Plotinus, as depicted by Raphael in “The School of Athens”

Plotinus on the soul:

The souls of men, seeing their images in the mirror of Dionysus as it were, have entered into that realm in a leap downward from the Supreme: yet even they are not cut off from their origin, from the divine Intellect; it is not that they have come bringing the Intellectual Principle down in their fall; it is that though they have descended even to earth, yet their higher part holds for ever above the heavens.

Their initial descent is deepened since that mid-part of theirs is compelled to labour in care of the care-needing thing into which they have entered. But Zeus, the father, takes pity on their toils and makes the bonds in which they labour soluble by death and gives respite in due time, freeing them from the body, that they too may come to dwell there where the Universal Soul, unconcerned with earthly needs, has ever dwelt…

We may know this also by the concordance of the Souls with the ordered scheme of the kosmos; they are not independent, but, by their descent, they have put themselves in contact, and they stand henceforth in harmonious association with kosmic circuit — to the extent that their fortunes, their life experiences, their choosing and refusing, are announced by the patterns of the stars — and out of this concordance rises as it were one musical utterance: the music, the harmony, by which all is described is the best witness to this truth. Such a consonance can have been procured in one only way: The All must, in every detail of act and experience, be an expression of the Supreme…

(from the Fourth Ennead, Third Tractate, written 250 C.E. and translated by Stephen Mackenna and B. S. Page).

Let every soul recall, then, at the outset the truth that soul is the author of all living things, that it has breathed the life into them all, whatever is nourished by earth and sea, all the creatures of the air, the divine stars in the sky; it is the maker of the sun; itself formed and ordered this vast heaven and conducts all that rhythmic motion; and it is a principle distinct from all these to which it gives law andmovement and life, and it must of necessity be more honourable than they, for they gather or dissolve as soul brings them life or abandons them, but soul, since it never can abandon itself, is of eternal being.

How life was purveyed to the universe of things and to the separate beings in it may be thus conceived: That great soul must stand pictured before another soul, one not mean, a soul that has become worthy to look, emancipate from the lure, from all that binds its fellows in bewitchment, holding itself in quietude. Let not merely the enveloping body be at peace, body’s turmoil stilled, but all that lies around, earth at peace, and sea at peace, and air and the very heavens. Into that heaven, all at rest, let the great soul be conceived to roll inward at every point, penetrating, permeating, from all sides pouring in its light. As the rays of the sun throwing their brilliance upon a lowering cloud make it gleam all gold, so the soul entering the material expanse of the heavens has given life, has given immortality: what was abject it has lifted up; and the heavenly system, moved now in endless motion by the soul that leads it in wisdom, has become a living and a blessed thing; the soul domiciled within, it takes worth where, before the soul, it was stark body- clay and water- or, rather, the blankness of Matter, the absence of Being, and, as an author says, “the execration of the Gods…”

By the power of the soul the manifold and diverse heavenly system is a unit: through soul this universe is a God: and the sun is a God because it is ensouled; so too the stars: and whatsoever we ourselves may be, it is all in virtue of soul; for “dead is viler than dung…”

This, by which the gods are divine, must be the oldest God of them all: and our own soul is of that same Ideal nature, so that to consider it, purified, freed from all accruement, is to recognise in ourselves that same value which we have found soul to be, honourable above all that is bodily. For what is body but earth, and, taking fire itself, what [but soul] is its burning power? So it is with all the compounds of earth and fire, even with water and air added to them…?

The Soul once seen to be thus precious, thus divine, you may hold the faith that by its possession you are already nearing God: in the strength of this power make upwards towards Him: at no great distance you must attain: there is not much between…

(from the Fifth Ennead, First Tractate, written 250 C.E. and translated by Stephen Mackenna and B. S. Page).

]]> http://www.paulinepark.com/index.php/2010/07/plotinus-on-the-soul/feed/ 0 http://www.paulinepark.com/index.php/2010/07/voltaire-on-the-human-tendency-towards-domination-wealth-pleasure/ http://www.paulinepark.com/index.php/2010/07/voltaire-on-the-human-tendency-towards-domination-wealth-pleasure/#comments Mon, 05 Jul 2010 00:11:21 +0000 Pauline http://www.paulinepark.com/?p=1630

Voltaire on the natural human tendency towards domination:

“All men are born with a sufficiently violent liking for domination, wealth and pleasure, and with much taste for idleness…”

(The Philosophical Dictionary, section II of the chapter on equality; translated by H.I. Woolf, 1924).

Klee’s “Insula Dulcamara” (1938)

Paul Klee on intuition in art

According to Paul Klee, the technique of the brush stroke is a great deal, but the crucial factor in painting is intuition. “We construct and construct,” Klee wrote in a Bauhaus prospectus, “and yet intuition is still a good thing. A considerable amount can be done without it, but not all. There is plenty of room for exact research in art, but there is no substitute for intuition.”

“Art unwittingly plays a game with the ultimate realities, but nevertheless arrives at them… The formal cosmos so closely resembles the Creation that a mere breath is sufficient to bring to life the expression of religious experience and of religion itself.”

From Paul Klee, by Will Grohmann (Collins: Fontana Pocket Libary of Great Art, Amsterdam, 1958).

In “The Queen’s Throat,” David Koestenbaum writes that opera queens are distinguished by their propensity to keep lists of operas that they’ve seen. So here’s my list of operas that I’ve seen and/or heard live or recorded:

1607 L’Orfeo (Claudio Monteverdi)
1640 Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria (Claudio Monteverdi)
1642 L’Incoronazione di Poppea (Claudio Monteverdi)
1683 Dido and Aeneas (Henry Purcell)
1691 King Arthur (Henry Purcell)
1692 The Fairy Queen (Henry Purcell)
1711 Rinaldo (George Frideric Handel)
1724 Giulio Cesare (George Frideric Handel)
1724 Tamerlano (George Frideric Handel)
1725 Rodelinda (George Frideric Handel)
1728 The Beggar’s Opera (Johann Christoph Pepusch)
1730 Partenope (George Frideric Handel)
1731 Acis and Galatea (George Frideric Handel)
1733 La Serva Padrona (Giovanni Battista Pergolesi)
1735 Ariodante (George Frideric Handel)
1735 Alcina (George Frideric Handel)
1737 Castor et Pollux (Jean-Philippe Rameau)
1738 Serse (George Frideric Handel)
1744 Semele (George Frideric Handel)
1745 Pigmalion (Jean-Philippe Rameau)
1762 Orfeo ed Euridice (Christoph Willibald Gluck)
1781 Idomeneo (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
1782 Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
1786 Der Schauspieldirektor (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
1786 Le Nozze di Figaro (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
1787 Don Giovanni (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
1790 Così Fan Tutte (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
1791 La Clemenza di Tito (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
1791 Die Zauberflöte (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
1792 Il Matrimonio Segreto (Domenico Cimarosa)
1805 Fidelio (Ludwig van Beethoven)
1813 L’Italiana in Algeri (Gioachino Rossini)
1816 Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Gioachino Rossini)
1816 Otello (Gioachino Rossini)
1817 La Cenerentola (Gioachino Rossini)
1821 Der Freischütz (Carl Maria von Weber)
1828 Le Comte Ory (Gioachino Rossini)
1829 Guillaume Tell (William Tell) (Gioachino Rossini)
1830 I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Vincenzo Bellini)
1831 La Sonnambula (Vincenzo Bellini)
1831 Norma (Vincenzo Bellini)
1831 Francesca di Foix (Gaetano Donizetti)
1831 La Romanziera e l’Uomo Nero (Gaetano Donizetti)
1832 L’Elisir d’Amore (Gaetano Donizetti)
1834 Maria Stuarda (Gaetano Donizetti)
1835 I Puritani (Vincenzo Bellini)
1835 Lucia di Lammermoor (Gaetano Donizetti)
1837 Zar und Zimmermann (Albert Lortzing)
1840 La Fille du Régiment (Gaetano Donizetti)
1842 Nabucco (Giuseppe Verdi)
1843 The Flying Dutchman (Richard Wagner)
1843 Don Pasquale (Gaetano Donizetti)
1845 Tannhäuser (Richard Wagner)
1846 La Damnation de Faust (The Damnation of Faust) (Hector Berlioz)
1847 Macbeth (Giuseppe Verdi)
1850 Lohengrin (Richard Wagner)
1851 Rigoletto (Giuseppe Verdi)
1853 Il Trovatore (Giuseppe Verdi)
1853 La Traviata (Giuseppe Verdi)
1858 Orphée aux Enfers (Jacques Offenbach)
1858 Les Troyens (Hector Berlioz)
1859 Faust (Charles Gounod)
1859 Un Ballo in Maschera (Giuseppe Verdi)
1862 Béatrice et Bénédict (Hector Berlioz)
1862 La Forza del Destino (Giuseppe Verdi)
1863 Les Pêcheurs de Perles (Georges Bizet)
1864 La Belle Hélène (Jacques Offenbach)
1865 Tristan und Isolde (Richard Wagner)
1866 Mignon (Ambroise Thomas)
1866 The Bartered Bride (Bedřich Smetana)
1866 Cox and Box(Arthur Sullivan)
1867 Don Carlos (Giuseppe Verdi)
1867 La Jolie Fille de Perth (Georges Bizet)
1867 Roméo et Juliette (Charles Gounod)
1868 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Richard Wagner)
1868 Hamlet (Ambroise Thomas)
1868 Mefistofele (Arrigo Boito)
1869 Les Brigands (Offenbach)
1869 Das Rheingold (Richard Wagner)
1870 Die Walküre (Richard Wagner)
1871 Aida (Giuseppe Verdi)
1874 Boris Godunov (Modest Mussorgsky)
1874 Die Fledermaus (Johann Strauss II)
1875 Carmen (Georges Bizet)
1876 Siegfried (Richard Wagner)
1876 Götterdämmerung (Richard Wagner)
1876 La Gioconda (Amilcare Ponchielli)
1877 Samson and Delilah (Camille Saint-Saëns)
1879 Eugene Onegin (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky)
1879 The Pirates of Penzance (Gilbert & Sullivan)
1881 Hérodiade (Jules Massenet)
1881 Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Jacques Offenbach)
1881 Simon Boccanegra (Giuseppe Verdi)
1882 Parsifal (Richard Wagner)
1882 The Snow Maiden (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov)
1882 Iolanthe (Gilbert & Sullivan)
1884 Le Villi (Giacomo Puccini)
1884 Manon (Jules Massenet)
1885 The Gypsy Baron (Johann Strauss II)
1885 The Mikado (Gilbert & Sullivan)
1886 Khovanshchina (Modest Mussorgsky)
1887 Otello (Giuseppe Verdi)
1890 Cavalleria rusticana (Pietro Mascagni)
1890 The Queen of Spades (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky)
1892 Pagliacci (Ruggero Leoncavallo)
1892 Werther (Jules Massenet)
1893 Falstaff (Giuseppe Verdi)
1893 Hänsel und Gretel (Engelbert Humperdinck)
1893 Manon Lescaut (Giacomo Puccini)
1894 Thaïs (Jules Massenet)
1896 Andrea Chénier (Umberto Giordano)
1896 La Bohème (Giacomo Puccini)
1898 Fedora (Umberto Giordano)
1899 Cendrillon (Jules Massenet)
1900 Louise (Gustave Charpentier)
1900 Tosca (Giacomo Puccini)
1901 Rusalka (Antonín Dvořák)
1902 Adriana Lecouvreur (Francesco Cilea)
1902 Pelléas et Mélisande (Claude Debussy)
1904 Jenůfa (Leoš Janáček)
1904 Madama Butterfly (Giacomo Puccini)
1905 The Merry Widow (Franz Lehár)
1905 Salome (Richard Strauss)
1907 The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov)
1909 Elektra (Richard Strauss)
1910 La Fanciulla del West (Giacomo Puccini)
1910 Treemonisha (Scott Joplin)
1911 Der Rosenkavalier (Richard Strauss)
1911 L’Heure Espagnole (Maurice Ravel)
1912 Ariadne auf Naxos (Richard Strauss)
1914 Le Rossignol (The Nightingale) (Igor Stravinsky)
1917 La Rondine (Giacomo Puccini)
1918 Gianni Schicchi (Giacomo Puccini)
1918 Il Tabarro (Giacomo Puccini)
1918 Suor Angelica (Giacomo Puccini)
1919 Die Frau Ohne Schatten (Richard Strauss)
1924 Intermezzo (Richard Strauss)
1924 Příhody Lišky Bystroušky (The Cunning Little Vixen) (Leoš Janáček)
1925 L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (Maurice Ravel)
1925 Wozzeck (Alban Berg)
1926 Věc Makropulos (The Makropulos Affair) (Leoš Janáček)
1926 Turandot (Giacomo Puccini)
1930 Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Kurt Weill)
1930 Z Mrtvého Domu (From the House of the Dead) (Leoš Janáček)
1933 Arabella (Richard Strauss)
1935 Die Schweigsame Frau (Richard Strauss)
1935 Porgy and Bess (George Gershwin)
1937 Lulu (Alban Berg)
1937 Riders to the Sea (Ralph Vaughan Williams)
1942 Capriccio (Richard Strauss)
1945 Peter Grimes (Benjamin Britten)
1947 Albert Herring (Benjamin Britten)
1947 Les Mamelles de Tirésias (Francis Poulenc)
1947 The Mother of Us All (Virgil Thomson)
1951 Amahl and the Night Visitors (Gian Carlo Menotti)
1951 Billy Budd (Benjamin Britten)
1951 The Rake’s Progress (Igor Stravinsky)
1956 Candide (Leonard Bernstein)
1957 Dialogues of the Carmelites (Francis Poulenc)
1959 La Voix Humaine (Francis Poulenc)
1977 Le Grand Macabre (György Ligeti)
2006 The First Emperor (Tan Dun)

Judith Butler, self-appointed arbiter of race relations everywhere

Judith Butler has an uncanny knack for self-aggrandizement, and casting herself as the voice of LGBT people of color in Germany is only the latest and most outrageous acts of ruthless self-promotion.

Berlin’s biggest LGBT pride event is Christopher Street Day, and Butler was invited to speak at the event on June 19 as a recipient of the ‘Zivilcouragepreis’ (which could be loosely translated as ‘prize for courage in pursuing civil rights’). Rather than give the expected acceptance speech, Butler chose to use her speech to denounce the event organizers for racism:

“When I consider what it means today, to accept such an award, then I believe, that I would actually lose my courage, if i would simply accept the price under the present political conditions… For instance: Some of the organizers explicitly made racist statements or did not dissociate themselves from them. The host organizations refuse to understand antiracist politics as an essential part of their work. Having said this, I must distance myself from this complicity with racism, including anti-Muslim racism…”

(The full text of Butler’s speech in English translation was posted to the website of the European Graduate School).

Butler then proceeds to mention Gays and Lesbians from Turkey (GLADT) and Lesbian Migrants and Black Lesbians (LesMigraS) as organizations of color and SUSPECT and ReachOut as anti-racist organizations and congratulate them for their work.

Now, I would ordinarily be inclined to commend and support those who speak out against statements and actions that are anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim, and if CSD organizers had made such statements, they needed to be held accountable for them. But what struck me as I listened to the speech in the original German and read it in English translation was how false it was. Butler is not herself either Muslim or a person of color, nor is she German, nor is she an activist (at least in any sense that would be recognized outside of departments of rhetoric at elite universities in the United States). Butler has never co-founded an organization for doing anti-racism work, whether LGBT or otherwise; nor does she do any activism (on behalf of queer people of color or otherwise) in Germany.

Rather, Butler is a privileged white American academic theorist who used her position of privilege and power to appropriate the position of the person of color, and that is a kind of racial politics that strikes me as false. Not only is it completely graceless to refuse an award from an organization in a speech given at an event organized by that organization, there is not an iota of recognition on Butler’s part of how she got to where she is in part because of her white-skin privilege. Nor  is there any recognition of the enormous institutional privilege and power she wields as the hegemonic figure in the field of gender studies. Had Butler not been widely reputed to be the leading gender theorist in the world, it is far less likely that she would have been considered for the CSD Zivilcouragepreis.

Butler did her Ph.D. in philosophy at Yale University, which must surely be accounted second only to Harvard as the wealthiest, most powerful and most elite of all of American universities. And she has done very well in her academic career, parlaying her elite Ivy League doctorate into a tenure track position at the University of California at Berkeley, where she is now Maxine Elliot Professor in the Departments of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature and the Co-director of the Program of Critical Theory. As a tenured full professor, Butler is at the top of the heap on the faculty of what is widely reputed to be the leading public university in the United States, if not the world. And for those who are not familiar with the highways and byways of academia, an endowed chair such as that which Butler holds is the ultimate status symbol among status-conscious (if not status-obsessed) academics.

Nor is there any recognition in Butler’s CDS speech of the privileges that her wealth and upper middle class status confer. At an annual salary of $200,000, with total compensation at $232,583, Butler is more than comfortably upper middle class — she is actually in the top 0.001% of income globally, and according to the calculations of the Global Rich List website, the 107, 565 richest person in the world. Nor is there any recognition of how her US citizenship enables her to speak from a position of privilege and even hegemony at an event outside the United States.  The Ugly American is ugly not because s/he is American per se, but because s/he appropriates a position of global sovereignty wherever s/he goes, unaware of the structures of power that enable him/her to do so.

What is so striking to me in all of the media coverage of the speech is that no one has stopped to consider what Butler could have done differently. For example, rather than give the speech herself, Butler could have brought someone from one of the four groups that she mentioned in her speech onto stage at Christopher Street Day to make a statement in place of the speech she gave. Or, Butler could have insisted that the CSD organizers invite one or more individuals from one or more of those four organizations receive the award and be given the opportunity to speak to the CSD crowd. Or, Butler could have issued a public statement declining the award for the reasons that she articulated in the speech she gave on June 19, presumably saving the organizers the expense of flying her to Berlin (notably absent from the media coverage over the event is any reference to what Butler received in the way of a speaking fee for giving the speech or whether the CDS organizers paid for her travel and accommodations).

Instead, Butler chose to insist on her own supremacy as the arbiter of race relations in Germany as well as the United States, despite the fact that she herself is neither a person of color nor an activist who has done anti-racism work in either country. Someone in the field of language and rhetoric such as Butler will be aware of the difference between text and subtext as well as theory and praxis — not to mention positionality – and so she cannot be unaware of how the speech act represented by her June 19 speech could have precisely the opposite effect that it was ostensibly intended to have. Upon closer examination, Butler’s speech will appear to the discerning eye to be not so much an articulation of anti-racist discourse but rather a displacement of a genuinely anti-racist praxis — an easy but faux anti-racism of the sort that an armchair activist will engage in with no risk and little effort.

Mark John Isola, an assistant professor of English at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, has written of the controversy,

“As much as Butler’s actions point something out, I am uncertain that Butler is not reproducing what she portends to distance herself from as she essentializes racism–and others follow suit re: the gay white male community.  Should we not perhaps consider the idea that gay white men are not interchangeable nor function with a one-think across chronological, cultural, class, and geographic positions?  As a gay white male, I find this idea tedious, if not hinky and dangerous, and I wonder if Butler is not privileging one group over another for the sake of a point, which leads me to consider her stance an act of grandstanding rather than an earnest effort to make a point.  Or, perhaps, it is simply an act of discursive delimitation re: modish theories of the other and difference.

“What about the homophobic complicity, as such can occur within the racialized other?  Such homophobia can oft be seen to have a transnational and transpositional but not (I will not accept such) a transcendental rate of incidence.  It seems, if one will speak of complicity with the forces of othering, then this other fact, as annoying as it is for our conventional theoretical paradigms, must be addressed. Perhaps, we ought look to a new framework rather than resting upon old arguments and assumptions, as such are increasingly failing to be productive in a rigorous analysis. I am just not seeing productivity in Butler’s position, as much as I feel this is a rhetoric I have read repeatedly before. It is also one that I am finding increasingly uncomfortable to accept, especially as it emanates from such a power broker in the world of thought, and there are class positions and deep issues of academic location to be considered here, for titles, tithes, and tenure are not beyond discursive delimitation.

“In sum, if Butler will get us thinking about sexuality and its problematic relationship to race, she must also consider the inverse, for the sake of critical interrogation and not a mere metanarrative framing of an issue.  I fear, such hasty theorizing is increasingly making the Academy irrelevant in the 21st century, and I wonder if anyone could suggest readings that are also analyzing the increasingly irrelevant and distancing nature of the Academy.  I am exploring this rift in a chapter I am working, and I am very curious to explore Butler’s position here, as I find it a bit precious, if not problematically revealing of a new power structure that we might want to begin unscrewing just a bit…”

As Isola argues, the tone of Butler’s speech suggests that it was nothing but grandstanding of the sort that politicians engage in all the time. The speech certainly did nothing to support the work of queer people of color, whether in Europe or the United States; on the contrary, I think it subtly but very effectively undermines it by subordinating that work to the globalizing discourse of a hegemonic theoretical and institutional position (viz., Butler’s); but such an outcome may very well accord with the unspoken intention behind the hegemon’s oily utterance.

Reclaiming Our Spiritual Legacy as Transgendered People
By Pauline Park
18 June 2000

I was asked to speak on spirituality and the transgender community. It seems to me that the connection is an intimate one, far closer than we may realize.

For we as transgendered and gender-variant people lie at the interstices not only of the binary of sex and gender, but also of the binary of the sacred and the profane. In contemporary North American society, we are viewed by some as being — of all people — perhaps the farthest removed from God — at least the God of the Christian fundamentalists. And yet, on this continent a mere three hundred years ago, our forebears, far from being a despised minority, were regarded as intermediaries between heaven and earth, uniquely constituted by their transgendered nature to serve as interlocutors between the human and the divine.

In a cruel irony, the European conquest made transgendered people special targets of prosecution because they were viewed as particularly offensive to Christian strictures — at least as interpreted by conquistadores of the 17th century and other colonizers who followed them. I can well imagine — here on the island that the Algonquin called Manahatta — transgendered shamans exercising a role of spiritual leadership, not only respected but revered by their compatriots. And yet, on this terrain that was to them sacred ground, we now find ourselves cast down from the realm of the sacred to that of the profane.

One of the greatest challenges facing us as we construct a transgender community and catalyze a transgender political movement is to recapture and revivify the sacred in our own nature and then to communicate our most deeply felt spirituality to our contemporaries. We cannot afford to cede the territory of ‘faith and family’ to those who would seek to erase us from the history of this continent. We would make a fatal error, I would suggest, in all too readily falling into a civil libertarian discourse of the ’separation of church and state,’ conceding religion and spirituality to the most conservative and regressive elements in our society.

Regardless of whether we are People of the Book (Christian, Jewish or Muslim) or profess a non-Western faith — or whether we embrace pre-Christian pagan spiritual traditions — we must work to gain recognition of the validity and integrity of our spiritual lives.  And we must reinscribe ourselves in the narrative histories of our peoples and reclaim our legacy as spiritual beings.

shaman’s drum

It was an honor for me to address the congregation of the Metropolitan Community Church of New York (MCC-NY) on Stonewall Sunday 2000 as we commemorated the birth of the modern movement for the liberation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people. This is the text of my address to the congregation, which was published in the November/December 2001 issue of PersuAsian (Issue 10, “Gay Asian & Pacific Islander Spirituality“), the news magazine of the Gay Asian & Pacific Islander Men of New York (GAPIMNY).

The Beekman Boys: Josh Kilmer-Purcell & Brent Ridge

Who says drag queens can’t make good (organic) farmers…? That’s the question I asked myself while watching The Fabulous Beekman Boys on Planet Green. The ‘boys’ are Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge, two very urban gay men in New York. Josh is the former drag queen and Brent is a former ‘vice president of health living’ at Martha Stewart Omnimedia, and the two of them go where no drag queen has ever gone before — to farm country upstate. They find Farmer John, a real farmer who has a herd of goats but no farm. It’s not either of the queens who get teary, it’s Farmer John who nearly breaks down in tears in the first episode (”When Pigs Fly“) as he credits Josh & Brent with saving their lives by giving them a home.

If you’re really into goats, you can follow Farmer John’s herd on the Beekman Farm goat cam; now that’s what I’d call a nanny cam~! But if you suspect that the secret life of goats is really far more fascinating than anyone has imagined, watching the goat cam will almost certainly dispel that illusion for you; these goats are a really dull bunch of kids.

Aqua (Josh Kilmer-Purcell’s drag alter ego)

The Beekman Boys have gotten a lot of attention recently — including from the New York Times — in part, I think, because of the incongruence of a couple of gay Manhattanites (one a once very flamboyant drag queen) homesteading on a farm upstate. But I think the most interesting part of the story isn’t just about two gay urbanites trying to figure out how to run a farm; in fact, Josh grew up on a farm in Wisconsin, just like my mother did. And there’s a fair amount of arguing between Josh & Brent, with Brent being the bossy queen and Josh complaining it’s not as fun as he’d hoped it would be.

But the most interesting aspect, to me, is about how two contemporary Americans re-connect with the land, growing their own food, in a country where very few people have any real relationship to the food that they eat. Here are two queer pioneers who are trying to re-create that relationship.

Henry David Thoreau might well have been thinking of Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist when he wrote that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” While Thoreau’s “Walden” long predates Annie Proulx’s “Brokeback Mountain” short story and the Ang Lee film based on it, the transcendentalist philosopher’s magnum opus remains as relevant today as was published in 1854.

Much of the comment about the film, just released on DVD, has focused on its transgressive love story. But if “Brokeback” speaks powerfully to gay and non-gay audiences alike, it is because the film not only articulates the tragedy of true love constrained and ultimately defeated by homophobia, but also speaks to the tragedy of life not truly lived.

Thoreau could have been describing the “Brokeback” Wyoming of the 1960s when he wrote, “The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity!”

Jack attempts to persuade Ennis to climb out of the rut of heteronormative expectations in rural Wyoming, but Ennis is traumatized by a childhood episode in which his father took him and his brother to see a dead gay man who was tortured and beaten to death for having the temerity to live openly with another man.

So Ennis’ fear of violence is a realistic one. But in choosing to live his life from a script written by someone else, Ennis is false to himself and to everyone else—and above all, to the one person who loves him for who he truly is. In their final encounter, Jack confronts Ennis with the desperately sad truth that they have wasted their lives in outward conformity and secret transgression. Ennis has settled for mere existence, wasting years in a loveless marriage, unable to overcome his fears. The price of outward conformity to a rigid code of heteronormativity is a slow inward death for both of them.

Canonical philosophy may have little appeal to most people, whether LGBT or otherwise. But at its most practical, philosophy poses basic questions that we all face as human beings: What is life and how shall we live it? In “Walden,” Thoreau offers this answer: “I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now.”

What is that “moonlight amid the mountains” of which Thoreau speaks? It is the sheer exhilaration of the authentic life lived fully in the integrity of one’s own truest self. Ennis and Jack glimpse the literal moonlight amid the mountains when they live on Brokeback and later return to it on their periodic “fishing trips.” But only Jack can see the metaphorical moonlight of the authentic life that offers itself to them before they descend from the mountain into the dreary desperation of straight conformity and loveless marriage. Thoreau could well have been describing Jack in the passage in “Walden” in which he famously declared: “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.”

The authentic life is there for the living, and the deepest tragedy of “Brokeback Mountain” is Ennis’s refusal to accept Jack’s invitation to live it. Regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, anyone seeking to live an authentic life need look no further than the conclusion from “Walden” for guidance:

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,  and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

Pauline Park is a member of the Philosophy Forum, a discussion group that meets the second and fourth Sat of each month at The LGBT Center, 208 W 13th St. This article originally appeared in the New York Blade on 17 April 2006; the Blade is now defunct.

Isfahan: Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque

First North American LGBTQ Muslim Conference Held in New York
By Pauline Park
Lesbian & Gay New York (LGNY)
3 June 1999

Think “Islam and homosexuality.” The mind immediately conjures up images of a gay man in Iran being stoned to death by an angry mob while an imam fulminates against the abomination of men who lie with men and women who lie with women. Such images capture part of the reality, but they also render invisible the lives of queer Muslims and the complexity of their struggle.

Certainly, human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission have amply documented the horrendous record of human rights abuses against queer people in Muslim countries. Honan, the exiled Iranian gay rights group, has estimated that over 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed — some stoned to death, others burned alive — since the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan last year, scores of accused homosexuals have apparently been killed by having brick walls
collapse on them or by being thrown from tall buildings or mountaintops. But behind the veil of clichéd images of Islamic fundamentalism, a movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning (LGBTQ) Muslims is beginning to coalesce.

The Al-Fatiha Foundation convened the First North American Conference for LGBTQ Muslims and Friends, “Creating a Community,” here in New York Memorial Day weekend. Conference participants demonstrated the geographic and demographic diversity of the queer Muslim community, with blond-haired and blue-eyed European Americans mingling with olive-skinned Americans and Europeans of Arab and South Asian descent. Among the 60 or so attendees, there were practicing Muslims, including recent converts, non-observant individuals raised Muslim but alienated from their faith, as well as representatives of other faiths.

Al-Fatiha is an international organization founded in 1997 to provide a safe space for LGBTQ Muslims to share individual experiences and institutional resources, and help them reconcile their sexual orientation and/or gender identity with their faith. This last task is not made easy by passages in the Quran that seem to contain explicit proscriptions against homosexuality and cross-dressing. Interpreting such Quranic passages was the subject of a rather intense debate at the conference. Even Al-Fatiha’s founder, Faisal Alam, admits that he himself has not fully reconciled his sexuality and his faith.

“But when you face God and the Prophet on the day of judgment, the first question he’ll ask is not whether you are gay or how many sex partners you had, but did you believe in me?” Alam declared. “Male homosexuality in the Quran is conceptualized in heterosexual terms, and those Quranic proscriptions on homosexuality can be understood in the patriarchal context in which they were conceived,” Dr. Ghazala Anwar argued, “hence women and gay men have common cause in a feminist re-interpretation of Islam.”

Anwar was critical of the selective way in which fundamentalist governments had implemented traditional Islamic law. “Under sharia law, due process requires that four males witness anal penetration in order to make it subject to prosecution, which would make it practically impossible to prove,” Anwar said. “But in the contemporary Muslim world, people have forgotten about such provisions for due process.” Anwar also noted that the punishment of stoning someone to death was derived from sharia law and is not mentioned in the Quran itself. Anwar said that both Islamic fundamentalists and progressives were selective in quoting from the Quran on the subject of homosexuality and transgender, and that both had to develop a more rigorous methodology for interpreting scripture.

On a panel on interfaith perspectives on homosexuality, Will Berger, representing Dignity (the organization for LGBT Catholics), challenged literal interpretations of scripture. “Sometimes we just have to say that scripture is wrong,” he argued, citing the example of the Biblical justification of slavery. The panel found consensus on the need to recognize the full humanity of those in the religious Right opposed to LGBT equality. “Love well those who are your enemies right now, because in a few years, they will be your friends,” urged Dr. Louie Crew, who 25 years ago founded Integrity for lesbian and gay Episcopalians and described the progress the group has made since then. “A victory that diminishes your enemy is no victory.”

On a panel on the progressive interfaith movement, Surina Khan, a research analyst at Political Research Associates who studies authoritarian and racists movements in the U.S. said, “We need to be careful not to demonize the followers in [the religious right] movement, most of whom are sincere.” Khan suggested that the movement’s leaders were manipulating their followers.

A discussion on the merits of establishing a gay mosque sparked lively debate across a number of faiths represented. Donald Maher of the Spiritual Rainbow talked of the need to minister to lesbian and gay Catholics within the church, while Berger of Dignity and Rabbi Robert Young of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah spoke enthusiastically about the special energy that comes from having an LGBT-specific worship space. Rabbi Steven Greenberg, the first openly gay Orthodox rabbi, described the work of the Jerusalem Open House, an LGBT community center that seeks to meet the needs of Muslim and Christian Arabs as well as Jews.

More informal and intimate discussion sessions also addressed the lives of queer Muslims in the US and abroad. In a women’s discussion group, for example, one young Pakistani-born lesbian told of how she was pursuing a master’s degree in part because she needed an excuse to avoid being married, and said only half in jest that she would probably end up with a Ph.D. A first-generation immigrant mother expressed the need for a Muslim P-FLAG because non-Muslim parents could not fully understand the religious and cultural context in which she was struggling to be supportive
of her transsexual daughter’s transition. A transgendered Irish Catholic convert to Islam told of his concern for his children should his involvement with a queer Muslim group become known in his small Muslim community in Florida. On a more hopeful note, an African American lesbian told of how she had found a progressive mosque in New Jersey in which she could be “out” even to the female imam.

In Arabic, Al-Fatiha means “the Opening,” and refers to the opening passage of the Quran; but the organization’s name may refer to a different kind of opening as well, expressing the hope that Al-Fatiha may begin to open the heart of Islam to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered Muslims
everywhere.

Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque (interior)

For further information contact:
Al-Fatiha Foundation,
212.752.3188

Arab & Persian LBT Women & Friends Gathering
(718.596.0342, x35)

Gay & Lesbian Arab Society (GLAS)
http://www.leb.net/glas
Jerusalem Open House, 617.247.8420,
http://www.poboxes.com/gayj

South Asian Lesbian & Gay Association (SALGA)
212.358.5132

Al-Fatiha is an international organization dedicated to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning (LGBTQ) Muslims & their friends!

Al-Fatiha Foundation
Tel./Fax: (212) 752-3188
405 Park Avenue, Suite 1500
New York, NY 10022
http://www.al-fatiha.org

…an 18th century-style double-keyboard French harpsichord of the sort for which most Baroque keyboard music was written…

“Music for a while shall all your cares beguile” (from “Oedipus”) is one of my favorite songs of Henry Purcell, widely considered the greatest of English composers. Music has always been an important part of my life, and these are a few of my favorite songs and piano pieces.

piano music

Gervaise, Pavane Passamaize (6ème Livre de Danceries) (1555)

Corelli, Adagio from the Christmas Concerto (1712)

Bach, Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (1717) (chorale from Cantata 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben)
Bach, Invention No. 14 in B-Flat Major (BWV 785) (1720-23)
Bach, Praeludium No. 1 in C (BWV 846) (1722)
Bach, Praeludium No. 21 in B-Flat Major (BWV 866) (1722)
Bach, Fantasia in A Minor (BWV 904) (1725)
Bach, Praeludium, Partita in B-flat (BWV 825) (1726)
Bach, Sarabande, Partita in B-flat (BWV 825) (1726)
Bach, Chromatische Fantasie (BWV 903) (1730)
Bach, Concerto No. 1 in D Major (BWV 972) (after Vivaldi, Op. 3, No. 9, RV 230)
Bach, Aria mit verschiedenen Veränderungen (Goldberg Variations) (BWV 988) (1741)
– Aria (sarabande)
– Variation #7
– Variation #13
– Variation #16
– Variation #25
– Variation #29
– Variation #30

Handel, Air in E Major from Suite No. 5 (’the Harmonious Blacksmith’) (1720)

Scarlatti, Sonata in E Major (K. 380, L. 23) (1753?)

Couperin, Les Baricades Mysterieuses (6ème ordre) (1713)
Couperin, La Ménetou (7ème ordre) (1713)
Couperin, Passacaille (8ème ordre) (1713)
Couperin, La Superbe ou la Fouqueray (17ème ordre) (1722)
Couperin, Les Satyrs: Les Chevres-Pieds (23ème ordre) (1730)
Couperin, L’Amphibie (24ème ordre) (1730)
Couperin, La Visionaire (25ème ordre) (1730)

Rameau, Gavotte (2ème) (Castor et Pollux) (1737)
Rameau, Naissez dons de Flore (Gavotte en Rondeau) (Castor et Pollux) (1737)
Rameau, Renais, plus brillante (Castor et Pollux, 1737)

Beethoven, Pathetique Sonata in C Minor (Op. 13): adagio cantabile (1798)
Beethoven, Piano Trio in B-flat major, No. 7, Op. 7 (‘Archduke’), andante cantabile ma però con moto (1811)

Schubert, Impromptu in A-flat Major (Op. 142, No. 2) (D.935/2) (1827)
Schubert, Impromptu in G-flat Major (Op. 90, No. 3) (D.899/3) (1827)

Schumann, Kinderszenen, Op. 15 (1838)
– Von Fremden Ländern und Menschen
– Bittendes Kind
– Glückes Genug
– Wichtige Begenbenheit
– Träumerei
– Der Ritter vom Steckenpferd
– Der Dichter spricht
Schumann, Arabeske, Op. 18 (1839)

Brahms, Waltz in A-Flat Major, Op. 39, No. 15 (1865)
Brahms, Intermezzo in A major, Op. 118, No. 2 (1893)

Dvorak, Humoreske, Op. 101, No. 7 (1894)

Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (S.244/2) (1847)

Chopin, Mazurka in B-flat major, Op. 7, No. 1 (1832)
Chopin, Etude in E Major, Op. 10, No. 3 (1833)
Chopin, Etude in C Minor, Op. 10, No. 12 (‘Revolutionary’) (1833)
Chopin, Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9, No. 2 (1833)
Chopin, Fantaisie-Impromptu, Op. 66 (1835)
Chopin, Nocturne in D-flat major, Op. 27, No. 2 (1836)
Chopin, Prelude in C Minor, Op. 28, No. 20 (1839)

Mascagni, Intermezzo (Cavalleria Rusticana) (1890)

Massenet, Meditation (Thais) (1894)

Elgar, Nimrod (Enigma Variations, Op. 36) (1899)

Albeniz, Tango in D major, No. 2 (1905)

Joplin, Solace: A Mexican Serenade (1909)

Debussy, Les collines d’Anacapri (1909-10)
Debussy, Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir (1909-10)

Poulenc, Sicilienne (Suite Française –

Suite d’apres Claude Gervaise) (1935)

Lieder

Dowland, A shepherd in a shade
Dowland, Can she excuse my wrongs?
Dowland, Come again, sweet love doth now invite (1597)
Dowland, Come away, come sweet love
Dowland,  Dear, if you change
Dowland, Fine knacks for ladies (1603)
Dowland, Flow, my tears (Lachrymae Pavane)
Dowland, If my complaints could passions move
Dowland, Now, cease my wand’ring eyes
Dowland, Now, o now, I needs must part

Gibbons, The Silver Swan (1612)

Johnson, Have you seen the bright lily grow? (1614)

Calestani, Damigella tutta bella (1617)

Purcell, Come, Ye Sons of Art (Ode for the Birthday of Queen Mary) (Z 323) (1694)

Bach, Schafe können sicher weiden (Sheep may safely graze)
(aria from Cantata 208, Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd!) (The lively hunt is all my hearts desire) (‘Hunt’ or ‘Birthday’ Cantata) (1713)
Bach, Bist du bei mir (BWV 508) (1725) (attr., “Stölzel, Diomedes,” 1718)

Giordani, Caro Mio Ben (1782)

Mozart, Laudate Dominum (Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, K. 339) (1780)

Haydn, Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit (das Deutschlandlied) (1797)

Martini, Plaisir d’Amour

Schubert, An die Musik (Schober) (D. 547) (1817)
Schubert, An Sylvia (Shakespeare) (D. 891) (1826)
Schubert, Ave Maria (Scott/Storck) D.839)
Schubert, Der Einsame (Lappe) (D.800) (1825)
Schubert, Fischerweise (Schlechta) (D.881) (1826)
Schubert, Die Forelle (Schobart) (D.551) (1817)
Schubert, Litanei auf das Fest aller Seelen (Jacobi) (D.343) (1816)
Schubert, Nacht und Träume (Collin) (D.827) (1822)
Schubert, Der Tod und das Mädchen (Claudius) (D.531) (1817)
Schubert, Wiegenlied (Schlafe, schlafe, süßer Knabe) (anon.) (D.498) (1816)
Schubert, Der Zwerg (D. 771) (1822)
Schubert, Der Lindenbaum (Winterreise) (Op. 89, No. 5) (D.911) (1827)
Schumann, Morgen steh’ ich auf und frage) (Heine) (Liederkreis) (Op. 24, No. 1) (1840)
Schumann, Ich wandelte unter den baumen (Heine) (Liederkreis) (Op. 24, No. 3) (1840)
Schumann, Widmung (Rückert) (Myrthen) (Op. 25, No. 1)
Schumann, Der Nussbaum (Mosen) (Myrthen) (Op. 25, No. 3)
Schumann, Die Lotusblume (Heine) (Myrthen) (Op. 25, No. 7)
Schumann, Mondnacht (Eichendorff) (Liederkreis) (Op. 39, No. 5) (1840)
Schumann, Auf einer Burg (Eichendorff) (Liederkreis) (Op. 39, No. 7) (1840)
Schumann, Seit ich ihn gesehen (Chamisso)(Frauenliebe und Leben) (Op. 42, No. 1) (1840)
Schumann, Er, der Herrlichste von Allen (Chamisso) (Frauenliebe und Leben) (Op. 42, No. 2) (1840)
Schumann, Du Ring an meinem Finger (Chamisso) (Frauenliebe und Leben) (Op. 42, No. 4) (1840)
Schumann, An meinem Herzen (Chamisso) (Frauenliebe und Leben) (Op. 42, No. 7) (1840)
Schumann, Im wunderschönen Monat Mai (Heine) (Dichterliebe) (Op. 48, No. 1) (1840)
Schumann, Die Rose, die Lilie (Heine) (Dichterliebe) (Op. 48, No. 3) (1840)
Schumann, Ich grolle nicht (Heine) (Dichterliebe) (Op. 48, No. 7) (1840)
Schumann, Die Alten, bösen Lieder (Heine) (Dichterliebe) (Op. 48, No. 15) (1840)
Schumann, Aus älten Märchen winkt es (Heine) (Dichterliebe) (Op. 48, No. 16) (1840)

Hume, Flow Gently, Sweet Atton (1792)

Berlioz, Vilanelle (Les Nuits d’Eté) (Gautier) (1840-41)

Grieg, Våren (Spring)  (1859)

Grieg, Jeg elsker Dig (Ich liebe dich) (1864)

Brahms, Wiegenlied (1868)

Hahn, L’Heure Exquise (Chanson Grises, 1870)
Hahn, Quand je fus pris au pavillon (Douze Rondels, 1875)
Hahn, A Chloris (1916)

opera arias

Caccini, Amarilli, mia bella (1601)

Carissimi, Vittoria, mio core (1656)

Scarlatti, Le Violette (Pirro e demetrio) (1694)
Scarlatti, Già il sole dal Gange (L’Honestà negli Amori) (1680)

Purcell, Ah! Belinda, I Am Press’d With Torment (Dido and Aeneas) (1689)
Purcell, When I Am Laid in Earth (Dido’s Lament) (Dido and Aeneas) (1689)
Purcell, Fairest Isle (King Arthur) (1691)
Purcell, Music for a While (Oedipus) (Z.583/2) (1692)
Purcell, Halcyon Days (The Tempest) (1695)

Caldara, Alma del core (La costana in amor vince l’inganno) (1711)

Bononcini, Per la Gloria d’adorarvi (Griselda) (1722)

Handel, Cara sposa (Rinaldo) (HWV 7) (1711)
Handel, Lascia ch’io pianga (Rinaldo) ((HWV 7) (1711)
Handel, Piangero la sorte mia (Giulio Cesare) (HWV 17) (1724)
Handel, V’adoro pupille (Giulio Cesare) (HWV 17) (1724)
Handel, Non è si vago è bello (Giulio Cesare) (HWV 17) (1724)
Handel, Da tempeste il legno infranto (Giulio Cesare) (HWV 17) (1724)
Handel, Dove sei, amato bene? (Rodelinda)
Handel, Lascia ch’io pianga (Rinaldo)
Handel, Ombra mai fu (Serse)
Handel, Verdi prati (Alcina)
Handel, But who shall abide the day of his coming? (Messiah) (HWV 56) (1742)
Handel, I know that my Redeemer liveth (Messiah) (HWV 56) (1742)
Handel, The trumpet shall sound (Messiah) (HWV 56) (1742)
Handel, Where’er You Walk (Semele) (1743)
Handel, Tochter Zion, freue dich (Joshua) (HWV 64) (1747)
Handel, Dank, sei dir (attribution said to be spurious)

Gay, Let us take the road (The Beggar’s Opera, 1728) (march from Handel’s Rinaldo)
Gay, Were I laid on Greenland’s coast… Over the hills and far away (The Beggar’s Opera, 1728

Rameau, Resnais, plus brillante (Castor et Pollux)
Rameau, Naissez don des flores (Castor et Pollux)

Mozart, Se vuol ballare, signor contino (Le Nozze di Figaro, 1786)
Mozart, Voi, che sapete (Le Nozze di Figaro, 1786)
Mozart, Madamina, il catologo è questo (Don Giovanni, 1787)
Mozart, Un’ aura amorosa (Così Fan Tutte, 1790)
Mozart, Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen (Die Zauberflöte, 1791)

Rossini, Di tanti palpiti (1812-13)

Strauss, Jr., Brüderlein und Schwesterlein (Die Fledermaus, 1874)

Saint-Saëns, Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix (Samson et Dalila) (1877)

Humperdinck, Abendsegen (Evening Prayer) (Hänsel und Gretel, 1893)

Léhar, Lippen schweigen (Die lustige Witwe, 1905)

Puccini, Ch’Il Bel Sogno di Doretta (il Sogno di Doretta) (La Rondine, 1917)
Puccini, Mi vuoi dir chi sei tu? (La Rondine, 1917)
Puccini, O Mio Babbino Caro (Gianni Schichi, 1918)

Orff, In Trutina (Carmina Burana) (1936)

popular songs

Berlin, Cheek to Cheek (Top Hat) (1935)
Berlin, White Christmas (White Christmas, 1942)

Gershwin, Embraceable You (Girl Crazy) (1930)
Gershwin, I Got Rhythm (Girl Crazy) (1930)
Gershwin, He Loves & She Loves (Funny Face) (1927)
Gershwin, S’Wonderful (Funny Face) (1927)
Gershwin, Foggy Day (A Damsel in Distress) (1937)
Gershwin, Of Thee I Sing (Of Thee I Sing) (1932)
Gershwin, Strike Up the Band (Strike Up the Band) (1926)
Gershwin, Someone to Watch Over Me (Oh, Kay!) (1926)
Gershwin, Summertime (Porgy & Bess)

Kern, Make Believe (Show Boat) (1927)
Kern, Ol’ Man River (Show Boat) (1927)
Kern, The Way You Look Tonight (Swing Time) (1936)

Porter, I Get a Kick Out of You (Anything Goes) (1934)
Porter, Begin the Beguine (Jubilee) (1935)

Rodgers, Blue Moon (1934)
Rodgers, Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered (Pal Joey) (1940)
Rodgers, People Will Say We’re in Love (Oklahoma) (1943)
Rodgers, Out of My Dreams (Oklahoma) (1943)
Rodgers, The Surrey with the Fringe on Top (Oklahoma) (1943)
Rodgers, Out of My Dreams (Oklahoma) (1943)
Rodgers, If I Loved You (Carousel) (1945)
Rodgers, You’ll Never Walk Alone (Carousel) (1945)
Rodgers, All I Owe Ioway (State Farm) (1945)
Rodgers, It Might As Well Be Spring (State Farm) (1945)
Rodgers, It’s a Grand Night for Singing (State Farm) (1945)
Rodgers, Some Enchanted Evening (South Pacific) (1949)
Rodgers, Younger Than Springtime (South Pacific) (1949)
Rodgers, Hello, Young Lovers (The King & I) (1951)
Rodgers, Shall We Dance? (The King & I) (1951)
Rodgers, Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful? (Cinderella) (1957)
Rodgers, Impossible; It’s Possible (Cinderella) (1957)
Rodgers, Stepsister’s Lament (Cinderella) (1957)
Rodgers, Ten Minutes Ago (Cinderella) (1957)
Rodgers, Edelweiss (The Sound of Music) (1959)
Rodgers, Something Good (The Sound of Music) (1959)
Rodgers, The Sound of Music (The Sound of Music) (1959)

Willson, ‘Till There Was You (Music Man) (1957)

Carmichael, Stardust (1928)
Carmichael, Heart & Soul (1938)

Arlen, If I Only Had a Brain (The Wizard of Oz) (1939)
Arlen, Over the Rainbow (The Wizard of Oz) (1939)

Martin, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Meet Me in St. Louis, 1944)

Dylan, Blowin’ in the Wind

Yarrow & Lipton, Puff the Magic Dragon

Holt, Lemon Tree (c. 1960)

Trénet, La Mer (1946)

Lenoir, Parlez-moi d’amour

Jeannine Deckers (’Soeur Sourire’), Dominique (1963)

Don McLean, American Pie (1971)
Don McLean, Vincent (1972)

folk songs

Latin

Gaudeamus Igitur

English

Blow the Wind Southerly
The Cutty Wren
Drink Old England Dry
Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes
God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen
Greensleeves
Scarborough Fair
Tam Broon
Wayfaring Stranger

Cecil Sharp

The Cuckoo (I: XIX, p. 48)
Fanny Blair (I: XXX p. 70)
Henry Martin (I: I, p. 1)
High Germany (I: XL, p. 93)
The Keeper (II: XXIX, p. 68)
Lord Rendal (II: I, p. 2)
O No, John (II: XLV, p. 116)=
Scarborough Fair (II: XXII, p. 52)
The Sprig of Thyme (I: XVIII, p. 45)
William Taylor (I: L, p. 114)

Irish

Buachaill an Chuil Dualaigh (Youth of the Ringlets)
Danny Boy
Down by the Sally Gardens (text by William Butler Yeats)=
Eamon An Chnuic
Eibhlin a Riun (Eileen Aroon)
Erin Go Bragh
Fainne Gael an Lae (The Dawning of the Day)
The Foggy Dew
The Foggy Dew (Easter Rebellion Song)
In the Bleak Midwinter
The Lakes of Shallin
The Last Rose of Summer (text by Thomas Moore)
The Minstrel Boy (The Moreen)
My Love’s an Arbutus (Coola Shore)
Pearla an Brhrollaigh Bhain (The Snowy Breasted Pearl)
The Water Is Wide (Waly, Waly)
The Wearing of the Green

Manx

Arrane Ny Vlieaun (Manx milking song)
Snieu, Queeyl Snieu (Spin, Wheel, Spin) (Manx spinning song)

Scottish

Annie Laurie
Auld Lang Syne
Loch Lomond
Mary Hamilton (The Four Marys)
My Love is Like a Red. Red Rose (text by Robert Burns)
Will You Go, Lassie, Go? (Wild Thyme)

Welsh

Suo-Gan (Welsh cradle song)

Cornish

Trelawny

American folk & traditional

Amazing Grace
Aura Lee
Chester
The Colorado Trail
Shenandoah
Simple Gifts (arr. Copland)
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

18^th & 19^th century American

Key, Star-Spangled Banner (1812)
Adams, Nearer My God to Thee (1843)
Becket, Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean (1843)
Foster, My Old Kentucky Home (1853)
Foster, Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair (1854)
Howe, Battle Hymn of the Republic (1861)
Root, Battle Cry of Freedom (Rally Round the Flag) (1862)
Gibbons, We Are Coming, Father Abraham (1862)
Lowry, At the River (1864)
Foster, Beautiful Dreamer (1864)

Scandinavian

Hvem kan seile foruten vind? (Ven kan segla förutan vind?)

French

Au clair de la lune
Malbrough s’en va-t-en guerre
Sur le pont d’Avignon

Spanish

Los Cuatro Generales
Venga, Jaleo
Viva la Quince Brigada

Korean

Arirang
Doraji

Xhosa

Nkosi sikelel’i Afrika

One of my favorite places on earth: Frying Pan Creek in Mt. Rainier National Park…

Awhile back, a friend of mine suggested I do ‘25 Things’ on Facebook, but I was a little reluctant to do that application on Facebook (too much like a chain letter), so I’m doing it my own way, here on my own site. So here are 25 things you may not have known about me:

1)  My favorite food: chocolate. My least favorite foods: Brussel sprouts (despite having lived in Brussels), olives (even though I love olive oil). My favorite cuisines: Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indonesian, French, Italian.

2) My favorite color to wear: fire engine red. The color I will not wear: orange (unless I suddenly and unexpectedly become a school crossing guard).

3) Schools I’ve attended: South Clement Ave. School, Fritsche Jr. High School, Bay View High School, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the London School of Economics & Political Science, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the school of life.

4) My favorite composer to listen to: Mozart. My favorite operas: “Die Zauberflöte” and “Così Fan Tutte.” My favorite composers to play: Bach, Chopin, Debussy. My favorite composers to sing: Handel, Schubert, Schumann. My least favorite composers: Bruckner, Schoenberg, Shostakovich. My favorite sopranos: Bidu Sayao, Anneliese Rothenberger, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Victoria de los Angeles, Jessye Norman, Felicity Lott, Natalie Dessay, Yvonne Kenny, Karita Mattila. Favorite mezzo-sopranos: Conchita Supervia, Christa Ludwig, Marilyn Horne, Olga Borodina, Cecilia Bartoli, Elina Garanča, Joyce DiDonato. Favorite contraltos: Kathleen Ferrier, Marian Anderson. Favorite countertenors: David Daniels, Andreas Scholl. Favorite tenors: Enrico Caruso, Jussi Bjoerling, Tito Schipa, Juan Diego Flores. Favorite baritones: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Bryn Terfel. Favorite basses: Feodor Chaliapin, Matti Talvela.

5) My favorite jazz singer: Ella Fitzgerald (esp. the Cole Porter & Gershwin songbooks). My favorite jazz standard: “Stardust” (Hoagy Carmichael). The only non-Western music that I’ve studied: Javanese gamelan. My favorite non-Western musical tradition: Balinese gamelan. My favorite Balinese gamelan musical genre: gamelan gong kebyar. My favorite Balinese gamelan dance genre: legong.

6) My favorite folk music: Celtic. My favorite folk songs: “Péarla an Bhrollaigh Bháin” (The Snowy Breasted Pearl), “Eamon An Chnuic” (Edmond of the Hill), “Snieu, Queeyl, Snieu” (Spin, Wheel, Spin – Manx spinning song) “Arrane Ny Vlieaun” (Manx milking song).

7) The songs I want sung at my memorial service: “Bist du bei mir” (Bach), “Litanei” (Schubert), “Beim Schlafengehen” (from the Vier Letze Lieder of Richard Strauss).

8) The work of literature (other than the King James Bible and the plays of Shakespeare) that I’ve read and re-read more often than any other : “The Lord of the Rings” (Tolkien).

9) My favorite poets: William Blake and John Keats (English), Joseph von Eichendorff (German), Charles Baudelaire and Paul Verlaine (French).

10) My biggest addiction: books (buying, reading, keeping, giving). My favorite bookstore: The Strand on Broadway & E. 12th St. in Manhattan.

11) The languages that I speak: only French, really (other than English, of course); but I used to speak German quite well and I’ve also studied Italian. I took a short course in (Mandarin) Chinese and can read Pinyin and Wade-Giles. I also took a semester of Swedish (Jag studerarde svenska). I’m also reading “Beowulf” in a dual Old English (Anglo-Saxon)/contemporary English language edition (translation by Seamus Heaney). The language I’d most like to be able to speak (and am most expected to speak) but can’t: Korean — but I am trying to learn hangul (the Korean alphabet). The language that would be most useful for me to learn: Spanish. The languages that I find the most intriguing: Old English, Norwegian, Icelandic, Malagasy. My favorite dictum about languages: “Il faut parler français à ses amis, italian à ses amants, allemand à son cheval et espagnol au Dieu” (Emperor Charles V).

12) My favorite queen: Elizabeth Tudor. My least favorite (control) queen: Mike Bloomberg. The members of the British royal family I’ve seen in person: Charles, Prince of Wales (just once, by chance), Elizabeth II (riding in the Irish state coach to the state opening of parliament), the Princess Alexandra.

13) My least favorite number: 13. The numbers I like to think are lucky: 7, 11, 77.

14) The countries I’d most like to visit but haven’t yet: Iceland, Norway. The most poorest and most unusual country I’ve visited: Romania. My favorite county in Romania: Maramures. The most intriguing country that I probably won’t get to: Madagascar. The most romantic city I’ve ever visited: Venice. The city I’d most like to visit but haven’t (yet): Vienna.

15) The countries I’ve lived in: Korea, US, UK, Belgium, France, Germany. The country I don’t remember living in: Korea (I left when I was eight months old). The most annoying question about a country I’ve lived (or never lived) in: “Are you from North or South Korea…?”

16) The cities I’ve lived in: Seoul, Milwaukee, Madison, London, Chicago, Champaign-Urbana, Berlin, Regensburg, Brussels, Paris, New York. The most exciting cities I’ve lived in: London, New York. The least exciting city I’ve lived in: Champaign-Urbana. The most romantic city I’ve lived in: Paris. The most medieval city I’ve lived in: Regensburg. The most livable city I’ve lived in: Madison.

17) The smallest domicile I’ve lived in: a bedsit in Knightsbridge (London) that was the size of a large walk-in closet. The most unusual domicile I’ve lived in: Der Goldener Turm (the Golden Tower), a 12-century medieval tower in Regensburg (I lived in the renovated part of the building that dates from 1527).

18) The best health habits I’ve gotten into: reducing my consumption of refined sugar and saturated fat, using raw blue agave nectar as a sugar substitute, eating mache (a French salad green sometimes known as ‘corn salad’ or ‘lamb’s lettuce’), abjuring bottled water in favor of double-filtered water (tap filter + pitcher filter), walking instead of driving, climbing stairs instead of taking the elevator. Favorite source of animal protein: eggs (non-hormonal and certified humane, from cage-free hens).

19) My favorite artists: Jan Van Eyck, Albrecht Dürer, Antoine Watteau, Henri Matisse, André Derain, Utagawa Hiroshige, Katsushika Hokusai. My favorite architects: Louis Le Vau, Andrea Palladio, John Nash, Frank Lloyd Wright, I.M. Pei.

20) The head of government I least admire whom I’ve seen in person: Margaret Thatcher, who I saw going into Westminster Abbey to attend the memorial service for Rab Butler while I was living in London. The president I most admire: Abraham Lincoln. The worst presidents in history: George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan. Worst vice-presidents in history: Dick Cheney, Dan Quayle. The presidents I found the most disappointing: Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton. The president I feel most sorry for: William Henry Harrison. The only president I’ve seen in person: Richard von Weiszäcker, president of the Federal Republic of Germany (whom I saw on the day of German reunification, 2 October 1990).

21) The most significant moment in world history that I’ve participated in: the formal reunification of Germany in October 1990; I was in the crowd of 3 million people in the Tiergarten as the president and the chancellor rang in the new ‘deutsche Einheit’ (German unity).

22) My most significant achievement: leading the campaign for enactment of the New York City transgender rights law (Int. No. 24, enacted as Local Law 3 of 2002 in April 2002). The personal achievements that took the longest to accomplish: getting a Ph.D. (five and-a-half years); coming out as an openly transgendered woman (36 years).

23) The organizations that I’ve co-founded: Gay Asians & Pacific Islanders of Chicago (GAPIC) (1994), Queens Pride House (1997), Iban/Queer Koreans of New York (Iban/QKNY) (1997), the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA), the Out People of Color Political Action Club (OutPOCPAC) (2001), the Guillermo Vasquez Independent Democratic Club of Queens (GVIDCQ) (2002). The organization I will not give money to: the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

24) My favorite philosopher: Zhuangzi (The Seven Inner Chapters). My least favorite philosopher: Heidegger (a boring Nazi windbag). The denomination I grew up in: the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The denomination I now belong to: Unitarian Universalism (my congregation is All Souls Unitarian Church in Manhattan). The religious habit I find most annoying: door-to-door proselytizing by Jehovah’s Witnesses. The religious prejudice I find most disturbing: Islamophobia. Religious figures I most admire: Mohandas K. Gandhi (the Mahatma), the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Rev. Forrest Church. Religious figures I least admire: Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Jimmy Swaggart, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Muqtada al-Sadr.

25) The one thing I won’t be doing anytime soon: 25 Things on Facebook.

Campus Pride names Pauline Park to its ‘hot list’ of LGBT speakers

I was delighted to receive this message just today:

“Congratulations! You’ve been chosen by students, campus activity professionals, and other Campus Pride constituents for the 2009 Campus Pride HOT LIST! The list is made up of the top twenty-five speakers, lecturers, and performers from around the country… We look forward to making this list an annually published reference for students, staff, and faculty who seek to bring an LGBTQ-positive voice to their campuses. Again, congratulations. We appreciate all you do and look forward to all that you continue to contribute to creating and sustaining positive campus environments for LGBT students.”

Here is the announcement as it appears on the Campus Pride website:

“Campus Pride officially releases the 2009 HOT LIST! The list represents our “Top 25 LGBT Favorites” — lecturers, comedians, musicians. poets, artists, researchers, activists and more. Every year Campus Pride will pick the most diverse, provocative, inspiring and enlightening artists/speakers as a resource for your LGBT student organization. The purpose is to provide a recommendation of the BEST OF THE BEST in planning your campus events and activities. The artists/speakers listed are not only our SIZZLING HOT PICKS but they also rate highly among recommendations from LGBT young adults at colleges and universities across the country. If you want to create change — PICK FROM OUR TOP 25 LGBT FAVORITES! BURNING HOT: Learn more about each artist/speaker and don’t forget to mention the Campus Pride HOT LIST!”

I’m honored to be in such distinguished company as Lieutenant Dan Choi, Judy Shepard and Cherrie Moraga; not to mention my friends Martin Manalansan and Mia Mingus — and the fabulous Kinsey Sicks.

Thanks, Campus Pride~!