Lunch with Papa John

My father has always been animated, but these days he's becoming downright archetypal.



As seen at lunch with (Franna and) Papa John at the Picnic before flying back to SF.

UCSF's Elizabeth Blackburn named Nobel Laureate

And frankly, it's about time. Still. This is exciting. Congratulations!

Hot Time, Indian Summer in the City

All weekend: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in Golden Gate Park. Made of the Awesome.

This morning almost all my favorites are on the Banjo Stage: The Dry Branch Fire Squad, Steve Martin, Ricky Skaggs, Gillian Welch, and Steve Earle. THAT'S a lineup. Nashville freinds Guy Clark & Verlon Thompson are on the Rooster Stage, and the songwriter's circle looks like a dream lineup. Tomorrow morning things kick off with Darrell Scott on the Banjo Stage.

And of course, Love Fest, aka "Straight Pride," down Market Street.

Sunday- Castro Street Fair! Come dance at the Sundance stage behind the Castro Theater.

Update: I spent my evening at a wonderful family event—a christening barbecue party on a 1,500 acre ranch in petaluma.

Coming home, and wondering if I should go out again, I had to laugh at the SFist's comment on the Love Fest/Love Parade:

It's been dubbed LovEvolution this year, but it's all the same shit. Nostalgia for 90s-rave-era fashion, combined with deep house beats and nostalgia for 60s-era peace, love and body paint -- all reveled in by teenagers who are too young to remember either. Well, them and at least A DOZEN fully naked, middle-aged men who looked like they just wandered out of the dungeon they've been in since Folsom Street Fair just to get their picture taken with some kids. Seriously, guys -- half of these girls and boys are, like, twelve! Put some clothes on! We couldn't even stomach taking pics of the nudists, but here's some general sense of the day-drinking, dancing, and drugging that paraded up Market Street toward the afternoon rave at Civic Center.

7:45 PM UPDATE - *MAJOR* shitshow at Civic Center BART/Muni right now. The cold blew on in, everyone's coming down and shivering in their skivvies. It looked like they'd locked the Muni gates and were otherwise preventing the crowd to move through, or else they were too effed up to figure out the whole making change thing. Anyhow, see more pics at this Flickr Pool.

Make time for a Brief Encounter

I'm going to join the chorus of theater reviewers heaping praise on ACT's re-envisioning production of Noël Coward's Brief Encounter. The beyond-clever imagining of this late 1930s piece is matched only by the superb acting and musical talents of its ensemble cast.

True, there are two characters central to the play, their particular brief encounter—but by the end of the show, the secondary story lines demand equal if not more emotional investment by the audience. And the absolutely superb and versatile acting chops of the other-wise-might-be-called-supporting players make this truly a team production. While Hannah Yelland and Milo Twomey more than ably embody the ill-timed lovers Laura and Alec, Annette McLaughlin and Beverly Rudd all but steal the show, albeit subtly, as their increasingly comical and disparate characters cross the stage—revealing such theatrical skill that if done overtly it would be considered bragging. As it is, they are merely marvelous.

The play is so very English, which often adds to the humor for the local audience ("You know, I'm madly in love with you." "Oh yes, quite."). The rest of Coward's humor is at times equally dry but exceptionally amusing and characteristic of his eponymous wit.

Director and Adapter Emma Rice has concocted a masterpiece from the original 1335 play Still Life, the 1945 screenplay Brief Encounter and additional songs by Noël Coward. In fact, she has crafted an unusual sort of musical—a show that is full of music, and songs you might be surprised you recognize, but not a "musical" in the typical sense of the word. All of the actors sing and even play instruments, and the interlude songs comment on the action, but the characters do not sing the songs, nor do they sing the plot. Period persons play for the audience and set the mood before the magenta curtain rises, and continue to pepper themselves across the stage, house, and even the lounge during intermission, to entertain and carry the sensation forward.

Emma Rice also throws in a little multimedia splash that will set your jaw dropping. And the less said about that the better. I cringe whenever I hear about "multimedia" pieces, but her vision does not distract from the story nor performance, but rather jars the audience out of the ordinary, and out expectation, and into the world being created before them. The subtle use of puppets is consistent with this new reality and is simultaneously unexpected and entirely appropriate.

While Emma Rice does deserve accolades for her creation, it could not come to such fruition without this talented cast. All of them melodic, at at times balletic.

As I happened to take this performance on an Out with ACT night, I also got to enjoy the reception afterward. Much love to the cast for engaging on "Gay Night," and for being as captivating off stage as on. Kevin, my usual Statler, was on a flight to Ireland with his bf, so I invited a date to share our seats (whom I met at an Out with ACT event last year). However, with my open wallet at intermission and the open bar at the reception, he was a bit "over-served" and shortly was all over the barely-legal and entirely hetero piano player like gravy on a biscuit. Annette and I found this amusing for a time, until we had to explain to him that's not what was meant by "pianist."

So to wrap this up: check your calendars and make a date for a Brief Encounter as soon as possible. Go. Now.

And in short, as I have said before and applies to this experience: Who ever said that the greatest loves are the ones that last?

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Side note: the cast loved that it was "Gay Night." Randy used my copy in the marketing materials and was introducing me as "The Number One Gay." After a while I decided to be flattered by that.



Adam Pleeth, Stuart McLoughlin, Annette McLaughlin,
Director Emma Rice, Beverley Rudd, Milo Twomey and Joe Alessi

And of course, I had to take this photo of Beverly and me just for the caption:



Bev, Mo.
Flickr set.

BTW, winos take note: BevMo has just started their 5¢ sale.

Watch out Charlene, the B's are coming...

It's the Return of the Killer B's! Movies that is, performed live by Foul Play at the Stage Werx theater.

This month, perfect for Halloween season, BRIDE of FRANKENSTEIN!—performed in black and white!



I bet our bees are scared to death.

the lifetime costs of being gay (without legal marriage)

while immeasurable in emotional terms, are broken down in financial terms by The New York Times.

back

Hey. I returned from Nashville with a NASTY cold. My head has (mostly) cleared and I'll be posting lotsa goodies soon.



This reminds me of the AWESOME appearance of a reformed Cookie Monster on the Colbert Report. (It displays a still of "no longer available," but it still plays when clicked.)



"Me was the Robert Downey Jr. of cookies."

tetriSF

I love Nashville, but I'm also glad to be back in a town that inspires this sort of behavior, and that this is a town where this sort of actually happens.

Via Laughing Squid: A crew of 36 Freeboard skaters created a life size game of Tetris in neon on a San Francisco hill. Music is a E*Rock remix of “You Can Not Believe It” by Copy.

172 students, 1 shot

This looks like a lot of fun, and a lot of work. And clearly more fun working than I'm having. So engaging:

50 years strong

Golden

I'm flying home to Nashville to participate in the celebration of my parents' 50th wedding anniversary this weekend. Honesty, I get choked up a little every time I think about it.

The brothers and I, naturally, are preparing a presentation. They have also rummaged and found a book of photos from the wedding and some family photos from around that time. Sister-in-law Stephanie was kind enough to scan these at Walgreen's and send them to me for editing.



I can't get enough of these. What BABIES they were! Mom was only 21, and had graduated from Vanderbilt just the May before. Dad had just turned 23. (They knew each other in high school and did date at Vandy.)



And as Mom told me looking at these, "I was 21. Just graduated college, Had a job programing for IBM, was getting married, and thought I knew everything."

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She claims she is still learning. But with the three boys she has, I think by now she just might have seen it all.

will wet my briefs at this encounter

The reviews for Noël Coward's revamped Brief Encounter at ACT have been RAVE.

I'm seeing it tonight with Out with ACT (and, Heaven help me, they've used me in their promotional materials for the new season).

Unfortunately, my Statler is flying off to Ireland tonight. But the ever so (arm) charming Wil has agreed to accompany me. I am so looking forward to this.

this weekend for me: no Folsom, all Wholesome

I came out to SF for job interviews in September of 1996, and my professional host, amused that I was a gay guy from The South who had never been to San Francisco before, not only dropped me off, alone, in the Castro to "meet my people," but on a whim took me to my first Folsom Street Fair. I was dressed in what I have come to think of as Total Tennessee Frat Boy Drag. And for heaven's sakes, I was dressed in color. And in jeans and hiking boots.

Bruce (heh, a straight guy named Bruce no less) thought I might implode at the scene, but after about five or ten minutes of chaps and cheeks, the shock value wears off.

For the past four years, I have really enjoyed working Folsom as a volunteer in a booze booth benefiting the Gay Rodeo (technically, the Bay Area Chapter of the Golden State Gay Rodeo Association). This will be the first year since that virgin (heh) outing in 1996 that I will miss a Folsom Street Fair. And the surrounding parties and antics.

Instead, I will be going to a much more important and considerably different sort of affair: This Saturday, to the day, will mark my parents' 50th wedding anniversary.

Which is sort of Folsom I suppose, in that clearly my Dad is totally whipped.

away, my boys

"I'm such a mess, I can't imagine being anybody's anchor."
"Well, you weigh me down."

finding that special someone

"How is he in a relationship?"
"I don't know."
"And what is up with this pairing?"
"I know. It's like Jane Goodall meets Nell."

that's not love coming down like rain

Wow. Atlanta is some serious with the wet. The Shilpa was routed by AirTrans to return from Detroit via ATL. Flight was delayed due to "weather."

Shilpa plopped down the $12 for wifi and logged in to kill some time and report to her chauffeur (me). She told me rain was delaying her departure and didn't know when she'd get back.

I thought it must be serious based on the Facebook updates. My friend Catherine in Atlanta wrote: "There is so much rain in Atlanta, that my 3 yr old is now pretending that his cars are having to turn around b/c of flooding!! "Road Closed, have to turn around." They really do imitate EVERYTHING!!"

I commented about Shilpa and Catherine added "The rain is crazy 2 ppl at least have died from their cars flooding around ATL today. Tell your friend to hit the bar, the ATL in the rain could be a long wait!! if she needs a drinking partner, I might be available! :)"

I let Shilpa know.

Hours later, Shilpa and the other stranded souls boarded, only to deplane another hour later. They were assured that they could make their connections as all flights were being held away from ATL for a while.

Upon ultimate arrival to ATL, Shilpa followed the directions to her connection. Four agents told her it was there. The flights at the gates did not correspond to the flights on the display screens, nor instructions by agents. After more investigation, schlepping back and forth, and ultimately arguing, she found an agent who did in fact know where her flight to SFO was—in the air and departed about an hour earlier.

By all accounts, ATL was a complete clusterfk. Every counter was thronged by frustrated and exhausted passengers trying to make it to their destinations. Shilpa tried dealing with agents on the phone, who where using the same bad information she had been previously fed on the ground. She purchased another round of wifi, which would not connect.

There is not another AirTrans flight to SFO from ATL until Thursday. The best the AirTrans phone agent could manage was to put her on a 3:00 AM flight to Milwalkee (keep in mind she just flew in from Detroit) where she might, might get on an 8:00 am flight to SFO.

Last I heard this was her reserve plan, and was going to wait with the masses to talk to a physical agent to get back sooner, route more directly, or get put on a different carrier.

And she has not been heard from again.

CNN reports today that the travel inconvenience is the least of the troubles—the rains aren't over yet, and seven people have died in the flooding, with another missing and presumed dead in Chattanooga.

Flights at ATL, however, appear to have resumed.

Update: Alert Reader Caroline points to photos of the flooding from the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Reports indicate that all fatalities were people in cars trying to ford flooding, or those who tried to rescue them. The missing man and his buddy went swimming in a flooded ditch on a bet. Just a month ago, the area was considered in drought conditions.

And check out this portion of flooded interstate in downtown Atlanta.



What was so important they had to risk driving into that?

CNN/Anderson Cooper's three minutes on it last night:



Update: 26 hours later, the Shilpa has landed.

And forwarded by Alert Reader Skot Land: "This is God's punshishment for Atlanta Police Department's raid on the Atlanta Eagle."

just when you thought AT&T couldn't get worse

It's no secret that AT&T's mobile service is crap, enough that it sullies the good name of crap.

They admit that their network can't handle the traffic of their own subsribers, much less new subscribers, and the concentration of iPhone users (AT&T customers) causes brownouts or blackouts whenever there are large gatherings of creative or tech professionals. The network is so inadequate, AT&T has forced Apple to cripple certain network-intensive apps for the iPhone. The required AT&T service contract is universally seen as the worst feature of the iPhone.

So AT&T proposes this fix: They sell you a box—not provide mind you, sell— and for a month fee—again, for a free— that you can install where AT&T's service is lacking that will reroute your cell calls through your internet connection, an internet connection you are already paying someone else for.

So to actually provide customers with the service they've already paid for once, AT&T wants their customers to pay them again for the same service they are supposed to be receiving, and even then, pay them twice (first for the equipment and then for the service).

This is called "MicroCell 3G." (And here.)

And tech and consumer sites are rightfully shouting WTF?

new meaning to eye teeth

Sight has been restored to a woman who has been blind for nine years by a process and surgeries where they extracted a tooth, carved it, fitted it with an acrylic lens, let it "incubate" in her chest skin, then sewed the whole tooth-lens apparatus into her eye.

Seriously. No wonder I heard about this from a science fiction blog.

Via iO9, story in the Miami Herald.

Video of a press conference/interview:



Shorter news coverage with animated explanation from Good Morning America:

Why we need health insurance reform NOW

In case you missed it: Insurance Company Must Pay $10 Million For Revoking Policy Of Teen With HIV

I believe the term "evil" applies here.

Excerpt:

The South Carolina Supreme Court has ordered an insurance company to pay $10 million for wrongly revoking the insurance policy of a 17-year-old college student after he tested positive for HIV. The court called the 2002 decision by the insurance company "reprehensible."....

An investigation this summer by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and earlier ones by state regulators in California, New York and Connecticut, found that thousands of vulnerable and seriously ill policyholders have had their coverage canceled by many of the nation's largest insurance companies without any legal basis. The congressional committee found that three insurance companies alone made at least $300 million over five years from rescission. One of those three companies was Assurant.

In Febuary 2008, a private arbitration judge in Los Angeles ordered Health Net Inc. to pay more than $9 million to a breast cancer patient whose health insurance it revoked shortly after her diagnosis and while she was undergoing chemotherapy. The plaintiff in that case, Patsy Bates, a then-52-year-old grandmother and hair-salon owner, was unable to continue her chemotherapy for several months.

a dirty sort of clean

With all the fog of late my car has been caked in pollen and soot, but I held off washing it until I could support some friends' fundraising car wash. Sure, 20 bucks is a lot for a parking lot car wash, but the AIDS Emergency Fund is a worthy cause in more need than ever.

It didn't hurt that it was the Bare Chest Calendar Men hosting the AEF car wash, and in homage to the standard high school cheerleader bathing suit car washes across America, they hosted a Tighty Whitey Car Wash.


Okay, it was not so much an homage to the traditional "girls getting scantily clad to get car wash business" as much as "knowing their market." But hey, we are for nothing if not equality.

And it was all for a good cause.

More views from the driver's seat on Flickr.