The Post series on gay youth concludes with two articles published yesterday and today on 17-year-old Felicia Holt of Newark, N.J. (“Braving the Streets Her Way” and “Using Her Voice to Rise Above“). Staff writer Anne Hull hosted an online discussion this morning.
» Previously in this series, Michael Shackelford.
For next month’s general election, the deadline to register to vote is today in D.C. (elections office open until 7 p.m.) and Virginia (5 p.m.). Maryland has until Tue., Oct. 12.
As you may know, for a while now I’ve been living in Virginia de facto with Thom, but only now am I starting the process of slowly moving out of the District officially. A couple of weeks ago I sent my voter registration application to the local Arlington elections office, and shortly thereafter my voter card arrived. It’s kind of refreshing to have actual issues (albeit a handful) on the ballot; in the few D.C. elections that I’ve voted in, there wasn’t much to vote on at all. Gee, thanks a lot, federal government. (I’m reminded of my years in California, where usually there’d be so many propositions on the ballot that the voter booklet had the heft of a good-sized magazine and often required considerable study.)
Anyway, there’s less than a month to go before the election. Make sure you’re registered!
Amanda Stern presents tips for your next public reading. An excerpt:
What not to do when reading: Do not prepare with vocal warm-ups, neck rolls or the Japanese Suzuki Method of stomping. Do not ask if there is a V.I.P. room. Do not ask if there is Kabbalah water in the V.I.P. room. Do not refer to the surrounding space as the “mise en scene.” Do not refer to the audience as “my public.” Do not try and swap spots with the headliner. Reading first doesn’t mean you’re less famous. Even though you are. Less famous.
Ha, I’ve always loved that phrase “mise-en-scène,” preferably said with a faux Frasier Crane-like hauteur.
» “Notes to a Reader,” New York Times magazine.
This is great: Thirstype has created a typeface called Freedumb, and money from its sales will be donated to MoveOn.org until Election Day (Nov. 2) and the ACLU thereafter. According to their website, “there are two versions of the font, With and Ithout; the latter excludes the letter W.” Nice.
It’s been a nice, relaxing day at home. Among other things, I did a load of laundry, watched some TV (I finally got around to the Jack & Bobby pilot, not bad), and baked pumpkin bread (how autumnal). Thom and I enjoyed a few slices of the bread with some muscat, yum.
And Alex surfed the web:
I felt like such a parent when I took this photo. When he jumped onto the chair, I said to him, “Don’t move! I’m getting the camera!”
By the way, I’m slowly migrating my photos to Flickr. It rocks.
I’m a bit late with this news, but here you go: Rufus’ next album, Want Two, which will also include a DVD, arrives in stores Tue., Nov. 16. From the official website:
Tracks include “Hometown Waltz,” “Little Sister,” “The One You Love,” “An Old Whore’s Diet,” “Memphis Skyline,” “Peach Trees,” “Agnus Dei,” “Crumb By Crumb,” “Gay Messiah,” “The Art Teacher,” “Waiting for a Dream,” and “This Love Affair.”
The DVD includes performances filmed at a live concert at San Francisco’s historic Fillmore Auditorium, and includes songs from both “Want One” and “Want Two,” among them “I Don’t Know What It Is,” “Dinner at Eight,” “Go or Go Ahead,” and “Oh What a World.”
Can’t wait–although, actually four of those songs have already been released on an iTunes-only EP, Waiting for a Want. We’ve heard “Little Sister” and “Agnus Dei” on tour; I’m looking forward to hear what kind of arrangements he’s cooked up for the studio release. By the way, the Fillmore performance has been appearing on Trio lately. The songs are interspersed with footage of Rufus dandying about town. Good stuff.
So it’s official: baseball is coming back to Washington. I’m not really a baseball fan, but even I’m a little excited. (I’ve often thought of baseball as too slow for my attention span, at least on television, but being there live makes a difference.) The Montreal Expos will move in time for the 2005 season, making their first game as early as April. The team’s home turf will be RFK Stadium for three seasons while a new ballpark is constructed on the Anacostia waterfront.
Watch Congress will step in and name the new team the Ronald Reagan Washington National Expos. And while we’re at it, let’s change the name of yet another Metro station! (The latter is actually pretty likely, don’t you think?) Navy Yard-Baseball Center/Annex/Whatever?
Last night I went to the Gap, and tried on a wonderfully fitting pair of corduroy pants in a rich dark brown. (“Pioneer brown,” to be exact, according to their website.) I didn’t quite notice the larger-than-life-size ad posted on the inside of the fitting-room door until I put on the pants and looked in the mirror, only to have Tom Brady staring over my shoulder. Scared me half to death. Well, in a pleasantly surprising kind of way. How you doin’?
(Hm, I just found out that Brady is fellow Bay Area folk. He’s from San Mateo, and went to Serra High School.)
Back to the shopping, last week I bought a case for my iPod at the Gap, not really the first place I would think to find one. It’s a generic mp3 player case, so it doesn’t fit the iPod exactly, but hey, it was marked down to $3.99, so it’ll do for now. By the way, check out these high-end cases. Definitely over the top, but to put them in perspective, they still cost less than the iPod itself.
