HEY, YOU WITH THE STARS IN YOUR EYES: I’ll be quick because I know how few of you care! But All That Skate was amazing. Nothing can compare to the immediacy of live skating or the camaraderie of the live skating audience. So here are a few snapshots from a sparkly, incandescent, cheesy, hilarious, sublime evening. I am so grateful to all of these skaters for their performances. I had heard that Shen & Zhao had pulled out of the... Read more

STILL RECOVERING from an amazing trip filled with logistical snafus (goodbye, cell phone) and wonderful visits with family, but distinctly unfilled with sleep. Tomorrow, expect at least three posts: a very quick report from All That Skate LA 2010 (short version: !!!!!!!!!!!), a brief review of Wesley Hill’s Gay Christian Whatnot book, and a clarifying post about marriage and iconography, which is also a post about Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage and is not... Read more

“CALIFORNIA DREAMING.” Probably my favorite performance from one of my favorite skaters. I will be in LA all weekend, with an overnight Sunday/Monday flight home, so expect absolutely no posting until at least Monday night. Not sure what I’ll have for you then, but I will try to keep my All That Skate fannishness to a dull roar. Again, do email me if you’re in the area and want to have coffee, since it looks like that will be happening,... Read more

YESTERDAY, WHEN I WAS MAD: Photos of DC in the late ’80s. Dream City. Via PES. Read more

DOWNED CITY RISE: The third picture (the one with the birds) is a gorgeous expression of one of the things I love most about Daredevil. I think I’m going to have to pick this thing up. Via Sean Collins. Read more

KEEP THE ASPIDISTRA FLYING: (edited to add links, itals, and tags, but nothing else) OK, as promised, a reply to John Corvino. It’s long so it will be broken into two posts. In this post, a tiny bit on biological relatedness, and a really long bit on iconography; in the next post, sexual regulation. First, I feel very silly. I’d actually read the column on biological fatherhood which Corvino wrote earlier, and to which he links in his reply, and... Read more

RULES OF THE GAME: Corvino to me, on why marriage will still be sexually-regulatory even where homosexual couples are included: “Here Tushnet proffers the usual false dilemma: either marriage is solely male-female or else it ‘means whatever you want it to mean.’ But there’s plenty of reasonable middle ground between those polar (and false) alternatives.” I don’t know if Gabriel Rotello coined the term “sexual ecology,” and I haven’t read his book of that title. But it seems to me... Read more

“I WANTED TO THROTTLE A SWAN.” Slings and Arrows, a comedy set in a Canadian theater company, is available on Netflix Instant Viewing. Why have I not watched this already? Why aren’t you watching it right now? Read more

PASTORS, ETC., IN POOR AREAS: I’m working on a piece for Commonweal about couples who get married in church, in order to be married in the eyes of God, but don’t register with the state because they would lose welfare benefits (inc apartments, health benefits etc). If you know anyone who has done this, or if you know pastors who may have performed these weddings, could you encourage them to get in touch with me? My email is on the... Read more

WRITTEN BY THE VICTORS: JWB notes that I might want to inform readers that my Weekly Standard review of Red Families vs. Blue Families is now available to nonsubscribers. I did not know that! So you can read it here. As I said before, I don’t think I nailed the problems with the book, but the review might still be worth reading. Please politely ignore the way I completely fuddled the rich man/CAMEL/eye of needle metaphor at the end! Or... Read more