Author Archives: WD

My Very Gay Weekend

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I had a wonderful weekend and figured I’d share. On Thursday, I went to a gay club in downtown Boston with a new friend. The place, Estate, was pretty nice and had good music. Though drinks, at $10 a pop, were a bit too much for this unpaid legal intern (…), I had fun and was glad to have my first gay night in Boston in years!

On Friday I drove down to Hartford, CT, to visit Cinestudio, the movie theater that gave me 1/2 of my Trinity education (thanks, mom!) Each year the CT Gay and Lesbian Film Festival holds a week of gay film right at Cinestudio. It was great to see some old friends and fresh faces in the audience.

After a pleasant visit (and sleep) at a friend’s place, I headed down to Asbury Park, NJ, for Asbury Pride. Luckily, it was a beach day. I swam, soaked up the rays, and enjoyed a particularly mellow mental state. After catching up with my cousin and family, I headed to Paradise, the gay club attached to the Empress Motel, the gay resort/motel right on the beach. I’ve had many an interesting evening at the Empress, and this one didn’t disappoint. I think I danced off 5 or so pounds. Hot men… hot times.

As a bonus, I got in a few hours on the beach Sunday before heading back to MA. And you know, while I was dancing and strutting around in my bathing suit, I really felt that my efforts at the gym over the past year had been well worth it. Who doesn’t like to turn a few heads now and then? I feel sexy and great.

On Storytelling

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Regular readers will know of my fondness for Bill Moyers, and his thoughtful brand of journalism. The conversation below with Barry Lopez, someone of whom I had not heard, is simply marvelous. I’ll miss the Journal badly. Bill brought an inquisitive, boyish and affirming spirit to his work; in so doing, he gave voice to all.

Be Careful What You Tap

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I’m in the middle of studying for finals, trying to get work this summer, and following what is shaping up to be one of the worst environmental disasters in the country. I came across this graphic (below) which was made by the local newspaper, the Times Picayune.

Take a look at the numbers. Not only is it 5,000 ft. from the surface of the ocean to the ocean floor, but it is an additional 18,000 ft. down to the oil reserves. We are drilling down nearly 25,000 ft. for this stuff!

Perhaps this disaster will be a wakeup call that such exploration is simply too dangerous. While the devastation here will be great, it’s some comfort to see that Cape Wind has finally been approved for Nantucket Sound. Contrast the clean energy we’ll get from that development with the dirty, nasty oil that has now been unleashed on the Gulf Coast ecosystem. Drill Baby Drill never seemed so idiotic.

Driven to Fury

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I watched a clip of Sarah Palin’s address to the tea partiers at Boston Common today and it just pushed me over the top.

SP: Borrowing and spending and inventing these big new government programs with enormous price tags, it makes no sense.

WD: $236B surplus in 2000… $600B deficit in 2008

SP: There is no way to pay for this except to see your taxes rise.

WD: So, cut taxes for the rich, right?

SP: Selfishly sticking our kids and grandkids with the bill.

WD: Iraq and Afghan war costs, since 2001, approaching 1 trillion.

SP: And that is stealing from them, steeling opportunity in this land of opportunity.

WD: Cost-plus contracts / Blackwater / Haliburton / Missing Millions / TARP / etc…

SP: It’s immoral, it’s not right, and we’re not going to stand for it any more.

WD: Wait, the torture, war profiteering, and civil liberties violations were moral and right, but an attempt to insure people isn’t?

SP: All of this makes us more beholden to foreign countries, it makes us less secure, it makes us less free.

WD: Which is what happens when we spend beyond our means and refuse to pay for it. Want war? Sacrifice.

SP: And I’m not calling anyone un-American.

WD: It’s called intimation, honey.

I understand the anger, but it is just simply misdirected. The anger should be at the corporate takeover of government. Sure, most politicians are complicit in this. But the real problem is that our policies have allowed corporations to outsource our jobs with impunity and evade fair taxation. And no, I’m not talking about small businesses. I’m talking about the too big to fail con artists in the financial sector. They have facilitated the decline of American manufacturing, exports, GDP and wages while getting unbelievably rich.

Opportunity means the ability to have a chance and to make a go of things. The current corporate driven system has done almost everything to stack the deck against ordinary “folks.” I still maintain that a lot of this tea party anger is borne out of racism, nativism, and fear. They’re trying to mainstream (and the corporate media is certainly helping them,) but theirs is ultimately a morally and intellectually bankrupt movement. I wish them failure.