May 17, 2013
Really. There is a day (ok, several different days) that basically say it’s not ok to hate the non-heterosexual community. I’m going to spare everybody my rant on that simply because I’m tired of writing it, saying it, and above all thinking about it. Put it this way, every day, I’m reminded of how I’m “different”. I’m over this. Over it. People blog about the sexualization/objectification of Disney FEMALE characters, has anybody looked at the images they present to boys?
Katy Pyle’s re-interpretation of The Firebird, a Ballez is MORE than just a queer ballet. It is so much more than that. This show re-examines how we present people. Take a look at the picture below taken by Chrissy Pessango:
Chrissy Pessango Picture
What do you see? More correctly, what do you see? Look at the different body types, look at the gracefulness each of these dancers holds. Maybe one, ONE, presents the body type you would expect to see in a ballet. One. And here they are a dance corps, musicians who identify as non-heterosexual but teaching a much broader lesson: the presentation of the craft is the important part. Shaking up gender expectations is huge: doing so with health body images? Well that’s nothing short of spectacular.
The show opened last night as St. Mark’s church (an Episcopal Church in NYC). Yes, a mainline church supporting queer art.
The $10,000 Pyle is hoping to raise is to provide better pay for those who have contributed so much to this project. Please help fully fund her. The show is sold out. The importance of this re-envisioning is not just important for the queer community but for every person. None of us are that “perfect” image. Pyle’s work is groundbreaking. Pyle’s dancers are taking very real risks in their professional lives. The church that is supporting them will undoubtedly draw (more) criticism. That is the risk of being a ground breaker.
This is the link to the KickStarter campaign. Please give what you can. The project is so close to being fully funded.
And no, I was not paid to write this review (and I wish is I was in NY so I could go see the show!!!)
Tags: a Ballez, ballez, body image, Chrissy Pessango, dance, diversity, Feminism, hollins, katy pyle, Kickstarter, lgbt, people, queer, queer dance, self-image, social media, the firebird, transgender
Posted in Popular Culture, Politics, Religion, People, LGBT | Leave a Comment »
May 16, 2013
“This ballet is the one I wish I had seen” . . .words, of course, you would expect to hear from the artistic director. The reality is that in the context of The Firebird, a Ballez this is much more than a true statement. Katy Pyle has re-envisioned Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird in a new image. A queer image. The clip from Kickstarter IS the ballet I wish I could see if I was in NYC this weekend.
I am far from a lover of ballet, I am impressed with the skill it takes to dance on ones toes (I’m thrilled to get through one day with stubbing a toe) but I’ve never felt a connection (I vaguely remember The Nutcracker and by vague, I remember this idea of child running around and the prince/princess and always been freezing cold in the theater) to ballet.
I clicked on the Kickstarter campaign because the artistic director is the sister of a college classmates. I believe in projects in Kickstarter: we are all on this planet together and well, in this country we really don’t grasp “the arts” or funding for the arts. As I watched the clip and listened to Katy’s reasoning for funding the project, I went back and watched the clip again. Without sound.
I saw me: not just the gay me. But me. The person who doesn’t look like a dancer. I saw people of different ethnic origins. I saw not male/female roles but artists expressing their craft in a very gender scripted medium. Yes, there were dancers who looked like dancers but compare the clip above to this one I grabbed from you tube.
Pyle’s project is more than just a “queer ballet and orchestra”. The dancers look like everybody. They present healthy body images with varying frames. As I’ve replayed the clip in my head all day and thought about what I wanted to write about this amazing project. I realized that Pyle is correct, this is a ballet I wished I would have seen. Maybe somewhere in the back of my childhood brain I knew I was gay. Maybe somewhere in the back of my head I knew I never had the body type to BE a dancer (even if I had the coordination).
The LGBTQ community has spent much of the spring in celebration as states grant the right to marry. Now it’s time to show how it’s getting better in different areas of life. The myths and fables of childhood which provide many of the gender norms which continue to be presented as acceptable need to be broken: not just for the LGBTQ community but for everybody. Every time I think of this ballet, I am amazed at the creativity. I am in awe of the courage and I give thanks. Maybe there will be a child watching who when s/he grows up s/he will realize s/he is LGBTQ and that the ability to dance doesn’t cross a gender bounds, that the stories presented in the struggles, the fantasy, the mythology of dances can be presented not as straight or queer but as what they are: human struggles.
Tags: arts, ballet, ballez, dance, Feminism, gender, gender roles, katy pyle, lgbt, lgbtq, NYC, people, social justice, the firebird, transgender
Posted in Popular Culture, People, LGBT | 2 Comments »
May 15, 2013
For Christmas, a friend gave me a 5 pound bag of Jules Gluten Free Flour. She swore by it. I’ve had enough total failures in trying to find the “correct” gluten free flour for baking simple things like banana bread that I’ve all but given up. I’ve had that once in a blue moon craving for banana bread and thought, why not. I mean, worse case? I toss it after making it. This is a modified recipe from Simply Recipes.
4 medium slightly overripe bananas
1/3 (5T) melted Cabot unsalted organic butter
3/4 c of raw sugar (it’s a bit ‘less’ refined than the normal white sugar). Making it again, I’d debate about dropping it to between 1/2 cup and 3/4 cup
1 medium egg beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c walnuts
The original recipe says your don’t have to use a mixer. For me? Meh. I’ll use a mixer the next time just for the simplicity of not have 3 kitchen tools, a bowl and a measuring cup to clean up.
Mash the bananas, stir in the butter. Add the sugar, egg and vanilla. Blend. Sprinkle in baking soda. Mix in flour.
Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for an hour. Mine turned out moist and a bit browner than normal because of the use of the raw sugar.
This recipe is a keeper for the foodie files.
Tags: baking, banana, cooking, food, organic
Posted in Cooking, Gluten Free | Leave a Comment »
May 13, 2013
The flexible spending accounts (FSA) are one of the more under utilized benefits by many of my co-workers. The net is that you can legally allocated up to $2500 (as a single person) designated from pre-tax dollars to pay for prescription medications, physical therapy, medical co-pays, etc. Usually (keyword) it works like a charm; you go to the pharmacy to pay with the debit card and it’s done.
Until one day, you receive in the mail letter stating that they company managing the FSA system (in my case PayFlex) sends you a letter stating they need “an itemized receipt for the treatment received”. It’s a Dante worthy ring of hell adventure just this side of having to be the unfortunate soul to cuts Donald Trump’s hair. Really.
Being a proper Gen Xer, I first tried to solve this issue on-line. Being a total type A, save documentation you probably don’t need person, I pulled out the “Welcome to PayFlex” guide. Any reasonable, logical, sane person would have waited until Monday to handle this over the phone. After spending a few hours playing with the web site, I gave up and called.
I swear on Jackson’s life that the reason why costs care are what they are is because of the sheer ineptitude of the industry to become seamless. It would save them money (increase profits), probably decrease secondary illnesses related to things like increased stress from dealing WITH insurance companies. The reality is that none of these the issues I’m have their roots in the currently being enacted Health Care Reform Act/Obamacare. My hope is that the new act will only LESSEN the frustrations. I don’t have hope because the system is so entrenched.
So back to the attempt to use my FSA account. . . .
I mailed back the detailed receipt as requested.
They denied the claim.
I called. Why was this denied? You didn’t use our form. Uh, great but it doesn’t say to send a claim. I read her the letter (really) and it didn’t mention a claim form. A few transfers letter, they’ve agreed to re-review bill without the form since, you know, they don’t require it.
Back and forth, they ask if they can fax me something (no, I don’t have a fax number). They are stunned. I’m stunned. I ask them to send me the form in the mail (true story: my printer broke and since I can use the printer at work? Why bother: most of my life is paperless) since I don’t have a printer.
Back on hold; they aren’t sure if they can mail me the form since it’s on-line.
More conversation, she keeps suggesting to me to use the online feature(s). I wholly agree but I point out to her that since I am using my iPad, there is an encryption mismatch. I agree to use my notebook to register for the services. Turns out, my employee ID number wasn’t long enough: I needed 2 leading zeros. Turns out the zip code that I’m supposed to use is not mine but my employers (not in the information). Log in.
Very first line? “New mobile applications for iPhones, iPads, Andriod and Blackberry.”
Somebody just send me Bully Boy Vodka.
Tags: FSA, HSA, Insurance Reform, PayFlex, people, people watching, personal responsiblity, politics, spending accounts, things that aren't common sense but should be
Posted in Health Care, People, Politics, Shoulder | Leave a Comment »
May 9, 2013
A few weeks ago, I spent a day helping a friend traitor to the cause pack her kitchen for her move to Austin. Since I’m one winged, the most I could do was clean out her fridge. We started talking about all those parts of/left over items that you use a few times and they get shoved to the back. We both can, shop farmers markets and generally try to minimize our carbon foot print (her husband makes a wicked beer by the way). Fast forward to a get well soon gift from a college friend who knows of my love of canning and quirky gifts. The result ? 2 jars of beer jelly (you read that right, beer jelly) from a Brooklyn company called Anarchy In a Jar. I have to admit, I was a bit perplexed. I like beer, I like jam/jelly. But along the lines of I like chicken and I like peanut butter cups, I’m not seeing how they work together.
The only thing saving me at the moment is the Food Network. I’m sick of daytime television as I am recovering from this Bankart repair. On a whim In a moment of insanity, I decided to do my very own Chopped challenge. Mostly to alleviate the fear of opening the jar of beer jelly. For the record, beer jelly has a heavy beer taste with a sweet undercurrent along the lines of apple juice (which makes sense since they are the top 2 ingredients). I didn’t know any of this before deciding to use what was in my fridge to make dinner using the beer jelly as the gotcha.
Beer jelly, walnuts, spinach, horseradish sauce, pork chops, soy sauce
So there are my mandatory items: all selected before the opening of the jelly (or reading the label). Knowing that jelly can be a bit sweet, I went with something salty to try to balance it. I prefer a bit of a kick so went with the horseradish sauce. The meat is from the absolutely fantastic 8 O’clock Ranch (really, if you are in their delivery area and don’t buy from them?). The walnuts and spinach are from Wegman’s. The horseradish was rescued from my friend. I used the gluten-free soy in my fridge but needed the smaller one for the pic.
I created a marinade of the jelly, 2 tablespoons of horseradish and a tad too much soy (I had to cut it with 2 tablespoons of local honey). It probably should have been a jar of jelly and 2 tablespoons each of the horseradish and soy. I had to use the honey to kill a bit of the salt.
I seared the pork on both sides on a very hot grill pan turning 4 times (these were completely thawed boneless chops). In what would cause the Chopped judges to take off points for creativity, I opted for a variation of a spinach salad.
Local honey, madeira vinegar, hard boiled egg, pancetta, Dijon mustard
With the meat resting, I chopped the egg and added it to the spinach and walnuts. I cooked the pancetta (points off, it was a bit saltier than I expected). Then deglazed the pan with the vinegar (around 2T and 1T of Dijon mustard).
Frying pancetta
Deglazing with mustard and vinegar
I tossed the warm pancetta into the salad to get a bit of a wilt, tossed in the dressing platted I’m sure I would have been axed (I forgot a starch; you know how those judges are). But a ton of fun when trying to figure out how to use beer jelly. And yup. I contacted Anarchy in a Jar to see where I could get a few more bottles. I’m really not in the mood to start making beer jelly. But it is a great base for fun cooking.
Really glad I was kicked off before the dessert round. :)
Tags: 8 o'Clock Ranch, Anarchy in a Jar, beer jelly, Chopped, cooking, csa, food, Food Network, fun, gluten free, local business, Random
Posted in Cooking, CSA, Gluten Free | 2 Comments »
May 9, 2013
I’ve seen variations of the following article discussing the idiocy of Abercrombie & Fitch in various versions all of over social media. This is the latest one to hit my Facebook feed.
Here is the deal: this isn’t like the CEO of Macy*s saying such a stupid remark. A&F has a long, long, long history of questionable business ideas. Deciding to boycott A&F now ranks up there with the idea of “Hey, I wonder if we can land a person on the moon?”. Abercrombie & Fitch has long been worthy of a boycott, banishment and a simple refusal by sane people to not purchase their clothing. Here are some of the highlights:
1) Employees are refered to as ‘models’. Yup, you read that right, models. I’m not going to go on an anti-model rant but in the context in of the 21st century model is just this side of “allowing for objectification” and “we won’t hire ugly people.”
2) In 2005, the company was subject to a federal consent decree due to a hiring and promotion practices. A consent decree essentially means that the federal government has found their violations of federal laws has been so egregious that a third-party is required to monitor such activity. I work in a heavily regulated federal industry, it’s extremely hard to wind up with a consent decree when matters of health, medicine and transportation are involved. It’s damn near impossible when clothes are concerned.
3) A&F has a history of discriminatory practices against Muslims and people with disabilities.
4) Countless ads that objectify and/or sexualize children, ads that are xenophobic, employment practices that are far out of line cultural norms.
Look, this is a company that has united feminist groups, Bob Jones University, liberal religious traditions and several unions. Yes, they did donate $10 million dollars an emergency department at a children’s hospital. But the larger question is this: this is a company that at every turn manages to purposefully offend every non-white, thin, attractive member of the population. Ten million dollars probably doesn’t even begin to cover the damages they have done.
The bigger question is this: Why the hell have people been shopping them for so long?
Tags: A&F, Abercrombie & Fitch, ADA, autism, boycott, consent decree, diversity, Feminism, lgbt, musings, people, personal responsiblity, Reflections, social justice, things that aren't common sense but should be, xenophobia
Posted in People, Politics, Popular Culture | Leave a Comment »
May 8, 2013
FB this morning is that it’s been a year since NC declared I’m not an equal person. Most days, I shrug states rights. Ok, no days do I think that. But the year anniversary the day after Delaware made me completely disheartened.
You know, I’m sick of defending the South and Southwest where a chunk of my family and friends live. I pretty much think your states all suck. How you can look me squarely in the eye and say you don’t think I deserve the same rights as every other citizen is beyond me. This isn’t about marriage in the religious sense but about marriage in the legal citizenship sense. Don’t flatter yourself: a gay guy or a lesbian woman isn’t looking at you or your spouse plotting how to break up your marriage so we can ‘convert’ you. Really. And if you are worried about that? Find a therapist. Homophobia is curable.
If you can say you feel my right to marry a woman is “immoral” ok. Chances are you’ve done things in that Bible you want to shove in my face I could probably find a list of ‘immoral acts’ you’ve committed: starting with the shellfish argument, the clothes you wear, the fact you are ‘casting a stone’ created completely in your own mind(s). While I’m at it, while you are shoving your morals on my rights, do you even bother to attend church let alone tithe? Or do you stand on the judgement of others because you think it is your God-given heterosexual right?
Here is the piece which you probably won’t read. Gay people probably aren’t going to run a church that they know is gay unfriendly asking to be married. If you attend church, you probably know that the minister of a church usually retains the right to perform the ceremony. Marriage is both a civil and religious ceremony. I could give a rats ass about your church polity. My church polity allows for marriage, unions, blessings of same-sex couples. My state grants the same rights (it’s the part where the minister says “by the power vested in me from the state of xxxx”). You can keep your interpretation of God. I demand my civil rights: as a tax payer, as a citizen, and as a human. Until then, I think 39 states suck.
Tags: Amendment One, anger, equality, homophobia, lgbt, people, same-sex marriage, social justice, The Campaign for Southern Equality, things that aren't common sense but should be, tolerance
Posted in LGBT, People, Politics | Leave a Comment »
May 7, 2013
Truth: I hate physical therapy. I’m probably going to hear from everybody I’ve ever known who is related to, married to, thought about becoming a PT. I like my PT. He’s quirky. I’m quirky. It’s a good fit. He makes his own beer and apparently made some huge tap/kegging system in the basement of his house.
PT is the test of patience. I’m not patient. I’m beyond not patient. I’m like I had surgery 3 weeks ago and why can’t my shoulder be normal now not patient. (Never mind it took a solid 90 minutes for the surgeon to clean OUT the debris before he could repair the labral tear). I’m frustrated and bored.
There is a downside for taking those mid-day appointments. I’m surrounded by the Real Housewives Of crowd and people old(er) than my grandmother. I was laying there letting my pt stretch my shoulder in the limits and one of his other patients came in and was waiting with her ankle encased in a heat pack. I wasn’t talking and trying to remember that key idea of exhaling on the stretch and he asked her how she was because I sure as hell wasn’t in the mood to talk.
PT: How was it last week after you left.
ROP (random old person): Well, I had a touch of food poisoning from something. And then, let me think, on Friday I had a root canal. Oh, and yesterday was the worst I
PT: (obvious this was not the right answer). Uh, xxxx, when I say how was it after last week, I’m talking just about your ankle.
ROP: Oh, my ankle? It’s fine. I just am having issues with (something even I won’t put on a blog).
Ok, I *get* that when you drop a few anchors in to the labrum, the not so patient patient has to wait for the anchor to secure to the bone. I get that I’m wildly lucky that the swelling has decreased a ton and there is more and more passive range. I’m somewhat twisted in that I’m happy that I get to line up an excercise ball that has Dora’s face on it and give her a few black eyes. I’d prefer Barney but apparently those kept disappearing.
I have no patience. I leave my 2x pt sessions frustrated because although the guy next to me who is 16 weeks out his Bankart repair was telling me the progress ramp and I can ‘see’ I’m on target (which for shoulders is the key . . . there isn’t an acceleration curve) and he’s there one day a week the same time as me. I get the creaking is normal. It doesn’t hurt it’s just sort of unnerving.
The little steps of using the arm bike with my left arm (holding on only with my right arm) is progress. I’m on a short(er than normal in PT) fuse. I wanted to rip the cell phone out of the hands of a scantily clad ring heavy enough to break a finger trophy wife of the metro-west. I get you are busy and have to take child to-from some random event. But I don’t need to hear about it. Text. Or better yet: that sign that says “do not use cell phones in treatment areas” follow it. (Her PT corralled her drama).
As much as I enjoyed the conversation with the guy who had a similar surgery, he’s facing two more months of PT. I wanted to cry. That’s my life right now. PT, ice, walking around the neighborhood if the shoulder is ok enough, icing. I don’t think I realized how much my non-dominant shoulder is involved in so much of what I do on a daily basis.
And I keep telling myself: Bankart’s are 6 months to return to pre-surgery. One month (almost) down; 5 to go.
Tags: Bankart repair, health, ice, musings, physical therapy, PT, Random, rehab, shoulder, things that aren't common sense but should be
Posted in Shoulder | Leave a Comment »
May 1, 2013
Along Boylston
Make shift Memorial at Copley.
Also at Copley.
Re-glassing of Marathon Sports.
For the first time since the marathon, I had to be in the Copley area. I snagged a few pictures. I’ve always thought that make shift memorials were weird. As I wandered around the one that has sprung up on the Boylston side of Copley, looking at random pictures, quotes, I understood. New Englanders in general don’t show a lot of emotion. There were tears shed. The ever-present car horns that are Boston were absent, nary a Duck Boat in site and the street musicians were absent. Copley has changed. We are still struggling. We need the satellite trucks gone. Our farmer’s market needs to open on time. We will heal. We are changed. But we are #oneboston.
I’ve lived here longer than anyplace aside from my native Chicago. I’m proud to call Boston home. And our city will only be better. Because, to quote the incident commander, “It’s what we do. We are better than them.” We are #bostonstrong.
Tags: #bostonstrong, #oneboston, 4/15/2013, anger, Boston, Copley Square, diversity, healing, local business, marathon, musings, people, Random, Reflections, religion, social media, tolerance
Posted in People, Politics, Popular Culture, Reflections, Sports | 1 Comment »
March 10, 2013
Yesterday, I listened to writers discuss their craft at the AWP convention. I jotted down snippets on a legal pad out of habit and in the middle of listening to a panel discussion on writing in translation (for a very cool and free literary journal check out wordswithoutborders.org). It really wasn’t about writing in translation but about bringing the writing to translation. I think. It’s not the fault of the presenters; they were muses at that point. I realized there was passion. Artists, in general, receive the stereotype of passionate. As some point, and with great apologies, I lost track of the discussion and realized what I was hearing was passion OF career, something that is and has been lacking in my world.
I’m done. Not in a suicidal rage done, merely done. At the point of exhaustion, I see what the causation. Living without passion is not living. It’s survivalism. I have a few things I have to get done (notably that pesky shoulder surgery in exactly 37 days not that I’m joyously counting down). And then I’m leaving. On a jet plane. Ok, there are some very real steps in between: sorting through a few decades worth of junk to what will fit into a small storage unit in the town my parents reside, figuring out the where I want to go, where I need to go and uh, how to translate “I’m deathly allergic to shellfish” in every language known on the planet. I plan on leaving in roughly a year after I’m done with my shoulder rehab.
I am a huge proponent of knowing needs versus wants. I need to travel. I don’t need Disney; I don’t need turn down service. I need my backpack, my passport and well, the aforementioned card that says please don’t serve me anything with shellfish. Travel, of me, is activism. It’s the part that allows me to say to the world “no, not all Americans are like that” and to hear “No, xxx really isn’t like that.” I need to see the world, to take in the sights, the smells and show, if even to myself, that the world is much better and far less hateful than media outlets make it out to be. Travel is my idealism. Travel is hard; there is nothing worse than being curled up in a hotel room, in a foreign country 14 time zones from home where you don’t know the language or anybody and are miserably sick (ok, there are a LOT of things that are worse) without a common alphabet in common to figure out what medicine you might be taking (Ah, Tokyo. I really want to visit you again!). There is nothing more wonderful than being surrounded by a gaggle for elementary school students in Hiroshima practicing their English in the shadow of the destruction your country created peppering you with questions because they’ve found a ‘real’ American from Boston (where apparently a Japanese player was playing for the Red Sox) to pepper with questions about baseball, Boston and lots of questions that were not on the list.
I know when I plan to leave. I don’t know when I’ll be back. But I know, for probably the first time, I will be following my passion. And (almost) everything else is irrelevant. Of course, all of this is completely dependent on my mother agreeing to cat sit world’s dumbest animal. Completely open to ideas on where to visit anywhere on the planet outside of Western Europe, good travel blogs and volunteer stops along the way.
Tags: around the world trip, diversity, food, fun, hollins, japan, lafitte, mid-life crisis, monster, musings, planning, Reflections, relationships, social justice, solo travel
Posted in Cats, Labrum, Shoulder, Travel | Leave a Comment »
