Free Screening of THE RIGHT TO LOVE

Image via Bryan Leffew

The Kansas City Gay and Lesbian Film Festival always partners with KC Gay Pride to offer a free screening during Pride week. This year, we're showing The Right To Love: An American Family, May 28, 7 PM at the Tivoli Cinemas in Westport. 

I'll be there after getting back in town from visiting my grandparents in Chillicothe. I'm gonna go introduce them to Henry. :)

The KC Gay and Lesbian Film Fest website describes The Right to Love this way:

Even as our President evolves his thinking, the power of right-wing media, religion and influential anti-gay organizations continues to be keep the civil rights of marriage out of reach for many LGBT citizens. 

The Right to Love chronicles an amazing story of courage born out of the highly publicized and controversial Prop 8 2008 election results in California. 

 The Leffews — a Californian married gay couple and their two adopted children — fought back against discrimination, ignorance and hate through home videos posted on their YouTube channel and website, Gay Family Values. As they pursue their American Dream, the opposing political, social and religious opinions that pervade society attempt to strip it from them.

You can check out the Leffews' YouTube group: Gay Family Values to find out more about them.

Also, at the screening we'll be handing out the schedule for this year's festival!

Related posts:
What I've Seen at the 2011 KC Gay & Lesbian Film Fest So Far
Steamy Summer Entertainment
Volunteering with KC Gay Film Fest

Musical Break

I'm very sleepy and out of it today. Not feeling much up to blogging, so here's some songs I haven't been able to get out of my head lately.
  (Thanks to Your Daily Joe for getting me hooked on this one).
 


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OK Go's Video Art Concert 
Review: Florence + the Machine
I Don't Know What this Song Is About

Volunteering With KC Gay Film Fest

This is the first time I've written a blog post from my Tablet. Typing on it takes way more time than on the laptop, so I'll keep this brief. I'm excited to once more be volunteering with the Kansas City Gay and Lesbian Film Fest, June 22-28. Like last year, I'm curating the short film contest which is always the last night of the festival. I'm in the mist of picking out which entries to include which is fun. We have several international entries most from Spanish-speaking countries. I've also gotten to preview two of the feature length films we'll be screening. One of them is the best gay love story I've ever seen and the other one was a delightfully odd story about a gay man and his female, straight best friend who decide to have a baby together. I'm so excited about seeing the other films. This is gonna be a great year for the festival! Find out more at www.kcgayfilmfest.com

Photo Essay: May's Minutia

mi·nu·ti·a 

[mi-noo-shee-uh] 

precise details; small or trifling matters

Related posts:

Event Pics: Chalk Walk in the Historic Northeast 

My Visit to Lawrence (Photo Blog)

May & Matt Tie the Knot (Pics)

Henry Is 1 Month Old

Henry is 1 month old today. It's amazing how time has passed so quickly (except during his hour-long feeding sessions).

Henry has, of course, challenged my expectations of parenthood. He DID NOT want to breastfeed when he got home from the hospital, and I eventually gave up and went with formula. Trying to feed him, pump my breasts, AND get anything else done was basically impossible. And my breastmilk dried up within days of him coming home, so the Universe seemed conspiring against breastfeeding. I had planned to exclusively breastfeed for at least 6 months, but oh well... It's easier to share the responsibilities of feeding with Matt this way which is nice.

Especially since it's exhausting taking care of a baby. Henry seems to have a knack for waking up all fussy and hungry mere moments before I try to crawl into bed for a nap. I LUST after a solid 8 hours of sleep like a teenage boy for a friend's hot mom.... or something. I am constantly tired but I've also been stubborn about doing stuff outside of the house despite my tiredness, like the chalk walk for instance. I don't want to become secluded in my apartment just because I'm a parent. I'm grateful for the friends and family who are helping out with Henry, allowing me to have some time to myself. I enjoy him even more after I've been away from him for a little bit and get to come home and fall in love with him all over again.

I'm glad I did so much babysitting as a teenager. I'm very comfortable handling babies and I can change a diaper crazy quick. If only I had endless endurance and patience, this whole parenting thing would be a breeze. ;)

Related posts:
Henry's Homecoming
May Gives Birth
Henry James Evans-Barchers Is Born!

Taking Care of (Writing) Business

I was very proud of myself for getting my blog posts for Arts America written last month, despite having Henry at the beginning of the month, not the end like I expected. If you missed the posts, here's the linkage:

• "Lucifer Rising" -- Surreal, Symbolic Paintings by David Goodrich
• A View of America's Past: Timothy O'Sullivan's King Survey Photographs

This month, I'm looking forward to blogging about the Nelson-Atkins' world's fair decorative arts exhibition. Not sure what else I'll be writing about yet though. I always write two posts for Arts America, so if you have a suggestion or request for me, please let me know with a comment on this post or email me at reddvenus AT gmail DOT com.

Related posts:
Art & Aesthetics
Read My Latest Arts America Post
May's Blogging for Arts America!

Bread For All Bakery & Cafe [Guest Post]

Matt asked to write today's post, because he really enjoyed the new place we tried for dinner the other night. Check it out...

Just north Westport Road across from World Market in Westport stands a strip of properties that are mostly vacant. Just north of what used to be Chili's is what used to be a Sprint store, what used to be a sandwich shop that used to be a pita wrap shop, what used to be... I don't even remember, it's been vacant for so long, then there's a barber shop and the always-excellent El Rancho Mexican restaurant.

Thankfully, a new Mediterranean lunch restaurant recently opened in the place that used to be Ike's Deli. It's called Bread for All Bakery and Cafe, owned by Stan Yoder, featuring bread baked by Foad Salih. It's a Mediterranean restaurant, serving tasty gyro and shawarma. Instead of pita bread, however, they serve everything on fresh-baked naan, an Indian flatbread traditionally baked in a Tandoor oven.






The bread is the star of the show, of course - the naan is baked fresh daily, and sold wrapped up four to a package. It's soft, chewy, fragrant and delicious, tasty with both sweet toppings or savory fillings. At the small restaurant, they serve them as their sandwich wraps. The lunch fare is typical Middle Eastern restaurant fare, but well-made and served with fresh toppings. There's gyro, shawarma (they spell it 'sharwama' - I love transliteration variations!), kifta, and falafel, as well as chicken kabob.Their tzatziki is a little on the thin side, but other than that, the food is top-notch and delicious, as well as quickly-prepared.





All the sandwiches are the same price ($7) and are pretty big for that price. For $2.50 more you can get salad, lentil soup, grape-leaf dolma, hummus, or French fries.





I'm so happy to have another Middle Eastern/Mediterranean option in close walking distance. I fully recommend you try this restaurant. Check out their Facebook page for more info.

Related posts:
Boulevard Chocolate Ale is Back! [Guest Post]
Feast of the Kitchen God (Little Chinese New Year)
How to Make Tofu (So It Doesn't Suck) [Guest Post]