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Tag Archives: Logo

Did you catch the nod to marriage equality in Google’s Valentine’s doodle?

Posted on 14 Feb 2012 at 10:06am
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Google’s “doodles,” the elaborate variations on the ubiquitous search engine’s logo that appear on google.com for special occasions, keep getting more and more elaborate, and today’s Valentine doodle is no exception. The video, set to Tony Bennett’s “Cold, Cold Heart” depicts the efforts of a little boy to gain a girl’s affection by showering her with gifts, only to learn that taking an interest in her hobby is the real secret to winning her love. The video ends with a montage of couples.

Although I'm not sure how I feel having my relationship compared to women loving frogs and alien/astronaut love. It's a little too "Republican presidential candidate," if you know what I mean.

On the center column, bottom row of the collage are what clearly seem to be two men in tuxedos, standing before a group of people, could this be a wedding of the same-sex variety? I think so! Kudos to Google (which has a 100% score on HRC’ Corporate Equality Index) for this small nod to Equality.

After the jump, watch the full doodle.

Continue reading “Did you catch the nod to marriage equality in Google’s Valentine’s doodle?” »

—  admin

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God-Des & She hate Valentine’s Day, this Saturday at Evo Lounge

Posted on 10 Feb 2012 at 4:19pm
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God-Des & She

Five years ago the music of hip-hop/pop-soul duo God-Des & She was featured on the seminal lesbian drama The L Word, launching them into both sapphic and quasi-mainstream fame. Their song “Love You Better” shot to the #1 spot on MTV LOGO and they’ve been playing around the world ever since.

The duo bring their unique sound to the “I Hate Valentine’s Single’s Bash” Saturday night at Evo Lounge (2707 Milam). Doors open at 8 pm with God-Des & She taking the stage at midnight. In the meantime guests can enjoy tracks from DJ Whitebread.  Pre-sale tickets are available on-line for $7.

After the jump check out the video for “Love You Better.”

Continue reading “God-Des & She hate Valentine’s Day, this Saturday at Evo Lounge” »

—  admin

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Pride Houston to unveil new logo, theme for 2012

Posted on 11 Jan 2012 at 3:20pm
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2011 Pride Houston Logo "Live, Love, Be"2010 Pride Houston Logo "Pride Not Prejudice"2009 Pride Houston Logo "Out 4 Justice"

It’s the start of a new year, that special season when Houstonians break out their winter T-shirts, when the grass changes colors from brown to green and when Pride Houston unveils the new theme and logo for the June pride parade and festival. The grand unveiling ceremony is at F Bar (202 Tuam) on January 17 and 7:30 pm. The Grand Marshal Nominees for 2012 will also be revealed. Finalist from the 2011 Pride Star singing competition will provide entertainment throughout the evening.

 

 

—  admin

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Starvoice • 11.11.11

Posted on 10 Nov 2011 at 10:06pm
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By Jack Fertig

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAY

RuPaul Charles turns 51 on Thursday. The pioneering drag queen continues to step up the art of drag with the upcoming fourth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race on Logo in January along with the companion show Untucked. But in 2010, he returned to his roots by releasing his fifth album, Glamazon and debuted the single “Superstar” on the finale of the third season of Drag Race.

………………..

THIS WEEK

Mars is in Virgo trine to Jupiter in Taurus directing our energies to critical, constructive matters. Get to work. Flirtations and chatter are just distractions, but a little is good for morale.

………………..

SCORPIO  Oct 23-Nov 21
Efforts to befriend colleagues backfire. Constructive criticism should be offered carefully. Friends’ insights help your partnership and challenge your friendship. But you love a challenge.

SAGITTARIUS  Nov 22-Dec 20
Your eagerness to get ahead is overdone. Crediting your colleagues will help you keep proportion. You don’t need to oversell yourself. Humility is your key to greatness.

CAPRICORN  Dec 21-Jan 19
Your own creative visions and hopes are too extravagant. Share them anyway. Invite your friends to critique your goals. They will help you develop keener focus. Face domestic discord to heal it.

AQUARIUS  Jan 20-Feb 18
Think before responding to a challenge. You’re feistier than usual. On the other hand, taking criticism to heart could provide a lot of material for self-improvement.

PISCES  Feb 19-Mar 19
Too much explaining undermines your efforts. Answer questions succinctly. Hunches may offer insight, but don’t necessarily trust them. Stick to the facts.

ARIES  Mar 20-Apr 19
If you ask for a raise you’ll get what you’re worth. Are you willing to risk it? Quiet time alone can help you get insight into early traumas. Helping those less fortunate can help you to heal them.

TAURUS  Apr 20-May 20
Sex can be healing, but one can overdose. Feelings of satiation can open new insights. Even in hard times life can be good and you have the resourceful creative instincts to make the most of it.

GEMINI  May 21-Jun 20
Advice from Mom is useful, but more a springboard to clearer ideas. Others may trigger your anxieties, those worries are your own from childhood shames. Choose your company carefully.

CANCER  Jun 21-Jul 22
Showing off leads to criticism. The trick is to consider the source, see what you learn from it and don’t let it bother you. Stay strong and focused to take charge and deal with family problems.

LEO  Jul 23-Aug 22
Try not to start arguments at home. An older sibling or neighbor has good advice even if you don’t like it. Hard work and efficiency at work will be rewarded with greater challenges.

VIRGO  Aug 23-Sep 22
Your energy is picking up and liable to go in different directions. Housework is a pleasant diversion. Focus on learning practical issues. What do you need to learn to be truly successful?

LIBRA  Sep 23-Oct 22
Keeping up with the Joneses quickly becomes more jonesing. Challenge yourself to be thrifty. Campy discussions are fun, but easy to overdo. Improve on your own flaws; never mind others’.

Jack Fertig can be reached at 415-864-8302 or Starjack.com

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition November 11, 2011.

—  Kevin Thomas

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A Formal Affair

Posted on 10 Nov 2011 at 5:06pm
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11.11.11-Cover-B

Joe Solmonese, Eric Alva, Jessie Tyler Ferguson, Marlee Matlin, Caroline Rhea, Taylor Dayne, Chet Flake and the late Bud Knight are among those who will be honored or will speak at The Black Tie Dinner on Saturday.

Solmonese fears 2012 setback

BTD-Solmonese

LAST NIGHT | Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese speaks at a previous Black Tie Dinner in Dallas. Solmonese will be leaving HRC next March, making this weekend’s event the last Black Tie Dinner he will attend as president of the national LGBT advocacy organization.

Outgoing HRC president says community must fight for Obama

JOHN WRIGHT  |  Senior Political Writer
wright@dallasvoice.com

Joe Solmonese admits he’s “very concerned” about President Barack Obama’s prospects for re-election.

But Solmonese says he’s equally concerned about how the LGBT community — and his successor at the Human Rights Campaign — would respond if Obama loses.

Solmonese will step down as president of HRC after seven years in March. On Saturday, Nov. 12, he’ll make his final appearance as the group’s president at the Black Tie Dinner, of which HRC is the national beneficiary.

In an interview last month with Dallas Voice, Solmonese focused largely on the importance of 2012 elections, saying that depending on their outcome, major advances during his tenure could be all but erased.

“I don’t think that he’s going to lose,” Solmonese said at one point, attempting to clarify his assessment of Obama’s chances. “I think that if everybody does what they need to do, I think there is just as good a chance that Barack Obama will be re-elected, but I’m as concerned that he could lose.”

Solmonese said Republicans already have a majority in the House, Democrats have only a slim majority in the Senate, and “everything about these [2012] elections points to us having real challenges.”

“I think that if everybody who has gained from the Obama administration does everything they need to do over the course of the next year, he’ll get re-elected,” Solmonese said. “But I would be lying if I said I’m not very concerned about the prospects of him getting re-elected.”

Solmonese said the message he wants to send to the LGBT community is that Obama has done more for us than any other president, and that the movement has seen more gains under the current administration than at any other time in its history.

“If we care about continuing with the forward motion that we’ve experienced, then we as a community need to do everything possible to re-elect Barack Obama,” Solmonese said. “And we can talk about and debate and press the administration on his ability to do more, and him coming out for marriage, or anything else that we want to talk about, but now is the time to sort of decouple that from all of the work we need to put into getting him re-elected. Because at the end of the day, it comes down to a choice, and the choice isn’t even hard for me: It’s Barack Obama or any of these other people who are running against him.”

Despite his concerns about Obama’s chances, Solmonese said he has no misgivings about leaving HRC seven months prior to Election Day. He said he made a commitment to give the organization six months notice, and his contract expires in March.

He said announcing his resignation at the end of August allowed HRC to begin the transition process, which will be completed when his successor takes over, midway through the Republican primary. Solmonese also said he’ll continue to be involved with the organization through next year, assisting with its efforts around the November election.

“I’m a lot more concerned about what happens the morning after the elections,” Solmonese said. “I’m a lot more concerned about this organization and its leader being in the best possible position to navigate those waters, and either we are contemplating a second term with Obama and a continuation of our agenda and perhaps a decidedly different Congress, or we’re contemplating President Mitt Romney and all of the implications that means for our community, and I want whoever is in this seat leading this organization contemplating where we go from there, to have had some time under their belt to figure that out.”

Asked whether that means he believes Romney will be the Republican nominee, Solmonese clarified that anyone claims to know definitively “doesn’t’ know what they’re talking about” — but he added that he thinks the former Massachusetts governor is the “odds-on favorite.”

And while Romney may appear less anti-gay than some other GOP presidential hopefuls, Solmonese said called him “someone you have to be careful of” because “he’s essentially beholden to no issue.”

“He adopts a position that works best for the political predicament he finds himself in,” said Solmonese, a Massachusetts native who’s watched Romney’s political career closely. “So, while he was seemingly pro-gay as he attempted to unseat Ted Kennedy, and his rhetoric isn’t harsh and he doesn’t have the same sort of narrative that a Rick Santorum has, he’s effectively said that he doesn’t believe in the repeal of ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ and that he would support the federal marriage amendment. But what we don’t know, just like we didn’t really anticipate with [President] George [W.] Bush, is how beholden he is going to feel to the hard right once he becomes president.”

It was Bush, of course, whose administration was pushing a federal marriage amendment when Solmonese joined HRC in 2005.

The marriage amendment, Solmonese said, represents the worst possible thing that could happen to the LGBT community, because it would enshrine discrimination into the Constitution.

And although the threat of the amendment may seem like a distant memory to some, Solmonese warned that it could easily resurface. Which is why, he said, the 2012 elections are the biggest challenge HRC faces going forward.

“I think the elections loom largest because what the elections really represent to me is the potential for us to really stop, potential derail and ultimately set back a lot of the progress that we’ve made,” Solmonese said. “What also concerns me then is that the community be braced for that, and we understand that we’ve been in these places before, and the measure of who we are and how we’ll be defined, is how we react in those moments, the degree to which we stay in the fight and make sure we continue to press forward regardless of the outcome of the election.”

Solmonese said he fears the progress of the last several years may lead to complacency. And he said based on his experience, when the LGBT community suffers setbacks, instead of regrouping and uniting, people have a tendency to lose their way and point fingers.

“If we lose, if the outcome is negative, if we go from the march toward marriage equality and the repeal of DOMA and the positive direction that we’ve been in, to a president and a Congress who decide they’re so troubled by all the success we’re having with marriage they want to take up the fight again to pass the federal marriage amendment — well, boy, we’ve come full circle from where we were back in 2005, the last time that happened,” he said.

“And you can react to that in one of two ways. You can say this is the inevitable ebb and flow of social change, so pull up your boot straps and let’s get going and turn that around again — and understand that that sort of energy that the other side has around something like that is a reaction to their own fear of the progress we’ve made — or you can become very dispirited and depressed and disenfranchised and decide that it’s our own doing, it’s our own lack of progress, it’s our own failing. And that would be the worst possible thing that we could do.”

Caroline Rhea: From the hip

Rhea.Caroline

Caroline Rhea

From her role as Noleta Nethercott on Del Shores’ campy queer Texas-based sitcom Sordid Lives to taking over Rosie O’Donnell’s talk show, Caroline Rhea has long has a strong connection to the gay community. This week, she breaks new ground again, becoming the first professional comedienne to serve as soup-to-nuts emcee for the Black Tie Dinner.
Rhea took a moment this week to discuss her involvement with the LGBT community, her Texas ties and her new (like her, Canadian) reality TV show.

Dallas Voice: You’ve always seemed to be close to the LGBT community. Where does that stem from?  Rhea: I am not a direct member of the LGBT community, but I have had a BLT. In the Venn diagram of life, there is a lot of crossover between gay men and female comedians. It’s a mutual lovefest.

How different is it to do a gay event like Black Tie vs. a comedy show on the road?  The audience is much better looking.

For special events like this, do you bring your family?  Not if it involves bringing a toddler on a plane.

What in you is fulfilled to do an event such as Black Tie Dinner? I want to support the LGBT community in all that they do.

If you were to rank all you do — acting, hosting, voiceovers, comedy, etc. — how do you rank your priorities?  Motherhood first. Then comedy, and working with people that I like.

You have hosted a new reality competition series in your native Canada, Cake Walk: Wedding Cake Edition. How did you enjoy that? Did you get to taste the goods?  Believe it or not, I didn’t taste the cakes.

Will there be a same-sex couple on the show?  I hope so.

How do you think that would fly with the show’s audience?  Same-sex marriage has been legal for years in Canada. It would be another beautiful wedding.

Having now worked with Del Shores on the Logo series Sordid Lives, how do you perceive Texas in general? Dallas in particular? Any misconceptions you had that were proven wrong?  My dad’s family was from Texas and my father looked like J.R. Ewing. I am not a fan of your toll roads and every time I am on the George Bush Turnpike I feel like I am going backwards.

—Arnold Wayne Jones

Taylor Dayne can’t stop the music

More than 20 years after she packed the gay bar dance floors with her debut hits, the songstress is still going strong, and says her performance at Black Tie is a ‘win-win’ for her and her fans

Dayne.Taylor

Taylor Dayne

Rich Lopez  |  Staff Writer
lopez@dallasvoice.com

Helping out LGBT people is nothing new for singer Taylor Dayne.

She can’t quite recall when she knew she was a hit with the gay community: Over the course of her 23-year career in pop music, she’s played venues of all sizes, but she did notice early on how a certain fan base seemed to keep showing up.

“It’s kinda hard to remember, but I would perform very specific shows and then some gay clubs and it dawned on me,” she said.

With an explosive debut, thanks to her platinum selling 1988 debut Tell It To My Heart and the more sophisticated follow-up Can’t Fight Fate a year later, Dayne became a quick force to be reckoned with on the charts.

But her pop hits were just as big on the dance floor, and Dayne was resonating across the queer landscape.

“I’ve had wonderful relationship with gay and lesbian fans for years. I’m so glad to be doing Black Tie because I have a great core of fan base here,” she said. “It’ll be a good show with lots of fun and for a good cause. It’s a win-win.”

Dayne’s performed at gay bars and Pride events in Boston, Chicago and the Delaware Pride Festival. But appreciation of her work in the community was clearly evident in 2010 when she was asked to record “Facing a Miracle” as the anthem for the Gay Games.

“That was quite an honor and then they asked me to perform at the games,” she said. “It was very emotional for me. The roar of the crowd was great.”

Even after two decades, Dayne remains just as committed to music as she was in 1988. She’s embraces her sort of “elder” status in pop music and instead of seeing the likes of Nikki Minaj and Katy Perry as rivals, she enjoys what they are bringing to the landscape of music now.

“I love listening to all the new stuff going on. There is some great talent out there. It’s nice to know I was some inspiration to them, the way ladies like Debbie Harry and Pat Benatar were for me. The cycle goes on,” Dayne said.

But they still push her to keep in the game. She admitted, “I’m pretty competitive that way.”

This year, Dayne released the single, “Floor on Fire,” which made it to the Billboard Dance/Club Charts Top 10.

At 49, Dayne doesn’t show signs of slowing. Along with a rumored second greatest hits album, she recently wrapped up filming the indie movie Telling of the Shoes and she’s a single mother to 9-year-old twins. Juggling it all is a mix of emotions, but her confidence pushes her through.

“I can say I’m a great singer, so when it comes to decisions, I’m fine about recording and performing,” she said. “But I would say I work really hard at acting. It’s nerve-wracking but it’s also amazing. But I’m not a novice at any of this.”

With her children, she doesn’t make any pretenses about the difficulty of being both a musician and a mom — as long as she instills the proper principles in them.

“We don’t try to get wrapped up in small time crap,” she said. “At the end of day it’s about having a good heart and they have great heart.”

It’s likely she’ll show the same at Black Tie.

……………………

BLACK TIE DETAILS

The 30th annual DFW Black Tie Dinner will be held Saturday night, Nov. 12, at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel. The event is already sold out.

Special guests at this year’s dinner include Academy Award-winning actress Marlee Matlin as keynote speaker and Emmy Award-winning actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Media Award winner. Singer Taylor Dayne will perform.

Chet Flake and his late partner, Bud Knight, will be honored as recipients of the Raymond Kuchling Humanitarian Award, and gay military veteran Eric Alva, the first U.S. serviceman injured in the Iraq war and an advocate for repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” will received the Elizabeth Birch Equality Award.

Dinner organizers this year decided, for the first time, to bring in an emcee for the evening, choosing popular comedian Caroline Rhea.

This year also marks the final time that Joe Solmonese will attend the dinner as president of the Human Rights Campaign, the national beneficiary of Black Tie, which each year receives about half the proceeds of the event. Solmonese has resigned as head of HRC, effective next March.

Seventeen local HIV/AIDS and LGBT organizations have also been designated as beneficiaries.

Black Tie Dinner includes a silent auction, a live luxury auction and an after-party at the hotel.

For more information, go online to BlackTie.org.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition November 11, 2011.

 

—  Kevin Thomas

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‘The A-List Dallas’ premieres amid scandal

Posted on 10 Oct 2011 at 10:00pm
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Taylor Garrett, a gay Republican cast member on Logo’s The A-List Dallas, alleged on Twitter last week that he’d been the victim of an apparent gay-on-gay hate crime.

“My place is nice and breezy now thanks to a liberal!” Garrett wrote in a tweet containing links to the photos above and at right.

One person asked Garrett on Twitter why there’s no record on the Dallas Police Department’s website of him filing a report about the incident.

Garrett responded that there are “plenty of reports,” but he has failed to produce one or provide any further details since then.

Garrett’s initial tweet about the incident was later removed from Twitter. Also deleted was a message to Garrett from Logo executive producer John Hill, congratulating him for “making headlines.”

The story was eventually picked up by The Huffington Post.

Blogger Joe Jervis at Joe.My.God., who broke the story, is convinced the whole thing was a publicity stunt in advance of tonight’s premiere of The A-List Dallas.

If so, we’d have to say it worked.

—  John Wright

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Show v. Show: ‘A-List’ butt ups against ‘Most Eligible’ … and Dallas suffers

Posted on 03 Oct 2011 at 10:35am
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It’s a head-to-head competition of epic proportions … well, only if you’re idea of “epic” is cat-fighting, insufferable jerks. In a weird confluence of gay-versus-gay counter-programming, starting at 11 a.m. today, The A-List: New York on Logo and Most Eligible Dallas on Bravo both are running mini-marathons of their shows. That means local queer DVRs will be overly taxed, having to decide whether to watch a lot of gays behave like navel-gazing superstars when in fact they are negligible celebs in much smaller cities, or turning the satellite toward the hometown show, with a few gays who wander around Big D, acting like selfish assholes.

It’s a conundrum worthy of … well, not really worthy of anything.

Next week, The A-List: Dallas premieres (we’ll have a preview), but I doubt that show will rehabilitate Dallas. Considering that Big Rich Texas just ended Sunday night and The Real Housewives of Dallas is coming, our city looks to be the center of reality sniping. (Also in development: Storage Wars: Dallas, which probably won’t be too gay but is unlikely to present the city in a great light, if the word “wars” is in the title.)

Add to these TNT’s reboot of the soap Dallas and ABC’s upcoming spoof Good Christian Belles with Kristin Chenoweth, and even the fictionalized looks at our fair ‘burg seem to target the negative. (Perhaps the most offensive thing I’ve seen on Most Negligible is the woman who announced she was taking shooting lessons at a gun range, because “90 percent of all women in Dallas pack heat.” I’ve lived here more than 20 years, and I don’t even know a man who has a carry permit, not to say 90 percent of all women. But reality has so little to do with reality TV. And Dallas is its latest victim. Does anyone feel this is good for us? Anyone? Bueller?

—  Arnold Wayne Jones

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WATCH: Official trailer for ‘The A-List: Dallas,’ which will include a ‘sassy gay Republican’

Posted on 19 Aug 2011 at 5:42pm
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After revealing the sixth and final cast member — a “sassy gay Republican” named Taylor — Logo today released the official trailer for “The A-List: Dallas,” which premieres Oct. 3. Watch the trailer, as well as Taylor’s intro, below.

Continue reading “WATCH: Official trailer for ‘The A-List: Dallas,’ which will include a ‘sassy gay Republican’” »

—  John Wright

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‘A-List: New York’ returns July 25

Posted on 23 Jun 2011 at 12:16pm
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No word yet on when The A-List: Dallas, which is currently filming, will air, but season 2 of The A-List: New York has an official debut date: 9 p.m. on Monday, July 25 on Logo. Returning are Reichen, his hot Brazilian boyfriend Rodiney, sleazy gossip Austin, photographer Mike, as well as Derek, Ryan and T.J., plus the addition of a woman: Nyasha Zimucha. According to the press release, “new relationships ignite, nude photos are revealed … and gossip spreads when a romantic trip to Hawaii pairs the most unlike castmates.” Mmmm-hmmm.

—  Arnold Wayne Jones

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Roll ’em!

Posted on 26 May 2011 at 5:00pm
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For its lucky 13th, Cowtown’s  annual gay and lesbian international film festival, Q Cinema, has love in its heart

Screen shot 2011-05-26 at 2.07.08 PM
NOTICE A COMMON THEME HERE? | Q Cinema is bringing sexy back with its 13th queer film festival, with gay rom-coms like ‘eCupid,’ top, ‘Judas Kiss,’ center, and the lesbian drama ‘Bloomington,’ bottom.

Q Cinema is bringing sexy back.

Its 13th annual festival, which begins on Thursday and runs over next weekend, is flush with sexy, fun and campy films, as well as smattering of dramas (gay, lesbian, trans and bi) through shorts and features. And, for a festival of its size, it manages to attract loads of talent, from stars like Bruce Vilanch and Charlie David to filmmakers like Casper Andreas.

And, in true Cowtown fashion, it finds a way to make it all yee-haw fun, with a bowling party and dishy programs.
Here’s a preview of some of the programs.

Going Down in LA-LA Land
OK, let’s be honest: A lot of gay cinema falls in too-easy pigeonholes and familiar clichés. Twinks getting shirtless. Over-the-top, homo-hating bad guys (who often turn out to be in the closet). Romantic encounters, both cheesy and predictable. Sitcom-y jokes — or else, tortured melodramatic emoting.

But we watch them, and even like them, because they have shirtless twinks. And romantic encounters. And bad guys who turn out to be closet cases.

So sue us. We like our mindless, lightweight fantasies as much as straight folks.

So, when Going Down in LA-LA Land starts with new kid Adam (Matthew Ludwinski) moving to Los Angeles only to be put off by back-stabbing, dating trouble and career misfires, it looks like it’ll be another of its genre: The sappy, silly, easy comedy.

And then something happens: It gets good.

Sure, you can see some of the plot turns easier than at the Texas Motor Speedway, but there’s also a canny, insider quality that adds some heft and authenticity to it all — largely with not-so-subtle references to real Hollywood (including Bruce Vilanch as a Chi Chi LaRue-esque porn director). Writer-director Casper Andreas has crafted a sexy but also funny and wise squinty-eyed look at Tinseltown, from the seductive side to the seedy (often one and the same), from the glamour to the pitfalls.

Andreas gets good performances from Ludwinski and Allison Lane (and himself as a methed-up photographer), but it’s the whole package of nudity, humor and pathos that makes it come together.
— Arnold Wayne Jones

eCupid
Marshall (Houston Rhines) and Gabe (Noah Schuffman) are both cute, young and seven years into their relationship — and, to Marshall at least, it feels as if that’s as long as it has been since they had sex. Hoping to spice up his love life, Marshall downloads an app called eCupid, which promises to match him with the love of his life. But, in traditional genie fashion, you need to be careful what you ask for.

The biggest problem with the film eCupid is that it’s a silly, supernatural romantic fantasy, but Marshall never seems weirded out that his phone seems to be sending text messages on its own, or that everything going wrong could be fixed with a system reboot.

Still, that’s also about the worst thing you can say about this breezy, sexy rom-com, filled with half-naked boys, familiar couples problems and easy-to-digest complications.
— A.W.J.

Trigger
A bad breakup will leave major scars, whether it’s the failure of a band or a couple. In the case of Trigger, it’s both.

Trigger
ROCKER CHICKS | In ‘Trigger,’ Vic (Tracey Wright, left) and Kat (Molly Parker) recall themselves in their prime, before life took a turn a decade later.

Kat (Molly Parker) and Vic (Tracy Wright) reunite over dinner 10 years after their girl band Trigger suffered an onstage blowout. Vic is harder edged, battling her demons, while Kat has moved on to a glossier, pretentious life in Los Angeles. Both are different people; the tough part for them is figuring out if they are better people.

The movie is mostly a series of conversational vignettes between the two but director Bruce McDonald treats the scenes carefully, so as not to turn them into a gimmick. We learn about their backgrounds apart and relationships with each other: They were bandmates, they were lovers, they both got fucked up by drugs and alcohol.

Parker gets the flashier role as the bitchy but loveable Kat, but this is Wright’s show. As Vic, she delivers depths of frustration and hope while still eking out flashes of exhilaration. Her voice is heartbreaking and genuine. (The role was her last — Wright died of cancer shortly after filming.)

McDonald and screenwriter Daniel McIvor have churned out a very feminine film without pandering to clichés. There is no unnecessary delicacy added here. Minus some kitschy touches that missed

the mark (an after-party at a high school?), Trigger ends up being a surprising reality check that isn’t about a rock ‘n’ roll band, but how getting older is inevitable.
— Rich Lopez

Bloomington
Bloomington is about a student-teacher lesbian relationship, which falls under the still-lingering taboo of May-December romance with a strong sense of sexual exploitation. Jackie (Sarah Stouffer) is a 22-year-old college student; Prof. Catherine Stark (Allison McAtee) bears an almost creepy resemblance to Jackie’s mother, who was virtually absent during her daughter’s teen years.

Jackie spent those years as an actress in a TV series, Neptune 26, which ended four years earlier. Now Jackie’s in college, and although her fellow students are awed by her celebrity, her problems fitting in stem more from her own standoffishness. She hears rumors about the notorious Prof. Stark, who beds her female students, only to have them disappear. So when the two meet at a student-faculty mixer, they waste no time hooking up. The power dynamics change when Jackie is asked to reprise her role in a feature version of Neptune 26 and it becomes Catherine’s turn to worry about being discarded.

Perhaps out of fear of the creep factor, none of the displays of affection between the women even approach soft-core porn. They kiss a lot but when they take their clothes off, Brazilian-born writer-director Fernanda Cardoso gets coy about camera placement. Even Jackie’s bathtub scene has her well covered in bubbles.

Cardoso has supplied a lot of surprisingly intelligent dialogue about psychology, show business and academia, to shore up a plot that’s purely emotional. The ending may not be what you expect, but

LaLaLand
ACTION! | An aspiring actor (Matthew Ludwinski) gets talked into making a film with a notorious porn director (Bruce Vilanch) in Q Cinema’s opening night film ‘Going Down in LA-LA Land.’

it’s in line with Cardoso’s constant clash between intellect and emotion. A couple of Ani DiFranco songs are well used to boost the film’s lez appeal, but your overall reaction will depend on whether you buy the central relationship. I didn’t.
— Steve Warren

Judas Kiss
It’s been fun to watch Charlie David mature as both an actor and a producer. He first shot to prominence in the supernatural gay soap Dante’s Cove, where being hot and naked were the primary criteria. He parlayed that gig into hosting duties for the Logo travelog Bump! and the gay romance Mulligans.

Now, in Judas Kiss, David gets to show off his strongest acting chops yet. He plays Zach Wells, a once-promising filmmaker who pissed away his potential on drugs and bad decisions. When he returns to his alma mater for a film festival, Zach meets his younger self, and gets the chance to fix the errors of his youth.

The supernatural element is more subtle here than Dante’s, which allows the idea behind it to come through: How difficult it is to be someone you aren’t, no matter how much information you have.

The production values are as slick and sophisticated as gay cinema gets, and there’s a deliberative, smart style to it.
— A.W.J.

The Schedule

All programs at the Rose Marine Theater, 1440 Main St., Fort Worth, except as noted

Going Down in LA-LA Land.
A gay newcomer find his way in Los Angeles, from porn to closeted movie stars. Filmmaker/stars in attendance.
Preceded by the short On the Bus.
June 2 at 7:30 p.m.

Going Down in Cowtown Opening Night Party
At the T&P Tavern, June 2 at 9:30 p.m.

Our Shorts Are Showing 1.
Program includes: The Colonel’s Outing, Nothing Happened, Freak, Slip Away, I was a Teenage Werebear,
plus a sneak peek at the new project from Israel Luna and Toni Miller, The Zombie Project.
June 3 at 6:30 p.m.

eCupid.
An app takes over the romantic life of a 30-year-old gay man suffering from the seven- year itch. Filmmaker/stars in attendance. Preceded by the short Waiting for Goliath.
June 3 at 8:45 p.m.

There’s an App for That Party.
At The Usual, June 3 at 10 p.m.

Our Shorts Are Showing 2.
Program includes: Amen, Tools 4 Fools, Stay, The Defenders, Under Pressure, Bedfellows, and It’s Just a Community Place.
June 4 at noon.

The Cost of Love.
A gay escort craves genuine love.
June 4 a 2 p.m.

Trigger.
Former lovers from a girl band reunite after a decade. Preceded by the short Allison My Love.
June 4 at 4 p.m.

2 Frogs in the West.
A French-Canadian hitchhiker finds herself attracted to a man and a woman at the same time. Preceded by the short Refuge.
June 4 at 6 p.m.

An Evening with Bruce Vilanch.
The LA-LA Land
co-star dishes (followed by a bowling after-party with Vilanch at Lucky Strike).
June 4 at 8 p.m.

We Were Here.
Documentary about the early days of the AIDS crisis in San Francisco. Preceded by the short Fucked.
June 5 at noon.

AIDS at 30: Panel Discussion.
June 5 at 2 p.m.

Bloomington.
A college professor engages in a romance with her female student, a child star.
June 5 a 3 p.m.

Gun Hill Road.
A Latino man, newly out of prison, discovers his son is now transgender. Preceded by the short Professor Godoy.
June 4 at 4 p.m.

Judas Kiss.
Charlie David stars as a time-traveling filmmaker given a second chance. Filmmaker/stars in attendance. Preceded by the video Like It Rough.
June 4 at 6 p.m.

The Q Awards/Closing Night Party
June 4 at 9 p.m.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition May 27, 2011.

—  Kevin Thomas

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