Year end (Part Three)

Pride Parade

I joined the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band in late 1991. Since 1992, I have marched in every Gay Pride parade except two: In 2000, I had minor foot surgery, and it was several months before I could walk without pain, so I did not march in the parade that year; and in 2008, chiefly due to work-related travel commitments,

In 2000, instead of marching, I babysat the band's post-parade information booth. So this year was the first year I've actually stood on Market Street and watched the parade since 1991.

You know, when you march in a parade, the only thing you remember about it is what you did and maybe the three or four floats or other entries that precede you and follow you. It leaves you with very narrow memories of what is actually a pretty huge event. If you've marched in your parade year after year after year, think about stepping out of it one year, just to remind yourself of what the event is.


Facebook

The woman who organized 1...2...3:45 6/7/8 posted a Facebook event page for it. So I signed up for a Facebook account in order to visit her event page. All I did was sign up -- I didn't post any photos of myself, type in any personal information or anything.

A couple of months later, someone in the band found me and sent a friend request. I accepted, and things snowballed from there.

This nice thing about it is that I have more contact than I used to with friends and relatives on the other side of the country.


Milk Memorial March


Milk Memorial March

Notice that the video refers to it as the "Memorial Concert & March." This event is usually better described as "Memorial Speeches and March." The SF Gay Men's Chorus also celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. And since their first public appearance was on the steps of City Hall at the end of the candlelight march, they performed several numbers on the steps of City Hall in between the speeches from Tom Ammiano, Willie Brown, Stuart Milk, Jonathon Moscone, etc.

This year, due (I think) to (a) the release of "Milk," (b) the fact that 2008 was the 30th anniversary of the assassinations and (c) the narrow passage of Prop 8, the Milk and Moscone Memorial March was much better attended than it has been in several years. As you can see in the video, I attended this year (for the first time in at least five years).


Gym

I did the unthinkable in September: I joined a gym.

Turning 47, I realized that I'm past the age where I can stay under 200 pounds without regular exercise.

It's amazing how much time a gym can take. If I leave work at 6, go home, change, then go to the gym for an hour and a half or two hours, I don't get home until after nine o'clock.

Oh, well. A fag's gotta do what a fag's gotta do.


Miscellaneous trivial items

** We went to see "The Drowsy Chaperone," "Spring Awakening" and "Rock 'n' Roll." We also went to see Dar Williams at Great American Music Hall and my nephew's band at Slim's. We had tickets to see Alison Moyet at the Warfield, but she canceled her tour a couple of weeks before she was scheduled to play here. Bummer.

** Favorite albums of the year: David Byrne/Brian Eno, "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today"; Bob Mould, "District Line"; Dar Williams, "Promised Land"; Grace Jones, "Hurricane"; Elvis Costello, "Momofuku."

** Favorite TV shows: 30 Rock, The Office, Stephen Fry In America, QI, Shameless,

** Favorite movies: Milk, Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Wall-E, Indiana Jones And the Kingdom Of the Crystal Skull. Sorry, I still haven't seen a good chunk of movies that came out this year. For example, I've got "Burn After Reading" from Netflix, but I haven't watched it yet.

** We went to the SF Zoo for the first time in over ten years. I'll have to do that again, and not wait ten years this time. Also on the "must do" list: Go to the newly reopened Academy of Sciences.

** Because of the blog, I started carrying a small 10 mega-pixel camera in my coat pocket at all times. The biggest plus of this is that I never say "Man, I wish I had a camera with me." The only downside is for people I run into accidentally. (That's not really true. When I ran into Joe "Joe.My.God" Jervis a couple of months ago, I never once pulled the camera out of my pocket.)

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I guess that's about as much of a summary of 2008 as I want to give.

We return you now to your regularly scheduled programming, already in progress.