June – The Actorvist

PART 2

As I stated in Part 1, once we reach this point of the year, we tend to review the things we did during the year. Some people look back to see if they’ve accomplished any of the goals that they’ve set for themselves. Some look back in regret. Some people look back to learn from mistakes. Some, like me, do a combination of them.

I am not big on self-promotion. Call me shy. So I’ve never looked for accomplishments. I often review with a combination of regret and what did I learn. Of course, though, you already know this.

****

April was a fabulous month! The main reason was because this was the month that we got to see Xanadu at The Retro Dome starring Adam Berry. It was such a wonderful campy and fun show that I loved every moment of it. I laughed until I was teary eyed. It was just so good! My only regret is that I didn’t see it more than once! It totally would have been worth it.

****

May was a huge month! Somewhere in the end of 2007, I was watching “New, Now, Next” on Logo television. It was sort of like Mtv, but played most queer or queer-friendly artists. At the end of one episode, there came this song on and it made me want to dance. It was super catchy, and this cute little blonde girl was struttin’ her stuff. I was totally diggin’ it! In her, I saw a young Madonna and fell in love with her, just as I did Madonna. Of course, this young girl who was telling me to “Just Dance” was Lady Gaga. I’ve been a huge fan of hers and love the gumption this girl has to make it.

Store

Well, in May her long awaited 3rd album was released, and I had to get my hands on it. From the day I got it until about a week ago, I have had it living in my car’s cd player non-stop. I just find the poetry of the words magnetic. Music is deeply personal to everyone so some songs or music don’t mean the same things. This whole disc is something that I connect to in a way that I haven’t latched on to in a very, very long time. I’m considering writing a series of posts about the individual songs and why they speak so loudly to me.

But Gaga wasn’t the only thing happening this month, I took a ride up to Pacifica because my buddy Sam Valenzuela was working on a play that dealt with immigration and the things people do to try and live a better life. The play was called The Boxcar. It was a gripping account of a group of men that hitched a ride on a freight train to get into the US to work. This sadly was based on true events and all the men but one died on that train. If you ever get the chance to see it, please do.

The movie Bridesmaids stormed into theaters and killed at the box office. It is destined to become one of those favorites in a culty sort of way. It had an amazing cast that just played the parts to perfection. I regret that I don’t have that movie in my collection. Yet!

This was the first time that I caught a glimpse of the upcoming show SMASH and have been dying of anticipation for this show to start. I can’t believe that it’s only a few weeks away!!! Yippee!

Sadly, the amazing Arthur Laurents passed away in May as well. He was a youthful 93. He will be missed. The theatre world really lost a treasure.

****

June was a surprise month for movies. I saw Super 8 and LOVED it. I wanted to love Green Lantern, because that is one of my favorite superheroes, but it wasn’t great. It was enjoyable, but not that WOW! that I was hoping it would be. I was a little devastated. I’m not gonna lie.

Anthony Wiener caves in and resigns after sending phone pics of his junk to some girl. The republicans were all huffy about it, but yet when one of their people gets caught hiring male escorts it’s not a big deal. Ugh, it was disgusting and I say do away with the lot of politicians and have regular people serve as the governing body of the nation for a year. Politicians are just making matters worse.

And I picked up my little novel again to re-read and strengthen the story and character building and the like. I still have yet to let people read it though. I regret not being on top of that better. Poor time management on my part. I’ll totally cop to that.

So how did you do on the second quarter of the year? I hope you’ve all accomplished what you set out to do. Things seem to be getting crazier as the year progressed. Do you agree? Leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts.

When I was in 8th grade, the AIDS epidemic was still a major topic. Nearly 10 years that it had been announced as a major killer of so many people, schools began to talk about safe sex with their sex education lessons. I don’t know how many schools had this, but I was lucky enough that mine did. While I don’t actually recall the name of the program, I spent most of my 8th Grade year talking to other students about safer sex. The program was saying that there was really no such thing as “safe” sex, because there’s always a risk. I even got to go to a conference with other students.

The Aids LifeCycle is a 540+ mile bike ride that begins in San Francisco and ends in L.A. It’s all done in 7 days. It’s all along the coast, so the ride should be beautiful, provided the weather is good. See for yourself what the route is like.

Now that I finally have a bike, I am so excited to finally do this. I supposed I could have asked around to borrow a bike, but I know that I already am going to have to ask around for a tent. So I just want to give you all a heads up that I will soon be hitting all of you up for donations for the ride. BUT here’s the good news: It’s not until next year. Next June, the coast will be MINE!!! Muahahahahaha!!!

I really wanted to do this year’s ride, but I was just 2 months too late. Shucks. It’d be nice to finally do more than to just give a few bucks here and there.

Just in case your wondering what it’ll be like, check out the documentary that was made a few years back about a group of riders in one of the past events. You can find it on Netflix!