doubting thom

As Jeff has reported, this past weekend we had a nice dinner at 701 Restaurant Saturday evening before seeing the adorable and funny Stephen Lynch and the odd and funny Mitch Hedberg at the Warner Theatre. I had left my camera at home, but Jeff brought his and got some nice pictures, including this moody black and white pic of the National Archives.

Earlier last week, on Thursday night, we went to the Kennedy Center. From Jeff’s post beforehand:

Anyway, in other, lighter news: tonight Thom and I are going to the Kennedy Center to “experience another inauguration,” as an advertisement in the Post Express puts it. The National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Slatkin, will premiere a new commissioned work by Philip Glass, Symphony No. 7 (A Toltec Symphony). Also on the program are songs from Gustav Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn, featuring baritone Matthias Goerne. Slatkin and Glass will host a discussion after tonight’s concert (which repeats through Saturday). It should all be cool, but I admit that my initial motivation was the special Express offer for $25 orchestra seats. Nice.

The Glass/Mahler concert was pleasant enough, though I must admit to having some difficulty staying awake; I’d been up very late the night before, since I had Inauguration Day off, but then after getting up Thursday morning to drive Jeff to the Metro I hadn’t gone back to bed. That lack of sleep combined with the hypnotic quality of Glass’s work kept me in a state just this side of consciousness through the performance, though I rallied a bit during the post-concert discussion.

elfintech posted a photo:

The cinnamon-apple pie with caramel and whipped cream at the Ballston Cosi. Jeff and I had seen the Lemony Snicket film at Ballston Common, and stopped at Cosi afterwards for dessert.

elfintech posted a photo:

The cinnamon-apple pie with caramel and whipped cream at the Ballston Cosi. Jeff and I had seen the Lemony Snicket film at Ballston Common, and stopped at Cosi afterwards for dessert.

elfintech posted a photo:

Two views of the snow on the brick skill and gravel outside my office, during our first snow of the year this past Wednesday. The image on the right where the rocks were in focus was flipped in Photoshop and pasted into the image on the left where the snowy sill was in focus.

elfintech posted a photo:

Monday morning, after dropping Jeff off at the Metro, I took this picture of the church at the end of our street; the clouds that morning looked like they had been painted onto the inside of a blue dome.

In this still-new legislative season, the Virginia legislature already has introduced a staggering array of anti-gay bills, including the latest introduced yesterday that would ban adoptions by gay people. Apparently in Virginia there’s nothing more serious to worry about–jobs, the economy, poverty, education–than us evil horrible queers. Although there already exist two laws in the state against gay marriage, last year’s went further by banning any domestic partnership, civil union or other agreement between gay people, including language that is broad enough that some believe it potentially bans even powers of attorney, medical directives, and other similar contracts by same-sex couples. Nevertheless, this is not enough, as this year the state likely will begin the process of amending its constitution to ban gay marriages, unions and contracts as well. Despite the Supreme Court’s overturning of laws banning gay sex, Virginia has kept its own such laws on the books, and continues to use them to harrass its gay citizens. And, astonishingly, Virginia puts its homophobia even ahead of a Republican pro-business stance, as it is the only state that prohibits, by law, even private companies from offering group health insurance to anyone not related to an employee.

I am saddened and sickened that a state like Virginia, with such an incredibly rich history and that played such a pivotal role in the birth of this nation, one day soon will be known primarily because of its hatefulness towards minorities–already its name is enshrined in the annals of bigotry for its part in Loving v. Virginia in which it tried to continue to justify its antimiscegenation laws. The day will come when the current barbarism will be seen in the same light.

Unfortunately, it likely will be long years before we reach that level of tolerance, understanding and civility, and I’m already reaching a point nearly of numbness. This is why Jeff and I are making plans to leave this state. Virginia has been my home for all but seven years of my life, but it has become clearer and clearer that it is no longer a safe place–I don’t fear for my physical safety, but legally, financially and emotionally the state poses a danger for me–to live as an openly gay man or as part of a loving gay couple, and it is surely not a place worth supporting with my thousands of tax dollars each year.

Non-Errors: “Those usages people keep telling you are wrong but which are actually standard in English.” …

Via The Tin Man

Surprisingly, my agency has decided to close early because of the “inclement weather.” Granted, it’s still snowing even though we’ve already nearly reached the two inches forecast as the maximum, but from the windows here in our offices it doesn’t look that bad (granted, when someone even spits in the street in DC traffic comes to a standstill, so snow is usually disastrous given the almost legendary lack of driving skills in this area). On the other hand, our offices downtown were going to close at 2:00 anyway because of all the inauguration-forced street closures in their area, while we were going to remain open here in Arlington. Whatever the reason, I’m appreciative of the opportunity to head home a few hours early.

elfintech posted a photo:

hail to the red, white and green