When a good idea turns into a blood-craving monster plant — well, lives get turned around. WaterTower Theatre premieres the fun and frantic Little Shop of Horrors, where Seymour, a lowly florist, tries to turn his fortune around and ends up with a big mess. Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s songs only add to the wacky flair of it all.
DEETS: WTT, 15650 Addison Road, Addison. Through July 31. $30. WaterTowerTheatre.org.
Local lesbian rockers Immigrant Punk, pictured, and SuZanne Kimbrell turn up the volume on dinner tonight. They perform a double bill in Exposition Park tonight. It’s a tough call between them and the Mavs, but a win-win either way.
DEETS: Pizza Lounge, 841 Exposition Ave. 8 p.m. Facebook.com/ImmigrantPunk
By Jack Fertig
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAY
Heidi Klum turns 38 on Wednesday. The model turned TV host and producer changed the way we look at the fashion world with her very popular Project Runway. Because of the show, some gay designers have 
gone to be stars of their own like Austin Scarlett, Santino Rice and season four winner Christian Siriano. A Runway all-stars is apparently in the works.
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THIS WEEK
Mercury squaring Neptune in Pisces while entering Gemini inflates wonderfully imaginative notions. Jupiter entering Taurus could ground them and find profitable applications. Jupiter in Taurus for the next year should_ be good for the economy. It will be good for bankers at least.
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GEMINI May 21-Jun 20
Get creative. You have big challenges in the next year. Your intuition is now unusually sharp to see how you can turn those into opportunities. Spiritual guidance can be especially helpful now.
CANCER Jun 21-Jul 22
Dreams lure you too easily into never-never-lands of fantasy and escape. Sharing some of those phantasmagorical reveries with friends can help you find some practical outlet for them.
LEO Jul 23-Aug 22
Remember the difference between dreams and goals. Friends encouraging you to chase after your dreams offer helpful inspiration, but don’t let them distract you from practical aims.
VIRGO Aug 23-Sep 22
Your brain is buzzing with schemes for success. Your partner encourages all your wildest ideas. Not. You need a leveler head with a bit of critical distance to give you pragmatic advice.
LIBRA Sep 23-Oct 22
Expansive, fortunate Jupiter is starting a year in your house of sex. The deeper you go the greater the rewards. Don’t be shy. Neither is without risks, but Jupiter is good to have on your side.
SCORPIO Oct 23-Nov 21
You and your sweetie are due for some frolic. That could open up some questions and confusion. Keeping communications clear is a small challenge. The rewards are well worth it.
SAGITTARIUS Nov 22-Dec 20
Job opportunities open up for you. Have faith in yourself. If familial encouragement is unrealistic, don’t worry about letting them down for what’s in the real world. If you’re happy, they are too.
CAPRICORN Dec 21-Jan 19
You’re way too open to distractions and thus, accidents. Mediation, poetry, music or art will get you back in balance. Take classes in any of those . You need new ways of seeing the world.
AQUARIUS Jan 20-Feb 18
Struggle between your deepest desires and economic necessity feels brutal. A light, playful conversation with your partner can help you find a way to afford your dreams, or find reconciliation.
PISCES Feb 19-Mar 19
Whatever you have to offer, make it heard and known. Your family will back you up in your endeavors, but you really need to be very clear on who you are and what it is you’ve got.
ARIES Mar 20-Apr 19
Your recent lucky spree will focus more on financial fortune. Mad dreams and inspirations offer some clues. Talk out your crazy notions with friends and find a way to bring them to the bank.
TAURUS Apr 20-May 20
Recent hard times turn around. Cash in on your good fortune. Turn your friends’ suggestions into practical ideas. Inspirations now point the way to future fulfillment of your dreams.
Jack Fertig can be reached at 415-864-8302 or Starjack.com
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition May 27, 2011.
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.
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
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 ScheduleAll 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.
I know that Abercrombie & Fitch clothes are designed, ideally, for younger men than myself (next week I turn 39 — again! A new record!), but I find myself pawing through their racks nonetheless, grabbing the occasional muscle shirt. And here’s why: With ads like these, you can only imagine your own body looks as good this way. I know it does not. But that’s how advertising works.
I hope what I’ve posted before has been useful or at least informative.
If you’ve ever been to an Out & Equal Workplace Summit (and I encourage you to think about attending), you know how content-rich this topic is — and the tactical ways of achieving workplace equality are as varied as is our community.
Taken from a decidedly business-oriented approach, however, certain broad themes do start to emerge:
So, before posting any more information about the CEI or efforts to achieve inclusive work environments, I thought now would be a good time to pause and take questions. I’ll do my best to respond over the week-end.
And (once again) for the record, I am not a plant or employee of HRC. I am a cisgender, gay, middle-aged, white male. I’m currently the co-Chair of Out & Equal Houston, and formerly the President of Chevron’s global PRIDE Employee Network — where (during my tenure) I helped get the company to implement trans-inclusive non-discrimination policies, authored the company’s transgender guidebook, and garner Chevron’s endorsement of a fully inclusive ENDA.
The views in these diaries are entirely my own and the materials and data I will be sharing come from my own files over the last 15 years and public records — as well as data from HRC, various Out & Equal Workplace Summit workshops and resources garnered from networking.
The floor is yours! (And PHB TOS are still in effect.)
This man wants to be your next president of this supposedly church/state-separated nation, a job that will most certainly come with a few U.S. Supreme Court picks:
“[Retention vote] wasn’t personal. It was just business. It was the business of protecting marriage the family. It was the business of believing that there really is a God to whom we are ultimately responsible and accountable, and that we are not merely answering to political governments set up by men, but we ultimately will answer to all things to a holy God who will ask whether or not we held not to a human standard but rather to an eternal standard that supersedes all the of the human standards that can be voted in or voted out. And when we stand by those things it is not personal, it’s business.”
Full justice-chilling breadth:
[YT: iowanews1]
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*Our many posts on the gay-focused Iowa retention vote and why it was so wrongheaded/dangerous (regardless of one’s personal view of the judges’ careers, btw): Iowa For Freedom Archive [G-A-Y]
Dutch gays are used to taking abuse from American military leaders, but for one gay couple the abuse came from some neighborhood youths in Utrecht, southeast of Amsterdam (where the couple moved). In a lawsuit seeking 40,000 euros in damages, the couple claims police there did little to investigate the "material and immaterial damage" the harassment caused. The couple also wants Utrecht officials to be forced to prosecute the teens, though Mayor Aleid Wolfsen says without any witnesses there's nothing authorities can do. And in other news out of the Netherlands, The Gays there are organizing a protest against American rap group Jedi Mind Tricks performing there, since they have lyrics like, "Beat a faggot till he ain't fuckin’ gay no more."
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Tagged: harassment, Netherlands
For those of you old enough to remember Sherman and Mister Peabody, those two were in a “middle” cartoon for the Rocky And Bullwinkle Show. They used the Wayback Machine to go an look back at improbable history.
Here’s some improbable history for you: The Office Of Personal Management’s (OPM’s) John Berry, with the echo of the Family Research Council’s (FRC’s) Tony Perkins, predicting the path of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community history’s future path, in the video OPM Director John Berry Outlines Obama Administration’s Gay Agenda:
Many of us are noting how the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) has seemed to have fallen off the national discourse of LGBT issues, and in the 111th Congress, with strong Democratic Party majorities, we’re didn’t see any vote on ENDA — and it’s unlikely we’ll see a vote on ENDA in the 111th Congress’s lame duck session.
The Wayback Machine is a strange device, giving us a view into the past, with its impact on the present — and the future.
I’m believing more and more what Representative Jackie Speier stated last June regarding ENDA might even be an optimistic assessment at this point, and her take on DADT being passed into law by the end of this year appears to me to be a very unlikely outcome to come out of our 111th Congress.
Congresswoman Jackie Speier put a damper on hopes for swift House passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, telling the Bay Area Reporter over the weekend that she doesn’t see the LGBT workplace protections becoming law anytime soon.Addressing the crowd of gay and straight political and community leaders at Sunday’s Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club Pride breakfast, Speier said, “Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi is doing all she can to ensure a majority for next year so we can pass ENDA.”
Asked later in a brief interview if that meant the House would not vote on ENDA this year, Speier told the B.A.R., “The rest of the year is in question.”
“There’s no question ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ will be history this year,” she said. “ENDA, we will have that law for sure within the next five years.”
Who knew that John Berry and Tony Perkins would be on the same page on expectations for the Obama Administration. That said, it appears to me that we’re not on the page to actually make the goals of that LGBT legislative agenda turn into actual laws.
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Related:
* HRC Backstory (September 17, 2009): OPM Head Berry Says Prioritize ENDA; Take Action at passENDAnow.org
Pam’s House Blend – Front Page
Today, House Republican leaders released their “Pledge to America,” outlining how they would govern should they win back control of the House in November. While the document focuses heavily on economic issues, its “pledge” also includes hostility to LGBT equality, promising support for “traditional marriage” and, in a thinly-veiled attack on LGBT advances through legislation and the courts, criticizing actions that “thwart the will of the people and overturn their votes and their values.” While the document itself doesn’t tell as much more about how these Republicans would treat our community, the lengthy record of anti-LGBT efforts during a decade of Republican control of Congress speaks volumes. LGBT people should see this “Pledge” for what it really is – a promise to try and turn back the clock on the LGBT equality on Capitol Hill.
When anti-equality forces controlled Congress for a decade (1994-2005), they stymied any progress on LGBT issues, instead making attacks on our community part of their governing agenda. Among these were:
A Congress controlled by anti-equality Republican leaders could very well return to this playbook, and even go further by:
Under a Republican Congress, key positions that control the fate of pro-LGBT legislation would be held by notorious anti-equality legislators. In such a world, for example:
