Sept. 11, 2010

Even though the weeks leading up to today's Sept. 11 anniversary featured controversy the proposed Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero, a fringe Florida pastor (and the media circus that increasingly surrounded him) who had planned to ban copies of the Quran and growing anti-Muslim sentiments, today must remain a day to remember those who lost their lives on that horrible Tuesday morning nine years ago.

I spent part of this morning at St. Paul's Chapel, which is across the street from where the World Trade Center once stood, and along Broadway in lower Manhattan. Below is a clip of the Rev. Dr. James Herbert Cooper commemorating the moment American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower.





Snapshots of Sept. 11, 2010:



On my way to lower Manhattan early this morning.



Protest sign in the Union Square subway station as I made my way to lower Manhattan.



New York police officers cordon off the block of Park Place where the proposed Cordoba Center would be built.



The debate over the proposed Cordoba Center continues in writing near Ground Zero.



The debate over the proposed Cordoba Center continues in writing near Ground Zero.



The World Trade Center cross outside St. Peter's Catholic Church on Church Street.



Looking south towards Ground Zero from Church Street.



Looking towards Ground Zero from outside St. Paul's Chapel.



A Sept. 11 altar inside St. Paul's Chapel.



Inside St. Paul's Chapel.



Sept. 11 artifacts inside St. Paul's Chapel.



A child's depiction of the attacks hangs inside St. Paul's Chapel.



A Sept. 11 artifact inside St. Paul's Chapel.



Outside St. Paul's Chapel on Fulton Street.



Ground Zero from Vesey Street between Church Street and Broadway.



Anti-Islamic sentiments on display directly across from Ground Zero on Church Street.



An anti-Cordoba Center protester stands outside St. Paul's Chapel on Church Street.



An interesting juxtaposition in front of the Millenium Hilton on Church Street.



Ground Zero from the Millenium Hilton's facade on Church Street.



The debate over the proposed Cordoba Center continues in writing directly across Church Street from Ground Zero.



A Sept. 11 tribute along Broadway in lower Manhattan.



A New Yorker commemorates Sept. 11 on Broadway in lower Manhattan.



Looking towards Ground Zero from the intersection of Nassau and Ann Streets in lower Manhattan.

Paterson signs Dignity for All Students Act into law

Let's hope the students who called each other "maricones" on the Brooklyn-bound L train between First Avenue and Lorimer Street earlier this afternoon will learn something from the Dignity for All Students Act.


On the same day New York City’s 1.1 million public school students returned to the classroom, Gov. David Paterson signed a long-awaited anti-bullying bill into law at the LGBT Community Center in lower Manhattan.

The Dignity for All Students Act, which specifically bans harassment and discrimination against students based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, race, color, weight, national origin, ethnicity, religion or disability, requires New York State school districts to adopt anti-bullying policies. The law also mandates each district to appoint at least one staff member in each school to implement anti-bullying techniques and methods. And DASA further mandates administrators report incidents of bullying or bias-based harassment to the New York State Department of Education.

Paterson recalled how he hit a classmate in the face with a metal lunch box after he repeatedly bullied him. He was suspended from recess for a month, but Paterson, who is the country’s first legally blind governor, said DASA goes a long way to protect New York State’s students from the same bullying he experienced.

"We are going to make sure that whether its expression or non-expression... that every student in this state is going to get an unparalleled opportunity to be educated in an environment that is safe and secure and encouraging their long-term success," he said.

State Sen. Tom Duane, who sponsored DASA in the state Senate, agreed. "This is a huge, huge step for schools throughout New York State," he said.

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn; New York City Councilmembers Daniel Dromm and Jimmy Van Bramer; New York City Comptroller John Liu; Ross Levi, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda; state Assemblymember Danny O’Donnell, who sponsored the bill in the state Assembly; Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union; Melissa Sklarz, director of the New York Trans Rights Organization; Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers; and Pauline Park, chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy, were among the elected officials and activists who joined Paterson on stage as he signed DASA into law.

"Children cannot learn if they don’t feel safe," said Quinn. "Children cannot walk from one classroom to another classroom in their building and dwell on the test that it is the second classroom if their walk down that hallway was walking the gauntlet. They simply cannot get in their chair and digest what they are being taught, take it in and process it when half of their brain is focused on the fear they have about leaving that seat to go to the cafeteria or to the next classroom."

California, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont and Washington have anti-bullying laws on the books. Colorado, Maine, Minnesota and the District of Columbia have adopted non-discrimination laws that include LGBT-specific protections for students, but classroom bullying remains a serious problem.

As EDGE previously reported, Massachusetts lawmakers revisited the issue after Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, an 11-year-old student from Springfield, committed suicide in April 2009. His classmates harassed him because they thought he was gay.

Levi highlighted a Massachusetts Department of Public Health study that found 40 percent of gay, lesbian and bisexual high school students will attempt suicide-compared to 10 percent of their heterosexual classmates.

"Preventing bias-bullying and harassment is literally a matter of life and death," he said.

Ninety-three percent of LGBT students in New York State who responded to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network’s National School Climate Survey in 2007 regularly heard "dyke," "faggot" and other homophobic comments from their classmates. The same study found 91 percent of LGBT students in Texas schools, 74 percent of students in Arizona schools and 97 percent of students in Michigan students experienced identical verbal harassment.

As EDGE previously reported, the New York City Department of Education unveiled a new initiative earlier this year that encouraged school administrators to combat classroom bullying and harassment in the classroom. Officials announced a similar plan at the start of the 2008-2008 academic year, but some activists expressed skepticism-especially after Mayor Michael Bloomberg vetoed the Dignity in All Schools Act the New York City Council overwhelmingly passed in 2004.

Duane, who first introduced DASA in the state Senate shortly after his election in 1999, said its passage is long overdue.

"No student should ever feel afraid to go to school. No student should ever have to try and learn while they are in fear," he added. "No child should have ever live with that, but children’s academic performance will improve if they have confidence from their school."

DASA is scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2012.

Fire Island 2010, part 15

Started to write in the cottage in Ocean Beach at 1:17 p.m. as Andrés read the New York Times on his iPhone.

It’s a beautiful September day with low humidity, warm sunshine and a gentle breeze. A steady stream of people pulling suitcases and wagons packed with bags, boxes, surfboards and other personal affects continue to stream past the cottage. The end of summer 2010 has arrived, but Andrés and I currently have little motivation to do anything at this moment.

Hurricane Earl utterly failed to live up to the hype that preceded its brush with Fire Island on Friday, Sept. 3. The storm brought a few squalls, caused minor beach erosion and exacerbated the flooding on Bay Walk in Ocean Beach between Whitney’s Market and Surf Road, but Labor Day weekend proved beautiful, campy, kind, relaxing and even inspirational once the storm passed.



Andrés and I came to Ocean Beach on Sunday morning. After lunch at the Landing and a quick stop to get some pumpkin fudge (it is September after all!), the day's agenda brought us to Ariel Sinclair’s last pool show of the summer at the Ice Palace in Cherry Grove—note to straight men who try far too hard to impress their girlfriends while drunk: competing in a drag queen-moderated fashion show wearing only a white sheet turned into a rudimentary thong is arguably not the most intelligent way to go. This unfortunate heterosexual may very well have been one of the “thong-a-wrong domesticus” about which Troy Petenbrink once described in his Rehoboth Beach columns for EDGE, but Sinclair and Logan Hardcore certainly had a lot of fun at this man’s expense.

Fortunately for us, however, the annual Divas Party in the Fire Island Pines later in the afternoon proved creativity continues to spring somewhat eternal on Fire Island. A particularly fierce-looking diva in a neon pink dress explicitly barred Andrés and I entry because we failed to adhere to the mandatory drag dress code. Playing the role of the paparazzi outside the Scaup Walk house, however, proved equally as entertaining. Miss Sangria, Carla Zeta-Jones, Srta. Fellacio and Cojones Grandes were some of the more creative quinceañera-themed revelers who mugged for their legions of fans. And the portable toilets that were strategically placed outside the party’s entrance provided a bounty of potential wardrobe malfunctions. (The queen whose pink quinceañera dress became caught in the door as she relieved herself provided a particularly amusing sight for those who were not fortunate enough to cross the velvet rope.)

With our heads held high (and our dignity largely intact), Andrés and I returned to Cherry Grove to dance the early evening away Cherry’s. “Slava from Prague" proved (as if any proof is possibly necessary) bisexual women who work 60 hours a week at a mental hospital are even more fabulous when they come to this campy hamlet to let loose. It was a relatively early night for us, however, and getting to bed before midnight proved perfectly fine.

Labor Day weekend is somewhat bittersweet. Summer unofficially ends, people return to their off-season lives on the mainland, but the memories sustain Fire Islanders through the winter (until they make new ones next season.) And on that admittedly simplistic note, here are three final lessons and observations from the summer of 2010.
- Over-hyped hurricanes that fail to deliver upon their predicted impact obviously leave more than a few people scratching their heads--especially when county officials consider evacuating the beach and local ferry companies suspend or alter service at the start of a busy holiday weekend--in their wake.
- September is the best time to enjoy Fire Island.
- A man in a dress can provide some of life’s best ah-ha moments.



This barnacle-encrusted bike in Ocean Beach is definitely not chicken from the sea.



Sweet 15 at Scaup Walk.



Cojones Grandes at the Divas Party on Sunday, Sept. 5.



Pines boys who did not cross the velvet rope at the Divas Party on Sunday, Sept. 5.



No caption necessary!



Class is sometimes in the eye of the beholder as this queen proved outside the Divas Party on Sunday, Sept. 6.



Andrés and I do our best to play paparazzi outside the Divas Party on Sunday, Sept. 5.



A possibly unwelcome guest awaits at this home on Bungalow Walk in Ocean Beach on Monday, Sept. 6.



An idyllic beach scene in Ocean Beach on Monday, Sept. 6.



A fond adieu to the summer of 2010 on Monday, Sept. 6.

What hurricane?

After all the media-generated hype (and I count myself among those silly reporters who are guilty of this trend), Hurricane Earl brought nothing more than a refreshing breeze, ominous clouds and a handful of sprinkles to Brooklyn.

The storm did cause some potentially serious beach erosion on Fire Island and on Eastern Long Island as it passed off-shore earlier this evening, but the brilliant sunset over the five boroughs tonight provided the perfect send-off for a hurricane that failed to live up to its over-hyped expectations. On the flip side, however, I did enjoy a couple of dark and stormy cocktails as I clipped Fire Island News articles in my apartment earlier tonight.

Hurricane Earl disrupts ferry service, closes beaches

Taken from my bedroom window around 8 a.m.

Even though its partly cloudy and rather calm here in Brooklyn as I write this blog, Hurricane Earl is expected to bring gusty winds and rain to the area later today as it passes southeast of Long Island.

The approaching storm has prompted ferry cancellations and beach closures on Fire Island. Here is the latest information from the Fire Island News.


Approaching Hurricane Earl has prompted the Bay Shore-based Fire Island Ferries to suspend ferry service after 3 p.m. today.

Ferry service from Bay Shore to Ocean Bay Park, Seaview, Ocean Beach, Atlantique, Dunewood, Fair Harbor, Saltaire and Kismet would resume at 7 a.m. on Saturday Sept. 4. Meanwhile, the Sayville Ferry Service has announced several cancellations. These include the cancellation of the 7 p.m., 8 p.m. and midnight ferries to the Fire Island Pines, the midnight ferry to Cherry Grove, the evening ferries to Water Island and all scheduled service to Sailors Haven. Ferries to Watch Hill have also been cancelled, but the Davis Park Ferry Company said it plans to run ferries to Davis Park through at least 3:20 p.m. (Call (631) 475-1665 for updated information)

Meanwhile, a tropical storm warning remains in effect from Fire Island Inlet to Port Jefferson Harbor.

There are no plans to evacuate Fire Island at this time, but Joseph Williams, commissioner of Suffolk County's Department of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services, told the News on Wednesday, Sept. 1, he said he expects the beach will experience near tropical storm winds and rain as Earl passes southeast of Long Island this evening. Minor tidal flooding could take place. Beach erosion remains a serious concern, especially around high tides at 2:56 p.m. today and 3:44 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 4.

Local officials continue to urge Fire Islanders to secure their boats, outdoor furniture, umbrellas and other items ahead of the storm. News reporter Kaetlin Perna reported many people took the 6:05 p.m. ferry from Ocean Beach to the mainland on Wednesday, Sept. 1., but other Fire Islanders continue to wait and see what Earl could potentially bring.

“We’ve been through this many times, but we are waiting to see what happens,” said Wendy Lewis of the Grove Hotel in Cherry Grove late on Wednesday, Sept. 1.

Closures and other information:

- The Watch Hill campground will remain closed through tonight.

- Smith Point County Beach is closed to camping, day trippers and swimming.

- The Long Island Railroad will operate on a normal schedule west of Speonk. The LIRR has scheduled eight "early getaway trains" between 2:02 p.m. and 3:48 p.m. from Penn Station to Babylon, Great Neck, Far Rockaway, Hicksville and Huntington.

- The annual Divas Party in the Pines has been rescheduled to Sunday, Sept. 5, from 4 - 8 p.m.

Log onto www.suffolkcountyny.gov/MEND/resources.html for more information and www.fireislandnews.info for further updates.

Fire Island under tropical storm warning

A tropical storm warning has been issued from Fire Island Inlet to Port Jefferson Harbor in anticipation of Hurricane Earl. The storm is expected to pass south of Long Island tomorrow afternoon, but forecasters expect Fire Island will experience 30 mph winds, some rain, minor tidal flooding and beach erosion as Earl brushes the South Shore.

Obama declares U.S. combat in Iraq has ended

At the end of a very hot day here in Brooklyn that included growing concerns over what Hurricane Earl could potentially bring to Fire Island on Friday, I find myself thinking about President Obama’s declaration Operation Iraqi Freedom has ended.

So much has changed since I walked past those three men huddled around a battery-powered radio at a newspaper kiosk on a street in Granada, Spain, around 3:30 a.m. on March 21, 2003 (or around 9:30 p.m. EST on March 20, 2003.) I was walking home after I dropped my friend Becky off at her hotel after a night of bar-hopping. I could not hear the news to which these men were listening (probably because I was tired and possibly still drunk), but I realized hours later when I saw the front pages of several newspapers that these men were almost certainly listening to then-President George W. Bush announcing American and coalition troops had begun to enter Iraq.

I was among the handful of siesta-hour shoppers in the Al Campo department store near my house in Granada who gathered around a group of televisions to watch American troops pull the Saddam Hussein statue in Firdos Square in Baghdad to the ground on April 9, 2003. We stood there in silence as the spectacle unfolded live on Spanish television, but shoppers slowly returned to their shopping. I did the same about 15 minutes later.

More than seven years later, Obama is now commander-in-chief. His Oval Office speech earlier tonight contained an abundance of patriotic metaphors—including a description of American troops as the “steel in our ship of state”—and a strategic use of the words “security” and “milestone” and the phrase “domestic challenges”, among others, but Obama has fulfilled his campaign promise to end the war in Iraq. Bringing a polarized country together and turning the page on one if the most divisive issues it has seen in recent history, however, will take far more than an abundance of patriotic metaphors and categorizations of those who served in Iraq and the use of politically strategic words ahead of mid-term elections.

Fire Island 2010, part 14

Started to write at 3:58 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 29, during Ariel Sinclair’s pool show at the Ice Palace in Cherry Grove.

It’s a warm late August afternoon here in Cherry Grove. A rowdy crowd is hooting and hollering at Ariel Sinclair as she and her girlfriends perform at the weekly Sunday afternoon pool show here at the Ice Palace. A woman with a 22-year-old son just overwhelmingly won a rather ad hoc modeling contest. And Brittany Taylor just jumped into the pool (and a particularly good Samaritan just retrieved her neon pink wig.)

The last issue of the Fire Island News for this summer (Sinclair is less than 10 feet away from me performing some twisted number to prove her womanhood.) hit the beach on Thursday, Aug. 25, and I confess I am a little fried. The end of August can prove a breaking point for some who work on Fire Island (Sinclair just announced someone complained about the noise and Logan Hardcore is now performing Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love”.), but the show must go on as Sarah Ferguson told Oprah earlier this year after she offered access to her ex-husband to a tabloid reporter for £500,000.

In addition to delivering newspapers in Atlantique, Sailors Haven, the Grove, the Fire Island Pines, Davis Park, Watch Hill and Ocean Beach on Thursday, this weekend included Daniel Nardicio's underwear party at the Ice Palace, two late night walks from the Grove to Ocean Beach, an interview with U.S. Sen. Kirsten (Hardcore just jumped into the pool.) Gillibrand (Sinclair is once again trying to prove her womanhood with her final number with Hardcore, Taylor and Brandon Cutrell.), schlepping through shin-deep water on Bay Walk in Ocean Beach, shooting clips of Hurricane Danielle-generated surf and packing up nearly four months of memories. (And the pool show is now done.) Here are three observations and notes from the previous few days.
- Personal integrity does not always spring eternal on Fire Island.
- The fried clams and French fries at Nicky’s, which is across from the Fire Island Ferries terminal in Bay Shore, are the perfect way to start any trip to the beach.
- The Long Island Railroad should seriously consider placing attentive personnel on train platforms the next time a switch fire causes major disruptions so confused passengers, such as myself, can actually figure out where they can catch their trains and/or whether they are actually on the correct one. The LIRR employees at the Babylon station on Wednesday, Aug. 25, should particularly take note of this rather obvious consideration.



Fried clams and French fries at Nicky's.





Flooding on Bay Walk in Ocean Beach on Thursday, Aug. 25.



Flooding around Whitney's Market in Ocean Beach on Thursday, Aug. 25.



A sign of the impending change in seasons at the Pines Pantry.



Twilight from the Cherry Grove dock on Friday, Aug. 27.



Miss Mole in the Grove.



Trying on some pumps in the Grove on Saturday, Aug. 28.



Dallas Dubois works the crowd at her and Logan Hardcore's weekly pool show on Saturday, Aug. 28.

Gulf Coast commemorates fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

To say time heals all wounds seems a woefully insensitive thing to say as the country marks the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall on the southeast Louisiana coast.

It’s geographically ironic that I am writing this blog entry on Fire Island. I was packing my bags in Tekla van der Plas’ house in Ocean Beach on the morning of Aug. 28, 2005. The last issue of that summer’s Fire Island News had hit the beach a few days earlier—with a story about the dangers hurricanes and tropical storms pose to the particularly vulnerable barrier beach—I was planning to return to Brooklyn. Everyone in the house that morning (myself included), however, was watching cable news reports on the category five hurricane that was about to make landfall near New Orleans. None of us in Tekla's house that morning had any idea how calamitous Katrina (and its aftermath) would possibly be. And it proved far more disastrous (and far more disturbing) than any of us could have possibly imagined.

Politicians spent years pointing fingers for abysmal response to Katrina after it made landfall near Buras, La., but five years later, this blame game arguably matters little to the millions of people in the Crescent City and along the Gulf Coast who were so tragically affected. The region has slowly begun to rise from the destruction this hurricane and its aftermath brought, but the Deepwater Horizon oil spill provided a stark reminder the path forward for the Gulf Coast remains painfully fragile. And this country must never forget the painful lessons Katrina continues to teach us all five years later.

A (rare) rainy Wednesday morning

It's a (rare) rainy morning in Bushwick on Wednesday, Aug. 25.

Fire Island 2010, part 13

Written at 9:38 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 21, on the Long Island Railroad between Sayville and Oakdale.

Today brought me to the Eastside Kids Arts Show in Ocean Beach, the 30th annual Cherry Grove archives exhibit, to Sweet Licks to interview Linda and her granddaughter Melinda, to my Torontonian friend Bonte’s barbecue on Greene Walk, to the Pines to meet with a Fire Island Pines Property Owners Association vice presidential candidate and back to the Grove to attempt to understand the hamlet’s drag queens through Dallas Dubois and Logan Hardcore's eyes. Aside from the group of city-bound women who obviously don’t understand the concept of inside voices on the train, I am quite content at the moment.

This summer's last print edition of the Fire Island News hits the beach on Thursday, and this time of year is always bittersweet. I certainly look forward to returning to the city full-time after roughly four months on the beach. That said, however, the end of the summer obviously means winter will come—and anyone who knows me remotely well is acutely aware of how much I loathe cold and specially snow. Those days are mercifully months away, but here are three observations and lessons from the previous week.

- Insect repellent is an essential accessory for anyone who visits the beach.
- Gusty Winds jumping in the Ice Palace pool to celebrate Logan Hardcore’s birthday on Saturday, Aug. 21, proved the Grove’s drag queens’ sisterhood is even stronger than I had previously thought.
- Mary calling me the “Carrie Bradshaw of Fire Island” outside Sandbar in Ocean Beach on Tuesday, Aug. 17, is one of the best compliments I have ever received—and I wasn’t even wearing Manolo Blahniks (I was wearing a pair of black Old Navy flip flips that cost less than $3 for anyone who may want to know.)



Birthday Bingo at the Ice Palace on Monday, Aug. 16.



Inside the Fire Island Lighthouse.



Looking east towards Ocean Beach from the top of the Fire Island Lighthouse on Tuesday, Aug. 17.



On the way to Bay Shore on Saturday, Aug. 21.



Gusty Winds celebrates Logan Hardcore's birthday on Saturday, Aug. 21, in her own unique way.



A birthday wish scrolled onto an inflatable penis at the Ice Palace.

Questions for proposed NYC mosque opponents

August is traditionally a slow news month, but the ongoing debate over a proposed mosque near Ground Zero has proven anything but tranquil.

As I write this blog in my apartment here in Bushwick, an Italian news reporter is discussing the controversy from lower Manhattan. Everyone can almost certainly agree it remains extremely important to acknowledge the nearly 3,000 people, including Muslims (and not the terrorists who co-opted Islamic teachings to justify their own barbaric acts), lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001. That said, however, this controversy continues to prompt the very direct question I posed on long-time contact Joelle Ruby Ryan’s Facebook page the other day: Would anyone question a proposal to build a Roman Catholic or Christian church or Jewish synagogue in the former Burlington Coat Factory building near Ground Zero?

The answer to this question is arguably obvious to those who support the proposed Cordoba House on Park Place, but it remains necessary to reiterate the challenge I posed to those on Joelle’s Facebook thread who expressed their opposition to the planned mosque: Talk with a person who identifies themselves as Muslim, attend services in a mosque or even travel to a Muslim-majority country before coming to any conclusion about whether this facility is/isn’t appropriate. The last thing this country needs is yet another talking head expressing their self-professed outrage over the proposed mosque in order to garner more ratings for their program, yet another self-serving politician who seeks to rally their base ahead of the upcoming mid-term elections or yet another average citizen who forms their opinion on the Cordoba House without understanding the facts (or what the above mentioned talking heads and self-serving politicians profess is true in order to further promote their own interests).

Let's all take a collective breath...

Fire Island 2010, part 12

Written at the Ice Palace in Cherry Grove at 11:27 a.m.

It’s a typical Sunday morning in August here in Cherry Grove with people slowly recovering from last night’s festivities, but the music currently on Sirius XM Radio has brought an almost whimsical feeling to this hamlet.

It is Fire Island Black Out and Ascension weekend here on the beach and this is a summary of the notes I jotted down around 11:30 last night as I waited on the dock for the water taxi back to Ocean Beach: A Britney Spears’ medley at Cherry's competed with Rihanna, Khia and hip hop at Island Breeze while hundreds of gays and lesbians of color (and their myriad of friends and admirers) waited for the ferry back to Sayville. Special shout outs go to the two lesbians at Cherry’s who proved this white boy can get down with the best of them (even after a very busy day in both the Grove and the Fire Island Pines), and to Eric, Kelton, Rick, Daniela and Michelle who were on the water taxi back to Ocean Beach.

7:25 p.m.
Written on the day bed in the Ocean Beach cottage.

The overcast sky, the breeze and a largely unobstructed ocean view combined to make this year’s Ascension a largely enjoyable experience (for this reporter). I particularly enjoyed the Freemasons’ remix of "Bamboleo" and The Bucketheads' "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)", but I thank Andy Tobias and Charles Nolan for allowing me to spend some of the afternoon in their cabana. And on that note, here are three observations and notes from the previous few days.

- It is arguably a very bad idea to charge $5 for bottled water at a circuit party. Eight dollars for a cocktail, however, is quite possibly the perfect way to prevent overindulgence.
- Kudos to the Cherry Grove Property Owners Association for the giant rainbow flag that flew from one of the dock’s flagpoles on Saturday, Aug. 14.
- Fame and talent are often only in the eyes of those who claim to be famous and/or talented. This observation’s underlying message can also potentially apply to those who try to impress their friends with their designer clothes and accessories, name dropping and especially latching onto a reporter in an arguably desperate attempt to enhance their own self-defined social status.



Four parties later...



Ascension Party in the Fire Island Pines on Sunday, Aug. 15.



Sunset at Ascension Tea Dance in Saturday, Aug. 14.



The beach in Cherry Grove during the Fire Island Black Out on Saturday, Aug. 14.



Beach decor at Fire Island Black Out in the Grove on Saturday, Aug. 14.



Crispin and I at the Ascension VIP Party on Friday, Aug. 13.



Lucille Ball at the Ice Palace on Thursday, Aug. 12.



Rudolph along Bayview Walk in the Grove.

A sense of justice comes to Brooklyn

As activists, politicians and other officials continue to respond to the series of hate crimes that have shaken Staten Island in recent months, it would be completely remiss not to acknowledge the Sucuzhañay family received some sense of justice last week in a Brooklyn court room.

Judge Patricia Del Mango on Thursday, Aug. 5, sentenced Keith Phoenix to 37 years to life in prison for José Sucuzhañay’s murder on a Bushwick street corner in Dec. 2008. Hakim Scott received a 40 year sentence for manslaughter, but a separate jury in May declined to convict him on a second degree murder as a hate crime charge.

I first learned the details of this horrific crime at a City Hall press conference roughly 48 hours after the two men attacked José Sucuzhañay at the intersection of Bushwick Avenue and Kossuth Place. Reporters are supposed to check their emotions at the door before they cover a story, but this task became virtually impossible as City Council Speaker Christine Quinn detailed what happened roughly 10 blocks from my apartment on that cold December morning.

Nothing will obviously bring José Sucuzhañay back, but a judge gave some resemblance of justice to his family, friends and community who continue to mourn his tragic death.