Nearly 400 four-legged contestants mixed it up with two-legged owners and admirers in Manhattan’s Tompkins Square Park for the 25th Annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade. (It bills itself as the world's largest Halloween dog parade, btw and the $$ raised guest benefit the park's dog run.) The top prize was won by some contestants who came all the way from Dallas with a Day of the Dead-themed look and not one but two Chihuahuas plus a Yorkshire terrier. There were all types of dinosaurs (Hello? Jurassic World was huge.) plus dogs posing as all sorts of other animals. There were, of course, more than a few pizza rat pooches and one dog, accompanied by a woman wearing a nun’s habit, killed it as Pope Francis. Here are some of the cutest. I gotta get Lamonte a good Wookie onesey and go next year!
#HITCHED!: JASON MRAZ MARRIES LONGTIME GIRLFRIEND CHRISTINA CARRANO!
Yes! He kept his word. Singer, songwriter, activist and all-around good guy, Jason Mraz, said he wouldn’t get married until same-sex marriage was legal and this June, the Supreme Court made it so. I met Jason about 5-6 years ago at a benefit for the LGBT teen suicide prevention hotline, The Trevor Project and since then he’s bought my work, hosted a gallery dinner for me and even rerouted his tour bus to make it to one of my shows. (If I was Jewish, I’d call him a mensch!) I caught up with his European tour 2 years ago and met his longtime girlfriend Christina Carano on the road too. They met in 2007 at a coffee shop Tina used to own in Hermosa Beach, but they they didn’t start dating until 2011. They kept their relationship a bit on the DL for a while, but last summer when Jason was on tour with Raining Jane for his last album YES!, Tina showed me the ring and Jason said they just got engaged. The cat’s out of the bag now, the sweethearts just wed yesterday in an outdoor ceremony surrounded by Virginia forest.
Look at this church setting! The wedding took place at the Pole Green Church in Mechanicsville (where Mraz grew up) and NO, I wasn’t there. I knew the guest list was going to be small (like 50 family and friends) and even if you aren’t a international pop star with nearly 6 million Twitter followers, that’s hard to edit your list down to 50. Just as well, I always cry at weddings, but I would like to have given them both a big hug. He wrote on Instagram;
“Today I was made the luckiest man in the world.”
I know him, he's not just saying that. I’m really SO happy for them. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy or gal. I wish them all the best. I'm trying to figure out what to get them for a wedding gift. Art, of course. Can I brag for a second? Their house has a room dedicated to my work. He's my biggest collector, and I'm very grateful. I’ve not seen it in person, otherwise I could size up what wall could fit what. They don’t need L-O-V-E they’ve already got that. YES!, they’ve got that too…. but honestly, can you ever have too much YES!?
WHISPERS NIGHT AT HOWL!HAPPENING GALLERY BROUGHT BACK THE GAY OLD PYRAMID
Last night was another in a series of nights at Howl! Happening Gallery during the exhibit Secrets of the Great Pyramid: The Pyramid Cocktail Lounge as Cultural Laboratory. The opening night celebrated Cafe Iguana and last night was Whispers hosted by Hapi Phace (Marc Phred) and Hattie Hathaway (Brian Butterick). From their own description back in the day Whispers was conceived as a response to the gentrification and pasteurization of New York in 1984, and billed as;
“The Complete Suburban Gay Experience as a party for hairdressers, display queens, theatre folk, fashionistas, florists, and sensitive straight people.”
Whispers was tongue firmly-in-cheek and last night brought it all the chickens home to roost. Back in the day I hosted a Sunday night series called Straight To Hell and as I explained to the crowd last night, STHwas the Manhattan Review of Unnatural Acts, which was true homosexual exploits in ‘zine form. (The exhibit includes the issue of STH with a 19 year-old me on the cover.) I put together a lineup which I cannot believe in retrospect. The first dozen or so Sundays featured John Waters, Cookie Mueller, Fran Lebowitz, Jackie Curtis, Taylor Mead, Quentin Crisp, Kenneth Anger, and on and on. We also had wet underwear contests and sexy guys dancing on the bar. I enlisted party promoter pal, Daniel Nardicio to find me a guy and he sent me the very cute Alex Killborn, who danced on the bar along with David Caskie as “The Painted Man”.
Hapi and Hattie bantered along and introduced the performers when they weren’t cracking us (and each other) up with corny jokes. The night began with pioneering experimental theater guru Agosto Machado who told a story of dancing on the bar with the late drag legend Ethyl Eichelberger. Drag icon Charles Ludlam appeared in the crowd and when they saw her, they hopped off to head to the dressing room where Charles asked Ethyl…
“WHY, oh WHY are you dancing on the bar! You’re a legend!”
To which Ethyl replied,
“For the view.”
So Ethyl, and so true. It was THE view from up there. (You could see all the cute boys you wanted to flirt with when your set was over.)
Poet Kennon B. Raines was up next and –not to toot my own horn– but she gave me a surprise shout-out from the stage, saying I was one of the first to encourage her to read her poetry. Well, she mesmerized the crowd and it all came back why I thought she was SO good. Electrifying. Probably why I didn’t get a better picture. Sorry, Kennon. (I’m also sorry I stepped outside for a minute and I missed Edgar Oliver but I heard he was fantastic.)
In from Montreal, our resident chanteuse Marleen Menard wowed us as all with an original composition and in a tribute to the late trans superstar, International Chrysis, Bobbie and her own hot guys gave a updated taste of glam and sexy bar moves. And to top it all off Whispers & Pyramid co-founder Sister Dimension pulled off a last-minute performance that left us all wanting more. Butch icon Dee Finley finished off the night with her own brand of bar dancing.
It really was a fun night night marred only by our missing comrades and the very recent passing of Edwidge & Anita Sarko. They along with Ann Craig, John Sex, Wendy Wild, Bobby Bradley, and unfortunately scores of others were toasted and adored. As I said to Johnny Dynell as we were leaving;
“This is what happens when you don’t die.”
KEITH HARING'S LESSER-KNOWN POST COLLAGES PACK A PUNCH
In 1980 Keith Haring adopted a collage style where he manipulated choice phrases from the cover of the New York Post to Dada-ist headlines where his most hated public figures became the butt of the joke. In Keith Haring: The Authorized Biography by John Gruen, Haring wrote:
“The most notorious of my street pieces were the ones that looked like the front page of the New York Post. I’d cut out letters from the Post and rearrange them to make fake headlines, like REAGAN SLAIN BY HERO COP or POPE KILLED FOR FREED HOSTAGE or MOB FLEES AT POPE RALLY. I Xeroxed these in the hundreds and I’d paste them on lampposts and on newsstands. Because they looked so real, people were forced to confront them. They were completely confused—and the posters really made a mark, because they got into people’s consciousness.”
I met Keith in ’80 and I have couple of these xerox collages somewhere. He would often hand them out at clubs or as he was pasting them on the street at night. Gotta look for those…
(via Dangerous Minds)
THE LATE, GREAT ANITA SARKO IN HER OWN WORDS
I have posted that the legendary DJ Anita Sarko left us on Friday. Rather than give you a rundown of her accomplishments, I quoted her dearest pals in an appreciation of Anita here. My pal Laurie Wolfe just sent me this video of Anita that was posted yesterday, called Sound & Silence by Svetlana Samoshina. It seems to have been shot very recently and is Anita interviewed on the street and on the High Line about life, today’s culture, art and her views on just about everything. As Laurie said,
“…this is so poignant, spot-on and beautiful… just how I want to remember her.”
Ditto. Even if you didn’t know her, it’s fascinating. Watch. You might learn something from the one we called, “Auntie Anita”.
ANITA SARKO, AN APPRECIATION BY HER FRIENDS
Legendary DJ Anita Sarko left us on Friday. There was a Danceteria reunion that same night and I would have expected to see her there. To Anita, life was a party, and from the sound of it, it just wasn’t fun anymore. So she left. Slipped out the back door while no one was looking. If anyone would had known she was about to split, they would have grabbed her arm and said, “Honey, you’re not going anywhere!” But nobody knew. So, rather than give you a rundown of her accomplishments, I’ll quote her dearest pals, loved ones and most ardent admirers here (unedited)…
"I am speechless and heartbroken. Anita Sarko was a giant. I remember, decades ago, a packed party at the jefferson theatre. Anita deejaying, I was high as a kite huddled in behind her in that tiny corner booth. She forever altered my idea of a DJ with her set that night. one instant which consisted of playing an hour long recording of timothy leary speaking psychedelic wisdom overlaid with recordings of birdsong, mixing that with the sounds of steam rattling in pipes. it was amazing and the whole crowd loved it. it truly was another time and another place. I will always love you and will never forget carrying those huge crates of records for you. rest in power dearest anita." -Chuck Nanney
"Anita was a very special person to me, when I first met her in the 80s she scared me, I thought she was mean LOL and she loved that years later when I admitted it to her. Anita was anything but mean, she was fun, she was kooky and above all she was a very smart person. I wish she had asked for help, I would have helped her. I hope she is at peace and I will always remember all of the funny and great times that we had together. I am happy that the last time I saw her I whispered in her ear 'I LOVE YOU ANITA.'"... and I do!" -Mao Padhila
"We Love You and will miss you. There was no one more fun, more clever with an interesting sense of the world around then her than Anita Sarko. I am so sad, but choose to remember the laughter with a smile." -Patrick McMullen
"She was my friend, my co-worker and often my devils advocate. Fiercely loyal, fiercely independent, and just plain fierce. She was equal parts sensitive and ferocious - and we didn't always agree on things. Which made her more a sister than just a friend. We all always tried to be there for her but she was also fiercely proud. I think we are all in shock that it's come to this. RIP Anita. You will be more missed than you realize." -Sally Randall Brunger
"My dearest and closest childhood friend , Anita Sarko, has passed. Although she has lived in NYC for many years, we remained close through phone and Facebook. Although she was a celebrity to many, a brilliant and talented writer and DJ, she was and always will be a wonderful reminder to me of our younger and more carefree days. I am sure they are "rockin" in heaven now that Anita is there. I will always love you." –Linda Dorfman Feldman
"Unlike many folks who were already adults and working it in the late 70s and 80s in NYC, Anita embraced the younger crop of folks who arrived mid-80s; and, like Michael Musto and other creatives, contributed to DV8 magazine and similar mags that were popping up via desktop publishing. When Stella-Lynne and I threw our NYC party HUSH which moved around and found a home on 9th street, Anita would poke her head in to touch base with our now legendary then young DJs. We chatted recently and she always wanted to know what we were up to and I had absolutely no idea she was in so much pain. I'm quite floored by her passing. We loved her so very dearly." -astrologer, –Quinn Cox
"In a scene with few female role models, she was downtown royalty. As I fledgling DJ and scenester in NYC, I was blessed to have been summoned to her court of cool. I am pissed off that artists and unique individuals like Anita and so many other Creatives have been crowded out of their livelihoods and stripped of their self esteem. To me it seems like the only creativity our current culture values is entrepreneurial. That seems boring and short sighted." –Jean Caffeine
"The last time I talked to her, I made a point of telling her she was 'legit'. She was so much more than that. A brilliant woman, and I loved her more than I can say."–Michael Musto
"Anita was the very essence of the nightlife I thrived on for decades. The nights with Haoui Montaug and Anita & No Entiendes were my earliest and best memories of her. This is terribly terribly sad. What is happening to so many in my generation is excruciating, and frighteningly real. We have to find our way through this together."–Jackie Rudin
"In 1980 Anita Sarko, David Azarch, Justin Strauss and I were hired as DJs at the now legendary Mudd Club. I’m not sure about David (he seemed pretty together) but Justin and I were both pretty new at it (Justin was a lot more together than me). I knew nothing about DJing. I was in art school and just saw it as a temporary job. Coming from college radio, Anita was really the one who not only knew what she was doing, had a VERY strong vision of where she wanted to go. She was smart, stubborn and relentless. Butting heads with every club owner who ever hired her, every DJ who ever complained 'she can’t mix' and every poor sap who ever made the mistake of asking her for a stupid request, she could be a deadly hurricane. Anita could be incredibly kind. After assessing that I was no threat, she not only explained the concept of DJing to me (remember this was 1980 and DJing was still a pretty new thing) she let me sleep on her couch for weeks until I found a place to live. We stayed up many nights until dawn eating chocolate and talking (me listening) about music. Over the years I took to DJing but I never forgot the kindness that Anita showed to me during those early years. We stayed close friends. She liked to boast that she taught me how to DJ and that Chi Chi’s and my first kiss was in front of her DJ booth. Both are totally true. We will miss you “Auntie Anita”. P.S. I think that I may be the one who named you “Auntie Anita”. Sorry." -Johnny Dynell
"I'm so sorry to hear about the death of Anita Sarko, a great personality, a bold gal and a woman I have called my friend for 30 years. She will be missed!!!!" -Lisa Edelstein
"In shock. Numb. Devastated. The world feels so much emptier without this amazing, smart, talented, hilarious, insightful, wise, cultured and dazzling New York treasure. Anita Sarko, it was exactly your many years of incredible experience that made you valuable! Now I won't get to read your memoir and that makes me mad. But I am not mad at you. I love you. Always and forever, whevever that Forever ends up residing. I always looked up to you. You were a soul sister, an inspiration, a fellow LedZep lover (remember that nutty Zeppelin party we hosted?) and always had the right combination of wisdom and wit in that extraordinary brain of yours. Not to mention the best platters to spin and your fabulous hats! Say hi to Edwige and, of course, Haoui and all the other starchildren who went to sparkle in the galaxy ahead of us." -Ann Magnuson
"Anita was a great wit. She could be tart when it was called for but was terribly sweet if you passed muster. She suffered no fools, that's for sure. She loved a loud look for work but was really a glamour girl at heart. And she knew more about music than anybody... One of my favorite moments with Anita, and there are many, was when she agreed to dj at my 22nd birthday on the roof of Danceteria. She was the best dj in the world at a time when dj's weren't celebrated the way they are now, a fact even more hard-won as a woman. Inexplicably, Nina Hagen was there and at one point she sidled up to Anita and said 'ooh I really like this song. What is it?' Anita just turned to her with that look of droll incredulity she did so well and said 'umm... Stairway To Heaven?' – –designer, Michael Schmidt
"Never looked so so head on
Clean cut beautiful then lately
Just stepped out there chic fancy and friendly and funny.
Oh Anita" –Edit DeAk
THIS GUY POSTED THESE HILARIOUS HALLOWEEN FAILS AT A COSTUME STORE
Jeff Wysaski is my new hero. His Tumblr, Obvious Plant, posted these fake pics at a costume store and they are subtly brilliant. Might I suggest wearing the outfit described with a printout of the ad pinned to your chest? Have a look.
VINCENT PRICE'S LESBIAN DAUGHTER CONFIRMS HER DAD'S BISEXUALITY
In her book, Vincent Price: A Daughter’s Biography, Victoria Price explored the many faces of her famous Dad who died in 1993. His career on both stage and screen lasted some 60 years and he remains THE preeminent horror icon of our time. (Of course, that chilling voice at the end of Michael Jackson‘s Thrilleris Price.)
In an exclusive interview with Boom Magazine Victoria shed some light on the the speculation.
“Everybody asks me was your dad bisexual, was he bisexual. And it was Roddy McDowall who said to me, you know, we didn’t have any idea what bisexuality meant in that sense, and if we didn’t know, then how can we know the answer to that question.”
The out designer, art consultant, author, and public speaker has been wrestling for decades with just how much of her father’s private life is public domain, as recounted in this 2012 blog post:
“I was standing at the bar in West Hollywood, Calif.’s club of the moment one night in the spring of 1989, talking with a group of hip Hollywood women I hardly knew, when a blond woman with a wry expression came over to me and said,
‘You’re Vincent Price’s daughter. Your father’s gay, isn’t he?’
I don’t remember my mumbled reply– except that, sadly, it wasn’t very witty – ‘I don’t know’ or ‘He was married three times.’ But I do remember that I was shocked. Not because it was the first time someone had suggested that he might be gay or at the very least bisexual, but because, until that moment, I hadn’t really understood the degree to which my 78-year-old father’s sexuality, whatever it might be, had become public property to be discussed, analyzed, bandied about, as one might share a recipe or chat about the weather. I found it a discomforting revelation.”
Victoria is well aware of our fixation with celebrity and the news-driven, “prying eyes” culture that we now live but she also aware that as a member of the LGBT community that there’s a yearning for history and heroes and a connection to the past…
“To me, it’s interesting, because as I’ve learned more about my dad’s sexuality, and more than I knew then about different things, I’ve had the choice of what to reveal and what not to reveal. Since I didn’t hear it from his mouth, I think that everything I hear comes with a measure of hearsay, right?
But I would like to say something here because I might as well. I am as close to certain as I can be that my dad had physically intimate relationships with men. I know for 100 percent fact that my dad was completely loving and supportive of LGBT people.
Now, we lived across the street from Rock Hudson and we had a lot of gay friends growing up. I mean, ‘Uncle Rupert and Uncle Frank’ came to every dinner party and it was very clear that they were together. And while the word [gay] was never mentioned, it was very much the norm.
I remember at nine-years-old going to drop something off at Rock Hudson’s house – of course, I was super excited because I was a huge Rock Hudson fan. So this absolutely beautiful man came to the door and in my nine-year-old mind, I thought, oh, that’s – I don’t know if I had a word for it – but that’s his ‘Uncle Frank or Uncle Rupert’, right?”
In 1977 Price played the openly gay Oscar Wilde to great acclaim and rebuffed the anti-gay Anita Bryant efforts of the day in television interviews saying Wilde had already written a play about Ms. Bryant: A Woman of No Importance. (Good one, Vinnie!) He was an early advocate who joined PFLAG as an honorary board member and was one of the first celebrities to do public service announcements quelling public fears of AIDS.
“He married a bisexual woman [British actress Coral Browne] and everybody assumed their marriage was a fraud. It wasn’t a fraud. It was a totally sexual relationship but they were two people with very open minded approaches as to what life should look like. And that to me – people who lived this truth in all aspects of their lives – they should be heroes to every community.
The interesting thing for me is that when I came out to him and he said to me, ‘you know, I know just how you feel because I have had these deep, loving relationships with men in my life and all my wives were jealous.'”
In a funny way, and I think I’m going to cry, he understood me at 22 better than I understood myself then. Of course, he was in his 70s and lived a hell of a lot longer than I had and he understood that at the end of the day it’s about who and what and how we love. And I have not been a person who has been very successful at conventional relationships, but loving well and loving deeply has been the most important thing to me.”
Great of her to talk so openly about her father. I would imagine an unenlightened straight person would think such talk would “tarnish” their father's image, implying some sort of shame. There’s no shame. The only shame is that Vincent Price didn’t live in a world where he was able to truly be himself, but he raised a daughter who can.
(via Boom LGBT)
TRUMP HOSTING SNL IS A BAD IDEA. LET ME TELL YOU WHY...
I've done my fair share of posts about Donald Trump, making fun of the pompous, racist, billionaire, reality-star, xenphobe, douchebag…. (Did I leave anything out?) In NYC he’s always been an embarrassing joke that often tried to reprsesent the city in a way NO ONE who lives here wants him to. I guess we all imagined that he would have gone away by now, instead of leading the polls in his run for The White House.
It was in this vein that I posted this altered pic of said douchebag on Facebook a few days ago. It got a lot of shares and comments and it seems someone was offended and reported it to Facebook. So, I got a mandatory 24-hour timeout from Facebook yesterday and I had time to reflect on Trump’s Presidential run and his voting duties on the next SNL.
The show is always done in fun, but it has a traditional of making fun of someone they actually semi-endorse. The big exception of late was Tina Fey‘s impression of Sarah Palin, which was ordained by the look-alike gods. But Palin’s appearance on the show did up her cool-factor, in ways that pissed many off. She was a joke –but by being in on it, she seemed cool(er)ish.
With Trump hosting, the ratings will be no doubt be “HUGE” and the $$$ will flow into NBC‘s account with Americans riveted by the train wreck. If there are protests, it will only add energy to the clusterfuck. Some activists have been speaking out against the hosting choice via a number actions, including a HUGE MoveOn.org petition. There are currently 136,569 signatures (they need 150,000) It reads in part…
“Now, just three months after cutting ties with Donald Trump, NBC is seeking to boost its ratings at the expense of Latinos and immigrants by allowing Trump to host one of its most popular shows.
By inviting Donald Trump to host Saturday Night Live, NBC is demonstrating that it doesn’t care about its Latino and pro-immigrant viewers. It is providing a platform for Trump’s insulting attacks on immigrants and calling it entertainment — something we do not find funny.”
I think the protesters are right. Imagine that Trump had made disparaging remarks about African-Americans, the LGBT community or the disabled, would we be so forgiving?
NBC is giving their business partner a unique platform, a 90-minute block to make himself seem more relatable to America. Hillary Clinton only got a cameo and Bernie Sanders has only showed up on Weekend Update slams and via Larry David’s brilliant take last week.
As Flavorwire so eloquently put it;
His very candidacy is stirring up and giving legitimacy to the xenophobic tendencies of some very dangerous people. He’s making sexism seem edgy and acceptable. To take an impartial and critical look at Trump’s buffoonery and its effect on the discourse — and thoroughly enjoy his domination of the media circuit, including SNL, because it’s ‘disruptive’ to the established narrative — is a privilege that only some of us can afford.
If he ends up being the nominee, SNL can shoulder some of the credit and the blame. I’m of the belief that everything is permissible in comedy. Joan Rivers (Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice) pushed boundaries further as she got older because she could, but she was a pro. Comedy is powerful and can fool you into believing that someone bad, is in on the joke and therefore may be not that bad You can look to Richard Nixon‘s appearance on Laugh-Innearly 50 years ago and blame Tricky Dick, once again. To coin a phrase,
“Let’s make America great again… and get rid of Citizen Trump.”
You can sign the moveon.org’s petition here. Thank the Comedy Gods that Twitter will let me post my dick-eating Trump meme pic without repercussions. God Bless America!
JOHN OLIVER SETS UP SEMI-REAL SOUNDING QUOTE GENERATOR
Dr. Ben Carson is not the only person, president, or presidential candidate to misquote a founding father. Thanks to the advent of the Internet (and Photoshop) it’s WAY easy to attribute quotes incorrectly. John Oliver and the staff of HBO‘s Last Week Tonight decided to take matters into their own hands when they set up a website called DefinitelyRealQuotes.com that let’s users generate a random, semi-legitimate-sounding quote and share it. Below are a few I got. Try your hand here.