Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Converted a document to PDF for Cindy. Reminded grads that their e-mail accounts were closing at the end of September. Sent a second Flickr project announcement draft to Susie and Cindy. Chatted with student SS about how to resolve a virus-infected laptop with no original Win XP cdrom. (Talk to Best Buy.) Checked in with Rick who says he's not able to furnish an unattended installer for Sophos. Tested a survey for Joel. Met with Susie. We talked a lot about the Flickr project we're (I'm) planning. Student status meeting with Doug C and lots of other systems owners and users. Updated the school's org chart for Susie. 30th International LGBT Film Festival with Joel, who had invited me to accompany him to two of the many shows to which he bought tickets. I'd had a meeting at 3 and Joel left without me at 4:30, leaving the tickets on my desk. I returned to my desk at 4:40 and tried reaching him, but (I found out later) he had forgotten his cellphone. I got to the Castro Theatre about 20 minutes before the show only to discover that my ticket said the Victoria Theatre instead. I took a cab to the Victoria and met Joel—first in line—just as the line was let in. The first film we saw was Cruel and Unusual. No, that's the name of the film. It was about transsexuals in prison and how they get there, how they are discriminated against and denied health care, how some of them end up mutilating themselves in the absence of a more compassionate justice and incarceration system. Parts of the film are very difficult to watch, and the film certainly made me realize how much these people suffer and how little effort it would take for society to reduce that suffering. We had a 45-minute break, but Joel didn't want to lose our front-row seats, so we stayed in the theatre (they allowed it) instead of leaving to get dinner. The second film we saw was Letters to Dolly, a short, self-analytical love poem to and about Dolly Parton, or rather, the image of Dolly Parton. Joel is an avid fan of Dolly, and he loved the film, as did many in the audience, judging by the applause. Our third film of the evening was FTF: Female to Femme, a documention of the recent emergence of a feminist backlash against the feminist backlash against the male definition of female beauty. I knew not of the invisibility of femme lesbians, so this film was yet another educational experience for me. So odd to see women accusing feminist women of oppression, but there it is. It sounded to me as though the point of the film was that men in the 1950s were wrong, but so were women—and lesbians—in the 1980s and now what we (the filmmakers) think is that femininity should be recognized as being many different things along the spectrum of butch to femme—there is no single ideal—and that each woman has the opportunity and right to define that femininity for herself. Makes sense to me. The film included several people whom Patrick and I have published in Lodestar Quarterly: Elizabeth Stark, Meliza Bañales, Jewelle Gomez. The second screening was frustrating because the projector lamp burned out twice, causing significant delays. We got out of the theatre around 10:30 PM and had a very late dinner at Pancho Villa, which Joel calls "The Panch." Joel had dos tacos dinner and I had dos enchiladas dinner. The enchilada sauce here is too spicy for me. James had asked me to the symphony tonight—he had an extra ticket—but I was already going to the filmfest with Joel. Home very late—around midnight. Lunch today was from the cafeteria: salisbury steak with brown rice, veggies, and a dinner roll with butter.