A Papi's Perspective

I have mostly been on Facebook and have not been here in awhile.
Today I am taking time to catch up... or as caught up as I can get.

Just wanted to say hello!!

Hello LJ Friends!

Many of you may have already read Fran's thank you letter...if not please do....it's long but worth it.

You can also visit Fran's Website

We need to raise $4000 more dollars for the next and most promising round of treatment. I believe this is possible. I believe it will happen. It has to. The question is how?

Seriously....I know that we have a huge network and if we all continue to pull together ...and get other people we know inspired to help out we can do this. I know $4000 is a lot of money but spread out among our whole big homo loving community I know we can make this happen.

If you can donate I can't thank you enough...if you can't can you please share Fran's story with someone who might be able to...passing the word is also very valuable.  I believe in the power of our community.

Soon we will be sending a thank you note to everyone that has donated towards Fran's treatment. We are so very grateful! We have reached a crucial point in Frans treatment. She has a picc line in place where she is receiving anti-microbial IV treatments twice a week. These treatments are approx $350 each. She was able to start this treatment only because of your generosity- now if she is to complete this potentially life saving treatment we will need your help again.
Please consider donating today. The funds that have already been raised have been used for treatment. I know the economy is difficult for all of us. I believe if we reach enough people that can make small donations we can raise enough to beat this. Please pass this on. Please help get the word out.
You can visit her site to donate or learn more about Lyme. www.helphealfran.org

You can also donate by visiting my profile page here at LJ where there is a link to a paypal button. This money goes into an acct that is only used to pay for meds and her doctor.

Other donation methods available as well..bank acct...etc.....we can be as creative as necessary so that she can complete treatment.

I suggest you meditate on the theme of exile. Here are some questions to get you started. 1. Have you ever been shunned by people you care about? 2. Do you know what it's like to unwillingly leave a place that has made you feel safe and secure? 3. Can you remember the desolation that came over you when you found yourself wandering in the middle of nowhere? 4. Has it been a challenge to connect with your tribe or be at peace in the land that makes you feel at home in the world? Whatever your exile is, Virgo, the coming weeks will be an excellent time to figure out how to heal it.

My phone has been very unreliable lately....getting txt late or not at all...now I can't make outgoing calls. Grrrr....
Until this is resolved....please email me

genderoutlaw@gmail.com

Thanks!!
Dante

More pics that I took here Obama in Raleigh, NC!!

"Rates were cunt-cut in the Bush years" Ohhh my gawd somebody needs to mix that into some house mix.!!

You all totally rock!!!
We are more than half way there for the next phase of treatment!!!!
Our current total is $3100- that total accounts for the benefit and the donations made so far.
I can't express how touched I am especially during these really tough financial times.
I know I must sound like a broken record but please take this link and repost it.
The total shown on the wodget is not accurate because I just found this program- but it all goes into a pay pal acct that Fran is paying her doctor from. You guys rock my world and I will forever be grateful.
Please help get the word out.



You just select copy and paste the link anywhere you can paste HTML...websites, livejournal and other blogs, myspace, facebook.

Thank you!

Many folks have asked how they can help with Fran's Lyme Fighting Hella Pretty Army.

I have created this cool widget that you can copy and repost where ever you like. We need to raise at least $5000 so she can continue with treatment.
If we can get 2500 people to donate $3 it will insure that she can beat this!! We can call it Queer as a 3 dollar bill donation
;)

Thank you thank you thank you so much for everything that has been done so far. Much love to all of you!!

Everyone on my list has heard about how sick my partner Fran is...she is a total bad ass community activist and brilliant writer...we need to raise at least $5000 to complete the second portion of her treatment. She has given so much to our various communities over the course of her life time, and now we get to give back! I know times are hard right now...but seriously every dollar adds up. Please consider donating today and for those of you that have thank you sooooo much!!! Really every bit helps and gives us hope that she will beat this.
www.helphealfran.org

Bay Area Benefit     * you can also visit the silent auction at  hp_army_auction 
The Hella Pretty Army: A Benefit for Fran Varian ( More Info...Performers...etc... )

The Fox affiliate in the SF Bay area had a good story about the Lyme
film and Lyme in general--also mentions the fact the movie is supposed
to be shown to Congress today.
http://www.ktvu.com/video/17543354/index.html

 goodbadgirl.livejournal.com/319221.html

I am feeling a lot of gratitude for everyone who has donated and those who are working on and will attend the benefit for Fran.
You all are awesome!!!
It is because of each of you that she is able to start treatment. It is a long road but I know that with your continued support she will heal! Then the world better watch out!! :)
I wish I could hug everyone of you. I have been pulling together a page where folks can learn about Fran, learn about the disease etc...
you can check it out here www.helphealfran.org

please start spreading the word

October 1, 2008
The Hella Pretty Army: A Benefit for Fran
Varian




On October 1st an
army of San Francisco’s revolutionary and passionate writers,
musicians, performers and art makers will come together at the San
Francisco Center for Sex and Culture to throw a big ass party and
benefit for Fran Varian.

Poet, activist and organizer Fran
Varian has spent her life creating art, and poetry that is intense,
powerful and a politcal punch in gut. Giving voice to the women, the
fighters, the poor, the queer, the disenfranchised, Fran has spent her
artistic life fighting for people's rights and voices. In addition to
her art - she has also spent her entire life as a health worker,
counselor and activist for the rights of women around health care and
reproductive freedom. Ironically it is a lack of access to health care
that has brought Fran to a serious health condition. Recently
diagnosed with late stage Lyme disease, Fran is literally battling for
her life after 14 years of mis-diagnosis allowing this disease to
destroy her system. At this stage of the illness there is only one
type of treatment that has shown positive results and this benefit is
fighting for the funds to ensure that Fran can complete the full cycle
of treatment.

With performers including Mark Growden,
Lauren Wheeler, Vagabondage, Meliza Bañales , Katrina James,
Heathen Machinery, Steven Schwartz, Gina de Vries and more, a silent
auction that includes one of a kind art, couture fashion, handmade
chapbooks and more, plus rumors of an onsite kissing booth the night
is sure to be a celebration of life, art and the power of people
coming together to help someone that has dedicated their life to
helping the community.


If you would like to help
Fran win the battle against Lyme Disease you can donate on her profile
here http://goodbadgirl.livejournal.com/profile

Come to the show and join Fran's Hella Pretty Lyme Fighting
Army!!


The Performers
Mark Growden

Mark Growden is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, singer,
painter,
printer, and father based in SF.  Some people
think he smells good.

Lauren Wheeler

Lauren Wheeler is a
recovering slam poet who competed at the National Poetry Slam in 1998,
as a member of the renegade Team SF-Mission District, and again in
1999, as a member and the coach of Team Ithaca, NY. She has featured
at Cornell University, where she studied English Literature, as well
as in Los Angeles, Miami, and throughout the Bay Area. Lauren curated
and hosted two poetry series in Ithaca, Tongue & Groove at
Stella's Wine and
Whiskey Bar and Re-Verse
at the Oak Café, and was a core organizer of the ForWord Girls poetry and spoken word festival in San Francisco. Her work has
appeared in Lodestar
Quarterly, Other Magazine, and 365
Tomorrows.


Vagabondage

Walking the dirty streets of the big city and the farm
towns, Vagabondage sings you tales of lonely alleyways, late night
busrides and unfortunate incidents with spicy spicy food. Comprised of
a poet, an actor, a storyteller, a ham, a vaudevillian, an accordion
player, two guitar players, a kazoo player, and two singers, this duo
will sing songs to make you laugh, cry, and raise your glass and sing
along.


Katrina James


Katrina James had her first short story
published in 1998 and has been
creating a steadily growing body
of tales ever since. She also
co-produced the cult public access
show "kittypr0n" and has acted in
and worked
behind-the-scenes on several San Francisco stage
productions,
including "Night of the Living Dead," Hitch-hiker's Guide
to the  Galaxy," "The Twilight Zone," and
"Zippy the Pinhead."  She
currently spends her
days disguised as a mild-mannered office manager.

Heathen
Machinery

heathen machinery: writer, mother, explosives expert.
 what's the worst
that could happen?

Meliza
Bañales

Meliza Bañales is originally from Los Angeles.
She has taught writing at UCSC and SFSU as well as at numerous
conferences and workshops. She has been writing and performing for the
last fifteen years.  She published her first poems when she was
seventeen in The Lesbian News. She went on to become the first Latina
to ever win a Poetry Slam Championship on the west coast in
2002(Oakland), the 2002 winner of the People Before Profits Poetry
Prize, and published her first book, Say It With Your Whole Mouth, at
the age of twenty-five which went on to be nominated for the Poetry
Center Book Award in 2004. Her writing has been featured in the
anthologies Revolutionary Voices (ed., by Ami Sonny); Without a Net:
The Female Experience of Growing-Up Working-Class (ed., by Michelle
Tea); The Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Change; Baby, Remember
My Name: New Queer Girl Writing (ed., Michelle Tea); and Word
Warriros: 35 Women Leaders of the Spoken-Word Movement (ed., Alex
Olsen) as well as Lodestar Quarterly and Finery. She is currently
finishing a second manuscript of poems, 51 Poems About Nothing At All.
Bañales is currently working on a one-woman-show, One Bad Year,
as an artist-in-residence for Airspace in San Francisco. She was also
the winner of a 2008 QCC Grant for the National Queer Arts Festival
for the show Coming-Out…Again which features new work around
multiple identities within the queer community. She has also written
and directed for the Twilight Zone Festival at the Dark Room Theater
in San Francisco. She has been on three national poetry slam teams
(Santa Cruz, Santa Curz/Salinas, Oakland) and has toured with the
notorious spoken-word roadshow Sister Spit: The Next Generation. She
is also one-half of the punk performance-art duo, Las Damas, with
Celestina Pearl set to go on tour in Spring 2009. Las Damas will also
appear in the photo book by Del La Grace and Ulrika Dahl entitled
Femmes of Power: Expoloding Queer Feminities in the fall of
2008.  Bañales is also a clothing designer under the name
Missy Fuego. She is one-half of the design team Never Never Designs
with Boston-based designer and leather craftsman Jacob Vaughn
Gushue.

Gina de Vries

Gina de Vries is a queer femme writer,
rabble-rouser, and Paisan. Her
fiction, journalism, memoir, and
smut have appeared dozens of places,
including: Baby, Remember
My Name, Dirty Girls, TransForming
Community, That's Revolting!,
Bound to Struggle: Where Kink & Radical
Politics Meet,
make/shift magazine, and Curve magazine (where she was
a
columnist from 1997-2004). Currently, Gina curates shows for queer
performance series San Francisco in Exile, blogs for national
LGBT
blog Bilerico, and teaches a writing workshop for sex
workers at
Center for Sex & Culture. She can be cruised
online at
ginadevries.com.

additional performers to be announced


If you have something (your time / silent auction
items / performance) to donate for the show please leave a
comment.


The Hella Pretty Army: A Benefit for Fran
Varian
Doors at 7pm, show at 7:30pm
$10 - 20 (no one turned
away for lack of funds - but it IS a benefit)
Center for Sex and
Culture
1519 Mission St
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 552-7399

This pretty girl welcomed me this morning.

My (very happy) baby boy.

MySpace Happy Birthday Comments

xxoo