An Apology

I don't know if this is necessary, but I feel like saying it. I want to apologize for not staying on my supposed topic. I'm pretty sure that no one here cares that my Xbox is on the fritz. I suppose it's just that there isn't a whole lot going on in my life, and I somehow feel compelled to fill the space.

Plus, my friend De told me something last month. I am transgendered. Due to circumstances, I don't live as a woman 24/7, but I don't stop being trans jut because I'm not en femme all the time. So, technically, every little event in my life is part of my trans experience. Okay, that might be pushing it a little.

That's all I've got on this subject.

"Calamity!" said the Oracle.*

I'm pretty sure I mentioned on here before that I play Xbox a lot. I'm not always good at the games I play, but I play mostly to relax, take my mind away from my worldly cares by concentrating on saving the Universe or something. I fired up my machine yesterday morning and found one of the red lights on the front flashing, and when I switched the TV over to the proper input, I got a black screen showing "System Error" in about twenty languages, with the message "E74" at the bottom, along with a note to contact Xbox support.

I've had my 360 a little less than a year, so it's still under warranty. I get to ship it to Microsoft (free of charge) and they'll either fix it or send me a new one. I'm just glad I haven't done anything to customize it, like that fellow last year, who had his case autographed by a bunch of the folks who worked on "Halo 3". When he sent his in for repair, Microsoft sent him a clean case. OOPS! My 360 is bog-standard, so no worries. I hope...

* - refers to one of the NPCs in the "Halo" series.

NLTO Movie Night

The third Saturday of the month is usually our group Movie Night. A number of us gather at a friend's house in Virginia Beach, and we watch a movie that explores some element of being transgendered. This month's selection was the HBO movie "Normal", with Tom Wilkinson and Jessica Lange. Oftentimes, most of those assembled have seen the movie, but we use these gatherings to share with our friends who haven't seen them. A few of the people we were expecting didn't appear, so those that were left had all seen the movie. We debated what else to watch, when I mentioned the new movie premiering on HBO, "Taking Chance", with Kevin Bacon.

"Taking Chance" is not the least bit trans-themed. It's a beautiful movie, though. Marine Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl is a Gulf War veteran. In 2004, his unit was one of several assigned the duty of bringing home the bodies of those who have fallen in Iraq. It is highly unusual for officers to escort enlisted Marines, but Lt. Col. Strobl felt strongly about this one Marine, PFC Chance Phelps, who enlisted in Strobl's hometown in Colorado. The movie is based on an essay Strobl wrote about bringing Chance Phelps home. Here's the HBO site:

http://www.hbo.com/films/takingchance/

I also found the original essay.

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2004/04/taking_chance.html

Powerful stuff.

Go Fug Yourself

Let's try this again. I started to post this over on the Trans Talk blog. Oops! Sorry, De!

I'll leave out the boring explication this time. Have a look at this blog. You will laugh. Or maybe giggle.

http://gofugyourself.celebuzz.com/

Book Review: The Kiss Murder

I posted a few weeks back that I had bought a book entitled The Kiss Murder, by Turkish author Mehmet Murat Somer. I wasn't familiar with the author, but the premise was intriguing, that of a drag queen detective. I was in the middle of reading a fantasy series, Joe Abercrombie's "The First Law", so I set the book aside for when I finished. I'm waiting for the library to get the last Abercrombie, so I read The Kiss Murder.

The protagonist is nameless. He works as a computer programmer/hacker by day, and it part-owner/hostess of a drag club at night. One of his girls comes to him at the club in obvious distress. When she was younger, she had an affair with someone who has since become prominent in business or government. Now someone is trying to get her to help blackmail said person, because she collected notes and photos as mementos of the affair. Then the girl turns up murdered.

What follows is twisty. I had to read up on Turkey, because I didn't know much about the country, beyond the CIA World Factbook bits. They're a secular democracy, struggling against an undercurrent of the same kind of militant Islamism that is rampant in that part of the world. That there is a small but thriving trans community in this place is pleasantly surprising. While I don't know much about Turkey, I do know clubs, and drag queens. It wasn't hard to submerge myself in this environment. All my years working on the night shift in hotels have acquainted me with cab drivers and dancers and other less savory characters.

The story doesn't so much focus on an attempt to solve the crime. It's more of an account of the lead's interaction with the events. When the end comes, it's almost anti-climactic. Don't misunderstand; I did enjoy the book. I didn't know when I bought it, but there's actually another book which precedes this one: The Prophet Murders, about someone murdering transvestites (their words, not mine). I'll have to look for that one.

I Was Wrong (and I'm Glad)!

I was wrong about Law & Order. They handled tonight's case in an enlightened manner. The victim was not transgendered. A man was beaten nearly to death (with injuries to his genitals) in the parking lot of a strip club. There were a handful of red herring suspects: the club's bouncer (a very butch Lea DeLaria), a cross-eyed perv and one of the strippers, who it turned out was a grad student for real/pretending to be a stripper/hooker for a book she was writing. Then the victim wakes up in the hospital and says he's in a custody fight with his ex-wife, who might've attacked him.

The detectives go to see the ex, and are introduced to the object of the custody fight: 13 year-old Hailey, nee Henry. Hailey's mother supports her child's choice to transition, but the father objects. Then it comes out that Hailey has a violent streak, and her mother caught her sneaking back into the house at 2am the night her father was attacked. Come to find out, she was out with some trans friends, breaking into a pharm company's warehouse to steal hormones to sell on the black market. Her grown-up transman friend is Daniela Sea (Max from The L-Word). Hailey blurts out a confession to save her friends, but as it turns out, it was actually Hailey's school guidance counselor.

I'd have watched the rest, but I had to leave for work. I missed a guest appearance by ER's Alex Kingston. Did you know that NBC doesn't stream any of the Law & Order programs on their website, or Hulu, or anywhere else? They do show reruns on odd weekends, and the episodes turn up on USA Network a couple of weeks after they first air, but they won't post the show on their website.

Winter Wonderland? Not!

As I was getting ready for work last night, Nate said something about snow being in the overnight forecast. I don't mind snow so much, but I don't really enjoy it anymore. I watched it snow for about thirty minutes this morning. Then the snow turned to rain, and within a couple of hours, you could hardly tell it had snowed. By the time I left work this morning, the sky was clear and the sun shining brightly. It's still cold, but there's no trace of last night's winter dressing.