LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
CAMPOut: Invisible America, the Beautiful |
by Fay Jacobs |
Feast or famine. In the summer, with new Letters deadlines arriving before my last column is even cold, I often do some pretty weird stuff just to come up with material. Would I ever go to an Apple-Scrapple Festival without a deadline creeping up my butt? I think not. So why, for the last column of the year, are there always so many topics, so little space? Every year my November effort is a hodge-podge. Not to break a record, here's 2001. Jazz Fest This is the year I finally came to terms with Jazz. If you've followed this column you may recall my sheepish admission of once upon a time being married to a jazz accordion player. There is too such a thing. And it's awful. If you need further explanation, imagine "Jeremiah was a Bullfrog" on the accordion. Now take two aspirin and a Pepcid Complete. To this day I go into anaphylactic shock hearing "Lady of Spain." My sordid past includes too many nights in smoky clubs listening to my personal Lawrence Welk pitch the melody to the bass player, who tossed it to the drummer, after which it disappeared altogether and I couldn't go home until it came back. I've seen people celebrate consecutive birthdays during a single drum solo. Consequently, I'm jazz phobic and have always avoided Rehoboth's Jazz Fest no matter how my friends extol it. This year though, I tried aversion therapy and participated. Wow! I went to hear Holly Lane, a terrific torch singer and jazz soloist at Irish Eyes and Scott Hendrichsen, keyboard man extraordinaire at Cloud 9. I loved it. Hallelujah, I am healed! It only took 23 years. Now I'm looking forward to next year's festivalin accordion-free zones, of course. Fool's errand Back on Oct. 11, there was that awesome Wilmington Avenue Street Party, organized by M.J. and Jean Luc at Celsius to benefit the kids of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York. The final tally was almost $50,000! But did you hear about the fool who volunteered to deposit the money in an account of a local non-profit so one big check could be written to the charity? Days after the event, after deposit slips were filled out and the last of the funds trickled in, said fool arrived at Celsius for the loot. She found the money stashed in the freezer ("I didn't know where else to put it!" admitted a nervous Jean-Luc). Talk about cold cash. Between the bills, the coin and checks, it filled a bulging trash bag. The fool picked up the icy package, placed it in a shopping bag for further disguise, and took off by car for a nerve-wracking three-minute ride to the bank. Entering the depository, the bag lady nervously clutched her loot-filled sack, and sat, waiting rather conspicuously, for the manager. She got weird looks and thought she detected people tripping the silent alarm. When the manager approached and saw the contents of the bag, she rolled her eyes and had to enlist a squad of tellers to start counting the stuff. "Now you understand," said the manager, "that anybody who brings in more than $10,000 in cash has to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service. Please fill out this form." Ashen faced, the fool complied, realizing of course that this indignity was only to meet bank regulations. None the less, there's nothing like news that you're being reported to the IRS to brighten your day. So, if this fool gets accused of running a drug cartel, raising money for Al-Qaida, or collecting illegal campaign funds, I hope you'll vouch for me. Surely they'll know that I barely get around to doing my laundry at home, much less at the bank.(Cheers again, for M.J. & Jean-Luc and the generosity of the people of Rehoboth Beach.) Film Festival Having broken my own personal best this year by seeing 13 films between Thursday and Monday, I have a great idea for festival souvenirsRehoboth Film Festival logo-imprinted inflatable rubber rings to sit on. By Sunday's closing party, all I could do was stand up. Now we all know that the movies were in a new venue this year and success begat a few logistical problemslike long lines. I'm sure there will be many improvements for next year. But on the whole, the volunteers were amazing! I can't believe the number of tickets sold and the number of people who went to see the films. Cheers for the Film Society and its over-worked volunteers. I know that some people were put off by the lines, (maybe they should switch to decaf) but the treasures in those theaters were well worth it. But what's with the wretched lesbian films? Can't our community come up with something better than reinforcing out-dated butch/femme stereotypes and irresponsible, bar-hopping lesbians in badly filmed, badly paced amateur movies? All the lesbian party animals I know are having trouble staying up for Koppel. Rampant one night stands and destructive obsessions? I say we film longtime lovers, compassion, and obsessive pooper scoopering. Butch/Femme? How can you tell the difference when everybody's wearing Film Festival t-shirts? Let's make our own movies and stop being so invisible. Which brings me to my final point: Subtle Invisibility In the aftermath of Sept. 11, we've heard the song "America the Beautiful" a lot. So much, in fact, that People magazine devoted a story to its lyricist, Katharine Lee Bates. The article ticked me off. Here's the exchange between People Magazine and this disgruntled reader. You decide who's right: (you can record your comment at CampoutReho@aol.com) Editor, People Magazine Oct. 31, 2001 Editor: I enjoyed your article on Katharine Lee Bates, the Wellesley College professor who wrote the poem "America the Beautiful." However, something was missing. As long as your story included the information that Bates never married, it's a shame that you left out the fact that she lived in a "Wellesley Marriage" with another woman, Katharine Coman, also a faculty member, for almost 30 years. When the histories of enduring and relevant same-gender relationships are no longer edited out of stories for publication in magazines like People, it will indeed be an America the Beautiful. Fay Jacobs, Rehoboth Beach, DE ***** Dear Ms. Jacobs, Thank you for writing to People magazine. We are sorry that you were disappointed in our article "Her Hymn Endures" in the November 5 issue. It was not our editors' intention to be disrespectful to Katharine Lee Bates by referring to her as having never married nor do we believe we have done so. We did not include information regarding Ms. Bates relationship within the article because we did not feel that it was relevant to the story. This article was intended to be about the song "America the Beautiful" and the inspiration and history behind its creation. We believe we were fair to both Ms. Bates and Samuel Ward by offering our readers only the most general background information. Nevertheless, we regret that you were disappointed in our article and we appreciate your sharing your opinion with us. Sincerely,Erin McIntyre For the Editors ***** November 8, 2001 Dear Erin, Thanks for your reply. But my point may have been missed. If the phrase "Bates, who never married,...." had not been included in the article, then her social life would NOT have been relevant. However, since the reporter brought up the fact that she never married, it is dismissive to those of us in same-gender relationships to have, what was surely an important relationship to Ms. Bates, ignored in print. It left the readers with a false impression of the subject's marital and family status, not merely an irrelevant impression. I stand by my original letter. Please think about it. Sincerely, Fay Jacobs And finally..... My very best to your house from mine this holiday season. Talk to you in February. In the meantime, let's get some ideas going for that quintessential lesbian independent film. I know we can do better!!!! Fay Jacobs, a national award winning columnist, is the Features Editor of Letters from CAMP Rehoboth. She may be reached at CampoutReho@aol.com. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 11, No. 15, November 21, 2001. |