So I know this is late and to any of you who check this site regularly (ha! who am I kidding?), my apologies for not throwing some things up since x-mas. However, things are in the works to get posted, bare with me. Life is so much slower when you get a puppy over the break...
In the intern, here are a list of things I would love to happen in relation to this project. Some of the items are born out of frustration that I am hitting roadblocks with my thesis; some are wishful win-the-lottery moments; some are both; others are me being totally lazy and not wanting to get off my ass and organize things. Anyways, this is what is in the mind of the fellow getting into his thesis. Enjoy, and if you can help me cross anything off my list, the whiskey is on me.
That, I can get off my ass for.
1: Lesbians. Lots and lots of elderly, sharp-as-a-tack lesbians who were out on the town when Ottawa was barely past being a town. If not that, a woman who would like to work with me doing interviews, and I can use as a liaison/bait for the lesbian/bi community.
2: An underpaid student or retired person with really fast hands, so I can pay them to transcribe interviews. You'd get paid minimum wage (under the table); be provided with a hard drive full of interviews and make at least 1000.00$ doing so. Added incentives would be the possbility to use any of the interviews you transcribe in work of your own, and a HUGE thank you in my published thesis (okay, they are not great incentives, but hey, the loss of a thousand bucks is killing me as it is).
3: A night out with a gaggle of 20 somethings. I want to pick their brains about what it is like to be gay today, where they go out and meet people in the gay community and what they know about gay history. Why? Because I what a modern-day baseline for queer life in Ottawa, and being a 30-something grad student who lives in Westboro, means I don't know squat about that anymore. I do know one thing to say that I hope will help me with this one: I'll buy the beer.
4: A website. First off, all due respect to blogger. It helped a relatively inept computer user get a presence on the web fast and with a minimum amount of things thrown. However, I need a place where I can upload larger files, Especially video. Right now I can only show 2 minute video segments, and that is just to short to show anything interesting. I also want a place where people can upload documents, articles, pictures, maps,scans, etc. onto the site as well, not just to share with me, but with anyone else interested in this topic (am have a mental picture of a history commons). the final thing I'd like to do is make an interactive map where people can put a dot on any particular place and explain why this is an old queer space. As well it would be cool to have others add onto previous comments a build a true community narrative about spaces in the Ottawa/Gatineau area. Anyone out there a computer wiz?
5: Pictures and paraphernalia. Everyone likes pictures, and so do I, especially if they are of places that no longer exist, likes bars, clubs, or events that lasted only a little time. There is no need to give them away, for I have a scanner. I'll need to borrow then for a few days, but will return them AND give you digital copies as well! What a deal! As for paraphernalia, anything that you would give me would go straight to the new Carleton sexualities archives, where they would remain accessible to the general public. I would just take photos.
6: Graduate by 2012, so I don't have to whine/grovel/geek out like this again.
Hope you all had a nice holiday.
