An afterthought to my previous post…
I’ve also been thinking a lot about singing while watching Glee. I never particularly liked singing, but I’m pretty musical. I’ve been playing piano for years, and been told I have a nice singing voice. But I don’t think I’m a great singer, and don’t do it very often.
I suppose I should correct myself – I never liked hearing myself sing. I honestly do like singing, and really wish I could appreciate my own singing voice. (It’s a sign of how drunk I am if I’m willing, let alone eager, to sing while playing piano or Rock Band…)
But, even though I’m usually OK with my speaking voice (usually, mind you), I can never find a range I’m comfortable with while singing. My natural range is very male, and while I can hold a tune and know I’m a not-too-shabby singer, it doesn’t feel great that I always end up singing the male parts while driving in the car.
I’ve considered taking lessons, but feel like I’d automatically be outing myself if I do so. (I’m logically pretty sure that’s not true, but still feel like it is it.) I’ve been trying to get myself to sing more often, and not shy away from Rock Band at the very least, but it’s been an uphill climb…
I’m an increasingly big fan of Glee, a show on Fox about a high school glee club. (There will be spoilers, so stop reading now if you’re worried about that.) Initially, I felt like all of characters were incredibly obnoxious, and excessively flawed to the point of driving me crazy. Now, however, I think they’ve done a good job humanizing all of them, and they’ve all really grown on me. (With the exception of Will’s wife. She’s obviously supposed to be disliked, but I think the writers have gone too far with her. She was one of the initial reasons I doubted the show, but they’ve focused more on other characters in the last few episodes.)
I’m conflicted about this past week’s show, though…
Continue reading 'Glee’s Gravity'»
One of my roommates and I went bowling Saturday night (I did not great, but not horrible – bowled a 94 and an 87) and we had sort of a funny conversation.
We were talking about bowling names, because we’ve both used the same ones for years. But I haven’t gone bowling since changing my name, and my old bowling name was based on my (male) name.
My roommate said, “Well, you can use the same bowling name. But I guess it was based on your old name. And now that your name isn’t…that that isn’t your name, we could try to come up with something new, based on Rebecca.”
I said, laughingly, “It’s not Voldemort – you can say my old name!”
I’ve been thinking about that idea since then, though, because there is an aspect of “He who shall not be named”-ness about it. I’ve entirely avoided using my old name on this blog. I only rarely use it when talking about my past, even with friends or coworkers. And it definitely bugs the hell out of me when I get mail addressed to…my old name.
I just hope that getting rid of my old name won’t require five hundred in-need-of-editing pages containing meandering, lost-in-the-forest whining and in-fighting…
I’m getting more and more excited (and more and more terrified!) as Trans Form draws near… Opening night is on Friday, December 11, and I hope to see you all there.
In the meantime, I wanted to invite all of you to see a piece from Trans Form at 7PM, Saturday, November 21, at Center on Halsted, as part of Night of Fallen Stars. From the Center on Halsted press release:
The evening celebrates and unites Chicago’s transgender community, while remembering the lives lost in gender-focused hate crimes. Transgender artists will perform music, dance, comedy, and poetry. Special appearance by Jaila Simms, the first Transgendered artist to win a reality series MTV/P. Diddy’s “Making His Band” Official member of Bad Boy’s “Dirty Money Crew.”
The event always has an interesting and entertaining mix of performers, and I’m proud to count myself among this years’ bunch.
If you won’t be able to make it to Night of Fallen Stars, you can still make it to Trans Form! Tickets are on sale now – more information, including discount codes, is available at http://fridaythang.com/trans-form
I was reading an article recently – well written and respectful – about transgender issues, and couldn’t help but notice the use of transgender as “transgenders” (as a noun) rather than “transgender people” (as an adjective).
Many identity labels can be used as nouns or adjectives, but others can’t. A hypothetical article that said, “Lesbians polled at the Health Center said XYZ,” wouldn’t raise my eyebrows, nor would “Lesbian women polled at the Health Center said XYZ.” (Other than being a little awkward, since ‘lesbian’ implies ‘woman.’) (But lets not get into that again!)
At the same time, saying, “Blacks polled at the Health Center said XYZ” seems awkward and dated. Using “Jews” or “Italians,” though, doesn’t seem problematic. (I’m picking examples pretty much at random, here.)
What about “transgenders” versus “transgender people”?
Continue reading '“Transgenders” versus “Transgender people”'»
A few months ago, someone forwarded me some information on Camp Aranu’tiq, which describes itself as:
Camp Aranu’tiq is a weeklong, tuition-free, overnight summer camp for transgender and gender-variant youth ages 8 through 15.
It’s a place where life experiences are shared and lifelong friendships are made.
I emailed the camp director, expressing interest in volunteering as a counselor. I think I’d be a great fit, since I have experience working with and teaching kids, experience in a camp environment as an administrator, and am trans. Unfortunately, I just learned that the camp overlaps with my brother’s wedding.
I’m pretty darn sure I’m not allowed to miss his wedding, so I guess no Camp Aranu’tiq this year… I’ll keep my fingers crossed for next year, though!
A friend of mine was at an event yesterday morning where Tony Kushner accepted a literary award from the Chicago Tribune. She said it was great, if early, and that Kushner was both funny and serious at the event. She mentioned a specific line, though, about how Kushner feels when his work succeeds in Chicago: “As a kind of effete, foofy New Yorker, I always got a special degree of satisfaction and accomplishment when anything that I’ve done succeeds in butch Chicago.”
Which got me asking myself, is Chicago butch?
Continue reading 'Chicago as Butch'»
I was delivering postcards for my show this morning (obligatory plug) and got a flat tire. I was on Lake Shore Drive, heading south at the curve by North Beach, when I felt the steering jerk. I’ve never actually been in a car when a tire went flat, let alone driving a car when it happens, so I didn’t realize what was happening. I just thought, “Shit, something’s wrong with my car” and promptly forgot about it.
That meant that, to make matters worse, I didn’t notice it until I was parked at the place I was dropping post cards, about 2 miles later. (I subsequently learned this meant the tire couldn’t just be patched – $35+tax – but had to be replaced – $100+tax. Taught me a lesson about always pulling over ASAP when something goes wonky…)
But I didn’t actually notice the flat myself. Two guys were walking from their pickup truck when one of them said, “You know you have a flat there?” And thus started the most subtlety gendered interaction I’ve had in a while.
Continue reading 'Speaking of gender roles…'»
Pretty!
I picked up a Motorola Droid yesterday morning, and figured I’d take some time off from transition-related running commentary to share my thoughts from the first 48 hours.
I’m coming from an HTC 5800, which I’d been using for the past two years. It’s a Windows Mobile phone, which I had fun rooting and upgrading to 6.1, along with various other tweaks. However, until recently, Verizon has been locking down their phones – not that they offered amazing phones to begin with – so I couldn’t do all that much with it.
The Droid is Verizon’s flagship in their new push to appear as a company that doesn’t try to keep a stranglehold over their phones, and as a company that doesn’t only have a good network, but good phones as well. (What a concept!) It’s running Google’s Android operating system, and is the first (and thus far, only) phone to run the 2.0 version of the OS.
I’ll get to more specifics after the break, but I’ll cut to the chase: I really like this phone. It’s almost certainly the best phone I’ve ever owned. That said, while I’d definitely recommend it to tech-savvy friends, I wouldn’t recommend it to, say, my mom. I’m not convinced this is a bad thing, though.
Continue reading 'Motorola/Verizon Droid Mini-Review, 48 hours later'»
If you can believe it, it’s almost sixty degrees in Chicago right now and supposed to hit almost seventy. I’m at the lake, playing (and yes, blogging…) with my new phone. A mini review is forthcoming, but for now enjoy this picture of the lakefront.
Comments (2) 
Themocracy