TTD In Da Fort: Take your Partner on free date? ART OFF MAIN Opened @ Masonic Temple; Cultural/Community Credit Program to be reformatted in 3 months.

One of the things that F6 is fond of promoting is community events and cultural forums, especially those which are at a greatly reduced cost, or with certain hours where it is open to the public to attend for free. As a typical rule anything over twenty dollars a person F6 does not promote, unless it is just that phenomenal, or GLBT related, and then we must promote it.

The Downtown Improvement District and the Fort Wayne Museum of Art have done exactly that in each category with their latest ART OFF MAIN project hosted by Comcast, Fort Wayne Metals, and WMEE 97.3FM. The event opened last night from 6-9P @ The Masonic Temple on East Washington Blvd. at the intersection of Barr Street with an open reception and fashion show. On Saturday the 14th, St. Valentines Day, there is a $75/per couple Art & Heart Dinner which includes dinner by Club Soda, two drink tickets, live entertainment and admission to the ART OFF MAIN exhibit. Spaces are limited so if this is something that interests you call 260-420-3266 an reserve your table.

Now as for the rest of us who are just trying to get by and have to scrape just to get a double cheeseburger at McDonald's. There are also four opportunities for us to take our significant others out on the town for a romantic date even for just a couple of hours. Today and tomorrow from 12N-4P as well as Wednesday the 11th and Friday the 13th from 4P-8P the exhibit is open to the public for free, yes free! At 2P today there is also a theatrical performance and tomorrow, also @ 2P, there is a Home Grown Bead & Candle Shoppe demonstration.

Take the opportunity to expand your horizons, explore the rich culture that Fort Wayne has to offer. Impress your partners with your astute thinking and frugality all at the same time! And then afterward you can still afford to take them to Subway and split a five dollar foot long or to Wendy's for two chocolate or vanilla frosties and junior bacon cheeseburgers or five piece chicken nuggets, which also comes to about five dollars. Both restaurants are just around the corner from the Temple.

This way you get diner and date all for five dollars and it will only cost you a little bit extra for a baby sitter. If you have no relatives that will give you a break and do it for free, I can recommend a wonderful single mother of two, Grace Strahm, personally (pictured to the right, during the Save Maumee Earth Day Project, last year), and you may contact her via MySpace or email directly. As a reminder, this year the River Cleanup will happen on Divine Mercy Sunday, the 19th of April, from 11A-5P @the Pemberton Dike off North Anthony Blvd.

To follow up on a previous post The Fort Wayne Museum of Art has free admission on Wednesdays and the first Sunday of the month from 12N-5P. As an aside, and please pardon the queening out, but this is for all of my Pagan and spiritually sensitive readers in the regional area, and anybody willing to travel:

HELLO! What a better time then a Friday the 13th to be in the Masonic Temple touring an art exhibit, okay!.

The other thing that I began working on the year before last, is development of a Cultural Studies Community Service Credit Reserve Program, CS3Rivers for short, where someone receives a credit voucher for community service ($1-2/hour), which can then be used for admission and snacks at a local theatre or sports venue to catch play or a game of any one of our many semi professional and professional sports teams and performance troupes along our three rivers. It is a slow process finding the support mechanisms and networking with the different organizations around town. I serve on the Board of a Non Profit that is willing to charter the program; so over the next three months or so, I will be working to flush out the plan and get it in motion. If anyone wants to help with this program contact me via email or leave a comment below. And please note this program is a joint effort headed by my Pastorate, F6 Queer Views Of Life Along Our Three Rivers, and Heartland Communities, Inc.

UPDATE: After visiting the ART OFF MAIN Exhibit @ The Masonic Temple on Friday the 13th, Those whom are 21 and over @8P can stop by After Dark Night Club 1601 South Harrison (5 blocks from the Grand Wayne Center) for "A Legend In My Own Mind" Cabaret Show hosted by DellaLicious with provided accompaniment by Mark Sampson to benefit ATF's Jack Ryan House & Community Harvest Food Bank.

Scottish Highland Games are tomorrow @ Concordia Theological Seminary

Just the thought of sexy young men running around in plaid skirts... well you get the idea!

When: 14th of June, 2008 Time: 9a - 8p
Where: Concordia Theological Seminary Soccer Fields
6600 North Clinton Street, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46825
Free Parking: Red Lot (16b), Yellow Lot (16d), Green Lot (16c) and White Lot (17) Tickets: Adult $10 (13 & up), Children $5 (6 - 12) and Infant to 5 are Free There are two entrances: one will be off of Red Lot 16b by building #11 and the other will be at off of Yellow Lot 16d.

A day at the Indiana Highland Games will consist of: Bagpipe and Drums, Clan Tents, Food and Beverage, Genealogy, Highland Animals and Horses, Rugby (is back!!), Celtic Market Place - Shopping
9a - 5p Highland Athletic Competition,
9a - 3p Highland Dance Competition
10a - 8p Entertainment Tent, 9a - 12n & 1p - 4p Cricket
9a - 5p MacFarlane's History, 10a - 5p Children's Area
11a - 8p Beer Tent, 12:30p Welcoming Ceremonies
1:30p Haggis Toss and Bonnie Knees Contest (Sign up at Welcome/SCS Tent)
4:30p Athletic Awards Ceremony
6p - 8p Ceildah & Pub (one great party)

Children's Highland Games: will be available between 10a and 3p. Crafts will begin at 10a and run through 3p. This year the kids will have an opportunity to learn more and experience Scottish music first hand. They will have a chance to play a tin whistle bodhran drum, lesson are at 2p and 4p; the cost will be $10 each. The $10 includes the instrument, which you get to keep. Lesson sign up will be at the Welcome/SCS Tent. Scottish Country dancing lessons will also be taught at 2p and 4p. For more detail please check at the Childrens tent after 10a. (on June 14th) Don't forget about the children's athletics: Caber Toss, Sheaf Throw among others.

Live Music by Bag Pipe Bands from Indiana: 12n - Massed Bands* followed by the Parade of Tartans; 1p - The Ft Wayne Scottish Pipes & Drums (Fort Wayne); 1:40p - The Murat Highlanders Pipes & Drums (Indianapolis); 2:20p - FWPD Pipe and Drum Brigade (Fort Wayne); 3p - The Thistle & Heather Pipe Band (South Bend); 3:40p - The Indiana Caledonia Pipe Band (Zionsville); 5p - Massed Bands *Different Pipe and Drum bands from the area gather together and perform as one.

In the Entertainment Tent/Beer Tent: Dave and Trinity 10a, 1:30p; Melinda Crawford 10:30a, 3:15p, 6p, 7:30p (joint); Fonn Mar 11:30a, 12:45p, 5:15p, 6:45p, 7:30p (joint); Tugboat Jack 2:15p, 4p; Children's performance on Tin Whistle and Bodhran Drum and Scottish Country Dance 3p, 5p.

Food and Shopping Vendors: House of Douglas - Scottish Food & Bake Goods, Whistle Stop - American Food, Dough Ditties, Celtic Corner, CeltiCrafters, Scottish Banner Publications, The Scotland Yard, Faire Isles Trading Company, UK Market, Blossoms of Avalon

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:

I previously have made editorial comments that were republished on F6 regarding kilts/tartans or male skirts as an alternative to resolving the extreme sagging (below the buttocks) of pants issue with our teenagers.

And as a further note, if we did switch to a dress skirt for men, it would actually be more environmentally friendly. A basic male skirt wouldn't need to be washed after each wearing and you might actually get to wear it several times before having to wash it due to the lack of tight body/skin contact, thereby reducing the waste of water and the reduction of chemicals used to clean the fabrics. Of course by all means, don't pull a Brittney and forget to wear underwear, please!

I will post some modern male skirt links on the F6 LINKS PAGE over the weekend.

But there is nothing to do in Fort Wayne... Wrong!

Every time I here someone complain about there not being anything to do in Fort Wayne it causes me to have a twitch in my brain that makes me want to throttle their head against the brick wall of the Old City Hall Museum on Barr Street. Now granted, most things in Fort Wayne seem to require exorbitant amounts of money in order to participate in. That is especially true, when one person is or a group of people are barely making it, while either going to college or just trying to scrape the bottom of the barrel on a day to day basis to survive.

Then I was thinking to myself most of my kids still have enough money to buy cigarettes every other day or so, and a good portion about a quarter of them have a pretty decent marijuana habit *shrugs shoulders and shakes head*; so if they if they have the money for that, then they should be able to redirect some of those funds for other endeavors and experiences within the community. Now of course that leaves the other three quarters of my kids and their peers who are just trying to get by moment by moment. If you are a student at I Paid For What, besides being treated to a thousand dollar Midget Elvis for March Madness a couple of years back, there are really some pretty fucking cool options available to you as a student in the way of discounts at local establishments and free tickets to certain events either on or off campus. I know one student was enrolled at the minimum full time credit hours for like twelve years just to receive those benefits, and to defer his tuition for a lifetime. But that doesn't begin to cover those, and there are a lot, who haven't had the opportunity or who failed there first attempt at college and haven't gone back yet for whatever reason.

So I propose a plan to City Council (hat tip towards Mitch Harper) and whoever else might be reading this blog entry. Let's start as a system based on volunteer work in the area, a Cultural Studies Credit:

Let's start by organizing both youth and young adults ranging in age from 16-21 and 21-26. The basic premises is that when they volunteer a certain amount of hours in the community, lets say ten (10) hours, one would receive a ten dollar credit (covers the cost of a movie, snack, and soda) which would either be distributed in a gift card or voucher system. They could then use them to see a movie at the Cinema Center, or gain entry into any of our beautiful museums, or go skinny dipping at Fox Island (*not legal but fun*). To beat the summer heat what if the volunteers could donate their time and then use some of their credits to get into the FW-AC Park Department's pools for free.

If they go over forty (40) hours in a month then should there also be an additional benefit awarded or their credited hours over forty should roll over to the next month. These are just some rough ideas that I am plotting out for a bigger action to make life better for my kids and kids all across this beautiful city we all love and call home.