From Our Readers: August 2009
I agree that it is definitely time for another march on Washington [“Unleash the Furry!” What a World by Nancy Ford, July 2009]. The last one was such a disappointment. I do think we need to make some changes this time.
Archive for August, 2009
Mental
It starts with Eddie telling his grandmother he’s gay (her response: “It’s that gym where you go, that’s where they all are!”) and continues with him contemplating spraying his penis with Lemon Pledge. Then there’s the erotic vomiting. Mental ends with Eddie’s involvement in The Original Phantom of the Opera—not the one by Lloyd Webber. Need a shot of hilarity in your life? Shoot up with Mental. —Review: Blase DiStefano
Power Child
Before Ina, before Rachael, before Emeril, there was Julia, the woman who forever changed the way America cooks. Now comes Julie & Julia, the new film starring Meryl Streep as Child and Amy Adams as secretary-turned-food-blogger Julie Powell. The film, set in post-9/11 New York and post-WW II Paris, is a delicious exploration of the ways people can feed one another physically and, more importantly, emotionally.
One Last Dance
Houston’s own “Billy Elliot,” Dirty Dancing star Patrick Swayze, was “humiliated, beaten and bullied by rednecks” long before he learned to “tuck it back under” as drag queen Vida Boheme in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. Bayou City bullies “assumed you were gay if you were a dancer,” he explains in this fawning biography. “I remember getting jumped in the back of the church. I feel like I fought all my life” (including his ongoing battle with pancreatic cancer). —Review: Donalevan Maines
Think Positively
It’s 8 p.m. on a Thursday night in March, and eight gay men are standing around a couple of tables at In & Out on North Shepherd in the Heights. The cozy bar has dance music blaring and is unusually busy for a weekday night. The men are half-heartedly playing WII Bowling with the bar’s Nintendo WII system.
A Different Kind of Transformer
When Lawanda Jackson’s four-year-old niece saw her painted, powdered, and plucked as the newly crowned Miss Gay USofA Classic, she gasped, “Uncle Wendall, are you a transformer?!”
Another ‘World’
As MTV’s The Real World franchise began its 22nd season in Cancun, fans knew what to expect: sex, drama, and the controversial LGBT roommate. This season’s gay roommate would prove to be different than the last. Enter Derek Chavez: a sweet small-town boy from Arizona whom the roommates simply couldn’t help but love. We caught Derek just as the new season started and his star began to rise.
Bryan Batt’s Mad Mad World
Usually it’s the closeted gay actor playing the out gay role. But in a genius stroke—one of Mad Men’s many—the closeted gay character Salvatore Romano is played by out actor Bryan Batt. Last season saw the critically acclaimed, award-winning drama about ’60s ad men delve even deeper into Romano’s character, showing us his home life with his wife and, even more heartbreaking, his increasing affection for account executive Ken Cosgrove. We caught up with Batt while the actor jetted between filming in Los Angeles and returning to his home in New Orleans.
Purple Passion
Brian Harlan Brooks promises love and redemption when the musical The Color Purple sweeps back to town this month to finish its Theatre Under the Stars engagement at the Hobby Center that was cut short last year by Hurricane Ike.
Cream of the Crop
At 23, this year’s Pride Idol, AJ Cabrera, already knows he would like to be father to three daughters. Since talent runs in his family, I see a trio of singing senoritas, The Cabrera Sisters!
