nauticgrrl

charlene's 940 elysian fields, new orleans 1977-1999 charlene schneider was a friend of mine.  she was more than that really.  she was a mentor a protector a confidant a hero a gay rights activist and a mother. she never bore any of her own but she was mother to scores of young women struggling with their sexuality and the social complexities of being gay.  for 23 years she owned and operated the bar that was her name sake…most of us just called it “chucks.” charlene’s was situated on the corner of elysian fields and n. rampart in the marigney section of new orleans.  it is here i met her in the late 1980’s. i “came out” at her bar…drug there initially by friends it soon became my haven. it was a safe place to go and interact with other women.  the sidewalk out front was where charlene held court.  it was here that you went for her council and to hear the latest gossip.  it was also here that i first learned about gay civil rights and n...

online discourse and interaction in a social venue are indeed a funny thing.  too much is often left to our imagination and we haven’t the advantage of all our senses.  information is simply lost or unavailable.  we get a small window in which to peek through and window dressings may alter what we see.  but no matter how we may pimp our profiles and gloss up our pictures eventually our truest selves peek through.  it is inevitable.   we cannot hide the core of WHO we are.  so it was mystifying to me today to receive an email from a friend i had known online for some time.  this came after i posted a picture of myself smarting off and full of “i don’t give damn” as i prepared for my workday.  the email stated simply “wow...not at all what I thought you looked like...lovely you are...but it would seem I have had you confused with someone else this whole time...”   now i was truly confused by this and it gave me pause to consider…”...

buffalo girls dancing the ring of fire superstitions and rituals...we all carry them.  some are personal.  some secret.  some seem ridiculous though we feel incapable of letting them go.  most of us from a time before we can remember were taught them at the knees of the women who raised us.  “don’t step on that crack or walk under that ladder.”  worse, “touching yourself will cause hair to grow on your palms or blindness”...perhaps both.  some were old wives tales weaved to modify and change behaviors.  usually there is some basis in the truth to be found in them.   my great grandmothers kitchen was always filled with women.  some of them were related but not always.  they gathered together to cook and bake and to chat.  i listened carefully to them as i played on the floor.  i was often more interested in what they were talking about then what i was playing with.  i was that kind of child.  my belief...

the past week was a stern reminder from mother nature about just WHO is in charge here.  we humans have meddled enough with her.  i doubt that anything WE did had any bearing on these events...i think she was just being all showy...flexing her guns.   she certainly did shake and then bluster right here on this little slice of the earth.  funny how the destruction we cause ourselves (like bombs ripping apart villages) goes virtually unnoticed by us and we only to snap-to when SHE wrecks. i have survived many a hurricane.  once while huddled in my closet crammed with mattress food (which was more on the order of snacks for the nervous) water radios a cell phone a girlfriend and two big hounds listening to the WHOMP WHOMP of trees crashing against the outer walls of my brick home.  the energy bleeding from that little closet from four terrified beings was palpable. there was of course katrina and i was fortunate enough to be in baton rouge at the ...

letter to a friend: thank you for sharing this with me.  you do write very well.  i wonder it we have not dug ourselves a hole so deep that we are now unable of crawl out of it.  i doubt we can even find our way back to the values of our grandparents era that seemed so much gentler and kinder then.  i realize that civil rights were not yet born and that this genteel world was selective.  i doubt i could have tolerated living then knowing what i do now.   still FDR was a hero to my great grandmother because of his social reforms.  it is a shame that he died before his second bill of rights came to fruition.  our world might have been much different in that case.  i read recently that social security disability funding is in dire straits because of the budget and that there may be no such thing in the near future. not to mention social security for retirements probably going away shortly after...  FDR would roll over in h...