Queer Intro

Welcome to the Gay in the Bay Blog! I am Josie, a queer writer and videographer that loves to document what I see around me. This started out as a writing blog but has grown to include events that more people should know about.

This post is for the week of June 18 — 24.

Do you have a live event that needs filming? I’m a videographer! Please check out the Sweeney Media on your way to the About > Contact page. I look forward to working with you.

Writing

Much of my week has been spent in preparation of a photo-related project, but I was able to write. Well, until Friday, but check out below to see what I mean.

Writing has been slow-going this month, but only to celebrate being who I am. Which seems all the more important with all the hateful legislation going on. But in terms of writing, I’m paying more attention to two characters in particular: Billy and Johnny.

They are two young men who are part of the ragtag team of misfits hunting cryptids in my fictional city of New London. In the late 80s/early 90s, they face something even scarier than the vampires and ghosts that they hunt: homophobic parents in the midst of them falling in love.

The places they explore are up against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic. Controversy still ran rampant in the United States, even in NL. Billy and Johnny find themselves in a largely accepting city, but begin to find the underbelly. They look for monsters to see if they are real, and find the human kind hiding in their parents.

This is really becoming a love story wrapped in the cloak of a horror story, filled with quips and pop culture references galore!

I goofed up and stopped talking about monsters for a couple of weeks. It’s time to get back on track. Who doesn’t like a good spook?

Mothman!

The cryptid known as Mothman is nearly as mysterious as, say, aliens. It’s a creature that seems to appear out of nowhere. And it is an Appalachian creature.

Now, I didn’t grow up knowing that last part. I was never told where exactly it was. And when I hear Ohio, I don’t think of the Appalachian Mountains. Hell, when I heard about Mothman on an episode of Timesuck (275 - Appalachian Cryptids, if you want to check the full episode out), I had to doublecheck the information!

With too much history to go into here, this is truly a humanoid creature that’s gone beyond spooky campfire stories. Whether or not you believe in such creatures, it is well worth your time to check them out. Link to the Wikipedia article in the title above.

Pride Month!

While it wasn’t mentioned the past couple of weeks, it is PRIDE Month! I didn’t do as much as I did last year, which was five full days of rainbows and small business booths. But this year several things happened within a week.

This should’ve been covered in last week’s blog, but I was busy losing sleep over a really cool person. But things will still get covered, even if every single week of June has been a blur and difficult to keep up with.

Poetry Slime occurred June 17th, while the Trans March event occurred the 23rd.

Poetry Slime

Poetry Slime meets at Milk SF. I frequently advertised it for the first couple of months, alongside Queer Bedtime Stories. But I realized that I had fallen into a pattern: one that mostly consisted of going to and hanging out with friends between those events. These two have become great ways to catch up with those I already know, and to meet new people.

And I did meet someone new at the gayest of all Poetry Slime events. I find myself in the middle of a meet-cute. We both saw each other recite poetry, and then he got to hang out with the rest of the group at a bar afterward. This is where we both got to meet each other. We played Jenga (a game I’m obsessed with) for quite a while. He beat me in the end. It didn’t occur to me how amazing I thought they were until I was safely at home. We are currently planning on hanging out again.

Volunteer Photographer

Saturday, on the 23rd of June, I got to volunteer for the Trans March non-profit. From 3-6pm I got to take pictures of every sponsor present. There were probably a couple dozen, and some of them were so crowded the entire time that I would have to speak to them later.

My objective: take booth pictures of each sponsor for a collage they wanted to prepare next year.

It was so much fun to connect with new people in this way. I can’t wait for another opportunity to arise where I can help a group out. Even though it was socially and physically draining, it is easily one of my favorite events of the year.

Camera Repair

On a final note: I’m branching out into camera repair! It has been an interest of mine since working at Lens Rentals. Analog and digital, I will not discriminate. The focus right now is to tell everyone I know in the Bay Area so I can get as much experience as possible, then branch out from there. This is a hobby. I have no current plans or expectations for this to become anything more than that. With that being said, I would love to be in a position where I can offer this service to anyone in need of a good CLA (clean, lube, adjust).

Pop Culture

Each week I include media that I’ve enjoyed. If you’re a creator of any kind, please email me to be included in this list. I love discovering new artists; from singer-songwriters to upcoming directors, and beyond.

Beth McCarthy Spotify
Charley Spotify
Durry Spotify
A Little Respect — since I’m in the middle of a meet-cute
Olivia Klug, who’s been mentioned here before, recently had a new album premiere. Check out their Instagram post about it, then head over to Spotify!

Queer Intro

This post is for the week of May 21 — 27.

Do you have a live event that needs filming? I’m a videographer! Please check out the Sweeney Media on your way to the About > Contact page. I look forward to working with you.

Moving

Question: When is the best time to move?

The widely accepted answer is “Never!” But the 21st Century seems to be a period of redefining well-established colloquialisms that don’t always have deserving or even applicable answers.

My lease is up. For the past month I have been stuffing my brand new car (Subaru Impreza, the gayest choice) with things ranging from kitchen utensils to Dalek cardboard cutouts. And let me tell you, it was insane.

Technically-speaking, it wasn’t dramatic or life-altering. Much like the last time I moved (which was from Memphis to Oakland) I downsized. This move has taught me what I truly consider essential, and which items are simply along for the ride.

I’m also moving in with roommates. There will be assigned spaces for food, storage, and bathrooms. There is shared space where I haven’t had to share things before.

The thing that hit me most after bringing up the last box was this: I’m in a new space, and I’m not anxious. Now, I’ve spoken about being neuro-spicy before, and it definitely takes me time to adjust to new living spaces. There will always be an adjustment period for my brain. Along with those time periods are moments of anxiety. My body feels like it doesn’t belong in new places for more than a few hours. But that hasn’t really happened in this new space. There’s still going to be an adjustment where my new roomies get used to me and vice versa. But I don’t feel quite as anxious as before. And there’s something liberating about that.

Writing

I’ve spent the better part of the month of May packing boxes, signing off of social media, and planning the spooky part of my book. To put it simply, I’m amazed to have kept up with this blog series, much less an iota of writing. That being said, progress is being made on Project Madison Flame and the ghost hunting crew that forms a band. And in order to talk about this week’s cryptid, I need to speak on the premise of one episodic story.

There is one episode that has the group going to the outskirts of my fictionalized city of New London, CA. There is a cave system hidden throughout an incredibly hilly portion of wild lands, just north of the city. And there have been rumors of vampires. But what they find is much more than they bargained for.

This is where they come across what is possibly vampires, and what could be shapeshifters. Buckle up for the next section, because I skim the surface on vampirism and its association with diseases.

American Vampires

Vampires are oftentimes thought to be purely a European folklore. But that simply isn’t true! Let’s take our Theater-of-the-Mind Camera Lens and zoom out a bit and shift focus to the Americas. There are creatures from both continents that have lasted for centuries as vampire-like in almost every way. There are simply too many to contain in one post, so I’ve included a Wikipedia link in the headline for further reading.

Vampires have always been associated in one way or another with disease. Vampirism is often believed to be associated with Consumption, or Tuberculosis in particular. There have even been cinematic parallels to vampirism and AIDS.

Yes, AIDS. If you haven’t noticed this trend before, it was especially prevalent in the mid-late-80s. The disease had already been associated with the LGBT Community. Some directors went even further than that by covertly creating the metaphor that if someone had AIDS, they were a vampire. The Hunger (1983) is a prime example of such, specifically with David Bowie’s character who suddenly begins to age rapidly.

Shapeshifter

In more modern times, we associate shapeshifting with it being an ability. For instance, both werewolves and vampires are shapeshifters. But werewolves only change from human-to-wolf, and back again. Vampires traditionally changed shape to more than just bats. Dracula (1931) shape shifts into a wolf and bat, among other creatures of the night.

Like with vampires, I’ve provided a link in the headline. They don’t get as an extensive description as vampires, but that’s likely because this is a nebulous state of being to talk about. There are certainly many shapeshifters in many different cultures (think Loki in the Norse mythology). But it doesn’t feel as specific as, say, Dracula or Carmilla.

Summary

My take on vampires and vampires: they show the sudden and unknowing change from the surface-level normalcy that is our everyday life. The young ghost hunters that want to know if urban legends are true are actually uncovering parts of the city’s history that people have buried in the past. There is an abandoned warehouse that was a makeshift AIDS hospital, but they don’t yet understand what they’ve uncovered when they first find it.

Similarly, being gay was (and unfortunately still is) seen as an abnormality. But the truth rears its ugly head in the form of these cryptids I present in the book. Life is more diverse than we know, and that diversity sometimes encompasses something beyond our scientific understanding. We dive into the unknown because we’re scared and want to understand. And that affects how we identify with ourselves and our environment.

Lesbian Bar Names (End for Now)

I looked at my list just now, fully expecting there to be more. But there doesn’t seem to be any more at present. I’ll have to research more bar names for the future. But for now, I need to rest after moving my life into a new place. Thank you for joining me on this ride of names. I have hopes and plans of continuing this research; especially if I can find the history behind a location. Until then, this mini-queery is finished.

Pop Culture

Subhumans — Found this band via a blue jean jacket with a million patches on it. Pretty rad.
This Irrationally Emotional Playlist — Found this on Mix, and had to give it a listen.
I recently shared a spooky story to Scared to Death Podcast. I hope to share it here eventually. I’m crossing my fingers they read my story in the near future.
Music has been a little lax as of late (one guess as to why from above), but during this week I’ll be on the lookout.