What a truly odd Thanksgiving we celebrated this year. Instead of spending hours in the kitchen and working to cook the perfect bird with Rust's family stuffing and the obligatory relish tray, we relaxed and went to the St. Francis Westin Oak Room for a late lunch/early dinner. The Thanksgiving buffet was good, but quite honestly, because we chose not to cook and because Rusty has very traditional ideas about Thanksgiving, the K and W Cafeteria would have been more than enough. (If only we had one in the bay area - 'Serve You? Serve you meat sir? I'll pass it down! I said I'll pass it down.")
After, to Maxfield's in the palace for martinis. A must see bar for all visitors to San Francisco,the bar has a Maxfield Parrish painting/mural. The Palace paid $6,000 for The Pied Piper way back in the 30's. Some of the children in the painting look a little Children of the Damned-ish with wild eyes and a creepy calm countenance, so of course we love this mildly subversive dream like painting.
Then a walk to the Post Theatre to enjoy an evening of Dame Edna Everage.
Dame Edna was in excellent form. This self-proclaimed Australian icon and megastar caused us body aches from the convulsive laughter. Songs like "Friends of Kenny", an homage to her hair dresser son and his "flatmate", and to audience participation bits such as audience members raising and waving Gladiolas made us squeal with delight. Nothing like seeing the first seven or eight rows in a theatre raising swaying flowers culminating in a "trembling glad" crescendo. Brilliant, Absolutely Fucking Brilliant. This is considered her First Last Tour, so if she comes to your area, make sure you get a seat in the first few rows!
We braved Black Friday, and managed to buy more for ourselves than for Christmas gifts. The crowds were tolerable and we managed to get home without hurting each other or anyone else for that matter. Next on the Holiday roller coaster ride is Rusty's Birthday. He will be out of town this week, but we will celebrate on next Sunday afternoon with a late lunch of Southern delicacies and cocktails, of course.
I have much for which to be thankful, certainly not the least of these is to have a wonderful group of people on my bloglist all of whom are near and dear friends. Keep in touch and come see us soon, make it part of your New Year's resolution.
This was one of many refrains chanted ad infinitum at the protest march in Berkeley against the marriage ban imposed by California voters. The crowd was pretty small, near two to three hundred people. We figured most people were headed toward the huge protest in San Francisco. We marched in Berkeley so we could participate with my boss, his partner, an Assistant Principal in the district, her partner, and another principal ally (straight but not narrow, thank you girlfriend).
We then took BART over to San Francisco, to catch the GreenFestival, Rusty of course had free tickets. As we exited the BART, thousands of people were marching down market blocking traffic and providing photo taking opportunities for tourists in Alcatraz T-shirts. The scene was peaceful, and the mood was surprisingly jubilant. If there is one thing that Proposition 8 has done for the gay community, it is coalesce the community around an issue. Unfortunately, the rally needs to be held outside of the bay area. Media event aside, holding a rally in San Francisco is certainly a case of preaching to the choir. None-the-less, a great event to stumble upon. We walked to the GreenFestival. The festival was huge and hosted hundreds of informational booths and vendors.
After this exhausting day, we went to my friend Kirsten's 40th Birthday party and talked politics with a bunch of straight 'dudes' none of whom even questioned whether a Yes on Prop. 8 vote violates constitutional rights. So basically, a typical Saturday in the Bay Area includes participating in two protest marches (one with my openly gay superintendent and his partner), utilizing public transportation, browsing literature about green businesses printed with soy ink on 80% post consumer recycled paper pamphlets, and talking liberal politics with straight men in a blue state. What a special place the bay area can be at times. No wonder this place is known as the largest bastion of liberal wickedness in all the US.