October 1, 2008
Chicagoans pay tribute to Shepard
Community members Saturday night convened at Halsted and Roscoe both to honor the memory of Matthew Shepard and speak out against anti-gay violence on the anniversary of his death.
The 10th Annual Matthew Shepard March for LGBT Equality, sponsored by the Gay Liberation Network, featured several speakers who offered many reminders that the threat of violence is unfortunately a fact of life for many in the GLBT community... Full Story
Editorial
They tell us this is a historic election. They tell us our taxes will be lower (or higher), America’s reputation will be better (or worse) and the future of our economy and environment hang in the balance. The significance of each of these issues notwithstanding, where is the discussion of gay rights... Full Story
The American Civil Liberties Union and all its state affiliates, including Washington, DC and Puerto Rico, has submitted comments to the Department of Health and Human Services asking the administration to rescind regulations that could seriously undermine access to reproductive health services, including birth control and abortion... Full Story
Freestyle: arts, entertainment & lifestyle
Clayton’s Post-Apocalyptic Vision
Ronald Clayton teaches painting and drawing at Southeast Missouri State University, but has at the same time continued his own career as a creative painter. Having began as an “abstract expressionist” painter, the most fashionable style when he was young, Clayton eventually abandoned that school as insufficient to express his own personal vision... Full Story
“Holding Trevor” (here!/Regent) – According to cute gay 20-something Trevor (Brent Gorski, who also wrote the screenplay), everybody’s looking for something, someone. But Trevor tends to find himself in the spaces in between. One of those spaces in which he finds himself is on the outside of a locked bathroom door, behind which his junkie boyfriend... Full Story
How ‘Sweet’ the sounds: an interview with Catie Curtis
A couple of years have passed since out singer/songwriter Catie Curtis released her solid and radiant “Long Night Moon” disc. Not one to let too much time pass, Curtis has returned with the vibrant and engaging “Sweet Life” (Compass). From the self-reflective and festive title track to the soaring nostalgia of “Are You Ready To Fly” to the soothing “For Now” and the... Full Story
‘Million Dollar’ baby: an interview with Levi Kreis
Out singer/songwriter Levi Kreis has been writing and recording his own music for a few years. He has also made a name for himself as a touring musician who spends much of his time on the road playing shows in support of his albums “One of the Ones” and “The Gospel According to Levi.” But theatergoers in Chicago are about to see a different side of Kreis. As Jerry Lee Lewis in the stage musical “Million Dollar Quartet,” opening Sept. 27 and running through Oct. 26 at The Goodman... Full Story
Oct. 5: Seal (a.k.a. Mr. Heidi Klum) performs at 8 p.m. at The Venue at Horseshoe Casino, 777 Casino Center Drive in Hammond, IN. Call (866) 711-SHOE. More
Located in the new Dana Hotel & Spa, Aja Steak is better than it needs to be. Its trendy location on State Street in River North would provide a certain amount of built-in clientele, as would the hotel. The fact that the food is pretty terrific is just icing on the cake. And, like cake, dining at Aja Steak is a sweet experience... Full Story
WASHINGTON—Construction of new homes and apartments fell to the weakest pace in 17 years in August, far more than expected, but lower mortgage rates and tax credits have given builders some glimmer of hope of a possible rebound... Full Story
Freetime
Midlife Crisis No. 231: Drippy Hippie Dipshit
In South Korea police have arrested 26 blind masseurs for threatening to jump off a bridge to protest a government decision that threatens their livelihoods. They’re upset because a new law allows sighted people to become masseurs, when prior to that it was only blind people who qualified for a license... Full Story
PISCES: What you’re afraid of losing is causing you to cling to this. The real question is, what are you holding on to? There may be nothing of value here. In settling for this you could easily close your self off to real fulfillment... More
“Boy A” (IFC Films) - When young Eric (Alfie Owen) was on trial for the brutal murder of Angela (Skye Bennett), a crime he committed with best mate Philip (Taylor Doherty), when they were in grammar school, he was known as Boy A. Years later, after serving his sentence, Eric takes on a new identity, Jack (Andrew Garfield, in a flawless performance), in a new home and... Full Story
Back in the day: Moments in chicago’s GLBT history
It was a very different time according to the Gay Life ads: North Imports, 3434 N. Ashland, was selling brand new Volkswagens, Renaults, Mazdas and Peugeots starting at $3,395; Free Spirits Travel, Inc., 612 N. Michigan, offered seven days in Acapulco for $255 per person; and one hobby you don’t hear much about these days is the Macramé Workshop... Full Story
News
A Palin the Ass. Now that folks are asking the tough questions, Sarah Palin isn’t looking so much like the Wonder Woman the Republican Party thought she would be. Didn’t they realize that her name is an anagram for “Is a Plain Rash”? Furthermore, McCain-Palin can be unscrambled at L’Panic Manic. I wonder if she wears her hair with the big bangs to hide the “666” on her scalp... Full Story
City ‘pauses’ Wrigleyville alcohol sales for Cubs playoffs
Some Wrigleyville bar owners reluctantly agreed Monday to the city’s request to cut off alcohol sales after the seventh inning of home games wherein the Cubs could win a playoff serie. The Chicago Tribune reported that complying bars will supposedly cut off alcohol sales after the seventh inning and resume sales at the game’s end. In a compromise, the city agreed... Full Story
Memorial to Shepard dedicated in Wyoming
LARAMIE, Wyo.—The nation—and the city of Laramie—has become more accepting of gays and lesbians in the 10 years since a gay University of Wyoming student was beaten, lashed to a lonely fence and left to die, his mother said Saturday. “We’ve learned a lot, we’ve talked a lot; we do it in public forums now,” Judy Shepard said at a ceremony dedicating a bench to her son, Matthew Shepard. “So it’s a wonderful... Full Story
Calif. gay marriage ban sparks ‘War of the Rings’
SAN FRANCISCO—Gettysburg. Armageddon. The War of the Rings. Those are some of the superlatives culture warriors on both sides of the same-sex marriage divide are using to convey the urgency surrounding Proposition 8 on the Nov. 4 ballot, which would place a ban on gay marriage in California’s state Constitution... Full Story
Levi’s joins fight to defeat marriage ban
SAN FRANCISCO—Levi Strauss & Co. is putting its famous pockets behind defeating a ballot initiative that would outlaw same-sex marriage in California. The San Francisco-based jeans maker said Thursday it will co-chair with Pacific Gas & Electric a group trying to drum up opposition to Proposition 8 in the business community... Full Story
Film Revisits Controversial School Documentary
A new documentary centered on teaching youth about GLBT issues, “It’s STILL Elementary,” had its Midwest premiere Sept. 25 at the University of Illinois-Chicago. The film, sponsored Thursday by the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, is a follow-up to the 1997 film “It’s Elementary,” which documented how several schools in the mid-1990’s instructed their students about GLBT diversity and equality... Full Story
Chicago mourns the loss of Ron Ziebarth, a longtime fixture in the gay and lesbian community. He passed away on Tuesday, September 23, 2008. For over 25 years Ron served up his own recipe for drinks, music, humor and friendship from behind the bar at Christopher Street, Berlin, Roscoe’s, North End, Sidetrack, Voltaire, T’s, SoFo and others... Full Story
‘America’s Next Top Model’ features trans contestant
WASHINGTON—As a little boy in the Washington suburbs, Darrell Walls liked to pretend to be Lil’ Kim or a Pink Power Ranger. He felt different—like a girl mistakenly born a boy. But Walls eventually embraced that difference and today is living true, as Isis King. Now 22, King is the first transgender contestant on “America’s Next... Full Story
NEW YORK—Clay Aiken appears on the cover of the latest People magazine holding his infant son, Parker Foster Aiken, with the headline: “Yes, I’m Gay.” The 29-year-old former “American Idol” runner-up, multiplatinum recording artist and Broadway star credits his son, conceived by in-vitro fertilization with friend and producer Jaymes Foster, with making him realize that he could no longer hide his homosexuality from the world... Full Story
Palin, Biden a lively pairing for veep debate
WASHINGTON—Sarah Palin brought something more effective than facts and figures to an agriculture debate in the Alaska governor’s race. She packed an engaging disposition. One of her opponents, Andrew Halcro, had memorized the complexities of the subject beforehand. He was super prepared. He might as well have stared out the window during the proceedings, for all it mattered... Full Story
RALEIGH, N.C.—The son of former televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker is taking on one of his late mother’s causes and fighting against religious and political discrimination against gays and lesbians. Jay Bakker, 32, grew up near Charlotte, watching his parents run the Praise The Lord ministry that collapsed in scandal in the late 1980s... Full Story
Opinion
Periodically, those of us who work for the gay press pause to ask ourselves what we are doing, how we could do it better, what we are failing to do that we should be doing and how we could better meet the community’s needs. Mainly, of course, we cover news that has particular implications for the gay community, much of which you will not see in mainstream newspapers. Nearly two... Full Story
Is there a new definition of ‘out’?
Time was, you weren’t officially out (especially if you were a celebrity) until you declared it in public. You had to stand before a microphone and say, “Yes, I’m gay,” or “Yes, I’m a lesbian.” Or you had to speak to Barbara Walters. Or become a spokesperson for a gay organization... Full Story
Theater
The key here is the title pun. “Change” refers to how the characters in Tony Kushner’s memory musical, set in a home in 1963 Lake Charles, Louisiana, challenge themselves as much as others. It also stands for the coins that 8-year-old Noah (young Tony) leaves in his pants he throws in the laundry basket. This exasperates his stepmother Rose: She gives them to their maid Caroline in... Full Story
Chiaroscuro (A Study in Shadow)
Whenever art imitates life, there’s always a risk that the latter will plan on payback. An ugly twist evens the odds in this volatile 90-minute match-up between a famous artist and his obscure model. The former is 32-year-old Caravaggio, entrenched in a wing of the Palazzo Madama in Rome. It’s 1596 and a scandalously gay Cardinal... Full Story
With “10 Cent Night”, currently playing at Chicago Dramatists, playwright Marisa Wegrzyn adds to her body of stingingly detailed, intensely plotted work. “10 Cent Night” not only combines Wegrzyn’s stunning originality with elements of Tennessee Williams and Sam Shepard, but parts of the plot also echo the wonderfully demented... Full Story
