2012 Sundance Predictions: Ira Sachs' Keep the Lights On | IONCINEMA.COM

Classmate Ira Sachs is heading to 2012 Sundance Film Festival with a new film.  Good luck Ira!

Ira Sachs' good rapport with Sundance dates back to when his 2005 film Forty Shades of Blue claimed the Grand Jury Prize. Financed with a Kickstarter campaign and aided by Sundance Institute's Annenberg Grant, Keep the Lights On will fill the festival's queer film quota, but also becomes a force to be reckoned with in perhaps the festival's U.S Dramatic Competition section.

Gist: Co-written by Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias, this takes place in 1997. Ben is another gay man in New York trying to make a connection through a phone sex line. He meets Nick - closeted, handsome and with a girlfriend attached. From the start, this casual encounter extends itself into a hopeful moment between potential lovers. As Ben negotiates life as a documentary filmmaker, his relationship with Nick, a precociously young lawyer in a prominent publishing house, becomes more than just a fling.

Producers: Sachs, Marie-Therese Guirgis (The Loneliest Planet) and Lucas Joaquin

2012 Sundance Predictions: Ira Sachs' Keep the Lights On | IONCINEMA.COM

Please share your pictures

We would love to keep building our reunion video, but we need your pictures to do it. Please send whatever pictures you might have. And, if you're feeling in the sharing mood,please post them to our Reunion Facebook page.

These Are Days You Should Remember -- Come to Reunion

TEDxYale | Events: 2012

TED talks are coming to Yale.  Check it out.  Click below.

Each TED and TEDx conference has a theme that broadly unifies all the talks. For the first TEDxYale conference we have chosen, “A Twist of Fate.” We are living in a time of limitless possibility, and with that comes enormous uncertainty. At TEDxYale, speakers will share their personal stories and vision for the future, pushing us towards new methods of thinking about our world.

TEDxYale | Events: 2012

Writers and Their Books: Inside Famous Authors' Personal Libraries - Maria Popova - Entertainment - The Atlantic

Read below about authors and their books.  The piece below highlights Claire Messud.

Claire Messud + James Wood

Owning books has been only intermittently of importance to me. At one time, collecting books that were my own, feeling I had my own intellectual and literary trajectory visible before me, seemed necessary and meaningful. But now, in midlife, I feel that my tendency to acquire books is rather like someone smoking two packs a day: it's a terrible vice that I wish I could shuck. I love my books, and with all their dog-ears and under- linings they are irreplaceable; but I sometimes wish they'd just vanish. To be weighed down by things—books, furniture—seems somehow terrible to me. It's important to be ready to move on." - Claire Messud

Writers and Their Books: Inside Famous Authors' Personal Libraries - Maria Popova - Entertainment - The Atlantic

ACLU "Don't Filter Me" Campaign Lifting Web Censorship Across the Country in 2011 | Same-Sex Couples News - faces of marriage equality, same-sex couples worldwide

Here is a piece by James Esseks, who is director of the  ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & AIDS Project , where he has worked since 2001. At the ACLU, Mr. Esseks oversees litigation around the country that aims to ensure equal treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people by the government; equal rights and protections for LGBT couples and families; protection from discrimination in jobs, schools, housing, and public accommodations; and fair treatment by the government of people living with HIV.  Prior to joining the ACLU, Mr. Esseks was a partner at Vladeck, Waldman, Elias & Engelhard, P.C., in New York, where he represented employees in a range of employment matters. Mr. Esseks graduated from Yale College and Harvard Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. He clerked for the Honorable Robert L. Carter, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, and the Honorable James R. Browning, United States Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit. Periodically Mr. Esseks permits 10,000 Couples to reprint his posts for our readers. Consider making a gift to support the ACLU's LGBT Rights work  www.aclu.org/LGBTdonate 

ACLU "Don't Filter Me" Campaign Lifting Web Censorship Across the Country in 2011 | Same-Sex Couples News - faces of marriage equality, same-sex couples worldwide

The Bloating Cure

Classmate Robynne Chutkan has some interesting things to say about bloating . . . and I thought it would be particularly timely advice in the holiday season.  Click the link below to read more.

The Bloating Cure

Supreme Court Short List: Who Will Be America's Next Top Conservative Justice?

Many think that one of the next conservative nominees to the Supreme Court will be our very own Brett Kavanaugh.  You can read the piece below to find out more . . .

Supreme Court Short List: Who Will Be America's Next Top Conservative Justice?

Whiffenpoofs of Yale - Sing Out

If you are in New York this weekend, you might want to check out this benefit concert:

Sing Out, Raise Hope

A Benefit Concert for The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation & The Trevor Project

Featuring Darren Criss, the Yale Whiffenpoofs, the Harvard Krokodiloes, & the Princeton Nassoons

Sat. December 17, 2011

Alice Tully Hall | 70 Lincoln Center | New York, NY

Featuring Darren Criss (Blaine Anderson on Glee)

Whiffenpoofs of Yale - Sing Out

 

About the Benefit Concert Series

In the summer of 2010, the Yale Whiffenpoofs performed at an Elizabeth Glaser Foundation Pediatric AIDS Foundation HIV Clinic in Kenya and, inspired by the organization's work, pledged to support their critical efforts.

The Association of Yale Alumni (AYA) was eager to help. It constantly calls upon alumni to effect change in their communities through programs like the annual International Day of Service, Summer Institute for the Arts, Yale Alumni Service Corps, and regular local service. While each initiative provides needed volunteers for numerous organizations around the globe, in this economic climate organizations are in dire need of not only personnel, but also financial assistance.

This year, the Whiffenpoofs are continuing their partnership with the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and establishing a partnership with The Trevor Project. AYA is proud to partner with the Whiffenpoofs in supporting these important causes.

YaleNews | Yale Homebuyer Program tops 1,000 purchase mark in 2011; University trustees renew employee benefit for New Haven

This has nothing to do with the class . . .  but I thought it is an interesting story about what is happening at Yale and in New Haven.  Click below for details.



YaleNews | Yale Homebuyer Program tops 1,000 purchase mark in 2011; University trustees renew employee benefit for New Haven

Act II for the Tooth Fairy — This Life - NYTimes.com

Bruce Feiler was in the NYTimes recently discussing the Tooth Fairy.  Click below to read the article.
 
Act II for the Tooth Fairy — This Life - NYTimes.com

Our Microbiomes, Ourselves - NYTimes.com

Classmate Carl Zimmer had an interesting piece in the NYTimes last weekend.  You should give it a read.

IMAGINE a scientist gently swabs your left nostril with a Q-tip and finds that your nose contains hundreds of species of bacteria. That in itself is no surprise; each of us is home to some 100 trillion microbes. But then she makes an interesting discovery: in your nose is a previously unknown species that produces a powerful new antibiotic. Her university licenses it to a pharmaceutical company; it hits the market and earns hundreds of millions of dollars. Do you deserve a cut of the profits?

Our Microbiomes, Ourselves - NYTimes.com

Reunion -- Hotels and Staying on Campus

We have received a few questions about where to stay at Reunion.  Here are some answers:

Hotels

Some people want to stay in a hotel.  If so, we suggest you contact the hotels at which Yale has secured blocks of rooms.  Many people are staying at The Study, although some prefer other hotels.  For a list, click here.

If you are interested in staying in a hotel, you should try to book soon.  The rooms sell out.

On Campus

Some of you want to stay in the dorms.  These rooms do not sell out.  There are plenty.  Here is the story:

In March you will be receiving, either by email or mail, registration materials. When you register you will have the option to reserve on campus housing. You will also get to put down special housing requests – this is where you can request to be housed with all of the classmates that want to be housed together. (Housing may put you all in one entry way.)

But, here’s the kicker – you have to request who you want to be housed with and each of the other people have to request all of the same people. This way housing knows that it’s ok to put person A with persons C and B since they all requested each other.

Hope this clarifies things.

Reunion Challenge -- Can you write a six word memoir?

Bettina Elias Siegel has posted a reunion challenge on our class Facebook page.  (Click here to visit the Facebook page.)  Can you summarize your life since graduation in six words?  Six words.  It's a challenge.  Some have risen to the challenge, though.  Please give it a try.  Let us know what you come up with.

Here are some of the current entries:

Writing’s more fun than lawyering. (Duh.)
NYC, BOS, DFW, LA, DC, SFO
Still crazy after all these years...
Lost hair, gained weight, earned perspective

My MBA is my middle child

Me, a lawyer?  How'd that happen?

Bruce Feiler Appears in today's New York Times

Who is coming to reunion?

Some have asked me who is coming to reunion.  Well, if history is any guide, our class typically makes a good show.  Expect over 1,000 people to be there throughout the weekend.  This isn't all classmates mind you; spouses, significant others, and children are included in the mix.  But, we should get a very high percentage of the class.

To find out who has already committed to come, you can click here.

UPDATE:   Lot's of people have already signed up.  Check out the list and see if your friends are on the list, yet.

Golf at Reunion

Liz Swisher has offered to organize an informal golf tournament on Thursday, May 24, so long as there is interest.  So, are you interested in playing golf at reunion?  If so, please let me know at happado@hotmail.com.

25th Reunion Website is Live -- Hotel Blocks Have Been Released

I am pleased to share that the 2012 Reunion website is live and the hotels blocks have been opened to receive reservations. Class mailings are being sent starting today and continuing next week. Emails will be sent mid next week.

I urge anyone interested in staying in a downtown hotel room to reserve your room over the weekend. For your convenience I have included the hotel reservation codes here:


May 24-27 - YCR112 with the exception of the Omni which is 14600109102

A reunion video brought to you by the Class of 2006

New Haven State of Mind from Brett Konner on Vimeo.