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? […]
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.
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…
I’ve never been much of a soap watcher but I did have a brief period of entrancement at about age 12. It was with All My Children. So I am pleased to say that is the show that will be airing an MTF character this week. Of course we have yet to see how it will turn out but oh isn’t she cute? Now, of course soaps are sensational but it appears they did consult with GLAAD and might be genuinely interested in portraying trans people positively. Gay is so passe… […]
Guess I’m not the only one who’s been lost for days, headphones keeping out the world, in the maniacally intense yet smooth beats of their latest albumStanding in the Way of Control.
For a complete list of the winners visit Stereogum, because, I really don’t know where to pick up this rag on American shelves…
Though none of the 3 groups I am about to mention are explicitly queer, there is definitely a queer feeling to their performances, and I’m sure some queer folks among them. Last Friday I braved a very crowded and hot Disjecta to see the Sprockettes, the BCClettes, and The B.R.A.K.E.S…and, I am absolutely entranced by them…
The Sprockettes may be well known to you already. The pink and black clad dance troupe is anything but typical as they combine their routines with Zoobomber style mini-bikes and even some two-wheeled acrobatics. I never knew where to look as they flew in front of my vision, standing or laying on moving bikes or busting out elaborately choreographed dance moves.
But at least I knew that I had been missing an amazingly original phenomenon when I didn’t make myself walk the 10 blocks to see them perform at Last Thursday or missed numerous other opportunities. But I was not prepared for the equally brilliantly color themed costumes and crazy bike dance stylings of Vancouver BC’s dueling boys and girls bike dance troupes The BCClettes and The B.R.A.K.E.S. In fact, I just about swooned when the boys and their matching bikes ended their run with a bike and boy strip show down to their tighty brighties. The two groups also got together in a finale that pitted the two Canadian bike gangs in a campy performance that was worthy of any drag club, even if the pairings appeared to all be male and female. For just a taste (including the steamy underwear pedal) I’ve included a YouTube video below. There’s plenty more to be had.
Local musician and Reedie Paul Clay is not only a melodically talented, but a rather fine descriptive author as well. So, at the risk of losing my position here as blogger I want to defer to his own rather magnificent descriptions: “Paul Clay makes music that blends carelessness and glitz with concern and radicalism…His songs vary from hyper-dancy queertronica to more introspective and political electroballads.” I, myself, like to think that I present concerned and radical careless glitz…that is, I care a lot about both politics and fashion, but sometimes I just watch VH1 in my underwear… Musically, however, this amounts to a dynamic and varied sound that at once reminds me of Electro-clash beats and a musical theater piece. And yet, be ready to surprised again because the next track may morph into a surreal and sweet folk song. I do so love the schizophrenic nature of his sound, which can be previewed in the media section of his website. (A website which is pretty extensive, with not only mp3s but lyrics, news, MySpace, photos and more.) But Clay is also a whimsical, if political, lyricist, bringing his queerness into focus and keeping a strong message, throughout his continually changing melodies.
But the real lure is the music and the performance, and Clay’s sophomore album drops tomorrow, Friday Nov 17th. With it comes a celebratory show at the Reed College Chapel (3203 SE Woodstock Blvd), 9p. And if you miss those you have a couple more chances. Dec. 1st, 7-10 PM – Aids day benefit concert for Cascade Aids (by the Queer Resource Center at PSU) and Jan 13th Campbell Club Coop, Eugene, Oregon (1648 Alder St).
I am not usually excited to hear about another British TV show or movie that we decided to steal and dumb down for an American audience but Coppola may just make a different enough film, hopefully one that doesn’t pander to American simpleness, that it may be worth it. The BBC mini-series version was a bit more flippant than the book and that angered some, but the BBC has always been irreverent and I appreciated the fresh perspective on the book, which is on my top 10 best queer books ever. The story is one I think is so interesting that a fresh perspective can still make a good film with nuances not seen before.
I had the very same thought as Queerty also that it seemed a little bizarre, considering the novel has no characters of color in it, that she would choose those 2, but Queerty says it in a much more amusing way: “We suppose Coppola’s using her artistic license on this one, which – despite what you may think after Marie Antoinette – is actually a good thing.”
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 
I’ve never been much of a soap watcher but I did have a brief period of entrancement at about age 12. It was with All My Children. So I am pleased to say that is 
It’s always been apparent to Northwesterners how cool, Beth Ditto, the rock operatic diva of indie queercore sensations 
Local musician and Reedie 
Though I am often frustrated by Queerty’s treatment of anything other than male as an afterthought they do occasionally bless me qith really exceptional news…like 