Wednesday, December 10, 2014

You can stop terrorism

Want to do something about terrorism? You can! Look at this film by Kathryn Bigelow, it’s only 3 minutes: Lastdaysofivory.com.

The ivory trade is funding terrorists groups. New York is second to China in $$$ for ivory. Elephants will be extinct in only ten years. Please do not buy ivory and do not buy anything that is fake ivory because it’s not. The fact that merchants will identify that carved elephant (like all over Chinatown) as fake obviously means that NOT buying ivory will make a difference. DON’T BUY IVORY. Pass it on. Please. Humans are not the only species suffering at the hands of brutal men -- but only mankind can stop it.

An elephant disappears every 15 minutes.
also on youtube


African Elephants (free domain)

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Reasons to not eat turkey Thanksgiving 2014

Thanksgiving is a good day to give thanks by respecting life.

Beautiful turkey, Ontario, Canada
ph cr: diane spodarek

Reasons to pass on turkey this year: 

300 million turkeys are killed in the US for Thanksgiving & Christmas

Baby turkeys start their lives in huge incubators

They will never see their mothers

After a few weeks they are crammed with thousands of others in massive windowless sheds

Turkeys are fed, drugged and genetically manipulated to grow as large and as quickly as possible, some so large their legs break beneath them

In 1970 the average turkey weighed 17 pounds. Today turkeys average 28 pounds.

At 5 months they are sent to the slaughterhouse

What happens at a modern slaughterhouse is so vile and disgusting I cannot write it here.


For more info:

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Leslie Feinberg - My Interview with Leslie from 1996

Leslie Feinberg died November 15, 2014. Author of “Stone Butch Blues” & "Transgender Warriors," she was a gender outlaw and political activist.  I interviewed Leslie for "Downtown Magazine" in 1996 (it ceased publication in 1997) in a cafĂ© in the West Village. At the end of the interview, Minnie Bruce Pratt came into the restaurant and Leslie stood up from her chair and walked towards her as if there was nothing more important in the world than that moment. When I heard of Leslie’s death today, that 18-year old image of the two of them greeting each other in the cafe returned.

Re-reading the interview after 18 years, so much has changed -- and yet so much has remained the same. I remember Leslie fondly.
photo credit: Leslie Feinberg self-portrait in setting sun
from her website: www.transgenderwarrior.org

The interview is over 6,000 words. Here are two excerpts: 

The opening:

DS:  When I read Transgender Warriors (“Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Denis Rodman,” 1996) I could see a lot of similarities in the stories in that book and those told in the first person narrative in your novel, Stone Butch Blues.

LS:  I would say that there is nothing in Stone Butch Blues that is autobiographical but then, of course, I wrote from what I knew in terms of class relations -- what jobs realistically would be open in what period of time to someone, when those jobs would close -- things like that. But, it is completely a novel and a work of fiction and that was important to me for two reasons.  One, I made a choice to write fiction because I actually felt I would write more truth or go more to the heart of emotional truth in fiction; plus, I wanted to create a vehicle for gender theory that was accessible.  And you can’t always use your own life to do that.  You can’t draw on enough experiences, but through fiction it’s wonderfully flexible for that purpose.  Also, I found that to be true to fiction and to be fair to your characters and to your reader, you’re really going to have to allow characters to develop on their own paths, their own relationships, etc. It may sound metaphysical to someone who doesn’t create fiction, but if you’re going to create characters, you’re going to have to close your eyes and picture them and listen to them speaking instead of trying to put your own experiences into their mouths.

Excerpt from the end:

DS:  The history about transgender people, except for Joan of Arc, was new to me and the law about the three pieces of clothing, wow, I could be arrested right now!
LF:  Even if the laws are different in different places; it doesn’t have to be a three piece law on clothing for some cop to pull you over or a store detective to pick you up.
DS:  But it was a law.
LF:  There have been specific laws around the country.  They’re a masquerade.  All the pictures even from the late 60’s of drag queens and transgender people being rounded up and put in police vans, they all had some laws, masquerading, cross dressing, not wearing three pieces of women’s clothing, wearing fly-front pants, they were all gender laws.  They were all saying okay I’ve got a reason to drag you in, you don’t have the right label on your clothing.  It’s absurd but the harassment is real.
DS:  I’ve recently come across the fact that it was not only the drag queens but also the drag kings that were responsible for Stonewall.
LF:  On the front lines, yeah.  And that was true of all the years before fighting.  If you could pass in society as not being gay then you didn’t need to be all together, but if you were hunted and hounded wherever you went, you looked to find a community of people like you.  And you had no place to go except to stand and fight and so a lot heroic individual battles were fought.
DS:  And some of the women were not even in drag, they were just in what they considered comfortable.
LF:  I don’t know about a lot of other cities but in the blue collar bars women did cross dress.  I mean they wore suits and ties...
DS:  And passed.
LF:  Yes.  Whether they did or not depended on their degree of masculinity, their body type.
DS:  Sometimes not necessarily passing but preferring to wear the masculine garb.
LF:  I would say most people cross-dressed especially if it was a Friday or Saturday night.  It’s like all day long you wear crummy clothes at the factory and then you want to dress up and look nice, well what do you like to get dressed up in.
DS:  Yeah, I was cross-dressed in ‘82 in a bar on Avenue A where I had a few drinks with a male friend.  After a few beers, without thinking, I went into the women’s bathroom and three guys pounded on the door yelling, “come out you faggot.” I was scared.
LF:  Right.
(end of interview)


Saturday, November 08, 2014

Facebook's Misogyny

FB loves its misogyny. It only brings it more publicity. No shame. Do you see any nudity?




With all the scum in the world that truly hurts women, do we really need to support a corporationman who continues to sell your personal information for profit? FB creates nothing but $ for itself by your participation. Why is FB popular?  Because of its -----------misogyny? facial recognition policy? spying? marketing? selling your personal information?  

heres the BBC link on the photo/story: 



Tuesday, October 14, 2014

The Sober Monologues or Sobriety is Over Rated


"The Sober Monologues".
Live Performance: "The Drunk Monologues" ph: Guler Ugur 

A new project - sobriety is over rated. 

After 18 years sober, it is time to test the waters. 

There are many, including those in AA who believe you cannot go back. Why not? There is the claim that if you are sober for any length of time and pick up a drink, you will be back when you hit your bottom; in other words you could never drink socially ever again - you will simply be the pathetic person you were when you quit drinking.

I have never believed that I had to give my will over to a higher power to stay sober. But I have never wanted to test it before. Here's the thing: isn't it more useful to understand the desire before the drink? Otherwise, without knowing the cause of why one chooses to get drunk, it remains unresolved.

I'm also interested in others who may have done so successfully - or not.

Comments will go through the admin (me) because without it, I get annoying spam comments about viagra and jewelry.



Thursday, May 22, 2014

Finally leaving Florida and getting closer to drinking again

I'm happy to soon return to New York where the visual landscape is more than whiney people who came here from someplace else.  I have not seen a black person in 6 weeks. I am surrounded by climate change deniers and Obama haters including my parents' neighbor who thinks it's okay to tell me a joke about a paraplegic who rings a woman's doorbell with his penis.

My father is 91 and mom is 86. Every time Dad pours a glass of red wine he says "doctors orders" because his doctor told him he is in such good health that he should just keep doing what he has been doing. Someday I will join him. I miss red wine with intense longing and when I do have a glass - after 19 years of sobriety - it will not be walmart red wine. (Sorry dad, cheaper is not better.) My father also  plays tennis about four times a week.

Mom, who used to do "sit and be fit" every day, slowly lost her memory from dementia. Although now dependent on others, here she is playing jazz on the piano last week.

And here's dad doing his thing with my sister , playing doubles.


Tuesday, April 08, 2014

Confederate Flag Beer & Fishing at Hooters New Port Richey

My father said he wanted to go to the hoochie coochie place - the name he uses to describe Hooters - because he likes their hamburgers. We were seated at a picnic table near the river.  I took this picture while waiting over thirty minutes for our lunch.



The rest of the view included exposed butt cheeks and breasts in the all female waitstaff; mounds of fried food the same orange color as the waitstaff's panty hose; and mounds of fat bodies sitting at tables devouring the orange food. Off to the side was a play area for the children where they threw something at a target.

My parents are 92 and 86 and when my father asked me to drive him to the "hoochie coochie" place, I complied. But I was not happy. What could be more disagreeable on a beautiful sunday afternoon for this nature lover? Sitting in the shade looking at:  tits and ass, the confederate flag, fat bodies, and artery clogging food. What is in that oil that makes all the food the same color?

Minimum wage for waitstaff is $2.31, and has not changed since 1991. In addition to the low wage, these young women have to put up with objectification. Why is Hooters a family restaurant? I was embarrassed for the children and the young (male and female) adolescents who sat with their families waiting for the food with the obvious message that ass and boobs, fried food and confederate flags are normal.  The scene was ugly. And everyone around me looked hungry.


Thursday, March 06, 2014

ROCK & READ - COME TO MY DETROIT GIG 3-17 Monday

THIS IS GOING TO BE AMAZING! CHECK IT OUT.
Dangerous Diane - The Rev Robert Jones - ML Liebler, Leonard  Johnson, Steve King


ROCK 'N' READ at WSU

March 17, 2014 / 7-9:00pm
The Welcome Center
42 W. Warren Avenue at Woodward Avenue
Wayne State Campus
Detroit, MI 48202
FREE

Dangerous Diane with Band

WSU Writers: Vincent Perrone, Christine Bettis, Edward Carter, Katrina Soucy 

Also, Robert Jones and M.L. Liebler, Steve King and Leonard Johnson  
with The Detroit Legacy Session Players

PLUS  Cass Corridor Juggler-Juggler Joe


Monday, February 24, 2014

Dragnet Nation by Julia Angwin

Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance

by Julia Angwin

Julia Angwin did the research on our privacy and the good news is, you can wrap your phone in "tin foil" to stop tracking. The bad new is . . . it's all bad.

She is not anti technology. That is impossible, she said and she believes there is a benefit to living in a technological world. We can, however, do things so that we are less a target.

One suggestion:
Give up google and make the switch to DuckDuck.go. They do not track your searches and sell them to marketers. Something to think about.




Sunday, February 16, 2014

If it's February 16th it's my birthday Big Brother


My mother didn't remember my birthday.  Memory is no longer an option for her. We spent the day at Green Key Park in New Port Richey. She enjoyed looking at the people especially the ones with lots of tattoos, some in scooters and a drunk disabled man who overturned his scooter to the amusement of his drunk friends.  Half way into the mangrove walk we rested. My mother says few words now. She pointed to a man on a bench tucked away in the mangroves and said, “Is that a guitar?” A middle aged man was playing softly. He looked at us and nodded. I waved.

On this birthday the sunshine and anonymous guitar player was lovely and healing. I didn't mind that my mother did not know it was my birthday. What I did mind was the Google logo spelled out with birthday cakes and candles. Google knew it was my birthday? 


My google page today.
This is what we were all screaming about in our twenties, and thirties, and …. It's too late baby. Too late.




Sunday, February 09, 2014

I Was Hoping for a Woman

"I was hoping for a woman" now on SOUNDCLICK.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=12678314

I wrote this song for Helen, my flatmate in Newtown, New Zealand.
She was hoping that a woman would move into the empty house next to hers. While she was away in Australia, a man moved in.




Saturday, January 04, 2014

War Memorial with Condom

Abingdon Square Park, Hudson Street, West Village. Abingdon Doughboy in honor of men who served in WWI by Sculptor Philip Martiny.

The condom hanging from the gun looks like an icicle, but its not ice.