Guest star Latrice Muthaf#ckin' Royale brought the house down for a packed crowd at XL's Hot Mess last week. No special guest this week, but if you've got spring fever--pop out for this hilarious show with the divinely demented emcee Bianca Del Rio, Dwayne Milan, DjCollins Skyla Versai, Sugga Pie Koko and very talented newcomer Jada Balenciaga who can dance her ass off! At XL 9:30PM.
I mean Agnes Moorehead on Oral Roberts' TV show in a long, dull video. But she's still amazing. I love that she was wearing the Endora wig and costume as her stagewear!
WHY GAY PEOPLE SHOULD NEVER BE ALLOWED TO GET MARRIED!
THIS ARTICLE BY JACKIE BEAT IS A HOOT!
Listen up gays! I know you want to get married, but I'm sorry, it just ain't gonna happen! Although I appreciate your predicament, let me explain something to you. The institution of marriage is sacred because the union between a man and a woman is a miraculous and amazing thing. Some things are so rare and beautiful that they must be placed on a pedestal and given unquestioned respect and reverance by society. Sex between a man and a woman is one of those things. I mean, have you ever heard of a heterosexual couple doing it in the back of a limo on prom night, crudely videotaping their lovemaking or inviting complete strangers to join them in the bedroom? No, of course not! Have you ever heard of a man forcing himself on a woman who has clearly said “no” or a female teacher having sex with one of her 14 year-old male students? Cases like these are simply unheard of. Why? Because, unlike you and your gay partner, God is present within each heterosexual relationship. And that is why you will never hear horror strories such as a man killing his pregnant wife on Christmas Eve and dumping her headless body and that of their unborn son into the San Francisco bay. It just doesn’t happen.
READ THE REST: JACKIEBEAT
In case anyone is interested, my Facebook ban has just been lifted. Since everyone lives on there nowadays, you may enjoy the tales of my trials and tribulations.
I'm back! Fecesbook banned me for posting a pic which contained no nudity or sexual situations but which was unquestionably in questionable taste. And some prudes have nothing better to do with their time than report stuff which offends their precious widdle eyes. I often see posts I don't care for, but what kind of loser regularly reports stuff--just unlike or unfriend that page if you're so damned righteous. In turn, Fecesbook wouldn't dream of using any of their millions to actually staff anyone you could email or call to appeal the decision--they just chop you and I got 30 days. The last time they did this was during the Olympics, when I posted an AP photo seen on reputable news sites around the world of a winning black athlete in tight, lycra running shorts. I guess someone complained about that, too. I wonder if they would've griped if it were a black competitor with a peanut-sized member? Or if it were a well-endowed white or asian athlete? Lord only knows!
I'm 50 years old an that's a little too old to be repeatedly slapped on the wrist because I'm not "playing nice"--especially since I actually WAS playing by the rules. In addition to my tirades, I also promote my gigs here so facebook is part work for me. And I can be "Lady Bunny" without wearing a 10 pound wig on my head, gluing things on top of my eyes and shoving my nasty nelly nuts up my @ss. So I'm rigging up a way to post on my blog and then have it post automatically to facebook and twitter. (Twitter is vile, but I'm told that everyone has to do it and occasionally I listen.) That way, I can post whatever I see fit and people have to click through a filth factor warning to reach ma blawg. When posting something truly horrific, I will opt not to show a thumbnail.
The first time I was banned, it was for 3 days. The next for 7 (I deserved that one) and the next for 10. The funny thing is that when they ban you for 30 days, you kinda kick the habit. And you're forced to communicate without social networking or peering into any screen. I had some furniture delivered on Saturday and they had to unhook my cable and internet. I didn't really feel like hooking it back up after work so I just had to sit there and think! Can you imagine? I've made a point to get together with friends, to see all kinds of shows, and I'll even shock people by--showing my age here--picking up a phone and actually chatting for hours! While facebook is fab for easily sharing pics, videos and links with friends all over the world, it's easy to glance at a friend's page, like or comment on a few things and then feel that you're in contact with that person. And you are, in a superficial way. I went to dinner with a few friends and there were a few awkward moments of silence where I think we'd all realized that we weren't used to being up in anyone's faces for prolonged periods. We couldn't hit like and move on to another friend if we got bored after a few seconds--we had to verbally respond on the spot to what we were each saying. How novel! Of course there have been zillions of stiff moments at dinner parties long before social media existed, but it was almost as if we had to re-learn the art of conversation. That definitely isn't a good thing to lose.
Thanks to those of you who checked in and inquired about me, and to those who kept my page alive with frequent posts. It wasn't that I didn't like them, it was that I couldn't like them. And facebook allows us outlaws to check their messages even while banned, so that we can remain hooked to some extent. I can also look at the newsfeed and did look a few times. And I noticed something missing: my angry political rants in all caps. So I think this blog/facebook/twitter hook-up will be a good thing for all. Those of you who are interested enough to click through and read my full posts can, and those of you who aren't can just stick to reading my essay-length status updates like this one. Okay, I missed you too!
A UK gay teen is set on fire at his birthday party. To make it worse, he was disabled and was tricked into stripping down to his underwear after which he was doused with tanning oil. "I love dick" and "gay boy" were scrawled on his body. His main attacker, 20, got a paltry 3 1/2 year sentence.
This facebook note is by my friend Michael, formerly known by his drag name Lily of The Valley around the Squeezebox era and also from performing as the exceedingly nutty Clay Woman character he created. It's nice to hear that some gays are warming up to the fact that Christine isn't the best candidate for NYC JUST BECAUSE SHE'S GAY. She's Bloomberg's bitch and will never enact the progressive changes we need. NYC is becoming a flavorless, corporate playground because of policies like hers. Don't assume that a gay candidate is always a good one.
NYC MAYORAL PRIMARY AND THE TRAGEDY OF IDENTITY POLITICS
READ: MICHAEL CAVADIAS
Bryan Moylan is sick of the current manscaping trend and is ready for things to swing back around. I've never really understood it either and I'm a drag queen!
FROM MATHU'S FACEBOOK PAGE: "This is the necessary look for a carny elopement. I am impelled by an interior sound track and pastel memories of darker times from before this existence."
Stephen Burrows: When Fashion Danced is the first major examination of the work of the designer The New York Times called in 1977 the “brightest star of American fashion.” It looks at the period spanning the 1970s when Stephen Burrows’s meteoric rise to fame made him not only the first African-American designer to gain international stature, but a celebrated fashion innovator whose work helped define the look of a generation. With vibrant colors, metallic fabrics, and slinky silhouettes that clung to the body, Burrows’s danceable designs generated a vibrant look that was of a piece with the glamorous, liberated nightlife of the era. Through photographs, drawings, and original garments, the exhibition will trace Burrows’s evolution from creating eclectic looks for his friends in the 1960s to his work with the chic 57th Street retailer Henri Bendel to the floor of Studio 54, as he dressed such 70s style icons as Cher, Liza Minnelli, and Diana Ross.
Meet Donna Campbell! This Texas state senator wants to close abortion clinics because men sometimes have anal bleeding. And she claims that she's a physician? Truly bizarre. Is this freak saying what she's paid to say, brainwashed by religion or both?
Since they won't require pregnancy leave! Of course, one of his manicurists did run to the bathroom to have a miscarriage while doing some guys nails, so we can understand a little of his apprehension. But his insistence on a fat staff is based on his notion that no one wants to fuck fat people. I can assure you from my personal experience that this isn't true!
PS: Why do hairdressers always have the worst hair themselves? Has anyone else noticed this?
Chic's Nile Rodgers just won a lifetime achievement award at the WMC in Miami. Very well-deserved! That man has kept me dancing and singing for decades. Truly a genius. Some of you young folks may know him better for songs which have sampled his music: Chic's Good Times became Rapper's Delight, Diana Ross's I'm Coming Out (which he wrote and produced) became Mo' Money Mo' Problems and Chic's Chic Cheer became the basis for Faith Evan's Love Like This. Before that, the Wigstock Dancers shimmied to it in Wigstock: The Movie.
HERE'S ON MY OF MY FAVORITE CHIC JAMS WITH SOME INSANE DANCERS!
I wrote this in July. I think I had a decent point and that time proved me right. Obama is offering up the social safety net right now.
Obama on the debt ceiling: "I was willing to take a lot of heat from my party." But why is he willing to take heat if this isn't an actual crisis since both parties know they must raise it--which makes attaching demands from either party unnecessary? THIS is what makes me think that Obama doesn't mind cutting services, despite his saying in the same speech that we should never take our minds off of the needy. Then why is he offering unpopular cuts to appease nuts if unnecessary? To appear reasonable and attract independent voters in 2012 since he's burned his base? Then switch parties to be an independent if that's your only goal!
Now if this is an elaborate ruse to make everyone see how uncooperative the GOP has become, I'll applaud him. But only if he uses his new-found credibility as the adult in the room to stand strong on the stuff he once campaigned on--ie no cuts to social services and forcing the mega-rich and the corporations to pay their fare share. MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donell, a DC insider turned newscaster, knows the ins and outs of political negotiations. He claims that Obama has the republicans exactly where he wants them by proving them to be unwilling to agree with him on even crucial emergencies like the debt ceiling. And O'Donnell claims that Obama's brilliant negotiating has put him right where he wants to be--which is re-electable. But wait a second--why would I want to re-elect someone who would chop benefits for the needy in a recession while the rich get richer? Of course I'll vote for him over any republican, but it's folly to think that he'll use his second term to enact bold democratic policy which appeals to the people who campaigned for him. With the right so far right, he needs to stop gladly meeting them in the middle. He easily caved on passing the Bush tax cuts and wasn't strong on health care reform. He just dismissed Elizabeth Warren from the consumer protection agency she created--because the GOP hated her. The list goes on and on. He admitted that his "shellacking" in the mid-terms was due to a failure by him and democrats to spell out who they were. So rectify this mistake now and hammer it home that democrats stand for the working man and have compassion for the needy--seniors, the infirm, students, and veterans! Don't tell me that you're keeping the needy in mind while putting their sustenance on the chopping block when you won't dare touch the fat cats' profits. If his only platform is getting re-elected to serve us more of the same, who needs it?
Sound good to you? Then please watch this and sign if you agree!
Over 300,000 of you have said it’s time to #CancelTheSequester – and that’s why we joined with Alan Grayson, Social Security Works and MoveOn to personally deliver your signatures *directly* to Speaker John Boehner’s congressional office last week, telling him in no uncertain terms: the American people have had enough and want to end this sequester, period.
Watch the video, and then join the campaign to end the sequester NOW.
I guess this artist is from Sweden, yet this song features dancing by some of my favorite NYC voguers. And a sampled intro by the stunning Octavia St. Laurent of Paris Is Burning fame. The singer has a nice voice which I believe is male, but the tone has a little in common with singer Grace Jones.
MSNBC is "celebrating" the 10 year anniversary of the war in Iraq. Tonight, they are even faulting democrats who voted to go to war. This includes Hillary Clinton, who will NEVER do the right thing. Sorry, gays!) But MSNBC isn't ready to make the connection that while Obama spoke out against the war, he failed this country by not prosecuting Bush/Cheney as the war criminals they are. If we don't face the way we were tricked and the people who tricked us and hold them responsible, we are doomed to repeat our mistakes. There's only one letter's difference between Iraq and Iran.
If the job-killing sequester wasn’t bad enough, Washington is buzzing about the possibility that the President and Congress might replace the sequester with something infinitely worse -- the Grand Swindle -- brought to you by Wall Street billionaire Pete Peterson and his “Fix the Debt” gang, who we exposed in a recent report and cover story in The Nation magazine.
What is he thinking? Workers pay into the Social Security system their entire lives – just to use the word “entitlements” is caving in to the Peterson gang. Two-thirds of folks on Social Security rely on the average check of $1,200 a month for HALF THEIR INCOME. Since the Wall Street meltdown, people need the program more than ever and that includes six million kids who are orphaned or living with family members receiving Social Security.
The elite media calls it a “Grand Bargain,” but what this type of deal would really do is needlessly blow a hole in one of the most successful and treasured programs of the New Deal era.
The deficit, caused by the 2008 Wall Street economic crash, has been cut in half in the last few years and is in steep decline. There is, however, an ongoing jobs crisis -- a terrible, needless crisis condemning older workers to a future largely dependent on Social Security and damaging the lifelong earning potential of young workers. The jobs crisis demands more government spending not less, a simple fact that even Ronald Reagan understood.
Some interesting anecdotes here on how an amazing song came to be. And an interesting footnote. Chic produced some of my favorite music of all time and shaped disco, my favorite genre of music. However, they didn't know everything. In the past few years, a deluxe Diana Ross package came out with some unreleased mixes. One was the version of I'm coming Out that Chic produced, the other was the one that Diana made changes on. She brought her vocal further out in front and really punched some notes harder. She knew her brand and was actually able to improve on the version Chic wanted to release. Just another reason to love her!
Last Sunday night was the first week of my return to Splash for a weekly disco-themed tea dance. I have to play a lot of music for younger crowds which I don't care for--Ke$ha, Britney, Rihanna, Nicky Minaj, etc. So what a treat to get to spin a set of songs which deserved to be hits in the first place. No one is going to be digging up Beyonce's tired chants in 30 years, but tunes like This Time, Baby and Donna Summer's Heaven Knows still pack a dance floor. I played France Jolie's 8 minute Gonna Get Over You and marveled at the musicianship. For one whole chorus, they'd have a piano solo to take advantage of the studio musicians creating eargasm after eargasm. Nowadays, they are lucky to have enough hooks to fill 3 minutes. Gotta remember to play Patrick Henandez's Born To Be Alive. The way he pronounces "born" in the chorus has always sounded very irish to me.
Damn, the years fly by! The show's producers have asked me to help spread the word about casting for Season 7--so start your engines, gurls. I was in LA taping Drag U last year and I performed an opening act for Season 5's finale. Introduced by James St. James! And shared a dressing room with the unbelievable Charo!
Diana got up during this TV special and most of the hair remained seated! Working the hair into the set is genius. With flowers bigger than the face! MAJOR!
Liza Minelli and Alan Cumming presented by Daniel Nardicio at Town Hall. Liza is a force of nature! She's still got it. Four standing ovations! I don't agree with this reviewer that her voice is in shambles. She may not be able to hit all the notes she used to, but damn can she fake it and no one seemed to mind. With a knee injury she had to sit some of the time, but bless her heart, her legs still tried to kick while seated. She was simply born to entertain! And she's always had the biggest, brassiest arrangements which the 12 piece orchestra nailed.
NY TIMES:
A legend and her charming squire: that would describe Liza Minnelli and Alan Cumming on Wednesday evening at Town Hall in the first part of a two-evening celebration of Ms. Minnelli’s 67th birthday.
“I’m 12,” Ms. Minnelli remarked at one point late in the show, then briefly lapsed into baby talk.
And in a way she is. Anyone who has followed Ms. Minnelli’s career is aware that from the moment she was born, she has lived inside a show-business bubble where time warps and reality bends. But life happens anyway, and in another sense Ms. Minnelli, who has endured all manner of personal travails, has lived at least nine lives and emerged with her spirit intact and her urge to perform undiminished. What else would she do?
PORN STAR & PARTNER COMMIT SUICIDE OVER MARRIAGE LAWS
From this article, it seems that the two took their lives to protest marriage laws. It's very odd, and a protest you can only make once so I hope it's effective. I'd met Wilfried several times when he'd come to see me perform in Canada. A very sweet and intelligent man. "A gay couple, married in Canada, committed suicide days apart after they were unable to have a legally recognized marriage in the U.S., forcing them to move back to Canada."
FROM FOOD AND WATER WATCH: Many times now, we've heard Governor Cuomo declare that "science, not politics" would inform his decision on fracking. But on Monday, the Governor announced that he never intended to wait for a comprehensive study on fracking to be completed before making his decision. Call Governor Cuomo's office today at 866-961-3208 and tell him that this is unacceptable: it's time for a ban on fracking.
If Governor Cuomo were serious about basing his decision on science, he would wait for research to come out on fracking's effect on public health. The Cuomo administration has even noted the importance of several fracking studies that are currently under way. Yet, they are not planning to wait until these studies are finished to review them. Call Governor Cuomo at 866-961-3208 and tell him to protect New Yorkers' health and ban fracking.
This is terrible news and a clear sign once again that this administration is still trying to find a way to open New York to fracking. We can't let that happen. Call Governor Cuomo and demand a ban on fracking today: 866-961-3208.
When the New York State Assembly passed a fracking moratorium bill last week, it became clearer than ever that the will of New Yorkers is to protect their air, water, food and communities from fracking. Now it's time to make Governor Cuomo realize the dangers fracking poses to our state.
It's easy to make the call! Just dial the number below, listen to our brief message and wait for your call to be transferred to the Governor's office. State your name and zip code, and say that you would like a ban on fracking in New York. Make the call right now: 866-961-3208.
Lyp will be hosting a free screening of Hitchcock's Marnie, starring the divine Tippi Hedred, on 4/5 at 7PM. The New School. Screening and discussion--all free!
Just when you think she's wrapping up and going to briefly answer a question on Monsanto, she revs back up and hammers them. Since Monsanto took over India's cotton seeds, 270,000 farmers have committed suicide because the company keeps jacking up the prices of seeds which they've unfairly copywritten. Don't you imagine they want to try that here? DEMOCRACY NOW: We end our International Women’s Day broadcast with the Indian feminist, activist and thinker Dr. Vandana Shiva. The author of many books, most recently "Making Peace with the Earth," Dr. Shiva discusses the impact on women by what she calls the world’s "violent economic order," and the women-led uproar over sexual violence in India triggered by last year’s brutal gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in Delhi. A world-renowned physicist, Dr. Shiva also addresses the recent U.S. Supreme Court case pitting an Indiana farmer against the agri-giant Monsanto. "The multiple wars against the earth, through the economy, through greed, through capitalist, patriarchal domination, must end, and we have to recognize we are part of the earth," Dr. Shiva says. "The liberation of the earth, the liberation of women, the liberation of all humanity is the next step of freedom we need to work for, and it’s the next step of peace that we need to create."
One of my favorite Shelley Winters flicks! Shelley stars as the cannibalistic witch in this Hansel and Gretel re-telling from 1972. At 92YTribecca on March 30. TIX
Finally, Maddow is cracking out of her role of licking democrat's asses--and she's the only one on MSNB, the "liberal" news who is doing so. She's a riveting storyteller in her own right, but her two guests in this fascinating segment admit that neither party has a plan to get us out of the recession, create jobs or do anything else besides benefit the incredibly wealthy.
