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Though I’m guessing most of you will be frantically bubbling in your ballots because you waited until the last minute to make your electoral voice heard, when you calm your political fervor you will be rewarding with the uplifting sounds of Scream Club, Show Me the Pink, and Joey Casio.
 Until then, make use of Basic Right’s endorsements, although I personally found The Merc’s better and more comprehensive. This is an important one folks so get out there, even if it’s flooding and drop off your ballot.
Once you have, however, take your empowered citizen self down to the Paragon to start you election night (hopefully) celebration. While this trio of hot genre-crossing bands may not be directly tied to elections all 3 have their own brand of queer, off beat politics. I’m sure the political discussion will ride the dace wave throughout the night. Better still, two of the artist have shiny new albums available in all their shrink-wrapped glory. Fantastic and brightly colored electro-hip-hopster-punks Scream Club have just released Life of Heartbreaker featuring guest appearances from Peaches, Tender Forever, Nicky Click, Electrosexual and others. Joey Casio, our favorite child-instrument-toting Oly hipster nice boy, has dropped his own new tunes, an album called attack decay. Both albums will be available at the show.
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Erin over at Livejournal’s QueerPortland community group is calling for submissions for an animated film project on femmes. For a mere digital photo and short description you could be the next (gay) Betty Boop. Self-identified femmes. The deadline is November 15th. For more information visit the post over at Livejournal. […]
A lot has happened this week during my excessively long absence (due to ridiculous things like, excessive workload). New Jersey fought an awkward battle, and seemed to win…if in that wishy washy way to which, it seems, I must resign myself. But New Jersey’s highest court did rule Wednesday that homosexual couples are due all of the rights accorded to heterosexual couples, and has given the legislature six months to either grant gay couples the right to marry, or come up with another civil-union type system. And that is certainly worth celebrating, even when you have to keep in the back of your mind that, even in states where it may become legal, we can still be denied our rights, as evidenced by late Congressman Studds’ partner being denied death benefits.
 But as we head into the seriousness of election time, and consider the ramifications of new legal rulings such as NJ’s we also need to give ourselves the time to let go. And what better way to let loose and be truly freaky queer than with the costumed mania that is Portland’s Halloween happenings. Just Out’s main article highlights the best places to get costumes, though at this late date I’d also like to point out OregonLive’s own cheeky options. As for what to do once you’re all dressed up check out Just Out’s haunted events calendar. As for me, tonight’s a tough call between Doubledown at Holocene and an amazing sounding Disco party at the Wonder Ballroom (have I talked before about how much I love the 70s and how I was born too late?) As for the night of Haunts itself, I recommend Sissyboy’s take on the religious Halloween "Hell Houses" at the Doug Fir, especially for anyone (like me) who missed their Friday night zombie performance. Although any holiday with Amy Sedaris is tempting too…
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I recently ran across a bit of information provided to me by my blog tool that someone searching Google for a "real life Shortbus salon" ended up clicking on my blog. (I can see where the last 10 people have come from, it’s an imperfect tool but interesting…) Now I have concrete evidence that I’m not the only one…I did the same thing after watching the film. And though they may not all be clicking on my blog, I wonder how many others have searched as well. Shortbus’s portrayal of such a bohemia, wherein art, intellectualism and sex combine is a compelling one. One that people wish for. The question becomes though, is this synergistic utopia possible in real life? Certainly the desire to create is is there, but would attempts fail? Would it become too seedy? too exclusive? or too protested against to really work? Or have we just not tried? I remember reading Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land and was amazed at the main character’s final understanding of people and the world. The free love utopia he created, that led to his death, was one that seemed an exciting possibility but ultimately unattainable. Are we, as human, damned to ruin our own utopic dreams? And if they can live for only a short while are they worth creating? worth sacrificing for? This question became so much larger than a revival of 20s Paris salons for the modern age but both questions are interesting.
Can this fun place be made in real life. And if so, when do we start?
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Just a quick reminder that today is the last day to register to vote. You can download the form you need here. It will also tell you where to drop your form, which depends on which county you live in.
It’s an important race on several fronts. And though The Oregonian has endorsed Ron Saxton I don’t buy the argument that any change from the present leadership of Kulongoski is better than the status quo. You actually have to look at what politicians will actually do in office…Striking thought. Saxton won’t do anything for gay rights.
You can visit Basic Rights Oregon’s Vote Out project for their endorsements, and other information on candidates and measures that help and hurt LGBT people.
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I realize I’m a little late as the 10th annual Portland Lesbian and Gay Film Fest actually started yesterday. Luckily for all late-comers, including myself, the fest rages on for a full week. If you’… […]
I have been quite lax in my duties as blogger. Could I use the excuse that John Cameron Mitchell just tuckered my poor little queer brain out? Possibly, but I did want to tell you all how fabulous Lee Kyle’s sold out "Maybe I’m Just Like My Mother" show was, though going to the second to last performance made it a bit less useful. Nevertheless I enlisted the help of my darling gf Jane Larson to do a guest post review of the show. This is what I got back. And though it portrays me as something of a moron, its bizarre and amazing wit is worth any mocking I may endure.
So I told my partner, girlfriend, sugarpants the other day that things come in threes. She was puzzled by this statement, so I said it two more times.
"You know," I said, "Like when you hear a word that you don’t know and then you hear it again and then you hear it a third time and it’s sealed in your memory?"
Pregnant pause…
"Okay, okay," I say, "How about that movie Candyman, when the lady says his name three times and then he comes screaming out of the mirror to kill ya…."
Nothing.
It’s at this point that I just continue along whatever yellow brick road of thought I have created for myself and she listens, ’cause she’s good like that.
"Well, first of all we went to that Splendora show, Maybe I am just like my Mother, on Friday night at the Back Door Theater, and he shows a film clip of himself in the shower (grrrr) singing that song from the Little Mermaid.
She replies with the standard, "uh huh…"
"Then we went in our little girl bike gang to the Irvington neighborhood garage sale and since we were on bikes I had to buy a bag to carry my booty in. Remember that I found that kiddie backpack…The Little Mermaid one…and then all of us road our bikes and sang the song…"
She replies, "Riiiiight…"
"And THEN, we were watching TV and it turns out that The Little Mermaid is being re-released on DVD this week and we heard the song again!! TaDa…Three!"
This is usually when I sit back in whatever chair I am in and fold my hands behind my head and revel in my smarty-pants-ness. And she smiles at me blankly. Sometimes I think she’s afraid…it’s one of those frozen smiles, you know?
The rollercoaster that is a conversation with me continues as I take a sharp left and careen back to the beginning of my list, which was really what I wanted to discuss in the first place but I thought the filler story was a delight as well. That beginning being the Splendora show, "Maybe I am just like my Mother."
Goodness, Mary…it was delicious. Like drinking a champagne cocktail in a vat of créme brulee. It was a feast for the eyes as Lee opened with an excruciatingly slow piece of performance art that involved stacking rocks at the hair shrine of what can only have been his mothers wig altar. What came next was a casual, coffee chat between Lee and about 70 of his closest friends. He breaks the audience/actor barrier in a way that would have made Bertholt Brecht weep and beg for mercy. He spoke to us over ice tea in his sunroom. He spoke to us while getting ready for a show in the cramped dressing rooms at the Wonder Ballroom. He talked to us about his life, his family and himself while we played Nintendo in his basement on beanbag chairs. There was no pretense or sing song in his speech, there were no lines, there was only easy conversation. And when the conversation died down, as it tends to between friends, he brought on the multimedia festival of gross. A gross that was so deliciously funny that I smile in business meetings just remembering his turning his mother’s sheer Legg’s pantyhose into a man’s most important part and drinking a mysterious yellow liquid from a bottle. The songs that accompanied these two pieces were pants-peeing funny. Disturbingly so. I do find myself humming these occasionally but the tunes always turn into the little mermaid….singing her heart out…slapping her tail on that big rock for emphasis….sing it with me now: " I wanna be where the people are…"
PS: When you type in Solendora into Google it corrects it for you.
PPS: Clay Aiken is gay. His new name is Gay Clay.
Love Always,
Jane
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While John Cameron Mitchell, creator of Hedwig and the Angry Inch was in town for a screening of his new film Shortbus (see review below), I was able to sit down with him and keep him from having fun… […]
 Local performer Lee Kyle Turner is hard to miss. Alter ego Splendora, the deliciously larger than life drag queen sports not only the usual diva accoutrement but sleeves of tattoos and a 6 foot 10 inch frame. But though he’s the talk of P-town these days, with his talented trash talking persona following him everywhere he goes, Turner is aware of his more visceral background and too-real-for-comfort redneck roots. And while he may seem imposing now, he recounts having to "…hide behind [his] mother at the grocery store." It seems appropriate then, that Lee Kyle should celebrate the brashness of his crass but protecting Texan mom in a nervy performance piece entitled "Maybe I’m Just Like My Mother." As Splendora Turner is always entertaining, but this this leap to a more personal narrative seems not only natural but something fans of Lee Kyle have been waiting for. I’m sure it will not always be easy to watch. Turner says as much, and the sentiment is echoed by writer Aaron Scott. But it is precisely this discomfiture that positions Turner’s newest piece as a distinctive, thoughtful, and intense piece of art.
Maybe I’m Just Like My Mother An Ode to Cornelia runs Fri/Sat Sept. 22, 23, 29 and 30 at 10:30p at Back Door Theatre, 4319 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd. Tickets are $10 from 971-506-9291.
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Though the Portland Gay and Lesbian Film Festival isn’t until October, tonight kicks of the pride of fall with a Cinema 21 screening of John Cameron Mitchell’s (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) eyebrow… […]
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