Washington D.C. Metblogs » dc_gregory

Baby Amusement

dc_gregory — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 17:33:58 +0000

Trains. I swear they are the best sitter you can hire. If we only had a Circle line like London my life would be set. We could get on, go around and around, and a couple of hours later the kid is happy, dad is happy, and Metro is a few dollars richer. Everybody wins. Plus I can snap photos of stations along the way.

Sticker Shock

dc_gregory — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 01:00:00 +0000

Don’t you just love when you know where people stand on an issue.

…while over at the State Department

dc_gregory — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 15:26:06 +0000

I’m used to the flip-flopping of positions on issues around the Senate. I’ve worked for over a dozen senators and their staffs so neither brilliance or ignorance surprises me any more. At times I feel grateful that the person I’m working for is in Washington and other times I cannot believe the dolt made it out of college much less into the Senate (some senators included).

But this knocks my cranium askew. Today I wake to see a photo of Laura Bush and Condoleezza Rice swearing in new global AIDS coordinator Mark A. Dybul next to his, as Condi put it, his “mother-in-law’s” son, Mark’s partner. I’m actually looking at the photo now, Laura is smiling and Condi is in semi-beam. Mark and partner are holding a Bible, no wait it gets really weird. The scene looks like a Republican wedding, guy style. No, really. I’m not making this up even though I’m a master at photoshop. Over at the State Department R-leadership is presiding with smiles and affectionate affirmations over a swearing in of a gay man with his partner. Condi is reported as saying, “mother-in-law” when referring to Mark’s partner’s mom. Mother-in-law? Which is it? Gay threat? Gay blessing? Married? Not, but kinda…wink?

I’m used to the closet being that of an individual’s unique choice to hold onto their public lie or step out in personal truth. I look at this photo and can’t figure out what closet Condi is stepping into or out of. There has to be some psychological term, like schizophrenic or something to sum this up, but right now, I’m too dazed to contemplate such.

Congratulations Mark, partner, and mother-in-law. Congratulations Republican leadership for taking a stand?

Sun, let there be more sun…so much to do.

dc_gregory — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 15:30:25 +0000

Lunch

dc_gregory — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 19:26:00 +0000

The monarchs are once again swarming the Hill. Some are making it out alive, others are becoming lunch.

School Daze

dc_gregory — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 15:37:42 +0000

School has been proceeding peacefully for over a month. Uniforms are starting to lose that crisp, just-off-the-shelf awkwardness. Teachers know all their kids names and peculiar predilections and obtuse quirks. Anxiety about all-things new has dipped. The sun is still warm but not burning. Possibility is everywhere with new things to learn. Ah, just think, flu season is not that far around the corner. But in the meantime we can bask in the last warm glow of October. Gotta love October.

Aquatic Fall

dc_gregory — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 22:18:10 +0000

The first few cool days of Fall are a perfect time to see the last of the summer blossoms at the Aquatic Gardens off of Kenilworth. The national park is a great local getaway for soaking in some of nature with public restrooms for the kids within walking distance from almost any place on the 14 acres.

Names Will Never Hurt Me

dc_gregory — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 16:55:00 +0000

“What’s in a Name? AIDS, Vernacular Risk Perception and the Culture of Ownership,” presented by Diane Goldstein, Professor of Folklore at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Since reports of the first cases of HIV/AIDS in the early 1980s, contemporary, or “urban,” legends about origins of the virus, modes of transmission, deliberate infection, withheld treatment, and minority genocide have proliferated. Told cross-culturally, AIDS legends recount HIV-filled needles in movie theatre seats, pinpricks in drugstore shelf condoms, semen in fast food, and HIV-positive sexual predators…

Wednesday, October 4, 6:30-7:30 PM
Montpelier Room, 6th Floor, James Madison Building

Free and open to the public

….Diane Goldstein explores the story-making activities that have surrounded the AIDS epidemic, focusing on the potential implications of legend discourse for public health. AIDS legends enable understandings of perceptions of risk, reveal local views of public health efforts, and highlight areas of health care and education that need to be improved. AIDS narratives, however, do not simply articulate perceptions of disease realities, they also create those realities. Told within scientific and official sectors as well as lay communities, legends play a significant role in medical, legal, and educational responses to the disease and its management. Goldstein explores how narrative constructs the way we interact with disease, creating cultural scripts for both personal and scientific decision-making.

AIDS Quilt squareTo mark the recent designation of the AIDS Memorial Quilt as an American Treasure, and in honorof the work of the Names Project, this talk will focus specifically on the powerful relationship between names and AIDS in vernacular understandings of risk. AIDS legends focus heavily on names; names to scapegoat, names at risk, names hidden and names flaunted. In this lecture, Goldstein explores one community’s legendary association of AIDS with a single name, tracing vernacular notions of risk in the absence of pluralistic models of vulnerability. Moving out from that case study, Goldstein will explore the relationship between names and ownership, demonstrating the crucial role of vernacular artistry in AIDS interventions.

Diane Goldstein is Professor of Folklore at Memorial University of Newfoundland and is cross-appointed to Memorial University’s School of Medicine. She is author of Once Upon A Virus: AIDS Legends and Vernacular Risk Perception (Utah State University Press 2004), co-editor (with Cindy Patton and Heather Worth) of a special issue of Sexuality Research and Social Policy entitled “Reckless Vectors: The Infecting ‘Other’ in HIV/AIDS Law” (2005) and editor of one of the earliest interdisciplinary anthologies on AIDS, entitled Talking AIDS: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (ISER Books 1991). Diane has been extensively involved in AIDS priority-setting and policy-making initiatives over the last twenty years including a three year appointment to the Canadian National Planning and Priorities Forum for HIV/AIDS. Diane is currently President of the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research, member of the executive board of the American Folklore Society, and serves or has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of American Folklore, Folklore, Ethnologies, Contemporary Legend and The Journal of Applied Folklore.

Great Blues and Golds

dc_gregory — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 16:24:14 +0000

Take the camera and get out. There are tons of events going on around DC, the weather is just right, the sun is making all the leaves pop with gold. If you’re shooting snaps in a shadow, use your flash even in sunlight and you’ll come home tonight with some of the best photos of the month.

Digital Hart

dc_gregory — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 04:18:41 +0000

The Hart senate building has gone digital. Now when you enter the huge box of a building there are two huge, flatbed screens that scroll and interact with visitors. They direct you to the office you need with all the details. They are big enough for those with visual limitations to read. They are totally cool. Totally necessary. Finally technology as struck the Hart. I bet we start seeing them on the Mall in the next five years.