Archive for 2006
Saturday, December 30th, 2006
File this one under awe.some.From The San Francisco Bay Times [1]:
Following on the footsteps of a watershed year, 2006 saw increased visibility and political gains for the U.S. trans community. Here are some examples:
(Snip)
14. (Snip) Work by trans writers could also be found in numerous anthologies, including The Full Spectrum (edited by David Levithan and Billy Merrell), Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity (edited by Mattilda, a.k.a Matt Bernstein Sycamore) and Self-Organizing Men (the first book from editor Jay Sennett’s new trans publishing company Homofactus Press).
[1] http://sfbaytimes.com/?sec=search&term=watershed+year&x=0&y=0
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Wednesday, December 27th, 2006
[1]
[This cartoon is free. Use it in good health.]
[1] http://jaysennett.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/subject-to-change.JPG
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Wednesday, December 27th, 2006
Del Hornbuckle at Black Looks [1] writes an excellent review of Blood Diamond. This complicated, frustrating, and sometimes astonishing movie gets a thorough examination in Del's hands.
Del also interpolates hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons regarding his foray into the African diamond business.
Read the review here [2].
[1] http://jaysennett.com/www.blacklooks.org
[2] http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/blood_diamondtia_this_is_africa.html
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Tuesday, December 26th, 2006
I've been in the habit of writing a list of people, places, events,etc., for which I am grateful, especially at year's end. Helps clear out the negative thoughts and move me off my self-absorbed center. I try to go for 100. What are you grateful for?
Ms. H.; This blog; Wordpress; Eli Clare;Jen Burke; Bobby Noble; Aren Aizura; Gaylourdes; Jennifer Gee; Tim'm West; Jordy Jones; Doran George; Nick Kiddle; Eli VandenBerg;Turner Schofield;Friday Peach - HfP's very first customer!; Mr. Jack - my feline soulmate;My Dad and his husband;My Mom and her husband;My brother and his girls;This laptop and computers since they allow me to do so much of what I do;My job - it teaches me humility and provides a much desired salary...it gives me options;Yoga; My friend S.L.H., who I characterize as The Energizer Bunny. She kept at her goals long after all the rest of us would have crapped out.; vegankid; brownfemipower; Bitch/Lab; Blackamazon; James Brown;Mary Lou Williams;Paco Iganacio Taibo;Gracie - the next door dog for love of play at all time.; Lily Tomlin; Margaret Cho;WEMU; Ms.H's car; my body, which continues to astound and amaze me; MS Paint, which allows me to draw my silly, fun cartoons; Our farm share. From them I've learned what fresh, organic vegetables taste like; my little writing studio, where I can experience a room without white noise; my snowshoes; my leather jacket; Lambert, Hendricks and Ross; Getting Things Done; my home; my tattoos because they are mine and unique to me; Stevie Wonder; Kevin at Slant Truth; Daily Dose of Queer; Shannon at Egotistical Whining; the incomparable belle dame at Fetch My Axe; Isabella Mori; Dr. Nels P. Highberg; Max Valerio; Jami Ward; (I will continue to add to this list as I think of things)....
Posted in Anti Assclownery | 7 Comments »
Saturday, December 23rd, 2006
[1]
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[1] http://jaysennett.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/more-than-enough-love.JPG
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Thursday, December 21st, 2006
The Forge Forward Conference [1], where will I be speaking in April 2007, needs volunteers [2]. Any assistance folks can provide will be greatly needed and appreciated. Loree and michael are great people, and we need to support this effort to put a face on the midwest trans experience.
[1] http://www.forge-forward.org/conference/index.php
[2] http://www.forge-forward.org/conference/participate/volunteer.php
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Thursday, December 21st, 2006
After nearly four years of cohabiting Ms. H. declared this evening that I had done an 'excellent job' loading up the dishwasher. Finally.
I'm sure I can die now, a happy man.
Posted in Self-Organizing Men | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, December 19th, 2006
I'm moving my blog...again to here www.jaysennett.com.
I've got to upload my global microbrand links and some other stuff and figure out why the heck I can't redirect my MT to WP.............
Why am I moving? MT is a pain to update. And everything costs money.
Posted in Weblogs | Comments Off
Saturday, December 16th, 2006
At last! My experimental 16 mm film transferred to video transferred to mpeg (pixellation anyone?!?) Phallocy [1] is online.Pass it on. Feedback please!
[1] http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=5542551744707612199&hl=en
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Friday, December 15th, 2006
The Lansing City Council is getting ready to decide if transgender should be a protected class in its non-discrimination clause.Nevermind that Gary Glenn of the American Family Association - Michigan (a site I will not link to) has gotten his panties (crossdresser, maybe??) in a bunch about this necessary legislation. "Deny the 'gay rights' cross-dressing legislation," he screams.Fine. I ge that his sense of self is so weak that anyone representing in real time the bogeypeople living in his head must be destroyed.But can I just say that I flip all to shit when a lesbian, one Cindy Redman to be exact, of no less a reputable organization than the Lansing Association of Human Rights, says she doesn't want to share a shower with a pee-pee-pee penis. I quote: “If they have a penis, they’re going to be identified as a man”In a further baffling move, Ms. Redman voted to remove two sentences from the proposed legislation that would restrict transgender folks from using various loos except if the all-important fucking driver's license said they were F.When I read about this type of behavior from gays and lesbians I fucking scream. "Oh we don't have any power. blah-blah-fucking blah" Bullshit.In what I construe as a caculatedly cold gesture, Ms. Redman pulls the all-too common power play used by those in positions of privilege.I'm going to remind you of what a worthless reject I think you are ("I don't want to shower with a pee-pee)But I'm going to give you this crumb.Urinary segregation is an all too dangerous reality for my brothers and sisters so I do not want to in any way deny the importance of this legislation. My people get kidney infections holding in their piss because they are too fucking terrified to participate in their goddess given right to take said piss in some public crapper.But what really fucking torks me here is the disgusting misogyny displayed by a lesbian - and yes, I'm still whacked enough to believe lesbians and gays should know better. Note Ms. Redman's lack of concern for oh, say, vaginas or micro-penises in the men's shower. I mean, come on, can't men be just as offended by my genitalia as she is by this mythic pee-pee she might see in the shower.What also torks me is this false concern for women's safety. If Ms. Redman was really fucking concerned for women's safety she would have not said what she said. If she really cared about women there would have been no mention of penises.Too often some women claim their concern for their safety when really they just want to feel comfortable. And I will say that based on my time in the women's loo women can be just as violent and nasty as men when it comes to acting like a card-carrying member of the gender border patrol.I am sick of my trans sisters being single out to carry the brunt of trans hatred. I am sick that so many transmen and ftms sit around with our thumbs stuck up our ass while our sisters are being hung out to dry. Counting the number of hairs that have sprouted on your chin since last week isn't doing very much to advance our causes in the world.Yes, I counted my hairs too, but I was always part of larger communities of fierce trans and intersexed women who often don't have the option of acting like everything is groovy now that I can park my keister on the can of my preference. As transmen we often forget this important point. Transition doesn't exempt us from human society.As for the likes of the Ms. Redmans of the world, you need for a kind of sophomoric comfort does not override the more important need for the safety of an entire class of people.Seeing a penis on a woman won't kill you, Ms. Redman. But you might kill her with your mean-spirited helpfulness. You can do better. I know you can.(See the Lansing City Pulse for the whole klew [1].)
[1] http://www.lansingcitypulse.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=681&Itemid=29
Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments »
Thursday, December 14th, 2006
I've realized that we're not publishers, but magicians. Like Jesus, who turned water into wine, we do the unimaginable.
We take one book and put it in the hands of 5, 25, 125, 675, 5000, 25000, ? people by the simple act of downloading a book and passing it on.
Learn more here [1].
[1] http://www.homofactuspress.com/?page_id=61
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Thursday, December 14th, 2006
Day before yesterday I finished giving Eli Clare [1] my feeback on his manuscript.While I am deeply biased, and am quite guilty of whoring for my company [2], The Marrow's Telling: Words in Motion [3] is a fascinating, uncomfortable, and rewarding collection of poetry.Contradiction is a human behavior often used to create an unreliable narrator in Western literature. Their narration must be consistent, otherwise, well, they are a little bit - or a lot - off.In Eli's skilled hands, however, contradition becomes a way in which to understand not simply Eli's experiences, but the human experience. Stories shift and change over time. Contradictions arise by way of aging, new love, recovered memories, hormones, ableism, rock, tree, and dirt. Each one can be acknowledged and held fast.The holding of these contradictions becomes a supreme act of self-love and survival. In The Marrow's Telling there is no way out but through. This collection reminds me that our supreme task in life may very well be learning to say Yes to everything in our life, no matter how shitty or difficult or evil the circumstances that have surrounded us.We planning a mid-2007 release. Stay tuned.
[1] http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Eli+Clare&btnG=Google+Search
[2] http://jaysennett.com/cgi-bin/mt/www.homofactuspress.com
[3] http://www.homofactuspress.com/?p=49
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Friday, December 8th, 2006
[1]
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[1] http://jaysennett.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/christmas-cheer.JPG
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Thursday, December 7th, 2006
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About four years ago the unexpected happened: My transsexuality became no big deal.
I still wonder at this change. When I started hormones I needed to be out, to talk about my transsexuality like a drowning man seizing a life preserver.
No doubt the Change defined everything about me. I believed that it would continue to define everything about me until I died. That story of the Change started to wear thin, most especially for me. I mean, come on, how many times can you talk about "oh, gosh, maybe I was born that way," and "wow, I just don't know if I'll every feel comfortable identifying as a man, before that whole scene gets just too damn boring.
Excitement, awe, high regard were all responses I expected from the world, and I suppose from myself. But ordinariness had somehow missed my radar.
The arc of the transsexual story stops, ends, disappears at the point at which I became comfortable in my own skin. The discourses surrounding transexuality center around changING not changED.
Now that I see myself as changed I've had to get on with my life, you know? And getting on with my life means working on the publishing company [2], my own memoirs [3] and short stories, my family, yoga.
Nothing happens next, expect Life.
[1] http://www.jaysennett.com/blog/after%20transition.htm
[2] http://www.homofactuspress.com/
[3] http://www.abespokebody.com/
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, December 5th, 2006
[1]
[This image is free. Use it in good health.]
[1] http://www.jaysennett.com/blog/Paying%20the%20Bills1.htm
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
