• Exactitudes

    I found this cool site, Exactitudes, via Witold Riedel. The description:

    Rotterdam-based photographer Ari Versluis and stylist Ellie Uyttenbroek have worked together since October 1994. Inspired by a shared interest in the striking dress codes of various social groups, they have systematically documented numerous identities over the last 8 years. Rotterdam’s heterogeneous, multicultural street scene remains a major source of inspiration for Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek, although since 1998 they have also worked in cities abroad.

    They call their series Exactitudes: a contraction of exact and attitude. By registering their subjects in an identical framework, with similar poses and a strictly observed dress code, Versluis and Uyttenbroek provide an almost scientific, anthropological record of people’s attempts to distinguish themselves from others by assuming a group identity. The apparent contradiction between individuality and uniformity is, however, taken to such extremes in their arresting objective-looking photographic viewpoint and stylistic analysis that the artistic aspect clearly dominates the purely documentary element.

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  • Lifestyle choices

    Apparently, the lifestyle choice of being Christian and having prayer meetings at the Department of Justice is OK, but having an event for Gay Pride Month is not:

    The Justice Department has barred a group of employees from holding their annual gay pride event at the department’s headquarters, the first time such an event has been blocked by any federal agency, gay rights leaders said yesterday.

    Justice Department officials told the group, called DOJ Pride, that they could not hold their annual event this month at the department’s Great Hall because the White House had not formally recognized Gay Pride Month with a presidential proclamation, said Marina Colby, a Justice Department policy analyst who is president of the group, which represents several hundred gay and lesbian department employees.

    “This sends a real chilling message to Justice Department employees who are gay and lesbian,” said David Smith, a spokesman for Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest gay advocacy group.

    “This says, ‘You’re not welcome,’ ” Smith said. “It says that employees can celebrate Asian American heritage month, and Hispanic heritage month and so on, but you cannot.”

    Barbara Comstock, spokeswoman for the Justice Department, declined to comment.

    The gay pride event has been an annual tradition at the Justice Department since about 1997, organizers said, and many other federal agencies have held similar events since the mid-1990s, when President Clinton first declared a Gay Pride Month.

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  • Glenn

    Check out the photo of Glenn on the web site of photographer Melanie Grizzell.

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  • Salam Pax

    The Baghdad Blogger, Salam Pax, who also happens to be gay, now has a fortnightly column in the Guardian. There is an article by freelance journalist Peter Maass in Slate about him discovering his interpreter was the world-famous blogger.

    Peter Maass wrote a very powerful article in April for the NY Times Magazine about being with the Third Battalion as it entered Baghdad — killing all in its path, civilian and otherwise.

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  • Get Your War On

    I’ve been terribly remiss! Get Your War On episodes twenty-four and twenty-five are available.

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  • Let’s see if this makes the U.S. Media

    From The Guardian, via Ruminate This.

    The US deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz – who has already undermined Tony Blair’s position over weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by describing them as a “bureaucratic” excuse for war – has now gone further by claiming the real motive was that Iraq is “swimming” in oil.

    The latest comments were made by Mr Wolfowitz in an address to delegates at an Asian security summit in Singapore at the weekend, and reported today by German newspapers Der Tagesspiegel and Die Welt.

    Asked why a nuclear power such as North Korea was being treated differently from Iraq, where hardly any weapons of mass destruction had been found, the deputy defence minister said: “Let’s look at it simply. The most important difference between North Korea and Iraq is that economically, we just had no choice in Iraq. The country swims on a sea of oil.”

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    UPDATED: The Guardian has issued a correction on this:

    A report which was posted on our website on June 4 under the heading “Wolfowitz: Iraq war was about oil” misconstrued remarks made by the US deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, making it appear that he had said that oil was the main reason for going to war in Iraq. He did not say that. He said, according to the Department of Defence website, “The … difference between North Korea and Iraq is that we had virtually no economic options with Iraq because the country floats on a sea of oil. In the case of North Korea, the country is teetering on the edge of economic collapse and that I believe is a major point of leverage whereas the military picture with North Korea is very different from that with Iraq.” The sense was clearly that the US had no economic options by means of which to achieve its objectives, not that the economic value of the oil motivated the war. The report appeared only on the website and has now been removed.

    Thanks to Matt Stoller for pointing this out.

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  • Hillary is a double agent

    daily-news-cover.jpg

    I think Hillary Clinton is a secret double agent for the Republicans. It’s the only explanation that makes sense. I’ve written before about how she’s no friend of homos, and the NY Times has written about how much she’s being attacked from the left. In that article, we learn the charming fact that she’s afraid to meet with the family of Barry Winchell, a gay soldier who was beaten to death with a baseball bat as he slept in his cot. The Senate Armed Services Committee, of which Hillary is a member, has decided to hold a closed door session on the promotion of Major General Robert T. Clark to Lieutenant General. MG Clark is former Commanding General of Fort Campbell, where Winchell was murdered in 1999 by fellow soldiers. Targeted because he was believed to be gay, PFC Winchell endured constant anti-gay harassment in the months leading up to his murder.

    Now, as the media could be talking about the mass deception involving weapons of mass destruction that Iraq doesn’t seem to have had, instead we are treated to a repraisal of the blowjob scandal that nearly led to Bill Clinton’s impeachment, thanks to the release of her new memoir. While doing very little of use to New York or anyone else, Hillary has managed to find time to write a memoir. Its release gives the press another chance to remind us that lying about sex is an impeachable offense, but the treason of lying about weapons to start a war to distract us from the corporate scandals of Enron and Worldcom is just business as usual.

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    Updated: I left out the fact that the GOP uses the threat of Hillary becoming President in its fundraising letters.

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  • Miscellaneous links

    I haven’t posted much lately, so here are a few items of note:

    • After 18 years, the U.S. has decided to start contributing to, and getting active with, UNESCO, the UN’s cultural arm. They’ve decided it might be a useful tool as part of the “War on Terrorism.” When the Republicans say they’re getting interested in culture, it’s time to get worried.

    • The Guardian has an interview with Susan Sarandon. My friend the lovely and talented Anees sent me the URL. We recently watched Bull Durham, since I hadn’t seen it in over a decade, and James had never seen it. One of my favorite lines in the movie is spoken by her character:

      The world is made for people who aren’t cursed with self-awareness.

    • Cabinet Magazine has a graph illustrating the destruction of the idea of public domain by our copyright system and the abuse of it by corporations.

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  • Christianity vs. Terrorism

    A conservative Christian group is challenging a U.S. Department of Transportation policy that bans planes from Disney World’s airspace because the group wants to make sure Gay Days revelers see its messages flying overhead this weekend.

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  • Fresh Tracks at DTW

    We went to Fresh Tracks at Dance Theater Workshop last night, plus went to the opening for Dearraindrop at John Connelly Presents — no web page, so see the announcement on Flavorpill.

    Fresh Tracks is exactly the kind of thing I look for at DTW: a showcase of emerging choreagraphers and performance artists. Beyond a doubt the highlight of the show was the last work: “American Crane Standards” by Ann Liv Young. The title comes from a brand of toilets — the company no longer exists — which are carried out by the two dancers at the beginning of the piece. I have borrowed an image from her web site so you can see an example. It’s a photo of one of the truly great moments in the work, so I hesitated to put it up.

    american crane standards - ann livy young

    I’m a lousy dance critic — I just know what I like — so I will post the New Yorker blurb that recommended seeing her:

    Ann Liv Young’s madcap choreography mocks strip-club routines, cheerleading, and feminine demureness with dancers who know how to flout the male gaze while flaunting their stuff. This week, only days after her college graduation, Young presents “American Crane Standards” as part of Dance Theatre Workshop’s “Fresh Tracks” showcase of up-and-coming choreographers. Two women in mint-green skirts and chiffon blouses lug parti-colored toilets onto the stage and undertake a synchronized dance, responding to verbal cues barked from offstage. The toilets, pink, green, and yellow, coordinate perfectly with the deadpan dames who straddle them, performing midair splits. Endlessly inventive, tacitly confrontational, the show is as fun to discuss as it is to watch.

    She also does purses and skirts. Maybe I can commission an interesting bag. I at least need to get her in touch with my friend Kim Johnson, who runs Johnson on Orchard Street.

    Update: Here is a video of an excerpt of the piece:

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