It’s been a while since I got to see Sleater-Kinney. I was fortunate enough to score some tickets to the acclaimed and mostly sold-out return tour of No New Cities To Love, and let me tell you that it was a hell of an experience to watch the band back in action as if they hadn’t disappeared for ten years following 2005s The Woods. So, with great pleasure, I threw my camera bag over my shoulder and made my way to Downtown LA, The Belasco Theater, my concert home away from home to watch one of the coolest bands ever.
Tag: lgbt
Festival Review: LoveLoud 2019 at USANA Amphitheatre, 6/29/19
It’s July, and another successful SF Pride Parade is in the books… or so I hear. I personally missed it, sadly, but I did so for good reason. Obviously, we live in one of the most gay-friendly cities in the world, and while it would have been fun to come out to share the celebration (not to mention the spectacle) that is Pride in the Bay Area, I chose instead to celebrate with the LGBTQ+ youth of Salt Lake City.
Utah is, of course, fairly synonymous with Mormonism. Imagine growing up LGBTQ+ and having to consider whether to stay closeted, or to come out and risk being shunned, rejected, or excommunicated not only from your entire church, but your community and likely your whole family, too. It’s not hard to see why the LGBTQ+ youth in the LDS church have an incredibly high suicide rate. Enter one of the most famous Mormons this side of Donny & Marie: Imagine Dragons’ frontman, Dan Reynolds. Reynolds founded the LoveLoud Foundation, which puts on an annual festival in the Salt Lake City area every June to allow a safe place to celebrate Pride while raising money for local and national LGBTQ+ charities.
Continue reading “Festival Review: LoveLoud 2019 at USANA Amphitheatre, 6/29/19”
Barry Manilow came out, and we love him for it
Barry Manilow is gay. Surprise! Or, maybe you think it’s not so surprising. Let’s think about that.
Barry Manilow’s gayness has nothing whatsoever to do with his earnest, soft pop mellifluous ballads, nor is it in any way related to his ostentatious showiness. If Barry Manilow spent all his time in a parlor clad in the wildest of Bob Mackie’s ensembles, decorated with garish chandeliers and drawings of cocks, it wouldn’t make him gay. If he dressed in drag and performed private renditions of Cabaret with Alan Cumming, this would not make him gay. Likewise, if he went on a cruise with Cher and Kathy Griffin and drank wine spritzers for a week at Carnival in Venice, it would not make him gay. Barry Manilow’s gayness is defined by one thing only, and that is his own self identification as such.
Continue reading “Barry Manilow came out, and we love him for it”
Local Spin: Interview with Eli Conley
Eli Conley suggests I order the breakfast burrito. With a wide grin, he tells me that it’s a great vegan dish. The Virginia native, now an East Bay resident, has a lot to smile about. He’s finished his first full-length album, At the Seams, to be released on September 28th. He’s setting west coast tour dates for the fall and lovin’ life at the moment. At our small table at Herbivore, I could easily tell that Eli, the queer folk singer-songwriter with a powerful passion for music and an equally powerful voice, was anxious to unleash his music unto the world…
Your album, At the Seams, is done and about to be released. How do you feel?
I’m super excited. I actually got the physical CDs two months ago. I know many musicians who had to rush at the end, not having time to master it or not having them in time for a CD release show. So I’m like, ok, I’m recording in April and I should have them in hand by June so I have time to send them out to press. Then I was thinking when to release it in September, and just figured ‘why not just do it on my birthday!?’
Frameline Spotlights: C.O.G. / In the Name Of
From June 20-30, Frameline: The San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival is showing an eclectic lineup of films steeped in social, political, and sexual themes, pushing the boundaries and bringing audiences closer to the incredible stories of numerous individuals and communities, both fictional and real. Tickets for screenings are available at http://ticketing.frameline.org/festival/. Here is a glance at two of this year’s festival entries:
C.O.G. (USA, 2013)
Based on the unassuming essay by David Sedaris and under the steady direction of Kyle Patrick Alvarez, C.O.G. is the piercingly honest tale of a young man’s escape from his privileged Ivy-league world into the apple orchards and Christian community of a small town outside Portland, OR. The sold out audience at the Castro Theatre laughed, cheered, sat silent, and gasped, and left with a welcome sense of renewal, as if the film’s flawed characters had challenged each of us to examine ourselves in a way we hadn’t considered for some time.
C.O.G. screened on Saturday, June 22nd. For more info on the film, visit the film’s festival page or C.O.G.’s official website at http://www.cog-movie.com/
Continue reading “Frameline Spotlights: C.O.G. / In the Name Of”