Happy Holidays And All That Crap

I've been busy schlepping around the country enjoying my winter break, but I thought I'd stop by the blog to give a quick shout-out to all my readers.

It's been a fantastic year, marked with some amazing events. If it weren't for this blog, I'd probably have no focus and little determination; it's because of you guys that I have the drive and motivation to improve my life and the lives of others around me.

So thank you, dear readers. Whether we spend these days alone or with family, I want you to know that you're ALL family to me.

From OneAngryQueer and all our guest writers*, Happy Holidays.

*And guest writers? If you don't start posting I'm firing the lot of you. 

Video: Port Shutdown by Ken Lapworth

One of our fabulous Occupy supporters and Livestream viewers, Ken Lapworth, was on-scene for our Port action on December 12th. You may remember him from his last video about the Portland eviction. His latest installment is found below.

Occupy Seattle: SCCC Faculty Member Speaks Out

Occupy Seattle is bracing itself for its eviction from the grounds of Seattle Central Community College today, as the administration of SCCC, after lengthy deliberation, has discovered legal pretext to remove the protester's encampment from the south plaza. Despite Occupy Seattle's attempted injunction against the school to prevent an eviction notice from being delivered today, it appears that the camp may finally be forced to move elsewhere.

As tents come down and tactical moves are considered, a member of the faculty of SCCC has released a scathing refutation of the charges leveled against the movement, congratulating the school administration on its coup de grace:

Now, let’s be honest, our “College of the Year” drops the ball now and then. Not this time, though. Home run! Rats, trash, and needles stuck in the public imagination like pedophilia to Penn State. Big schools like UC Davis are drowning in bad press (hapless pepper-spraying cop), but Seattle Central showed commanding form. With breath-taking efficiency and a cost-effective approach, the Occupy tribe were branded half-human drug addicts and drop outs. And they brought rats, the college said. You might call it propaganda with panache. Touche. 

For sure, rats are a cherished institution at our institution. They’ve been crapping on my desk for years. Rats and the college go back a long ways, a Tom and Jerry kind of thing. Some old-timers might even remember a City Collegian article about rats in the culinary dept. kitchen, nibbling through flour sacks. (Funny, admin stamped out the 42-year-old student paper shortly after. Wonder why!)

Jeb Wyman, an English professor at Seattle Central, insists that it's not just rats that were already present on campus:

Of course, if you spend much time at Seattle Central, you’ll get cozy with needles, too. Since 1994, I’ve parked in the lower level of the garage. On most mornings I detour around a puddle of sour pee (that bracing odor wakes you up!) in the stairwell. I’ve stepped over many a hypodermic needle on those stairs. And over broken gin bottles, stolen purses, beer cans in paper bags, empty plastic baggies. My car has been broken into three times. The garage was once equipped with security cameras, but they were—you can’t make this up!—stolen years ago. 

A few years ago, the campus president locked up all first-floor bathrooms after too many homeless took sink baths and too many overdosed dope addicts were found sprawled in the stalls. 

And in mid-October—that’s, uh, a few weeks before Occupy moved in—our facilities director put out an email blast (with great accompanying pix!) bemoaning that graffiti, vandalism, trash, needles, and “cleaning up the feces, and urine, and vomit left almost daily at our doorsteps” cost the school about $200,000 a year. 

Sorry to gross you out, but I’m just quoting directly. 

The point is, facts and first-class propaganda have nothing to do with each other. Only a fool would deny that. Quite the contrary, our administration knows what they’re doing. We’re not talking amateurs. This is poetry in motion. Salute!

Click on over to the New City Collegian, Seattle Central's guerilla student-run newspaper, for more.

On The Road Again (Hopefully)

Adam is recovering, and I've decided that I need to get my happy ass to Joplin in order to see him.  A friend of mine is going to be buying me the ticket, but it's not cheap and she needs help.

If you can give anything at all, she has a Paypal account for an easy donation.  Please.  Send me to Joplin if you can.  

A quick update on his condition: he's resting, and hasn't woken up yet.  He looks like hell, and is fighting off a nasty pneumatic infection, but when you touch his hand his eyes roll like crazy.  He has healthy brain activity and is one lucky sumbitch.

So if you can help me get to him, please do.  He needs all the love he can get right now.  E-mail me at oneangryqueer@gmail.com if you would like to help.  Please consider doing so.  Ain't none of us rich, but every dollar will help get me there.

Adam Is Found, And He Is Alive

I don't have the complete story (though honestly, I could be standing by his hospital bed and still not have enough answers for my taste), but it looks like Adam might be okay.

For those of you who are not on my Facebook, Adam was found today on the brink of death.  When he was brought into the hospital, he was unable to breathe without a respirator and had zero brain activity.  As far as we know, either he or someone else injected him with a fatal dose of a narcotic and we had no hope left.  We, his friends, began leaving goodbye messages on his Facebook and sent his family our condolences.  Then we waited for him to die.

In part because he's a stubborn cuss and in part because of the many prayers that his friends, family, and many readers of mine offered, this evening Adam's brain became active.  While he is still not breathing on his own due to a severe pneumonia infection filling one of his lungs with fluid, the nurses by his bedside stated that he has a very good chance of a great recovery.

Thank you, dear friends, for all your prayers.  Thank you.  We're not out of the woods yet.  He took a turn for the better, and may yet take a turn for the worse.  I have hope though.  We all have hope.

Thank you, whoever is looking out for Adam.  Thank you for giving us hope.

Missing Person In Joplin, MO

I try and keep personal shit off my blog but this I can't go without mentioning.

A dear friend and former lover of mine, Adam Neil Wagner, left me and a bunch of other people a suicidal voicemail today and is now missing.

Adam and I first met when I was newly poz. He was one of the first people that made me feel that it was okay to have HIV, and is one of the many loving people that have ensured that I am alive today through my various tribulations, to include my trials with crystal meth. I owe Adam a great debt.

After the tornadoes struck in Joplin, Missouri, Adam immediately leaped into action and took a plane there in order to rebuild. He is from Missouri, and loved his home state enough that he abandoned his life in Seattle in order to help people less fortunate than himself.

Please. If you know anyone in the Joplin area, forward this post or just his picture to them. The police are looking for him, as are his family. There are many people that love him, and we need to know where he is. So if you see him, or know someone who might have seen him, please, contact the authorities first and then myself. The number for the Joplin Police Department is: (417) 623-3131. He may be drugged or disoriented, and might need medical attention. If you find him and this is the case, call 911 immediately.

My email is oneangryqueer@gmail.com. You can also reach my via my Google voice account at 216.236.4680. Please. Contact me. We need to know what's happened.

OAQ's New Home IRL

Short plug for my friends at Perk Coffee & Espresso here in lovely Eugene, OR.  Their wood-roasted coffee is sublime and Aaron is the cutest straight man in Eugene.  It's now the official home of OneAngryQueer (he even lets me do conference calls in the back room!) and if you stop by you're likely to find me shouting about Tea Party candidates at whatever unlucky barista happens to be working.  Come on down!

Also: I'll be hosting a Queer Coffee Hour sometime soon at Perk in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out!

In Which Ian Awesome Plugs A Friend

I normally don't devote any blog space to businesses, preferring to plug fellow writers, but this fine gentleman deserves a word on this AngryQueer thingy.  I know a lot of my readers are language geeks (much like yours truly), so you should check this dude out.

James Hoscyns runs HoscynsOrg, an internet-based approach to learning foreign language.  How does it work?  He, or one of his highly qualified instructors, work out an individualized lesson plan for the language of your choice.  Then you actually learn during Skype lessons, with the option of contacting your instructor for questions outside your session.  It's a pretty simplistic, organic approach that optimizes your lesson to your level of ability and enables you to learn a language in your own time. 

They have tons of languages available, too!

Arabic	German	Pashto
Chechen	Italian	Russian
Chinese (Mandarin)	Japanese	Spanish
Dutch	Korean	Vietnamese
French	Nepali	Welsh

If you want to learn something that isn't listed above, he can find an instructor for you.  It's pretty effing awesome, so click below to get to his website.

HoscynsOrg

Happy Birthday, Dan Choi

All of us at OAQ would like to extend our heartfelt thanks, admiration, and well-wishes to one of my personal heroes, Dan Choi.  Today he turns the big 3-0, and while this means he is officially an old-ass man, I still think he's one of the hottest gaysians out there. 

Happy Birthday, Dan.  :)

New Seattle Transit Blog By My Friend Jean Hardy

I have this friend named Jean.  Jean is my fave little homo to say ridic shit to at 2 AM.  She's a gender-bending self-proclaimed faggot who frequently rides the bus.  She got real pissed one day about the state of Seattle's public transit system and so she started a blog:  seattlepublictransit.blogspot.com.

It's a great blog, and not just as a gauge of what-routes-work-and-which-ones-don't-- Jean gives you a tiny peek into her life every day and drops sage little wisdoms that occur to her and are kind of relevant to queer life in a big way.  It's worth a read.  So do!

Tony Apollo Featured by Favorite Hunks

My friend and featured Hot Man Tony Apollo was just featured on Favorite Hunks-- check it out (also he says nice things about OAQ, so whoopee for me!):

[Favorite Hunks]

Broken Cycles

My friend Cliff, a film student, is asking for help making his newest project, and it looks like a good one.  Click below to see his promo, and afterwards read the Q&A we did.


Broken Cycle - Promo Video from Clifton Archuleta on Vimeo.

1. What inspired you to do this project? 
Hate and intolerance. The controversy over building an Islamic community center in New York, a sihk being attacked because people think he's Arab, or a young man committing suicide as a result of bullying, are all horrifying. I want to promote awareness regarding these issues by focusing on the universal human aspects. I've considered making a film centered on these themes for years, but I didn't want to tell a story that preaches. It's important that people of all types can identify with my character and realize the consequences of our behavior as a society. At the core, this film is about hate. What happens to youth when they're pushed into dealing with these issues?

2.  Coming of age films are EVERYWHERE. What's makes this different?
On the surface, one might call Broken Cycle a coming of age story, however, it explores much more than the idea of growing up. The film focuses on the results of a kid facing the issues I mentioned before, but does so with objectivity. It often asks questions but does not always provide the answers. I want the viewer to be forced to think about our film and engage in a personal dialogue with its subject matter. Also, there is nothing gratuitous about the story. That detail immediately separates it from the bulk of American films. Our use of documentary style camerawork allows the characters tell the story without trying to fabricate too much drama.

3. What's next?
I am currently working on a feature script about a young boy who is separated from his family across a border and must figure out how to get home on his own. It deals with several similar themes as Broken Cycle. I hope to use the current project to explore many of the ideas I have about this feature. I also plan to push Broken Cycle into the festival circuit. My latest film, Breakaway, has currently screened at over ten international film festivals, so I'm excited to see how Broken Cycle is received.

Good job, Cliff, and good luck. 

[IndieGoGo] 

I'm just a real pissed off guy.

So I used to have this blog thingie on myspace, and it was lots of fun-- who didn't think myspace was fun back in the day?  I wrote about the news, my friends read it, we all had a laugh.

Of course, then I grew up.  I realized that myspace sucks, and the news is shite, and there's really not that much to laugh about.  Really, I just got older, and crankier, and I decided watching the Mighty Boosh was more important than educating my ignorant-ass friends about politics.  So I stopped writing.

However, my friend Chuck has decided that I need to do something productive with my free time, so I'm going to just really tell you about the stuff I get pissed about.  Maybe the news, maybe my life, mostly Seattle public art (cuz that stuff is really crap for sure). 

And maybe sometimes friends that make me do productive shit instead of drinking PBR and watching nonsense BBC shows. 

Thanks, Chuck.  Thanks a lot.