Articles in Arts
The new & improved Bent Alaska events calendar
Bent Alaska has a really good events calendar now! Check it out.
The Who’s “Tommy” at Mad Myrna’s
The Tony-Award winning Tommy, Pete Townshend’s tale of a young a “deaf, dumb, and blind boy” is now an ambitious local production with performances being held at Anchorage’s Mad Myrna’s every Friday and Saturday through May 14.
Out North goes to the PAC with Bridgman/Packer’s “Double Expose” and “Under the Skin”
Out North Contemporary Art House has brought New York City-based Bridgman/Packer Dance to Anchorage for two performances at the Discovery Theatre at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts.
A celebration of Celebration 2011
Since the first Celebration of Change on September 19, 1983 at the Red Ram Motor Lodge, Celebration has arguably been the Anchorage women’s community’s premiere annual social & arts event. Here’s a photographic celebration of this year’s show, the 27th Celebration of Change.
Nicole Blizzard Short Story Contest — 2011 winners
Winners of this year’s Nicole Blizzard Short Story Contest were announced last Saturday night during the 2011 Celebration of Change at UAA’s Wendy Williamson Auditorium.
Kaboom by Gregg Araki, Monday at Bear Tooth
Gregg Araki’s newest film, Kaboom, is screening at the Bear Tooth tonight as the 8pm Art House Movie.
Kaboom is “a wild, witty and sex-drenched horror-comedy thriller featuring a gorgeous young cast.” Araki, a pioneer of new queer cinema, describes it as “a bisexual Twin Peaks in college… a mash up of at least five or six different genres… It’s really fun and sexy and kind of crazy.”
Here is the plot summary:
Kaboom is a thriller/comedy telling the story of Smith (Thomas Dekker from Heros) an ambisexual 18 year old college freshman who stumbles upon a monstrous conspiracy in a seemingly idyllic seaside Southern California town.
Smith’s everyday life in the dorms – hanging out with his arty, sarcastic best friend Stella, hooking up with a beautiful free spirit named London, lusting for his gorgeous but dim surfer roommate Thor – all gets turned upside-down after one fateful, terrifying night.
Tripping on some hallucinogenic cookies he ate at a party, Smith is convinced he’s witnessed the gruesome murder of an enigmatic Red Haired Girl who has been haunting his dreams. What he discovers as he tries to find out the truth leads him deeper and deeper into a mystery that will forever change not only the course of his young life but the destiny of the entire world.
What does Araki mean by ambisexual?
There are various forms of it: the omnisexual, polysexual, etc., and all of it means that sexuality is a fluid thing. It’s ambiguous. Bisexual sounds to me like an old school scientific kind of category. I have always believed that sexuality is not really black and white, that it is a gray area. As time goes on, people become more open and fluid in terms of their views of sexuality. The younger generation, their view is not really about labels and categories and declaring themselves. It is more about the experience and attraction and not so black and white. I find that that is becoming more and more common, even more so than the mid 90s.
Watch the trailer:
Kaboom
Directed by Gregg Araki
Cast: Thomas Dekker, Chris Zylka, Roxane Mesquida, Juno Temple, Haley Bennett
Monday, April 25th, 8:00 PM, $3.50 GA
Bear Tooth Theatrepub
Art House Monday premiere
US/France sci-fi comedy, “new queer cinema” 86 minutes.
Not rated, graphic sexual situations, nudity, violence and strong language. Persons under 18 not admitted.
Sunrise to Sunset: Juneau Pride Chorus concert
The Juneau Pride Chorus had the honor of opening the Alaska Folk Festival last week, and announced their annual concert will be on Saturday, April 30 at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center (JACC). Chorus member Marsha Buck describes the songs they will sing at the concert and a goal for 2012:
We are singing 12 songs during the upcoming concert on April 30, including the coming out song “Annie” by Fred Small in which a teacher comes out to the rest of her faculty, the two songs heard at Folk Festival (“Over the Rainbow” and “Breakaway”), a set of three mostly humorous songs about relaxation and meditation including “Uh Huh” by Holly Near, two complex environmental songs entitled “The Peace of Wild Things” and “Sky Dances,” and we will end our concert with two jazz numbers accompanied by saxophone and percussion and bass – joined by local jazz singer Vicky Van Fleet. Other pieces include “Thank You” in several languages by Elise Witt and the gorgeous “Arise My Love” by Joan Szymko.
For this performance we are a chorus of 30 women and we have an additional 8 members who are unable to sing this concert because of schedule, family, or health conflicts.
We are beginning plans now to travel to Denver in July 2012 to sing in the GALA Choruses Festival (Gay And Lesbian Association of choruses) so the funds raised by ticket sales, donations, and the baked-goods silent auction will go toward our Denver travel fund.
We only do one major concert a season but perform in the Juneau community when asked throughout each season.
Last year’s concert was “Eye on Chicago,” a Chicago-themed concert and a fundraiser for the Chorus to participate in the 2010 Sister Singers Network Festival in Chicago. Previous concert themes were “Women’s Bodies, Women’s Strength” in 2009, and “Songs for the Soul” in 2008.
Juneau Pride Chorus is sponsored by PFLAG Juneau, and this year’s concert is cosponsored by Pride Foundation. Tiffany McClain, Pride Foundation’s regional organizer for Alaska, will be in Juneau for the concert. Stop by her table and nominate your favorite nonprofit for a mini-raffle. If your name gets pulled, the group will receive a $100 donation in your name from Pride Foundation.
Juneau Pride Chorus concert – Sunrise to Sunset
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Baked Goods Silent Auction at 6pm
Concert at 7:30pm
JACC, 350 Whittier Street
Tickets at the door:
$15 adults, $30 family
$12 students (K-12) and seniors (65+)
Celebration of Change 2011
Celebration of Change: “Asking, Telling, Celebrating!” will be held on April 23 at 7pm in the UAA Wendy Williamson Auditorium. The after-party is at Mad Myrna’s, and your Celebration of Change 2011 ticket stub gets you into Myrna’s free that night.
This year’s Celebration theme is inspired by the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the military’s gay ban, and honors Alaska’s women service members.
Celebration of Change is the annual fundraiser for Radical Arts for Women (RAW), a Lesbian and Feminist philanthropic organization that funds Alaskan women art projects.
Although it is respectfully an all-women produced and performed show aimed to give Alaskan women a venue to learn skills in event production and encourage their individual artistic talents, ALL are welcome to attend so invite your friends, partners, boyfriends, girlfriends, wives, and husbands! Just keep the children at home, for this is an ‘at your own risk’ performance for the mature audience.
Tickets are $15 at Metro Music & Books, the GLCAA, and at the door.
Celebration of Change 2011
Saturday, April 23, from 7-10pm
UAA Wendy Williamson Auditorium
Anchorage, Alaska
Colbert’s extended analogy of gay sex and smoking
On Tuesday’s show, Stephen Colbert poked Rep. Michele Bachmann and Bob Vander Plaats, the leader of an anti-gay Iowa group that she’s in bed with. Plaats believes that same-sex marriage is as dangerous as second-hand smoke, and Colbert works that analogy to comedic extremes.
Watch “Threat Level: Rainbow” (warning: adult humor)
P.S. Jon Kyl is gay. (#NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement)
Note: If you haven’t seen the Pap Smears at Walgreens episode where Colbert first exposed Kyl’s lie and ripped Fox hosts for their ignorance of women’s healthcare, go watch it. It’s not about LGBTs, but it’s one of his funniest.
MSNBC: Anti-gay activist “actually listened to his opponents and changed his mind”
Lawrence O’Donnell did a story yesterday on Louis Martinelli, a conservative republican activist who worked against marriage equality for years, then finally talked to gays and lesbians and saw the harm his work caused. He now supports marriage equality.
Watch the video:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Equality on Trial adds,
National Organization For Marriage defector Louis Marinelli had a front seat for NOM’s “Summer For Marriage Tour.” He had every reason to stick with the bias that surrounded him. But because of pro-equality voices like the Courage Campaign’s NOM Tour Trackers, Louis had a change of heart. He now supports full marriage equality under the law!
His story reminds us to continue telling our stories and making LGBT people visible. That’s how we change hearts and minds.
