Got Games

So, obviously, I didn't get any good pictures, being a little busy at the time, but the Gay Games 25th Anniversary Legacy Dinner, held at UCSF's Mission Bay Conference Center, was absolutely wonderful. What a rush. I knew and admired so many people.

We got there a little late (due to a slight fashion emergency), but made it there as the reception was going full tilt. I didn't even have a moment to check out the silent auction items before Johnny Almony bestowed a gargantuan carnation lie upon me. Lots of hugs hello and congratulations, as I was one of four awardees at the silver anniversary of the Gay Games.

As a certain other Canadian GLBT sports event still lays mired in a nefarious bankruptcy fiasco, the real Gay Games and its stalwart organizers through the years celebrated two and a half decades of personal bests.

Sitting at my table of friends and mentors, with others nearby, we enjoyed our dinners amid the tasteful centerpieces. Speeches were made, a wonderful slide show of Gay Games images through the years kept us all smiling. Honorees included David Kopay, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the European Gay and Lesbian Sports Federation, and me.

Wait a minute. Did someone make a mistake? I guess not.

Before I knew it, former Olympic swimmer Bruce Hayes was making a witty, earnest presentation for my Media Award from the Federation, the first of its kind. Not only in appreciation of my ten years of writing Sports Complex, my Bay Area Reporter column (also syndicated from 2004-2006), the FGG also congratulated me on the Sporting Life exhibit.

I hadn't prepared a speech, and maybe that was okay. I think I said what I felt (although I forgot to mention Mike Salinas, who asked me to do the column 11 years ago), got to mention a few people who meant something, from Gene Dermody, my old pal, and the spirit behind the Golden Gate Wrestling Club, but the SF Track & Field Club, where Giampiero Mancinelli taught me how to throw a javelin.

Why did that mean so much? Because not only did I get to, as I said, "probably interview half the people in the room" over the years, but I also got to be a participant, and a medalist in wrestling and track and field.

I mentioned one guy, who served as my muse during the creation of the Sporting Life exhibit. So many times, a new bit of information turned up about him.

In 1982,as Cyndi Lauper once sang, "in the pages of a Blueboy Magazine," I saw an article about the Gay "Olympic" Games. Included in the article was a photo of a cute, short blond guy about to toss a javelin. Doug Kimball was just one of those handsome popular guys in San Francisco; everybody liked him. He competed in the decathlon at the first Games, held at Cox Stadium, at San Francisco State.

I remember, at that young age, seeing his picture, and wishing I could go to San Francisco and be a part of that.

It took twenty years. Doug died of AIDS in 1986. But I tried to keep his memory alive, with a few pictures of him incorporated into the exhibit, particularly a wonderful nude image of him balancing a basketball. Doug was just one of so many hundreds, thousands lost to AIDS, a man I wish I'd been able to meet.

Instead, at least I'm able to keep his memory alive. Doug was just a guy playing sports - and the French horn- but he was one of those heroes, making his mark at that first Gay Games.

Last summer, when I tossed the javelin at the SF Track & Field Club's first fully sanctioned meet, held at Cox Stadium, the same field where Doug, Tom Waddell, and dozens of others competed at the very first Gay Games (and where I got my MA diploma in Creative Writing at SFSU ten years ago, in full cap and gown), I won a silver medal. Maybe it was a bronze. I forget. I won three others. Sure, I was the lowest ranked in the entire competition, and only won because there were so few guys in my age group. But still, I felt close to Doug, and his memory.


UPDATE: Here's the BAR's new sports columnist, Roger Brigham, on the event (with a good pic of me, my lei, and Bruce Hayes), and FGG updates.

Sashay? Passé

The New York Times pontificates on the de-trendification of gayborhoods, in the context that Halloween in the Castro has been cancelled.

“The Castro, and to a lesser extent the West Village, was where you went to express yourself,” said Don F. Reuter, a New York author who is researching a book on the rise and fall of gay neighborhoods, or “gayborhoods.”

“Claiming physical territory was a powerful act,” Mr. Reuter said. “But the gay neighborhood is becoming a past-tense idea.”

There's nothing less amusing than being deconstructed by scholars hyping a book.

I'll post pics of Halloween and stuff on the Gay Games gala soon. I'm busy "reconstructing" myself.

Oh, and if you're gay and still thinking of voting for Barack Obama, you're an idiot. That is, unless you want to "pray the gay away."

If you're voting for Dennis Kucinich out of principle, you may not be crazy, but Dennis is outspoken enough to say he thinks Chimpoleon is.

Speaking Up

This morning I spoke to the assembly of the Federation of Gay Games about the organization and impact of Sporting Life, the exhibit I curated in 2005 for the GLBT Historical Society.

I had about ten minutes to speak, then noticed stalwart FGG board member Gene Dermody doing the screen computer tech stuff, asked him to go online, since I'd forgotten to bring visuals, or ask if there was multimedia, and voila! the FGG got to see the Sporting Life trailer, and the photo gallery as I talked.

I hope they can find the time and people to make another exhibit someday.

There's also a new exhibit, Games That Change the World, focusing on the Gay Games at the Hormel Center in the SF Public Library. That's comprised of SFPL archival material. I think a multimedia touring exhibit would be cool.

So, on the way back, in my semi-dressy clothes, riding my bike, which had a stuck brake and a broken spoke, I stopped by Mike's Bikes and got it repaired - in an hour. Pretty amazing. New brakes and tune-up for $60, including SF Bike Coalition discount.

I usually go to Box Dog Bikes on 14th & Guererro, which is cheaper but a bit slower, but it was "do it now" time, and I was happy to splurge.

Part of the FGG's events this weekend include their big dinner gala ceremony Saturday, and whoopee, I'm getting an award! For the ten years of Sports Complex, but mostly for the exhibit. Former Olympic swimmer Bruce Hayes will introduce me. Whoo hoo!

So, I went and bought new shoes and a tie. I really needed new dress shoes (Shoe Pavillion, right across the street). The tie, not so much. But it was a Kenneth Cole for only $12! Splurge time again.

Back to work, finishing up calendar, emailing myself MapQuest plans for tomorrow, which is all over the Embarcadero. After the dinner, it's off with a few pals to the GusPresents "Gladiator Orgy" costume party. Let's hope our costumes' fabric glue doesn't melt from the heat of all the muscle Marys!

Oh, and in other news, Zach Puchtel, a former college basketball player, came out - as sort of bisexual. How nice for him!

Even though it's a big deal - only the 2nd major B-ball guy to come out - I'm glad I don't write sports any more, just because I'd be obligated to cover this guy's wishy-washy not exactly coming out. But he seems nice. Here's his blog.

Critical Mass today, 6pm; the Halloween edition.

Warm, Globe

Forecast: Heavy Weather
The weird weather does tend to concentrate the mind, though. Even George W. Bush acknowledges the scientific consensus that climate change is real. Most people, even conservatives, now have no problem taking the next step and acknowledging that human activity -- the burning of fossil fuels and the release of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere -- is causing climate change, or at least accelerating it.
Beyond those fundamentals, though, are a couple of even more inconvenient truths that few seem ready to come to terms with.

Geologists: Collier Glacier is shrinking
Between the North Sister and Middle Sister in Oregon's Cascade Range, Collier Glacier has advanced and receded for hundreds of thousands of years. But like many glaciers, it is headed in one direction these days: backward.
It is in serious peril, says geologist Ellen Morris Bishop of the Fossil-based Oregon Paleo Lands Institute. "We have basically a really sad picture of Collier Glacier today."

Climate change: Fossil record points to future mass extinctions
Global warming could cut a swathe through the planet's species over the coming centuries, warns a study released Wednesday that shows a link between rising temperatures and mass extinctions reaching back half a billion years.


White House edits CDC climate testimony
The White House severely edited congressional testimony given Tuesday by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the impact of climate change on health, removing specific scientific references to potential health risks, according to two sources familiar with the documents.


Wildfires: a billion dollar disaster

Dumbledorable

In a superfluous PR move, say some, billion-selling Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling revealed that the wizard character Dumbledore - who dies somewhere along her multiple book franchise - was gay.

I supppose this should be considered a nice move, you know, all those kiddies get to read about a gay character; or know they have read about one, before their parents think them too controversial (like far rightwingers who've banned them from their homes and libraries for being too witchy).

Partly, I say, "Whoop-de-doo."

Rowling, who ripped off the original idea for a kid's wizard school from a small press author years ago, who is suing an amusement park in India for making an imitation Hogwart's Castle, reveals that a character was gay; without writing much that shows that in the previous books.

There's nothing like backtracking to make your books more interesting. And there's nothing like using the gay angle to stir up PR, sweetie.

Try being gay, and having gay protagonists in all your books. Shocking PR move, I know!

Think Inc.!

Just a reminder: I'm reading tonight at Books Inc.
2275 Market St. San Francisco. 7:30pm.

Be there, be square, er, wheeled.

UPDATE: Well, that was nice; about 10 people, some old pals included. Books Inc. peeps are kewl.

Total aside: Am I talkin' LOL Catese? Mebbe. After the reedin', got into a chat on the phone wif da bruthah bout LOL catz. Ya know dere makin a hole online bible LOL Catese version. Tis funnay!



Genesis 1: "Oh hai. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat waz invisible, An he maded the skiez An da Urf, but he no eated it."

Uniquely Unique

Under the sea, in Brazil, and in Indonesia, some entirely new species have been discovered. Frogs, leopards, fish and even a furry lobster have been given new categories by scientists. so, perhaps, for every dozen species that go extinct due to human encroachment, a new odd one is born.

Perhaps. I've been thinking about the unique aspects of my book, and why it befuddles many, why cyclists seem to be sniffing at it like some gay purple frog (the Atelopus frog was found in the Nassau Mountains in eastern Suriname. It was one of 24 new species of wildlife discovered by scientists in the remote plateaus north of Brazil.), and why after sending 15 review copies I haven't gotten one published review.

"PR, sweetie!" said a local accomplished publicist, when I was kvetching at the Litquake opening night reception at Herbst Theatre's Green Room. Well, yes, one needs a bit of hype, not that I ever expect to be as popular as authors, even gay ones, whose themes are so wide and unspecific, it's almost as if they were written by a focus group.

The reading last Saturday at one of the many Litquake "Lit Crawl" events - mine at Revolution Cafe - went well. The other authors did their thing amid the dim lighting, faulty microphone, and large crowd. The open air cafe was packed! I really should have brought my camera.

But the unique gay/bike messenger/activist/centaur themes in Cyclizen seem to have rung a bell at least for those who know a little about the topic. Unfortunately that's a small group.

Anyway, I'll be reading at Books Inc. tomorrow, Thursday, Oct. 18, at 7:30pm. 2275 Market St. at Noe. It'll no doubt be another small group, but if they're interested, I'll be interesting.