am looking for a lot of people I've lost touch with because Gay & Lesbian Youth New York, or Gay Youth when I was a member, is holding a reunion on November 3rd for all the people who were ever in the group, from its inception in 1969. Sad to say, the first place I check for a name that I don’t have a contact for is the Social Security Death Index. Last night though, I was speaking on the phone to someone who had been in the group with me and who I hadn’t spoken to since 1994. He told me that one person I was looking for was listed in the Manhattan phone book. I laughed, because I’d gotten out of the habit of looking in it. And in fact when I went to check I realized that I didn’t have a phone book anymore. Except there really is no replacement online for the local white pages.

By the way, if you’re wondering whatever became of Richard Lamparski, today he lives in Montecito and recently published two new books of memoir material: Manhattan Diary and Hollywood Diary.

And if you know anyone who was either in GY or GLYNY, send them to the GLYNY board for information on the reunion.

Random Drag In Advertising and the Archaeology of Links

Checking the industry blogs this morning I came across a truly odd bit of local TV advertising from Detroit for a cross-dressing exterminator on Adfreak. Now there have been many local spots that feature the business owner. Here in New York, Tom Carvel’s hard as gravel voice was the perfect foil for his soft ice cream. Mrs. Potamkin in her furs just dripped nouveau riche as she, and the family, appeared in spots for their Cadillac dealership (speaking of Cadillac, Republic of T has a recent post on their advertising that while lengthy, is quite interesting even if as an ad exec I don't believe it captures either the reality or the true madness of the business).

In any case, here we have the distinct pleasure of Mr. Harris, owner of this pest control service, selling his services while appearing in drag. In a way that appears completely random. No connection to the sell at all. And no connection to the call to action at the end of the spot. That said, here I am not only writing about it, but linking to it, which is something any advertiser wants — free additional publicity that stems from paid advertising. Of course, the problem for Mr. Harris is that I don’t believe I have any readers in Detroit. And since I live in NYC I  cannot avail myself of his services or his fashion advice. 

As I mentioned, I came across this spot on Adfreak, which is a blog I check regularly as a creative advertising professional. But Adfreak found the spot on Consumerist (a site I ought to be looking at regularly) which in turn found it on YouTube (of course). Such is the archaeology of this particular link. A sort of 6 degrees of link separation on the web can connect you to anyone on the planet now. This continues to amaze me on a daily basis regardless of how commonplace it is. My reaction is probably a function of my generational cohort, which is a euphemistic way of saying I’m old.