By bluerasberry on 2019-08-30
The 2019 Wikimania reception was Sunday 18 August in the Nordic Museum. The theme was Nordic Culture and the conference organizers had prepared for us to have a traditional blot, or animal sacrifice, in the lobby of the museum. The organizers announced none of this in advance. I only came to realize what was happening […]
Posted in animal, festival, museum, religion, Stockholm | Tagged blood, vegan, Wikimania
By bluerasberry on 2016-09-29
I was doing some research on the concept of LGBT bookstores, and I started thinking about how LGBT bookstores provided information which was not otherwise available. Nowadays it is harder to identify examples of physical locations which share information of a sort which absolutely cannot be found outside of those locations. I feel like there […]
Posted in gay stuff, religion, Texas | Tagged book, sex
By bluerasberry on 2015-09-05
Theo Chocolate is a company in Seattle which makes chocolate. I was fortunate enough to watch its founding and early years. On 5 September 2007 its founder, Jeff Fairhall, died following a series of unusual circumstances. Jeff was my dear friend and many things about his death were very unfortunate. When we would meet he […]
Posted in religion, Seattle | Tagged chocolate, Jeff Fairhall, magic, ritual
By bluerasberry on 2015-07-21
On Monday 20 July I went to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Leading up to this visit I became aware of my ignorance as to the importance of this place. I knew it was important, but I failed to recognize that it was considered to be the holiest place in the Catholic tradition […]
Posted in Mexico City, religion | Tagged Catholicism, war
By bluerasberry on 2014-09-30
Today, Sunday 28 September 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited New York City to give a speech to the general public at Madison Square Garden. I did not attend the speech, but I was outside protesting Modi’s behavior. I will explain my complaint, the response that I got, and share some details of the […]
Posted in India, legal, religion, Varanasi | Tagged Jashodaben, marriage, money, Narendra Modi
By bluerasberry on 2013-02-22
The night of 13 February I returned from Kumbh Mela with Sou, and I had wanted a peaceful 14 February morning and day with him. Hotels were crazy overbooked in Varanasi and I had not been able to find a room, and I asked Nadya if she could share a room with her cameraman so […]
Posted in festival, gay stuff, India, love, religion, tour | Tagged Kumbh Mela, Nadya Kadrevis, Sherwin, wedding
By bluerasberry on 2012-11-25
I went to see Reverend Billy at the Highline Ballroom on Sunday 25 November 2012. Chuck had received some notice that he would be preaching and when he told me about this, I was excited and went. I had been a fan of Reverend Billy since about 1999, about the same time I discovered Adbusters. […]
Posted in New York City, religion | Tagged consumer rights, protest, Reverend Billy
By bluerasberry on 2011-03-05
I said, “Why don’t you come live in Benares at my place for a while?” So Pradeep from Mumbai Gay Pride got on a train and came 1600km to visit me from Mumbai. A couple of days ago was Shivratri. I was really sick but Nandan had made special arrangements to go backstage at Tilbhandeshwar […]
Posted in festival, India, religion | Tagged Hinduism, sickness
By bluerasberry on 2011-02-22
I was giving Nandan a tour of Wikipedia and one of the entries he wandered to was for Baba Keenaram Sthal. I did not recognize the name of either the place or the founder so Nandan started telling me their history. Later that evening I went for a walk and ran into both Attila and […]
Posted in gay stuff, India, religion | Tagged sex, temple
By bluerasberry on 2011-02-15
From Noida we went to Mathura to visit the birthplace of Krishna. I was surprised when Nandan told me that the temple had been partially demolished by Muslims to replace it with a mosque. This means that all of the three favorite sites of the most popular gods – Shiv’s Kashi Vishwanath, Ram’s birthplace in […]
Posted in animal, India, religion | Tagged monkey, women's rights