The late afternoon sun turns the Archive Building a lovely shade of orange.

Composer Michael Abels has graciously provided me a clip of Delights And Dances, which debuted at Carnegie Hall last week. Click on the link below to stream the last couple of minutes of the piece. As I noted in my earlier post, I know bupkis about classical music. But I’m sure you more erudite readers can edumacate the rest of …

New York’s downtown art and club scene was rocked today by news that Dean Johnson,45, was found dead in Washington DC last week. Johnson’s body has just been identified and the circumstances surrounding his death have not been determined. A rock star, writer, drag performer, party promoter, and porn actor, Johnson first made his mark on Manhattan’s club scene when …

Reflecting the disunity I spoke of in the post below, 12 LGBT rights groups have signed onto a letter decrying the removal of transgenders from ENDA, including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), the National Center for Transgender Equality, the Empire State Pride Agenda, Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, P-FLAG, the National Stonewall Democrats, and …

Over on AMERICAblog, John Aravosis’ readers are discussing a trans-free ENDA. I brought up the issue yesterday, but I think Aravosis’ talking points are worth taking a look at. Kill ENDA if gender identity is not includedThe main argument here is that we shouldn’t leave a portion of our community behind. We’d never pass ENDA if it only included lesbians …

The Minneapolis airport is remodeling the Larry Craig Memorial Tearoom so that the stall dividers go almost all the way to the floor, in the hopes of thwarting any more hot stall-to-stall man-luvin. The airport has more than 80 restrooms, but only the LCMT and one other “busy” john is getting the Craig-proofing makeover. I could see one of these …

Barack Obama has issued a statement urging Dubya to sign the Matthew Shepard Act. “This vote was about who we are as Americans and whether this nation is going to live up to its founding promise of equality. Those who commit hate crimes should be punished no matter whether those crimes are committed on account of race, gender, religion, disability, …

“San Francisco’s Folsom Street Fair commits a provocation. Utterly unnecessary, I’d say, and counter-productive to ensuring that events like Folsom can continue to thrive. And not even ballsy. Next year, guys: do a similar parody on a sacred Muslim scene, if you have the balls. Easy, cheap blasphemy impresses no one.” – Andrew Sullivan. I’m trying to think of a …

Well, mostly out. Shelley’s been in a destructive phase, pulling stuff off the shelves and batting things off the counters. Last night she smashed a salt shaker, scaring both of us and sending her under the bed for an hour.

Retired Miami Heat player Tim Hardaway, who caused a stir early this year when he told a radio interviewer “I hate gay people”, has been quietly working with the Miami-based YES Institute, an advocacy group for LGBT youth. Hardaway: “I’ve come to find out I made it possible to bash gay people. “ The director of the YES Institute says …

From the Food Emporium under Trump Palace on Third Avenue. I don’t know why stuff like this annoys me.

-Broadway may go dark next week as the stagehands union continues their negotiations with the League of American Theatres and Producers. The stagehands have been working without a contract since July. The last Broadway strike was in 2003 when a work stoppage by the musicians union forced 12 houses to go dark for four days. -Harvey Fierstein has a MySpace …

From the Catholic League: Catholic League president Bill Donohue announced a national boycott of Miller Beer on this morning’s “Fox and Friends.” He explains why today: “Never have we experienced greater corporate arrogance than in this dispute with the Miller Brewing Company. Miller is sponsoring an incredibly outrageous and palpably anti-Christian event in San Francisco: the Folsom Street Fair (see …

By a 60-39 vote, the Senate just passed the Matthew Shepard Act. Sixty votes were required for cloture. Happy day! John McCain was the missing voter. Yes/No vote tally here. In a gracious gesture after the vote, Sen. Kennedy suggested a unanimous approval of Sen. Orrin Hatch’s competing hates crimes amendment, which would merely have authorized a study of hate …

If you have access to tv at the moment, turn on C-SPAN2 to watch our senators debate the Matthew Shepard Act. At the moment, Orrin Hatch (R-UT) is bloviating against the bill’s inclusion as an amendment to a defense appropriations bill. “What’s this amendmend doing attached to this bill when the president has already said he’ll veto it?” Hatch mentions …

Facing the sort of blistering scorn evidenced by the above graphic, there is rumor that Democratic leaders may drop trans people from the pending ENDA legislation. From the Washington Blade: House Democratic leaders are strongly considering dropping anti-discrimination protections for transgender persons from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, after an internal Democratic head count on Wednesday found that the …

His retirement mere days away, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, felt emboldened to make a final parting shot at the gays during a defense appropriations hearing after Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) said he found Pace’s previous comments on gays in the military to be be hurtful and demoralizing. Pace responded, “Are there wonderful Americans who …

The Plaza Hotel, which is nearly done with its transformation into mostly apartments, turns 100 on Monday. Not pictured: Eloise.

When you consider whether to date someone, does their occupation play heavily in your decision? Do they have to be a “professional”? White collar? Have a degree of some sort? An oft-used rule of Manhattan dating is “no actors, dancers, models, waiters.” Do you have similar restrictions? And what about porn actors or commercial sex workers? Would you date somebody …

UPDATE: Here’s the NY Times review of the concert. An excerpt: “[T]he program concluded with Michael Abels’s energetic arrangement for string quartet and string orchestra of his ‘Delights and Dances,’ which incorporates jazz, blues, bluegrass and Latino dance elements. The Harlem Quartet played with panache.” Last night Dr. Jeff and I had the privilege of attending composer Michael Abels‘ spectacular …