Calendar – December 2009 Events
Film • Performing Arts • Performing Arts for Young People • Radio • Art/Photography • Day-By-Day • Planning Ahead • HIV Testing. PLUS hot ticket — Kindred Spirits’ Judy Garland Christmas Special Sing-along
Archive for December, 2009
Having Their Say
Here’s who we talked to: Virgil Vincent, Anita Renteria, Ken Council, Carol Wyatt, Ray Hill, Phyllis Randolph Frye, Ed Barnes, James Sells, John Melton, Zelma Etheredge, James Oxford, Johnny Peden, Brian Riedel, Brandon Wolf, Christine Doby, Michael Ryan, Bruce W. Smith, DDS, Tony Carroll, LCSW, Randall Ellis, Maria C. Gonzalez, Tammi Wallace, Ella Tyler, Jackie Evelyn Thorne, Elizabeth Goza, Stewart Zuckerbrod, MD, Jewel Gray
The Gay Agenda – December 2009
“Women Who Long, Love, Lust. . . .” Circuit parties aren’t just for the guys anymore. This month, lesbians from all over Texas and beyond converge on Houston for the Bayou City’s first annual SIN dance party, benefiting AssistHers. More than 1,500 women piled into the Austin version of the party earlier this year; producers Regina Findlay and Julie Mabry hope for just as many attendees in Houston. The bait: Elizabeth Keener (The L Word’s “Dawn Denbo”) and her lover, Jamie Lauren, of Top Chef fame, are expected to attend, and DJ dirtyKurty spins for the event, which also features go-go dancers, Club Skirt’s Dinah Shore giveaways, VIP rooms, and other amenities. December 5, 9:30 p.m.–2:30 a.m. The Drake, 1902 Washington Ave. Tickets start at $20 presale; $27 at the door. The femme fun continues with the SIN Houston after party featuring comedian Dana Goldberg, a gay dating game, and hot-oil wrestling officiated by Keener and Lauren. December 6, 2–9 p.m. South Beach, 810 Pacific St. $5–$10. Details: sinpartyhouston.com.
Santa’s Little Helper
The moment Augusten Burroughs’ eight-year-old self confuses the identity of Santa Claus with Jesus Christ and shortly thereafter quickly, furtively fondles Santa-Jesus’ Christmas package, readers know they’re in for a uniquely Burroughs holiday. After penning his first novel (Sellevision, soon to become an NBC series), the angsty author turned his prose toward a more reflective pose. The result was the megaselling Running with Scissors, a perversely funny and shocking, genre-changing memoir of his horrific childhood (later turned into film by Nip/Tucker and Gleemeister Ryan Murphy). The addiction memoir Dry (currently on Showtime’s development slate) was met with the same wild critical and commercial success. Two collections of essays followed and then another full-length memoir. That book, A Wolf at the Table, devoted solely to his mercilessly cruel father, sold millions but angrily divided critics who began to doubt the author’s almost unimaginable tales, what with that nasty libel suit from Burroughs’ Scissors siblings and the whole James Frey debacle and public flogging about a recent rash of fibbing memoirists. Burroughs was crucified in the press, guilty by accusation and association.
Business News: December 2009
New Name, Same Quality. After being purchased in July 2008 by its long-time agent Bill Baldwin, Karen Derr & Associates Realty has announced it has been renamed Boulevard Realty. • “The name Boulevard Realty reflects the neighborhood-centric, niche marketing profile on which Karen Derr & Associates Realty built its reputation,” says Baldwin. “I also chose the name Boulevard Realty because I feel it symbolizes things I like best about real estate: a connection to our past, a sense of community, and a solid foundation from which to grow and prosper.” • A top-grossing real estate firm with 51 independent agents, six staff persons, and more than 100 million dollars in sales for 2009, Boulevard Realty has offices at 1545 Heights Boulevard in Houston and 1401 Postoffice Street in Galveston. Yourblvd.com • 713/862-1600.
Harmony for the Holidays
The product of “a shared passion for offering, hope, religion, and unification through music,” Higher & Higher (Sojourn) finds Neshama Carlebach collaborating with the Green Pastures Baptist Choir. Carlebach’s father, the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, has been described as the “father of Jewish music” and wrote eight of the nine songs on the album. The combination of the traditional-sounding contemporary Jewish music compositions with the fervor and energy of the choir succeeds in giving the material a universal quality. Whatever your affiliation, it’s almost impossible not to be moved by (and feel like testifying to) tracks such as “Esso Ennai,” “Ata,” and “Kiva Moed.”
A Christmas Coming-Out
It’s the holidays. Time to break out the cheeseball.
Not that we don’t love a good cheeseball. That annual offering of the port-wine-infused mound of processed whey and other dairy products layered with chopped nuts is a fond, gentle herald of the end of the year in many, many an American home. Though not necessarily nutritious or delicious, it is filling, and serves its purpose at holiday dinner gatherings ’til more substantial fare is served.
Mary’s, Naturally Closed Its Doors
On Oct 25, a sign affixed to Mary’s, Naturally, indicated the legendary leather bar is no longer open for business.
Prior to its closing, the bar, located in the heart of Montrose at 1022 Westheimer, was said to be Houston’s oldest gay bar. Though in the early 1970s it had developed a reputation as a notorious leather bar for men with its large motorcycle hanging over the bar, the club in recent years developed a mixed-gender neighborhood feel, hosting innumerable fundraisers in support of the HIV community. As the rise of HIV decimated Houston’s gay community, the cremated ashes of many of Mary’s regulars found their final resting place in the back patio area.
Mormons Support Anti-Discrimination Law in Salt Lake City
The Latter Day Saints church is supporting Salt Lake City, Utah’s city council’s decision to add sexual orientation to the list of protected classes in housing and employment.
Marriage Equality Defeated in Maine
Advocates of equality were disheartened by the November 3 passage of Maine’s Question 1, which repealed a law granting same-sex couples the right to marry in the Pine Tree State.
