She lives!

You can always guarantee if I totally stop blogging that I'm in deadline hell.

I have four new articles up today, two about pets and two about the film "Milk," which I saw when it premiered in San Francisco last month. The first "Milk" piece is a review, and the other a profile of Alison Pill, the actress who played Harvey Milk's lesbian campaign manager, Anne Kronenberg. From the profile of Pill:

Canadian actress Alison Pill didn't know much about Harvey Milk when she auditioned to play his lesbian campaign manager in Gus Van Sant's biopic Milk. Twenty-two years old, she considered herself fairly informed about the history of the gay rights movement, and yet all she knew about Harvey was something vague about the "Twinkie defense."

Today, Pill is one of Harvey's biggest fans. And she belongs to another fan club, too, one a lot of queer women are going to be joining when they get to know Anne Kronenberg, the curly-haired dyke-on-a-bike who ran Harvey's first successful campaign, played by Pill in the film.

At first glance, it's hard to see much similarity between the two women, although Kronenberg was also 22 years old when tapped by Milk to run his third supervisorial campaign.

Strong, confrontational, and passionate, Anne rode a motorcycle and wore leather jackets. She took on the cautious gay male establishment of the times and helped Harvey kick down some of the social and political walls between lesbians and gay men.

From the review:

It's hard to take an objective look at a film whose story is not just familiar but iconic to its audience. It's even harder when that story has already been told in a groundbreaking documentary, and harder still if some of the film's audience actually lived through its events.

That Gus Van Sant's Milk transcends all those factors and looks to be one of the best films of the year is a testament to the power of its story as well as the creative forces that came together to tell it.

Most LGBT people probably know the bare bones of Harvey Milk's story already: That he helped spearhead the fight against a tidal wave of anti-gay legislation that swept the country as part of Anita Bryant's anti-gay crusade; that he advocated coming out as the most powerful weapon against homophobia; that he was shot to death by a political opponent after predicting his own assassination.

But one of often-forgotten pieces of

Harvey

's story was his commitment to building bridges with every possible group that might be an ally in his struggle. He made a friend out of organized labor by getting Coors beer out of

San Francisco

's gay bars. He reached out to all communities of color and ethnic groups in the state. He was an ex-hippie turned businessman who could and would talk to anyone – including his fiercest enemies – if he thought it would further his cause.

And at a time when the gay and lesbian communities were almost completely isolated from each other, when women held virtually no leadership roles in the gay rights movement and our communities were often actively hostile towards each other, Harvey Milk not only reached out to women's organizations, he brought in a 22-year-old lesbian named Anne Kronenberg to run his fourth campaign for office – the first one, in fact, that he ever won.

I interviewed Pill, Kronenberg, as well as Sean Penn, who played Milk, director Gus Van Sant, screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, Milk political protege Cleve Jones, Josh Brolin, who played Dan White, Emile Hirsch, who played Jones, and James Franco, who played Milk's lover Scott Smith. Two future pieces based on those interviews will be coming out in the next few days. One will be on 365Gay.com, and the other on AfterElton.com; I'll link when they're up.

In the critter category, my Borzoi Kyrie got some ink... er, pixels... on SFGate.com, where I discussed the issue dogs, parks, and leashes:

I happily cede the dog parks to the unleashed dogs and their doggy joy. In fact, although San Francisco has a lot of them already, I’d like to see more - many more. Dozens more. But what I don’t like to see is an uncontrolled dog running loose in an area outside the dog zone.

It’s not so just my concern for my fellow citizens that makes me feel that way; it’s my love of dogs, too. See, I left out some back story: My dog Kyrie is scared of other dogs when she’s on a leash.

Kyrie lived the first eight years of her life in the country, running and roaming off-leash with my other dogs on my fenced, wooded acreage. And even off our property, where I walked her on a leash, it was very rare that we’d run into a strange dog. It’s not that country dogs don’t often run loose; they do. It’s just that there’s a lot of room out where we lived in the hills of western Sonoma, and the few times we saw strange dogs, they ignored us.

That was fine until I decided, after 16 years in the country, to move back to the city. The fact that neither of my dogs spoke “city dog” caused some problems. The city, it turns out, is full of dogs whose idea of proper canine etiquette was formed in a completely different environment. When they see a strange dog in the park, their first thought is, “Oh oh oh! It’s a new friend! I must say hello!” And they race over, their entire bodies wagging, eager to greet these exotic newcomers to their world.

At first, things were difficult for me and the dogs. Rebel, who was a show dog in his youth, actually adapted pretty easily to the ways of the city dogs, possibly because he’s bigger than any of them and doesn’t worry that the pipsqueak racing towards him at top speed can do any damage to him. No one ever has, he figures; why worry now?

But Kyrie was always the smallest hound in our pack, and relied on two things to keep out of the way of the bigger, heavier deerhounds when the play got rough: greater speed and greater agility. Here in our urban playground, she’s lost that advantage entirely, because she’s on a leash. So when those strange dogs - even the truly friendly ones - come tearing over to say hi, she thinks she’s being attacked by raving lunatics, because she’s never seen this body language before.

Dog people might say I failed to properly socialize Kyrie to strange, off-leash dogs while she’s on a leash, and they’d be right; I did. If I had a time machine I’d get in it and go back and change that. But no matter what my failures as a dog mom might be, don’t she and all the other shy dogs in the world have a right to go for walks in the park, too, just as people who are afraid of dogs or who are frail, disabled or elderly do?

[....]

(A)ll of us, human and canine, have the right to enjoy shared public spaces without untrained, rambunctious dogs running up and jumping on us or our leashed dogs while their owners call out from a distance, “He’s friendly!” Maybe he is, but my dogs think he’s rude, and I’ll bet that nice lady shielding her stroller against your dog’s curiosity thinks so, too.

And I penned... er, typed... the lead piece for the Pet Connection syndicated pet feature, for which I'm a contributing editor, this week. This one's on keeping your home smelling good for the holidays, even if you have pets:

Your home is spotless, and the inviting aromas of a holiday meal fill the air. But as you open the door to your guests, their twitching noses suggest that they smell something you don't.

"I see you still have that cat," your older sister says disapprovingly. Her nose twitches again. "And the dog, too."

But pet odors aren't irresolvable. Eliminating them can be challenging, but following a few simple tips from the experts can leave your house smelling fresh and clean this holiday season.

That's it for today.... but I think you can now get an idea of why you haven't seen me in a while.

Comments

[TheWeyrd1]

I'm looking forward to all your articles!

[Kim]

Regarding the off leash dog issue - it's a hot-button one in my city. We have few dog parks (only three - one barely 1/4 acre) for a population of 550,000 and approximately 100,000+ dogs.

My problem is the opposite of Kyrie's... My Lexi is also afraid of other dogs when they approach her too quickly, but reacts to a rushing dog with a good offense. Luckily she has great bite inhibition, and simply grabs them to try to get them away from her - but my concern is that the rushing dog will escalate the situation by retaliating strongly.

What we've been reduced to is unpleasant, and involves a cage muzzle for Lex. Of course, everyone looks at her like she's Cujo, so we just yell out "she eats poop!" and people settle down quickly. ;o) But it's incredibly unfair to Lex, and we only use this option when we're traversing areas we KNOW we're going to come across trouble.

The worst part is that Lexus is fully controlled off leash and responds to all commands - except in the case of being accosted by a rushing, rude, potentially aggressive off leash dog. However, we won't risk the immediate $350 off-leash fine, and are frowned upon in the dog park, which is overrun by aggressive and out-of-control dogs that quite simply make Lex just want to leave, and leave NOW.

So what options are WE left with? We're not safe in the overstuffed dog park, we're not safe in the park where there could be an irresponsible owner around every corner... we've even been accosted on the sidewalk as dogs rush off porches and out open front doors while owners, yes, yell "he's friendly!"

Here's my question - so YOUR dog is friendly - what if my onleash dog eats your offleash, rude-but-friendly dog? Who is at fault then? I guarantee it will be MY dog who gets impounded, and labeled as a "dangerous dog." (not that she would ever, but the situation potential is there).

I only hope that your column will make people think twice before they let Rover roam... not only for my sake, but as you mention, for children, the elderly, and quite frankly, I don't need the stress and guilt that comes with running over your dog in the street because you simply lack common sense.

Oh, and sorry to hear about your shoes - I hope they weren't new!