Severdia

Pachyderm mourning

It's a damn shame when elephants die?or any animal. But elephants in particular. I guess it's because of their calm demeanor and disposition. Or maybe it's because they way they sway their trunks back and forth, nearly hypnotizing us. In any case, the San Francisco Zoo is under fire because of their second dead elephant this month, which has raised issues about whether or not it's humane to shave 20 years off an elephant's life to keep them in captivity. They live to be in their 60's out in the wild, but only to their 40's while in zoos, which increases a bit if they live in a wildlife sanctuary.

Temps have soared over the last couple of days, even inching into the 100's. Which is fine if you have air conditioning. It sucked when we had our final performance of "Room Service" on Sunday. If you didn't see it, you're lame and you can read the rave reviews here. There's a possibility of being nominated for a BATC award too--either for the whole show or for my performance. God forbid I should actually win it.

Going to hell

Oh shit. I'm going to hell.

I'm embarrassed enough that I was actually watching Ricki Lake. I was actually just sorta half-watching while working at home. The show was about gay teens and the problems they have in school. To counterpoint, they had the conservative anti-gays (complete with southern accents, missing teeth, and bad hairdos) quoting Bible passages. I decided to Google one of the passages from the book of Leviticus and came up with a website which argued the most common points the religious freaks use to condemn homosexuality. If you are a Christian and believe the most known quote from Leviticus 18:22 ("You shall not lie with a male as those who lie with a female; it is an abomination."), then you theoretically have to give the rest of the bylaws the same weight in order to not be a hypocrite--like not eating "unclean" animals like pigs, rabbits, and seafood. You also can't wear clothing that is not a single, pure material (no cotton-polyester blends . . or any blends) and no tattoos. You'll see these religious freaks protesting gays, but not your local Safeway, Gap, or tattoo parlor for violating Leviticus. Huh?

I perused the site further and found this story about a minister in Marin County who wrote a book about how he converted gays to straight through prayer. His book, "The Third Sex?", detailed how gays could be "cured" through religion and, boy, the religious fundamentalists jumped on this bandwagon. But then the gay subjects of his book sued the publisher because they said it was false... and they won. The book was immediately taken off shelves. It was a huge fraud and the infamous minister's name was Kent Philpott.

I started to think . . . how do I know this name?? It sounds sooo familiar. Then it hit me...He was the minister that married me and my wife a few years ago in San Francisco. What an even bigger embarrassment than watching Ricki! I just found him in the phone book and he agreed to do it on short notice. Granted, I was only 6 years old when he wrote the book but . . . Damn, that loser is in my wedding photos forever.