Happy Birthday, Castro Theatre!

Folks have been asking where I’ve disappeared to recently.  I’ve been at the Castro Theatre, which is celebrating it’s 90th birthday today.  It opened on June 22, 1922.  This week, it’s one of four Bay Area cinemas playing host to the 36th annual Frameline Film Festival.  I’m a volunteer captain for the festival, organizing ushers and ticket takers and generally making a nuisance of myself.  As soon as it’s over and I’ve recovered, perhaps I’ll have the energy to write a full report.  In the meantime, here’s to one of my favorite movie palaces.  Happy birthday!

Castro Theatre, San Francisco

 

GLAAD Media Awards 2012

Last Saturday, I was a volunteer for my fourth annual GLAAD Media Awards in San Francisco.  Once again I was a talent escort, making sure my assigned presenter had everything she needed throughout the evening.  I won’t go into detail about that, since I’ve covered it in previous posts in 2010 and 2011.  As always, working with the GLAAD team and being a part of this special evening was a wonderful experience.

The GLAAD Awards recognize outstanding representations of the LGBT community in the media.  This time around, the host was Dianna Agron of Glee.  Presenters included John Gidding (HGTV designer and host of Curb Appeal), Mario Lopez (Dancing With The Stars), comedians Chris Frangola and Fortune Feimster, actor Adam Palley (Happy Endings), Rita Moreno (you name it, she’s done it), and actor Sean Maher (Firefly).  Well, there were lots of others, too!  Up-and-comers Guillermo Diaz and Katie Lowes joined Kerry Washington (all from ABC’s Scandal) to present the Golden Gate Award to creator Shonda Rhimes. (Rhimes is best known for Grey’s Anatomy.)  Wells Fargo Bank and Facebook were also honored.

Each year, I get to see some amazing folks up on that stage.  Jennifer Tyrrell is the Ohio scout leader who was removed from her volunteer position because she’s a lesbian.  She gave a heartfelt speech, surrounded by her lovely family.  It was very moving.  I was proud that I’d already signed her petition, and I encourage everyone to sign, if you haven’t already.  It’s at change.org/scouts. I was also moved by activist Zach Wahls, the young man whose speech in Iowa for marriage equality went viral on YouTube.  Another inspiring young activist was Brittany McMillan, founder of Spirit Day, who presented a special recognition award to Facebook.

The performers from Cirque du Soleil’s Mystere were stunning.  When one acrobat did a one handstand on the other acrobat’s head, I was able to get a photo of the big video screen.  Wow.  Just, wow.

Last year, host Naya Rivera auctioned off a couple of kisses.  Dianna Agron did the same this year, begging the audience to bid so her mom and brother didn’t have to.  Rita Moreno joined in the fun, auctioning off a party in her home.  Sadly, I’m not going to be one of those lucky party guests, since the winning bid was $15,000.  Go, Rita!

Be sure to check out the great photos at GLAAD.org since my little digital camera doesn’t do the evening justice.  All the 2012 Media Awards around the US are linked here.

A great time was had by all, and I’m already looking forward to next year.

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BATS Improv

A couple of weeks ago, I attended an improv show called Spontaneous Broadway, performed by the BATS Improv Main Stage Company.  I searched all over their website to find out what “BATS” means.  It was kind of buried, but it’s Bay Area Theatresports.  This improv troupe is based at Fort Mason, and they perform in the intimate Bayfront Theater.

BATS Improv at Fort Mason

When we arrived at the theatre, we were given golf pencils and slips of paper to write down our titles of “songs that have never been written.”  These were collected and placed in a bowl.  Six actors came onstage, three men and three women, with actor Ben Johnson playing host as the other five (Diane Rachel, Barbara Scott, Corey Rosen, Jenny Rosen, and John Remak) grabbed a handful of slips from the bowl.  They sorted through the titles and selected the ones they wanted to use to improvise a song.  The host explained that the audience members were theatre investors being presented with songs from musicals in development.  Then each actor was called up to sing their song and tell us the title of the musical it was from (also invented).  Sometimes the actors performed a solo, but they were also able to recruit as many other performers as they needed.  Even the host got to participate.  A drummer and a keyboard player accompanied the actors.  They went around twice, so most of the actors got to create two songs.  At the end of the first half, the audience members were asked to choose which song they wanted to see developed into a 40-minute improvised musical after the intermission.

I’m still not quite sure how they did it.  As I’ve said many times before, I’m not in the least bit musical, so I have no insight into how you make up a song on the spot.  The musicians may have had a preset list of tunes, known by the actors, because I don’t know how else they could have accompanied the songs.  The songs rhymed, and they were mostly very clever and funny.  Barbara Scott did one dripping with innuendo called “Toasters Are Better Than Toast” from the musical Stayin’ Single.   John Remak had us shaking with laughter singing “The US Geological Survey” from the show 9.6.  Journalists brainstormed stories in Newsroom with the song “A Pencil and A Prostitute.”  Diane Rachel railed against her ex’s new squeeze in the song “Wassup Motherf**ker.”  My favorite was “The Pub’s Closed, Get Out” from the musical Jolly Old England.  This was the song the audience chose for the second act musical.

Because I’m such an anglophile, I was delighted that they were doing a British musical.  The show that the actors improvised probably should have been called Fishy Old England.  It was set in a fish market and a fish restaurant, starring fish sellers and fish chefs.  The British accents were pretty inconsistent, but that just added to the humor.  Diane Rachel seemed to have the most fun stretching out her vowels.  I really liked Corey Rosen, because he had a mischievous twinkle in his eye, and he was so committed to holding his invisible basket of fish.   The show could have had a lot more English references and a lot less fish, but it’s easy to be an armchair critic, not to mention an armchair improviser.  It’s one thing to sit in the audience and think of things you would do, but a different story when you’re on the stage on the spot.

Last Saturday, I went back to the Bayfront Theater for another BATS Improv show called The Life Game.  I got to see things from a different perspective, because this time I was a volunteer.  It’s been years since I worked backstage as a techie, and it was so much fun to be running around a theatre again.  Visiting the lighting booth and going backstage brought back lots of memories.  Three of the actors from Spontaneous Broadway were back for The Life Game, plus another four from the Main Stage Company’s group of nineteen regulars.  Veteran actor Barbara Scott gave each of the volunteers a welcoming hug, and we were invited onstage for introductions with the actors.  I was assigned to concessions, where I sold bottled water, beer, wine, cookies, and candy.  I had a great time.  Not only did the volunteers get to see the performance, we also got a voucher to see another show for free.   This was a particularly good volunteer experience, so I’m doing the improvised Elvis Musical tomorrow, and I’ve also signed up for Warp Speed, an improvised Star Trek.  Sorry, BATS, it looks like your stuck with me now!

Fort Mason, San Francisco

Frameline Film Festival 2011

San Francisco’s Frameline35 Film Festival by the numbers: 35 years of history and eleven days of over two hundred LGBT feature films, documentaries and shorts shown at four different cinemas.  A dedicated staff plus over four hundred volunteers make it all happen.  This was my third year helping out.  It was my first time as a volunteer captain, which had me supervising ushers at the historic Castro Theatre.  I wasn’t sure I had the skills or the stamina to do the job well, but I survived all my shifts and made an appearance at the closing night party.  I even managed to see a couple of films!

Castro Theatre, San Francisco

It all began with the volunteer orientation meeting.   These meetings are really entertaining.  The first time you volunteer, all the information and staff are new to you.  After that, it’s interesting to see the changes from year to year.  What will the volunteer tee shirts look like this time?   Who’s doing the same job this year, and who is new?  Which volunteers will you see from before?  I always look forward to the new crop of interns, especially the ones who come from overseas.  The volunteer coordinator is Lares Feliciano, and she’s a lively, outgoing person who always makes us feel appreciated and important.  She leads the meetings, and her tutorial on composting is one of my favorite parts of the evening.

Volunteers John and David at the guest services table

My first year at Frameline, I tried a number of different volunteer positions.  The best fit for me was staffing the guest services table at the Castro Theatre.  The Castro is the largest of the four cinemas where the film festival takes place, with about 1400 seats.  It’s a real movie palace, built in 1922.  I love just being in the building.   At guest services, the hospitality team takes care of the visiting filmmakers and representatives from other film festivals.   It’s where guest welcome packets are picked up, questions are answered, and tickets to the screenings are handed out.   This year the team was led by Alexis Whitham, with interns Lianne and Clemence, who came over from France.  I guess I like hospitality the best because I get to meet the filmmakers.  This year, I was particularly charmed by the two young Brits who made the short We Once Were Tide.

We Once Were Tide writer Matthew Kyne Baskott and director Jason Bradbury

It was also a thrill to meet Witi Ihimaera, author of The Whale Rider and a producer of the film made from his novel.  He was there with the producer and director of Kawa, a movie based on his recent book Nights in the Gardens of Spain, about a married Maori man with two children who comes out to his family.  This was one of the films I got to see, and it was beautiful and very moving.  I especially liked the two young actors playing Kawa’s children.  One of the other actors, Dean O’Gorman, is playing a dwarf in the long-awaited movie The Hobbit.   Before and after the screening, Ihimaera and his filmmakers went onstage to sing in Maori and talk about their film.

J.B. Ghuman Jr. and Des Buford discuss Spork

I also saw Spork, a film about a girl-identified 13 year old with an intersex condition.  She lives with her brother Spit in a trailer park and copes with the horrors of middle school.  The young cast was brilliant, and the script was funny and irreverent.  The writer and director J.B. Ghuman Jr. answered questions during the Q & A, and he was as delightful as his movie.

Volunteer Captains Kim and Coyote with House Manager Ed

Along with my shifts at the guest services table, this year I tackled the job of volunteer captain.  After shadowing an experienced captain who showed me the ropes, I was put in charge of the volunteer ushers for six different screenings.   Wearing a very attractive radio headset that did wonders for my cowlick, I communicated with the house manager and other staff members.  Once my volunteers arrived, I assigned them duties and gave a brief orientation.  Then I supervised them before and after the screenings as they took tickets, did line control, passed out ballots, and cleaned the theatre.   The most important lesson I learned is that things that are supposed to happen often don’t,  and things that aren’t supposed to happen often do.  As a volunteer captain, you just have to stay calm and roll with the punches.  I mostly rolled, and I certainly learned a lot.  Will I do it again next year?  I don’t know, I guess if they let me!

Closing Night Party at the Contemporary Jewish Museum

The closing night party was held at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, a cool modern structure with all sorts of interesting architectural details.  The special Gertrude Stein exhibit was open for the party.  I really enjoyed the old photographs and the portrait of Stein made from ”pixels” that were colored spools of thread.  Another highlight of the party was chatting with Lisa Haas, who starred in the film Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same.  Tomorrow is the Volunteer Appreciation Party, which promises to be relaxing and fun.  I’m already missing the festival, so it will be nice to see everybody one more time.

A journalist for the Castro Courier, a small neighborhood monthly newspaper, interviewed me for an article about volunteering for the festival.  It’s coming out in a few days, and I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy.  (Here’s the link!)

So, that was Frameline35, or at least my little corner of it.  I really enjoyed myself this year, and I learned so much from the staff, the interns, and the volunteers I encountered.   Now I just need to recover, and then I’ll start counting the days until next year!

My thanks to:

Frameline Staff:  Lares, Alexis, K.C., Des, Sarah, Daniel, Jenn, Frances, Alex, Jennifer, Trista, Richard, and Texas.

Interns: Clemence, Lianne, Sam and Nissa.

Volunteer Captains: Holly, Cheri, Kim, Coyote, Andy and Edric.

House Managers: Gyllian, Molly, Ed, Jill, and JC.

Volunteers:  The 2 Johns, Penni, David, Lambert, Joseph, Johan, Katie, Lori, Ralph, Scott, Deb, Maeve, Siofra, Jesse, Mandy, Dan, Donna, Paul, Ellen, Christine, Catherine, Renee, Carolyn, Nikki, Ezgi, Nan, Richard, Guy, LauraLee, Theo, Leigh, Madison, Heather, Roberto, Kurt, Noam, Kent, Derik, Kathleen, William, Steve, Mark, Allen, Ed, Chad, Drew, and Michael.

The Blessings of Food and Music

I’ve been writing about London too much lately, so I decided to get a little more centered—to focus on what’s right here in the Panhandle/Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco.  I moved to this neighborhood two summers ago, seeking peace and sanity after a traumatic roommate experience.  Finding a church where I felt at home was a top priority.  I knew immediately that St Agnes was the right place after hearing cantor Scott Grinthal and the choir sing, led by music director Frank Uranich.   I don’t know why church music is so important to someone who is so unmusical, but it’s crucial to me.  Not that I sing along.  I move my lips, but I’m actually just listening to all the beautiful voices.  Last September, I volunteered to help out two mornings a week  in the church office for the food bank.  It was supposed to be temporary, but I enjoy it so much, they are now stuck with me.  

The food bank gives out 500 bags of food a month.  About 300 bags are weekly lunches, given to the mostly homeless people who live in Golden Gate Park and on Haight Street.  These food bags contain things like granola bars, fruit cups, cans of tuna, juice boxes, and other food that doesn’t need a kitchen to prepare.  We also distribute about 200 monthly bags to people with kitchens, filled with staples like pasta, beans, rice, soup, peanut butter, and canned vegetables.  Parishioners of St Agnes donate both food and money, and it continues to expand.  There may come a point when we have to turn folks away, when the food runs out before the end of the month, but we do what we can with what we are given.  The actual “food bank” is a row of storage cabinets in a wide hallway at the back of the rectory.  When I’m not organizing and re-stocking the cabinets, I’m putting together the bags, as many as I can manage so they won’t run out before the next volunteer come in.  Folks ring the front doorbell, and we mark their names in a card file and give them their food.  We get some fanciful names and some colorful characters coming to the door.  Now when I walk down Haight Street or through the Panhandle, I recognize a lot of the homeless people, and I think they recognize me, too.

Scott Grinthal

     Volunteering has given me the chance to get to know cantor and church secretary Scott, since we chat over coffee breaks.  He and I had similar goals back in high school.  We both had dreams of working on Broadway.  He wanted to perform, I wanted to be a stage manager.  It all began for Scott when he auditioned for The Music Man.   He tried out for Harold Hill, and he was cast in the ensemble.  Not bad for someone who’d never taken singing seriously before.  After years of playing trumpet in school bands, he realized that girls are much more impressed with guys who sing and dance.   He was hooked, and by senior year he was playing lead roles and getting lots more attention from the girls.  Then came college.  His parents urged him to do a “sensible” major, but instead, he majored in voice and minored in drama.  He spent ten years singing and performing for a living, doing everything from equity roles to singing telegrams.  Not all of it was glamorous, obviously, but you do what you must to pay the rent.  I asked Scott if he ever thought he’d be a church cantor.  Laughing, he said it wasn’t something that you plan in high school.  He’d been away from the church for a while when he applied for the job at St Agnes in 1996, but he was surprised to find he still knew the music.  He now leads two masses a week, although sometimes it’s as many as four.  In addition to working in the office and leading us in song, Scott is also a substance abuse counselor, working two to three evenings a week for his certification.   If that weren’t enough, he also sings in a wedding band.  They perform less often now than they once did, since everybody is so busy.  I honestly don’t know where Scott finds the energy to do it all.   He’s an inspiration, and he’s also a pretty fun guy to be around, as long as you don’t mind being teased mercilessly!

Cantor Scott Grinthal, Frank Uranich and the St Agnes Choir

GLAAD Media Awards 2011

I spent Saturday night as a talent escort at the San Francisco GLAAD Media Awards.  These awards recognize outstanding representations of the LGBT community in the media, and they are held each year in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.  This was my third year participating, and last year I blogged about my volunteer experience.  A talent escort is assigned one of the presenters, award recipients, or performers, and their job is to make sure they arrive on the “red carpet” to meet the press, find their table at the banquet, get to the green room backstage, and make it onstage at the right time.  This allows the participants to relax and enjoy the event.

As before, I got to witness some of the intense work and coordination involved in putting together a successful Awards ceremony. The GLAAD staff is always impressive, and they work long hours behind the scenes to ensure a smooth-running presentation.  This night has become one of the highlights of my year, and I always look forward to seeing Jackie and Tom and the other staff members.   It’s wonderful seeing the other talent escorts again, and we spend our breaks  in the volunteer room catching up and taking silly photos.  I’m on facebook with many of them, and there are new escorts to get acquainted with each year.  Of course, there are other volunteers besides the talent escorts: many people work in teams checking in attendees, taking tickets, running the fundraising auctions, etc.  Most of the volunteers live in the Bay Area, but some of them travel around the US to help out with all three events, and I’m in awe of their commitment to GLAAD.

John Gidding, designer and host of HGTV's Curb Appeal: The Block. Photo by Araya Diaz/WireImage.com. All rights reserved.

It was a particularly good presentation this year.  I got to watch most of the show, since the presenter I escorted went onstage near the beginning.  The host was Naya Rivera (Santana on Glee) and some of the participants were Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, Top Chef winner Yigit Pura, HGTV designer John Gidding, True Blood‘s Nelsan Ellis, rugby player Ben Cohen, actress Kim Cattrall, The Kids Are All Right director Lisa Cholodenko, DWTS‘s Louis Van Amstel and Mario Lopez, actor and musician Christian Chavez, Sara Ramirez from Grey’s Anatomy, and Gbenga Akinnagbe from The Wire. 

Cirque du Soleil's Zumanity performer

Two performers from Cirque du Soleil’s Zumanity provided some jaw-dropping entertainment.   A platform with a short pole was placed in the center aisle, and this amazing dancer performed gymnastic moves while balancing on the pole.  He was beautiful.  My photo doesn’t do him justice.

Naya Rivera conducts a Glee quiz with audience members

Naya Rivera selected two members of the audience for a Glee quiz.   She also auctioned off kisses to benefit GLAAD, and they went for $3500.  One of the winners did a little dance of delight onstage before receiving his kiss.

Naya Rivera and one of the kiss auction winners. Photo by Araya Diaz/WireImage.com. All rights reserved.

Some of the other highlights for me:  Lisa Cholodenko’s little boy, brought onstage with her when she accepted the award for Outstanding Film—Wide Release.  He was about four years old and completely adorable.  Kim Cattrall’s acceptance speech for the Golden Gate Award, which was funny and passionate.  Social worker and activist Janice Langbehn receiving a standing ovation for her fight to get LGBT families equal hospital visitation rights throughout the United States.

After the Awards, there was an after-party where we had a chance to relax and interact with the attendees.  I’m not much of a party type, so I didn’t stay for long.  I came away from the hotel with a bag of free goodies, some fun photos, a bunch of new programs to watch (inspired by all the folks I met), and lots of good memories.

To see more photos from the event, check out GLAAD’s website.  Watch this video of Dustin Lance Black’s acceptance speech on YouTube.  His award was presented by Louis Van Amstel and John Gidding, who can be seen at the beginning and end of the video.

“This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath…”

I recently wrote about the horrors of adolescence.  Last night I was telling a friend this story, which reminded me that not everything about being a teenager was terrible.

The summer I was 15, I joined San Diego Junior Theatre, a wonderful program for kids 8 to 18, then based solely at the Casa del Prado in Balboa Park.   We got to put on big musicals in a large, well-equipped theatre with a great staff of adults.  That summer we did How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.  I built sets, painted flats, and during the actual performances I was both house manager and a grip.  (As one of the least athletic kids, it amazes me how often I got the jobs that required the most strength.)  I also took acting and stumbled my way through a dance class.   Later that year, my dance instructor left for New York, where he was in the cast of A Chorus Line and then Cats.   Our lead in How to Succeed… has since been nominated for two Tony Awards for his choreography.  In other words, I was working with some really special, talented people.

My family lived 15 miles from Balboa Park, and for a teen without a driver’s license, that was really far away.  I spent an awful lot of time on the number 7 bus.  One day, I was riding to a rehearsal when I noticed this really cute guy.  He reminded me of Luke Skywalker.   He got off at my stop in the park, and we both walked the same way, until I came to my theatre, and he kept going.  My curiosity (and early stalker tendencies?) got the best of me, so I followed him.  When he reached the Old Globe Theatre, he went into the outdoor Festival Stage.  I asked somebody what was happening there.  I was told it was a rehearsal for Julius Caesar.  Not only was this guy cute, he was an actor!

The San Diego Old Globe Theatre has a Shakespeare Festival every summer.  In 1978, the main theatre was destroyed in an arson fire.  While the theatre was being redesigned and built, performances continued at the newly constructed Festival Stage.   The plays that year were Julius Caesar, Macbeth, and The Comedy of Errors.  I was determined to get involved, so I formed my own group of volunteer ushers and signed up for a bunch of dates.  Ushering is a great way to see plays for free, especially if you want to see the same plays over and over.  Once I got a festival program, I was able to learn more about my actor.  He was a college student and an acting intern, so his roles included servant, messenger, and best of all, a soldier dashing back and forth across the stage carrying a colorful banner.  It was difficult to judge whether he had any acting talent, but I wasn’t there to judge.

The first time I ushered, I sent my actor yellow roses (a very safe color!) and he came out to meet me.   He was smiling, and I was flustered and blushing and so very thrilled.   Each time I went back, I would see him at the stage door, or I’d stick my head into the green room, where he was usually passing the time playing backgammon with fellow interns.   He was always friendly, and if he was laughing at me and my silly crush, he never made me feel anything but happy.  As the summer progressed, he allowed me and my best friend (and loyal co-conspirator) to take him out to lunch.  I took up watercoloring that summer, so I spent several afternoons painting the Old Globe Theatre buildings, a tricky business due to the big empty space where the main theatre used to be.   The actors would walk by, stop to check out my progress, and say hello.   I kept seeing the plays as often as I could, and I never got tired of them.

All good things come to an end, of course.  When the summer was over, there was a talent show featuring many of the actors from the festival.  They did magic, they sang and danced, and they performed comedy sketches spoofing the plays.  I said good-bye to my actor and gave him my Old Globe watercolor.  He gave me a quick kiss, which was one of my first, and it was perfectly innocent and perfectly wonderful.   I couldn’t have asked for a better summer.

After I told my friend this story, we both decided I was very lucky.  This actor could have been a creep who took advantage of my age and innocence.  Instead, he played along, and I hope he enjoyed having a fan.   We decided to google him, and I was happy to discover that he is still working as an actor.  He’s had some good supporting roles both off and on Broadway, and he’s been in a few films.   It looks like he’s still a really nice person, too.  Maybe I’ll send him a Christmas card to say hello, to thank him for the memories, and to tell him he still has a loyal fan.

Who ever loved that loved not at first sight? – As You Like It

One Thing Leads to Another

The San Francisco Frameline Film Festival was held this year June 17-27th, showing LGBT films from around the world.  It’s the oldest LGBT film festival, and this year they had an Andy Warhol retrospective and many films from South America.  This was my second year as a volunteer.   I like to staff the hospitality table, where volunteers and staff greet the filmmakers.  It’s great fun, and as a volunteer you get a movie voucher for every shift you work.  Unfortunately, I’m still recovering from this malingering virus that’s been going around, so I had to cut back on my shifts and missed seeing most of the films on my personal list.  I did get to see the opening night film, a BBC production called The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister, about a Yorkshire woman from the early 1800s who left coded diaries about her various romances with other women.  It was based on a true story, and it was sure different from Pride & Prejudice! 

I didn’t get to see the closing night feature, a film called Howl about Allen Ginsberg, starring James Franco.  Franco came to the screening, so I’m sorry I couldn’t be there to check him out.  I’m not obsessed with Franco like I am with a few dozen other actors, but he’s certainly on a roll right now.  The Film Festival showing came just before Franco’s return as a guest star on General Hospital.  Now, I can follow a couple of other soaps (I grew up with a mother obsessed with Days of Our Lives), but I’ve never watched General Hospital regularly enough to follow the storylines.  In spite of that, I started tuning into GH this last week to see Franco.  A few trips over to soapnet and wikipedia helped me to understand key plot points.  A friend who used to watch filled me in on more background character info.  This same friend loved Jonathan Jackson as Lucky Spencer (back in the 90s), so I started paying particular attention to him.  Next thing you know, we’re watching Jonathan Jackson in Tuck Everlasting and On The Edge, and I’m spending hours on YouTube watching GH clips of Lucky from 1993.  And this is how one of my obsessions begins. 

And it won’t end until I’ve watched every video, rented every DVD, checked out every website and fansite, linked up on twitter and facebook…it’s exhausting, but at least with the internet everything is faster.  Before the internet, DVDs, and even VCRs, it used to take me ages to work through one of my actor obsessions.  I would search through the TV guide looking for movies that were airing (yes, kids, there actually used to be movies shown on regular, non-cable TV!) and take endless trips to the library searching through periodical indexes and microfiche machines looking for information.  As a teenager I kept a card file of my favorite actors and all their roles—my very own low tech imdb.  Now with everything at my fingertips on the internet, I can zip through an actor’s entire body of work  in days and weeks instead of months, so then I have to move on to somebody else.

So at the moment it’s Jonathan Jackson.  He’s a musician as well as an actor, so a couple of his CDs should arrive in the mail this week.  His band is called Enation, and I like the brief clips I’ve listened to online.  I have no idea if I’ll actually like a whole song.  My taste in music is obscure, eclectic and weird.  Most people wouldn’t even call it taste.  It was a risk ordering the Enation CDs, but I love ordering music from CD Baby, and their summer sale is awesome (selected CDs, three or more, five dollars each).  The best part about ordering from CD Baby is the email you get when they ship your order.  I would describe it, but I wouldn’t want to spoil your fun.  Just order from them and see, if you haven’t already. 

Enation is doing a free online concert this Thursday, and here’s the poster:

Enation internet concert

I’ll be checking it out.  Hopefully my CDs will have arrived by then so I’ll already be familiar with some of the songs. 

Well, I’ve got to go back to YouTube now.  I’m up to early 1994, and little Lucky Spencer is in the hospital trying to avoid a mob hit.  Tomorrow I will tune into the current episode of GH to see who survived the car bomb.  It’s such a full life.

GLAAD Media Awards 2010

Last Saturday I participated in my second San Francisco GLAAD Media Awards, volunteering as a talent escort.  It’s such a privilege to spend a day with the GLAAD staff, who are all so capable and competent and hardworking.  The volunteers are also great, and I’ve been on facebook with several of the folks I met last year, so this year was like a big, happy reunion.  Of course, there were many new faces, and I really enjoy meeting new people, especially the young volunteers who are so full of energy.

 I volunteer for organizations like GLAAD because of my favorite uncle.  He died ten years ago from HIV-related complications.  I also have someone close to me who’s gay and in the military. Besides, I majored in theatre production, so I’ve always been fascinated with the entertainment industry and the media.  How lucky am I to live in San Francisco where the GLAAD Media Awards are held?  Of course, I’d love to participate in the Los Angeles and New York Awards as well, and who knows what the future will bring!

 This year’s Awards were held in a big hotel, and after we first gathered in the volunteer room, we were taken on a tour of all the places we would be escorting our assigned talent.  The GLAAD Awards consist of a pre-ceremony reception, a silent auction, a banquet, the Awards program itself, and then an after-party.  It’s a long, exhausting day, but for a few hours you get to feel a part of something bigger and better than yourself.

As a talent escort, you are assigned one of the guest presenters, or one of the award recipients, or one of the performers.  You take them where they need to go, making sure they make it onstage when needed, so they can relax and enjoy themselves.  It’s exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. All of us have radios with headsets, and that is the secret to knowing where to be and when.  In between escorting, volunteers get to watch the Awards show, and it’s always very moving and inspiring.

 The GLAAD people really treat their volunteers well.  We get lots of great food, free T-shirts, books and badges, but the best part is being appreciated and treated as a member of the team.  The hardest part is leaving the hotel and standing outside waiting for the bus to go home.   Both years, I’ve felt like Cinderella after the ball, my coach turned back into a pumpkin, or should I say, a MUNI bus.  Going back to regular life, after being a part of something so special, is a shock to the system.   But at least there’s always next year!

GLAAD talent escorts on the red carpet

My Summer Vacation

I haven’t been writing very much lately, because I’ve actually been busy.  I almost forgot what that was like!  These last couple of weeks I’ve been getting ready for some of my summer volunteer work, so soon I will have plenty to write about.  First there’s the GLAAD Media Awards, then the Frameline Film Festival, and then July’s San Francisco Silent Film Festival. 

 I love the Silent Film Festival as an audience member, and each year I consider volunteering for it.  I think I actually did leave a message once about volunteering, but I never heard anything back.  I’ve already bought tickets for the newly restored Metropolis and Capra’s The Strong Man.  Kevin Brownlow is going to be attending The Strong Man and receiving an award.  I really want to meet him, since he’s one of the first and best silent film historians.  Leonard Maltin will also be back this year introducing several films.  I want to see more than just two films, and I wish I could set up a cot in the Mezzanine at the Castro Theatre and just sleep there for the weekend!