I go to Walgreen's, to buy formula.

I am in the checkout line, with my large tin of baby formula.

The woman in front of me is complaining about all the freaks and their parade. The long-haired freaks and their parade.

She turns to look at me, and asks me if I'm a freak.

Since I'm not supposed to lie, I say "Yes."
Then she notices that I've got formula, and asks if I have kids.
See above about lying, and I say "Yes." (We're really trying to be non-confrontational here. I try.)
"You people shouldn't have kids. My mother told me..."
I interrupt, and calmly comment, "Seeing how well she raised you, I don't care what she said."

After that, there is silence.  I think she was trying to figure out what she could say in retort, but she was checked out before she came up with anything to say.

(I'm working on it -- it doesn't come naturally to me.)


1) City Arts Erotic Art Show Gallery Opening! I'm reading something new, tentatively titled:

The Bathhouse Manifesto,
or
A Lot I Needed To Know I Learned While Wearing A Towel

Tomorrow night, at the City Arts Gallery (828 Valencia) -- I'm reading at 9:30, black_pearl_10  at 8:50, and borggrrl  at 7:20!
(The readings are spaced out into 3 groups -- borggrrl 's first in the first, black_pearl_10  last in the second, and I'm first in the last. ;) )

2) I'm doing the 2009 Clarion West Writeathon -- my page for it is here.

I'm going to be trying to write two stories, and if there are some leftover words, start on a third. Donate, and I'll email you one or two stories (depending on how much you donate, you tell me whether you deserve 1 or 2 ;) ) when I'm done. It'll benefit Clarion and Clarion West, so it's for a good cause.

3) Selena Wells, a fine bead- and jewelry- and nifty-artifact-artist, and partner of my dear genderfur , has an etsy shop open, here. Her stuff is really neat, and while there isn't much there now, I'm told there will be more soon. For that matter, while you're there, check out my etsy shop for letterpress stuff, Chetwood Press. ;)

1:10 PM, PST: China Mieville is fucking brilliant.

Transmission ends.

...go out to my frequent (now) co-conspirator, badgerbag !

So, coming up this Friday (that's tomorrow, folks...)



Big Gay Cabaret!

Come and enjoy an amazing array of fabulous performers making music and taking off their clothes and kickin' it cabaret style in honor of Pride Month. The night is for anyone who is ready to get down and celebrate their queer family. All are welcome. Come rock out.

Featuring burlesque from Lola Vauntz! Poetry and accordions from Nomy Lamm! The erotic delights of Bearlesque! Foot stomping rowdy heartbreakin' music from Vagabondage! plus all the way from the Rust Belt the ruckus-raising, whiskey-drinkin' heartbreaker, Waltzing Matilda the One Beer Prophet!

Friday, June 5, 2009
8:00pm - 10:00pm
The Dark Room
Mission @ 19th Street
San Francisco, CA


Yes, that's Bearlesque in there; and I should warn people, that it's likely (though not certain -- I can't pass up a good cause) that Bearlesque may not show up again until it becomes part of my work-in-progress 1-man show, so if you've been really wanting to see it, grab the chance now!

This is going to be in pieces; my con sometimes felt that way. Friday night, it felt like the con was half over; Sunday night, like it was just beginning.  An hour and a half away from SFO, somewhere over Utah, I was sure I would never be coming back, or at least not until the kids could sit quietly in an airline seat. An hour from landing San Francisco, perhaps over Nevada, I was wondering how I could have been so foolish.

The first time we traveled any distance with the kids was down to Sunnyvale, for Potlatch. One overnight, as a dry run for WisCon. I will never again, I swear, complain about small airplane seats when I am traveling alone; they will never really feel small again after I shared them with 16+ lbs. of wriggly baby.
( Traveling w/Kids... )
Friday, during the day, I scarcely remember before Registration. I am sure I did excellent and entertaining things, that I am just not remembering at the moment. ;) (A note: It's very likely I had a great chat with you and didn't catch your LJ-name, or have mixed it in with lots of other Great Chats; if you're not here, it's my memory that's at fault, and I do apologize, and thank you for helping make it a really good con.  [disclaimer ends])

I know that we marched down State Street with the twins until we found the gyros place, because I glanced in the window and saw "Homemade Yogurt" for sale.  'twas good food.  At the Gathering, and points thereabout, we first hatched the notion of auctioning off the twins, and I was able to start verifying that, in fact, no one on my Let's Build A World panel had ever seen a version of it before.
( Meditations on Dealer's Rooms and the Passing of Time.... )

Dinner that night, thanks to ktempest 's willingness to babysit her cousins, was at L'Etoile, a tradition of 4-5 years' standing now for pantryslut  and me.  I have never had asparagus so good, and coriander-crusted salmon with morel hash? Amazing.  I shall simply stand here for a moment and fan my tastebuds to let them cool and savor the memory. ;)

That night, Lori and I broke out the baby-carriers, and took the twins around; it worked for a while, then it didn't, and the pattern that was to last for the rest of the con continued: one or the other of us would be in the room w/the babies, the other out at the parties.  I don't think I quite realized how much I had managed to learn to enjoy the parties until I was spending time away from them...

The one party I do remember from that night was the Haiku Earring Party, which I came to late. I don't have pierced ears (or anything, for that matter), so it always feels a bit odd. But there they were; two earrings, with small black spheres over green eye-in-the-pyramid (OK, eye-in-the-triangle) beads. I could not resist.

The title? Which so inspired me I could not stick to 1 haiku, but must needs write 5?
( The Lovecraftian Anarchist )

Yes, I was pleased with myself. ;)

I believe it was Friday evening that I had my first chat with commodorified  of the con -- I believe she was that person who happens roughly once per convention, who I start out knowing in a "good acquaintance" sort of way and end up knowing much better, and being quite glad of it. (We ended up dining together Saturday night, for example, in the middle of my love affair with Conference 5.)

Speaking of which...

I spent a good 4+ hours of Saturday in one room; Conference 5. Three panels, the reports of which lie below...
( Photographs from a Love Affair with a Hotel Event Room.... )
 
The other main event of Saturday was, of course, the Tiptree auction. At said, I was defeated in my attempts to buy a knitted Dalek for the twins, but did manage to auction off a chance to hold one or both for $35. This caused a kerfuffle; I shan't comment on that here. I also tucked $5 into Geoff Ryman's underwear, and got a *very* nice kiss in return. {fans self}

This was, I think, also the first Tiptree auction I've ever been to where I did not win a single item at open bid.

There's more to say -- I didn't mention lunch with
bookzombie  and pennski on Saturday, or quite a lot of other stuff -- but this is getting long enough as it is, so I'll pause here. Perhaps the other lake has more shards to be gathered up.

We'll see if I move here, but this is a test and establishing my footprint.

(Crossposted from Dreamwidth -- after which LJ went on an epic 35-minute hangfest. I am not so sure about this. ;) )

The Chetwood Press Etsy store.

Everything that I was selling this weekends is there.

If you're local, and would like something, we can discuss shipping refunds and outside arrangements, but don't tell Etsy that. ;)

(And thanks to black_pearl_10  for the photographs!)

This past Saturday I took myself and a bunch of my letterpress work across the bay to Fort Mason, Building A, for the PCBA Book Arts Fair.

About a year and a half ago (September, 2007) I took my first letterpress class.  Last year, this time, I'd done my first chapbook (during the letterpress intensive) and was preparing to do my very first broadside, and black_pearl_10 's birthday party invitations.

This time, I had a portfolio of 4 broadsides of my own poetry, a double-sider with Ursula K. LeGuin and Mike Ford's poetry, and a triptych, bound with lead tape, of my own writing and composing.

I had half a table, and found myself between two sellers of blank books; it meant that a lot of people walked right past them to get to me, and vice versa.

I was there for 7 hours vending, sold to 10 people, and made a little over $200.  Which, at first glance, looks like a real failure.  But it's not.

First of all, it more than paid for the cost of my table, my parking, and the plates I'd used to make my triptych, along with the paper for it.  I don't really expect to *make* money out of my printing, but I'd prefer to lose as little as possible.

Second, a lot of people stopped, and read my stuff, and talked to me about it, and then didn't buy anything. While I'm sad they didn't, as a poet it's always gratifying to know people are reading your work, and engaged with it. (Though the lady who gushed that the triptych belonged in the Jewish Museum, as something all of us Jews should read, and then didn't buy a copy? You, I'm a bit less sympathetic with. ;))

Third, it was my first time. Perhaps the fifth, or tenth, or hundredth time I do this I'll get jaded and be seriously disappointed, but for now, I had a great time selling work I'm glad I did to people who appreciate it.

When I do this again, I'll be looking for people to help with it, as I only saw a very little bit of the fair; and between now and October I'm looking to make at least one more visit to the press, so that I'll have new things to sell. I know I've talked to some of the readers of this journal about collaborating -- let's make that work? ;)

Also, for those of you who couldn't make it, but might be interested, I hope soon to have all my works up on chetwoodpress.etsy.com in the very near future, or leave me a comment here...caramida , I know I owe you a discussion about one of the older broadsides.

Otherwise -- watch this space, and in October, come down to the Book Arts Jam at Foothill College!

As a reminder -- the Book Arts Fair is tomorrow, from 9 AM to 4 PM, and I'll be exhibiting there! 

Available for sale will be:

The Portfolio Death, Death, Owls, and William Gibson,
comprising the following prints:
"Steganography"  -- a sonnet for William Gibson  -- 5.5" x 7.5"
"What the Owl Doesn't Tell The Moon" -- A villanelle originally written for a piece of art by elisem , with illustration by alibi_shop  (7"x11")
"Death's Summer Home", (7.5"x11") and
"The Inossuation of Death", a sonnet for Robyn Hitchcock -- 5.5"x7.5"

(Each print also available individually)

The triptych "From the Germanophile Jew to the Hebraophile German" -- dedicated to Anselm Kiefer, and my most recent work, 7.5"x11"

and

the broadside originally produced for Potlatch 18, with "It Was Never Really Different" by Ursula K. LeGuin on one side, and John M. Ford's "Against Entropy" on the other, illustrated by Freddie Baer.

I hope to see some of you there, and there's still a chance, if someone wants to watch the booth for a half-hour or an hour to give me a chance to wander around, to pick up one of these lovely items for free!

Maine's Gov. Baldacci just signed into law LD 1020, An Act to End Discrimination in Civil Marriage and Affirm Religious Freedom -- a.k.a. a gay marriage bill.

For those who can't read the small print: Building A, Fort Mason, this coming Saturday, 9 AM to 4 PM. I'll be there with a half-table, selling my portfolio, individual prints from said, a broadside, and my newest work, the triptych "From the Germanophile Jew to the Hebraophile German."

I look forward to seeing people there, and if you can't make it, I'll be selling this stuff in my etsy store, and online here by special arrangement.

If anyone local would like a free copy of something from my table, and is willing to table-sit for half-an-hour or an hour, comment here or drop me an email and we'll see if we can work it out.

Like all SF in X shows, there is an admission fee, but it's well worth it. Trust me on this one. ;)

Poetry may be for lovers, and stories for children, but what form of writing wants to speak to us all? Reaches out to grab us by the collar and shake us until we listen?

The Manifesto!

The Bay Area has never been short of political/artistic fervor, and we'll be bringing you classic examples from around the world and brand new statements about How Things Should Be, along with audience participation at the Manifesto! show at for SF in Exile, May 1st atModern Times Bookstore, 7pm.

Naamen Tilahun
Annalee Newitz
Danny O'Brien
Nick Mamatas
Zuleikha Mahmoud
Liz Henry
Steven Schwartz
Daphne Gottlieb

Declaim the juiciest and most rabble rousing bits from: The SCUM Manifesto, The Futurist Manifesto, The Bitch Manifesto, The Femme Shark Manifesto, the Dadaist and Provo manifestos, and more!

So, come, listen, and get hit by the shrapnel of the War of Ideas!

SF in Exile - Manifesto!
May 1, 2009
7pm- 9pm (door at 6:30)
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia Street, San Francisco

"You're a mom now! Swallow first, then rant!"

In a post today, he hit on the logical reason for Fred Phelps' existence.

Over and over again, the religious right has used the "They're taking away our religious freedom" argument when it comes to increasing protections for gays and lesbians.

Yet every day, Fred Phelps shows how over-the-top you can be and, unless you actively physically assault someone, not get any kind of legal trouble for it.

So, clearly, all these people who are worried? They are afraid that they aren't going to be allowed to be worse than Fred Phelps. ;)

Makes a handy rhetorical point, too, as Fred points out:


"So there's the two-word answer for every Tony Perkins or James Dobson or Damon Owens who makes up some dubious claim about being persecuted or punished or threatened or jailed or whatever for their anti-gay beliefs.

"I'm a California doct-- " Fred Phelps! He's a free man. Are you worse than him? No? Then shut up, 'kay?"

Rest in peace, co-creator of the hobby that's given me so much pleasure over the years, fellow gamer both war- and role-playing.

In his honor, a repost of a gaming poem:

A Gamer’s-eye view of the World

There are place names that mean nothing to anyone save
Lutherans, historians, and gamers; Breitenfeld, Lutzen
You can tell someone raised a gamer, for they look
At each room and mark its exits, as if writing down its
Outlines on a piece of graph paper.
Gamers remember to check for secret doors, traps in
boxes offered to them, and escape routes for whatever
they happen to be in. Long-time gamers know the
world is full of secret doors, any gift might be a trap,
and it’s always good to know where the escape is.
Gamers understand the geometry of the hexagon,
and why it is so important. Circles are much less important.
The gamer’s eye is an overlay, a set of spectacles with baroque
Brass rims, little levers for focus and tint, and metal shutters to
Close in times of danger. A workplace can become a first-person
Shooter map – maps! Indeed, any map’s a cause for exultation,
Amusement, hours of analysis; where are the weak points, what roads
Would you block off, when the Hapsburgs invade Emeryville?
The gamers will be prepared.

The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled the state's gay marriage ban unconstitutional.

OK. Beneath the cut there are spoilers for BSG, possible spoilers for Iain Banks, and analysis of why I reacted the way I did to BSG.
( Here be reactions.... )