fiction and musings from a gay black dude with delusions above his station
A group of us went to lunch regularly on Thursdays. On this particular Thursday, sometime in 2002 or so, we decided to try the Pakistani-Indian restaurant that moved into the space formerly occupied by Bison Brewery on Telegraph. As we were leaving, we noticed some small white business cards written in English, Arabic, Urdu, and…
After the lights dimmed, the familiar hum began as four men of color came on the stage. They stood in a circle, humming and snapping fingers, swaying back and forth. Then, one by one, each introduced us to the evening to come, an evening of storytelling. I first saw Pomo Afro Homos perform in 1990…
(Full Disclosure: I am a supporter of Rebecca Kaplan for City Council. But this is one of the reasons why.) Why? Why is long-time Oakland City Council member Ignacio De La Fuente running for the at-large city council seat? Mr. De La Fuente has served on the City Council representing District 5 for the past…
(Editor’s Note: We here at the gar spot came across a discarded script for a political ad that was never produced. From what we could tell, this script was meant as a silent movie, with black and white photography, broad pantomime performances, and placards that displayed the dialog. There also would have been in the…
I missed the first presidential debate. From what I’ve been hearing, though, President Obama tacked towards the timid and let Romney be the aggressor and controller of the evening. That’s a pity. Because Romney’s performance will likely be what folks remember about the debate, not the accuracy, or lack thereof, of his facts. But during…
Remember Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed? I read it religiously in college. The strip’s resident nerd-genius, Oliver Wendell Jones, had a habit of hacking into mainframe computers at large governmental or business entities. Matthew Broderick had nothing on this kid. In one series, Oliver hacked into the New York Times to impress his friend Milo…
One fine day in 2004, shortly before the great state of Massachusetts was about to become the first state in the Union to permit same-sex couples to marry, a group of folks, plaintiffs of the court case that ultimately brought marriage equality to the Commonwealth, had a meeting with then-Governor Romney. The meeting did not…
Friend Patricia Dunn, author of the celebrated new YA (young adult) novel “Rebels by Accident,” and her colleague Christopher Messer run a series of essays on her blog entitled “Why Do I Write.” She asked me for a contribution and, after panicking about “OMG! I have to write on demand!” and other silly writer’s nonsense,…
My reason, bluntly, honestly, is quite selfish. I need President Barack Obama to win reelection because I need his healthcare initiative to take full effect on schedule in 2014. This isn’t for me personally. I have a full-on, old school, civil service-type job with old school, civil service-type benefits. My partner and I are covered….
There’s a photo making the rounds on Facebook showing three African Americans, two males and a female, faces turned to a wall while a harsh stream of water pins them against the building. The water is hitting one of the young men directly in the back. A caption in red letters reads: “This is why…
