Cha cha cha

Last night I was very brave. I attended a Salsa Workout class at the Y. I've never really tried to learn how to salsa, except for the four lessons I took when I was studying Spanish in Guatemala. For one week, I showed up every afternoon at four to doggedly practice with one of the Spanish teachers until I could passably follow the first step, but when I tried to try out my new skills on the dance floor in a real live club, I was completely unable to keep up with the music, completely unable to follow my partner, and completely miserable. There are many things that I believe I would not be inclined to do well. Studying chemistry, windsailing, being a journalist would all probably fall on this list. But theoretically, if I really had my heart set on them and I really applied myself, generally one would think I would be able to do them at least adequately. I studied voice in college and achieved such an with an unremarkable but perfectly nice voice recital.

Dancing, on the other hand, is one of those things I am pretty sure I can't do, no matter how hard I try. This summer I was the subject of great ridicule when I tried to learn a traditional Catalan dance in a village in France. My feet don't go in the places where everyone else's feet go, I get focused on following the steps and completely fail to move the rest of my body with any form or posture. Don't get me wrong, I like dancing. People have at times commented favorably on my performance at night clubs, (particulary those with early eighties theme,) but anything that involved steps borders on torturous for me.

But it seems like salsa would be a good thing to know how to do. Invariably, there is some social event where it seems to come in handy. And the salsa workout class at the Y is the least intimidating venue I could identify to tackle this. I don't have to worry about a partner or wearing dressy shoes or how hair or makeup looks. I am surrounded by other women and men in sweatpants and tennis shoes, all with varying degrees of comfort with the material. Plus the ostensible purpose is to work out, so there isn't even the pressure of actually learning how to dance. Its all about working up a sweat.

I'd like to say it went well, but it didn't. I could get the basic step in the demonstration, but when we put it to music it all went to hell. When she added hand motions, it became even more of an embarassment. I looked like a nine-year old fudging an elaborate dance routine for appreciative parents and grandparents at a family gathering. But the teacher was lovely, very friendly, and didn't show the tiniest bit of exasperation with me, which is the reaction I fear the most. It was not a strenuous workout, but I figure what I didn't achieve in heart rate elevation, I made up for in enterprise.

Back to the Grind

Thanksgiving in North Carolina went off with out a hitch. There was food and general merriment. Tempers were lost, but political arguments were avoided. Thanks were given. I did regress into a teenager on a couple occasions, but managed to keep the damage to a minimum.

For some interesting info on the bird of the hour, visit Apostropher.

Protestants Defending Marriage

New Donkey makes an interesting point about Prostestants and marriage:

"Defending marriage" is far down the list of concerns, historically, of the Reformation tradition, and indeed, that tradition has done far more to loosen the bonds of matrimony, for good or for ill, and to "de-sanctify" the institution, than all the gays and lesbians who have ever lived."

More shout outs

I once got called into the principle's office and asked to tone down an editorial I wrote about racism in my high school. I complied a bit too readily and changed a few sentences to soften the tone of what I was saying. Since then have often wished I had been a bit more like Brad Mathewson who was sent home from school for wearing a t-shirt that "bore a pink triangle and said 'Make a Difference!" Brad was quoted here talking about how he sees anti-gay stickers and slogans on his classmates' notebooks and shirts. NYT reports he is keeping up the good fight though:

"A week later, Mr. Mathewson was again admonished for wearing a gay pride T-shirt, this one featuring a rainbow and the inscription "I'm gay and I'm proud." Told once more to turn the shirt instead out or leave, he chose to go home and was eventually ordered not to return to school wearing clothing supporting gay rights."

Fortunately, the ACLU has taken up his case with a law suit against the Missouri High School. Also, he appears to have his mom in his corner. The article continues:

"In a telephone interview, Ms. Mathewson said: "All he wants is to wear his T-shirts. He's a typical teenager, so he's angry that they're trying to tell him what he can and can't do. We had a meeting at the school to talk about it, but we didn't get anywhere with them. They talked, I listened, and I got more and more mad. At the end I just took him home with me."

Cure for the Monday Night Blues

Yesterday, my reward for going to the gym was a trip to the movies on a school night. I saw La Mala Educación by Almodóvar which I liked, albeit with reservations. My main objection is that it left me a little bit cold emotionally. Its structure is quite ingenious, there is a story, within a movie, within the actual movie made by Almodovar, and within each the actors are playing each other. Also, as usual with Almodovar, there are all these formal references to other filmmakers that have gone before, in this case most prominently Hitchcock, although I am sure there are others that I don't recognize. On the down side, the romance that opens the door to the primary Hitchcockian evil-doing was somewhat unconvincing to me, and at the end I found myself much more pleased with the formal mechanisms that the film uses than the human emotions depicted therein. This is sort of the opposite of All About my Mother and Talk to Her, where I you get overwhelmed by the portrayal of grief, rage, love, lust, and friendship.

Still, its a gorgeous film, there is one particularly nice scene where two scheming characters have a conversation in front of these gorgeous and spooky painted figures. Plus, its been noted before, but Gael Garcia Bernal is really hot both in as a boy and as a drag queen.

Grace

I went to another church on Sunday and I was encouraged and moved by the service and the mission of the congregation. It's a Lutheran church on the Upper West Side, situated in one of those odd New York junctures between what must certainly be high priced housing on one side of the street and housing projects on the other. The congregation advertises on its website that it welcomes all people, including gay, lesbian and bisexuals and in the past couple years has called a minister who is leading the congregation what appears to be a very explicit mission of community outreach and social change. During the week, by coincidence, on the internet, I had run across the a book that the minister wrote about her twenty years in a congregation in the South Bronx.

Rainy Day Blues

It's a rainy Saturday here in New York City and the staff of Newyorquina has repaired to her office to write a budget for her job and to blog occasionally. There is new and ominous violence in Baghdad, not to mention a special Saturday session of congress of which I am sure very little good will come, but I'll limit my fretting to something more mundane and self absorbed:

Claritin-D was for years my very good friend, keeping me breathing and generally more pleasant to be around on the day the dustmites and the ragweed were heavy in the air. Of late though, Claritin-D has not been treating me well. It gives me dry mouth and makes me feel that same sort of keyed-up distraction that one gets before coming down with a nasty flu. So I am sitting at my desk feeling kind of high. It's pretty irritating.

Not a good week for the checks and balances

First I there was this. (Via Talking Points Memo)

"Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives changed their rules so that Majority Leader Tom DeLay could stay in power if he's indicted by a Texas grand jury. The rules change is designed to protect DeLay after three of his political associates were indicted in Texas on charges related to fund-raising for state political campaigns. DeLay, a Republican from Texas, denied any wrongdoing. "

Oh yeah and the other day this! (Discussed with great aplomb by The Poor Man.)

"Speaking on condition of anonymity, former officials described intense friction within the agency with Goss now in charge. And some say there are concerns that more officers at the CIA's counterterrorist center and elsewhere may be asked to resign or told that they no longer have a future at the agency."

And today there was this!

Senator Arlen Specter:

"I have assured the president that I would give his nominees quick committee hearings and early committee votes."

So this pretty much means that Arlen Spector is the GOP's bitch, right?

Forgive me. I'm going to hell.