Senate Committee Hearing On DOMA Repeal Today

Today on Capitol Hill, the Senate Judiciary Committee met to discuss repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act.  This awful piece of legislation, which defines marriage as between a man and woman and excludes federal recognition of marriage equality for gays and lesbians, was enacted back in 1996 during an election year. (Senator Al Franken (above) had some sharp questions for the Focus On The Family hate group which are up on Towleroad.)  DOMA's constitutionality has been in question since then and now, finally, the Senate may be poised to act after a boost from the White House.

In a remarkable statement that seems to have gotten lost in all the debate over the debt crisis, the Obama Administration came out yesterday in support of repeal of the law.  The President himself said that DOMA was unconstitutional last month, after the passage of NY's gay marriage law.  But he has been wary of making actual political moves on the federal angle of marriage equality.  But with yesterday's announcement, the President says he will now push like he did with the gays in the military to right a longstanding wrong.

Death Row Inmate's Victim Sues State To Stop Execution

Forget Casey & Caylee--if you want a true crime story that not only amazes but actually inspires, here it is. The shooting victim of a man who is now on death row petitioned Texas to commute his sentence to life and, now that the Supreme Court has turned his request down, he is suing the state for violating his rights as a victim.  This is no frivolous lawsuit either.  This is a man on a mission.

Rais Bhuylin, a conveience store clerk, was one of three people shot in Mark Stroman's post-9/11 rage shooting spree.  Bhuylin (pictured here shortly after the shooting) was the only one who survived but he was left blind in one eye.  However, in line with his Muslim faith, he has not only forgiven his assailant but believes he does not deserve to die and has been lobbying for the a life-without-parole sentence. For his part, Stroman, age 41, deeply regrets his admittedly stupid and deadly actions nearly a decade ago but will now face his death by lethal injection Wednesday morning. In Texas, there is no room for forgiveness

This story was featured on the CBS Evening News last night but the only version of it I can find online today is over at BBC News...go figure.  It's 10 times more fascinating than the tabloid-obsession over Casey/Caylee because it gets to the heart of the American justice system and the continuing battle between retribution and rehabilitation.

We Interrupt This Blog....

Hi all--so the last month or so has been a bit of a whirlwind with the play WTC VIEW wrapping up and the movie AUGUST opening at film festivals.  Anyway, after a month of travel and film festivals and general excitement, I plan to be back on track with the daily postings here this week.  Sorry about the bloggus interruptus but sometimes life and work just get in the way.  :)

Finally, in movie news, AUGUST has its NYC premieres this Friday and Saturday at NewFest....tix are still available so come check it out this weekend!

Come Out And Play Gaming Hits FiDi At Night

The gaming organization Come Out And Play hit the financial district for a night of outdoor gaming.  The first event was a sniffing scavenger hunt called Hounded which we got there too late for unfortunately.  It did seem like fun though as there were a bunch of real dogs involved who were all quite frisky/friendly and a a real live British dude in hunting gear too! WNYC has some nice, full coverage of that game on their website.

The second event was called Shadowplay and it was awesome.  Images of green balls were projected on a large wall next to a church on John Street and, using your body, you and a teammate had to create shadows on top of the balls.  As you did, they would "explode" and you would get points.  And you had to avoid the blue balls that were floating around too.  If you hit one of those, you lost a "life" (4 per 2 minute game).

I played with a friend and we did pretty well, breaking 100 with our first turn.  It really required a lot of stretching skills so fortunately I had been to the gym earlier! As we were waiting, everyone kept saying I would do great because I was tall but actually I would have done better if I were fat.  My skinny shadow was only good to get two or three balls at the same time.  But it was tons of fun and we wanted to play again and again...unfortunately, the computer's batter died and we had to settle for two games.

If you'd like to play yourself, there is a massive gaming Field Day these folks are throwing out on Governor's Island this weekend.  It's happening Saturday July 16th, from 11am-5pm, with multiple games, including some water sports--not the dirty kind! :)  Sounds like a fun summer's afternoon out on The Island, as it were.

The Word Of The Week Is "Haboob"

Yes, it is a real word. No, it doesn't refer to an idiot.  A "haboob" is the Arabic name for a dust storm and the word was being bandied about all over the news this week when a huge haboob hit Phoenix, Arizona on Tuesday.  You can watch the incredible video which looks like something from an apocalyptic Hollywood thriller. In fact, it looks like the exact thing Tom Cruise is trying to out-run in the newly released MISSION IMPOSSIBLE trailer.

Anyway, here's the video of the Haboob Of The Week that hit Phoenix.  Note that this is time lapse to that makes it look a bit scarier than it really is. But the dust apparently did get all over everything....it even set off a lot of smoke detectors in people's homes.  Some think it was the large haboob to hit the city in a century.

He Lights Up His Life--Mark Sam, Celebrity

I have spent a lot of time in the last couple months tooting my own horn on the blog, with WTC VIEW Onstage and AUGUST making their debuts.  Well, today I'm going to take a break from all that tireless self-promotion and toot someone else's horn for a change!

My good friend Mark Sam Rosenthal is doing a show next month in the NY Intl. Fringe Festival called I LIGHT UP MY LIFE: THE MARK SAM CELEBRITY AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  I saw the first iteration of the show at Dixon Place last summer and it was fantastic.  It's a spoof of the whole celebrity autobiography genre but also a spoof of celebrity in general and filled with wonderful, true stories of Mark Sam's glamourous life.

He's just started putting out some promo videos for the show on YouTube which give you a sense of the whole thing.  The first one is posted here with more to come.  And the show itself will hit town in August, running for 5 performances the 12th through the 16th at Dixon Place.  Tickets will be available July 22nd on the Fringe NYC website.  Check it out and hope to see you there!

AUGUST On The Radio & AUGUST Tickets On Sale

While I was in San Francisco for the Frameline premiere of AUGUST, Steve Pride of KPFK radio interviewed the director and me as well as our lead actors.  The interview, which is part of an Outfest LA preview show, aired last night on the West Coast.  But you can listen to it here online as a podcast.  I've been on Steve's show a number of times before, for my film and book projects, but this was special in that it was a sort of audio portrait of the main creative teamof the project  (minus our amazing cinematographer James Adolphus) as we discussed it's unusual journey from short to feature film.  The portion about AUGUST is about 10 minutes long and starts around the 40:10 mark.

Next up for AUGUST is the L.A. premiere, which happens next Sunday July 10th at Outfest with a screening at the Directors Guild of America theatre.  This is one of my favorite places to see a film....a beautiful auditorium with fantastic sound and a huge screen.  After that, the film will be in Philadelphia the weekend of July 16-17th, where I will be representing the film as the west coasters take a fest off.  Then, the week after that, the film plays here in New York City at The NewFest, July 22nd and 23rd.  Tickets for that screening just went on sale today so get them while you can at the NewFest website.

On the 4th, Remembering The 14th State That Never Was

Ever heard of the State of Franklin?  I hadn't until today when I stumbled upon a mention about it in an article about a documentary filmmaker doing a feature on the lost State of Franklin...or "Frankland" as it was going to be named.  This was an area west of the Appalachia mountains that was originally part of North Carolina but ended up as it own independent territory around 1785.

There was even a resolution presented to the Continental Congress in 1786 to make "Frankland" the 14th State of the nascent United States.  That resolution obviously did not pass and the territory as eventually turned into the eastern end of the state of Tennessee.  Today, there are still remnants of this "ghost state" in the names of institutions like the State of Franklin Bank!

I'm always fascinated to read about these little lost bits of history, especially on a day like today when we celebrate our nations' 235th anniversary.  Here's hoping you have a fun Fourth filled with fireworks and Frankland flag waving!

Marriage Equality Passes in New York

After years of trying, marriage equality finally passed in Albany last Friday night.  With the leadership of Governor Cuomo and the remarkable votes of four Republican senators, the bill was signed into law by the governor shortly before midnight.  The support from across the aisle was key and notable too for one senator's moving statement describing his vote: “I cannot deny a person, a human being, a taxpayer, a worker, the people of my district and across this state, the State of New York, and those people who make this the great state that it is the same rights that I have with my wife.”  Thank you Senator Mark J. Grisanti....for your vote and your simple eloquence. 

To celebrate the event, there was an impromptou street party in the Village on Friday night in front of the historic Stonewall Inn.  It was there that 42 years ago, almost to the day, gays and lesbians and transgenders stood up for their rights for the first time as they fought back against a police raid on their bar. The ensuing riots lasted for 3 nights.  I stopped by the Stonewall on my way home later that night and, instead of bricks and broken glass, there was confetti and glitter and plastic champagne flutes on the sidewalk. It was a stunning sight to see.

Flipping through the TIMES photos of yesterday's gay pride parade, there was another image that got my attention.  It was a picture of a female police officer along the parade route, down on one knee, as she proposed to her lesbian partner in front of a receptive crowd.  Wow....to see it for yourself, just click here.  This is one of those pictures worth a thousand words as it captures the incredible story of the progress of the modern gay/lesbian civil rights movement....from police brandishing riot sticks to offering a glittering engagement ring.

The Swedish Lady With The Laptop

The quasi-widow of famed Swedish novelist Stieg Larsson is profiled in todays NY TIMES and she has quite a story.  Larson, author of the "The Girl With The Drago Tattoo" series of books, died in 2004 before his books took off and ultimately created a literary estate worth upwards of 10 million dollars.  Unfortunately, his companion of 23 years (they never married) Eva Gabrielsson received nothing and Larsson's father and brother has refused to give her anything.

What she does have is an amazing bargaining chip; Stieg's laptop computer with the remains of an unfinished novel on its hard drive.  Score! She has tried negotiating with the father/brother over this issue but the talks broke off.  In addition to that, she now has her own book with the great straightforward title "There Are Things I Want You To Know About Stieg Larsson And Me".  OK then...sounds intriguing.  I'd be interested in taking a read though I guess i should probably read the Millenium triology first.