Joe Biden Visits Provincetown, Praises Gay Rights Advocates

(image jamie citron twitter)

Vice President Joe Biden visitied Provincetown, Massachusetts at the tip of Cape Cod for a fundraiser on Sunday morning at the base of the Pilgrim Monument.

Politico reports:

Vice President Joe Biden thanked gay rights advocates Sunday for advancing not just their own civil rights, but also the “civil rights of every straight American.”

“You are freeing the soul of the American people,” Biden said to loud applause during a stop in Provincetown, Mass., according to a pool report. Biden honed in on the LGBT issues during his campaign speech at the Pilgrim Monument and Museum, which is located in a prominent gay community in Cape Cod. “If I had to use one adjective to describe this community it’d be courage," Biden said. "You have summoned the courage to speak out, to come out. We owe you.”

Naom Scheiber at The New Republic says Biden is positioning himself for a 2016 run:

First, Biden is going to extravagant lengths to ensure his boss’s reelection while putting his own ambitions on hold, in the hope that the Obama brass will reward this selflessness when the time comes. There is, quite simply, no speech Biden won’t deliver if it advances the White House cause, no attack on Mitt Romney he won’t wage, no annual convention of Pacific Islander flight attendants he won’t attend on the president’s behalf. “To some extent, he’s put himself in a challenging position [for 2016] by playing by the rules of the Obama political operation and not doing a lot of the prep work, particularly around fund-raising, you would ordinarily be doing by now,” says the adviser...

...Step two of the master plan is leveraging Biden’s deep ties to traditional Democratic constituencies, such as labor, trial lawyers, and African American, Jewish, and gay groups and donors, the last of which were thrilled by his plug for same-sex marriage this May. The vice president cultivated some of these ties for decades as a senator, but has strengthened them significantly during his punishing tour of Holiday Inn ballrooms over the past four years. “Biden has a special call on a lot of people’s loyalties, starting with the president,” says the adviser. “That’s why you’ve got to take him seriously. And he’s serious.”

Dolphin Rescue in Provincetown: VIDEO

I'm working up on Cape Cod for a few weeks and was out biking yesterday in the National Seashore when I made a swing by Provincetown's Herring Cove Beach and noticed a commotion. A space had been cleared on the beach for the arrival of several Atlantic White Sided Dolphins which had stranded themselves early in the day several miles down the coast at Wellfleet, Massachusetts.

A protected bay, Herring Cove is apparently a much safer place for the rescuers to release the dolphins back into the water. There were six which had beached themselves. Two apparently died in the process, and the four remaining were examined and brought up to Ptown for release.

I arrived at the beach moments before the dolphins were trucked in and shot some video of the release. Notice at about 3:00 you can hear the dolphins start communicating as they are first submerged back into the water.

Really a joyous thing to witness. Thought I would share.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

John Cameron Mitchell Says 'Hedwig' Sequel in Progress, Will Reprise Role in Provincetown

Kevin Sessums had coffee with John Cameron Mitchell this week who told him all about the sequel he's working on to Hedwig and The Angry Inch. He's also going to reprise his role on September 16th at a special performance at this year's Afterglow Festival in Provincetown, Massachusetts. And now Kevin's teasing us on his Tumblr:

He then went on to tell me in detail the narrative of the sequel for which Hedwig's original composer Stephen Trask will write the music once more. There was such sweet excitement in his voice as he told me scene after scene, much like the sweetness and excitement he first had when so many years ago we sat in another coffee shop and he shyly admitted he was writing the role of a transgendered rock'n'roller so he could play it himself."

Adds Sessums:

I'll never forget the night I first saw him perform Hedwig in one of those first performances of the show at the theatre at Westbeth. I had never seen that side of John. Hell, I'd never even seen him with a wig on. But he was able to combine his innate sweetness with Hedwig's hellacious swagger to create one of the most original theatrical characters I had ever seen. He bowled me over and broke my heart all at the same time. His brilliance that night still burns in my memory.

As for the sequel? Let's just say it's something that could only happen to Hedwig - a phantasmagoria with dollops of brutal reality interwoven into its multi-media narrative.

Said Mitchell about the new Hedwig plot: "We spend so much of our early lives trying to figure out who we really are. And we spend the rest of our lives preparing ourselves to let it go."

Black Bear Spotted in Provincetown is First-Ever on Cape Cod: VIDEO

Visitors to Cape Cod's gay mecca Provincetown are likely to see plenty of bears there, just not real ones! The first bear ever spotted on Cape Cod has made its way up to the tip of the Cape and was caught on camera in Ptown on Friday.

Watch interviews with Ptown residents and an actual clip of the bear, AFTER THE JUMP...

The Cape Cod Times:

The wandering ursine, who first showed his furry self in Sandwich over Memorial Day weekend, has beguiled the Cape as he trekked up 6A and landed in its outermost town late last week.

Locals have gone bonkers for the bear, with sightings reported by multiple people, their friends or friends of friends. The latest was Friday evening when the bear made his way to the Pilgrim Monument parking lot and the adjacent Alden Street, in the heart of the town.

Wildlife officials last week expressed concern that the bear had reached the relatively crowded confines of Provincetown and said they planned to capture the animal and take it off Cape.

One of the videos posted on YouTube shows a large bear trap that officials placed in the woods, but recent reports say the attempt to capture it have been called off:

Division of Fisheries and Wildlife spokeswoman Marion Larson says officials changed their strategy because the animal hasn’t gotten into trouble. She says officials “were probably over-thinking it” when coming up with the idea of capturing the bear, thought to be a male around three years old. Larson says the mere presence of a bear doesn’t constitute a public safety threat.

Watch interviews with Ptown residents and an actual clip of the bear, AFTER THE JUMP...

P.S. - That other Bear Week starts July 7.

Talking to the Bears at 'Bear Week' in Provincetown: VIDEO

It's 'Bear Week' in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and CapeCast, the daily webcast of the Cape Cod Times, heads to Provincetown to find out, among other things, what Bear Soup (above) is like, and interview what Grizzlies and Cubs they can find.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

(via jmg)

R.I.P.: Provincetown's Ellie Castillo

Those of you who have visited Provincetown, Massachusetts may have had the pleasure of seeing Ellie Castillo perform in front of town hall over the years. I published a report of Ellie's death last month in error. I'm sorry to say that Ellie died on Thursday of pancreatic cancer.

Provincetown Magazine:

Ellie was Provincetown. Her spirit - one of reinvention, fun, glamour, joie de vivre - came through as she sang up and down Commercial Street year-round for the past decade, making her not only a town favorite, but also an instant icon. Ellie arrive in Provincetown at the age of 70 as Elliot. As her placard read, she came here, like so many others, to live her dream.  A former minister, Ellie's own ministry of peace and love reached thousands. Never without a smile, Ellie loved Provincetown, and Provincetown loved Ellie – so much so that when Town Hall re-opened, Ellie sang one of her standards, Frank Sinatra's "Its Impossible", to an adoring crowd. Ellie will be remembered always for her kindness and commitment to this community. We'll all miss her. 

Above is a photo I shot of Ellie in 2004.

Watch a video of Ellie performing at Town Hall and a message from her daughter about a special tribute in June to the longtime Provincetown icon, AFTER THE JUMP...