Calling All Fabglitter

Come join us Out in the open at First Unitarian Church’s Courtyard Cafe on Saturday, October 24. Open from 6-10pm with local coffee and snacks sold for a minimal cost. $3 cover charge with $2 going to commonGround of U of L. Entertainment provided by students and supporters. The Rev. Dawn Cooley, new minister at First Unitarian Church, will join the Cafe this month for a reception to welcome her to her new ministry in Louisville. Rev. Cooley is eager to meet members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community in Louisville and learn about the equality and justice priorities in the local area as well as opportunities to support this crucial work. Rev. Cooley is available to members of the community for ceremonies of union. Please come to the Cafe to meet Rev. Cooley and welcome her to Louisville, or contact her at the church at 585-5110. Future Courtyard Cafe’s will be held on Nov. 20 and Dec. 18. When the weather no longer allows us to be outside, we will take the fun inside. We hope to provide local entertainment for future Cafe’s. For more information, email courtyard.cafe@rocketmail.com.

Caught in a Celluloid Jam

Science Fiction – Double Feature
Dr. X will build a creature
See androids fighting Brad and Janet
Ann Francis stars in Forbidden Planet
Oh-oh at the late night, double feature, picture show.

 

It was a Saturday afternoon in early October. There are a lot of events in the City at this time of year. I was part of the packed house who’d come to see Pandora Production’s staging of The Rocky Horror Show. Who’d have thought a matinee would be a sell out? Like many people, I know this tale very well, and saw it numerous times when it played at the Vogue Theatre, but I had not seen it as a live production.

Also, noteworthy is that while there were plenty of gay folks in attendance, there were also quite a few straight couples. That’s absolutely great news — for Pandora, Louisville, and the nation.

I think I’m far more fond of it — if you can image that — as a stage production that as a movie. The actors had great voices, there was a live band tucked behind stage, and Pandora’s Rocky is far hotter than the film’s Rocky. My favorite part was at the end looking around at the audience members giving a standing ovation — and doing the Time Warp. It was astounding.

As of this writing, there’s only one more performance — at 1930 tonight, but it’s just the beginning of what promises to be another fabulous season for my favorite theatre company.

AIDS Walk Sunday

AIDS Remembrance Ribbon on the Second Street Bridge

Today was one of those glorious days when you remember what keeps you living in the River City. The skies were blue, the temperatures mild, and a light breeze swept across the city. The 16^th Louisville AIDS Walk was today. I got to the Belvedere just before they closed off the Main Street, and I had plenty of time to play anthropologist (i.e., people watch). One of the things that I like about events like it, is that same sex couples can hold hands or have other PDAs that straight people take for granted. I watched the runners start the 5K, saw and talked with some people I knew. I tweeted about the event, and had a wolf’s good time. I even saw a couple of guys worth lusting after, but that’s another tale. It was also impressive that Mayor Abramson and Congressman Yarmuth came to the event. I noticed that  neither of the Commonwealth’s senators were in attendance.

Soon enough it was time to head down to Main Street and get ready to start this year’s walk. We got in place, the count down began, and we were off. The crowd included plenty of people from the LGBTQI community as well as straights and the undeclared. There were drag queens and leather lords, frat boys and women of a certain age, middle aged men and children. There were even a few pups (of both four and two legged varieties) walking the walk. Blacks, Whites, Asians, Jews, Christians, UUs, and people of no particular persuasion all had on their walking shoes. The route led across the Second Street Bridge to Southern Indiana, circled around and came back. I think it’s about a three mile trek. Placed along the route were bins filled with ice and bottles of water, and there were wading pools filled with water for the dogs.

Thanks to some very nice sponsors, I was able to bring $315 to the total. I’m not certain of the total for the Walk itself, but I’m hoping it was huge. I’m already looking forward to next year’s walk, and I’m thinking of doing some volunteer work as well.

Louisville AIDS Walk

Louisville AIDS Walk, Sunday, September 13th, at the Belvedere!

Proving, once again, that I’m more than boys, booze, and barbells.

 There are very few causes that will get me to ask for money. This is one of them. To put it simply, it’s a good cause. I’m walking. Any amount will be greatly appreciated. If you have friends (or enemies for that matter) who would be interested in donating, please let me know, and I’ll be very happy to solicit them. To contribute please, Click Here.

Bound

he calls
    his soft hard
       uncertainty 
     cures my Aching
 shackled by His design
     imprisoned by His touch
         my pleasure is pain
     on the Rocks

The Pink Brick Road

In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.

–Thurgood Marshall

The Indigo Girls, Hair, The Dixie Chicks, P!nk, Green Day, Pansy Division and a recurring affair with Tanqueray are a few things that got me through eight years of a daft, NeoCon regime. In January a New Light arose in the East, a new era dawned, and Gay Rights remain pretty much ignored. Don’t get me wrong. I’m still an Obamaniac, and I recognize the man has a lot on his plate right now. Like many others, I want a quick end to the Middle Eastern Wars, a strong, stable economy, a healthy planet, and the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius. I also want marriage equality, passage of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act, a cure for and vaccination to prevent  AIDS, repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and Fairness to be a national mandate. Well, you get the picture.

It’s wonderful that health care benefits have been extended to same-sex domestic partners of federal employees. Many companies — even the traditionally conservative ones — have offered those benefits for years. However, due to federal mandate, my domestic partner couldn’t use the dollars in my Health Savings Account (HSA) for his health care expenses. I wouldn’t be entitled to a thin dime of his social security, and my sister would have more claim over my care were I mentally incapacitated than the man with whom I’m spending my life.  And to be honest about it,  I’d like some real contrition and penitence from the good people of the Golden State for taking away rights.

Those are some of the things we still have to conquer. But we’ve come a long way as well. Forty years ago, the riots at the Stonewall Inn began the Gay Rights Movement, and we’ve only picked up speed. As I write, six states have legalized same-sex marriage — something that couldn’t even be imagined in 1969. Also at that time, most gay bars were the pink equivalent of speekeasies — often without signage to proclaim what lay behind that door. Now, most same-sex watering holes are as out and loud as their patrons. Homosexuals are portrayed openly, if not always accurately, on screen. We are no longer just the nellie poofs,  the outwardly-closeted, or the confirmed bachelors. It’s not unusual on the Tony Awards to see same-sex couples kiss when one wins an award or to thank his or her same-sex partner. Honestly, no one seems to notice the deviation from the norm — whatever that is.

The company I work for as a non-discrimination policy that includes homosexuality, allows coverage for same-sex partners on its benefits, and has protrayed same-sex relationships in some of it’s public face. None of these things were more than castles in the air in 1969.

We still have a long skip up the Yellow Brick Road, but we’ve come a long way, Babycakes. If we get up off the bar stools, out of the closets, and into the streets, we’ll make it to find an Emerald City upon a Hill.

As ever, I bid you Peace.

Out of & Into Bondage

I was reading a friend’s blog and discovered that there is a Haggadah for Leather Folks. It’s available on the Unitarian Universalists for Jewish Awareness website. Follow this link for the PDF version. I want to make clear this this publication does not seek to make fun of the Pesach traditions but gives the instruction for those of the BDSM community a way to celebrate one of the great annual rituals. For more information on Unitarian Universalism, visit the UUA Website.

Sexy Saturday 14th

Random Weather Thoughts

Friday was the more-or-less one year anniversary of the blizzard of 2008. I wonder if that’s what started the strange weather mojo of land-locked hurricanes and ice-storms. It’s also worth noting that I keep my bi-annual check-ups at the dentist. They aren’t my favorite way to pass the time, but they’re not bad. Last April, just hours before my spring check-up there was an earthquake in Louisville. More strangeness. It’s only fair to ask if we should prepare for a tidal wave. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if we had one. Maybe in the summer months to round out the year. I keep wondering if I should prepare to throw out the contents of my refrigerator and freezer every couple of months in an effort to appease. Though I’m not sure who, exactly, we’re appeasing.

Pandora Play

 

I’m always amazed that I can get past all of the stuff that should stand in my way. The seats in front of me, the odd angle I prefer, the sets coming and going with the aid of black dressed crew ought to distract me, but they don’t. I reach out to the actors strutting and fretting their hour. I become part of the production sitting there in the dark. While I love movies, plays inspire me and carry me along. It was not different with The Little Dog Laughed.

I saw the matinee performance of the play this afternoon. It’s great. I enjoyed the post-modern presentation of the tale as well as the tale itself — if there was even a tale at all have to wonder what that says about anything or if anything is actually say-able.

Putting aside my odd ravings, the play is well done, the story line provocative, but that’s what we’ve come to expect from Pandora Productions. “Lean, mean, brash, crass and about as deep as a shot glass, Diane the Hollywood agent is just the tonic New York theatergoers need in the gray depths of an urban winter. ” That’s how the was described in The New York Times review in January of 2006, and it holds true today for Louisville audiences.  After all, this winter has been a very wild ride. The Peer Review is available at Theatre Louisville’s site. The play is well worth the price of admission.