They say music reflect the current times. But in this day and time, the lyrics of the song– “Upgrade U” by Beyoncé Knowles– don’t cut the mustard:

Partner Let me upgrade you
Audemars Piguet you
Switch your neck ties to purple labels
Upgrade you
I can (up), can I (up)
Lemme upgrade you
Partner let me upgrade you
Partner let me upgrade you

An Audemar Piguet watch with the barest of features would set you back a cool $7,000. For those of us struggling with paying the rent or house note, $7,000 could translate to approximately several months of the amount needed to keep a roof over our heads. And those purple labels that Beyonce warbled about? A direct reference to the Ralph Lauren’s Purple Label Collection, one of the priciest collections the designer has slapped his name on.

In some areas of the U.S. of A., the gas prices are already hovering around the five dollar mark. In comparison, it may be small comfort to know that the people of Norway are definitely shelling out the green while singing the blues– they earned the dubious honor of having the highest gas prices in the world.

Audemars Piguet watch
Dimples in ya necktie
Hermes briefcase
Cartier top clips
Silk lined blazers
Diamond creamed facials
VVS cuff links
6 star pent suites

In these uncertain economic times, just how much of a downgrade in luxuries are we willing to accept? Personally, we all have our litmus tests in deciding which luxuries to jettison. Perhaps instead of putting the potato bread in the grocery cart without a second thought, we might settle for store-brand white bread. Instead of having a Hummer parked in your driveway as a status symbol, you trade it in for a fuel-efficient vehicle without all the bells and whistles. Instead of being 100% organic in consumption, we may compromise with a few decidedly inorganic and hormone-ridden food items. But what if the economic downturn impacted your business dealings and travel?

How would you react if you were handed a flyer similar to this one:

From the refined Ritz Carlton to the moldy Motel 6? Talk about a serious slide in downgrading. Staying at the Holiday Inn would be a holiday compared to lodging at the Motel 6. My better half– A.K.A. the hubby– snapped this gem that was tacked on the lunchroom refrigerator at his workplace. His coworkers were grumbling– despite the flyer being an obvious and somewhat bizarre joke– about the fact that it’s a question of when, not if, the relative luxury of business travel accommodations would stoop that low. With Motel 6 cheap rates comes questionably cheap service. One coworker bemoaned that the meals offered at the “seedy motel” would more likely be catered by either Kentucky Fried Chicken or McDonalds.

I find it interesting how the pundits swear up and down that we are not in a recession yet. Look around…most people are squeezing their nickels so tight, the buffaloes are stampeding and herding. But i got just four words for those punks–I mean, pundits: “It’s the economy, stupid.” Fast forward sixteen years later since that famous phrase made its rounds, giving birth to interesting variations. It’s dejá vu all over again, with the same issues (Iraq and the economy) playing out in the 2008 elections.

Back to the topic. What material luxuries you currently have that you’re willing to either hand them over or hang on for dear life, despite the economy downturn? Would you be willing to sacrifice certain business luxuries that you’re accustomed to in order to help your company’s bottom line?

Several years ago, I had a good talk with a friend of mine who was planning on going through a sex change operation.  She had long been a proudly out Lesbian, and I asked what had prompted her to decide to change her outward gender in a way that would effectively turn her into a straight man.  What she told me in response was a relevation to me, and which has since then helped me understand gender identity in others.

I hope I can do my friend’s explanation justice.  Here goes.

Think of gender identity as having three factors:

1. Your actual, outward (and current) gender;
2. The gender that you are attracted to;
3. The gender inside you.

The first gender identity factor is your actual, OUTWARD (and current) gender.  Men are male, women are female.

The second factor is the gender that you are ATTRACTED to.  As a gay man, I’m attracted to males, and if you’re a straight man or a lesbian then you’re attracted to females.  Bisexuals, well, they’re attracted to both genders.
So, putting these first two factors together in order and using M’s (for male) and F’s (for female), that makes me MM (male outside, attracted to males), a straight man is MF (male outside, attracted to females), a straight woman is FM.  Lesbians are FF.  Bisexuals, I’m not sure where they fall under my friend’s taxonomy, but they would be MB or FB.

With me so far?

According to my friend, what many folks don’t (consciously) realize or recognize is that everyone has a third factor - the gender you identify with INSIDE yourself.  Let’s use a third M or F to identify that.  Most straight men feel male inside, making them MFM (male outside, attracted to females, male inside).  I feel like a male inside and so does my partner, so we’re MMM (male outside, attracted to males, male inside).  Likewise, most straight women would feel female inside, and would be tagged as FMF.

But some gay men feel like they’re actually female inside (MMF), while some lesbians feel like they’re male inside (FFM).  Some straight men (MFF) and straight women (FMM) feel this conflict also.   For some people (whether gay, lesbian, or straight), this internal orientation is so overpowering that they cross-dress or have surgery to change their gender.  Thus, a fem male gay man changing his gender would go from MMF to FMF (a straight woman).  A seemingly macho straight guy changing his gender would go from MFF to FFF (a lesbian).  And what could appear as a proud Lesbian could change her gender and go from FFM to MFM (a straight man).

Makes sense?  I know this explanation may seem too simplistic.  It doesn’t really explain away the difference between labelling one as being gay or as a queer, which may just be degrees of identity (but others may prove me wrong).  Yet, thanks to my friend, this has helped me go a long way toward understanding how macho straight men or butch lesbians could desire to have a sex change operation.

The national Deaf Professional Happy Hour™ (DPHH™) website (http://www.dphh.com) was launched during the 2008 NAD Conference in New Orleans! We aim to set up and provide support to DPHHs in every major urban area with a significant deaf population. Several cities across the United States were thrilled to sign up their DPHH and many more have expressed interest in adding their city to the website. If your city is not on the DPHH map, let us know! Contact us at:
contact . us (at) dphh.com

Some of the exciting features on DPHH.com include:

• National map on the homepage linking to each city’s DPHH
• Large photo slideshow
• Download and save photos
• Google map to pinpoint the location of the next DPHH
• YELP! mashup that provides reviews of local restauarants near the DPHH
• RSS feed to subscribe to your city’s feed
  (or get all of ‘em with the national DPHH feed)

Of course, our work is never finished. Please continue to check DPHH.com for the latest improvements.

The Washington, DC DPHH has transitioned from DeafDC.com to DPHH.com. If you’re looking for the July 5th DC DPHH photos from Fado Irish Pub and the announcement about the August 1st DPHH location, go to:
http://www.dphh.com/washingtondc
(Bookmark this website for the DC DPHH!)

And while you’re at it, check out the photos from the very first New Orleans DPHH during the 2008 NAD Conference at:
http://www.dphh.com/neworleans

DPHH had its humble beginnings in Washington, DC in April of 1995, so deaf professionals could socialize. Over the years the networking event has transformed into a deaf community institution and the modern-day equivalent of the deaf club. Today, the event is simply known as DPHH.

DPHH promotes greater awareness of deaf people from all backgrounds, encourages diversity, provides a venue to network and develop new opportunities, and creates an environment ideal for making new acquaintances and reminiscing with old faces

Celebrate the deaf way at your local DPHH.

–

Update I: The DPHH server crashed this morning. We are working to get it back up.

Update II:  The DPHH website is back up as of 10:30 am

Well, in a word:  “Wow.”  If that’s enough for you, you can stop reading.

Oh, you want more details.  Okay!

First, the bad news:  The TAP plan is not available yet, so us early adopters of the iPhone 3G have had to pick the standard plans, which start at $69.99 per month, plus text messaging for extra.  They should get that ironed out in due time, though.  Various reports on the internet indicate that the TAP (text accessibility plan for deaf/hh folks) will be anywhere between $30 to $40 per month.

On with the mini review (I will skip over things that are standard iPhone fare and only focus on things that are either new or new to me):

Applications

• Email works great.  Added 2 Gmail accounts and some other accounts easily.  It’s not “push” email, though — for “push” email you have to either have access to an ActiveSync-enabled Microsoft Exchange server or use Apple’s Mobile Me service ($99/year).   Push means the messages are sent to your device immediately like Blackberries or Sidekicks.  The iPhone “checks” your email like a desktop email application every 15 minutes (configurable).
• The camera makes beautiful images.
• App Store (downloading applications, both paid and free) is OUTSTANDING.  Downloaded AIM, Facebook, Bank of America, Flickr, Google, a game (Monkey Ball, $9.99) and Yelp applications right off the bat.  They all worked great
• AIM deserves a special mention since we’d all use that a lot — Works great, fast, easy to navigate and communicate with folks.  Note:  when you exit AIM it quits the app.  All iPhone apps have this behavior to keep speeds high, no applications are left “running” in the background.  Front most application always has all the iPhone resources.

Speeds

• 3G is a nice speed boost over the EDGE connections on Blackberrys and Sidekicks.  Everything internet-related is a lot snappier.  Affects battery life though.
• GPS acquisition speed is a bit slow, have to be patient.  But it works great, you can easily find where you are on the map.  What’ll be more interesting is how applications from the App Store integrate GPS for location-aware services.  For example, finding what friends are nearby.

General Advice

Get it.  If you want the best phone/communication device out there…get the iPhone.  The only downside that affects me a little bit is the lack of free push email.  But I’m sure that’ll be remedied soon enough.  In the meantime the combo of the iPhone and Mobile Me kicks the pants off of any Blackberry service out there, and compares favorably to the Sidekick’s online email access/device combination.

Last week during a hot cloudy hour when we couldn’t swim in the pool (I had a housesitting gig at a friend’s house with a pool), Muck (or Michelle McAuliffe, artist extraordinarie) and I were driving around College Park, talking about everything from IKEA lightbulbs to hearing boys. “One of the perils of dating hearing boys,” I told her, “is having to be patient and smile while we teach them about what it’s like being Deaf and clearing up all the misconceptions they have about us. Like they think hearing aids restore hearing perfectly and that we can then hear Bob Marley just like them.” (Well I said something like that, anyway.)

“That’s exactly the point of my work, ‘First Crush’ ” Muck replied. Muck created this nine-minute-and-thirteen-second video in which she shows different people talking about their first crush. While the subject matter is interesting, how Muck subtitled the video is actually the point of the work. Muck did it on all on her own, meaning she created subtitles from what she thought she lipread and left it blank when she couldn’t understand. Exactly how a Deaf girl who wears hearing aids sometimes (with funky neon green molds) perceives and construes what people say when they speak English and don’t sign. When people think that because you’re wearing a hearing aid, you won’t have any trouble understanding them. And we all know that’s bullshit, which Muck loves to say and shows in her work.

Like Muck says in her thesis about ‘First Crush’, it’s “another example of this type of miscommunication. In this piece I interviewed friends and strangers, (asking them) to tell me about their first crush.” She wants her audience to “viscerally experience a layer of bullshit as they try to understand the content of this video.”

Luckily, you’ll have the chance to experience the bullshit for yourself. Muck’s work was selected for exhibition at Academy 2008, which showcases MFA and BFA work. It opens tomorrow (July 11) at 1341 H Street Northeast and Muck’ll be there for the opening. The show runs from July 11 to July 26. You can find more information at www.connercontemporary.com (You can get a peek of Muck’s work at slide 13).

Note: These are just the books I’ve deemed worthy of mention in the last two weeks or so. I know there’s more worth reading this summer on the beach, and I know you’re itching to add your own pick. Comment away!

The Waverley women in Sarah Addison Allen’s debut novel, set in Bascombe, North Carolina, have always been a little different. From protecting the secret of the apple tree in their yard from people who would take advantage of its magical gift to baking edible concoctions that affect their neighbors in mysterious ways, sisters Claire and Sydney find themselves reestablishing a filial bond. One heals the other’s love life; another provides a safe refuge for the sister who’s always run from her past. Perfect for closet romantics, intriguing enough for escapists. I recommend you read this on a full stomach, though. Addison has just released her second novel, The Sugar Queen, which I look forward to reading. Read Garden Spells if you liked Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife or Love Walked In, by Maria de los Santos.

I couldn’t be more thrilled about picking this book for my introduction to the graphic novel. I’ve been reading Alison Bechdel’s blog for a while now, and decided it was finally time to read her bestselling autobiography in pictures. Fun Home is subtitled “A Family Tragicomic,” quite suitable for this book that grapples with Alison’s closeted-and-married father’s suicide and/or accidental death, her self-recognition as a lesbian in college, and her childhood in a family affected by the secrets harbored by their parents. I couldn’t put it down and deprived myself of a few hours of sleep for this one. Read if you liked Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis or Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle.

I’m more than just a bit biased in picking this one, being a lifelong Card fan since Ender’s Game (which was written, incidentally, before I was born). Nonetheless, this collaboration with screenwriter Aaron Johnston, based on an earlier Card short story, results in a scientific thriller that is a lot easier to buy than most of Card’s sci-fi and fantasy. A hot-shot scientist comes up with a genetic cure for many incurable diseases. The catch is that the cure is so meticulously engineered for each patient that when other people are exposed to it, they die a violent and gory death — within seconds. A virologist in the federal government’s forced employ enters the picture, seeking to counter the geneticist’s overzealous do-gooder cure. In the process, he discovers the geneticist’s true motivation is much more dangerous — and out of this world — than anyone could have imagined. Read Invasive Procedures if you liked The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton or The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.

Codex 632 was originally written in Portuguese and translated for our pleasure. It’s a good thing too — after Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code and Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason’s The Rule of Four, I didn’t think I’d ever find such another thrilling pseudo-historian race to unearth some historically suppressed secret. What makes Codex 632 even better: the books and documents referred within are real, apparently meticulously researched by the Ph.D holding author. Who was Christopher Columbus, for real? And why are we so determined to believe he was a poor silk-weaver from Genoa when, clearly, he was a skilled sailor and shrewd captain?

I really, honestly, and truly tried not to fall victim to the mass-marketed ploys of The Host’s publishers and sellers. But after seeing a gaggle of teen girls literally fall on their knees and kiss each cover of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series for young adults, I decided couldn’t resist seeing if her first book for adults was worth the hype. (Confession: The deal-breaker was Orson Scott Card’s unabashed plug on the book jacket.) The premise is a bit off-putting: Earth has been taken over by body- and brain-controlling parasites. But Melanie Stryder, whose body has been implanted with the parasite known as Wanderer, refuses to surrender. The result is a curiously compelling tale of a battle of wills within one body, and of the last band of “wild” humans, eking out their survival in the desert wilderness. The first 50 or so pages had me wondering what the fuss was about; the last 550 pages had me holding up a flashlight under the covers, flipping pages at breakneck speed. If you liked James Patterson’s Maximum Ride books or Dean Koontz’s Odd Thomas books, odds are that The Host will blow those out of the water.

I’ve been struggling with how to encapsulate Lisa Scottoline’s Lady Killer, and the only thing I’ve been able to come up with is “Rocky in black pumps.” Maybe that’s not totally unfair, since the references to pasta and the Italian mob in Philly are about as common in this book as page numbers. A feisty local girl done good, lawyer Mary DiNunzio is visited by her old high school archenemy, Trish, who fears for her life at the hands of her abusive boyfriend. But there’s a catch: Mary once dated the boyfriend in high school as well. But when a body is found and Trish disappears, Mary doesn’t quite have time to process all the emotions drug up from her hormonal cesspool of high school. Like Janet Evanovich, Patricia Cornwell? You’ll like this.

Yes, this is that book on sale at Starbucks, but I didn’t buy it there, promise. Garth Stein’s third novel is precious and entirely readable for one reason more than any other: the narrator is a dog. And a pretty dang funny one at that. Enzo is his name-o. He’s obsessed with opposable thumbs and racecars (as is his up and coming racecar driver, Denny). Enzo is the first to detect something wrong inside the head of Denny’s wife’s head, and bears silent but poignant witness to her sudden death and the fallout as her parents go to extreme measures to sue for custody of Denny’s daughter. Enzo sees a documentary once saying that a dog will be reincarnated as a human, and thus spends the book shaping little philosophical vignettes in preparation for his future life. You’ll like The Art of Racing in The Rain if you liked John Grogan’s Marley and Me or Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.

I don’t think I would ever have found out about The Sign for Drowning had Sharon not blogged about it a few weeks before its release, so there’s a hat tip in order for her. This novel is more character-driven than plot-driven, and reads more like a poem than anything else, one centering around loss and grief. When Anna loses her younger sister in a freak drowning accident, she decides she can speak to her sister via sign language. This signing ability leads to a career as a teacher of the deaf, during which she meets a deaf orphan who she later adopts. The emotional connection to her daughter Adrea becomes the catalyst that forces Anna to examine the emotional cost of her sister’s death for her family over the years. I admired this book for it’s accuracy in portraying the deaf community through a somewhat-knowledgeable hearing mother’s eyes. The style reminds me of Kim Edwards’ The Memory Keeper’s Daughter and Ian McEwan’s Atonement, but Rachel Stolzman’s effort is, thankfully, a much shorter read.

Gas. It’s the number one topic in most conversations I’ve seen lately, both online and off. It’s an especially loaded subject out here in California, where regular is hovering anywhere from $4.49 to $4.89 a gallon, depending on the area.

Quite a few of us, around the country, have adjusted to the skyrocketing prices in different ways. Those of you in DC have an advantage in Metro, while others cope using whatever options their area has.

Just last week, Senator John Warner (R-Va.) had an interesting proposal: he suggested that Congress reimpose a national speed limit of 55 mph in an effort to save gasoline. The last time the government took such a step was during the 1974 energy crisis precipitated by the OPEC oil embargo. Anyone who remembers those days can easily recall rationing, odd and even fill-up days, and other mechanisms designed to overcome the problems back then.

We aren’t at rationing yet, but being proactive certainly won’t hurt. Warner’s proposal is an interesting one. I’ve seen discussions centered around lowering speed limits online, but so far I haven’t seen this topic in any forum in the deaf blogosphere. My question to all DeafDC readers is this: should speed limits be lowered by the federal government? Should speed limits be lowered by state governments? Why or why not?

DeLorean hovercars notwithstanding, is 55 mph the way back to the future?

Captioned movie fans, we’ve updated DeafDC.com to contain links to two indispensable resources on the top right side of our homepage that DeafDC.com used over the past several years to manually update our captioned movie listings. We want you to have direct access to up-to-date movie captioning times and dates with accurate information.

What was once a large number of websites to track captioned movie times has been consolidated to two websites, Regal Movie Theaters and AMC Movie Theaters. If you haven’t already heard, Regal Movie Theaters bought Consolidated Movie Theaters back in January of this year. Consolidated Movie Theaters had approximately four movie theaters on our listing which are now listed on Regal’s captioned movie listings. If there are other captioned movie websites for the DC metro area, please let us know and we will add it to our list on the DeafDC.com homepage.

As always, DeafDC.com urges everyone to contact their nearest local movie theater and ask them to offer captioned movies, increase their offerings and captioned screens (most offer only one), distribute the latest Hollywood releases, and provide up-to-date and accurate captioned movie information on their marketing materials, advertisements, and websites.

It’s time to grab a flick…get some popcorn and enjoy the captioned movies!

Via a leak, I just got this announcement from Janet Bailey, president of Sign Language Associates (SLA):

Interpreters: 

I am writing to formally announce that SLA, VLI and GoAmerica have merged into one new full service company.  You may remember that in January of this year, GoAmerica acquired Verizon’s text and video relay products (under the IP-Relay brand) and then merged with Hands On VRS.  Now, as one larger company, our combined years of experience, our technical expertise and our strong relationships within the community position us to become #1 in community interpreting, #1 in text relay, and #2 in video relay.

Clearly, in the past few years, the way interpreting services are provided has changed in significant ways.  Deaf consumers face increased difficulty in getting interpreters for face-to-face communication needs; some communities throughout the country cannot locate local interpreters at all.  By coming together, we believe that we can improve support for interpreters and services for Deaf communities; as GoAmerica we can best position ourselves to respond to the changing landscape in the interpreting field. 

With this merger, we combine pioneering leadership, top-notch quality, and technical capability.  SLA and VLI provide expertise in community interpreting that will allow GoAmerica to strike a balance between VRS and community interpreting.  SLA and VLI managers have already begun working with GoAmerica managers and interpreters to improve working conditions for interpreters by offering an array of interpreting settings they can work in.  GoAmerica’s technical expertise allows SLA and VLI to develop nascent programs in remote video interpreting and CART services to meet the ever growing demands for communication access.

Finally, most relevant to developing interpreters and students, we will continue to establish programs for interpreter’s skill and career development across the gamut of our work.  Mentorship programs, coaching and certification readiness, ASL/Spanish language combinations, specialty interpreting proficiencies; these are all areas of endeavor that the combined capabilities of this new company allow us to further develop. The talent and energy of all of the good people who will now work together will mean GoAmerica becomes the premiere company for interpreters across the country.  In that way, and through the company’s array of other products and services, we believe that we will be the first choice of Deaf and Hard of Hearing consumers for all their communication needs.

You will hear more from us in coming weeks about exciting product and service developments.  Interpreters will see enhanced employment options as we develop our organization to take advantage of the best of all three organizations.  Please contact us if you have questions or if you’re interested in becoming part of our exciting team!

Unfortunately RFD cannot take us at this time, so we had to move to DPHH a half-block down 7th St. to Fado Irish Pub. Beer lovers, don’t fret, this place is just as crazy about their beer as RFD. Fado Irish Pub offers the complete slate of the popular Irish varieties. Haven’t been to Ireland before? Come check out what a $2 million effort to bring Ireland to Washington, DC looks like.

Join us for a belated celebration to honor America’s birthday at DPHH on Saturday, July 5th, the day after the 4th of July! It’s a great time to catch the Saturday night fever, something we haven’t done for years. DPHH was pushed back one day so DPHHers can enjoy the fireworks with their family and friends.

808 7th St NW
Washington, DC 20001

Nearest Metro: Gallery PI-Chinatown (Red, Green, Yellow Lines)