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Just a quick note from Wonder Boy over at Livejournal’s QueerPortland group:
[…] It appears OHSU’s now infamous gay sheep are all over the news again. What makes this so special now, when we were talking about this almost two years ago? I’m not exactly sure. But I suppose it’s always a grabbing headline when you can out animals or attach electrodes to genitalia…It all just sounds like fairly crackpot science to me and I’d still rather direct you to Joan Roughgarden’s intriguing critique of Darwin in her book Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature.
[…] …especially when it’s a tech company that seems to have a lot of helpful software and basically dominates the internet. But there’s been a lot of uproar lately about Google pulling ads from gay sites. Something like this can be tricky. I haven’t ever heard anything before about Google being any kind of discriminator, or even particularly conservative, but I’m certainly inclined to agree that it appears they’re being at the very least hypocritical here. I was once warned severely from Paypal because a local product I was selling on my now defunct I heart PDX website said that it could be used in bondage. Some people have foot fetishes, doesn’t mean they ban shoes. But that’s beside the point. At least Paypal didn’t seem to be promoting, or allowing adult content elsewhere (well, I guess I never really looked). Google doesn’t censor in general, so why should its AdSense program? Other examples seemed disturbing to me as well. One comment pointed out that many many ex-gay videos appear on Google Video when you search for "gay" but drag show performances are routinely pulled from Google owned YouTube quite readily. I personally think it’s a bit ironic for Google not to allow any sort of mature content in the sites which feature AdSense (there’s a lot that’s mature in the news and other places that may or may not have to do with sex) but if that does need to be their policy I would expect them to treat everyone the same. Until I hear a response from them on this it sounds to me like Google is discriminating against gay blogs. […] Not marriage. Not civil unions. But perhaps an anti-discrimination bill…Tiny, tiny baby steps…at least its forward. […] Oh my but it has been awhile since I’ve blogged hasn’t it? I offer no apologies. I lead a full and complicated life, including a work schedule that has been quite overwhelming lately, snow storms, PCC classes and a last minute trip to San Francisco over the MLK holiday. And I haven’t been to that bastion of gay excess for many years…since 2000 perhaps. I had a great time, returning with an extra suitcase full of brightly colored, fruity boxer briefs. (Although we can get ’em here now too…) I have to say, though, that it was something of a disappointment. Everything queer I expected to find there was as readily available here, and the queer culture seems even more fleshed out at home than this supposed gay Mecca. (Ok, so I was totally enamored of H&M. I’ve missed them so since I left the east coast and it’s high time we got our own store here). Friday night’s excursion to the iconic lesbian bar The Lexington was nice (I dug the dollar margaritas) but non-eventful. I can’t decide if California’s non-bar-smoking laws are good or bad but certainly you’d want folks at the Lex to head outdoor because the place in tiny. It’s always been shocking to me that San Fran only had one dedicated lezzie bar but it’s about one sixth the size of Portland’s own lesbian watering hole. Saturday night we couldn’t really find much to do despite searching through both alternative newsweeklies and I was especially disappointed after I found out about a drag burlesque happening right at home that very night. That’s what I had hoped to find in Cali…(How did that go by the way? Anyone know?) Our Castro shopping trip was enjoyable but this ‘hood seems the smallest and least interesting of the many colorful Bay area escapes. Certainly, it has less appeal now than my wide-eyed 17, or even 20 year old self thought. It does light up in amazing ways during that infamous June weekend. Even that’s still got to be exciting to my jaded 25 year old mind, but on a January weekend it’s little more than an upper middle class tourist trap. I did quite enjoy Fisherman’s Wharf, an even more notorious tourist trap, because I expected it and it was a nice stroll after the jolting cable car ride up the hills. Chinatown was also fun, despite climbing a hill that had my girlfriend yelling that she was going to die halfway up. (It’s a shame to see our own Chinatown fading away as the Pearl creeps in a rents go up.) We ate Dim Sum at one of the most "adventurous" spots though when Jane picked up the chicken’s feet by accident I have to admit I was not quite adventurous enough to put them anywhere near my mouth. What is there to eat? There doesn’t appear to be any meat on them to me… Another pleasant surprise was Japantown, which I had never been to. MLK Monday meant everything was closed, which dashed my Mission area museum and exploration plans so we wandered west. We spent forever in the photobooth trying to figure out how to work the machine’s adorable graphics program that was only in Japanese. But I digress. San Francisco is worth visiting, but as a queer destination, it only made me appreciate home. […] None of my illustrious commentary today just a couple of club night announcements. The posters should say it all…(And apparently the Queer Fetish night is the last at the Eagle. Does this have to do with the scandal?)
There was much shouting at the television last night as a gaggle of us gathered around the anticipated premiere. Through the chatter and the 2 glasses of wine, however, I was able to actually catch some of the show so here are the highlights and lowlights of Season 4 Episode 1. The most noticeable aspect, however, wasn’t part of the plot at all but the rampant product placement and website plugging. I’ve seen it plenty before. Macintosh computers are always used in the show and indeed seem to be a large part of any gay show. (The gays love the Macs. That’s why I find it particularly ironic and frustrating that none of Logo’s online multimedia content will play on a Mac. Go ahead and try Mac fans. Do you know your audience MTV CEOs?) But they must have made a deal with MySpace because they wouldn’t shut up about it. They also seem to be launching their own social networking site, Our Chart, which was not up as of last night, but sneaky little devils must have updated it and launched this morning (Hey where’s my email notification?). The show made it seem like it was just the same kind of hookup web that the Alice character created, only for real people. Thankfully, it seems a much more full-bodied site including news, blogs etc. But that web of connections aspect is still there, and boy does that sound like a bad idea. The cliffhanger from last season of Bette kidnapping her daughter was so easily wrapped up I forgot it was even a plot element. Tina’s wailing about her baby was only cumbersome and totally boring. I care even less about her now as a whiny straight white blonde than she when she was a whiny lesbian blonde. The only saving grace here was the lawyer’s cheeky reaction to the situation. I love the hysterical Jane Lynch. She never ceases to be hilarious. The other biggie that was carried over from last season is Shane’s fall from grace. And boy has she fallen. As she emerged from the wreckage of the vehicle she commandeered, walking with a slow staccato gait and holding her crooked, bloody arm, my friend remarked that she looked like a zombie and expected the good guys to come and blow her head off with a shotgun at any moment. Carmen is officially off the show as well and I am disappointed once again with taking yet another of the best characters off the show. They did reintroduce Marina to the mix, which was surprising and gives me hope for bringing back characters they just dumped. Unfortunately, there’s still no hope for Dana…
But the most bizarre part of the show was Kit’s trip to the pseudo-abortion clinic. I could understand how a young girl could be fooled into thinking a Christian “pregnancy advise center” might be a Planned Parenthood but how 45 year old Kit was makes little sense. Besides, I was really looking forward to her manny (man-nanny) being a daddy. Oh well, always disappointments with this show. I forgive it for its only because it provides prurient chest shots and for its ability to shock if not surprise. It did end with a rather funny plot twist wherein Shane might just be a foster daddy. That should wake her up from zombiedom real fast. […] It’s that time of year again where we all gather to watch skinny, drama filled lesbians in power suits strut like peacocks through Los Angeles. That’s right, our favorite Lifetime drama for lesbos begins again for the fourth time this Sunday the 7th on Showtime. It’s certainly not local but I’m intrigued by this New York Times article about a cross-dressing talk show host in Pakistan. In socially repressed areas bizarre things can sometimes take shape based on exactly how taboos are enforced. In this case it seems appears more ok for a man to dress as a woman on TV than for a biological woman to be on TV at all. While this is unfair on many levels it is also creating some space for queer people, gender variant people, and hopefully, in an odd and backhanded way, for women as well. The host seems also to be able to tackle some topics that are touchier, racier, and more politically savvy than those that a "more serious" journalist can, simply because he is garbed (pun intended) in the guise of an entertainment provider instead of a news provider. And while we may not have quite as severe rules or taboos here the same concept is evident when you look at personalities such as Jon Stewart, who can often be more poignant, and certainly more scathing, than more stoic and traditional news anchors. […] |
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[…]
There is no way I would lay out my sexual jaunts for the world to see. Can you imagine, not just the teasing, but the amount of drama that would ensue when rumors become truth, or more likely, even bigger rumors? I recommend you stay far far away…But onto the meat of the show…
As much as I appreciate the introduction of a trans character last season Max was really starting to get on my nerves. And yet, I could never really save any sympathy for Jenny because she was just as easy to despise. The L Word seemed egalitarian only in that I could never take sides with anyone on the show because I hated them all. And yet, this episode inserted a small but important scene. After serving himself up some trouble for trying to pass and live as a straight man, Max goes to a transman support group. They marvel at his ability to keep any friends with the amount of testosterone he’d been taking and explained all the emotional turmoil that comes with not only fundamentally changing your life but using a brain-altering chemical as part of that process. It finally made Max’s transition have a little humanity.
(For another interesting show that’s on the real Lifetime, check out out