SOME WELCOMED R&R. OutSmart is pleased to announce that Ruby Hamilton and Robin Turell have joined our staff as account representatives. Formerly with the Houston-based Gay and Lesbian Yellow Pages, the women bring a wealth of sales and marketing experience to the magazine. Hamilton is a former president of the Greater Houston GLBT Chamber of Commerce. To contact Ruby Hamilton email: Ruby@Outsmartmagazine.com. For Robin Turell email: Robin@outsmartmagazine.com.
HRC AND SWOOPES: A WINNING TEAM. The Houston chapter of the Human Rights Campaign has announced its Weekend with Sheryl Swoopes, offering choice game seats followed the next day by a brunch with the Houston Comets basketball star.
Considered a musician’s musician by her peers, and a folk icon by many, Patty Larkin has spent over 20 years expanding the soundscape of folk-pop. Her picking-and-strum technique stands out from the first few notes of any song. Take “Might as Well Dance” from Angels Running. Strumming blends with slide-guitar riffs and what sounds like a Hammond b3 organ. All commingle in ways unlike any folksy tune we’ve ever heard. Larkin is currently on tour in support of her latest release, La Guitara: Gender Bending Strings, a compilation chronicling women’s contributions to the evolution of the modern guitar. Perhaps she’ll eke out a few previews of her upcoming CD, due out in 2008.
Not since the feminist days of the 1970s has such a wonderful collection of books about women hit the shelves all at once. Reading these books, I spent a wonderful weekend re-experiencing the intellectual excitement of 21.
Various Artists
Music With a Twist: Revolutions
Fans of The L Word will recognize some of the tunes on this GLBT artists’ compilation, Goddes & She and Kirsten Price having contributed to the Showtime TV’s hit series’ fourth season soundtrack. But Ivri Uder’s “Jesse” and The Gossip’s “Standing in the Way of Control” are the big winners here. From Columbia Records (www.columbiarecords.com). More: www.musicwithatwist.com. — Review: Nancy Ford
I really enjoyed Blase’s story about JFK and his friend Lem ["Best Friends for Life," May 2007 OutSmart ].
Since the 1974 release of his multi-platinum Greatest Hits disc, Elton John’s hit-making abilities have been acknowledged in an array of domestically released compilations, including a multi-disc box set and a thorough, chronological double-disc collection from 2002. Rocket Man: Number Ones (Mercury) is the kind of anthology that Sir Elton might have wanted to reconsider, especially since he hasn’t had a “number one” since “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” in 1994. Nevertheless, the 17-track disc does boast a dozen chart-topping singles, including “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” “Daniel,” “Philadelphia Freedom,” the Kiki Dee duet “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” (the George Michael duet version), and “Sacrifice,” to name a few. Someone must have realized that 12 tracks might appear a bit skimpy, so the disc features five “other favorites,” including “Rocket Man” and the original version of “Candle in the Wind.”
Just like snowflakes, all gay dads are different: Some of them know they’re gay before they ever conceive of the idea of conceiving a child, but more of them find themselves fathers after walking down the aisle with a woman.
My freshman composition students are free to choose their own essay topics. In four years I have read about beer, love, a paper clip, adoption, commuting, college, anorexia, and cancer. I’ve also read about homosexuality.
Brian Wanee made his first trip to Houston to rendezvous with a guy he was dating who was in the cast of Aida. This time around Wanee is onstage himself, at the Hobby Center, “eating fancy chow and drinking fancy wine” in Sweet Charity.
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