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!
A couple of weeks ago we decided to cruise out to Ryan's Steakhouse for dinner. It was a Wednesday night which means that macaroni and beef was on the hot bar, indeed the only night of the week that it is served. Wednesday night is also kid's night at Ryan's, complete with Dizzy the Clown wandering from table to table entertaining the little bastards.
It may seem that the events about to be told have little connection to those two circumstances, but all will be clear in a moment.
We went through the line and placed our orders for the all-you-can-eat hot bar then sat down as far away from the front of the restaurant as possible in order to keep the density of kids down a bit. Then I started my move to the hot bar. Plate after plate of macaroni and beef were consumed that evening, I tell you -- in all, four heaping plates of the pseudo-Italian ambrosia were shoved into my belly. I was sated. Perhaps a bit too much, however.
I had not really been feeling well all day, what with a bit of gas and such. By the time I had eaten four overwhelmed plates of food, I was in real trouble. There was so much pressure on my diaphragm that I was having trouble breathing. At the same time, the downward pressure was building. At first, I thought it was only gas which could have been passed in batches right at the table without too much concern.
Unfortunately, that was not to be. After a minute or so it was clear that I was dealing with explosive diarrhea. It's amazing how grease can make its way through your intestines far faster than the food which spawned the grease to begin with, but I digress...
READ ON FOR THE GUT-WRENCHING, EXPLOSIVE CLIMAX: THEWVSR.COM
Michael Lucas just sent me this video of a big Russian star who he claims looks just like me. There is a similarity in the silhouette--ie the blob on tilts in a big wig---but she is nuts! Watch to the end if you can...
A 95 year old Vatican scholar who surveyed Catholics favourite sins announced this week that women prefer pride whereas men go for lust.
"Men and women sin in different ways," leading Jesuit sin expert Monsigneur Wojciech Giertych wrote in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, “ "When you look at vices from the point of view of the difficulties they create you find that men experiment in a different way from women."
Iconic New York tranny Lady Bunny was unimpressed, telling Skrufff ‘Catholics are very misguided and I don't place any value on their proclamations or surveys’.
“Lust is a beautiful expression of natural sexual desires--there is nothing sinful about it unless you're a paedophile priest. Or is that redundant?” she laughed.
“I always feel like I have a lot of love- i.e. sex - to share and as long as someone wants it, I'm gonna’ share it!” she laughed.
The cross dressing disco diva outed herself as an atheist, declaring ‘while I feel some things are amoral, I don't classify them as sin’ though did admit to being guilty of pride.
“I broke up with a guy who hurt my pride and then lashed out at him in order to hurt him too. So I'm guilty of pride and shame in that one instance,” said Bunny.
“But I don't necessarily think pride is always wrong. A large AIDS organization has just slated me to be an honoree because I've done a lot of charity work from them. When I got the call, I felt proud. How could that be wrong? I don't go around bragging about it, but it pleases me that my efforts are to be recognized. So in short, pride isn't always a sin,” she said.
“After one Vatican official claimed a few years ago that condoms DO NOT protect against AIDS transmission, I was forced to realize that not only were these nuts responsible for so many deaths in centuries gone by, but they would still deliberately mislead their followers to their own deaths by lying about the manner in which a fatal disease is spread,” she added, “So they have zero moral authority in my book.”
Legendary Sao Paulo tranny/ performance artist Alisson Gothz was also unmoved by Monsigneur Giertych’s observations and their implications for trannies, suggesting, “I guess the most common sin for the third sex is make-up.”
“I think that lust and pride aren't a big sin for us since we carry all the bad and good qualities from both sexes, we deal with this kind of stuff differently,” she mused. “For me the biggest sin is not to believe in yourself and the need to put all your frustrations into someone else; to destroy others’ lives so you can feel better about yourself,” said Alisson.
Lady Bunny conceded however that slipping from male to female guise does affect her behaviour, revealing ‘in drag, you can get away with murder.’
“I'm shyer without my wig, but if I am dolled up, I'll march into a club and start grinding on the hottest guy in the place. Drag pushes your adrenaline button and makes you pretty fearless,” she added. “And one more odd thing I wanted to mention, Catholics seem to make the best lovers,” Bunny laughed, “though maybe that’s because I like Latino guys.
Sex talk aside, Bunny admitted she has little time for Catholic concepts of Heaven and Hell, saying ‘I think we are born, we live, we die and we rot.”
“Because life is hard, people of different religions cling to these notions that there is a second chance in another world. Grow up, people!”
Alisson Gothz took a different tack.
“I hope I can go to Hell when I die, at least for a quick vacation,” she chuckled, “Sid Vicious, Lux Interior and Cleopatra are all there so it must be fun.”
Click HERE and click on 1969. Goddess Jane Fonda is presenting the Academy award for costumes--and al of the contestants go-go dance--even Katherine Hepburn's character from Lion in Winter. And the first outfits! Nothing like a fringe poncho! Watch how the two of the dancers in the first segment completely run out of steam before their exit!
HOW TO GET THE CREDIT CARD COLLECTOR TO STOP by Don McNay
AN EXCERPT:
One of the most ignored laws in America is the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. (FDCPA.) It's been on the books since 1978, but few people know about it.
People are stunned when I tell them they can write a letter and get collectors to stop harassing them.
You can check it out for yourself here
The most important provision allows you to write to a credit card company collector and get them to stop contacting you. It doesn't make the debt go away and it doesn't help your credit rating. The credit card company can still sue you, and it might do just that.
But it does stop the phone calls and the harassing letters. It forbids collectors to call your work or call your neighbors.
OR AT LEAST THAT'S WHAT THE TEN PEOPLE WHO FORWARDED IT TO ME CLAIMED. It did not, but I did sign the petition and I love the quirky song that the video is set to. So check it out.
"Fidelity": Watch the video and join our letter to the state Supreme Court, signed by over 300,000 people Tell the Supreme Court to invalidate Prop 8, reject Ken Starr's case, and let loving, committed couples marry. DEADLINE EXTENDED: March 2
We, the undersigned, share President Barack Obama's view that for too long, issues of LGBT rights have been exploited by those seeking to divide us. It's time to move beyond polarization and live up to our founding promise of equality by treating all our citizens with dignity and respect."
Yet, on December 19, 2008, Ken Starr and the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund filed legal briefs defending the constitutionality of Prop 8 and seeking to nullify the marriages of 18,000 devoted same-sex couples solemnized before Prop 8 passed.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in this case on March 5, with a decision expected within 90 days. We, the undersigned, ask that the Court enforce the equality promised to each of us by our constitution and invalidate Prop 8. So doing will protect all loving, committed couples in California -- including the 18,000 who said "I do" last year --and prevent the initiative process from being a tool for stripping vulnerable minorities of precious constitutional rights.
As Americans who believe in the rule of law and fundamental civil rights, we know that Ken Starr and the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund's shameful attempt to nullify equal protection and all these bonded unions will be condemned in the eyes of history. We know that, ultimately, love will prevail, no matter how hard they try to fight it.
Sincerely,
303,893 people have signed this letter*. NEW GOAL: 350,000 signers by March 2.
JACKIE BEAT ATTACKED!? Current mood: rebellious Category: Life
Roseanne Barr once called me “the Lenny Bruce of drag”. Thanks to his big mouth Lenny ended up in jail, and thanks to mine I almost ended up in the hospital last night. Let me explain...
When I was first asked to be a part of the Gay Marriage benefit “Love Today, Come What May” at Numbers with fellow performers Selene Luna, Jer Ber Jones, Tammie Brown, Barbie Q and Phyllis Navidad, I immediately said yes. Even though I think there are far more pressing and important issues (like letting young people know that they STILL need to use condoms!), I believe that all people deserve the choice to marry if they want to.
So last night was the big event and there we were, the clowns and modern day vaudevillains, in all our frills and finery, going over our jokes and warming up our voices and touching up our makeup in the makeshift “backstage” area,. The turn-out was respectable (times are tough and tickets ranged from $25 to $75) and one by one we entertained the appreciative crowd with comedy and song.
After my introduction, as I walked to the stage, I noticed a young Asian man in a booth rudely reading a magazine -- not even a REAL magazine, but Odyssey. I stopped near him, rolled my eyes and said, “Um, could you please stop reading that magazine?” The crowd laughed and I proceeded to the stage and then added, “Damn Asians!” Again, the room laughed. I then went on my stand-up routine, which consisted mostly of self-deprecating jokes about my weight. Anyone watching would quickly notice that I make fun of myself more than anyone else and then move on to everyone: The Gays, African Americans, Latinos and yes, even Madonna! The crowd was loving it. Except for the aforementioned magazine reader. He was huffing and puffing and at one point threw a fabric dinner napkin at me. When he stood up and blocked the spotlight, leaving me standing in darkness in the middle of my act, I calmly told him, “If you need a creative outlet then take a fucking pottery class at community college.” He and his “date”, an older white gentleman whom I assumes pays for everything and I do mean EVERYTHING, got up and stormed out, but not before I could add “Have a nice night. Oh, and wear TWO condoms, honey!”
I completed my set and joined Jer Ber in the now empty booth that the Gaysian concubine and his paramour had just vacated. “Oh look, there’s a booth available!” I chirped to the crowd’s delight. Well, to make a long story short (too late!), after the show the owner of Numbers approached me and, fuming and wild-eyed, told me through clenched teeth, “I want you to leave right now or I will have you escorted from the premises!” I seriously thought he was kidding, but no. He repeated himself and I told him I would indeed like an escort out. Numbers, of course, is infamous for its “escorts” so I cheerfully asked, “Who’s going to do it?” “The sherrif’s department!” he informed me. “Sounds good to me, get ‘em on the phone!” I said. Then I thought, this poor guy has no sense of humor and God only knows why he’s so mad -- the racial jokes, my jabs at his uncool nightclub most famous for its tragic May/December prostitution deals -- so I decided to just get my shit and leave.
I grabbed my purse from the “backstage” area and as I left I stopped and loudly told him, “Dont take your lack of intelligence out on me. I’m sorry you have no fucking sense of humor, asshole!” I walked towards the front door and added, “I am being kicked out of here by the owner, everyone! I guess it’s okay for old men to pay for sex here, but it’s not okay to tell certain jokes!” With that, I saw him completely lose it! He picked up the metal microphone stand and came running towards me like an animal. I was terrified and ran out the front door as I saw Jer Ber and my best friend Mario block his way. Mario told me later that the guy was waving the mike stand around and screaming, “DON’T FUCK WITH ME!”
So, I guess it’s more acceptable to beat someone with a metal pipe than to tell jokes that, to unsophisticated politically-correct minds, are considered racist. What a great way to end the Gay Marriage benefit, huh?
Some schmuck of a pastry chef has baked 'drunken negro head" cookies. Watch the video--the guy actually told at least 2 customers that Obama will get his just like Lincoln did. I'm all for irreverent humor, but these stone age bastards just can't get past the fact that a black man is our new commander in chief. This bakery happens to be 2 blocks from where I live. I'm actually shocked that they're still open because their baked goods are so lackluster that they don't even tempt my fat ass and I pass this shop almost every day. Click on the link to watch video.
In the blink of an eye, Cashetta has launched her magic show in Las Vegas--no easy feat in this economy. So if yo are inSIn City, pop by and check her out! Opens February 21st.
THE 19TH ANNUAL NIGHT OF 1000 STEVIES IS APPROACHING--THIS YEAR'S THEME: SONGS OF RIHANNON
The creators of Jackie 60, the Motherboards and Low Life bring you their annual homage to Stevie Nicks. Guaranteed to sell out, tix have just gone on sale for the Highline Ballroom event on May 1st.
Like a first sign of spring, the 2009 edition of the annual STEVIE NICKS extravaganza was recently announced by producers THE JACKIE FACTORY. NOTS 19: SONGS OF RHIANNON will be held on May 1 at the HIGHLINE BALLROOM, NYC, and performers will include NYC Dragstars (and Project Runway supermodels) SHERRY VINE and SWEETIE, perennial divas THE HO-HOS, AMBER GARBO (Las Vegas), GYPSY WILDE, JAZMEN FLOWERS (Mississippi), HEATHER LITTEER (aka JESSICA RABBIT DOMINATION), AMBER RAY, singer/songwriter ADAM JOSEPH and dozens more.
The delightfully disturbed diva will play town hall on Thursday and Friday of this week, with "special" opening act Claywoman, aka Michael Cavadias aka Lily of the Valley.
SHERRY VINE'S B'DAY AT BARRACUDA
I know it's hard to believe but Sherry is now a young woman! Please join her on Sunday, February 22nd at Barracuda to celebrate tranmama's birthday and the 4 year anniversary of The Sherry Vine Show. With VERY special guests: The Legendary Joey Arias! "She's coming out of hiding!" - The Misstress Formika! And Li'l Sis, Epiphany! DJ David Serrano! No cover! No gifts, thank you - she'll be passing the Botox bucket!! Party starts at 11pm with Show at Midnight.
Former Project Runway competitor Jack McEnroth is blogging on LOGO's NEWNOWNEXT site for fashion week. Barbie is celebrating her 50th birthday and a bunch of designers from Diane Von Furstenburg to Bob Mackie have outfitted the dill. Here's a hot design from House of Field.
If you are looking for an informative talk show in the Goddess of Radio's absence, Thom Hartmann is on Nova M Radio weekdays from noon-3:00 Eastern time. Also Ron Reagan--yes, the ballet-dancing son of president Ronald Reagan--has an interesting show on weekdays at 8:00 Eastern on Air America Radio. Ron is witty and insightful, He ain't Radi, but even Randi ain't Randi at present.
HER STATEMENT:
TO ALL:
NOVA M RADIO HAS NOT YET CORRECTED THE PROBLEM THAT HAS KEPT ME OFF THE AIR DESPITE MY STRONG DESIRE AND READINESS TO BROADCAST MY SHOW. RESPECTING THE EMPLOYER-EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP THAT HAS EXISTED BETWEEN NOVA M AND ME, AND EXPECTING THE SOLUTION TO BE QUICKLY ACHIEVED, DETALIS OF THE TRIGGERING EVENT WERE WITHHELD IN GOOD FAITH. BUT I CAN TELL YOU THIS MUCH: ANY STATEMENT IMPLICATING ME AS BEING IN ANY WAY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DISRUPTION IN THE RANDI RHODES SHOW IS PATENTLY FALSE. THIS ENTIRE SITUATION IS SOLELY WITHIN THE CONTROL OF NOVA M.
IN LIGHT OF MOST RECENT DEVELOPMENTS, MY SHOW WILL BE SEEKING A NEW HOME. I WOULD ASK FOR YOUR CONTINUED PATIENCE AND INDULGENCE IN RESPECTING MY RIGHTS DURING THIS TIME. YOUR UNWAVERING SUPPORT IS CHERISHED. THANK YOU.
Ohio Transgender Woman Pleads Guilty to Homicide for Exercising Husband, 73, to Death
CHARDON, Ohio —
An Ohio transgender woman has pleaded guilty to reckless homicide for exercising her 73-year-old husband to death in an apartment complex swimming pool.
Middlefield police say surveillance video shows 41-year-old Christine Newton-John pulling James Mason around the pool by his arms and legs and preventing him from leaving. Mason had a heart attack on June 2 just after the extended swim session.
Police Chief Joseph Stehlik says a deputy investigated the death because of previous complaints that Mason was abused. Newton-John pleaded guilty on Thursday. She faces up to five years in prison.
Mason was a longtime friend of his wife's family. He knew her as John Vallandingham before she had gender reassignment surgery in 1993 and changed her name. They married in Kentucky in 2006.
AOL takes a look at black supermodels then and now. Naomi Sims with her hair wrapped around her neck--GORGEOUS! Does anyone recall the lovely drag queen Naomi Sims from Texas with the biggest eyes in the business. And I forgot how stunning Beverly Johnson was. But how does Bev have the nerve to hawk a wig line with the mangiest, cheapest wig plopped on her own head.
Honey, skip fashion week and take the 19 minutes needed to watch this video. This is too much! And how dare Mary Kay traipse out in a feather boa--HOLDING IT WRONG!
COMEDIENNE MO'NIQUE IS CATCHING HELL FOR HER HAIRY LEGS! Of course many women chose not to shave their legs and pits, but no too many who are in showbiz!
My wacky friend and partner in crime Lady Esther Gin divides her time between upstate New York and Rio de Janeiro. The bitch actually performs at the gay bathhouses in exchange for dick! Talk about singing for your supper! Her latest jealousy-inducing email was:
I passed this up last night:
I had this one instead.
WHAT A BITCH!
She also forwarded this humorous account of a pictureque upstate winter:
Gotta Love Upstate New York:
Aug. 12 - Moved into our new home in Upstate NY. It is so beautiful here. The hills and river valleys are so picturesque. I have a beautiful old oak tree in my front yard. Can hardly wait to see the change in the seasons. This is truly God's Country.
Oct. 14 - Upstate New York is such a gorgeous place to live, one of the real special places on Earth. The leaves are turning a multitude of different colors. I love all of the shades of reds, oranges and yellows, they are so bright. I want to walk through all of the beautiful hills and spot some white tail deer. They are so graceful, certainly they must be the most peaceful creatures on Earth. This must be paradise.
Nov. 11 - Deer season opens this week. I can't imagine why anyone would want to shoot these elegant animals. They are the very symbol of peace and tranquility here in New York. I hope it snows soon. I love it here!
Dec. 2 - It snowed last night. I woke to the usual wonderful sight: everything covered in a beautiful blanket of white. The oak tree is magnificent. It looks like a postcard. We went out and swept the snow from the steps and driveway. The air is so crisp, clean and refreshing. We had a snowball fight. I won, and the snowplow came down the street. He must have gotten too close to the driveway because we had to go out and shovel the end of the driveway again. What a beautiful place. Nature in harmony. I love it here!
Dec. 12 - More snow last night. I love it! The plow did his cute little trick again. What a rascal. A winter wonderland. I love it here!
Dec. 19 - More snow - couldn't get out of the driveway to get to work in time. I'm exhausted from all of the shoveling. And that snowplow!
Dec. 21 - More of that white shit coming down. I've got blisters on my hands and a kink in my back. I think that the snowplow driver waits around the corner until I'm done shoveling the driveway. Asshole.
Dec. 25 - White Christmas? More freakin' snow. If I ever get my hands on the son-of-a-bitch who drives that snowplow, I swear I'll castrate him. And why don't they use more salt on these roads to melt this crap??
Dec. 28 - It hasn't stopped snowing since Thanksgiving. I have been inside since then, except of course when that SOB "Snowplow Harry" comes by. Can't go anywhere, cars are buried up to the windows. Weather man says to expect another 10 inches. Do you have any idea how many shovelfuls 10 inches is??
Jan. 1 - Happy New Year? The way it's coming down it won't melt until the 4th of July! The snowplow got stuck down the road and the shithead actually had the balls to come and ask to borrow a shovel! I told him I'd broken 6 already this season.
Jan. 4 - Finally got out of the house. We went to the store to get some food and a god damn deer ran out in front of my car and I hit the bastard. It did $3,000 in damage to the car. Those beasts ought to be killed. The hunters should have a longer season if you ask me.
Jan. 27 - Warmed up a little and rained today. The rain turned the snow into ice and the weight of it broke the main limb of the oak tree in the frontyard and it went through the roof. I should have cut that old piece of shit into fireplace wood when I had the chance.
May 23 - Took my car to the local garage. Would you believe the whole underside of the car is rusted away from all of that damn salt they dump on the road? Car looks like a bashed up, heap of rusted cow shit.
May 10 - Sold the car, the house, and moved to Florida. I can't imagine why anyone in their freakin' mind would ever want to live in God-forsaken Upstate New York.
A first-grade teacher, Ms. Brooks, was having trouble with one of her students. The teacher asked, 'Harry, what's your problem?'
Harry answered, 'I'm too smart for the 1st grade. My sister is in the 3rd grade and I'm smarter than she is! I think I should be in the 3rd grade too!'
Ms. Brooks had had enough. She took Harry to the Principal's office.
While Harry waited in the outer office, the teacher explained to the principal what the situation was. The principal told Ms. Brooks he would give the boy a test. If he failed to answer any of his questions he was to go back to the 1st grade and behave. She agreed.
Harry was brought in and the conditions were explained to him and he agreed to take the test.
Principal: 'What is 3 x 3?'
Harry: '9.'
Principal: 'What is 6 x 6?'
Harry: '36.'
And so it went with every question the principal thought a 3rd grader should know.
The principal looks at Ms. Brooks and tells her, 'I think Harry can go to the 3rd grade.'
Ms. Brooks says to the principal, 'Let me ask him some questions.'
The principal and Harry both agreed.
Ms. Brooks asks, 'What does a cow have four of that I have only two of?'
Harry, after a moment: 'Legs.'
Ms Brooks: 'What is in your pants that you have but I do not have?'
The principal wondered why would she ask such a question!
Harry replied: 'Pockets.'
Ms. Brooks: 'What does a dog do that a man steps into?'
Harry: 'Pants.'
Ms. Brooks: What starts with a C, ends with a T, is hairy, oval, delicious and contains thin, whitish liquid?'
Harry: 'Coconut.'
The principal sat forward with his mouth hanging open.
Ms. Brooks: 'What goes in hard and pink then comes out soft and sticky?' The principal's eyes opened really wide and before he could stop the answer, Harry replied, 'Bubble gum.'
Ms. Brooks: 'What does a man do standing up, a woman does sitting down and a dog does on three legs?'
Harry: 'Shake hands.'
The principal was trembling.
Ms. Brooks: 'What word starts with an 'F' and ends in 'K' that means a lot of heat and excitement?'
Harry: 'Firetruck.'
The principal breathed a sigh of relief and told the teacher, 'Put Harry in the fifth-grade, I got the last seven questions wrong.....' .
DESPITE THE RECESSION, THERE IS A WEALTH OF DRAG HAPPENINGS APPROACHING. SO HERE ARE THE TALES. I'LL START WITH MYSELF, OF COURSE!
After a month in Atlanta in a play, I'm thrilled to be back at Splash for Free Tea this Sunday the 15th. If you haven't yet been, Sunday the 15th will be a perfect month to pop by--it's an early party from 6:00-10:00 with fantastic dj Billy Carroll taking over afterwards, so it's a perfect place to stop by and enjoy a reasonably priced, strong cocktail and a little boogie. The following week is Oscar night, so we'll take that night off, but I'll be back every Sunday in March except for March 8th.
This Sunday, Free Tea has the added bonus of hosting a farewell party for vocal impressionist extraordinaire and dear friend Jimmy James. After sticking it out in NYC for years, he's headed for the warmer climate of LA. And when Jimmy informed his landlord that he'd not be renewing his lease, they actually offered to REDUCE the rent $300! Never heard of that happening in NYC before. So maybe for the bums who can only afford to rent (like me) the economic downturn will offer a few perks as properties decrease in value? Of course, our jobs may be slowing down too, but typically clowns do well in a depression. I wonder where I stored that red nose?
JIMMY JAMES--LOVE THE IDEA OF POSING UPSIDE DOWN TO CHOP A CHIN OR TWO! GOTTA TRY THAT!
Anyhoo, Jimmy has been a well-loved figure on the NYC club scene and he'll surely be missed, particularly by the many restaurants he kept in business. So please pop by Splash this Sunday and wish him well. His insane friend (and one of my de-mentors) Bubba D. Licious of Houston will also be in town for fashion week festivities. And it's President's Day on Monday. How long has it been since we've had a president in office worth celebrating? Woo hoo!
Jimmy is not the only queen to go west recently. Former New Yorker Cashetta has left Fort Lauderdale and relocated to Vegas, where she's working with producers to mount her drag magic show. Let's hope she has better luck than the gals at La Cage. After a few too many nights with small audiences, the boss marched in and fired the cast with no warning, severance pay, nothing! Many of the impersonators have been with the show for over a decade and have bought (now depreciated in value) homes in the Vegas area. Needless to say, Frank Marino and the gals are completely goofed. This is the end of an era--La Cage has run for 20 years!
For updates on Cash, check out her website: CASHETTA.COM. She's steadily brushing up on her bag of tricks. Hopefully,, she can find one to make that gut disappear!
OTHER UPCOMING BUNNY GIGS:
SPLASH FREE TEA (back to our regular hours of 7:00-11:00) on Sundays.
MARCH 1st MARCH 8th OFF MARCH 14th MARCH 21st MARCH 28th
FEBRUARY 20th I make my debit in Naples, Florida at Spanners. Never been there but I hear the place is lovely. If you're in that area pop by. I actually have some new material! STOP THE PRESS!
On March 12th, I am thrilled to announce that I'll be dj'ing at Paris's trendy boutique Colette for the 50th anniversary of Barbie--the doll! After style.com reported that due to Marc Jacobs' runway show was much smaller and that I might not get in, I decided to show them and skip NY fashion week altogether and focus on Paris, the true home of couture!
And on March 27th, I'll make my New Haven, Connecti-cunt debut at Partners with the delicious Mizz Monica.
BENEFIT FOR GODS LOVE WE DELIVER AND TWEED THEATER WORKS:
I'll be joining forces with oodles of downtown denizens and a few mainstream celebs for this two night benefit directed by Tweed's Kevin Maloney.
THE HILARIOUS JACKIE HOFFMAN
TWEED Theaterworks is proud to bring you FOLLY: The Grand Street Follies, 2009, a fundraiser for God's Love We Deliver and TWEED Theaterworks. Inspired by the follies of the 20's, FOLLY will be an 'old school' vaudeville show featuring live acts: comedy, intriguing skits, unusual musical numbers, spectacle extravaganzas and more than a few surprises.
FRIDAY FEB 27TH:
Lypsinka, 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, Jodi Lennon, Carol Lipnik, The Butoh Rockettes, Wallace Shawn & Deborah Eisenberg, Dirty Martini, The Flute Friends, Wallie Wolfgruber Dance, Joseph Keckler, Todd Almond, Ken Bullock as Ragu Mountain Woman, Poor Baby Brie, Jim David, Stine Moen, Hooba Bjornevold, with Tony Conniff & The Grand St Follies Band – and surprise guests.
RICHARD MOVE LOOKING SENSATIONAL AS MARTHA GRAHAM!
SATURDAY FEB 28TH:
Rufus Wainwright, Richard Move as Martha Graham, Kristine Zbornik, Robert La Fosse as Isadora Duncan, Flotilla DeBarge, Brenda Bergman & The Bodacious TaTas, Jackie Hoffman, Sweetie, David Ilku, Poor Baby Brie, Jim David, The Dueling Bankheads, Jodi Lennon, Dirty Martini, Carol Lipnik, Todd Almond, The Flute Friends, Wallace Shawn & Deborah Eisenberg, Wallie Wolfgruber Dance, Joseph Keckler, Ken Bullock as Ragu Mountain Woman, Hooba Havem, Stine Coen, The Butoh Rockettes, plus Tony Conniff & The Grand St Follies Band – and more surprise guests!
The cheapest tickets are $45.00, but we all know that God's Love We Deliver has been delivering food to AIDS victims for decades and Theater Tweed is struggling like every other arts generation and is trying to raise $ for it's upcoming production of REBECCA. The Zipper and The Cutting Room have closed their doors permanently and somehow Kevin Maloney, Tweed's director, found this beautiful old theater for the benefit and is trying to keep the downtown scene alive. That's why I'm appearing and I hope you can make it.
LYPSINKA has scored a dream gig, recreating the creaky old Carol Channing/Mary Martin vehicle LEGENDS with Charles Busch and Whoopi Goldberg at Town Hall on March 23rd! The play, which will be updated with a few fresh jokes, is about two aging showbiz legends who rendez-vous to exchange catty barbs, and though it never made it NYC, the comedy became quite notorious since Carol and Mary weren't exactly hitting it off onstage or off during their 1986 run. Not to start a cat fight of my own, but can someone please tell me why both of the drag queens in this picture are sporting smaller coiffures than the notoriously dyke-y Whoopi??? I know I favor bigger hair than most, but girls! You let a real woman's wig upstage your?
THE ONE NIGHT BENEFIT PERFORMANCE/ BENEFIT FOR FRIENDS IN NEED WILL SELL OUT! CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS: FRIENDSINNEED
The Lyp has also published her play MY DEAH, Southern-fried take-off the the greek tragedy MEDEA, with a little HUSH, HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE thrown in for measure.
AND SPEAKING OF HUSH, HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE, Varla Jean Merman is currently touring in very funny parody comedy of the Bette Davis campfest, both starring as herself and directing as her alter ego Jeff Roberson. I caught her act at Atlanta's 14th Street Playhouse and it was headed to an already sold-out run in Palm Springs, where the older set will no doubt remember the original upon which SHUT UP, SWEET VARLA! is based. I know I do--it's one of my fav films of all times! Highly recommended!
I've also noticed while googling that there's a Varla appreciation page on Facebook. For some reason, Facebook will not accept Lady Bunny as a real name so I don't have a page. But WE WANT LADY BUNNY ON FACEBOOK and LADY BUNNY IS FABULOUS are accepted as real names? They both have pages and I can't get one? A friend has even contacted the site's administrators about this--here's their commentary, which I think is quite amusing. To be honest, I waste enough time in front of a computer screen, especially Myspace, so I wasn't eager to develop another time wasting site which has me glued to a screen every day. And how absurd is it that newscasters like Larry King are blabbing on about Twitter-ing with them after their show? PITIFUL! But then again, I despise texts so I'm admittedly behind the times.
To: info@facebook.com (info@facebook.com) Subject: You're blocking someone from joining because of her name
Her name is "Lady Bunny" but Facebook rejects her name for some reason. It is her real name. She's a celebrity and would like to join for reasons like Facebook users creating groups like "WE WANT LADY BUNNY ON FACEBOOK"
Anyway... I thought I'd let you know that this error, while arbitrary, could be preventing legitimate users from signing up.
-Austen -----End Original Message to Facebook-----
Facebook Support wrote:
Hi,
Fake names are a violation of our Terms of Use. Facebook requires users to provide their full first and last names (i.e. no initials). Nicknames can be used in the form of FirstName 'NickName' LastName, but only if they are a variation on your real first or last name, such as 'Bob' instead of 'Robert'. Additionally, please note that impersonating anyone or anything is prohibited. If you would like us to look into this issue, please tell this user to contact us directly. We will then be able to assist them further.
Thanks for contacting Facebook,
Marissa User Operations Facebook
To info@facebook.com
You are making an enormous assumption that "Lady Bunny" is a fake name. As a matter of fact, "Lady Bunny" is this person's legal name! Are you seriously going to require Facebook users to use the names that were written to their birth certificates, rather than the names they choose to go by, legally, as conscientious adults? How exactly do you expect to regulate this?
What purpose does this serve? Why should Facebook care what names people use, fake or otherwise? I think Facebook needs to seriously consider why they are treating their user policy as strictly as passport identification and such. Facebook is just a social networking website, not a government regulating body. Why be Nazi's about it? It makes no sense... Obviously, having a policy against fake names doesn't prevent impersonations. It has absolutely zero impact on the matter and is irrelevant.
Also, you have a website based on generating traffic and converting that traffic into advertising impressions. You would think that Facebook would be interested in having as many "users" as possible, alter-egos or not. You have other demographic profiling tools available you can employ for the purpose of showing people numbers to advertisers. At the end of the day, the numbers of "real" users versus "fake" users doesn't make a bit of difference to an advertiser. They don't give a damn about anything except how their ads perform. And being someone who has advertised on Facebook, I can tell you that I don't care one bit about how many "legit" users are on Facebook. I only care about how many impressions my ad has and how many clicks my ad gets. If one "fake" user creates a page or account that generates traffic by 10, 100 or 1000 "real" people interested in the "fake" profile, those are 10, 100, or 1000 potential ad impressions you have arbitrarily suffocated.
And in the case of Lady Bunny, who is a celebrity, who has 20,000 followers on MySpace, you really are creating a traffic vacuum by preventing her from using Facebook.
In this case, Facebook is being overly and unnecessarily conservative, the benefit of which I am trying mightily with all my mind to figure out, alas to no avail.
I'll pass along this absurd regulation to Lady Bunny so she can deal with it, if she chooses.
(BUNNY NOTE: I find this all to be quite hilarious. Seems like I get more attention off of Facebook than on it!)
MY SLUT PICS FOR TAGGED.COM:
Personally, I have been enjoying tagged.com, an odd hook-up site which must not have been banned yet in muslim countries, since I have several international gentleman callers who seem to enjoy my slut pics enough to beg me to go on cam with them. I find it fascinating, from their broken english (their english is infinitely superior to my arabic) to the pics these guys post. Some seem so romantic! Well, until you marry them and the beatings begin. An egyptian guy has festooned his page with classical cyber pics like these:
I think it's really gorgeous that a young guy would decorate his internet page with historical, erotic images like these. Most of today's youth don't feel much affinity with the past--they're quite happy with the disposable culture on offer these days. And hey, if handsome arab men like ancient women, just wait until you see how this old whore looks in a burqa! It sure will hide a jowl, chin, cold sore, chancre, runny nose and a multitude of other pesky flaws.
Check out this swoon-worthy dreamboat from Tunisia! I am fascinated with the studs of northern Africa and even making a never-to-be consummated contacts with guys from Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria drives me wild with desire. They all wanna do the cam thing but I can't get into that. And if I ask them for a cock pic to be emailed they accuse me of being a pic trader. And I respond "I can't suck a pic", but I guess it's a generational thing. Like texting.
I guess not all muslims are still sore over The Crusades--this one has actually visited a theme park and donned a crusader's suit of armor!
Many of these middle eastern guys are as chivalrous as knights and love to woo me with wildly romantic statements--some of their proposals n broken english have left me howling. For example:
hi , how are u doing ? i saw u here and i got chocked tha u are the most beauty wouman my eyes saw and i think u are not a human like us u seems that u are an angel live with us , i wounder if u accept me a a friend to know u better , u are so cute so drop me line if u have yahoo or msn and lets chat there if u are interested to know each other thanks waiting ur answer
wish if u come some day to egypt , to make u know what is the egyption hard long cock meaning ....
i want my duck in place of banene (Translation: I want my dick in place of the banana, which is in my mouth above in the beached whale pic.)
22 years of Egypt's possible to be introduced Your beautiful Ms
And this nutty one from a cutie in Israel:
Let us eat I'm hungry and I want to preyed on lonely of your body
(I didn't know that cannibalism was big in Israel.)
BUT HOW ON EARTH DID THIS COME OUT OF A DRAG UPDATE? I guess you know what I've been up to. Whoring online. But when surfing the net is not driven by dick fever, it's known as networking.
PARIS IS BURNING STAR CARMEN EXTRAVAGANZA, STILL SERVING FACE AT 47!
I've reconnected with two of my favorite divas from PARIS BURNING. Carmen Extravaganza (below) has returned to NYC after living for a decade in Madrid. You can find her on her myspace page. She still looks as amazing as she did when she graced the cover of the Village Voice 15 years ago. Or was it 20? TIme flies when you're senile.
Octavia St. Laurent is on myspace too, MYSPACE.COM/EUNUCH as well. She calls herself Heavenly Angel Octavia St. Laurent, which doesn't exactly roll off of the tongue, but the beauty has had several serious bouts with cancer after moving to Syracuse so you can't exactly blame her for going all spiritual. She told me "Girl, when I went in for chemo, it COOKED my (breast) implants." Octavia really went for the buffalo booty with silicone injections and all of that had to be scraped out. The look was literally traffic-stopping since her waist was so thin and then this massive booty appeared. But it's gone now and Octavia, in addition to pursuing her singing career, is on a mission to warn the "girls" about the dangers of silicone injections. I realize that there are dangers involved but I've experienced no complications since having my back and feet pumped.
OCTAVIA, STILL GORGEOUS WITHOUT HAIR! NOW THAT AIN'T EASY!
SPEAKING OF BAD PLASTIC SURGERY, am I the only one who thinks the octuplets mother looks like a sex change? She's had a dreadful nose whittle and awful lip implants, too! It also seems like she's had cheek implants which have fallen.
FREE MUSIC!
Come see the premier all-girl New York Dolls cover band Prima Ballerina at the Lakeside Lounge (162 ave. b between 10th and 11th sts.) friday, 2/20, 11pm
A glam-glitter night of pink boas, black fishnets, cherry-red vinyl platforms, leopard-print scarves and mercer street bacchanalia.
The members of Prima Ballerina are:
heidi thunders jerry nolinda jylvain jylvain mony killer fal-kane tammy jo starlite
zzzzzzlet the saturnalian spirit of the '70's kiss your sweet babylonian lips pills and wine with everything--such a feral and febrile night is free.
WANT MORE FREE MUSIC? MIXED BY DJ GANT JOHNSON AND DJ NITA, DOWNLOAD THESE DJ SETS FROM POPULAR NYC CLUB NIGHT TUBWAY by clicking here: PALMSOUT
So if you want to hear the sounds of a NYC nightclub, check these downloads out. And if you are in NYC, make Tubway a must-stop. The night has been chugging away for years in this uncertain economic climate an has even won some awards lately so it's still going strong.
TUBWAY'S DJ NITA AVIANCE
"BEST GAY PARTY" - PAPER MAGAZINE NIGHTLIFE AWARDS (NOVEMBER 2008)
"BEST DJ" (NITA) - GLAMMY AWARDS (DECEMBER 2008)
"BEST BAR OR NIGHT CLUB NIGHT" - GLAMMY AWARDS (DECEMBER 2008)
"BEST WEEKLY PARTY" - EDGE MAGAZINE:
THE IRREPRESSIBLE MURRAY HILL GEARS UP FOR HIS ANNUAL OSCAR PARTY AT JOE'S PUN. ALSO, A VD PARTY ON 2/14.
DO DRAG KINGS OF COLOR WEAR BIGGER DILDOES? HERE'S ONE WAY TO FIND OUT!
Drag trio Da Lipstyxx have teamed up with Automagic to craft a smoking new tune called YOU'RE FIERCE. This group is known for their live performances, particularly because founding member Milan is such an amazing dancer. I'm not too sure who is in the ever-changing group at this moment, but I think it's Mimi and Lady Fag, who is to be worshipped for her name alone, not to mention her high fashion Margaret Hamilton realness. The track has been signed by Kult records with an April release. It has an early 80's synth/funk sound which sounds straight out of Paradise Garage to me.
THE "LADIES" KNOWN AS SHE-DICK HAVE A NEW SUNDAY NIGHT IN BROOKLYN.
I've never seen these gals perform but I might just have to hightail it out to Brooklyn to check 'em out! They even have their own wikipedia entry and website if you wanna hear their electropop song-stylings abut extensions and the like.
ON THE WEST COAST:
Jackie Beat and Jer Ber Jones will appear at a benefit for gay marriage in LA on Sunday Feb 15th. Also featured, Selene Luna, the diminutive stripper who has worked often with Margaret Cho. Love her!
JACKIE BEAT LOOKING INSANE AT WORLD OF WONDER'S DRAG-THEMED ART OPENING.
JOHN CAMERON MITCHELL (AKA HEDWIG) TAKES OVER SAN FRAN'S VICTORIA THEATER FOR 3 NIGHTS OVER VALENTINES DAY WEEKEND. With guest hosts Peaches Christ, Connie Champagne and Anita Cocktail.
DINA MARTINA AS BURGER QUEEN. YOU CAN'T SEE HER FACE, BUT THAT ROTTED CAMELTOE IS UNMISTAKABLE!
IN SEATTLE, DEMENTED DIVA DINA MARTINA OFFERS HER CHERISHED CHESTNUTS, A BEST OF PERFOMANCE WHICH I HOPE WILL INCLUDE THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO GEORGIA AND PIZZAZZ!
FEBRUARY 20TH--MARCH 28TH AT REBAR (SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS ONLY)
One of the competitresses requested me as a friend on Myspace. Her name is Jade she hails from Chicago. I watched the first episode and another contestant mentioned that she would "dyke" with Jade, since "she" is so handsome out of geish. I would too! Her myspace page lists her sexual orientation as bi. There are some fun pics from the red carpet opening of RuPaul's Drag Race, including the other contestants and Charo! That Nina Flowerz's (below left) make-up is incredible! If I could paint my mug like that I'd never wash it off!
I COULDN'T TELL YOU WHERE THIS WHORE IS FROM BUT SHE'S A SICK PIECE!
FIX MY DICK BY CHRISTEENE:
LONDON
In honor of the recently incarcerated Boy George, a WE LOVE BOY GEORGE club night was recently dedicated to the gender-bending pop star and Tasty Tim dressed as Boy George dressed as Leigh Bowery.
Drag star Jodie Harsh will star in a London version of PETA's FUR IS A DRAG, the fashion show in which queens sashay shante down the runway in bloody furs like the one Jodie's modeling below. February 20th at Circus.
RARE TOM RUBNITZ RETOSPECTIVE!
SISTER DIMENSION, A YOUNG ME AND RUPAUL IN TOM RUBNITZ'S CULT HIT PICKLE SURPRISE
Here's the press release for an extensive screening of video genius (and dearly departed friend) Tom Rubnitz. His short PICKLE SURPRISE has developed an internet cult following but that's only the tip of the iceberg. MADE FOR TV starring the many faces of Ann Magnuson and Frieda's THE MOTHER SHOW cannot be believed! I'm not a proud person, but I am VERY proud to have been a part of this 80's scene and included in Tom's fantastic work.
Made for TV: The Collected Works of Tom Rubnitz Introduced by Charles Atlas
SISTER DIMENSION AND BILLY BEYOND
Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 7:30pm 220 36th Street, 5th Floor – NEW SPACE Brooklyn, New York
JOHN SEX
No videomaker captured the spirit of the East Village 1980s demimonde better than Tom Rubnitz, who teamed up with the looniest luminaries of downtown New York to create his incomparable oeuvre of live-action cartoony capers. For over a decade until his death from AIDS in 1992, Rubnitz turned his cameras on clubland’s most bedazzled, from drag royals like RuPaul, the Lady Bunny, Hapi Phace, Lypsinka and Taboo! to choreographer Michael Clark, musician John Sex, and lavender wit Quentin Crisp. Tackling the tube from all angles, Rubnitz sends up cooking programs, movie ads, music videos and kid's shows; his PBS-broadcast Made for TV parodies the entire cable age by channel-flipping Ann Magnuson through a series of schizophrenic spoofs.
More recently, Rubnitz’s legacy has unexpectedly invaded the post-television landscape. Clips of his videos on the internet have created a new surge of interest in Rubnitz among electric youth: not only has Pickle Surprise! been viewed thousands of times online, it’s also spawned a wave of fan remixes, remakes and tributes. Today, his work might be seen as a precursor to the digital psychedelia of Paper Rad or Ryan Trecartin—who, not incidentally, has literally added Rubnitz to his list of YouTube favorites.
Tonight’s screening offers viewers a chance to venture beyond these bootleg samplings, serving up a heaping helping of Rubnitz’s most outrageous works in all their day-glo glory.
"Inimitable and ineffable, Tom Rubnitz's glitter-dusted videos distill the sensibility of a generation of TV babies whose venue of choice was the Pyramid Club rather than the Whitney Museum." - Amy Taubin
"Brilliant as they are lovable as they are hilarious, these videos are simply dynamite. It was impossible to 'take notes' while watching them for review; their uncanny, anarchistic vinegar encourages one to throw away the writing pad. And when this short, shining, miracle hour was over I was dashed, inconsolable." - Warren Sonbert
The Mother Show, 1991, 4 mins Uncover...Me!, 1988, 2 mins Made for TV, 1984, 15 mins Summer of Love, 1989, 30 secs Hustle with My Muscle, 1986, 4 mins Bump and Grind It, 1986, 3 mins John Sex: The True Story, 1983, 4 mins The Drag Queen Marathon, 1986, 5 mins Pickle Surprise!, 1990, 1 min Chicken Elaine, 1983, 1 min Strawberry Shortcut, 1989, 1 min The Fairies, 1989, 5 mins Love Is the Message, 1990, 4 mins Wigstock: The Movie!, 1987, 21 mins
NY PRESS LOOKS BEHIND THE SCENES OF A HARD-HIT GARMENT DISTRICT:
This year’s Fashion Week remains a well-oiled machine; too much money’s at stake for it not to look good on the cable networks. Behind the scenes, however, it’s a shaky edifice built on youthful fantasies of making it. Several labels— including bigwigs Betsey Johnson, Donna Karan and Vera Wang—have cancelled their tent shows this year in favor of smaller “presentations.” After-parties are going to be hit even harder.
From an aesthetic level, it’s easy to long for the whole structure of excess that Fashion Week embodies to be wiped from the cityscape. But a lot of working people make a living during Fashion Week, and for them, the downturn means losing a paycheck. There’s a ripple effect that starts with full-time employees of labels—like Allie— and moves outward.
BUT THE GAY CLUB SCENE SEEMS TO BE GETTING A MUCH NEEDED SHOT IN THE ARM! OR SHOULD THAT BE SHOT IN HE ASS? We ain't got no mortgages! And we don't need to take out loans for our drug dealers! Maybe the depression will drive down astronomical drink prices and cover charges and make going out a bit more fun again. And it's funny that they mention smoking popping up in clubs. I don't smoke, but I occasionally like a cigarette when I'm out on the town--ie drunk. Although it is nice to come home and have your wig and outfit not reek of tobacco smoke, for some reason, the permissiveness of smoking in a club is something I really miss. I understand no smoking bans in milder climates, but it's a bitch to go uncheck your coat, go outside and then possibly wait on line to get back in. Kind of a buzz-killer.
THE NY OBSERVER INTERVIEWS DOWNTOWN DENIZENS LIKE MISTRESS FORMIKA NAD CHI CHI VALENTI ON THE CHANGING GAY BAR SCENE.
VIA TOWLEROAD:
With the recession in full swing, we’re detecting a definite uptick in the gay downtown demimonde … Could it be that the gays you remember from before Will and Grace—from such depressions as the ’30s, ’70s and early ’90s—are back in the saddle again.
AN EXCERPT FROM GAYS LOVE A DEPRESSION!
Over the past few months, while the straight party scene has been left for dead, gay nights and venues look like they are surviving, with new ones sprouting up everywhere. And, in some cases, like this night at the Hose, they really are Events (not vodka promotions!) with Themes! There is buzz! Costumes! Sleaze! There is planning, for a whole week before, aimed at getting into the right place at the perfect time of the night.
“Given the news about the economy that came out of the late summer and fall, when we were in November, I was saying that all of us have to hope for a mild winter,” said Bob Pontarelli, the longtime co-owner of Chelsea gay bar Barracuda and of the very gay-friendly Elmo restaurant on Seventh Avenue. “I was anticipating a perfect storm of cold weather and the economy. And then we had a worse winter than we’ve had in five years. So it’s been very, very, very cold and add to that the recession. But you know what? We haven’t been affected by a percentage point. In some places, we’re doing better. What I was worried about actually hasn’t happened, and it hasn’t affected us.”
According to some of his patrons, the downturn has, if anything, redirected their budgets to Going Out. “I mean, we’ll skip going out to dinner and go out for drinks instead now,” said Christian, a 27-year-old in fashion PR, to his 27-year-old friend Jon at Barracuda on Friday night.
They both agreed, emphatically, that giving up on their night on the Crawl, whether it be on Eighth Avenue or Avenue A, was not an option.
Michael Formika Jones has been promoting gay-themed parties and nightclub evenings for 18 years in New York, but has found himself without much to do over the last three years. “Oh I’m loving the recession!” he said. “I’m jumping on this recession bandwagon. I haven’t done a big party. Period. In three years.”
But in the next eight weeks, he’s booked three big events. One of them is at 55 Gansevoort, a two-floor restaurant and a loft apartment above it, as well as a basement bar. It’s always been one of those straight, bottle-service type clubs on weekends before. “Buh-bye to that!” Mr. Jones chirped. “No more $15 drinks!”
Two women suffer organ failure after cosmetic bottom injections to make them look like J.Lo
Perfection: Andrea Lee and her friend Zakiya Teagle thought they could achieve a bottom like Jennifer Lopez's Two women are fighting for their lives after cosmetic injections aimed at giving them 'J.Lo' style bottoms went disastrously wrong. Andrea Lee, 30, suffered total kidney failure after being 'poisoned' with what is believed to be industrial silicone.
Since we, the Americans, are slowly becoming the minorities, here are some words and or phrases we may juana get familiar with. Mexican words of the day ...
1. *Cheese*
The teacher told Pepito to use the word cheese in a sentence. Pepito
replies: Maria likes me, but cheese ugly.
2. *Mushroom*
When all my family get in the car, there's not mushroom.
3. *Shoulder*
My fren wanted 2 become a citizen but she didn't know how to read so I, shoulder.
4. * Texas *
My fren always Texas me when I'm not home wondering where I'm at!
5. *Herpes*
Me and my fren ordered pizza. I got mine piece and she got herpes.
6. *July*
Ju told me ju were going to tha store and July to me! Julyer!
7. *Rectum*
I had 2 cars but my wife rectum!
8. *Chicken*
I was going to go to the store with my wife but chicken go herself.
9. *Wheelchair*
We only have one enchilada left, but don't worry wheelchair
10. *Chicken* *wing*
My wife plays the lottery so chicken wing.
11. *Harassment*
My wife caught me in bed with another women and I told her honey harassment nothing to me.
12. *Bishop*
My wife fell down the stair so I had to pick the bishop.
13. *Body wash*
I want to go to the club but no body wash my kids.
14. *Budweiser*
That women over there has a nice body, budweiser face so ugly?
Trial suspended when home-invasion robbery suspect Weusi McGowen throws human feces at jury
It may be a legal precedent.
A defendant on trial for a home-invasion robbery forced a mistrial when he pulled out a baggie of human feces and smeared some on his lawyer's face - before throwing a handful of at stunned jurors, San Diego's 10News.com reported. The suspect, Weusi McGowen, launched into the bizarre meltdown after a San Diego Superior Court judge denied his request to remove a public defender, Jeffrey Martin, from the case, prosecutor Christopher Lawson told the TV news outlet.
AND SUPPOSEDLY HAS HER GORGEOUS VOICE BACK! I nervously viewed photos of her leaving a medical facility recently thinking the worst but maybe it was for a treatment which worked. Apparently, she sounded fab singing I'M EVERY WOMAN at a pre-Grammy event honoring Clive Davis.
Anastacia always looks as if she has amazingly lustrous blonde locks. How does she achieve this feat for stage and photo shoots? She's been known to wear a wig with the top cut out, and her natural hair flowing out over the top. Extensions are just too Z-list these days.
LOS ANGELES — An exotic dancer was set on fire outside the club where she worked early Thursday, burning more than 60 percent of her body, police said. They were searching for two suspects.
HX'S JOHN RUSSELL CHATS WITH FAG HAG COMEDIENNE EXTRAORDINAIRE WITH GLAMOR SHOTS BY MIKE RUIZ.
HX: While you’re in New York I was going to ask if you could do me a favor. Kathy Griffin: What?
Could you come by the HX offices and knock all of the dicks out of our mouths? Yes, I’d be more than happy to. I am a YouTube sensation! I’ve never had a million views of anything I’ve ever done. Certainly not The D-List! Oh, alright, my sex tape. My sex tape with Rodney Allen Rippy.
Do you think the Coop’s going to ask you back next year? Well, uh, they already have. So I’m very happy. They were very, very happy with the ratings so I think that’s what it’s all about. But CNN got 2.31 million viewers, which in the cable world is huge. Like The D-List has never gotten that many views ever. But I think honestly someone at CNN is smart because you have to admit, if nothing else, it’s a very unlikely pairing. It’s a great, weird alternative to Ryan Seacrest. And everything should be an alternative to Ryan Seacrest, let’s face it. But I wish her all the best.
AND SHE LOOKS HOT! I would never thought of black hair for a blonde guy but he has on enough dark eye make-up to balance it well. Jude's character is called Minx in the upcoming film RAGE.
FROM FILMONIC.COM:
Part of the subject matter of RAGE is the ugly use of beauty in the pursuit of profit. Drugged by Marketing, sapped by fear of aging, conned by the cult of celebrity… image becomes all.
Jude Law, whose beauty has sometimes been held against him as an actor, made the courageous decision to accept the role of Minx - a “celebrity super-model” and took on a kind of hyper-beauty for this persona… a ‘female’ beauty which gradually unravels as the story unfolds.
“Marc Slashes Invitees.” I got the (slightly violent-sounding) WWD News Alert on my BlackBerry Friday night. But it wasn’t until this morning that I allowed myself to fully examine what the new fashion week development really meant. The specifics: The invite list will be smaller by a whopping 50 percent-plus, going from 2,000 people (1,100 seated and 900 standing) to 700 (500 seated and 200 standing). Celebrities? Maybe one or two, said president Robert Duffy. One or two?! I can only assume that Marc-ettes like Winona Ryder, Sofia Coppola, Zoe Cassavetes, Rachel Feinstein Currin, and Victoria Beckham will make the cut as friends of the house. But I suppose you can forget about seeing every downtown fixture both erstwhile and current. (Lady Bunny, we think you had better make alternate plans for Monday night.)
PART 2 OF UK'S CHANNEL 4'S SERIES--THIS ONE FEATURING BOY GEORGE'S OLD CO-HORT MARILYN, WHO HAS UNDERGONE QUITE A TRANSFORMATION! (The other parts are also on youtube.)
From Salon.com, that is. In a piece by Thomas Rogers, Salon asks about the state of drag in a new millennium and raises some interesting points. RuPaul and I were both interviewed about drag in 2009 and in particular about RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE, which premieres tomorrow night on LOGO.
WHERE HAVE ALL THE DRAG QUEENS GONE?
The campy spectacle has lost favor with a generation of young gay men. Can RuPaul's new reality show bring it back?
AN EXCERPT:
The tragic and outsize divas that have long inspired drag queens are also becoming harder to find in the manufactured pop landscape: The Bette Midlers and Whitney Houstons have been replaced by Katy Perry and the Pussycat Dolls. "The sad thing is, the pop stars that were popularly impersonated in my day all had personality," says Lady Bunny. "How are you going to impersonate Rihanna? What is her personality? You don't know, because she's just a product."
AND HOW COULD THERE BE A DRAG RACE WITHOUT A LITTLE CONTROVERSY?
THE DALLAS VOICE'S DANIEL KUSNER ASKED THE SUPERMODEL OF THE WORLD IF DRAG QUEEN AND TRANNY WERE POLITICALLY CORRECT TERMS.
RUPAUL APPROVES "TRANNY"
AN EXCERPT:
On Monday, America’s sweetheart kicks off “Drag Race,” a female illusion competition-reality show that’s one part “America’s Next Top Model” and one part “Project Runway.”
“Judge Judy is my favorite TV show. And there’s part of her there, too. I’m the Judge Judy of the show,” RuPaul says from her home in Los Angeles.
Since Planetrangender says “drag queen” is also off limits, we asked if RuPaul agreed.
“Okay, Let me put on my Judge Judy robe,” RuPaul says. “People really need to get a life. And quit taking every opportunity to be offended by the world. Years ago, political correctness made it unbearable for anyone to have a laugh or be free. You can’t make the whole world ‘baby safe.’ That’s really the uneducated approach to dealing with issues.
“There are more things to do in this life than to try to correct people with how they should refer to you. That’s your problem. That’s not their problem,” she continues.
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