Thursday at 1:13 pm
Scott Shoemaker has an itch that needs…PROBED! Photo credit Bronwen Houck
Sounds invasive…
We’re used to Seattle actor worming his way into our hearts and minds with his hilarious performances in a huge variety of Seattle area shows over the years, most of them of the fringe/off off off Broadway persuasion. While Mr. Shoemaker is fully capable of doing Shakespeare in the Park and Chekhov and we’d kill to see his Blanche Devereaux in “A Streetcar Named Desire”, you have a lot more creativity options and fun in crazy fringe world. We have all seen him do everything from Prince in “Purple Rain” to stealing the show in various drag/burlesque shows and his own award winning turn as Ms Pak-Man in a series of cabaret shows he has done all over the place the last few years (note to producers in other cities: book his Ms Pak-Man show!!!) and now Mr. Shoemaker and his significant other in life/creativity Freddy Molitch have created a brand new show called…
PROBED!
They’re billing it as a ” A paranormal cabaret” and for once, it appears Scott will NOT be in drag for this show but since we know they’re doing video pieces for it, who knows how many characters he’ll end up playing? He has a lot of voices in his head…
Monday at 3:39 pm
VERY frequently we see young (and not so young) gay men ask the very vital question:
HOW DO YOU PREPARE YOURSELF FOR ANAL SEX?
aka
How do you clean your butt thoroughly enough to prevent “poo poo” emerging to put a damper on the evening’s (or afternoon’s or morning’s) love making?
It’s not a very pleasant thing to think about but proper hygiene IS important and frankly the neophyte should be learning this valuable information HERE in the safety of an avuncular website teaching “Butt Cleaning 101” rather than picking it up “off the streets” so to speak.
A marathon reading of the Mueller Report in its entirety (including redactions). For 24 hours, members of the community will read the Special Counsel’s report verbatim. Friday July 19th through Saturday July 20th, 8:00PM to 8:00PM. Party to follow Saturday evening.
Saturday at 1:54 pm
Charlette LeFevre, left is feuding with Egan Orion, right….AGAIN. Photos via Facebook.
Oh, my….it’s the feud that just keeps on giving us joy. It’s so delicious, TV producer Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story/Glee) needs to option it for “Feud 2: Charlette LeFevre vs Egan Orion”. I mean, even their names are made for a crazy TV melodrama.
For those of you unaware, Charlette LeFevre is the co-founder/head of the Capitol Hill Pride group who produced the annual Capitol Hill Pride/Broadway street fair event on Pride Saturday for many years until it ran afoul of the city and lost permission to stage their event which was then taken over by Egan Orion’s PrideFest/One Degree Events team who put on the big Sunday PrideFest event at Seattle Center and the then much smaller Family Pride event at Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill on Pride Saturday. The two groups had had a simmering rivalry for many years with Capitol Hill Pride not pleased that PrideFest was setting up camp on the edges of their event.
(Note: read more about our coverage of this long running feud, over HERE!)
The rivalry got more heated in 2017 when Capitol Hill Pride announced early in the year that they were producing Seattle’s version of the Washington D.C. LGBTQ Pride March followed by Orion announcing HE was also producing a similar march and it all got quite nasty when LeFevre’s group moved their Pride Festival to a new day earlier in the month of June to coincide with the march, which led to confusion and the city getting involved and then the city getting annoyed and eventually LeFevre’s group lost the right to produce the big Saturday Pride street event on Broadway (when they tried to move it back to the original day…yes, it’s confusing!) and Orion’s group took over at the last minute and has produced the event every year since then. LeFevre’s team rebounded with a smaller event in 2018 and 2019 that took place at Seattle Central College’s outdoor plaza just down the street (Broadway) from the big event they had originally created.
Tuesday at 4:48 pm
Capitol Hill Housing plans to build LGBTQ senior housing at their 1514 Broadway site on Capitol Hill immediately north of the gay nightclub, Neighbours. Photo via Google maps
It looks like this all happened awhile ago (June 18th) but it’s just getting a release today. Seattle’s Capitol Hill Housing group announced new plans for their LGBTQ senior housing project project that has been in the works for several years. You might remember our story on the last version of the project from September of 2017 when CHH announced plans to build a senior LGBTQ building at 14th and Union. That project fell apart but CHH has continued to seek out a new location to fulfill that dream.
In the last few months, an ideal new spot presented itself; a property owned by Seattle Central College adjacent to Neighbours Night Club on Broadway between Pike and Pine was swapped for Capitol Hill Housing’s plot located up the street between Seattle Central’s main campus and the new light rail station. It was a move beneficial to both parties with Seattle Central gaining land that immediately bordered its existing holdings and CHH gaining a prime location closer to the heart of LGBTQ Capitol Hill.
Last month, Capitol Hill Housing found a non-profit tenant to anchor the new housing unit: Generations Aging With Pride aka GenPRIDE a non-profit providing programs and services to older LGBTQ adults will be headquartered there and provide programs that will serve not only the residents living in the 90+ units onsite but the community as a whole.
Pending funding from the city’s Office of Housing, the project is scheduled to break ground in December of 2020.
Friday at 2:04 pm
The top photo by Joseph Ambrosini of the Daily News is the ONLY known photo from the first night of the riots. The bottom photo is from a famous series of photos taken by Fred McDarrah on the second night. Both photos really indicate that the majority of Stonewall Rioters were very young street kids. (not surprisingly….the young are more likely to riot than the middle aged…) You should also note that some of the male presenting people in these photos were probably identified as “queens” at the time. It was illegal and very dangerous to dress as “gender non-conforming” in 1969.
Can we just stop with the whole fake “Stonewall Magic Brick” thing? Or, using it as part of the urban legendary narrative of Stonewall that tends to feature a dramatically back lit Marsha P. Johnson (or Sylvia Rivera or some white boy from Indiana in that terrible movie…) taking a very pregnant pause as the crowd silently holds their breath in fear and anticipation and awe as they (Marsha/Sylvia/Pretty But Bland Actor Boy Who Was Actually British) lobbed “The One True Brick” (that they carried with them at all times), through the mirror behind the bar/a plate glass window to officially start the Riot which led to our Freedom!
Except, that didn’t happen. There was no carefully choreographed “magic moment”. A brick didn’t initiate a riot. You have to LEAD up to a brick!
(Also…how did Marsha get that brick in her purse? Gurl…bricks are HEAVY!)
Let’s talk about the early morning hours of June 28, 1969. Some backstory:
Monday at 3:07 pm
THIS is one of our pet bugaboos…the huge amount of waste generated at big community events like Pride.
The awesome group OUT FOR SUSTAINABILITY is on the same page and they’re encouraging us to celebrate a PLASTIC FREE PRIDE by making a commitment to keeping our Pride events environmentally sound.
AND, it takes all of us to make this happen…as individuals but also as being part of groups who produce Pride events .
It’s simple stuff like not buying plastic bottles of water (use multi-use bottles and canteens and refill). And, companies/groups need to quit handing out so much material that just gets thrown away, like paper/cardboard handouts and plastic beads. Event producers need to provide running water and to arrange for recycling bins at their events.
Friday at 3:33 pm
Art: Robyn Adams
Oh, this is so up our alley of horror.
It’s a Kickstarter Campaign we j’adore and it’s for the publication of a new comic book called THEATER OF TERROR: REVENGE OF THE QUEERS by Seattle’s own Northwest Press, the queer comic book/graphic novel publishers owned by Zan Christensen. He’s teaming up with editors Justin Hall and William O. Tyler and San Francisco drag legend/horror buff/actual horror film director PEACHES CHRIST to create a massive anthology of queer horror comics containing over 250 pages from 33 LGBTQ artists including names like Ed Luce, Howard Cruse and cover illustrator Phil Jimenez.
If you love those classic EC horror comics from the 1950s and subsequent film and TV adaptations like Creepshow and Tales From The Crypt you’ll definitely want to help the $20,000 needed to publish the anthology. It’s an LGBTQ horror lover’s dream to have these stories told through a queer lens with these fantastic artists involved.
Also: this needs funded so we can all have a copy!
Friday at 3:30 pm
Geez…everything is this weekend.
The Kentucky Derby and “May the 4th Be With You” and Cinco de Mayo and….
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!!!!!
SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
Friday at 2:32 pm
Sadly, local producers Qurb Live/Magazine have pulled the plug on the upcoming production of the next Peaches Christ show, THE FIRST WIVES FIGHT CLUB which had been scheduled for several shows in Canada as well as their usual stops at Seattle’s Egyptian Theatre on April 18th and Portland’s Aladdin Theatre on April 16th. Low ticket sales for those shows are apparently the cause; the original San Francisco and Los Angeles performances produced by Peaches herself will go on.
The Peaches Christ shows produced locally by Qurb have traditionally been very popular in Seattle and Portland. Parodies of popular films, the shows all star Peaches Christ (who writes/co-writes all the shows) and feature top name drag stars, usually alumni from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” in the main roles. Bob the Drag Queen, Bianca Del Rio, Kim Chi, Willam and local stars BenDeLaCreme and Jinkx Monsoon have all headlined shows in the past.
“First Wives Fight Club” may have been a tougher sale due to the fact it was a mash-up of two separate films that may not have had as much appeal as other productions that were parodies of more popular/better known to younger audiences films like “Mean Girls”. There’s also the question if this show’s headliners had the necessary star wattage to sell tickets. All three have numerous fans, but Ginger Minj and Raja (who won “RuPaul’s Drag Race” in Season 3 so…8 years ago) can’t exactly be called A list names and the third star of this production was Brook Lynn Hytes, who is on the currently airing Season 11 of RPDR and really hasn’t earned a huge fan base. The old adage is, you need a hot title or hot stars to sell a show and this production suffered from a lack of both as well as a lack of a marketing plan to get fans to buy tickets.
This might also raise the question: are audiences getting burnt out by the quantity of big national drag shows that come through town? Has the big drag show peaked? Are too many “RuPaul’s Drag Race” stars vying for the same audiences? Or, can only A+ names (Bianca, Katya, Alaska, Trixie, Bob) guarantee a success?
Wednesday at 4:04 pm
FINALLY, we have a debut date for Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City the long awaited television return to the beloved characters created by San Francisco writer Maupin in his 9 volume “Tales” series that originally began as newspaper serial in the 1970s. Three television series were broadcast in the 1990s but this is the first adaptation of the material since then.
Netflix has released new images and a teary trailer for the new series which will consist of 10 episodes and they will drop just in time for Pride Month….Friday, June 7th.
Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City stars returning actors Laura Linney (Mary Anne Singleton), Olympia Dukakis (Anna Madrgial), Barbara Garrick (DeDe Halcyon Day) and Paul Gross (Brian Hawkins) from the first series that aired on PBS in 1993 and was produced by Britain’s Channel 4. That 6 episode series garnered huge ratings for PBS but protests over public funding of a show featuring gay content led to PBS reluctantly backing out of producing further installments. Channel 4 went on to partner with cable channel Showtime to do two more series, both produced in Canada.
Also starring former “Looking” actor Murray Bartlett as Michael “Mouse” Tolliver (the third actor to play the role) and Ellen Page as Shawna, the adopted daughter of Mary Anne and Brian. And, RuPaul’s Drag Race star Bob the Drag Queen will also play a character named “Ida Best”.
Friday at 7:06 pm
Left to right: Asukaa Jaxx (credit unknown), Egan Orion (photo: Alex Garland) and Christopher Peguero (Photo via Facebook)
It’s considered an “off” year for elections on the national level but many cities, counties and states have local elections in the odd numbered years between even numbered federal election years and that’s certainly true in Seattle as 7 out of 9 seats on the City Council are up for election this year.
To make matters more interesting, four of the 7 seats up for grabs will be open seats. District 2’s Bruce Harrell, District 4’s Rob Johnson, District 6’s Mike O’Brien and District 7’s Sally Bagshaw have all announced they will not be running for re-election. District 1’s Lisa Herbold, District 3’s Kshama Sawant (which includes Capitol Hill, the traditional LGBTQ neighborhood in Seattle) and District 5’s Debora Juarez have all announced they will seek another term this year.
Already, over 3 dozen names have declared themselves to be running for those seats, including at least 3 members of the LGBTQ community that we’re aware of.
For the open District 2 seat being vacated by council president Bruce Harrell, Seattle City Light employee Christopher Peguero is facing six other candidates to represent south/southeast Seattle including Beacon Hill, Columbia City, Georgetown and Rainier Beach. It’s an area that’s not only ethnically the most diverse in Seattle, but also one of the most traditionally blue collar.
Friday at 5:02 pm
At Wednesday night’s sparsely attended community meeting (Where were y’all?) for Seattle Out & Proud to discuss how their 2018 events went (“Swell!) they also released a teeny, tiny bit of information on plans for Seattle Pride 2019.
Held at Swedish Hospital’s Glaser Auditorium, the meeting featured the entire board of SO&P but primarily featured president Kevin Toovey and vice-president Jeff Cornejo leading the evening’s discussion which mostly focused on outlining the success of last year’s events including SO&P’s biggest annual event, the Seattle Pride Parade which featured over 225 groups and 60, 000 people registered to march.
Other successes including lowering the cost of non-profit registration fees and the sponsorship program which paired up corporate for profit groups with non-profits and created unique partnership opportunities.
Here is the obligatory moment to post that Seattle Out & Proud is responsible for the production of our city’s annual parade (and some other events like the Volunteer Park Pride event formerly known as the Pride Picnic) while the big Pride Saturday festival on Capitol Hill and the Pride Sunday festival at Seattle Center after the parade are produced by an entirely different/separate group (Seattle PrideFest) largely due to the fact Seattle is very dysfunctional…
Friday at 4:00 pm
The Swallow is set to become White Center’s latest LGBTQ bar sometime this year. Photo: via Instagram
And, it’s official: the gentrification of oddball Seattle suburb, White Center is officially underway with the news that it’s about to get its SECOND LGBTQ night club. Michale Farrar and Nathan Adams opened The Lumber Yard Bar, 9619 16th Ave SW, in January of 2018 and has subsequently established itself as a popular meeting place for LGBTQ patrons on the Southwest side of Seattle and the King County area between Sea-Tac and the city.
But, The Lumber Yard is about to be joined by a second LGBTQ venue. Recent social media posts and scuttlebutt have indicated that former Pony Bar co-creator Marcus Wilson is opening a new venue called THE SWALLOW at 9608 16th Avenue SW in a space previously occupied by a bar called “Company Store” which recently closed.
And, searching the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board new applications list for King County turns up a March 5th request from a business named “Salty Sailors” for a “Nightclub” license at that address with Wilson and two other men, Barry Smith and Thai Tran listed as applicants.
Thursday at 3:55 pm
OK, my little Scooby Doos and Nancy Drews….WHERE is Melania going to visit this Monday on her first visit to Seattle?
We’re guessing it’s not Amazon.
KOMO TV (and others) have the poo that First Lady Melania Trump will be making her FIRST out of town official trip (after two years of being the first lady…) this Monday and Tuesday (March 4th and 5th) visiting Oklahoma and Washington State on Monday then Las Vegas on Tuesday. It’s all part of her First Lady project, in Melania’s case it’s her vague BE BEST! initiative to fight cyber bullying.
Because she is the most bullied person….EVUH.
Wednesday at 11:43 am
The last two weeks have played havoc with area venues and producers who put on shows and events in Seattle and Western Washington. Heavy snow, ice, wind and slush have made travel dangerous and difficult and there have been reports of damage to some facilities.
Over this past weekend from Friday February 8th through Monday the 11th, dozens of events and performances were cancelled all over the greater metro area resulting in serious amounts of lost revenue for area businesses and non-profit arts groups. While the 5th Avenue Theatre and Issaquah’s Village Theatre both went on with performances for their currently running shows (Rock of Ages and I Do, I Do respectively) most smaller theaters canceled performances. And, the weather kept former Queer Eye star/RuPaul’s Drag Race judge Carson Kressley from making his scheduled appearance at Queer Bar on Friday, the 8th. That appearance has been rescheduled for March 22nd.
But, the cancellations and rescheduling of shows continues with the announcement that A Sensible Theatre Company has pushed back their February 19th RUSH THE RUNWAY 2.0 show to March 19th. And, Lifelong has just announced today that their hugely popular drag bingo fundraiser, LOVE FEST GAY BINGO has been canceled for this upcoming Saturday, February 16th due to snow damage at the venue, Fremont Studios (which was also the venue for the Rush the Runway event). Lifelong’s press release:
Love Fest Gay Bingo has been postponed, due to the recent snowstorm causing damage to our event venue Fremont Studios. The safety of our Gay Bingo attendees, volunteers and vendors always comes first and until the venue is able to undergo inspection and repair, it is not available to host Gay Bingo.
Tuesday at 5:17 pm
Star Laura Linney and author Armistead Maupin, pictured here from San Francisco Pride Parade circa…the early 90s, reunite for an all-new “Tales of The City” series on Netflix for 2019.
For the many, many devoted fans of Armistead Maupin’s series of “Tales of the City” books which details the lives of a group of gay, straight and everything in between friends living in San Francisco over the course of several decades and nine novels, the news a couple years back that Netflix was ready to produce a brand new television series featuring the “Tales” characters, was very welcome news.
The first three novels in the series chronicling their lives in the late 1970s were produced and aired by PBS/Channel 4 (UK) for the first book/series and by Showtime for the second two books. There have been hopes that the subsequent novels would be produced for television, but nothing came to fruition until the era of streaming television came into play and the news that Netflix was ready to do a modern day series catching up with the lives of the characters in a very different 21st century San Francisco.
There’s been no news when the new series, which began filming in the fall of 2018, would air but today the San Francisco Film Festival announced that the first episode of the new Netflix Original Series Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City would open their 2019 annual festival on April 10th with a gala event at the Castro Theater in the heart of San Francisco’s gay neighborhood. Author and one of the producers of the new show, Armistead Maupin is expected to attend with show runner Lauren Morelli, director/producer Alan Poul and star/executive producer Laura Linney are all scheduled to attend the screening with a party to follow at the Regency Center.
Tickets are currently on sale for members of the San Francisco Film Festival (note this is not Frameline, the city’s annual LGBTQ film festival which happens in June). The public can begin buying tickets Wednesday, February 13th at 10am. Go HERE to try and snag them.
Monday at 3:23 pm
SEATTLE – Here comes the most outrageous drag show of the year. HATERS ROAST – The Shady Tour Feb 18, 8pm at Moore Theatre starring Jinkx Monsoon BenDeLaCreme Latrice Royale INC.Willam Trinity Taylor Monét X Change LADY BUNNY FOREVER! and hosted by the hilarious Darienne Lake Click here now for best available seats https://
According to the most recent social media posting from Murray & Peter, this is the line-up for the HATER’S ROAST: THE SHADY TOUR happening at the Moore Theatre on Monday, February 18th (which is also President’s Day). Our own local-ish gals Jinkx and Ben De La Creme will be on hand as well as very frequent visitors like Latrice Royale, and Willam but also Monét XChange and Trinity Taylor plus non-RPDR gal, The Lady Bunny and new hostess Darienne Lake filling in for the originally announced Ginger Minj. But, Ginger got an acting gig and needed to bow out for a number of shows so she got replaced by Darienne for the whole tour….(which annoyed Ginger Minj fans and led to a brouhaha on social media…why can’t people just be NICE!!!???)
They make it clear this is gonna be a raunchy insult comedy show…if you’re a tender soul who can’t handle that kind of humor….stay home and knit socks for children in nature. Technically, it is an all ages event, but let’s be honest….if your kid is under 13 or so, this really isn’t the place for them.
Come Out, If You Can, And Celebrate Being LGBTQ! goo.gl/fb/5EtfXN
Netflix Announces Dec 11th As Drop Date For LGBTQ Musical “The Prom” goo.gl/fb/tuYr5r
Sue Bird and Seattle Storm Win 4th Championship Title goo.gl/fb/1EfsvR
Radio Host Dori Monson Suspended By Seahawks & KIRO For Transphobic Remarks goo.gl/fb/DfAmTX
Justices Alito and Thomas Make It Clear They Want To Rescind Marriage Equality goo.gl/fb/XTaa3E
New Music From Billie Eilish, Halsey, Queen + Adam Lambert, Shilpa Ray goo.gl/fb/e2XfEL
The Social Justice Film Festival Kicks Off Today goo.gl/fb/7wK3wN
Timothy Ray Brown, 1st Person Cured of HIV, Dies of Leukemia goo.gl/fb/J4vm1Q
The 5th Avenue Theatre Announces BIG Concerts: Patti LuPone, Laura Benanti, Vanessa Williams goo.gl/fb/Jp5e4f
Seattle Pride Wants You To “Vote With Pride” goo.gl/fb/RGqW2t
The Boulet Brothers Undergo “Resurrection” Just In Time For Halloween goo.gl/fb/18Gnc7
Dua Lipa To Close Out MoPop Conference! goo.gl/fb/NbaHqA
“Schitt’s Creek” Makes It A Grand Slam, Winning NINE Emmys goo.gl/fb/oKa5oA
Fall Movies We Wanna See: “The Glorias” goo.gl/fb/Qco4FH
The Nation and The LGBTQ Community Mourn The Passing of Justice Ginsburg goo.gl/fb/Rbu764
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