Emerging from the entrenchment in family holiday merrymaking last Saturday wasn’t easy. I finally had a day to myself and I had no idea what to do with it. So I let myself have a little guilty pleasure. Now you know my secret. I heart sci-fi/fantasy.
I started the day off with Eragon.
If the tweens in need of Ritalan and the smelly woman weren’t enough to ruin my movie-going experience than the film itself certainly was. I can’t agree enough with Mike Russell’s assessment that it was a total epic adventure rip-off. But he forgot a key element.
Sidenote 1: You may be beginning to ask, what does this have to do with gayness? Well, nothing really, except, perhaps the blatant bare chest shot of 17 year old Eragon that prompted my partner to call him and his brunette friend "Jacob and Joshua: Dragon rising." This might not be as hilarious to you as it was to me while I tried to contain my laughter in this very serious scene in the theater, but since we watch the real, ridiculous "Jacob and Joshua: Nemesis Rising" reality show on Logo with the same fervor that straight people watch the cheesetastic celebreality on VH1, it nearly had me doubled over.
This brings me to my second holiday nerdfest, and finally to my gay gay point as well. Eragon stole heavily not only from Star Wars and Lord of the Rings but one of my personal favorite series about dragonriders from Pern. (I was so into it at one point that my roommate became scared that he would come home to find the dogs dressed up like dragons). The author, Anne McCaffrey has resisted the film adaptation of her books, but Pern has a pretty hearty following nonetheless. It has to have something after being around for over 30 years…
Eragon stole nearly every aspect of the Pern rider/dragon relationship: their telepathic ability, the dragon’s death when his/her rider dies, but there was one important thing Eragon did not mirror.
Sidenote 2: Let me make it clear, McCaffrey never intended to make the fictional world of Pern a gay one. But when she found the inconsistency she created in her initial stories she ran with the unavaoidable queerness of her plot, emphasizing it in later books. And I really respect inadvertant gayness and a subsequent embrace.
Dragons and their human riders have a very intense bond. Whatever the dragon experiences, so does their rider. Dragons are also intrinsically hierarchical. The two top dragons are the bronze males and the golden females. They act as king and queen, therefore their riders are also king and queen. The king is chosen by a special draconian mating ritual wherein the bronze able to catch the golden queen in heat becomes the ruler. Nothing gay here. Unfortunately for the lesser riders, their dragons must mate as well, although they produce no offspring. Of the remaining 3 colors of dragon browns and blues are male and greens are female. However, because these are fighting dragons, their riders are all male. Hence, in mating season brings with it all kinds of gay debauchery (Don’t worry, that link is work safe).
This could have easily been merely a footnote in the Pern existance, considering the main characters would certainly be the leaders but instead of shying away from this mishap, McCaffrey takes this opportunity to explore the relationships of blue dragon riders and their receptive green dragonrider partners, and help explain some of the tensions between the townspeople and the sexually extravagant, gay, and not always monogamous dragonfolk. (For some reason, brown dragonriders, though their dragons are never big enough to actually catch a gold female are usually portrayed as straight, though they too must occasionally give in to their dragons’ desires and have relations with green riders. I guess they’re just the bisexual players of the dragon world…)
I apologize if this post is long and rambling, I’ve already started the New Years Even revelry and there are consequences to that…like thinking it’s a great idea to come out of the closet as a fantasy dork to your entire readership…You should hear me talk about the gay themes in Star Trek..or maybe you’d rather be banging your hung over head with a frying pan and puking into the sink of whoever took you home last night. The choice is yours.
Hope your hangover is treating you as well as mine is sure to be…
So my gf has an iPod mini. A couple steps behind, perhaps, but perfect for our lackadaisical throw it around the car, use. Recently it began acting strangely. "It won’t stop on any songs," she complained, "It only scrolls past them." So I put it on shuffle to see if it would play any songs and indeed it would. For better or worse, however, it seemed to only want to play songs by gay artists. It’s favorite is the brazen bisexual, and dual-gendered quartet from Olympia, Gravy Train!!! but it would also occasionally play Le Tigre. So now the silver little aging devil has a potentially annoying yet wonderful quirk and we dubbed it the gayPod…Do you think we should copyright that? […]
I don’t know much about The Eagle’s current owner or the situation of the club’s loss of its lease in downtown’s gay (male) triangle. That’s why I read WW’s Byron Beck. What I do know, however, is that Pat Lanagan, the one mentioned in the article as snapping up the "Eagle" name seems shady in so many ways. And, no, I don’t consider it wrong to judge him partially by his turning a mongrel queer club into a circuit party in the heart of my own hood. Shame on you Pat for antagonizing all kinds of members of your queer community. I can’t be too torn up over the vandalism at your establishment… […]
And, on the heels of yesterday’s excited post about dyke rock I want to give you a little YouTube taste (mmm…) of the brand news videos of my two favorite bands right now.
It’s no secret that The Gossip are breaking ladies’ hearts across the world (especially the UK), and I definitely love Beth Ditto for being not just sexy, but a lady of size, not afraid to let every inch of her be hott. Unfortunately, this video doesn’t really play to her innate sensuality, although I do love the design-ey, colorful box elements.
Swan Island are a newer favorite, and the only music I’ve worked hard enough for to actually track down a hard copy, i.e. CD, of their debut release when I couldn’t find it on eMusic or iTunes. Their both rockin’ and weird, in fact, each seem to be a sort of distinct queer character, a sort of comic book of dyke punkness. That’s why I really appreciate the stop motion animation and academically storybook nature of their first video, even if personally think fills an middlin’ slot in my video countdown. But I could be very wrong about both vids, seeing as these Tube versions are of pretty poor quality. I may be blown away when I finally see them on Logo…
Oh, and be sure to check out SI this Friday the 15th at Berbati’s (231 SW Ankeny).
I rarely pick up either of this country’s two most mainstream lesbian magazines. Their glossy pages are occasionally alluring but there relevance to my life as a queer person in the NW seems quite limited. Nevertheless, I had several reasons to snatch this month’s Curve from Powell’s gay gay shelf.
My first motivator was a special dyke music section. And I would love to point you in the direction of these articles. Being so used to the free, if ad-driven, web, I want my content on-demand. However, you’re going to have to pick up the pieces of bound paper in order to read exactly what I’m talking about.
Team Dresch will forever live as not only my favorite band musically and politically but appearing during a huge turning point in my life. I had resigned myself to the occasional reunion show and furtively listening to Personal Best and remembering my youth forever more. I got a hint this summer with their mini-tour that they might be consistently playing music together again. I really couldn’t have asked for more, and yet, all of us obsessive fans are getting it, as Curve’s interview confirms that they’re actually working on brand new music! Who gets this great opportunity to get their favorite band back again? It must be something cosmic, however, like there’s only space for one extremely influential queer/lady band, as we seemed to have to loose Sleater-Kinney in order to get this.
The "Year in Dyke Music" goes on to profile the departed SK, as well as smartypants hip hoppers Northern State (I hadn’t heard anything from them since my college radio days, but hey, if they’re up-and-coming I’m all for it) and Canadian heartthrobs The Organ. Best known for their appearance on The L Word, The Organ are definitely intense, throaty rock that I quite enjoy and I’m glad they’re finally getting some traction in the states. But the lead singer, Katie Sketch, while hot, is so skinny she looks like an addict. I can’t help but think of the Ally Sheedy character in High Art. She is obviously thin enough for model status, as she also had a part in the super-fanshionista 2005 Marc Jacobs ad campaign. It seems unfortunate that out of so many hot lesbian bands only the heroin chic can be part of mainstream fashion. Where are the ladies of TD, SK, or The Gossip, all of whom are varying sizes that are certainly bigger than Ms. Sketch?
The other thing that caught my eye about this article was the writer. We’ve seen Mary Christmas before in our own hometown, when she wrote a small feature in The Willy Week about dyke central club nights. Is Mary Christmas really Mary McAllister, aka DJ Hotpants, and loving cohabitant to the famed Dr. Dresch? Or is she another of the queer music and club gaggle that adorn the PDX scene throwing us off with her clever pseudonym? I’m not sure why this mystery of Christmas has caught my attention except maybe that, as a queer media pusher, I always like to know who my peers in this town are. But perhaps I am also keen to know just because it warms my heart to see a Portlander is writing for Curve (apparently there are more. I’ll get to that later). Curve has a love for Portland that betrays their hometown, and was evident when they chose to host their New Years here. So if you love us so much move your a**es up here and truly discover the melting pot that is Portland’s gender fluid queerfest!
Yet another surprise I encountered that related to Curve magazine was an email from a mentor of a Queer Youth Group I attended in high school. Turns out she has ceased direct social work in favor of freelance gay writing. Much of it is print but she also maintains 2 blogs, one of which is a part of Curve magazine. I normally think of Curve as pretty SanFran centric (with a pinch of NYC thrown in perhaps) so I never would have guessed that it’s Lipstick/Dipstick columnists and bloggers were both Portlanders (although I guess it makes sense in terms of Curve’s I heart Portland obsession). I am pleased to learn this, especially because I was starting to think I was Oregon’s only dyke blogger. (Ok, perhaps a slight exaggeration. I gotta give a shoutout to Lelo in Nopo) And so in the spirit of the conspiracy of lesbian writers, nay perhaps the conspiracy of lesbians in general, I want to thoroughly promote the cheekily over-the-top humor of Kathy and Gina’s butch vs. femme advice column.
We all know that the Northwest has a plethora of both gay people and tree-huggers. Occasionally they overlap. But apparently this might not just be a coincidence (or as I like to call it, a nice place or live…) but an effect of the homo-inducing soybean. I really can’t tell if this deadpan delivery is really a humor site, but either way I’m not altogether disappointed that soybeans and gayness may be linked. Just as the sailor with unnaturally bulbous forearms (he was probably gay too) tells you to eat your spinach, so Captain QPDX encourages you to swallow the soy… […]
I’m not sure why, in my vast imagination, I cannot seem the conjure a picture of what a Queer Quistmas (Christmas?) Variety Show would look like, but perhaps it’s a subconscious desire to be surprised, or maybe that I have no idea how to interpret "Quistmas" except as either a lame speech impediment joke or a cereal only available on the east coast that my girlfriend just ordered off the internet because it’s a grand childhood memory…
But anyway, Lee Kyle, Portland’s favorite new generation 6 foot diva, hosts such an extravaganza this Saturday the 10th at Mississippi Pizza Pub (3552 N. Mississippi Ave), which, contrary its down-home sounding name, has a vast and mesmerizing drink menu in an eclectically swank setting. (Did I just sound like a Homes and Gardens magazine?)
But if there mere thought of our gorgeous and tattooed queen-of-the-year isn’t enough to lure you, nor my drink and decor musings, here’s Splendora’s own description:
"Queer Quistmas" is a collection/performance of the friends of Splendora: Kaj Anne Pepper, a member of Sissyboy, does Christmas based performance art and storytelling, The Drunken Princess Girl retells the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and puts a sexy spin on "Twas the Night Before Christmas", singer/songwriter Sara King is planning on a Christmas Medley and a few original songs, and Tipsy Genius, a musical and storytelling act created Fannie Mae and Zebra (also of Sissyboy). I will be hosting as Splendora and am doing a song or two of my own.
This must be Portland’s answer to the 50s phenomenon Ed Sullivan…
Oh this is rich, really fantastic. We’ve seen a lot of Republican and religious hypocrisy lately from Mark Foley to Ted Haggard. Now, Mary Cheney, daughter of Vice Prez Shoot-’em-in-the-face Dick, is preggers. And while I congratulate her on her and her partner’s forthcoming bundle of joy I can’t help but shake my head that the Cheney family supports shooting themselves in the foot. (Perhaps shooting runs in the family.) And while I do not think anyone in the Cheney family has responded directly, there has got to be some anger with Focus on the Family, a Christian group that has provided crucial political support to President Bush, who released a statement saying gay folks shouldn’t raise children, even if they are white, wealthy and Conservative:
"Mary Cheney’s pregnancy raises the question of what’s best for children," said Carrie Gordon Earll, the group’s director of issues analysis. "Just because it’s possible to conceive a child outside of the relationship of a married mother and father doesn’t mean it’s the best for the child."
Sorry, Mary, you don’t get a pass!
The devil on the left shoulder is almost happy that Cheney’s home state of Virginia has absolutely no laws protecting children of same-sex couples, or the parents for that matter so that she may get a taste of the injustice she has helped create and supports. Nevertheless, while Focus on the Family may be hard on her Miss Mary, because of her wealth and connections, will indeed have an easier time than most middle and working class gay Virginian parents.
(OMG, Cheney’s partner, far right, is totally touching her butt in that picture!)
I found myself as astonished as Byron to find a new metrosexuality men’s underwear store emerge right around the corner from my office. I have something of an underwear obsession, even though when it comes down to it I often find myself passing over my tan and chocolate striped low cut Nudie jeans briefs for the comfortable warmth of a plain white pair of Gap whities. But I certainly appreciate the printed wonders, like when I drooled over the Ginch Gonch website after a previous Queer Window undies column. And while specialty online outlets may be plentiful there are several aspects on the actual physical boutique that made me squeal at the prospect of shopping at the just barely opened Under U 4 Men. Not only can you touch the fabric to determine if it really is soft enough to justify the hefty couture expense, but you are surrounded with so many labels whose multiple websites you would have to visit individually on the internet.
But as much as it made me squeal it also made me squirm. Anonymity is lost once you enter a physical store. I have enough trouble shopping in stores that are generally tiny sized and hetero-centric but to enter one that is aimed at the stereotypically exclusive Adonis-bodied gay male seemed even more intimidating. My fears assuaged slightly by proprietor Steven Lien’s explanation that he wants women to come into his store, which is why he didn’t situate it in Stark Street’s gayborhood. Nevertheless, I assumed he meant women who want their less-then-queerly-fashionable men and maybe some overzealous f** hags who want to impress their holiday hunks, and not necessarily a short, chubby dyke shopping for herself.
But Lien’s demeanor was jolly and his hipster help actually rather friendly (though the friendliest hipster store personnel award has always got to go to Magpie). The lack of advertised live models might have disappointed some, and indeed I never mind a little ogling myself, their absence probably made my virginal store visit less intimidating. And while what is most exciting about Under U 4 Men isn’t innovation (I’ve always maintained that someone needy to start a tranny shop where it’s easy for 6 foot men to buy heels and ladies to buy coats that don’t cover their hands), what is exciting is their synthesis of various eye-catching under-products, as well as their mere existence as a stylish and queer presence in the Portland retail fashion scene.
Under U 4 Men is open now at 507 SW Broadway, Downtown.
I was watching a program on Logo the other day with my partner about queer history in America since Stonewall. And while visions of Anita Bryant loomed in the section from the 70s, for the most part post-riot seemed hopeful and celebratory. But when the program hit the 80s the spirit was decidedly more sober. Of course the Reagan years were fretful for many reasons but what the thing that loomed large and frightful at it jumped onto the queer stage was the devastating emergence of AIDS. As we watched the segment where they laid out the quilt, we were both brought close to tears remembering our own experiences of seeing that compelling and visceral symbol of the toll AIDS has had on our community. We, of course, also remembered all the people we knew who that quilt represents, good friends and family who were consumed by the disease. It affected my partner so much that she had nightmares that night and I told her she couldn’t watch any more history shows. But it is crucial that we remember the epidemic and the pain it has caused and continues to cause. It is our history and our present as we look to erase it from our future. That’s why Friday’s World AIDS Day is so important.
Cascade AIDS Project is the oldest and largest community-based provider of HIV services, housing, education and advocacy in the area. They’ve been around since 1983 and have many resources for those in need of services as well as opportunities for those who want to donate their time or money to the cause. They also offer hotlines in both English (800.777.AIDS) and Spanish (800.499.6940). Their biggest fundraiser of the year, the Red Ribbon Party, is tonight from 5-8p at 5th Ave Suites downtown (596 SW Washington).
But the most important thing to remember every December 1st is that HIV still exists. It has hit our community hard and continues to ravage it and other communities globally. Watching footage of the quilt being laid out on the Washington DC mall was a stark reminder to me that I haven’t had to think about AIDS as much as I once did, but that it is every bit as imperative that we never stop our vigilance.
If the tweens in need of Ritalan and the smelly woman weren’t enough to ruin my movie-going experience than the film itself certainly was. I can’t agree enough with Mike Russell’s assessment that it was a total epic adventure rip-off. But he forgot a key element.
Dragons and their human riders have a very intense bond. Whatever the dragon experiences, so does their rider. Dragons are also intrinsically hierarchical. The two top dragons are the bronze males and the golden females. They act as king and queen, therefore their riders are also king and queen. The king is chosen by a special draconian mating ritual wherein the bronze able to catch the golden queen in heat becomes the ruler. Nothing gay here. Unfortunately for the lesser riders, their dragons must mate as well, although they produce no offspring. Of the remaining 3 colors of dragon browns and blues are male and greens are female. However, because these are fighting dragons, their riders are all male. Hence, in mating season brings with it all kinds of gay debauchery (Don’t worry, that link is work safe).
So my gf has an iPod mini. A couple steps behind, perhaps, but perfect for our lackadaisical throw it around the car, use. Recently it began acting strangely. "It won’t stop on any songs," she complained, "It only scrolls past them." So I put it on shuffle to see if it would play any songs and indeed it would. For better or worse, however, it seemed to only want to play songs by gay artists. It’s favorite is the brazen bisexual, and dual-gendered quartet from Olympia, 
My first motivator was a special dyke music section. And I would love to 
Best known for their appearance on The L Word, The Organ are definitely intense, throaty rock that I quite enjoy and I’m glad they’re finally getting some traction in the states. But the lead singer, Katie Sketch, while hot, is so skinny she looks like an addict. I can’t help but think of the Ally Sheedy character in 
Yet another surprise I encountered that related to Curve magazine was an email from a mentor of a Queer Youth Group I attended in high school. Turns out she has ceased direct social work in favor of freelance gay writing. Much of it is print but she also maintains 2 blogs, 
I’m not sure why, in my vast imagination, I cannot seem the conjure a picture of what a Queer Quistmas (Christmas?) Variety Show would look like, but perhaps it’s a subconscious desire to be surprised, or maybe that I have no idea how to interpret "Quistmas" except as either a lame speech impediment joke or a 
"Mary Cheney’s pregnancy raises the question of what’s best for children," said Carrie Gordon Earll, the group’s director of issues analysis. "Just because it’s possible to conceive a child outside of the relationship of a married mother and father doesn’t mean it’s the best for the child."
Ginch Gonch website
I was watching a program on Logo the other day with my partner about queer history in America since Stonewall. And while visions of Anita Bryant loomed in the section from the 70s, for the most part post-riot seemed hopeful and celebratory. But when the program hit the 80s the spirit was decidedly more sober. Of course the Reagan years were fretful for many reasons but what the thing that loomed large and frightful at it jumped onto the queer stage was the devastating emergence of AIDS. As we watched the segment where they laid out the quilt, we were both brought close to tears remembering our own experiences of seeing that compelling and visceral symbol of the toll AIDS has had on our community. We, of course, also remembered all the people we knew who that quilt represents, good friends and family who were consumed by the disease. It affected my partner so much that she had nightmares that night and I told her she couldn’t watch any more history shows. But it is crucial that we remember the epidemic and the pain it has caused and continues to cause. It is our history and our present as we look to erase it from our future. That’s why Friday’s 