the3six5

On November 22nd I participated in the3six5, 365 different bloggers each covering a day of their lives. Lots of interesting perspectives. My post is below.

On my way to work this morning in the Flatiron District, I noticed that a section of Broadway was closed off and covered in snow. Snow covering the ground when it’s fifty-five degrees out isn’t the first thing you expect to see, but getting off the train this morning the ice greeted me. It took me a minute or two before I saw the cameras and realized it was some kind of film shoot. Tourists were more confused than I was, which always makes me smile. I’m always happy to get what’s going on before those around me. The existence of tourists means this can happen quite often.

Read my full post at the3six5.

Brooklyn Tornado

What was probably a tornado hit Brooklyn tonight. Below are a few pictures from my extended walk home from the L train. I had to get off early because of how slow it was running. Lots of fallen trees and signs blown over. Certainly something I haven't seen much of in New York before.

There are very few actual tornadoes recorded in New York City. The strongest was in 2007.

Update: An amazing video someone took from their roof. Go citizen journalism.

V Train to Bushwick & Williamsburg

The MTA is in the process of making some very steep cuts to subway service. But one change will actually benefit residents (I'm one) of Williamsburg & Bushwick, two growing Brooklyn hipster neighborhoods.

Plans to scrap the M train and extend the V train will finally give us a direct route into Manhattan. The M barely went anywhere, but our new V would go everywhere. If this happens, the rate of development will surge around the new V line.

This map shows the proposed new route.

Via CitizeNYC.

Really? - Bushwick Gay Party - On Friday Night!

On Friday night, starting at 11PM, Bushwick's monthly gay party Really? returns to Tandem with a special Xmas bash. It should be a fun night, with guest DJs & hipster go-go boys.

Tandem is located off the Jefferson Avenue L train stop at 236 Troutman Street. Come out and support gay Brooklyn.

See the Facebook Event here.

The Crazy Bushwick Council Race

Tomorrow's rematch in Bushwick, Brooklyn between Democratic Councilwoman Diana Reyna (right) and Maritza Davila (left), is one of the closest in the City. Davila lost the Democratic Primary to the incumbent councilwoman by a hair, so Boss Vito Lopez got her on the Working Families Party line.

Vito really wants to kick Reyna out because she won't fall in line with him on every single vote.

Why the WFP is so buddy-buddy with Vito is beyond me. I'm voting for Diana.

Aaron Short has been covering the race up close on BushwickBK.com.

Originally posted on CitizeNYC.

Bushwick Goes Gay

Gay pride is coming to Bushwick, Brooklyn.

The Annual Bushwick Pride March is on Saturday, June 20th at noon. Meet at Make The Road NY's Bushwick offices, 301 Grove Street. Barbecue at the Children's Grove Park after the march. Should be a fun day!

Directions at:
http://www.maketheroad.org/participate_directions.php.

Also, a special gay pride edition of Really?, the only queer night in Bushwick. NEW LOCATION - Tandem is just 2 1/2 blocks from Northeast Kingdom and the Jefferson stop on the L train. This gorgeous new space will provide more room for dancing and mayhem. With Go-go dancers, pinatas, ukelele sing-a-long, drink specials and the hottest dance traxx and gay anthems by DJ Paleboy.

Details at:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=90858383686

Visit the new Really? blog at:
http://reallyqueer.blogspot.com/

Thanks and hope to see everyone at these events!

Brooklyn L.I.D. Endorsements

Monday night Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn, the largest gay political group in the borough, held an endorsement meeting for the upcoming NYC primaries. I'm new to the group's Board and wasn't sure what to expect-- but was pleasantly surprised. They had a great turnout and all the major candidates showed up.

Endorsements included: Bill Thompson for Mayor, Bill De Blasio for Public Advocate, Charles Hynes for District Attorney, Marty Markowitz for Borough President, and Diana Reyna for City Council District 34.

In the race for Comptroller, John Liu and David Yassky tied. There will be a runoff vote between those two on June 4th. Other races that will be considered on June 4th include: City Council Districts 33, 35, 38, 39, 46, and Civil Court judgeships.

I voted "No Endorsement" for NYC Mayor, because I'm unimpressed with the Democratic Candidates. I also support Norman Siegel over Bill De Blasio for Public Advocate.

Other thoughts:

• David Yassky is a generally impressive guy who couldn't give an answer that made any sense what-so-ever on his support repealing term limits. John Liu is my choice.
  
  
• I got the biggest laugh of the night for asking Mark Green how long it would take for him to begin his mayoral campaign after the Public Advocates race.
  
  
• The group voted to endorse Diana Reyna, City Councilmember in Bushwick, even though she doesn't support gay marriage because she's Catholic. How that's relevant to city business remains unclear.

Primary elections in New York City are on September 15th. For more information or to register to vote, visit the NYC Board of Elections.

Gay Marriage Reintroduced In New York

Earlier tonight, I appeared on Brooklyn News 12 to talk about Gov. Paterson's reintroduction of a gay marriage bill in New York. You can watch the interview here.

I'm writing a piece for The Huffington Post on the increasing use of gay marriage as a tool to garner leftist support, that should be posted on Monday. For now, I'll say that I'm always happy to see politicians advancing progressive legislation and I hope Paterson has some clue on how to get 32 votes in the Senate. I also hope this doesn't all blow up in our faces and set the NY gay rights movement back several years.

Flashback: Read my Huffington Post piece Gay Marriage In New York Unlikely in '09 or '10, from February 6th 2008.

Sunday Morning Odds & Ends

Looking at the ideas behind the new Facebook design. I'm quite a fan of the Twitterlization of Facebook and see why they did it. You don't want Facebook to fall behind and become Myspace or... Friendster already do you?

What is your neighborhood's Walk Score? Enter your address and find out. Mine, Bushwick, got 89 out of 100. (h/t Freakonomics Blog)

Barack Obama made a dumb joke about the Special Olympics on Jay Leno. Gov. Schwarzenegger defends him.

Defending Provigil: "And is modafinil the next cocaine? Probably not. It just doesn't have the powerful reinforcing and rewarding effects. Not only that, it's usually taken as a pill, and so highs resulting from it are more unlikely."

Californians in 2010 will likely have a pro-gay marriage initiative to vote on. The ballot initiative process could lead to some on-again, off-again marriages.

Rupert Murdoch purchases The Brooklyn Paper.

Huffington Post: Gay Marriage In New York Unlikely in '09 or '10

Daniel Squadron, the twenty-nine year old freshman New York State Senator, is ready to take the lead on gay marriage in New York. Squadron said his goal was, "making this a law as quickly as possible," last night at a meeting of the Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn. He came to discuss strategy with leading activists and received plenty of feedback.

However, Squadron is not optimistic about passing gay marriage in the 2009 Senate session and believes that 2010 will be even tougher, due to the election year. "Looking at the members, it's hard to get to thirty-two votes," he admitted. Thirty-two is the magic number to pass a bill in the New York State Senate.

Squadron is not opposed to attempting in 2009, but said their were basically two strategies. Either, put the bill up in 2009 and risk a defeat or lay the ground work for passage later. "Just making the Senate Democratic is not enough, we need a fundamental change in Senate culture," Squadron explained. He believes that while the Senate is progressing, we aren't there yet.

Laying the ground work for victory, Squadron believes, involves showing marriage opponents "the ways it (gay marriage) leads to a traditional family structure." As well as explaining to members of the Senate the economic benefits Squadron added that, "real resources" need to be spent on changing people's minds in key districts and in the Senate.

Earlier this year I met with New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver at his Manhattan office. He assured us that he'd have the votes to pass marriage again. The Assembly passed marriage in 2007, largely due to member Daniel O'Donnell, an Upper West Side Democrat. O'Donnell, a gay man, personally plead his case to members of the Assembly.

Squadron revealed that the heads of many New York gay political groups are urging caution. One even suggesting that an attempt in 2009 would "kill us."

I believe that ultimately, it's not worth risking defeat in 2009. A major defeat in the Senate would set us back five years or more. We could have those votes as early as 2011 or '12, the way the public support continues to move toward marriage. If we keep winning the hearts and minds.

Outside of LGBT issues, Squadron truly impressed me tonight with his knowledge and support of progressive taxation and affordable housing. He spoke out directly against the change in the term limits law, calling it "obviously undemocratic." I supported his opponent in the primary, but it looks like we may have a rising star on our hands.

--

Ryan J. Davis is on the Board of Directors of the Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn. All views reflected are his own. This was originally written for The Huffington Post.

Odds & Ends

-- Google Earth will now let you explore both the ocean and time! A new historical feature lets you see satellite images from different time periods. From SF Gate: Former Vice President Al Gore, now known for his environmental activism, highlighted the Grinnell Glacier in Montana for the audience of Google executives, partners and press, starting with aerial image from 1991 and then showing subsequent photographs in which the ice field dramatically shrinks in size. "My hope is that people around the world will use Google Earth to see for themselves the reality because of the climate crisis," said Gore, who also serves as a Google adviser.

-- The smell of maple syrup that has been a NYC mystery has finally been solved. Apparently it comes from a plant in New Jersey.

-- The TED Conference, a gathering of brilliant people, is going on now and I'm terribly sad that I wasn't invited. Bill Gates tried to give them all malaria, just to prove a point.

-- Last night's gay party at Northeast Kingdom,a Bushwick first, was a big, big success. I'd like to give a shout-out to organizers Jeff Hnilicka & Scot Bowman for their efforts. The next party is Wednesday, March 4, and every first Wednesday of the month after that. Just take the L train to Jefferson, starts at 11pm.

Huffington Post: Memorial Day, Abu Ghraib Film, Opens in NYC

On a gloomy Sunday afternoon I ventured to the closing performance of downtown's Surrender, a "simulated war deployment experience," produced by The International Wow Company. Upon arrival we were issued army uniforms and rifles, given a very basic training course, and led off to battle. It was one of the most intense and ultra-realistic experiences I've ever had in a theater.

Surrender was conceived by Brooklyn-based director Josh Fox with the assistance of Jason Christopher Hartley, the Iraq War Veteran and the author of Just Another Soldier. The duo has teamed up again on the new film Memorial Day, which opens in New York City at The IFC Center on Wednesday.

Memorial Day begins with a group of young Americans partying at a beach town over their holiday break and follows their army service at an Iraqi Prison. The documentary feel makes the film all the more shocking, it's a real experience.

Fox and Hartley put their cast through an extensive boot camp, that lasted for more than three weeks. I was exhausted after the hour boot camp during Surrender and can only imagine what the full experience is like. The Iraqi prison used in the film was constructed near Wow's company headquarters at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and much of the film was shot locally in Brooklyn.

Fox told me that one night they were shooting a scene on a Brooklyn rooftop, when they got into some trouble. The scene involved one character firing off a few rounds, loud blanks off the roof. The crew had warned the police that they'd be shooting so they wouldn't alarm them - but their warning didn't seem to work. In the middle of filming the scene the NYPD stormed the rooftop with their guns drawn. It was an extraordinarily anxious few minutes as they tried to explain to the officers that they were just filming a movie and no real guns were present.

The film has received critical acclaim, but has been subject to a fair amount of controversy. At one screening at a Las Vegas film festival, several audience members rushed the box office, one even proclaiming - "If you show this movie again, I'll burn down the casino!"

While I don't think it'll receive quite that strong a reaction in NYC, it's a film certain to make people on all sides of the issue examine their position.

Memorial Day opens Wednesday at New York City's IFC Center. Visit the official site.

Originally Posted on The Huffington Post.

Just When You Need It

Living in Bushwick you see all sorts of things that you wouldn't in Manhattan. I took this photo yesterday at my local Rite Aid. I love how they are just temporarily out of stock.