WORLD AIDS DAY 2003
December 1st will mark the 16th annual World AIDS Day. The day will have different significance to different individuals, but a common thread will be the rememberance of 22 million individuals worldwide who have lost their lives to HIV/AIDS. It’s also a day to educate, motivate and mobilize people to be aware of the impact and devastation of AIDS not only one those who have lost their lives–but to those left behind without a loved one.
The Centers For Disease Control (CDC) has estimated that over 42 million people worldwide are infected with HIV, and millions more will be infected by the end of the decade. Approximately 900,000 Americans are living with HIV/AIDS (some of whom don’t even know they are infected). In addition, some 40,000 are newly infected with HIV in the United States alone each year. The statistics are staggering and mind-numbing. Yet, it is only by continual information, awareness and education that each of us can make our own small difference.
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (with funding from the CDC) has looked at HIV/AIDS infection rates by many different criteria. One of the most interesting tools they have devised is a state by state comparison of the reporting of AIDS cases. Their data is complete through December 2001.
As an individual one of the most important and proactive things you can do is have yourself tested for the HIV antibodies. A recent study by the firm Witeck-Combs Communications/Harris Interactive for the CDC found that most gay men and lesbians have been tested for HIV antibodies. However, 35% of their sample of gay men and lesbians were unaware of their HIV serostatus. Conversely, nearly 60% of heterosexuals haven’t been tested.
I’ve made it a practice to have a test done each year when I have my routine physical and blood workup by my physician. It’s not so much that I feel I have put myself in a high-risk situation, but more for my own knowledge and to protect anyone I may have sexual contact with. It’s a duty and responsiblity that I don’t take lightly.
QUEER EYE SOUNDTRACK
The theme song to the hit show “Queer Eye For The Straight Guy” has been released commercially for radio and clubplay. The single “All Things (Just Keep Getting Better)” by Widelife has been remixed by several high-profile DJs. A video clip shot on the Brooklyn Bridge by director Wayne Isham will soon go to video outlets. Now comes word that the first soundtrack album to be spawned from the television show will hit store shelves on February 10, 2004. Entitled “What’s That Sound”, the album will feature tracks by Elton John, Basement Jaxx, Jamelia, Fischerspooner, Billy Squier, Liz Phair, In-grid and a Chemical Brothers remix of Kylie Minogue’s “Slow”. The album, released by Capitol Records, is the first in a planned series of albums.
HOT LIST
01. Tori Amos’s “Tales of a Librarian: A Tori Amos Collection“–wonderful set, gloriously remastered
02. Hayden Christensen in “Shattered Glass“
03. Madonna’s “Remixed & Revisited [EP]“
04. Gary Larson’s “The Complete Far Side“
05. Benjamin McKenzie
WORD OF THE DAY
edaphic
SONG LYRICS OF THE WEEK
“boy gets discovered
as winter melts
flowers competing for sun
years go by
and i’m here still waiting
withering where some snowman was
mirror, mirror
where’s the crystal palace
but I only can see myself
skating around the truth who i am
but i know, dad, the ice is getting thin
hair is grey
and the fires are burning
so many dreams on the shelf
you say ‘i wanted you to be proud of me’
i always wanted that myself
when you gonna make up your mind
when you gonna love you as much as i do
when you gonna make up your mind
’cause things are gonna change so fast
all the white horses have gone ahead
i tell you that i’ll always want you near
you say that things change, my dear”
—”Winter” by Tori Amos
