I am gonna make it through this year if it kills me!

It is the first night of winter for me. A long night of working at the auction for the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, driving around the East Village looking for parking in a pick up truck with people and bales of hay in the back, loads of bitter coffee and fries with new and old friends, and the first flakes of snow falling as we walk past pine trees to the train to part ways and crawl into our beds. I can't think of a better way to waltz into the cold season.

The Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls is one of my favorite things. Modeled after a similar project in Portland, it's a certified NYC day camp where girls aged 8-18 learn to play instruments, write songs and generally rock out. Tonight Mr. Murray Hill emceed an an auction at the Knitting Factory to raise money for rock camp. Two of the bands formed out of this past summer's camp, Hellish Relish and The Curses totally rocked and a ton of money was made! You must attend the end of camp concert next summer! Even better, volunteer! Watching pre-teens kill on the axe and sing new feminist anthems is one of the most empowering experiences. I wish I'd had rock camp as a girl!

After, six of us piled into Charlee's truck and Maria rode her bicycle over to the East Village where we ended up at the restaurant 7A. While the coffee was bad, the pasta too oily, and I dumped my salad all over my lap, the company was great. It's amazing when you realize you are really part of a good crowd. This is a group of awesome 20-somethings who care about the world in a proactive way, who care about each other. Friends are so important, especially to get through the cold and gloom of winter and, shit, the whole situation in the world right now.

2:30am, we are all dragging ourselves out of 7A to try to stay awake on our respective journeys home when the first flakes of snow start trickling down from the clouds until they are pouring out onto us, covering the cars and the Christmas trees. New York City is so beautiful right now.

To celebrate, I'm making my first mixed CD of the season — The Mountain Goats, Ida, Weezer. This is going to be a good season.


Links:
Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls
Photos from the 2005 Rock Camp Concert
Murray Hill

Everybody Into the Contentious Room!

I recently finished reading San Francisco-based writer, Beth Lisick's, hilarious book of personal essays, Everybody Into the Pool. Last night, she did a reading with Rachel Kramer Bussel as part of the Grace Reading Series. It was supposed to be held at Jimmy Fallon's bar, Mo Pitkin's, which I have been looking for a reason to stop by in hopes of rekindling the spark I swear was there that one time Jimmy and I met at that Paper party. Anyway, the event was double-booked with some Jonathan Ames event. Mr. Ames is to New York's literary scene what Death Cab for Cutie are to the "indie" rock scene or Parker Posey is to B movies, so he obviously has the pull in this situation. A quarter past seven I walk through Mo Pitkin's searching for bookish, girly types, only to stumble upon McSweeny's-ish types clamoring to get on some waiting list. List guy tells me the Grace Reading Series has been moved to the Den of Cin at Two Boots across the street.

When I finally figure out what is going on and clamor down the stairs into the Den of Cin, Rachel Kramer Bussel is deep into her set and the seats in the small room have been filled, save for a bar stool in the front. So, I exercise my rabbit-like qualities and hop through the crowd to the stool, quietly shed my bag and jacket and try to find her anecdotal column about rape fantasies amusing, but really I'm scanning the room for Peter Braunstein and counting down the seconds until Beth takes the stage. When she does, she reads the "New York" essay from her book that tells her story about running into Parker Posey (Everyone in NYC has a Parker story!). With Beth's slam poetry background, she is a great reader. She's very expressive, confident, and can divert from the page to throw in footnotes to her story, unlike Rachel who just sounded nervous.

After Beth's story, the hostess announces that there are free pizzas and free beer and wine to be consumed before Rachel reads one more story. So, we're all stuffing our faces with some of New York's finest pizza and this really good Polish beer (got to find out where to get that in my neighborhood) when Rachel starts with her story, a depressing lesbian erotica piece that leads off by quoting Sleater-Kinney's song, "Jenny."

Well, to finally spice things up, some middle-aged white guy in a suit comes storming down the stairs yelling "You've got to leave. You've got to leave. There's another group waiting to come down here. You were supposed to be out at 8PM and it's 8:20. Get out! Leave!"

Now here's some action! The hostess tries to maintain control and tells everyone to stay put, Rachel to keep reading, and heads over to the stairs to reason with this man, but he just keeps repeating his story, so loudly, making the room so contentious that we all start guzzling our beers and scarfing down the pizza, knowing the inevitable — we have to leave!

The hostess tries talking over the guy (still on repeat with his rant!), apologizing for the Courtney Love-like situation, thanking and apologizing to Racheal and asking us to, yes, leave. I rush over to the merch table, the only person to buy a copy of Beth's book (it will make a great holiday gift!), then over to Beth to tell her how much I liked it and quickly recount my own Parker story. I'd wanted to tell visiting blogger, Jessa Crispin, who was in attendance, that I am addicted to BookSlut but it was kind of like there was a gas leak — everyone tried to remain calm, but we knew it was best just to run the hell out of there.

I walked out into the warm, drizzly evening actually feeling refreshed. I'm glad nothing is predictable in New York, that what could have been a nice little evening of stories and $5 drinks turned into a totally contentious atmosphere with free food and booze. New York, you do not disappoint me.

Links:
Bookslut's account of the event
Beth Lisick's homepage
Grace Reading Series
Two Boots (for the pizza, not the venue)

Power of Media

With the coverage of Hurricane Katrina greatly affecting the president's approval ratings, exposing the truth about poverty, environmental issues and racism in the U.S., and causing the government to change its story (and hopefully its policies), much attention has been given to the power of the media. The Columbia Journalism Review Daily online has had three great articles this week detailing the experience of reporters covering the aftermath of Katrina. They detail the will and passion of journalists under great pressure to get the story. Tonight I watched a show on PBS about the broadcast vs. print coverage immediately after the assasination of JFK. It was another account of the great work of journalists at times of panic, terror, and under great emotional strain to do their jobs, to wrench the truth from the madness.
I'm at a crossroads in my career. I've been stuck in administrative jobs since college. However, when I was eight, I declared that I wanted to be a writer. When I was 14, that evolved into a journalist. After reading CJR Daily's articles, seeing the special on JFK, and revisiting articles in a book detailing young journalists' strides post-9/11, I am certain that I want to be in the field. I believe that good journalism works at exposing truths that are essential for the public to know. Hard journalism is often a catalyst for the people and politicians to make change in the interest of common good. I want to do that with my life.

Links:
• CJR Daily: "The Times Picayune: How They Did It," "Embedded with the Times Picayune in New Orleans," "In New Orleans, Everyone's a Critic"
• Amazon.com: At Ground Zero: Young Reporters Who Were There Tell Their Stories
• "JFK: Breaking the News"

Black gay community and church leaders unite to end violence

In New York City this year, four Black gay men have been murdered and one critically injured (and that is what we know of as the media repeatedly ignores these crimes). This is a serious problem, an epidemic, that can no longer be ignored. The Black gay community and church leaders are coming together this Sunday in Harlem to bring attention to and work together to end this hate.

One of the men who was murdered is Jamal James. I know him from Syracuse University, where we both went to school. Although we were not close friends, we were both black and gay and involved in lots of campus activities. Jamal was the head of the student government, so knew everyone on campus and we all liked him. He was an amazing leader and no one doubted that he would bring his charm and skills to the wider world. It was devastating to hear of his murder. I had heard of the other murders and thought I understood the problem of hate crimes, but nothing brings these problems into perspective until it happens to someone you know. This needs to end before more people are senselessly hurt or dead.

Details:
REVIVAL! is the first event in a campaign targeted to end violence against gays in the black community. The event will take place at Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive, between 120th and 122nd Streets in Harlem, Sunday, July 31, 4-7 p.m.


Links:
OIA Newswire: "BLACK GAYS, CHURCH LEADERS TO UNITE TO END VIOLENCE"
New York State Black Gay Network
Remembering Jamal James
What Happened to Rashawn Brazell?

RU-486 + birth control patch linked to deaths

There are several news reports this month detailing how RU-486 and the birth control patch can affect women adversely, causing serious health issues, such as blood clots and even death. This is yet another reason to demand that more continuous research is done to ensure the safety of birth control options. Health issues that are specific to women are too often ignored. Demand that the FDA include more honest warnings and do more intense research. While I am glad that more birth control options are avilable to us, they need to be safe.

Links:
AP: "Abortion Pill Deaths Puzzle Officials"
Newsweek: "Birth control patch linked to higher fatality rate"
FDA: Mifeprex (mifepristone/RU-486) Information
Planned Parenthood

Free tuition for virgins

A Parliamentarian in Uganda has thought of a different way to fight AIDS. Reuters reported Wednesday morning that Bbaale County MP Sulaiman Madada has offered to pay the university tuition of any girl from his district if she remains a virgin when she leaves school. Each girl wishing to have her fees paid must submit to a gynelogical exam to prove she is a virgin.
You cannot prove that a woman is a virgin.
HIV/AIDS is a huge problem for women in Uganda, but trading virginity for tuition is not going to end it. A combination of encouraging abstinence or safe sex, condom distribution, and open discussion of HIV/AIDS has contributed (and surely will continue to contribute) to a decrease in HIV/AIDS cases in Uganda.

LINKS:
Reuters: "A good reason to be a virgin..."
HIV & AIDS in Uganda