I’ve sent out the appeal . . . I have asked my fellow Season 2 alumni whom they endorse for the election. Check back for their choices for 2008. I, myself, am a little torn. I’m a registered Democrat, but I was going to vote for Edwards in the Primary because Hillary and Barack were getting a little too catty. Now, Edwards is gone, although hopefully his populist ideals will be absorbed, and not discarded. We shall see. . .

So, for those of you who have asked, one of the many things occupying my time is a little stint that I have at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, here in Los Angeles. What follows, here , is a short little slideshow of images that my students have culled from various periodicals which they feel illustrate the dynamics of this present time period. Ultimately, what will result from this exercise are clothes which are inspired by their reactions to the times. If you’d like, and depending on the results, I’ll post a “greatest hits” once they’ve finished the project. The music you hear is a song entitled “Many Airplanes (Are Up)” from “the Antikythera Device” and it is graciously available for download on stage.fm

A little while back my new friends at the Metropolitan Educational Theatre Network were nice enough to set up this amazing opportunity for me:

They have a marvelous repertoire of musicals which they’ve either commissioned, or adapted, for performance by children, from as young as 4 years of age to teenagers. It’s an amazing program which stages dazzling productions of shows like the “Wizard of Oz’”, “Grease”, and “Annie”. This all occurred on their set for “Peter Pan”, which just closed in Torrance, last month. I was overwhelmed by the production values that these shows have, (you should see the costumes for the ‘Lost Boys’) but even more by their mission to teach kids discipline, poise, and community responsibility. For the kids, this is a clever side effect of them just learning to perform on stage. I think a lot of these LA kids go into the program thinking they are going to be “stars”, and they end up learning how to pull their weight in a group, and to maintain a healthy team spirit. It’s an incredible institution, and one which I wish my parents had known about when I was in elementary school.

But all of that aside, I look at this footage and it makes me wonder if I’m just way too gay. What if they have to reinstate the draft? What am I going to do? I mean, look at this other clip from the flying escapade.

I don’t know what happened. Somewhere in my life I lost track of all those people who used to tell me when I’d gone over the the line. I mean, some of my earliest memories are of my mother shouting “heel, toe, heel, toe” behind me while I walked, because I was a notorious skipper. But today, these people have all but vanished. It’s like I’ve just been set free to run gaily amok through the countryside, and there are no checks and balances anywhere. No one was there to say “Dude, don’t put those shorts on again, man, you’ll really be asking for it”. Even Jerry Falwell’s dead. I can’t even depend on him to draw that ever-blurring demarcation between the sinners and the saved anymore. But then again, maybe that’s a good thing.

Maybe nothing should be “too gay”. Maybe we should just let things be “gay” and “REALLY GAY”. “Too gay”, suggests that there might just be something wrong about flying through the air in orange short shorts and a cut-off sweatshirt. Maybe “too gay” should be considered an archaic distinction, something left to a time when we didn’t know any better. I mean to be “gay” is to be “happy”, right? And you can never be “too happy”, right?

Well, maybe just a little “too happy”.