NY Marriage Equality: How The Vote Went Down

In case you're wondering which of the Democrats sent equal marriage to defeat today in New York state, here's the list. You might think, as I did, that it was senators from the more conservative upstate districts who voted "no", but you'd be wrong...equality died today thanks to representatives from Queens and Brooklyn, including districts with especially large gay populations.

I've linked to the despicable cretins' official web pages, if you'd like to contact them and give them a piece of your mind...or better yet, to vote them out of office next time they're up. (list via AKA William)

Joseph Addabbo (D-Queens) – NO
Darrel Aubertine (D- Cape Vincent) – NO
Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) – NO
Shirley Huntley (D-Queens) – NO
Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) – NO
Hiram Monserrate (D-Queens...Jackson Heights and Elmhurst, no less, the new gay neighborhood!) – NO
George Onorato (D-Queens) – NO
William Stachowski (D-Buffalo) – NO

ModMusic: Annie Lennox and David Gray's "Full Steam"

I know I said I'd be blogging about my trip here in Bulgaria, but so much has been happening that I don't even know where to begin. I return to the U.S. tomorrow in time for Thanksgiving, but in the meanwhile, I had to share this beautiful duet featuring the queen empress of ModFabania, Annie Lennox. Beautiful, elegiac, and gorgeously simple.

Zdravei!

Today I'm leaving for my sold out European concert tour trip to London and Sofia, and I couldn't be more excited. Tomorrow I'm making my all-too-brief stopover in the UK, where I'll be meeting two of my favorite Brit bloggers in the flesh, Raj from Electroqueer and Cal from Ultimate Addict (both of whom are linking to Roisin Murphy right now on their sites...coincidence? I think not.) After quickly rushing over to the West End to see this, I'm hopping aboard a very early flight out of Heathrow to Bulgaria for eight days. Why Bulgaria? It's kind of cool, actually...I'm part of a delegation of U.S. theatre people who are touring the country's theatre companies, meeting cultural ministers and fellow artists, seeing shows (in Bulgarian!), and developing possible collaborations. I'm excited by the work, by the passion of the people I've talked to there, and (if I'm being honest) by Bulgaria's truly staggering wines, which are some of Europe's best-kept secrets.

I'll be blogging as much as possible, as well as posting photos at Glitterlens and Facebooking, Twittering, etc. Until then, dovijdane!

The Top Ten Reasons To Make Gay Marriage Illegal

I came across this on Facebook yesterday, and felt -- with the sudden flurry of politicking in New York and in New Jersey to get marriage equality through in each state -- it was hilariously timely, too. Enjoy! (via Left Take)

THE TOP TEN REASONS TO MAKE GAY MARRIAGE ILLEGAL

1. Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.
2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
   
3. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
4. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn’t changed, like many of the principles on which this great country was founded: women are still property, blacks still can’t marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
   
5. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of marriages like Britney Spears’ 55-hour, just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
6. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn’t be allowed to marry, because our orphanages aren’t full yet and the world needs more children.
7. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
8. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That’s why we have only one religion in America.
9. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That’s why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.
10. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society, and we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven’t adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

FabGadget: One (Wave) Is The Loneliest Number

Image via CrunchBase

So I finally received a Google Wave invite today (thanks Eugene!) and immediately signed up, and I gotta say...it looks pretty freakin' awesome. What a powerful tool it's going to be...it's the idea of e-mail communication, taken to the next-generation step.

Unfortunately, no one I know seems to be using it yet (it's still in the preview, invite-only stage), so I'm kind of riding the wave alone. Anyone out there in ModFab Land using it? Let me know and I'll add you to my contacts list.

Living in the Age of Irony, and the Rise of Gay Apartheid

It's probably unbecoming to admit, but the news today that Carrie Prejean has made a secret sex tape comes with a certain sense of ironic satisfaction for LGBT people, especially those of us who believe the evangelical Christian movement is riddled with hypocrisy. She is, after all, the movement's media darling, the dethroned Miss America who became a strident family-values activist, attacking gay people viciously on every talk show in the country for their lurid desires. (The budding porn princess of Jesusworld is soon releasing a memoir to capitalize on her stardom, but with no mention of her own lurid activity, surprise surprise.) It'll be interesting to see how the Christian Media, church pastors, or even the mainstream media will decide to cover Prejean's pornographic past -- or whether it will be swept under the carpet everywhere but Towleroad.

Prejean's duplicity lands a day after LGBT causes took a beating across the nation at the ballot booth. Voters explicitly rejected gay equality in Maine, and in New Jersey, voters replaced a pro-gay Governor (Corzine) with an explicity anti-gay one (Christie, a fine addition to the history of corrupt leadership in Trenton). What good news there was came in smaller jurisdictions...not that I'm not thrilled at protections in Kalamazoo and a gay mayor in Chapel Hill, but it's hard to get excited in the face of the Maine vote.

The fact is that, a year after Prop 8, we are still short of the votes needed to secure the equality our heterosexual counterparts automatically receive. And maybe hatred will always win out...after all, no other minority group in American history has had to prove their worth to bigots at the ballot box. For African-Americans in the 60's, Asian interment camp victims in the 40's, and interracial couples in the 70's, they all found their freedom from oppression of the majority by going through the court system. Perhaps it is time for us to give up on the idea that bigots will ever see reason...they mistakenly believe our demise is a religious crusade, and it might be impossible to convince them otherwise.

David Mixner sums it up well today (read the full article here):

Call this campaign against us what it is - Gay Apartheid. All over the place, this nation is creating one set of laws for LGBT Americans and another set for all other Americans. That is the classic definition of Apartheid. We have been fighting these ballot box bigots for over three decades. Enough.

Finally, yes, as a community we have every reason to be proud. We raised the money, we made the calls, we came not in anger and we made the case. My hats off to the brave people, gay and straight, of Maine and Washington who fought in the trenches. We all are so proud of you and to be part of your community. You have no idea how much we love you for your work, dignity and honor. However, it is no longer acceptable to be viewed as brave, patient warriors in defeat. I don't want to be a brave warrior, I want to be a free one. Enough!

Stage Addiction: Last Train To Brighton Beach

Like many theatre bloggers, I'm sitting a bit agog this morning, trying to figure out what went wrong with The Neil Simon Plays at the Nederlander. After opening last week to glorious reviews and buzzworthy word-of-mouth, it has unexpectedly announced a closing date...today.

The news is shocking for a number of reasons. Yes, the grosses have been low, but that is to be expected in late previews, when shows give away most of the seats to critics, media, and awards voters. But when the reviews for the production's first part, Brighton Beach Memoirs, hit last week, they SHOULD have received a significant bump in sales...all shows do, historically. But they got zilch. And the producers, rightfully terrified by this incomprehensible turn of events, have cut and run before the bleeding gets any worse -- canceling the second part of the diptych, Broadway Bound, before it even opens.

The reasons for the failure of The Neil Simon Plays remain a frustrating mystery. Both plays are comedy classics, and are written by the most finanically dependable American playwright of all time. Throughout Neil Simon's career, his productions have been solidly profitable, appealing to New York Jewish audiences interested in the subject matter, to theatre aficionados, and to tourists who like his well-constructed laugh lines.

Furthermore, this production was impeccably put together. It boasted an Emmy-winning star with solid theatre credentials (Laurie Metcalf), a veteran, near-legendary producer (Manny Azenberg), a rising star director with two New York hits under his belt (David Cromer), and some of the best reviews of the season.

This is the very heart of the puzzle, though. The formula I just detailed above? That's the formula for success Broadway has followed for nearly 100 years. Good Play + Good Team + Marketing Potential + Great Reviews = Hit. What went wrong here?

We can speculate all we like, of course:

• Maybe the financial downturn, which hit the traditional Jewish theatregoing audience hard this year, means they are currently not a dependable core for Jewish-themed plays.
• Or maybe the financial downturn meant the investor backing was shaky...possible, given the economic climate today.
  
• There are also starrier plays open right now -- A Steady Rain, Hamlet, God Of Carnage, Oleanna -- and perhaps they're drawing all the business. (Interestingly, all got worse reviews that Brighton Beach Memoirs, and yet are selling well.)
  
• Maybe it's the curse of the Nederlander Theatre, which has only had one significant hit in the last five decades (Rent) since 1962's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
  
• Maybe it's the crummy weather, or the World Series. Maybe movies are cheaper.
  
• Maybe Neil Simon isn't the sellable brand he once was...it's been almost a decade since his last outing, 45 Seconds From Broadway. Maybe there are more people like me than I thought (aka, people who detest the pedestrian nature of his television-ish writing).
• Maybe people want more excitement in their theatre, and are heading downtown instead for truly amazing stuff like Americana Kamikaze or The Lily's Revenge or Idiot Savant. It's significantly cheaper, and certainly where I'm spending my time these days. (I've only really loved one Broadway show this season -- Fela! -- while Off-Broadway has been rocking my world.)
• Maybe theatre is a dying art form, and this is another sign of the impending apocalypse.

One thing's for certain: the economic formula for Broadway is changing. The old rules do not apply. And maybe the New Rule #1 is: nice plays don't stand a chance.