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Deep Pencil - the musings of Morgan Bell

If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there to hear it did it really make a sound? If i post a blog and nobody reads it was there really any point? You have entered the random thinking space of Morgan Bell . . . These are my musings . . . things about my life written off the top of my head . . . written in an informal disjointed style almost completely devoid of punctuation, this is where i flesh out writing ideas, discuss my life, and generally be self indulgent . . . it is also the bargain bin for articles which do not fit in with the film or arts themes of my other blogs . . . so have a wander around my mind, have a laugh, have a think, be nice, and humour me!

Queer - Deep Pencil

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Problems Transgendered Job-Seekers Face

January 13th 2009 14:16

Mike Sugarman on CBS-5 reports on a transgendered job fair in San Francisco.

Mike discusses with fellow reporter Dana King some of the barriers trans people can face when seeking employment, and interviews key people at the careers day.

The news segment entitled "Dressing For Sucess" features interviews with Clair Farley from the San Francisco LGBT Centre, Anthony Irving from PG&E, and Inspector Pam Hofsass from the San Francisco Police Department.

33 employers including PG&E, Charles Schwab, Levi, and the Police Department sent representatives to the fair to recruit and advise trans people.

In San Francisco the president of the San Francisco Police Commission is transwoman Theresa Sparks. As a man Sparks was an Engineer and served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War.

Sparks began transitioning in 1997 and struggled to find a job in San Francisco as a woman. despite 20 years of experience in waste management and managing three environmental consulting companies as a man. Sparks applied unsuccessfully for more than 100 jobs and eventually picked up some sporadic work as a cab driver, bank teller, and census taker, narrowly avoiding becoming homeless.

Sparks underwent sex reassignment surgery in Thailand in 2000. Her civil rights activism led to her membership in a queer task force and police advisory roles with her eventual appointment to Commissioner.

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Gender Confusion Aids Bank Robbery

December 9th 2008 09:40

"It appeared to be a guy dressed as a lady, ... He was dressed in black, with a black dress, black stockings, a blonde wig and he had facial hair."

unnamed witness of todays robbery

Commonwealth Bank at North Strathfield, in Sydney's inner west, was robbed thismorning by a man wearing a black dress and a shoulder-length blonde wig.

The crossdressing man apparently waited on a bench outside the bank until opening time. Then, armed with a handgun, he stormed inside the bank and demanded money. The thief assaulted and tied up a number of staff, and then escaped with the cash by foot down Concord Rd.

Hmmm a man in a blonde wig with facial hair . . .

I wonder if anyone else immediately thought of Sydney drag icon Dallas Dellaforce?

Not that I think Dallas has a criminal bone in his body, but he is well known for donning drag with a beard and chest-hair . . . a technique known as Genderfuck . . . in order to confuse and delight patrons of Oxford St nightspots.

Dallas Dellaforce is considered more of a performance artist than a typical dragqueen. Dallas recently performed in "Camp as a row of Spiegeltents", a celebration of drag in Sydney. The Spiegeltent (Dutch for “mirror tent") was born in 1920 as a mobile dance hall for small towns and country fairs in Belgium - when it came to Sydney it was erected in Hyde Park. "Camp as a row of Spiegeltents" was a one-off show on November 13 produced by DIVA award winning Amelia Airhead.

Dallas is a much-loved fixture in the avant garde section of the drag scene in Sydney and often appears at venues like The Oxford Art Factory or Glamour Pour Le Hammer @ The Columbian.

See more of Dallas Dellaforce HERE on MySpace.

Genderfuck - uses parody and exaggeration to call attention to its transgression of gender roles, seeking to expose them as artificial, often by manipulating one's appearance to create gender dissonance or ambiguity in stark opposition of the gender binary.

"I didn't take notice of it, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me."

unnamed witness of todays robbery

see full story on the crossdressing bandit HERE

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Posted By: Morgan Bell - Category: News & Politics, Queer

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Her voice is like Treacle . . .

November 9th 2008 08:19

If you are a woman who has ever worked on the phones (call-centre, telemarketing, reception etc) you will know that the more you raise the pitch of your voice, the more politely people will treat you. A high-pitched voice conjures an imagine of youth, naivety, and sweetness. You may even find that when you first meet strangers face-to-face, or if you are asking a question, or requesting a favour, you temporarily develop a helium squeak.

Doris Roberts (who has a naturally deep voice) once said that for her character of Marie Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond:

"I talk way up hee-uh. Because if I used my own voice for Marie, you wouldn't laugh at her. You'd find her quite unpleasant."

"As I speak and you hear my voice, it's a very deep voice, that's not Marie Barone. Marie Barone says, [higher-pitched voice] "Are you hungry, dear?" It's a whole other person. It doesn't have the strength and fortitude of Doris Roberts. It has another attitude, another concept, and I've done that because I think if I used Doris' voice, you'd be afraid. She's too formidable at saying the things that she says. But as Marie, I'm not a scatterbrain, but she's--it's naivety--she has no idea that she's intrusive; she has no idea that she's a control freak."

Woody Allen asked Mira Sorvino to create a voice for her character in his film Mighty Aphrodite but did not tell her how. She just had to sound stupid. So Mira chose the high-pitched dumb sounding voice that became so important for the movie's success. She did not want Linda to be too sexy and too successful as a sex worker, but innocent, natural and stupid - in contrast to her own preconception of the porn world as dark and sleazy.

Mira Sorvino's role as the naive porn-star Linda Ash/Judy Cum earned her a Golden Globe and an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress in 1995.

Women speak in a higher tone of voice when at their most fertile, making them more attractive to the opposite sex, scientists have found. Recordings made when fertility was low and again nearer ovulation showed that women's voices took on more feminine qualities as they neared their optimum time for conceiving.

During testing women spoke in a higher pitch when nearer to the time when an egg is released. The difference in pitch was the greatest on the two highest fertility days just before ovulation. The study shows women change their voice in relation to fertility - and possibly only in social communication contexts.

A study of the Hadza people of Tanzania by academics from McMaster University's department of psychology, neuroscience and behaviour showed that men were more attracted to women with higher voices. A higher pitch was associated with subordination, femininity, health and youthfulness. By contrast, women preferred men with deeper voices.

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Weird Kiss

November 4th 2008 16:53

Forget Britney and Madonna . . . what about Jeffrey Star and Chris Crocker?

Yes the MySpace celebrity (Star) and the YouTube celebrity (Crocker - think "leave Britney alone") are together at last!

I dont know what prompted them to join forces . . . perhaps they felt like they werent getting enough attention separately? haha

Looks a bit weird hey? Its kind of like two straight women kissing - they seem like they should be competitors, not comrades!

I actually really like Jeffrey Star's music, its a bit electroclash and a bit industrial pop, and he is an amazing makeup artist.

Heres a few snaps from his MySpace:

And heres a couple of snaps of the stunningly beautiful Ms Crocker - i think he looks like the love child of Kurt Cobain and Avril Lavigne

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Remembering Matthew Shepard

October 25th 2008 13:52

Ten years have passed since Matthew Shepard was murdered in a vicious anti-gay hate crime.

Matthew Shepard died October 12, 1998.

His mother Judy continues to campaign against hatred of gays and lesbians.

The level of ignorance is astounding. The continuing belief that what happened to Matt was not a hate crime and the notion that ‘special people shouldn’t have special rights’, is beyond my comprehension. The level of ‘hate’ is frightening.

Judy Shepard

Judy Shepard lost her son, Matthew Shepard, in a murder motivated by anti-gay hate. That tragedy became a symbol of the need to pass national hate crimes legislation. Mrs. Shepard is an international spokeswoman, activist and executive director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation. She is focused on a vision to replace hate with compassion, acceptance and understanding.

Shortly after midnight on October 7, 1998, 21-year-old Matthew Shepard met Aaron James McKinney and Russell Arthur Henderson in a bar. McKinney and Henderson posed as gay men and offered Shepard a ride in their car. Subsequently, Shepard was robbed, pistol whipped, tortured, tied to a fence in a remote, rural area, and left to die. Still tied to the fence, Shepard was discovered eighteen hours later by a cyclist, who at first thought that Shepard was a scarecrow. At the time of discovery, Shepard was still alive, but in a coma.

Shepard suffered a fracture from the back of his head to the front of his right ear. He had severe brain stem damage, which affected his body's ability to regulate heart rate, body temperature and other vital signs. There were also about a dozen small lacerations around his head, face and neck. His injuries were deemed too severe for doctors to operate. Shepard never regained consciousness and remained on full life support. As he lay in intensive care, candlelight vigils were held by the people of Laramie.

He was pronounced dead at 12:53 A.M. on October 12, 1998 at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins. Police arrested McKinney and Henderson shortly thereafter, finding the bloody gun as well as the victim's shoes and wallet in their truck.

Henderson pleaded guilty on April 5, 1999, and agreed to testify against McKinney to avoid the death penalty; he received two consecutive life sentences. The jury in McKinney's trial found him guilty of felony murder. As it began to deliberate on the death penalty, Shepard's parents brokered a deal, resulting in McKinney receiving two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.

The disturbing and brutal nature of Matthew Shepard's murder prompted calls for new legislation addressing hate crime.

USA Hate Crimes in 2004

9,528 victims of hate crimes.

53.8 percent were victims of racial prejudice.
(Of those, 67.9 percent were anti-black, and 20.1 percent were anti-white.)

16.7 percent were victims of religious intolerance
(Of those, 67.8 percent were anti-Jewish, and 12.7 percent were anti-Islamic.)

15.6 percent (over 1,400) were attacked because of sexual-orientation.
(Of those, 60.9 percent were male victims)

13. 2 percent were targeted due to ethnicity/national orientation.
(Of those, 51.5 percent were anti-Hispanic.)

Less than 1 percent of the total victims of crimes motivated by a single bias were targets of an anti-disability bias. Of the 73 victims of this type, 49 were mentally disabled.

* source: the FBI

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Catholic Nuns support Gay & Reproductive Rights

October 20th 2008 16:47

"I don't find anything in the Gospels about abortion or gay marriage."

Sister Mary Ann Cunningham

[ Click here to read more ]

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Carl Sagan - the Science of Life

October 19th 2008 10:11

selected excerpts from
“Abortion: Is it Possible to be both “Pro-life” and “Pro-Choice”?”
by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan

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Sergius and Bacchus: the Gay Catholic Saints

October 3rd 2008 16:58

Sergius and Bacchus were soldiers in the Roman army. They were secret Christians. But they were open lovers.

Sergius and Bacchus were third century Roman soldiers who are commemorated as martyrs by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches. They were severely punished in 303, with Bacchus dying during torture, and Sergius eventually beheaded

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