Category: Floating World Pictures

Vermont Wedding Photos; The State of Marriage Documentary by Jeff Kaufman

Vermont Wedding Photos; The State of Marriage Documentary by Jeff Kaufman

I received a few photos from film producer, Jeff Kaufman, today of our wedding in Vermont last month and wanted to share. I’ve already posted about the wedding here, and below I’ll post more about the documentary, The State of Marriage, with an excerpt Jeff e-mailed to me with award winning playwright, Terrence McNally, and his partner, Tom Kirdahy. It’s an interesting interview I think most same sex couples can relate to. And we were honored to be part of the documentary and have someone like Vermont Supreme Court Justice, Beth Robinson, perform our ceremony.

 
Tony and I cutting the cake
 
 
Toasting with Beth Robinson, Vermont Supreme Court Justice
 
 
View of Phineas Swann Inn, Montgomery Center, VT, where the ceremony took place
 
 
Before the ceremony with Beth Robinson and the owners of Phineas Swann, Darren and Lynn
 
 
Beth Robinson
 
 
The Wedding Cake
 

 
Me putting the ring on Tony during the ceremony
 
 

The State of Marriage Documentary and Interview with Terrence McNally and Tom Kirdahy

 

TERRENCE:

Marriage is choosing to spend your life with someone and thinking of the two of you as “us.”

Us becomes more important than me. It’s sharing your life with someone, and that includes

everything. The lack of marriage (I called our civil union “marriage”) before this had a

greater stress on our relationship than I ever realized. Our civil union and marriage changed

the level of our relationship. It’s so much better. We didn’t get married to get happier, but we

are happier. Everything is so much better. We’re more honest. We’re more connected.

TOM:

Frankly, a lot of our love affair happened (when Terrence had cancer) in Sloan Kettering.

When Vermont happened, when civil unions happened, we thought we want to be as married

as two men can be in this country. We wanted to be as committed to each other as is humanly

and legally possible. We’d been through so much and we’d heard about this great inn in

Vermont. I don’t think either of us fully knew how profound that moment would be when we


said those words out loud, “In sickness and in health” and “I do.”

TERRENCE:

Until you actually look someone in the eye and say, “In sickness and in health, until death do

us part,” well, it’s a profound human experience. When I met Tom, marriage wasn’t even a

possibility. I could write about it in plays, men getting married, but to think it could be a

reality, that seemed impossible. It was after we went to Vermont for the legal part of it, that

the emotional impact hit me. We stood in the living room of a country inn and a justice of the

peace married (civil unioned) us, and it was snowing. Saying “I am there for you for the rest

of my life” is a very profound pledge to make to someone. And it makes me feel safer, more

protected, happier, calmer . . . I’m not alone in the world. I have a husband, and I hope I

make Tom feels the same way. As much as I love Tom, I never had that feeling until I stood

in Vermont in that inn and said the words to each other. We were both surprised. We came


back from Vermont changed men in a changed relationship.

I’ll post more about the documentary as I get the info. I think it’s going to be something interesting if this interview is any indication of the content. And I haven’t been as comfortable or impressed with someone in a long time as I was with Jeff Kaufman. What a great guy. As for Vermont and Montgomery Center, it really is a magical place to be and that made our wedding even more significant…if that was even possible.  

Madonna’s Racial Slur; Jeff Kaufman: The State of Marriage

Madonna’s Racial Slur

I almost hate putting up a title like that because I don’t for one single minute think Madonna Ciccone is in any way a racist. But an exchange between Maddona and her son, Rocco, on Instagram shows her using the N-word and it’s done in a way that leans more toward cultural endearment than racially charged slur.

Madonna is apologizing for using a racial slur to refer to her white son on Instagram.

On Friday night, she posted a picture of her 13-year-old son Rocco boxing and used a hashtag that contained a variation of the n-word.

When fans objected, she defiantly called them haters, but in a statement to The Associated Press on Saturday she was contrite, saying: “Forgive me.”

I’ve posted about the Q-word…Queer…a few times and how I’m not too thrilled with it because of the associations. But I do know, both intellectually and emotionally, that the people who use the Q-word, as in LGBTQ…for the most part are not making gay slurs, they are not anti-gay, and for them it’s more of a political statement. I never take offense. The same thing could be said for the N-word with respect to context. I don’t use it. But I know there are people who do use it and they mean no racial harm. It’s all about context.

You can read more here.

Jeff Kaufman: The State of Marriage

I was speaking to film producer, Jeff Kaufman, on the phone the other day and he mentioned he was heading to the Sundance Film Festival this weekend. I can’t say why I was speaking to him yet, but I will next week. But I’m also posting about Kaufman because he’s working on a documentary right now about same sex marriage and equal rights. And this is just one of his projects, among others like, The Savoy King, that has garnered more than a few excellent reviews.

I also realized I don’t post enough about indie films, at least not as much as I do about indie books and authors, and most of the films Tony and I watch are actually indies.

Thanks perhaps to a life that was painfully brief in comparisonto peers like Duke Ellington, Swing Era bandleader Chick Webb is underappreciated by casual music lovers. Jeff Kaufman‘s enjoyable, convincing The Savoy King seeks to remedy that, and will likely draw some attention solely for the startling lineup of actors providing voice-over talent. Though unlikely to see many big-screen bookings outside the fest circuit, the doc is rewarding for any Swing fan and, given some colorful and heartstring-pulling elements, will likely inspire filmmakers in the audience to wonder about biopic rights.

You can read more here. And you can read more here about Jeff Kaufman and Floating World Pictures. The documentary he’s doing is titled, The State of Marriage, and that second link will lead you directly to that page.

More to come on The State of Marriage very soon.