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  DJ Rockaway Every week we introduce you to a local LGBTQ party DJ and ask them about their experiences in the scene and feature an audio mix they’ve made. If you’re interested in being featured contact alley@qpdx.com.
This week’s DJ is a Cali resident but she’s in town for the recently re-branded Inferno dances that happen in an early Saturday time slot monthly at the Cuda Beach Club. Formerly targeted at the 35+ crowd, this barely 30 year old has seen plenty of peers and had a great time. And, apparently, if you’re butch all you have to do to get the ladies’ attention is lean against a wall.
When and how did you get started DJing? I’ve always been fascinated by music, the sounds, the blends, the lyrics and the emotion behind it. Music has been a big part of my life since I was a child. In 2000, I decided to go out and buy equipment without knowing anything about being a DJ. It was at that time that I discovered, DJ’ing came natural to me.
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  Wade McCollum as Prior Walter (L) with Noah Jordan as Louis Ironson in the Portland Playhouse's 'Angels in America.' Photo by Owen Carey. Tony Kushner’s epic play about the AIDS crisis in the 80s, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, is all about juxtapositions, and the Portland Playhouse does this expertly. We wonder if the tropes presented in this production remain relevant and Director Brian Weaver’s 8 person cast proves that it is. You can hear what Weaver and principal actor Wade McCollum have to say on the continued relevancy of the Angels, as well as AIDS in the 21st century, in an interview from last week.
On one side is the closeted and vicious Ray Cohn, played by Ebbe Roe Smith, lawyer for all the big names on the right, and on the other, Prior Walter (McCollum), an eloquent gay man whose partner, Louis (Noah Jordan), leaves him. Both are Cohn and Walter are dying of AIDS. But though Cohn is a classic villain and Walter a relatable (if not wholly classic) hero, both script and performances provide the nuance so imperative in this story. Ultimately, Cohn seems pitiable and Walter powerful.
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  Lindsay Lohan's leaked Playboy cover Here’s some extra info of the multitude of topics we discuss in qPDX’s 3rd podcast including Lohan on Ellen and in Playboy, Angels in America, more holigays, Siri abortion controversy and more. Plus, can we sue people for having bad movies? Can I wear what Kim Kardashian wears to work?
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  Saturday CC's is Homo for the Holidays Thursday
Saucy Santa photo ops for Big Boys & Bad Girls – Another perfect Keep Portland Weird moment you have 3 chances, starting this Thursday to let Santa know that your grown ass self has been naughty and nice this year. Mrs Claus is a burlesque dancer. It’s a holiday miracle where everybody wins.
I’ve Got a Hole in My Soul 5 year anniversary – Portland’s first night that really made soul music cool, helmed by the talent DJ Beyondadoubt, turns 5! And they’re gonna really work it out. Oh my you’re getting so big!
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 Every week we introduce you to a local LGBTQ party DJ and ask them about their experiences in the scene and feature an audio mix they’ve made. If you’re interested in being featured contact alley@qpdx.com.
 DJ Jodi Bon Jodi helms this Friday's Bent Bent is clearly one of my favorite parties and it is the lovechild of this week’s DJ of the Week Jodi Bon Jodi, along with partner Roy-G-Biv. And now that JBJ is no longer a regular at Blow Pony it’s one of the few places to catch her. So you won’t want to miss this Friday’s edition, which also features Mr. Charming and a photobooth by Bloodhound’s Ally Picard.
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 As I watched some early rehearsals of the Portland Playhouse’s upcoming production of Angels in America: Part 1, Millennium Approaches, the excitement was palpable. An epic play, Angels seems to be one of the most sought after for actors and directors alike to be a part of. The Playhouse was especially excited to be able to put it on this year, which is its 20th anniversary. I found myself easily swept up in the excitement, and I’ve been eagerly awaiting opening ever since.
 The Portland Playhouse cast of 'Angels in America.' Photo by Laura Domela If your not familiar with Tony Kushner’s 6 hour play, it follows the interwoven lives of several individuals in and around New York, most of whom are gay, during the early days of the AIDS crisis. Though the Playhouse is only putting on Part 1 (for now) there is plenty of drama to fill the 3 hours. The Pulitzer Prize winning script delves into the broader themes of the AIDS crisis, politics, religion, hypocrisy and more through the eyes of a WASPy gay man afflicted with the disease, Prior Walter, and his Jewish partner, Louis Ironson. Ironson struggles with this reality and eventually leaves Walter for an affair with a closeted Mormon, Joe Pitt. The other principal character is Ray Cohn, a deeply closeted gay man, who is also dying of AIDS, even as he actively espouses anti-gay and McCarthyist Regan-era politics, and serves as the play’s biggest villain. Through it all an angel watches over, and other characters, alive and dead, weave in and out of surreal scenes, memories, hallucinations.
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  The impossibly long bar at Oven & Shaker. Photo from Eater PDX. The Pearl’s version of a pizza joint, Oven & Shaker, just opened its doors last week. Though the new wood fired and Italian inspired pizza place features the restauranteurs behind Nostrana, Cathy Whims, ChefStable’s Kurt Huffman, and Aviation Gin’s Ryan Magarian, the rising star is Head Chef (and friend to qPDX) Devon Chase, whose oven prowess will surely be Oven & Shaker’s biggest draw.
On the night before its opening, O&S was already packed with press that lingered well past their intended review window and you had to act fast to snag a slice of the signature wood fired concoctions. But bartenders at the restaurant’s endlessly long bar (rumored to be the longest in Portland) were happy to accommodate anxious taste buds with a sampling of introductory cocktails. The Pineapple Trainwreck was front and center with it’s tall green garnish and perfect ice cubes, and though it was tasty I found the ginger a little overwhelming. But the rest of the offerings were just as delicious while being a bit subtler, such as a perfectly blended vintage style Manhattan.
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  In his new book, Francois Cusset says that: “We need to learn to take the text, turn it over, penetrate it, play with its sex, slip ours into it, follow it to the end of its fine ambivalence, and force it along the way to assume a position.” Finally a writer who shares the same queer biblio-lust as myself! With The Inverted Gaze: Queering the French Literary Classics in America, Cusset presents a new addition to the study of queer theory, dissecting the French literary classics from the point of view of what Cusset calls a “QC” or queer critic.
It must be noted that this is not a book for the faint of heart and is a highly academic read. I have read a few authors who belong to the French canon that Cusset discusses (most notably Proust and Balzac) but I was not nearly as familiar as I would like to be with the authors and works discussed. I think this book would be most enjoyed by someone who is well versed in the French literary canon. I could also see it being a valuable resource in an academic setting for a class about queer theory, especially in regards to French texts.
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 Holigay shopping, movies, performances, Occupy bots, AIDS and the retirement of Barney Frank. Plus! Will Lyska wear a thong in her next job? Will Barney Frank? Will Alley actually eat a rocky mountain oyster? […]
  GenderFantasy rehearsal photo by Wayne Bund. My first thought upon leaving Kaj-Anne Pepper‘s first full length dance and performance art piece GenderFantasy was: “How in the hell do you clean that much glitter from beneath a foreskin?”
And though that question may be 70% joke, it actually says a lot about the absurd vs. mundane that GenderFantasy embodies so well. The piece, featuring 3 dancers in addition to Pepper, Lillian Rosetti, Michael Zero Reed, and Keyon Gaskin, begins with dancing you might recognize as current and, though I hesitate to say familiar, at least recognizable. But the movements go beyond what we would generally call contemporary dance. Mostly this technique works, although occasionally I did wish for some longer stretches of repetition and synchronicity. And yet somehow, though you might not enjoy or be be comfortable with every dance, it does make a beautiful and interesting whole.
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