No, this post is not anachronistic. Today, some choose to celebrate the day America declared its independence from England. However, I additionally celebrate something else of great import today, the beginning of Christmas music season. When my iPod alarm clock went off to wake me today, it was to the sound of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year."
You see, I love Christmas music. I think that Christmas music surpasses many other common genres of music both in quality and enjoyment. But, because Hallmark tells us we can't start playing Christmas music until the Thanksgiving greeting cards have had their run, this wonderful trove of music is enjoyed only for about 5 weeks a year. Can you imagine if someone suggested that we listen to Madonna and Cher, say, only from May to mid-June each year? The world would unravel at its core! Yet, the suppression and discrimination against Christmas music continues year after year without so much as a single march of protest on the Capitol.
So, in 1993 as a freshman in college, I decided that I would not take it anymore. I would change the world. And from July 4, 1993, to today, I have declared Christmas music season to begin on July 4. Yes, I am a compromiser not to insist upon the music being listened to year-round, but there is a small part of me that recognizes there is a "specialness" that adheres to our Christmas favorites partially because of the fact that we don't get to listen to them all year. So, I figured a 50-50 compromise would be adequate. And I still get that "special" feeling from the music. I am perhaps the only person in the world who spends the entire month of June eagerly anticipating listening to Christmas music and struggling to be disciplined to wait until the 4th of July (I was successful, too! Listened to my first Christmas song of the year this morning at 1:00 a.m.!).
So, Happy Holidays! Of course, I do not listen to Christmas music exclusively during the latter half of the calendar year, but I do consistently mix it in with my musical rotations. Therefore, if you happen to be in my car and hear Mannheim Steamroller's "Angels We Have Heard on High" in the middle of August, don't give me a strange look. I will devastate you with my defense of Christmas music's true, authentic, and complete season.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
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Christmas Music Season Begins! |
Monday, July 03, 2006
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Happy Fourth of July! |
I would like to wish my American readers a Happy Independence Day tomorrow, and to all you non-American readers, we apologize for our president.
The above photo is dedicated to my friends who still think I am a closeted Republican. The flag-burning amendment is, frankly, silly, and I think that many Republicans in Congress are pushing for it not out of principle but as an easy way to drum up votes from the red-staters.
While I am grateful for the opportunities given to me living where I do, it seems to me that those who would ban flag-burning are fighting against the very freedom of expression that the flag supposedly symbolizes. If they were to win and the US Constitution be amended, they would essentially have gutted the symbol of its meaning and caused far more damage to the flag than anyone who burns it.
So, while I may not go out and burn a flag myself, I would fight adamantly for the right of my friend to do so. And, I will enjoy the hot guy on the flag blanket without the slightest twinge of conscience.
*Note - This is my first blatantly political post ever, so be gentle! (Just kidding...fire away, I 'm a big boy).
Sunday, July 02, 2006
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The Pink Letter |
According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (referenced at thefreedictionary.com),
- A reclaimed word is a word that was formerly used solely as a slur but that has been semantically overturned by members of the maligned group, who use it as a term of defiant pride. Queer is an example of a word undergoing this process. For decades queer was used solely as a derogatory adjective for gays and lesbians, but in the 1980s the term began to be used by gay and lesbian activists as a term of self-identification. Eventually, it came to be used as an umbrella term that included gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people. Nevertheless, a sizable percentage of people to whom this term might apply still hold queer to be a hateful insult, and its use by heterosexuals is often considered offensive. Similarly, other reclaimed words are usually offensive to the in-group when used by outsiders, so extreme caution must be taken concerning their use when one is not a member of the group.
Today, as I read that paragraph from the dictionary, I thought about the fact that the term queer has really gone through an evolution much more active than most words. Today it is becoming more and more a positive, pro-gay "political" label after years of being a term of malignment. However, any sexual connotation good or bad is only applicable during the fairly recent life of the word. Before that it had the meaning simply of being "odd." I love running across queer and gay in classic literature, because, in light of modern usage, it makes me giggle, and I can enjoy being shallow and erudite simultaneously (think "Beavis and Butthead do Shakespeare").
Some examples:
"The man made a queer noise in his throat." (Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter)
- Jimmy Bean! What are you sucking on?
"For, as night came on, a queer, empty feeling at the pit of his stomach reminded the Marionette that he had eaten nothing as yet." (The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi)
- Do you know why Jiminy Cricket got kicked out of Geppetto's workshop? Because he kept sitting on Pinocchio's nose and yelling "Lie to me!"
"You can't conceive how queer it all seems to a country person like me, as queer as that gentleman's nails I saw at your place." (Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy)
- All romantics resemble one another, each disturbing fetish is disturbing in its own way.
"It is a queer man-pride that leads one to drink with men in order to show as strong a head as they." (John Barleycorn by Jack London)
- ...taken from the Sidetrack mission statement, I assume
"Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account, for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked, and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in." (Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain)
- Don't try and fool me no more, Tom; I know what it means! Huck Finn. Huck Nasty! You didn't go up there to fish!
"Since she had been living in other people's houses and had had no Ayah, she had begun to feel lonely and to think queer thoughts which were new to her." (The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett)
- No wonder Mary was always staring dreamily at the bushes....
"This is a queer country, and we may as well take people as we find them." (The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum)
- I was ready to take the Tin Woodsman when I found him. Got him all oiled up, but then I realized a heart was not the only thing he was missing.
"Very well; now steer toward the wharf where the big ship with the queer flag is." (Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott)
- First-ever documented gay cruise advertisement.
"I doubt if I looked as queer as you." (Turn of the Screw by Henry James)
- C'mon...Turn of the Screw? That's way too easy!
"Now, the people of the Pequod had been baling some time in this way; several tubs had been filled with the fragrant sperm; when all at once a queer accident happened." (Moby Dick by Herman Mellville)
- Aw Moby! You got it on my pillow! You and your damn dick!
"I knew he wanted to make his queer noises for me--to bark like a dog or whinny like a horse--but he did not dare in the presence of his elders." (My Antonia by Willa Cather)
- And on that note, have a fabulous day!
Friday, June 30, 2006
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Pride Radio in Chicago |
I'm not sure how I missed this before, but on June 16, Chicago got a gay radio station. Admittedly it requires an HD Digital Radio receiver and subscription to listen to the radio in your car, but you can listen for free online.
The station is apparently run by KISS FM 103.5, as the online listening is run through their site. I really don't know much at all about the station, but it seems it is primarily music geared toward a gay audience. I only had about 15 minutes to listen earlier today, and had there been a shirtless twink next to me flashing the lights in my office on and off, I would have thought I was in Roscoes.
Well, it's always nice to see when successful businesspeople recognize the profit in valuing the gay community. And, for the detractors who feel that a gay radio station that plays all dance music reinforces certain stereotypes about us queers, well, there's a reason for those sterotypes, honey! (Let me see you put your hands up!)
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And On a...er..."Lighter" Note.... |
This is funny and disturbing on several fronts.
From Reuters.com....
Operation removes lightbulb from anus
Thu Jun 29, 2006 7:34am
MULTAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - Fateh Mohammad, a prison inmate in Pakistan, says he woke up last weekend with a glass lightbulb in his anus.
Wednesday night, doctors brought Mohammad's misery to an end after a one-and-a-half hour operation to remove the object.
"Thanks Allah, now I feel comfort. Today, I had my breakfast. I was just drinking water, nothing else," Mohammad, a grey-beared man in his mid-40s, told Reuters from a hospital bed in the southern central city of Multan.
"We had to take it out intact," said Dr. Farrukh Aftab at Nishtar Hospital. "Had it been broken inside, it would be a very very complicated situation."
Mohammad, who is serving a four-year sentence for making liquor, prohibited for Muslims, said he was shocked when he was first told the cause of his discomfort. He swears he didn't know the bulb was there.
"When I woke up I felt a pain in my lower abdomen, but later in hospital, they told me this," Mohammad said.
"I don't know who did this to me. Police or other prisoners."
The doctor treating Mohammad said he'd never encountered anything like it before, and doubted the felon's story that someone had drugged him and inserted the bulb while he was comatose.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
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Sometimes it Rains |
One of my dearest friends just received life-altering news. This poem is dedicated to him.
(Note: I am anything but a good poet, so take this as a heart-felt song rather than any attempt to pass myself off as truly poetic.)
-by Eukolos
It rained tonight.
No.
It stormed.
With all the fury of nature.
Obscuring
the road in front of me,
Forcing
me to look down at my feet,
Removing
the opportunity to see what lies further on.
The ground
soaked,
slippery,
precarious to my step.
Unsteady,
Uncertain.
And as the rain falls
I am afraid I will fall.
The storm swirling around,
my balance thrown off.
And I fear
if I fall
I will not rise again.
The wind
Howling,
Agonizing,
Frightening me.
I run.
Wet.
Feeling lost.
I am lost.
Am I?
I don't know where I am
But I am compelled
by some unseen force to keep
running
running
running.
I am lost.
Or at least
I don't know where I am
Or how to get where I need to go.
I don't even know if the path continues ahead of me.
Because I can't lift my eyes up from the ground.
If I glance away for a moment I know I will lose my balance and fall
and never
be able
to get
up
again.
But what is this?
I am home.
It's still raining.
I am still wet.
But I am home.
How did I get here?
How did I make it when I never was able
even for a moment
to look up from my feet?
Oh,
I remember.
My friend.
You have been here this whole time.
I was so focused on my storm that I didn't notice you at first.
But you were there
helping me keep my balance
when the winds threatened to throw me to the ground.
You were there
helping me stay on the path
when I did not have the ability even to believe the path was still there.
You were there
helping me find my way home
when these changes in my life nearly overwhelmed me.
You were there.
Directing my steps.
Holding me up.
Infusing hope.
Giving me your strength
When mine was gone.
Yes, in life,
Sometimes it rains.
But there is hope.
For a friend is there
To guide me
Home.
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