BuggBlog

One second act, coming right up

Over the past few days I spent some time pestering John Aravosis over his decision to appear alongside Washington Blade columnist Jeff Gannon on an Equality Forum panel in Philly on the topic of gay media and blogging (Pam Spaulding was also set to appear). Putting Gannon, a disgraced former "journalist" and Washington Blade columnist who's shown the policy grasp of a preteen, on a panel discussing any gay issues whatsoever is, at best, a shameless attempt to create controversy by sticking a sideshow act on the panel. Worse, it's an attempt to legitimize a writer -- and I use that noun very loosely here -- who has shown repeated contempt for the gay community (that is, if you can get past his leaden attempts at prose).

As I wrote to John:

I freely admit that it's amusing and advantageous for me, in some ways, to have Gannon parading around the country as a "Washington Blade columnist." But schadenfreude aside, it truly disturbs me to see the active legitimization of Gannon -- whose vitriol for all things gay* and enormous capacity for self-imposed victimhood are truly vile -- as a "blogger" or a "journalist." And that's what these types of panels do -- they legitimize, they lower the bar, they acclimate people to presence of the pernicious, and they inevitably create a situation in which Gannon (or someone like him) is considered a source of legitimate commentary on GLBT issues.

It's pretty much an American birthright to reinvent yourself. It's not, however, our responsibility as prominent people in the GLBT community to actively support that reinvention.

Anyway, John and Pam both late in the week pulled out of the panel because the moderator had decided that discussing the "Gannon-gate" controversy would distract from important issues. That's like inviting a bearded lady to sit on a panel discussing circus freaks, then declaring discussion of beards off-limits. It's good to see this farce in the making nipped in the bud.

*I suppose I should clarify that Washington Blade columnist Jeff Gannon has vitriol for all things gay, with the exception of checks from Blade editor Chris Crain.

Time to tip-toe

I got home this evening just in time to see my neighbor mowing the lawn. Just what I needed, a reminder of the work that the coming of spring actually entails. Luckily, although I'm in charge of mowing the yard, Cavin's the green thumb who grows flowers, vegetables and herbs. I'm in love with the tulips he planted around the tree in our front yard. He's also planted a huge group of daffodils that bring back some memories of my grandmother's yard (and lord knows a week can't go by without my lapsing into some reverie of country yards or cows or whatnot). Once I get some light back and they open up, I'll try to get some big yellow blossoms up.

Straight away!

So Andrew Sullivan has issued a little mea culpa for erroneously proclaiming new Out editor Aaron Hicklin to be straight. Says Sullivan:

I'm so sorry. It turns out I "inned" the new editor of "Out," which is quite an achievement. My source was a very good one, and I emailed Aaron Hicklin to double-check, and should have waited longer to hear from the horse's mouth.

Actually, it's kind of hard to call a source a "very good one" when it feeds you information like this. And next time you might want to, you know, pick up a frickin' phone and call to ask.

Regardless, Hicklin will be considered straight by many people for some time to come -- the gay media industry "newsletter" Press Pass Q just came out today with the following item in its "Transitions" section:

*AARON HICKLIN, editor in chief of the progressive-culture title BlackBook, takes over as editor of the national gay glossy OUT later this month. Pundit Andrew Sullivan has blogged that Hicklin is heterosexual: "Integration is now the baseline from which many of us operate. Good for Out for being unafraid to pick talent over identity."

Great moments in blogging

Andrew Sullivan declares he's fine and dandy with Out magazine hiring a straight guy as its new editor. Thing is, the new editor's not actually straight. General rule: Just because you haven't had hot hot gay gay sex with a person doesn't make that person straight. I know, I used to have a had a hard time with that one too. Anyway, Sullivan's oopsie is almost as funny as when the Washington City Paper unilaterally declared Peggy Cooper Cafritz white. Sullivan doesn't seem to have gotten around to posting a correction yet. Perhaps he's waiting for, umm, proof.

Of course, this would be far more interesting if I actually still bothered to read Out.

Civic duty

Do you ever have those weeks where, for some unknown reason, you just don't have anything you particularly feel like saying? Where you have an idea of sorts, but somewhere between the brain cells and the keyboard it transmogrifies from insightful to meh? Where you can't even muster a few paragraphs of misty-eyed nostalgia to keep the Web site running?

Yeah, it's been that time of year for me. Actually, it's not so much that I haven't had anything to write -- it's that I've had a huge amount to write, all for the magazine. At some point, I just need to let the old brain recharge a bit, preferably by killing a whole bunch of brain cells wasting time with Dead or Alive 4 or Project Gotham Racing 3. Just as an aside, I still maintain that the boob-tastic Dead or Alive fighting games, ostensibly targeted toward hormonally overactive young male set, are among the gayest things ever created, what with the obsessive focus on unlocking the unreal number of alternate outfits for all the characters. It's like Bruce Lee playing dress up at Barbie's Dream house.

Anyway, the point is that I've gotten way behind in posting about tennis (even missing a chance to do some choice and deserved Sharapova bashing) and cars and gay media and all the other detritus that bounces around my head. For right now, I'm just going to focus on the automotive -- I promise to get moving on the other stuff sooner rather than later.

So, on to the Honda Civic sedan. Here's a car I'd been waiting fairly eagerly to take for a spin. The Civic is one of those models that just about everyone has spent a fair amount of time in, either because you owned one yourself, or a friend (or friends) owned one, that was likely driven into the ground over many, many years. One of my best friends in college had a late-'80s Civic that seemed hip and sharp at the time, although he regularly terrified me by driving it just a little shy of 100 mph on Interstate 81 for weekend trips to D.C. (I was totally unsurprised that the little trooper met its untimely demise in a 16th Street crash rather than becoming an automotive senior citizen). But it was a solid little car.

The Civic has long been a perfect new car for first-time car buyers. It's cheaper than a Volkwagen, it comes with all the "quality" expectations expected from Japanese compacts, it looked just nice enough without getting so stylish it put off the more conservative buyers. And that's one of the reasons I'm fairly taken with the 2006 models: it's the best looking Civic to hit the streets in years.

I'm not saying it's a cutting edge exercise in style, and I don't think it's nearly the boy racer car the so many other critics seemed to think. But the sharp nose and tightly designed taillamps bring a needed up-to-date look. Behind the wheel looking at the oddly stacked intrument panel -- the digital speedometer grows like a small hump from the dash directly above the enormous tachometer and other gauges -- you can't miss the homage to videogame design. Appropriate, given Japan's predominate role in the the gaming world. The Civic's dash and design remind me a bit of early Wipeout and some of the later clones of that futuristic racing game. Although lifting some design cues from a Playstation One game on the eve of Playstation 3 may not qualify as all that cutting edge.

Regardless, it looks nice. The sedan I drove garnered some appreciative oohs and aahs from some (admittedly Honda-loving) friends. Although I haven't driven the 2-door coupe, I think it looks a little sharper, and more definitively targeted at competition such as the Scion tC, a pretty fine and popular little car in its own right. Although when it comes down to it, the Civic seems to share a lot with its sister brand, Acura.

I also didn't get a chance at the hybrid version, but I can vouch that the gas mileage in the sedan is pretty respectable even without the assist from Reddy Kilowatt. I drove all over, all week, without making much of a dent in the tank's supply. Given the impending sense of doom over gas prices, the abstentious use of fuel is a major plus. As for fun, the dashboard may look like you're the head driver in an otaku-racer's paradise, but looks are where things stop. Comfortable, fairly stylish, and sensible are the qualities you get from Civic. If that's what you're looking for, it ain't half bad.

Next up: Mazda's 2006 MX-5, the car formerly known as the Miata.

Capitol Hill = your old high school

So Democrats are all singing the Ding-Dong dead witch song over Tom DeLay's decision to retire rather than endure a quite righteous electoral ass-kicking come November. This graf from the Washington Post story today shows that congressional politics are pretty much based on the same motivations as student council elections, just with way more money.

DeLay's decision allowed him to set the terms of his departure, avoiding what could have been a personally devastating loss at the polls in November. DeLay was determined to hang on to his seat at least through the primary, said Carl Forti, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. That was because he considered his three Republican challengers gadflies and traitors and he was determined to try to block them from succeeding him.

Who would've guessed Tom DeLay would be a Mean Girl?

Also, just like any employee who's ever been pointedly asked to submit a letter of resignation can't really be said to have controlled the terms of his leaving, when you resign because a firestorm of ethical improprieties has guaranteed you can't buy enough votes to keep your seat, you're not setting the terms of your own departure.

Okay, everyone back to the Schadenfreude -- there's plenty enough for seconds.