“So…
Last year I publicly came out strong against social networking sites.
I was being impersonated on them; I do not use them.
As of today, I am.
For a very good reason.
Hope Gardens is a beautiful compound for women and children that were on skid row.
34 Mothers, 71 children and
23 elderly women safely living in an
amazing place with trees and bicycles
and education and… Life.
I have been there. It is a haven.
It will be closed in 9 days, putting its residents back on the streets, because of funding cuts.
We have to raise money.
A great man is matching every donation until the end of the month.
And I am hitting the Internet.
I am now on Twitter and have a YouTube video explaining why.
My friend Chad from church is doing it for me because I’m not a social networker.
Please…
If you can donate anything,
Or if you know how to tweet or “retweet,”
make it go viral or any of this crazy stuff
and send this message to others who can,
PLEASE do.
If you have any contact with the media,
Please help get the story out.
Every dollar counts.
Please share the following:
While the process of uploading/archiving/formatting my site to WordPress is—generally speaking—yawnsville territory, the occasional film strip I “re-visit” compensates for the pain-in-the-assery of it all : remembrances of whom was with me, where I was, the tilt-a-whirl of excitement I felt upon picking up the copy of Flaunt, in which this brief review (see: paragraph three) appeared…
Massive thanks and congratulations, B.B.: In five sentences, you target the subject matter with a marksman’s precision. Not only is this excerpt testament to a well-honed sense of verbal dexterity, but the analysis also exhibits a sophistication—namely, your ability to exude charm despite a frugal economy of language.
And thank you, Flaunt Magazine, for the elation (however fleeting). I don’t even have to close my eyes, and I’m there again: a 7-11 in Eagle Rock, bona-fide literary groupie Mark Ewert waiting in my grandmacamry while I made this pit stop to wherever it is he was staying. The A.C. in the store is cranked, my skin a menace of gooseflesh as I stand, feet planted so I’m facing the magazine rack. There’s a large expanse of glass behind the titles—does one call it a “window” if it’s never meant to be opened?—and on the other side of the freshly-Windexed surface that’s filling my lungs with a mildly toxic freon blue scent, dusk spreads itself across the asphalt sky, immense and in gasoline hues—a Molotov cocktail tossed onto the L.A. skyline. A thick copy of Flaunt is in my hands, Selma Blair on the trademark die-cut double cover, and it’s the moment just after I flipped past Omahyra’s “Quinceñara” editorial: the moment when my eyes landed on this review, confirming the validity of what I’d heard, and as I’m scanning the words, a feeling comes over me that’s an onslaught of stimuli: it’s like being on a float in a parade, the crowd cheering; it’s like tossing a fistful of lit firecrackers; it’s a warmth of validation crawling into me by the fingertips, a delirious warmth, a fix I hadn’t even known I was craving. It’s my own Sally Fields moment, an implicit understanding of the fickle undercurrent in her Oscar acceptance speech when she gushed: “You like me, right now, you like me!”
I grab the other two copies from the shelf and head towards the cashier, not giving a damn about the transitory nature of things.
I feel traces of it still: “You like me… You like me…”
The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later is a phenomenal script. Written as a follow-up to Tectonic Theater’s docudrama The Laramie Project (2000), the sequel’s premise is an exploration of how Laramie, Wyoming has changed a decade after the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard.
Referred to on the theater’s site as an epilogue, the printed work Perrette (and co) performed on Sunday is the end result of five members of Tectonic — founder Moisés Kaufman, accompanied by Andy Paris, Leigh Fondakowski, Greg Pierotti and Stephen Belber — who sought out the same people they interviewed ten years ago for The Laramie Project and spoke with them again, along with new members of the community.
A portion of these accounts has been edited into a 10 minute clip posted on Tectonic Theater’s YouTube channel. (Link provided for those whom might be interested in subscribing…)
Otherwise, I’ve embedded it here:
In short, The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later posits regional questions, such as “Has Matthew’s murder had a lasting impact on [their] community?” and “How has the town changed as a result of this event?”
Moreover, the play addresses salient topics regarding the nation’s current social climate, through queries such as “What does life in Laramie tell us about life in America 10 years later?”
Now…
Insofar as my promise to post images from Sunday’s reading at Hollywood United Methodist Church, I encountered a bit of a roadblock on that venture—namely, several signs with the statement “There is no photography or recording (video or audio) allowed at this performance” that had been affixed throughout the structure, replete with a sentiment of “Thank you!”
In a different setting, for a different cause, and with a different cast–namely, one in which I don’t have such a formidable level of respect, let alone a personal relationship of any sort?
Truth be told, I probably would have considered it just another “Don’t So Delicious To Do.”
Nonetheless, in this case?
A group shot (courtesy of Richard Settle) will have to suffice, please.&.thanks:
Hey guys–this one’s time-sensitive, so please take note…
I’m attending and will have my own first-person account/commentary later, but want to share this article written by Adam Bryant (of TVGuide.com):
NCIS‘ Pauley Perrette and more of TV’s biggest stars are banding together for a one-time performance of The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later to benefit the Matthew Shepard Foundation and stand up for gay rights.
The play is a sequel to The Laramie Project, which was based on the reactions of people in Laramie, Wyo., after Shepard, a 21-year-old gay college student, was murdered there in 1998. The new production revisits the townspeople a decade later and also portrays an interview with one of Shepard’s killers.
The new play began performances across the country on Oct. 12. Perrette said she was approached by a member of her church, Hollywood United Methodist Church, about putting together a reading of the play there. Pretty soon, Perrette’s NCIS co-star Michael Weatherly, The Big Bang Theory‘s Jim Parsons and Johnny Galecki, House‘s Lisa Edelstein, Dexter‘s Julie Benz, Heroes‘ Zachary Quinto and Emmy winner Christian Clemenson were all on board.
“We have so many people from so many different shows, which is fun,” Perrette toldTVGuide.com. “Everyone we called was like, ‘I’m in.’ It’s really incredible. We’re just extremely excited, and it’s really amazing to have that many people come together to do something that’s important.”
O.K., scratch that Velveeta-laden alternate title, please.&.thanks…
One of my favorite people on the planet just celebrated a birthday, and–being the technologically-challenged Southerner (euphemism? slow) that I am–there’s other news-worthy blogature about her to be shared that’s embarrassingly long overdue…
Rewinding back to St. Valentine’s Day, 2009
Here’s an image Brian Gordon captured
of the gorgeous Pauley Perrette and her father:
The occasion? A wedding. A commitment ceremony.
In the words of this actress best known for playing the character Abby Sciutto on NCIS,
it was “A Celebration of Love.”