The Groovy Like A Movie studio came to the Wedding Expo at the Center in San Diego to interview people for a project called 30 Years of Pride on May 17, 2004, and I was one of the people they interviewed that night. The studio gave me permission to share this on YouTube, and since I can now post longer videos to YouTube, I’m posting the original video with only a couple of minutes trimmed off here and there.

It is timely that I am publishing this video on the day of Phoenix Pride’s 15th anniversary. Thirty years of pride for fifteen years of pride. This is the beginning of the pride parade season, so it is timely. I hope that it inspires, educates, informs, and entertains.

I would hate for the takeaway message from any blog post to be, “Don’t provide interpreters to the deaf if you can possibly avoid it.”

Edmund Berke once said, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” Take a look at John Pozadzides’ 2009 blog post “An Open-Source Look at the Cost of WordCamp Dallas” and the comments that ensue when someone suggests “If you cut out the T-shirts and interpreters, you would break even.” You will learn a lot about complying with the ADA and providing accessibility to a public event.

I hope these two bits of history will help people make future events better for all.

Edited January 22, 2011 for clarity.

You may have heard the jazz standard “My Satin Doll” written by Johnny Mercer, Duke Ellington, and Billy Strayhorn. Well, I learned that song when I was in high school and I attended the Fullerton Jazz Festival music contest— singing contest. It was adjudicated, and we got to go up there are do our stuff and get some feedback from the adjudicators. Well, I remember when I learned that song it just struck me as a little odd, like why would you call her your satin doll, and why would she speak Latin?

Well, a few years went by, and I learned a little bit more about the Jazz Age, and Harlem, and the different people that hung out there, and some of the lingo. And it really struck me that maybe the song was originally written “My Latin Doll.” Meaning, like, my “Latina” doll. Because if you think about the lyrics, there’s all kinds of Spanish in there, like “careful amigo, you’re flippin’” and, uh… “doin’ my rhumbas with uno.” So there’s at least three “Latin”—Spanish—words in there. And think about it— who “speaks” Latin, anyway? I mean, maybe people read Latin, or they can write Latin (or sing or recite Latin), but Latin’s a dead language. Nobody really “speaks” Latin. And even if there are some academicians that meet at, like, some special conference once a year and maybe they speak a little Latin with each other? Eh, I’m not buyin’ it. I don’t see how that’s a sexy thing, that “I’m going out with this girl who speaks Latin.” Okay?

So, at the risk of questioning the lyrics of the great songwriters, I just want to sing it the way it makes sense to me. Think about it. I would love to hear your comments, and I would love it if anyone knew any historical facts about this song and if there were some way to know what the intention was originally. ‘Cause I’m wondering if there was a little political correctness going on where they had to change it from what it originally was.

Anyway, here’s the way it makes sense to me:

Cigarette holder
Which wigs me
Over her shoulder
She digs me
Out cattin’ that Latin doll

Baby shall we go
Out skippin’?
Careful amigo, you’re flippin’
Wears satin, that Latin doll

She’s nobody’s fool so I’m playing it cool as can be
I’ll give it a whirl but I ain’t for no girl catching me

Switcheroonie!

Telephone numbers
Well you know
Doing my rhumbas
With uno
And that’n my Latin doll
And that’n my Latin doll
Wears satin, my Latin doll

But I don’t always understand why there are other fonts that are nearly identical but with different font metrics and/or line spacing; for instance, why are Monotype Corsiva and Apple Chancery so similar? Is it because Apple wanted their own copyright on a font similar to Monotype Corsiva? And why are Bordeaux Roman Bold LET and Monotype Onyx so similar? Is it because Microsoft commissioned Monotype to create Onyx in 1992 after LET created Bordeaux Roman Bold in 1990? Or is there just a “me too” factor involved, in which each foundry wants a product to fulfill similar demands?

I’ve spent some time looking at the differences and similarities, and I’ve noticed that Bordeaux Roman Bold has ligatures and a more extended character repertoire than Onyx, though Onyx is a bit bolder and easier on the eyes. Also, I like the tighter line spacing of Onyx. So it’s a hard to choose a favorite between Bordeaux Roman Bold and Onyx. It’s easy to pick Apple Chancery over Monotype Corsiva because Apple Chancery has a beautiful set of of both common and rare ligatures, more calligraphic letters (especially the slashed dot on the lowercase i), and a much larger character repertoire than Corsiva. When it comes to extended characters, Times New Roman beats Times, but I’ll choose Times almost every time because of its pretty ligatures. If I needed to format a text with rarer characters, though, I would choose Times New Roman. As with the choice between any two similar fonts, it comes down to the application— how many extended characters do you need for what you want to write?

And speaking of fonts whose names have “new” (or “neue”) in them, I’ve found that a “new” version of a font doesn’t always have more characters than the original. While Times New Roman and Courier New have more characters than Times and Courier, Helvetica Neue has a much smaller repertoire of characters than Helvetica. But then Helvetica Neue has all those lovely weights and widths, so it all depends…

Do you know more about the history behind fonts that are nearly identical? If so, please leave a comment and share the knowledge. Thanks!

I’ve always been just a little bit of an activist. I wrote research papers in high school about the Nazi extermination of gays and about the Stonewall riots when I was only 16 and 17. I really wanted to learn and teach my history.

In 1983, when I was 15, I was in my final sex education class (all about sexually transmitted diseases), and they didn’t teach HIV prevention at all. They said they hadn’t received any training about it and they didn’t have a curriculum. They let me stand up in front of the class and teach my peers everything I knew about the disease and how to avoid contracting it / spreading it. Looking back even now, what I said was correct. Less than five years later, the school district not only had a curriculum to teach HIV prevention; they changed the name of sophomore Sex Ed to something like AIDS and Other Sexually Transmitted Diseases.

I never make a secret of the fact that I love men and chose to spend the rest of my life with one. My husband and I hold hands wherever we go. We enjoy it, and it’s the least we can do to keep pushing the envelope in all sectors of society. We’re here, we’re queer, enjoy it!

I am thrilled to be a part of this. My Flickr friend, Jon Gilbert Leavitt (jglsongs on Flickr), asked if he could use my photo Rainbow Flag Above Me in this video to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first gay pride parade that occurred after the Stonewall Rebellion. A longtime gay activist of sorts, I wrote a paper on the Stonewall Rebellion for a history class in my senior year of high school in 1985. Now, 24 years later, I’m contributing again to the commemoration of this important historic event. Enjoy the video and the song written by Jon and sung by his partner and another artist. Watch for my photo in the montage near the end.

First rehearsal with the orchestra for Aida, which opens this Friday night ( get tix from phoenixopera.org ). Also my first time on the stage of an Orpheum Theatre. My grandmother, Audrey Arent performed here as Linda Preston in the late days of vaudeville. Who knows? I may be standing in her "footprints" right now!

This giant sculpture at the corner of Central & Thomas in Phoenix, AZ is a tribute to Navajo Code Talkers. I didn’t know that when I took the photo the other day; I just wanted a shot of a landmark I’ve always admired but never known anything about. Yesterday, I braved the 108º heat to take a photo of the plaque. I’m sharing it because I think it’s important to know this bit of WWII history.

Here is the inscription on the plaque:

• My grandmother on my mother’s side was a singer who performed in vaudeville. She toured the Orpheum circuit as Linda Preston with comedian Gene Sheldon. If you have an Orpheum theatre in your town, chances are she performed there! She was also a member of SAG under the name Audrey Arent, and she did a Mitchum deodorant commercial and appeared as an extra in the movies King Kong (1976), Network, and The Turning Point.
• My grandfather on my mother’s side was Johnny Drake of The Modernaires– yes, Glenn Miller’s Modernaires who appeared in The Glenn Miller Story.
• My grandmother on my father’s side, Helene Greene, was an interior designer and an award-winning painter.
• My grandfather on my father’s side, Ernest Greene, played trumpet and harmonica in jazz bands as a young man.
• My mother, Jonni Greene, sang in musicals throughout high school and junior college. She has sung in choruses of one form or another since I was 10.
• My father, Andrew Greene, took some painting a sculpting courses and supported a friend in teaching and promoting her art classes.

I am grateful to my family for passing down their tradition of performing and visual arts, and for encouraging me in my artistic endeavors.