Eddie Boros was an artist in the East Village. He created the tower sculpture in the community garden on Avenue B and 6th street. Once, he stole a truck from an army base and made it drive over a cliff, into the ocean, just for fun. He then called the army base, told him he found a truck, and they gave him the week off-he was cool. He often wore pearls. He painted Jac's living room wall red. He died on Friday at the age of 74.
This past weekend I travelled to High Springs, Florida to see my good friend who is an organic farmer. 
It was so good to just relax and pick herbs and vegetables from his garden, cook, play with his animals and hang out. Even though my friend has restaurant clients he delivers to, I am trying to get him involved with a community supported agriculture program, or even a farmer's market. At one point, I became this marketing freak when I saw the quality of his crops, I wanted him to feed as many people as possible, and make money!! Farming is a solitary act in his case, so he is not accustomed to marketing his crops beyond his few clients. I spent much of my visit as a pushy New Yorker, trying to get my friend to expand his business.
Later, my friend told me his crops do not go to waste, that he will call up local community groups and give them what he doesn't sell. That made me happy, so I relaxed.
Here I am putting the question to the dominant societal norm- straight culture:
Straight People Why Do You Hate Gays?
God Bless him, my cousin actually spoke to me today on the phone about the Larry Kramer "open letter" to straight people, which I had sent to him to speak to me about, whenever he could talk about it. He chose today to discuss it with me. He actually had to have me hold the line for a minute, while he closed the door to his office, he was at work. My cousin expressed that he had wanted to respond to me but he wanted to do so in a conversation, not in an E-mail which he felt could be taken the wrong way. As he spoke in a low voice, I started to get the sense of how he felt about the topic- shame.
His main point came right out of the gate: Straights hate gays because they feel homosexuality is rooted in sex not love. Sad, but when I pushed him further he said that he could not imagine being with a man or being in love with another man. He explained further that straight people see gays as people who like sex a certain way, much like someone straight would have a preference for a certain position like: "Doggie Style" or masturbation, and there aren't any parades for this.
He was not kidding, this is what he said. So, I said that I could understand given this perspective how two lesbians celebrating a mass together in church, or cooking dinner for one another in their home would not be hot therefore it just doesn't exist in his male fantasy, but 2 lesbians in bed together- that's the only space for lesbians to exist. I had no idea my cousin had seen me so flately.
Oddly, I'm not angry with my cousin, I told him to imagine a world in his mind where to be gay was the norm, and then to take the feelings he has for his wife and place them in this context, that this love was not the love that you are "supposed to feel"
-a side note I referenced Ancient Greece and homosexuality as the more pure form of love expression that humans can experience.
I told him to try to think about this when he could, maybe then he might start to understand or at least see gay and lesbian love equal to straight love.
It was good to discuss this with him, perhaps we'll keep talking.
What happened to our queer revolution? You remember our revolution- it was before the internet.
I had a conversation and E-mail exhange with Rex Wockner today regarding a photo he took at and AIDS drug protest on Oct. 11, 1988 the day ACT UP took over the FDA. The producer of the documentary would like to use a photo release with an indemnity clause that holds photographers accountable should someone pictured in the photo decide to sue the LOGO Network, which is owned and controlled by Viacom, for all legal fees and damages caused to the network. The photo release clearly states that the photographer as the "sole" owner of the material has in fact obtained releases from everyone in the photo.
Darlings I know it may have been awhile since you have ventured out into the streets to support a cause, but surely you can remeber the late '80's when we were all throwing "blood" onto the white marble steps of our government. I myself was big into WHAM- remember them? If you ever took pictures or video footage at any of these protests then you may recall that you would never have been asking for a release from the thousands around you. I mean it was clear then as it is clear now, if you are involved in a public protest you are apart of a news and later, an historical event.
I think it is silly to try to make photographers lie about having releases for news events, even if these lawsuit hardly ever occur. However, if someone did want to make a case about appearing in a photo taken at an AIDS rally in 1988, say now they are an "ex-gay" it would mean the small freelance photographer or filmmaker is responsible for all legal costs and damages - not the corporate giant.
I have seen some historical / political documentaries on LOGO -but if these documentaries were acquired after they were originally produced and distributed it is likely that LOGO acquired the rights from its makers. Did these filmmakers sign indemnity clauses that therefore hold them responsible for capturing an historical event such as a protest or demonstration? It just doesn't seem fair to me.
I do know that LOGO edits films for broadcast, they told me that when I was interviewing to work for them, it was going to be one of my responsibilities.
LOGO airs news segments produced for the network by CBS, why then aren't documentaries produced for LOGO held to the standards of reporting news?
So this the revolution Viacom has delivered.
How are we meant to write and share new history? Why is Viacom attempting to shrink the public sphere?
