In other developments….

Those of you who follow my serial postings might have noticed a wee gap for the last couple of days. This dry spell was occasioned by me being in the air en route to Toronto, sleep deprivation, my birthday and a few more martinis than might have been deemed absolutely necessary.  I am also working feverishly on Fodor’s  travel  chapters for my usual islands in a mad effort to finish them before Xmas. Those few things, however, pale in comparison to another development that has occurred recently – the folks at ACTUP.org have agreed to have me as part of their team which is dedicated to activism on a global scale in a variety of languages. I consider my inclusion to be a tremendous honor.

For those who don’t know the history of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) , it was founded in the 1980s in the midst of the AIDS crisis and became an hugely  influential force in moving the fight for LGBT rights forward .   Wikipedia has an extensive entry about the colorful history of ACT UP:

ACT UP was effectively formed in March 1987 at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York. Larry Kramer was asked to speak as part of a rotating speaker series, and his well-attended speech focused on action to fight AIDS. Kramer spoke out against the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), which he perceived as politically impotent. Kramer had co-founded the GMHC but had resigned from its board of directors in 1983. According to Douglas Crimp, Kramer posed a question to the audience: “Do we want to start a new organization devoted to political action?” The answer was “a resounding yes.” Approximately 300 people met two days later to form ACT UP.^[2]

ACT UP was effectively formed in March 1987 at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York. Larry Kramer was asked to speak as part of a rotating speaker series, and his well-attended speech focused on action to fight AIDS. Kramer spoke out against the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), which he perceived as politically impotent. Kramer had co-founded the GMHC but had resigned from its board of directors in 1983. According to Douglas Crimp, Kramer posed a question to the audience: “Do we want to start a new organization devoted to political action?” The answer was “a resounding yes.” Approximately 300 people met two days later to form ACT UP.^[2]

Read the entry here.

This blog will, of course, continue with its heady mix of subjects but there will undoubtedly be an increased cross-posting of  links to articles and news on ACTUP.org.

Looking forward even more to 2012 now.

 

Mismatched

There was no blog entry last night because, shock of shocks, I was at a social engagement. It was Johnny & Amado’s joint birthday party ( at least I think it was) and the theme, as I mentioned before, was mismatched. I can’t say that Robin and I won any prizes for our outfits. I thought a Burberry waistcoat and a timberland shirt would do it but apparently it sort of matched. Robin’s entire closet consists of colour coordinated pieces so he had to resort to an unfortunate tie. Still, we went. I can’t say anyone was especially awfully dressed but i suppose we all had the fear that we would be caught in a traffic accident and have to be in hospital looking bad so hedging seemed the order of the day. The party was the usual J&A mix of disparate types of people but it somehow made sense in their home..where disparate is the order of the day.I had gone to the party in Rob’s car but when we all decided to leave i went off with Alvin to another party just to burn off the high i had from drinking too many diet cokes. That worked out fine and I met Peter there who eventually dropped me back to get my car. It was an evening of musical cars.

Despite my late night sojourns the lack of any drinking meant I was in perfect shape to produce news today as planned and eventually read it at 6:30. It has reached the point now that I can blandly say there were only two murders today and the rest of the news was pretty well run of the mill…all capably handled by the two Melissas, Nadine and the editors. The only problem I had today was that in my quest to avoid calories I opted to eat a rather strange assortment of items for lunch since the slimfast was not doing a damned thing. All I can say is do not,and I mean DO NOT eat a bag of salted prunes, a bag of dried apricots and wash it down with Gatorade. I have one more combination to add to my expanding list of combinations  to avoid. Amazingly, I managed to read the news without grimacing even once.

At least in my quick drive to pick up the explosive combination i was able to stop around Port of Spain a bit to take some shots that I can use in this blog . Tomorrow, in addition to the usual interviews I am supposed to do a radio programme at night as well…oh joy. I am looking forward to starting the digital media course tomorrow. I got word from Knights Media that i was accepted for an online course on the subject and it sounds like avery worthwhile undertaking. I note with interest that blogging is a key component of the course so we will have to see if anything i learn ( or not) will be reflected in my blogs. I will keep you posted.

And before I  forget I now have one less reason to leave the couch. I used the Wii store online to buy the Wii internet browser and I can now surf the internet on my television. Was there ever a happier reason to celebrate my beloved Wii? I think not.

 

Move along, nothing to see here

It is now just a pinch short of 1am and after spending the last 5 hours hammering away at the Curacao chapter for Fodor’s 2009 I am almost in sight of the end. That being said, the last section which is rather innocently called “Essentials” is one of the more finicky sections so I probably have another couple of hours work before I am done. Rest assured, those hours will not start now. So how do I end several gruelling hours hunched over a keyboard? Well how else? By banging away at a quick blog entry. No one can accuse me of not being obsessive compulsive about some things.

I managed to survive Valentine’s Day without much trauma by artfully immersing myself in work and my pretending to enjoy being at the gym. Speaking of which I realised this morning that since my building has now been transformed into a “gated compound” I spend an inordinate amount of time looking for the damned gate opener thing. Since that followed on the heels of be being awakened multiple times by people sending me Valentine’s text messages I was not in a good mood this morning but I managed to shake it off by consuming several cups of coffee. Who was it that decided that something that starts off fresh and quickly decays into a withered mess would make the best possible Valentine’s gift? Was it meant to be symbolic? If so then someone has a lot of explaining to do.

I didn’t hear of any of my couple friends successfully pulling off a romantic evening. Last I heard Alvin and Binky were wondering where to go for dinner at 10pm…good luck with that one. Omar aka Grommit called to invite me to a “Bachelors Lime” at Shakers around 9pm but as I was hopelessly immersed in writing at the time I had to decline. Strangely, “bachelors” included Astrid but I suppose she is an honorary one. Even though I am being a responsible adult I am sorry i didn’t pop into town to join them but I suspect the temptation of martinis might have thrown my diet off just a tad. God I would love one just about now ( gin, whisper of vermouth, stirred and with 2 jumbo olives,  thanks) but since such a thing is not going to happen I have taken a sleeping pill and am now off to chemically induced slumber.

Bon Nochi.