Here is Ms. Vienna Teng with City Hall. I wish she would write a song about Massachusetts but that's okay. My daughter was married at this city hall, so I love the song.
And if you never read the post here on this painting...
it was painted by my dear friend Steve Emery, whose inspiration for it were my daughter and daughter-in-law's wedding photographs at taken at San Francisco City Hall last Fall. Every time I try to write about how much this painting means to my family and me, I get a bit chocked up and completely lose the words. But I think you know. Visit Steve's gallery. It is a very uplifting space.
I'm still on vacation! When I'm on vacation, my Lovely Man, WP always makes sure to indulge me in one way or another. Perhaps I'm easy to please, but when it's around 1:00 a.m. and I can't sleep, he senses that and invites me to watch a movie with him. I just love him so. Hold on a minute, I'm now going to interrupt his conference call to give him a hug. :-)
That was early this morning. We watched Robert Altman's Thieves Like Us. I must've been content after seeing Shelly Duval, one of my favorite actresses of that era, because I conked right out until about a half-hour ago. Bliss. To sleep until just after nine when ordinarily The Adorables (my little students) are sitting bleary-eyed before me as I tell them what day it is and what sorts of torture we have in store for them. For some reason, they keep coming back every day anyway. ;-)
This is supposed to be a post-Valentine's Day sort of tribute or ramble, or something. I'm really losing my way here. May I just put it plainly?
I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired of those mean-spirited, narrow-minded, fear-mongering, twisted people who are the force behind trying to brutally beat into the ground marriage equality in California. They won't do it here in Massachusetts because they wouldn't dare. We'd kick them out on their collective, pointy little ear.
Look at the happy face on my beautiful kid! How can anyone have the cruel heart to try to take that bond away from my daughter and daughter-in-law? For those of you who do not already know, they were married at San Francisco City Hall back in October, in the hope that Prop 8 would not pass. They currently live at college in Massachusetts, where marriage is legal. The couple, however, plan to move to California for graduate school, so it made sense for them to marry in California. After the passage of Prop 8, however, their union is uncertain. They're preparing themselves for inevitably seeking a domestic partnership instead.
I want to encourage you to visit Thorne's World, where I saw and borrowed this video to share with you. Thorne and her wife are dealing with the same issue as my daughter and daughter-in-law. And please meet Thorne - she'll make you laugh and cry and shake your fists; and you'll love every moment of it. I promise.
And to those people who have taken to wearing such huge boots to trample on the happiness of others:I'm Sick of You. (There's also an Iggy Pop song with the same title, but it was Lou Reed's song I was really thinkin' about.)
My Lovely First Girl: I dedicate this song to you. It is perhaps selfish of me to choose this song for you. You'd probably say that The Rolling Stones are a gang of old men with misogynistic fantasies woven through their music. But just listen, you may even like it. And it reminds me of you, what can I say? ;-)
And it's a happy song; meant to cheer you up yet as I type this, I'm almost about to cry again. We need to move forward. And keep moving. Even if it's just one step a day. We need to make ground and not stop fighting for what's right and just.
"When the Amherst sphinx styled herself a pagan, she meant she didn’t believe in the biblical God. What sort of deity, if any, she did believe in is hard to pinpoint." -- Gary Sloan, "Emily Dickinson: Pagan Sphinx,"
I believe that the images and writing posted here fall under the "fair use" section of the U.S. copyright law http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107, as they are intended for educational purposes and are not in a medium that is of commercial nature.
