Investigation Continues Into KFC Prank Call. Employees Left Standing Naked Outside Restaurant
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Police Friday were continuing to investigate a prank that left some Kentucky Fried Chicken employees naked outside the restaurant Thursday. Investigators said the workers at the Manchester restaurant were victims of a mean and dangerous prank.
A manager pulled a pin for the restaurant's fire suppression system, which rained chemicals on her and others, because she was told to by a man on the phone claiming to be her boss from the corporate office.
"And then they were told by this person on the phone to go outside and disrobe and actually urinate on one another to decontaminate each other," said Lt. Peter Bartlett.
Police said that somehow, the prankster managed to keep the employees on the phone for 10 to 15 minutes. Only when someone in the parking lot called police to say a woman was standing in the doorway naked did police and fire show up, and that's when the prankster finally hung up.
Employees at the KFC didn't want to talk to reporters about what happened.
Police said that anyone receiving unusual instructions over the phone should try to verify the person's identity. "If you're not sure about it, hang up, and make a phone call," Bartlett said. "And if you're not sure about that, call us." Investigators said no one was injured in the prank.
Police are still trying to figure out who made the call. Many Web sites and blogs are reporting that it may have come from a man in Canada who often makes similar prank calls and posts them online.
I LOVE THIS! Fantastic delivery and that cheeky accent! But then again I do love a corny punch line. Phil died in 2005, but not before becoming a well-loved pub goddess! More on him at ZAGRIA.BLOGSPOT where I found this youtube clip.
AND SPEAKING OF CHATTY OLD ENGLISH QUEENS, CHECK THIS OUT!
LOOKS LIKE FUN--CLICK PIC TO ENLARGE AND HERE'S THE PRESS RELEASE:
The fabulously flamboyant and witty gay icon Quentin Crisp (who died in 1999 at age 90) gets a party fit for a queen. The lively literary salon includes readings, recollections, and performances by some of Crisp’s most ardent admirers.
The event is produced by Joe Birdsong (owner of the dearly departed bohemian stronghold Rapture Café), in association with curator Phillip Ward and the Quentin Crisp Archives. Proceeds from the event go to funding the archive. (For more information about the archive, visit http://www.crisperanto.org)/.
Hosting the event is drag-queen performer Linda Simpson. The line-up includes celebrity journalist Frank DeCaro, post-modern cabaret singer Adam Dugas (WEIMAR NEW YORK, THE CITIZENS BAND), Anne Hanavan (VOLUPTUOUS HORROR OF KAREN BLACK), East Village musician/playwright Paul Korsinski, veteran vaudevillian-inspired drag artist LAVINIA CO-OP, Verbal Abuse man of letters poet/photographer Bobby Miller, guitarist-songwriter Gordon Gano (of the pioneering folk-punk group VIOLENT FEMMES), Radical Fairie dance troupe Pixie Harlots (LUSTRE), performance artist Amber Martin (Rapture Cafe's WIG SHOP), LGBTQ blogger and activist Eric Leven (knucklecrack.blogspot.com), actor/dancer Jack Ferver (DANCE THEATRE WORKSHOP Studio Series, STRANGERS WITH CANDY), ground-breaking queer latino poet Emanuel Xavier, glam rock musician Paul Bernstein and his WIDE STANCE band ( www.myspace.com/paulbernsteinandhiswidestance), West Village crooner Chris Lowe, erotic poet and blogger Guy Kettelhack. Providing music is DJ Baby K. Door by Hattie Hathaway
The evening also includes screenings of excerpts of film and video starring Mr. Crisp.
Quentin Crisp is the author of the classic—and flamboyantly eccentric—coming-of-age memoir THE NAKED CIVIL SERVANT. The award-winning 1975 film version, starring John Hurt, made him an instant international celebrity. Mr. Hurt reprises the Crisp role in the recently completed movie AN ENGLISHMAN IN NEW YORK (for which Mr. Hurt just won Best Actor at Berlin's International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival), written by Brian Fillis for Leopardrama and England's ITV. This BBC television biopic is to be released in spring 2009, and will star Denis O'Hare (Phillip Steele, an amalgam of two close friends and confidants of Mr. Crisp: Phillip Ward and Tom Steele), Swoosie Kurtz (Connie Clausen, QC agent), Cynthia Nixon (Penny Arcade, performance artist), and Jonathan Tucker (Patrick Angus, artist). To learn more about the movie, visit: http://www.crisperanto.org/news/AnEnglishmanInNYmovie.html
December 25, 2008 was the centenary of Quentin Crisp's birth and November 21, 2009 is the 10th anniversary of Mr. Crisp's death. In addition, December 21, 2008 marked the 30th anniversary of his first U.S. appearance at The Players Theatre here in New York City. Moreover, in 2009, Mr. Crisp's final book, THE DUSTY ANSWERS, will be published for the very first time. Plus his pink fedora will be on display in London's Victoria and Albert Museum in February through May 2009. These are the many reasons to join and celebrate the life and legend of one of our cultural and literary icons, and hero and mentor to many at large. A party is necessary to celebrate such occasion.
As a fundraiser, the event will provide The Quentin Crisp Archives financial resources to continue maintaining the cataloging, preservation and presentation of materials from Mr. Crisp's very own archives. The fundraiser will also assist in providing another and larger event of performances and exhibition during June's Gay Pride 2009 and a smaller event in November 2009 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Quentin's death. Allen Ginsberg's Committee on Poetry sponsors The Quentin Crisp Archives as a 501(c) (3) non-profit. The tax number is available. The mission of The Quentin Crisp Archives is to preserve, maintain, and present in exhibitions and online the manuscripts, letters, recordings, artwork by and about, and various artifacts and ephemera related to the life and legend of Quentin Crisp, and to promote his philosophy of individuality, self-acceptance, and tolerance. The Quentin Crisp Archives (crisperanto.org), the official Quentin Crisp web site, which Phillip Ward created in 1999 as executor of his estate, will publicize the centennial celebration via its homepage and mass email alerts. The web site is an integral part of The Quentin Crisp Archives and provides news and information about "All Things Quentin Crisp!"
Saturday, March 7th, from 7 to 10pm. Show starts at 7:30pm.
Santo’s Party House 96 Lafayette St (between Walker and White Sts, 2 blocks below Canal St) Admission: $20
A YOUNG QUENTIN CRISP
I worked with Quentin on TO WONG FOO, in which he, Suzanne Bartsch, Matthew Kasden (the impresario behind Boybar who now does the gorgeous wigs for MAD TV) and I played judges in the drag pageant which RuPaul wins. (I think--I haven't watched it since it came out to see my split second appearance.) The old dear fell asleep for much of the shooting which I thought was hilarious. Since I was seated next to him, everyone kept telling me to make sure he was awake. I guess it would have made more sense for continuity's sake to wake him, but I figured that since we were playing ourselves, the old-timer would be snoozing if he wasn't working. And those boiling lights for hours didn't exactly perk one up. Plus, he'd been a little offended at my some of my vulgar joking on the set. And while I didn't share his prudishness, I did learn a valuable lesson from watching one of the documentaries on his illustrious life. He explained that it was a gay's duty to be polite to everyone, since we might be the first of our kind that a stranger might be experiencing and we should leave a good them with a pleasant impression. Hardly in line with the IN YOUR FACE attitude popular in the East Village at the time, but I agree that you have to give people a chance--just be ready with that hammer in case you fail to charm them. You know, I'm gonna blow a middle eastern cab driver on my way to Escuelita tonight in Quentin's honor tonight! Hey, at least I have an excuse tonight!
A YOUNGER, MORE SPRIGHTLY QUENTIN CRISP INTERVIEWED ON DEJA VU
My dear old friend Tobie Giddio was one of the genetic females who was drawn to the Pyramid Club in the 80's. As the roommate of Billy Beyond, she hardly had a choice. I knew her as a party pal in my wildest days, and never saw the black and white fashion illustrations in ads for Bergdorf Goodman which ran each week in the New York Times cuz I didn't read it. Since then, her stunning images have been sold in Jonathon Adler stores. For a full interview by Walter Cessna on Tobie and oodles of her gorgeous illustrations/paintings, check her out on: DIANEPERNET.TYPEPAD.
I received an email from gayborhood.tv informing me of a few of their new video shorts to watch. One is titled KINDS OF GAYS, by Ben: The Ugly Homo. He isn't ugly, but I guess they mean ugly as in The Ugly American kinda way. Why on earth would anyone think to spout off on a topic which they know nothing about and consider entertainment? (Uh, maybe I should ask that question of people who aren't reading the ladybunny.net blog!) But this guy is not only stupid, he's shallow and dismissive! Maybe his other posts are better, but since gayborhood.tv doesn't allow embedding, I guess they are trying to drive people to their site using horrible gay content to attract advertisers? It worked for me--I can get off on a trainwreck if it's bad enough. And this is. In fact, if anyone can identify with this guy, please do the gay community a favor and commit suicide. While listening to Britney Spears.
There has been a justifiable public outcry over this obviously racist cartoon. Just look at the noses on those two cops--they're clearly meant to represent people of jewish descent! And paint them as savage killers of an endangered species!
No response from several jewish groups I contacted for a comment. I reached out to a prominent, international simian rights organization and received this unsettlingly curt response:
I'M INCLUDED IN A LIST OF ENGLAND'S TOP TEN DRAG QUEENS! THEY EVEN CALL ME SEXY--BASED ON A 5 YEAR OLD PHOTO WHICH IS HEAVILY PHOTOSHOPPED! SEE WHO ELSE MADE THE CUT--OR SHOULD THAT BE MADE THE CHOP?
As you may have noticed, I haven't been writing much about politics lately. After 8 years of railing at the Bush administration and railing for whoever the democratic presidential candidates were, I really needed some time off to say HALLELUJAH WE WON!, bask in the glory of success and get all inspired by the audacity of hope and such. Take heart that a victory for one minority is/should be a victory for my minority too.
Besides, the economic meltdown has dominated Obama's entire presidency so far. Honey, I can't balance a check book, much less comprehend international credit crunches. So I've been content to sit back and hope that O is doing the right thing to salvage our economy. There are rumblings now that he may NOT have a sound plan for the economy and I am loathe to reward the banks with my hard-earned money because they failed to rip me off in a way that was profitable for them. And I do recall the moment during the democratic primaries when feisty old Gravel bellowed "Follow the campaign dollars!" in reference to which side Hillary and Obama's bread is buttered on--the side of people or that of corporations. And I also remember McCain claiming during a debate that Obama had received the largest campaign contribution on record from failed mortgage giant Fannie Mae--but statements like this are misleading since it's conceivable that Fannie Mae donated more $ to each campaign in each successive presidential election. Still, you don't get to be on top in this or probably any other nation unless you make some dirty deals with some dirty dogs.
Obama's speech was phenomenal--he criticized us and made us cheer for our own shortcomings! Is Penny Arcade writing his speeches now? Good thing Dick Cheney no longer sits behind the president on these occasions--his rotted old heart would have blown if he'd had to stand up and applaud that many times. The president did fail to address one issue very close to my heart--I was waiting with bated breath to hear him say "Suck it, bitch! Yeah, Lady Bunny! Get on your fucking knees and deep throat my great big stimulus package!" Oh well, a girl can dream. (And so can an old fat man in a wig!) Michelle actually looked so glowing and radiant at the speech that I don't think I'm going to have any luck snagging a Monica Lewinsky with her fine husband. And what about that little girl they trotted out? Ty'sheoma? Her name alone calls for a complete overhaul of the education system in her native South Carolina--what dunce would think Ty'sheoma is a pretty name? Reading it, I'd think it was the name of a disease if it weren't for the absurd, meaningless apostrophe a la Mo'nique! But I do give Ty Ty major kudos for working a frosted lavender satin dress with matching nails! If she'd thrown on a liquid lavender eyeliner above her lash, she would have made fashion history.
But I digress. Obama delivering an inspiring and eloquent speech ain't news to me. However, Rachel Maddow delivered a terribly disappointing bit of news on MSNBC right before his universally-praised address. Obama is breaking his campaign promise to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months. He'll begin the withdrawals 3 months later and maintain a "residual force" of tens of thousands of troops for peacekeeping. As Miss Maddow pointed out, this is a slap in the face to those of us who voted for Obama because we are against the war in Iraq. In fact, Obama's plan now mimics Bush's withdrawal plan! That's the second time in one week that I've heard a similarity drawn between the two presidents--Obama has liberals screaming that he's continuing Bush's abuse of executive privilege and state secrets contrary to his own campaign promises of transparency in the White House should he come to inhabit it. Salon.com's Glenn Greenwald has written an article entitled "Obama fails his first test on civil liberties and accountability -- resoundingly and disgracefully"--read it on SALON.COM. Whether you read the article or not, secrets and transparency obvously can't coexist. Unless you mean Secret's new invisible deodorant available in Powder Fresh and (!) Vanilla Chai. Christ! I realize that part of globalization is the increase in once foreign sights, tastes and smells like the all-powerful pomegranate which is now in every juice drink and cocktail worldwide, but does has anyone ever REALLY stepped out of the shower craving any flavor of chai under their arms? Is ths just me being old-fashioned (using hyphens) or is this a demented, ineffective marketing scheme? Or an effective marketing scheme for a demented consumer?
But the war in Iraq is my focus issue. And as Rachel Maddow pointed out, one can call them residual troops or peacekeeping troops or whatever you like--THEY ARE STILL US CITIZENS IN A COUNTRY WHICH WE'VE DECIMATED BEARING ARMS WHICH CAN KILL MORE IRAQIS! And as I prepare to file my taxes, I am sick to death of my tax dollars being used to murder citizens of a country which never attacked me. 80% of the country wants out of this war. GET THE FUCK OUT! Unless you wanna steal their oil like Bush did. Obama mentioned in his speech that he wanted to rethink the strategies in Iraq and Afghanistan. Honey, what is to rethink? Just think! We should have never been there, we were tricked into going there, and you yourself denounced the war from it's onset, SO LEAVE ALREADY! Even from a standpoint of thriftiness in a time of recession, think of the money we could contribute to the stimulus package, social security, or hell, to preserving the wetlands home of blasted salt marsh harvest mice in Nancy Pelosi's district that $30,000,000 is slated for--if we hadn't blown gazillions in an unnecessary, possibly illegal war that's made the whole world despise us. While you are rethinking this, please ask yourself, what is our goddam mission in Iraq in the first place? Keeping troops there will be expensive. And even though I've deftly mastered the delicate strategy of maneuvering the withdrawal of many a soldier's deflating cock out of my bunghole without having the cum-filled condom leak or slip off, I can't say that I know how to responsibly withdraw from a long-term military occupation of an unstable nation. But where there's a will, there's a way. During the democratic primaries, both Hillary and Obama predicted that we couldn't leave Iraq before 2013. Hogwash! Dennis Kucinich said GET OUT NOW with international (Ie--not just US) peacekeeping troops and that's why he got my vote. What can you possibly win by prolonging a horrid, pointless and expensive situation which was wrong in the first place, I ask you?
Afghanistan is a more complex situation. Some are predicting that this quagmire could be our next Vietnam. Watch this compelling trailer and see what you think. Surely, anyone who stood and applauded when Obama praised the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform don't want to see those folks wasting their lives in a poorly thought-out mess. Or rather, another poorly-thought out mess like Iraq.
Again and again, the Bush administration tested us on whether or not we were paying attention. Since we clearly weren't, they screwed us again and again. Obama got elected on an I WANT YOU TO GET INVOLVED IN GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE platform. So even though we may not be too interested in sorting out the disaster which Bush started in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is our civic duty to find out the facts and act accordingly. Get in touch with the man. That's what he claimed he wanted before he got into office.
This is really the first we've heard of the war since the recession's eclipsed all other issues since Obama took office. But while we're paying attention, does Obama have this financial issue down? Not according to the recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics, Joseph Stiglitz, who thinks Obama has mixed up rescuing the banks with rescuing the bankers. He's interviewed by Amy Goodman of DemocracyNow.org and unlike many of today's female newscasters Amy is not featuring a nose job, dyed hair and show biz maquillage, so her plain, insightful bimbo-free coverage is so refreshing. It ain't about her appearance--it's about the issues. Remember that kinda news? Before she gets into the Stiglitz interview, she briefly covers two topic near and dear to my heart--and lungs. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco want to legalize marijuana for recreational use, claiming that it would generate $1 billion for his cash-strapped state. I just love it when morals fall apart in a recession--this shit could be fun, y'all! Amy then reported that Andrew Cuomo applauded a recent decision to lower the amount of "fine particlutes" in the air since the current level of the pesky particulates are responsible for 100's of premature deaths in NYC alone.
FROM THE NY TIMES BY CORNELIA DEAN, 2/24:
E.P.A. Is Told to Reconsider Its Standards on Pollutants
Bush administration standards for pollutants like soot are “contrary to law and unsupported by adequately reasoned decisionmaking,” a federal appeals court said Tuesday.
The court ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider its standards for the pollutants, fine particulates, which are linked to premature death from lung cancer and heart disease and to other health problems including asthma.
When the agency embraced the standards in 2006, its own scientific staff rejected them as too lax. In Tuesday’s ruling, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the agency “did not adequately explain” why the standards were adequate.
The decision is “a victory for the breathing public,” said Paul Cort, a lawyer with Earthjustice, who argued the case for environmental groups.
A VICTORY FOR THE BREATHING PUBLIC! I think that would include all of you! Yay! I like to breathe!
I'm just trying trying to hype the other fine work of Amy Goodman before she launched into her detailed analysis, with Nobel prize-winning economist, of Obama's bank bail-out. Unfamiliar with banking terms, watching this video took all of my powers of concentration--as you might have guessed from this crazily-written rant!--but to save you a little time, the Joseph Stiglitz segment begins at 15:47 into her broadcast. I found it incredibly illuminating, and I'm more inclined to trust an in-depth news report which is not punctuated by commercials for banking and investment giants so that there's no conflict of interests for a change. The other thing I loved about Amy's reportage is that every time Stiglitz had me scratching my head, she popped in with a "What does that mean? question which led the brainiac money man to break it down in a Bail-Out For Dummies kinda way.
DemocracyNow.org also provides a transcript. Here are some of Stiglitz's most interesting remarks:
JOSEPH STIGLITZ: The critical question that many Americans are obviously concerned about is the question of what do we do with the banks. And on that, he again was very clear that he recognized the anger that Americans have about the way the banks have taken our taxpayer money and misspent it, but he didn’t give a clear view of what he was going to do.
AMY GOODMAN: President Obama on Tuesday night. Joe Stiglitz, is he holding the banks accountable?
JOSEPH STIGLITZ: Well, so far, it hasn’t happened. I think the more fundamental issues are the following. He says what we need is to get lending restarted. If he had taken the $700 billion that we gave, levered it ten-to-one, created some new institution guaranteed—provide partial guarantees going for, that would have generated $7 trillion of new lending. So, if he hadn’t looked at the past, tried to bail out the banks, bail out the shareholders, bail out the other—the bankers’ retirement fund, we would have easily been able to generate the lending that he says we need.
So the question isn’t just whether we hold them accountable; the question is: what do we get in return for the money that we’re giving them? At the end of his speech, he spent a lot of time talking about the deficit. And yet, if we don’t do things right—and we haven’t been doing them right—the deficit will be much larger. You know, whether you spend money well in the stimulus bill or whether you’re spending money well in the bank recapitalization, it’s important in everything that we do that we get the bang for the buck. And the fact is, the bank recovery bill, the way we’ve been spending the money on the bank recovery, has not been giving bang for the buck. We haven’t gotten anything out.
What we got in terms of preferred shares, relative to what we gave them, a congressional oversight panel calculated, was only sixty-seven cents on the dollar. And the preferred shares that we got have diminished in value since then. So we got cheated, to put it bluntly. What we don’t know is that—whether we will continue to get cheated. And that’s really at the core of much of what we’re talking about. Are we going to continue to get cheated?
(BUNNY NOTE: DO YOU LIKE GETTING CHEATED? I DON'T--SO TAKE YOUR ADD MEDS AND LET'S SORT THROUGH THIS TOGETHER. IT'S NOT TOO MUCH LONGER.)
Now, why that’s so important is, one way of thinking about this—end of the speech, he starts talking about a need of reforms in Social Security, put it—you know, there’s a deficit in Social Security. Well, a few years ago, when President Bush came to the American people and said there was a hole in Social Security, the size of the hole was $560 billion approximately. That meant that if we spent that amount of money, we would have guaranteed the—put on sound financial basis our Social Security system. We wouldn’t have to talk about all these issues. We would have provided security for retirement for hundreds of millions of Americans over the next seventy-five years. That’s less money than we spent in the bailouts of the banks, for which we have not been able to see any outcome. So it’s that kind of tradeoff that seems to me that we ought to begin to talk about.
AMY GOODMAN OF DEMOCRACYNOW.ORG
AMY GOODMAN: So, you say Obama, too, has confused saving the banks with saving the bankers.
JOSEPH STIGLITZ: Exactly.
AMY GOODMAN: Why is Obama saving these bankers?
JOSEPH STIGLITZ: Well, we could all guess about the politics. We know one of the problems about American politics is the role of campaign contributions, and that’s plagued every one of our major problems. Under the Bush administration, we couldn’t deal with a large number problems, like the oil industry, like the pharmaceutical, the healthcare, because of the influence of campaign contributions. Now, my view is, one of the problems is that whether it’s because of that or not, it lends an aura of suspicion. The fact that there was so much campaign contributions from the financial sector at least raises the concern.
Now, there is one other legitimate concern, that Wall Street has done a very good job of fear mongering. They say, “If you don’t save us, the whole system will go down.” But, you know, when these banks that I talked about before, when they go down, there’s not even a ripple. The fact is, you change ownership. It happens on airlines all the time. An airline goes bankrupt, a new ownership, financial reorganization—not a big deal. What they’ve succeeded in doing is instilling a sense of fear, so that it’s a kind of paralysis that hangs over what we’re doing. And you could understand a politician. He’s been told if you do one thing, the whole system—the sky is falling, it’s going to fall. That induces political leaders to try to do the smallest incremental step, and that’s what got Japan in trouble.
Well, the question is, are they willing to take the bold measures that are necessary? Everybody keeps saying we need to take bold measures, inaction is not a possibility. That’s not the issue on the table. Action will be taken. The question is, which action? Is the action pouring more money into the banks without any effect on lending, increasing the deficit, which the President talked about, or the actions which could be taken, starting on new banks, looking forward rather than looking to the past, significant financial restructuring?
Are we going to bail out the shareholders, bail out the bankers, rather than focusing on saving the systemically important parts of these institutions? There are some important parts of these institutions that we’ll have to save. The question is, are you going to go do it like with a bludgeon, throw money at it, or are you going to try to do it more surgically and save the parts that need to be saved? And one of the things that went wrong is when we went—let Lehman Brothers go. It caused this enormous trauma. And that’s increased the fear about—but that’s an example of doing things wrong. We didn’t ask the question. There was a systemically important part of Lehman Brothers.
AMY GOODMAN: Which was?
JOSEPH STIGLITZ: Which were the commercial paper that was part of the money market funds that were—people were using like banks, like part of our basic payment mechanism. We could have saved that part and let the gambling part of Lehman Brothers, which is not part of the payment mechanism, go down. And because we took this blunt approach, we failed. And what the financial markets are doing are saying, “You have to save everything, if you’re going to save anything.” And that’s just wrong.
AMY GOODMAN: Joe Stiglitz, you co-wrote The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict. Talk about the effect of war on the economic crisis. And now we’re not only talking about Iraq. But your thoughts on increasing the number of troops, intensifying the war in Afghanistan?
JOSEPH STIGLITZ: Well, first, let me say, one of—the President did have two things that I really welcome. And several of the suggestions that we made in our book, he has adopted. For instance, in the past, under the Bush administration, the war was totally funded by—or almost totally funded by emergency appropriations. It was as if every year was a surprise. And he said he’s going to put that on the books so that we can evaluate it, make sure their money is going in the best possible way.
A second thing in our book that was, you know, really—was really, I found, very moving was the way we treat our veterans is terrible. And he said, you know, they fought for us; we have to fully fund the Veterans Administration. So those were really important moves in the right direction. But on the other side, the move into Afghanistan is going to be very expensive. Things are not going very well. Our European—those who—NATO partners are getting disillusioned with the war. I talked to a lot of the people in Europe, and they really feel this is a quagmire, we’re going into another quagmire. And one of the things that we do talk about in our book is that if you keep a residual force in Iraq, it’s going to be very expensive. That’s the experience that Britain has had. They’ve kept a relatively few troops, and the result of that is the savings that they had hoped weren’t materialized. So that goes back to the part that he talked about at the end of his speech: the deficit. If you’re going to be spending all this money in Afghanistan and in Iraq, that deficit is just going to be that much greater.
AMY GOODMAN: So you think Obama is wrong on Afghanistan?
JOSEPH STIGLITZ: I think so.
READ THE ENTIRE TRANSCRIPT AND/OR WATCH THE VIDEO INTERVIEW HERE: DEMOCRACYNOW.ORG
People, I don't know the answers, especially the answers to complex financial issues on a grand scale. Maybe Joseph Stiglitz is wrong and he's just some left-wing kook spouting gibberish while trying to hawk his book. If you think that's the case, please send me email with info to the contrary. But I know that the president I voted into office needs to stick to his campaign promises or he's going to hear from me. It's funny, because when Rachel made the announcement about the troops staying in Iraq longer, I yearned for Randi Rhodes to be back on the air so that she could jump on this the next day and confirm my fears that Obama's action was fundamentally wrong and a betrayal. But I'm actually glad that Randi is between jobs because her absence made me think for myself. As Rachel pointed out, the announcement was made in a deliberately dizzying moment in which it and every other detail would get lost in the after-glow of Obama's first speech to the joint session of Congress--and Bobby Jindal's pitiful rebuttal. The Obama camp wanted to bury their broken campaign promise on troop withdrawal and they chose the right moment to do so. It was deliberately deceptive and I think we need to take off our party hats and put on our thinking caps. Many of the people in this country didn't even start to evaluate/distrust/slam Bush until Katrina, after he'd already stolen two elections. We can't let this happen with Obama.
THEATER TWEED PRESENTS A BENEFIT FOR GOD'S LOVE WE DELIVER AND THEATER TWEED: $10 TICKETS AVAILABLE TO LADYBUNNY.NET BLOG READERS.
To receive the discount, please have your guests use the code "Vaudeville" AT THE BOX OFFICE.
This is for walk up tickets only for Friday's Show. These tickets are not available online.
The Box Office will open at 7pm, Theater Opens at 7:30pm.
THAT'S A LOT OF TALENT FOR ALL THESE HOES!
Friday's Performers Include: Lypsinka, Caroline Rhea, Jackie Hoffman, Lady Bunny, Julie Halston, Robert La Fosse as Isadora Duncan, Kristine Zbornik, Flotilla DeBarge, Brenda Bergman & The Bodacious TaTas, Sweetie, David Ilku, The Dueling Bankheads, Carol Lipnik, The Butoh Rockettes, Wallace Shawn & Deborah Eisenberg, Dirty Martini, The Flute Friends, Wallie Wolfgruber Dance, Gina Vetro's Flopera!, Joseph Keckler, Todd Almond, Ken Bullock as Ragu Mountain Woman, Poor Baby Bree, Jim David, Stine Moen, Hooba Bjornevold, with Tony Conniff & The Grand St Follies Band – and surprise guests.
FOR REGULAR PRICED TICKETS OR STURDAY NIGHT TIX, PLEASE VISIT: TWEEDTHEATER.ORG
SATURDAY NIGHT'S ACTS INCLUDE:
Saturday's Performers Include: Rufus Wainwright, Caroline Rhea, Kristine Zbornik, Robert La Fosse as Isadora Duncan, Jackie Hoffman, Frank DeCaro, David Ilku, Dirty Martini, Flotilla DeBarge, Brenda Bergman & The Bodacious TaTas, Sweetie, Poor Baby Bree, Jim David, The Dueling Bankheads, Carol Lipnik, Todd Almond, The Flute Friends, Wallace Shawn & Deborah Eisenberg, Wallie Wolfgruber Dance, Gina Vetro's Flopera!, Joseph Keckler, Ken Bullock as Ragu Mountain Woman, Hooba Havem, Stine Coen, The Butoh Rockettes, plus Tony Conniff & The Grand St Follies Band – and surprise guests!
I hope this is a female snake. But even if it's a gay male snake, if you're gonna finger a snake's cunt on camera, at least trim your fucking nails! Even in this wacky world of the internet we need to establish some basic rules of common decency!.
SUTON (OF PROJECT RUNWAY FAME), KITTY LITTER AND JAKE DIGGLER AT SPLASH'S FREE TEA!
TWO DISCO AFFAIRS THIS WEEKEND:
I'LL BE BACK AT SPLASH SPINNING AT FREE TEA (no cover) FROM 7-11 ON SUNDAY. HERE'S A COUPLE PICS OF SOME OF THE SIGHTS SCENE, HEARD AND POSSIBLY TASTED ON PREVIOUS SUNDAYS AT THE LITTLE DISCO NIGHT THAT COULD.
I ENJOYED GRABBING AHOLD OF THAT SEXY NICK SCOTTI! DON'T KNOW WHY THE MAKE-UP IS RUBBED OFF OF THE MIDDLE OF MY NOSE--BUT AT LEAST IT'S NOT RUBBED OFF NEAR THE NOSTRIL AREA!
STUDIO 54 LEGEND ROLLERENA AND THE STUDLY FREE TEA REGULAR, ANTHONY
JASON "MERCURY" XTRAVAGANZA AND UNIDENTIFIED BEEFCAKE
FRIED "CHICKEN" THAT EVEN VEGETARIANS CAN ENJOY!
FRANKLY, I PREFER COCK TO CHICKEN!
SOMEONE WHO'S APPARENTLY CHOPPED OFF THEIR BEAK WITH THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS PERFIDIA.
AND THE NIGHT BEFORE, JOIN DISCO CONNIE AND JEFF JACKSON FOR DOUBLEHEADED DISCO AT NOWHERE!
From an in-depth interview on DJHISTORY.COM with ROLLING STONE reporter Vince Aletti who has a new book out, THE DISCO FILES 1973-78:
Did people at [Paradise] Garage regard the Studio 54 as the anti-Christ?
To an extent. I certainly did. It was not what we thought this was all about. David’s [Mancuso] idealism was very widespread in terms of the way people felt. I think disco was, to some extent, a movement and a lot of people felt very strongly. And a lot of people got very caught up in what they felt it should and shouldn’t be.
What was the reaction when Studio 54 took off?
It’s hard for me to say, besides what I already said. There’s a scene at the end of the Last Days Of Disco one of the characters has this very idealistic speech where he says disco was a whole movement. It was funny, but it was really true and people felt that. They felt disappointed that the idealistic quality of it was being trampled over, in favour of money and celebrity. As much as disco was glitzy and certainly loved celebrity culture when people came to clubs, there was never a sense of it being driven by that. It was much more driven by an underground idea of unity.
To find out more about my dear friend who just happens to be a sexy and talented and funny gay guy who is perhaps best known for his underground club hit cover of George Benson's GIVE ME THE NIGHT, visit BUTT. You can also hear his interestingly crafter cover of Randy Newman's BALTIMORE. You can also probably get down with him--he a hoe! Transsexual punk legend Jayne County was also recently in Butt, butt I could not find her link online. Maybe you gotta buy the mag for her.
GREG SCARNICI JOINS MILAN AND MIMI OF DA LIPSTYXX TO GOOF ON EMINEM. I'm not sure I get all the jokes but I'm an old queen desperately trying to stay current.
This cideo was put together to by Greg to enhance his chances of being cast on LOGO's BIG GAY SKETCH SHOW, so if you like it, click HERE to vote for him.
RuPaul's twisted dragsploitation trashfest starring Ru, Candis Cayne and Lahoma Van Zandt with cameos by porn stars gaylore, Sweetie and even a cameo by me! Unfortunately, I think my scene might be edited due to the fact that I play a criminal lesbian john who forces Cupcake (RuPaul) to eat out my crab-infested "vagina".
These are from a book called Disorder in the American Courts, and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.
ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning? WITNESS: He said, 'Where am I, Cathy?' ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you? WITNESS: My name is Susan! ____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact? WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks. ____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all? WITNESS: Yes. ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory? WITNESS: I forget. ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot? ___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo? WITNESS: We both do. ATTORNEY: Voodoo? WITNESS: We do. ATTORNEY: You do? WITNESS: Yes, voodoo. ____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning? WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam? ____________________________________
ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he? WITNESS: He's twenty, much like your IQ. ___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken? WITNESS: Are you sh*ting me? _________________________________________
ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th? WITNESS: Yes. ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time? WITNESS: getting laid ____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: She had three children, right? WITNESS: Yes. ATTORNEY: How many were boys? WITNESS: None. ATTORNEY: Were there any girls? W ITNESS : Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney? ____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated? WITNESS: By death. ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated? WITNESS: Take a guess.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual? WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard. ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female? WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I'm going with male. _____________________________________
ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney? WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work. ______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people? WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight. _________________________________________
ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to? WITNESS: Oral. _________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body? WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m. ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time? WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished. ____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample? WITNESS: Are you qualified to ask that question? ______________________________________
And the best for last:
ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse? WITNESS: No. ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure? WITNESS: No. ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing? WITNESS: No. ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy? WITNESS: No. ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor? WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar. ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless? WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.
Simon Doonan on Madame Yevonde's Lady Balcon As Minerva, 1935
SIMON DOONAN ON Madame Yevonde's Lady Balcon as Minerva, 1935
I've always had a soft spot for anyone who dubs him- or herself "madame" or "monsieur." Many examples spring to mind: there's Madame Blavatsky, the famous theosophist. And of course there's Monsieur Antoine, the not-so-famous hairdresser who coiffed many heads in Reading, my U.K. hometown, back in the 1950s. I find these prefixes endearing: a transparent attempt to add panache and a sense of importance, it always strikes me as more life-enhancing than pretentious.
Ditto for Madame Yevonde.
Yevonde Philone Cumbers was born in London in 1893, and partly educated at boarding schools on the continent (where, one presumes, she encountered mesdames by the truckload). She joined the women's suffrage movement in 1910 and, after clocking an advertisement in The Suffragette, decided to become a photographer's apprentice. Using the name Madame Yevonde and championing something called the Vivex process for color images, she went on to take some of the most groundbreaking and fabulously demented portraits and still lifes in photography history.
Full disclosure: I'm a sick and crazed fan of her œuvre. As a window dresser of longstanding, I appreciate the gutsy verve of her lighting and propping, her commitment to the dreamy tableau and the Technicolor diorama. Unapologetically contrived and gorgeously colorful, her work drips with lurid, surrealistic fantasy. Most noteworthy are her mid-1930s portraits of famous English aristos, known as the Goddesses series and including Lady Bridgett Poulett as Arethusa, Goddess of Fountains and Lady Milbanke as Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, etc. etc.
It's a simple formula: take one society lady with loads of time on her hands. Allocate a mythological deity to her, then spend hours shoving bulrushes, feathers, stuffed animals and anything else you can get your hands on into her hair or down the font of her frock, thereby expressing the essence of said divinity. Delivers every time.
Just as Warhol had every New York fancy-pants dame lining up to get Warholized, I imagine that every English toff was banging on Madame's door, begging to be Yevondized. In 1930s English society, if you had not been "done" by Madame Yevonde, then who were you--I mean, really?
Which brings us to Lady Balcon as Minerva. When her ladyship rapped on the door of the Yevonde's fantasy factory, I like to imagine the following scenario unfolding:
There's Yevonde, finishing up a portrait, exhausted from satisfying the whims of the beautiful people and gasping for a cuppa.
"Oh Gawd! 'Ere comes another one!" says Mildred, her cockney receptionist.
"Stick her in the waiting room. Grab the gun and the stuffed owl," says the irrepressibly creative Yevonde. "We'll do her as Minerva--you know, the old war-and-wisdom bit--and still be out of here by six. Now, go and dust off your dad's World War I army helmet."
I make no claims about the accuracy of my fantasy, but of this much I am certain: Lady Balcon as Minerva is one of Madame Yevonde's best shots. The recklessness, the lack of romanticism and contrivance, make it the Duchamp Fountain of the Yevonde archive. The clunky symbolism, the hastily assembled props, the fabulous lighting and signature color saturation conspire to create something that transcends the overwrought high-camp of the other Goddess portraits. Lady Balcon as Minerva is punk rock. It's sinister, it's strong, and it works, effortlessly.
My fantasy concludes with Madame Yevonde in her dark-room, doing her Vivex thing. "Mildred, though I say it myself, this one's good, really bloody good," she says, smiling broadly over the emerging image of Lady Balcon. "Now, where on Earth is Madame's tea?"
(IF YOU ENJOYED READING THIS< THERE"S WHOLE BOOK OF IT BY SIMON CALLED ECCENTRIC GLAMOUR. ORDER IT HERE.
Lady Esther Gyn, my brazilian correspondent, has sent this video footage from Rio's raucous annual parade of excess. I have got to make it down there one year before I blow!
From the Archives, a Portrait of a Pop-Art Muse By COLIN MOYNIHAN
She was baptized James Lawrence Slattery in 1944 but reinvented herself as Candy Darling in the late 1960s after leaving suburban Long Island for the streets of the West Village, a place in the back room at Max’s Kansas City and a role as muse.
A sketch by Candy Darling is among the materials that Jeremiah Newton has assembled.
She hung out with artists like Andy Warhol and crossed paths with musicians like David Bowie. The filmmaker Paul Morrissey put her in two of his movies. Lou Reed wrote the Velvet Underground song “Candy Says” with her in mind and included a verse about her in his “Walk on the Wild Side.”
“She was so beautiful and so feminine that people treated her with respect and some awe,” he said. Mr. Newton was never romantically involved with Candy Darling, he said, but she became an important friend and mentor.
THIS CLIP IS FROM A FLORIDA THEATER PERFORMANCE--NOT HER BRAND NEW VEGAS REVUE. I hate her hat, but I'm so glad that she's achieved her goal and is now up and running with her own show in Vegas! Magic actually drives me crazy--I know there's a trick, I just can't figure it out! Of course some of my tricks find me a little difficult to understand, too.
It's so cold and windy in NYC that I step outside and start tearing, but in fucking Brazil, they're mounting (pant pant!) a new campaign called National Underwear Day. Nothing like harnessing your natural resources--FLESH!
I am so delighted to be asked to appear an upcoming low-budget horror film I WAS A TRANNIE WEREWOLF, as a kindly tranny granny--what a stretch! Extensive aging make-up will be needed! Director Lola Rock'n'Rolla seen here barking orders at the hravenly WORLD FAMOUS BOB in a recent production.
And you can see the very wacky trailer for the Lola's latest wacky featurette DRAGZILLA by clicking here:
RuPaul and I have co-written a duet called THROW YA HANDS UP for Ru's now album CHAMPION, which as of today is available on itunes. I'm really proud of how the tune turned out! I would say the style is uplifting party house with a piano groove. Ru told the track's producer to aim for a Moto Blanco sound--they're the geniuses behind the fab remixes of Jennifer Hudson's SPOTLIGHT and Mary J. Blige's smash BE WITHOUT YOU. I don't know if it's gonna be released as a single with Rumixes or not, but the original version is available now for 99 cents. Check it out! IT IS THE 59TH TRACK OF RUPAUL'S ITUNES PAGE.
And here is the video for Ru's current single, COVER GIRL. I don't really understand what "put some bass in your walk" means, buy I also never understood what "sashay chante" meant ether and t became a national catchphrase! A friend from Florida called me and asked "Why is Ru saying things like "Brigadoon" and "Cameroon" on his DRAG RACE program?" I don't know, but we both have a twisted word association hobby which might have stemmed from our LSD abuse when we were room mates in Atlanta in the 80's. It only makes sense to us!
Love the swoon-worthy male models in this video, And Ru's frosted fro and that silver liquid lame dolman mini! Zaldy (who designed Gwen Stefani's line) made that cute red and white racing outfit.
AND IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A NIGHT OF INCREDIBLE HOUSE MUSIC, MARK THIS DATE: MARCH 19TH. IT'S SOULFUL HOUSE SUPERSTAR BARBARA TUCKER'S CELEBRATION OF 25 YEARS OF BURNING UP DANCE FLOORS WITH HER AMZING RECORDINGS AND PERFORMANCES. CHECK THE LINE-UP FOR WEBSTER HALL THAT NIGHT! LA INDIA, MARTHA WASH, MICHELLE WEEKS, KENNY BOBIEN? HOUSE ROYALTY COMING TOGETHER FOR MISS BT. DEFINITELY NOT TO BE MISSED! I'LL SEE YA ON THE DANCE FLOOR!
There's also video of foxy Viviane Castro being interviewed by a campy queen with a headband and bracelets. Viviane proves that absolutely everything goes well with metallic gladiator boots.
So glad that goddess Faye Dunaway made a guest appearance on GREY'S ANATOMY--looking like a spider monkey with porcelain veneers! And dammit, she's still just as compelling and nuanced as ever! Is she a great actress or just a charismatic, psychotic dynamo? Who cares? I still love her!
Pamela and Amanda LePore modeled for former Heatherette designer Richy Rich's show this past Wednesday. Pam looks amazing. Those sultry eyes! Amanda's wig might be a little too cutting edge for me. Maybe I'll get it by next season.
Of course I'm vain enough to have a google alert on my name, and one site which often links to ladybunny.net is that of MONAGA.NET, which is written by a self-described GAY AMERICAN EX-PATRIATE LIVING AND LEARNING IN SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. Oh, the bounty of that tropical paradise! How welcoming is this site's banner alone! It should be a sin for some guys to wear light blue.
There's a blog and oodles of photographs. Some are of native studs so hot that you can feel their warmth radiating right through your computer screen. DR is definitely on my wish list of places to visit before I'm 30. Maybe the eye candy and the many others on the Monaga.net will take the chill off of your winter bones as well.
BURSTING WITH TESTOSTERONE!
WHOOPSIE DOODLE!
I'LL TAKE A STRAW MAT WITH THAT ON IT ANYDAY!
DESPITE THIS MODEL'S SMILE, HIS SAD, DOWNTURNED EYES SEEM TO INDICATE "I'M SORRY MY COCK IS TOO FAT FOR YOU TO TAKE ALL OF!".
JUST WAITING TO GIVE YOU THE RIDE OF YOUR LIFE!
WHO KNEW SANTO DOMINGO WAS AN AVANT-GARDE FASHION CAPITOL?
DON'T YA JUST LOVE A RECESSION-ERA HOOKER?
SEE PLENTY MORE ON MONAGA.NE. OH, AND THERE IS ALSO INFO ON VACATION PACKAGES AS WELL--AS IF ANYONE CAN AFFORD A VACATION NOWADAYS!
I BELIEVE I'LL TAKE THE GANG-RAPE WEEKEND GETAWAY PACKAGE--DIAPERS, POPPERS AND HEMMORHOID CREAM INCLUDED!
And speaking of vacations, did anyone catch the CNN segment on "staycations" a few weeks ago? There was a fairly in-depth interview with a "travel expert" who recommended that since people didn't have the cash to travel anymore, one might try a staycation instead of an actual trip, AND STAY IN YOUR AREA. Just take time off and explore some of the local attractions that you'd put off seeing. She actually recommended checking into a hotel and pampering yourself with room service! Honey! If you don't have sufficient coins to travel anywhere, how fucking retarded are you going to feel purchasing a hotel room in the very area in which you reside and racking up absurd room service charges while the food in your fridge rots? How relaxing! I tell ya, what passes as news these days!
