FRIDAY, 08.30.02 i woke up this morning feeling bitter and a little angry at the world... maybe it's because of the weather??? the fact that i'm broke again and don't know what the hell is happening with this MTV gig??? looking in the mirror and seeing my beautiful tan from last weekend peeling off of my face??? knowing that i only have three cigarettes to get me through the day??? being slightly afraid to leave my apartment alone??? can someone remedy all this for me??? i'm too tired...
THURSDAY, 08.29.02 quote of the day:
"Your website shall get a mention in my upcoming book: A How-To Guide for Those of Us Needing More than a Few Hints and Tips on How to Get Through the Struggle of Life."
it was good running into you last night, by the way... *grin*
last night's rasputina concert was amazing!!! in addition to their own songs, they performed lots of obscure covers including pat benatar's "fire and ice," led zeppelin's "rock and roll," violent femmes' "blister in the sun," and sir mix-a-lot's "baby got back"... quite an interesting night, but that should have been expected...
WEDNESDAY, 08.28.02 in fact, rasputina is playing tonight in brooklyn at southpaw (the southpaw website won't tell you this, but you can copy my notes from class - the show starts at 8:30pm...)
wanted to pass on the lyrics to one of rasputina's songs... it's called "pj + vincent & matthew + björk" and it describes what it could be like if pj harvey and vincent gallo were to go on a double date with matthew barney and björk... if you're not familiar with rasputina yet, please do get acquainted...
pj: i'm so fucking fucking fucking hot.
TUESDAY, 08.27.02 guess what happened to me today... i was mugged... yes, again... this time the assholes got me in my neighborhood subway station... yup... right there on the platform... came up behind me, tossed a denim jacket over my head, pushed me up against the wall and emptied my wallet... got about eighty bucks in cash, my brand new fucking thirty day unlimited metrocard and my (empty) atm card... pushed me down onto the ground (i was sure i was about to take a bullet to the head) and told me not to get up... they ran off and i didn't get a look at them... tried to file a police report but since i couldn't give a description they said that there was really nothing they could do... they SAY that they will attempt to trace my metrocard (i had (as always) kept the receipt which has the card number on it) but even that probably wouldn't help much... they also couldn't get me a new card but they were nice enough to give me a "free" ride into the city... i'd have to figure out how i'd get home on my own, i was told... it's time to have a fundraiser for yours truly... sometimes new york can be a real shit hole... but damn, i love it... i decided to go ahead and use my "free" ($143) subway ride to go up to central park as planned and relax for a while... you know, get my mind off things... my company was great AND i found a brand new favorite... i must say that the evening ended up being well worth the morning...
MONDAY, 08.26.02 tonight was so much fun and i'm scared to death knowing that i think so... i went to remote lounge (a self-proclaimed "revolutionary new concept in nightlife entertainment") where you join hundreds of other geeks at personal consoles that have a camera pointed at you and live video feeds of all the others which you switch back and forth between using your snazzy control panel... if you see something you like you can send him a "hello" and then if he responds you can pick up a snazzy telephone receiver and actually SPEAK to the person!!! truly revolutionary (i think AOL has been doing that for something like eighty years)... well i was there for a friend's television pilot and was definitely intrigued by it all... here are pictures i took (or pictures that someone took of me) throughout the night...
SUNDAY, 08.25.02 brian and i spent the weekend in the hamptons (i love how joujis and pretentious that sounds) for my friend raj's birthday... it was wonderful!!! we made lizzie jokes, we danced, we flirted with sexy boys, we went to the beach, we played volleyball and i got one hell of a fucking sunburn...
FRIDAY, 08.23.02 negative!!! (duh...)
who knew that oregon was "one of the most homosexual-friendly regions of america"???
- from the BPNews
McMINNVILLE, Ore. (BP)--"Today's decision by the 'New York Times' is nothing less than a watershed moment in the pursuit of equality for the lesbian and gay community," trumpets the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) on its website. What has GLAAD all giddy is The Times Aug. 18 declaration (below) that it will begin reporting the "same-sex commitment ceremonies and some types of formal registration of gay and lesbian partnerships."
- from the new york times
Starting next month, the Sunday Styles section of The New York Times will publish reports of same-sex commitment ceremonies and of some types of formal registration of gay and lesbian partnerships, the newspaper announced yesterday. On occasion, the Vows column will be devoted to a same-sex couple.
THURSDAY, 08.22.02 (friday-ishness) i'm so drunk...
WEDNESDAY, 08.21.02 i ran into scott on the train this morning... we were on our way to respective jobs that we're both pretty sure won't last long (i know mine won't since it's only a six week shoot)... after i described the show i'm working on he started telling me about a new christian reality television show that premieres in october which documents a christian youth group's journey to san fransisco (home of the holy, ya know)... he'd written about it on his site a little while back and thinks that one character - josh - is obviously gay... i'm kinda leaning toward either david or sparky... *shrug* poor kids... reality tv is kinda scary and i'm afraid that they're about to find out how so...
TUESDAY, 08.20.02 just a fucked up link from my friend dan that i thought i should have to share...
site update: users can now email me through a form by clicking on "mail" from the menu above... i'm having a lot of fun with that!!! there is new merchandise in the store (including some winter gear)!!! new graphics on everything, too, to celebrate the birth of my dot com... buy things so i can get rich and have you to thank for it!!! *grin*
MONDAY, 08.19.02 a request from a reader:
Hi. My name is Mark and I read your blog at work. I had to catch up because I haven't read in a few weeks. I like your new couch, your house looks beautiful. Can we see more pictures from around your home? Where you sit when you write to all of your 'kids'? I think it would be nice to see a little deeper inside. Thank you for keeping me entertained.
well, the "deeper" comment is, um, a bit forward, but, (hehehe)... sure!!! here are a few...
SUNDAY, 08.18.02 i love running into friends and i love the museum of television & radio's david bowie restrospective... today i went to the third part of the series and saw several friends there including chad... it was great!!! part four (1983-89) starts tomorrow... i'm excited!!!
SATURDAY, 08.17.02 last night and today... ahhhh, what a nice 24 hours... my friend rick came in from boston to perform last night at arlene's grocery... it was a great show!!! his band (the shelley winters project) also has a new album which i have been playing all day long... it's incredible!!! then he and the guitarist, david, came to stay at my place in brooklyn... this morning we went out to a very nice brunch and spent the afternoon together before they headed back into massachusetts... rick is such an amazing man... he's a brilliant performer and just the sweetest guy... i wish we were able see more of each other... he's one of those people who just has a way of making you feel really good about yourself no matter what's going on in your life... he makes ya smile...
THURSDAY, 08.15.02 it seems that incense/oil street venders are pretty much unavoidable... you walk down almost any populated sidewalk in manhattan and there it is - the big cloud of smoke accosting you no matter how you try to avoid it... until, of course, you need it... today i was sent out to find nag champa for puffy (it's the only incense he likes and he demands that it's burning while he's in the building)... no one who tried could find it before me and i said, "oh, that's easy... i'll go get some..." well, i couldn't find it anywhere!!! i was walking around like a crazy-crazy thinking, "um, this is times square... of all places it should be here..." nope... i spent so much time asking vendors selling photos of the new york skyline and handbags for $10 where to find an incense vendor with no luck until a woman directed me to a comic book table that was supposed to have some... *ding ding ding* he had it!!! "i'm going to be such a superstar when i get back," i thought... but he didn't have any incense holders... he was able to direct me to another table quite a distance away that "would definitely have them..." no where near but very important so i go on over... sure enough... he had incense holder... when i walked up, though, the man at the table pointed at my crew shirt for jails, hospitals and hip-hop and yelled, "danny hoch!!! that's my boy!!!" i smiled and gave him my "that's great, now lemme do what i need to do"-look... but i humor him and chitchat with him for a little while before buying what i need and leaving... his name is house (he's really built like one) and he's a hoot...
flash forward several long hours...
i submerge onto the subway platform at times square and hear, "danny hoch!" i look over and see my new friend house... i smile and walk over... we do that hand-slap-n-slide thing that everyone does when you work for a hip-hop show... we end up riding the subway home together... he's very loud... we talk about a lot of things: i tell him about the shoot, he tells me why i should always buy groceries in manhattan instead of the groceries from "the hood" ("the meat at ghetto stores the expired meat from rich white stores"), i told him about working with his "boys" danny hoch and p. diddy, he told me everything he knows about hip-hop, drum and bass, jungle, trance, et al... he's very loud... we looked like an awfully strange couple... i know because i could see it in the eyes of people on the train getting annoyed by the really loud conversation... i don't mind, though, because now i have a friend named house... i doubt many of them can say the same thing...
WEDNESDAY, 08.14.02 i have six blisters on my feet but there's a possibility that i'm getting signed onto the entire season...
MONDAY, 08.12.02 so wow... the job i thought would really suck has turned out to be a lot of fun (for the most part)... i'm working on the upcoming MTV show "making the band 2: hip-hop" (p. diddy and badboy records' search for hip-hop talent) (you may remember the hit band o-town which was formed on the first show in the series)... on saturday and sunday we auditioned about 1300 kids from all over the east coast to form a new hip-hop band... rappers, singers, djs... some of these kids are amazing!!! today 36 contestants who were called back from the entire group competed for a spot in the semifinals... my job is to sort of coordinate the order in which the kids go through auditions... they're with me the longest and i play around with them... a lot of them say that they've never had so much fun on such a long and drawn out audition as they do with me... that makes me feel good... anyhow, the people i've been working with are great!!! we laugh and have fun and eat junk food all day and get sick together and everything!!! AND they love me!!! it's kinda perfect... today was supposed to be my last day on the job but they asked me to work the rest of the week... pretty neat, even if the job does kick my ass... it was sad to get close to a bunch of kids today, though, and have to watch about 30 of them leave without a spot in the next round... it's sorta like watching "american idol" except it's live and, unfortunately, there are no commercial breaks...
FRIDAY, 08.09.02 well i finally did it... here we are... i finally grabbed a hold of my balls and gave them a good ol' yank... i bought revolutionfreedom.com and transferred the entire site over from geoshitties... *sigh* what a chore... i hope you love it as much as i do!!! please do update your bookmarks... and if you find any broken links please let me know... in other news, i had such a better night than i ever could have expected!!! attended the blogmeet organized in honor of philo's visit to new york... had a great time with so many fun faces!!! too many to list, but never to many to show off!!! then i headed to another bar with brian for a drink and ran into a bunch of friends from tennessee who are in town for a few days!!! i probably wouldn't have had a chance to see them if it weren't by chance so i'm very happy i decided to stay out... but now it's five in the morning and i MUST go to bed...
TUESDAY, 08.06.02 i think i want to be at the september 11th commemoration... i don't know how much of it i'd actually like to attend, but i feel compelled to participate in some way... it's weird, though... in the last few months i've become a little jaded toward anything having to do with terrorism, patriotism and the world trade center attacks in general... i think it started when some friends and i were walking down near the world trade area one night on our way to a party... it was probably about 11:30pm and the area was packed with tourists holding video cameras and vendors selling "9-11" t-shirts and key rings with pictures of the smoking towers on them... the next day i saw a wall calendar celebrating the male physique through the new york "hero" fire fighters... i remember thinking, "yeah, i'm over all of this..." but still, as i watched the special report (which interrupted "the view" this morning) in which our incredibly distinguished (sarcasm) mayor bloomberg detailed the planned events (what is up with him not being able to pronounce orchestra?) i started thinking again about the candle vigils i attended at union square a year ago and i decided that i should be a part of this anniversary... i'm sure that of everything that's happening that day i'll probably only go to the central park ceremony that evening... i'm afraid that the hoopla down at world trade will be too crowded and i'll just end up getting frustrated rather than emotionally moved... i guess it will take a while for me to get over feeling "fed up" with the "i love new york now more than ever" sentiment that has swept the city and the country... i know it may not be very "american" of me, but that's just me...
MONDAY, 08.05.02 no, i'm not dead... sheesh... a person goes to boston for a few days for his boyfriend's cousin's wedding (which was wonderful - i ate delicious food all weekend and i ran about 10 beautiful miles up and down the charles river in the last two days!) without burdening himself with his computer and the whole world falls apart??? i thought i told everyone that really needed to know that i'd be out of town... i failed... i got back home about this evening to mailbox full of "Subj: Where are you????????" and "Subj: Why aren't you at home?" and "Subj: Dan'l??? Have you been kidnapped?" emails... of course there were no "Subj: You're Hired!!!" emails waiting, but i am totally used to that...
THURSDAY, 08.01.02 i went out this evening... i went out with a real country boy and had a wonderful time... he's going to texas to work on the roof of his house there which was damaged in a hailstorm... he'll be back, though... when we parted at barracuda i went on to dance at a bachelor party for a gay man who's getting married this weekend... he works at meow mix... the party was full of happy and rowdy lesbians... i didn't get naked but they were still hella good tippers... i want to work more lesbian parties...
SATURDAY, 08.31.02 let me just end this month by saying, "wow!"
- gavin leisfield
vincent: i know you are, babe.
pj: no, it's quite hot in here.
vincent: are you stupid? that's the nature of a glass house... oh fabulous, here's matthew and björk.
*sound of approaching footsteps*
björk: hello.
matthew: vincent, polly, good to see you.
björk: i'm so excited! i've never been on such an artistic and exclusive double date before. the erotic reawakening that matthew has brought about in me has opened up a lot of plebeian activities that i haven't had experienced before now. i'm loving it - to do these things that aren't necessarily elfin.
vincent: yeah björk whatever, i just want to know: when you two get down, who's wearing the cloven-hoof strap-on?
pj: vincent, how rude! could i weigh any less? i'm really quite shy in my way but i like to take on characters for performing. with the use of makeup: eye makeup and lipstick, and some more lipstick, it's really quite transformative. and when i throw up everything i've just eaten, then i feel...
björk: oh, "to throw up"... it means what? also, everybody, what is the definition of "disingenuous?" i want to know so many things... i've got a lot of money for designer clothes! i can just trudge through the desert, getting my comme de garcon all dirty and dusty; it don't matter... if hopping into a live volcano feels right, i say do it!
matthew: i say, khaki chinos are fine with me on the down time, but what do you kids say to a picnic? i've got the basket in the bently; we could play some touch football! what do you say?
vincent: hey uh, matthew, we're both hot former football players. i know björk can fight like a motherfucker but polly would snap like a twig with the smallest tackle. let's put her on a hook and do some minnow fishing... polly? oh look, she's banging her head against the wall... and björk's recording it!
*bang bang bang bang*
björk: the rhythm... it moves my insides like sunshine jelly...
matthew: isn't she a darling thing?
vincent: when she says "jelly" it makes me think of someone's ass, and then, and then i think...
matthew: how dare you sir, that's my child-woman you're speaking of!
vincent: matthew, i didn't say björk. i'm just thinking of any ass... not even necessarily a woman. it could be my own ass. like, my ass is-
pj: vincent, YOU are an ass. YOU are an ass.
matthew: what about my ass? it's hard from sports. what about my-
pj: i've just eaten some more lipstick.
-- this repulsive celebrity double date has been brought to you by the church of the latter day saints.
FIRST-PERSON: Is it news just because the N.Y. Times says so?
Aug 23, 2002
By Kelly Boggs
That The New York Times is sympathetic to the homosexual movement in America is a revelation that ranks right up there with the "Pope is Catholic" and "the sun sets in the west." In His book, "The Gospel According to The New York Times," William Proctor points out The Times has taken the lead in championing the gay rights movement since the early 1970s.
Proctor, Harvard Law School alum with more than 70 nonfiction books to his credit, reveals that in the early 1980s The Times began the practice of referring to the living members in same-sex relationships as "companions" in its obituaries. Shortly thereafter, "the newspaper of record" started to employ the term "gay" as a synonym for homosexual.
A charge made by Proctor in his book is that The Times goes well beyond simply reporting "all the news that is fit to print," and actually makes an overt attempt to sway public opinion. One way he says this is accomplished is by "skewed story selection."
Proctor believes The Times reports on topics disproportionate to their actual newsworthiness in order to create the illusion that something is more important or relevant to a reader's life than it actually is. That, Proctor claims, is precisely what The Times has done for years in respect to the gay rights movement.
To support his claim, Proctor did a search of story topics in The Times archive. Included in his search was how much attention the paper gave to homosexual issues. During a 365-day timeframe, from July 1998 through July 1999, Proctor found The Times ran 2,178 stories related to homosexuality (almost 6 articles/stories per issue). With exposure to so many stories with homosexual themes, the frequent Times reader might well conclude that gay rights issue dominates American discourse to the same degree as the economy or the weather.
Though The Times has been sympathetic to the gay rights movement, until now it has had a strict policy against reporting same-sex commitment ceremonies/registrations. So why all of a sudden the change of heart? Times executive editor Howell Raines explains in the Aug. 18 announcement, "In making this change, we acknowledge the newsworthiness of a growing and visible trend in society toward public celebrations of commitments by gay and lesbian couples...."
Homosexual celebrations of commitments and/or public registration of their relationships, while nothing new, hardly qualify as a trend. A trend by definition is the general direction something tends to move. Do some gays choose to celebrate their relationships with public ceremonies and/or registration? Yes. Are most gays gravitating towards relationships parallel to heterosexual marriage? No.
I live in one of the most homosexual-friendly regions of America. Domestic partner registration is a given on the West Coast, and yet the vast majority of gays have not bothered to file their relationship status. As a "trend," homosexual commitment ceremonies and registrations are right up there with sword swallowing -- nonexistent.
According to GLAAD's website, The Times' decision is a culmination of a yearlong discussion the organization has had with the paper. At a meeting held in July, GLAAD reports that Times "managing editor Gerald Boyd indicated to us that we had made compelling arguments about the need for the paper to reflect the growing and visible trend of same-sex unions." Knowing GLAAD's "discussion" history, I interpret Boyd's response to mean "we are caving in to your threats to boycott our advertisers if we do not go along with your demands."
The decision of The New York Times to begin reporting same-sex celebrations and/or registrations is a coup for homosexual activists. Expect many other major newspapers to follow suit. Once The Times breaks journalistic ground it is hard for other newspapers not to follow suit.
The Times decision to report same-sex unions not only blurs the distinction between heterosexual marriage and all other types of domestic partnership arrangements, but it is also a major step toward the push for the acceptance of homosexual marriage. Expect The Times to spot that emerging matrimonial "trend" and begin championing -- ah, I mean reporting -- it in the very near future. After all, it will be deemed as news that is fit to print.
Boggs, whose column appears in Baptist Press each week, is pastor of Valley Baptist Church, McMinnville, Ore.
Times Will Begin Reporting Gay Couples' Ceremonies
The reports will appear in the pages that are currently headed "Weddings," and the heading will change to "Weddings/Celebrations," the announcement added.
Howell Raines, executive editor of The Times, said: "In making this change, we acknowledge the newsworthiness of a growing and visible trend in society toward public celebrations of commitment by gay and lesbian couples - celebrations important to many of our readers, their families and their friends. We recognize that the society remains divided about the legal and religious definition of marriage, and our news columns will remain impartial in that debate, reporting fully on all points of view. The Styles pages will treat same-sex celebrations as a discrete phenomenon meriting coverage in their own right."
In form, Mr. Raines said, the articles and pictures will be identical to those The Times has used for weddings. As with weddings, he added, the Styles editors will decide which couples can be accommodated in the available space. The criteria - the newsworthiness and accomplishments of the couples and their families - will be the same as those that have traditionally applied to weddings.
The Times publishes the selected announcements without charge. To qualify for consideration, same-sex couples must fulfill at least one of two requirements:
The procedure for notifying The Times is available online at www.nytimes.com/weddings or by telephone recording at (212) 556-7325.
The Times will ordinarily report only celebrations or registrations occurring on the day of publication or in the previous six days. Styles reporters will verify submissions by telephone and will interview a family member in each case to check details.
