Q-Seattle Events: Tacky Tourist Clubs

So, then... we offer the embarrassed video of a lip sync attempt below. Not because it's a particularly good attempt. Not because it's a better dance attempt than what Sanjaya might come up with. Not because we're all that fond of Dolly Parton's 9 to 5.

We offer partly because it's kinda cute to see how embarrased the guy is about doing it at all. But then... he posts it despite his embarrassment.

But, mostly -- let's be honest here -- we post it because the lip sync is done by our all-time favorite in the collection of hunks over in the Rumor Machine, Jonathan Jesensky who we've mentioned (and pictured) before. He is, by all reports, a nice guy, a carpenter, a bar-tender, a model. He was a Marine. He is, above all, an uber-hunk. Find more pictures here and here and here [work warning: The latter two links play audio].

If the name isn't familiar, you might not recognize him in the video with his shirt on and with the glasses. So we offer this reminder:

And so here's the other, innocent view from a post on Jonathan's MySpace blog (at http://www.myspace.com/jesensky since it's virtually impossible to link directly into that place) :

Labels: eye candy, link bites, shirtless hunk, video, youtube

Leave it to John Waters to find a whole different way to approach the marriage issue.



Waters plays the "groom reaper" on a new show, 'Til Death Do Us Part that will premier Monday on Court TV at 10pm. They're currently running a promo on that link and also feature outtakes, sneak peaks, and interviews with Waters.

This one is a "reality-based" series in which actors portray the characters in true-crime stories of spousal murders. And it's sure to be filled with Waters's gallows humor as he demonstrates in his interview (above) with Jon Stewart.

It's bound to leave bizarre state Sen. Stevens apoplectic. And that's a good thing.

Labels: celebrities, TV, video, youtube

The young Krakow Dominican monks just wanna have fun. Church officials weren't laughing.


(YouTube Link) [via Slog]

Labels: music, video, youtube

And, you've gotta admit, this is about the only interpretation of Paula Abdul's track that works these days:

(YouTube Link)

And while we're at it, did you catch Robbie's co-favorite diva, Jennifer Holliday, doing a stunning outside-the-Oscars performance last night? (via Towleroad)

(YouTube link)

Labels: music, video, WonderRobbie, youtube

WA-DOMA's Initiative 957 got a Tip of the Hat last night from Stephen Colbert. (And, you've also gotta love the Wag he gave to John Howard, Australia's wedge-issue PM whose son worked on the 2004 Bush/Cheney campaign).

We're guessing the folks at WA-DOMA will want to put this honor on the shelf in front of the Shrammie they picked up last week from that guy on one or another of the KOMOs. (He keeps popping up. Maybe we should watch or listen... On second thought, no!)

Schram insists, "I get it." He gives Gregory Gadow and crew "high marks for the 'hoot' factor," but insists that the humor is misdirected.

The problem is Gregory doesn't get it.Mocking marriage does nothing but provoke
P.O.'d people to dig deeper for reasons to discriminate.

Hey, I've long been a strong supporter of gay marriage.

And I'll admit Gregory got me to laughing. But Greg [which isn't his name] doesn't need me slapping my knee.

He needs gay marriage opponents slapping their foreheads and thinking.

So, for sacrificing substance for silliness; for taking a shot without first taking aim, and for making a point with no thought of making headway, take a bow Gregory, 'cause this "Schrammie's" for you.

But all that assumes that the more vocal opponents of marriage equality are willing to engage in something like "slapping their foreheads and thinking." There is too little evidence of that. The legal argument that managed to get procreation tied so closely to marriage in a Supreme Court decision was put forward by the "Family Research Council."

They are the ones who made this a precedent in state law. They are the ones who convinced the court to turn a silly argument into a precedent that could, perhaps, be used by a clever divorce lawyer for a childless couple to deny benefits to one of the parties. The Family Research Council did that. Although it's a weak precedent because it was accepted only by a deeply divided court, it's still on the books as a result of the Andersen decision.

Will the vocal opponents recognize that because of I-957. No. But the less vocal opponents just might engage in that kind of epiphany of forehead-slapping as a result of the discussions spurred on by this bit of political street theater. Maybe.

Labels: Colbert Report, I-957, initiative, politics, video, wa-doma, Washington, wikiality

Lewis Black takes a Daily Show look at bigotry on television, including 24 and rehabber Isaiah Washinton:



Direct link.

Labels: TV, video

[Update, 1/27: Since this post has been extensively linked, we should point out that there's more about "the question" here, including this response to The Sun: "I never talk about anything to do with my sexuality."]

Lacking comments and/or emails [sniffle], we often look to incoming search strings to get a notion about what folks are looking for here. So it is, that we were a bit taken aback to see several question-form queries of the form, "Is Mika gay?" Our first response was to say, "Well, duh!" but that would be mean, so we looked to more sources than what we linked to over the weekend.

AfterElton is usually a good resource for such questions, but (so far, at least), they have only this to say:

If I'm not mistaken, Mika is openly gay (though his MySpace page doesn't mention that). Mika is not only adorable, but to me sounds like a weird amalgamation of Elton John, Scissor Sisters, and Queen. Whoever he reminds you of, his music is damned catchy.

That's not exactly dispositive, as they say.

Back in November, Londonist (yes, it's one of their sister blogs) introduced Mika this way:

Last week we went out to watch a man from Beirut with colourful trousers and big hair, sing songs about fat girls, gay affairs, and lollipops. Tonight, we think you should do the same.

But still, they don't directly answer the question, although really... with those hip-swinging, leg-kicking moves in concert and those colorful trousers, do they need to?

UK.Gay.com comes closer with this:

In what promises to be the gay indie night of the year, new pop sensation Mika is set to perform live at Popstarz on Friday 26th January, 2007.

What seems to be happening here, is that the question just isn't at issue. He's hit #1 on UK pop charts without anyone much caring about the question, at least not after the singer/songwriter has been compared to every other queer pop star who's ever lived. (And how about some comparisons of Relax with Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Where's the love).

A US press release stoking interest in next week's release of his album says this:

Mika's first single 'Grace Kelly' has topped the UK music charts on digital sales alone, despite the fact that the physical single won't be available in stores until January 29th. 'Grace Kelly' ascended to the coveted #1 spot after unseating Leona Lewis who had held the position for four weeks. With this honor Mika joins Gnarls Barkley as the only artists to reach the #1 position before their singles were released in stores. In addition, 'Grace Kelly' has now secured the top spot as the most played video on MTV.

Being gay is not an issue in this long radio interview, or in these pop-star interviews posted to YouTube.

So then... the answer to the question seems to be "Yes," but another follows: "Why does it matter?" Enjoy:

Labels: Gay, Mika, music, video, youtube

...or Elton or Jake Shears or even Marc [T. Rex]. Fortunately for us all, however, he is Mika. Defiantly so. Behold:


[YouTube link]

ArjanWrites explains the genesis of the song:

Mika wrote "Grace Kelly" after he felt frustrated with record label executives that wanted him to change his sound to fit to the common pop mold. Mika refused and went his own way to write this song and a bunch of others. However, the label honchos came around and decided to sign Mika anyway after hearing the fabulous "Grace Kelly." How ironic.

And then, being record executives, they decided to market his unwillingness to be Idolized.

But, or so we would hope, you'll want to hear it again. So here's a piano version:

QueerBeacon has much more well-deserved fan fever with links.

Labels: Gay, Mika, music, video, youtube

Yes. That's Jake Gyllenhaal from last night's Saturday Night Live. Yes he's doing Dreamgirls drag. Gotta love it.

He's no WonderRobbie, but he is J-j-jake GyllenHot.

Mine's huge: Oh, yes... and then there's this repartee between CNN's Anderson Cooper and Larry King sit-in Ryan Seacrest.

HatTip: Oh My God blog and The Malcontent.

Labels: celebrities, drag show, Dreamgirls, TV, video, youtube

Whatever we might have said before, we are now convinced that our favorite YouTube drag queen is so good that hair, makeup, and dresses would only detract from the performances.

We first noticed him because of his amazing lip-sync to Jennifer Holiday's Broadway-cast performance of "And I Am Telling You...".

Just in time for the Dreamgirls movie release, WonderRobbie and his busy camera have released a new performance of "And I Am Telling You..." channeling the new (but never the replacement) diva, Jennifer Hudson.

Jennifer #1 is now worried that her diva status may be rescinded because Jennifer #2 is getting all the attention after the boffo box-office for the movie version of Dreamgirls. Although we haven't yet checked with authorities on diva-dom, we believe that there is room in the diva pantheon for two Efies.

Who could we ask? Unfortunately none of the Dreamgirls divas made in onto the top 10 of divadom voted by LogoOnline users. And that means they must all be dismissed as possible authorities. (And besides, they voted Whitney to the #1 spot. We're sorry, but that just doesn't jibe with our admittedly flawed divameter.)

Fortunately, though, WonderRobbie himself now answers questions from his thousands of YouTube fans. Our question is on the way: Is there room in Divadom for both Jennifers?

Labels: drag show, Dreamgirls, video, WonderRobbie, youtube

Yes, it's a review of 95% of the year, but this is very funny. It makes the year's craziness almost worth remembering.



And with that election turning several red states purple, red-staters out there might be looking for a new anthem. We suggest this. [Not safe for work.]

Labels: video

Seattle's own Dan Savage appeared last night on The Colbert Report (TCR). Savage, of course, offers a report of the experience on Slog. (And notice in Dan's picture that the green room table features Big Brass Balls. Colbert fans will recognize the significance of that.)

As many of his commenters on Slog have noted, being interviewed by Colbert is a thankless spot for any guest on the show, but Savage did a very good job of it, especially when Savage's comments forced the Colbert character to reveal that he has no idea what a "clitoris" might be.

Unfortunately, Comedy Central's lawyers force Google's lawyers to take down the constant feed of TCR videos on YouTube's useful service, but you can still catch the interview on Comedy Central's own, dreadful video service:

Savage on TCR, Part 1
Savage on TCR, Part 2

A fan-created site called Wikiality.com offers this Colbert-centric take on the appearance. Elsewhere, on the same site's entry for Washington, we can "learn" that

Everyone who runs for the state legislature from Seattle is required to pass a mandated gaydar test administered under contract with City Government (Soviet of Seattle) by sexologist Dan Savage who is also editor a local alternative weekly called The Stranger.

Obviously, it's an odd site, and the vast majority of its 3000+ articles demonstrate how difficult it is to do the kind of satire that Colbert excels at. Too many of the Wikiality articles read like they could be posts on a wing-nut blog, and miss the edge that Colbert gives to his bloviating right-wing character. But there are some fun takes like the featured articles on the Department of Homeland Security or Ted Haggard (who Savage mentioned several times in his interview), or of course, the article on gay bears.

Labels: Colbert Report, Dan Savage, video, wikiality

How, we ask you, how could we avoid linking to a YouTube video that features even a brief cameo by a drag mermaid (find her at about 3:05) along with a huge cast of other fabulous creatures, including bois in sequin speedos?



Technorati tags:Gay Gay video Drag show YouTube Drag Video

Labels: drag show, Gay events, video

Standby tickets to Queen City Cruise go on sale this Tuesday. If you were to act very quickly, you might even get a chance starting at 5 pm this afternoon (Saturday) to get the first few of those tickets. (And getting those tickets early is important because Standby Guests are boarded in a order determined by the time of the ticket purchase. It's all explained here.)

But if you're still not quite sure and our galleries filled with hot gay party pics can't convince you, then maybe a moving picture will, eh? [And those galleries, by the way, were recently upgraded so that even more of you can enjoy the pictures.]



The video was created by the Cruise's decorations maestro, Mark Shauer. You'll find both a higher-bandwidth and a lower-bandwidth version over here along with the links to other Cruise info.

Technorati tags: Gay Gay party Queen City Cruise Seattle Queer Seafair

Labels: Gay events, video

This one must really make Tim Eyman crazy.

It looks like Eyman failed yet again, but this time on his real pet project, an anti-transit, anti-tax initiative. Too many fake signatures, eh? Could it be that folks are intentionally signing up with fake names just to, well... make him crazy.

And, yes, we really do think you should click again to view that great Gnarls Barkley video which is just so Tim Eyman.

Oh, but we can't resist... (Just in case you didn't want to click to the other version.)


Technorati tags: Star Wars Gnarls Barkley Eyman Washington politics

Labels: equal rights, initiative, politics, video, Washington

J &/or K, the authors of the CapitolHillSeattle blog, appear to have become a bit tired of the frequent snipes taken by Sloggers at 43rd District House candidate Jamie Petersen. They explained the tiff much more elegantly than we did. In contrast to our overly wordy exegesis, the CapHill explanation neatly fits onto a t-shirt with a Stranger-esqe acronym: JP: TGFDS. The t-shirt even offers an acronym expansion: "Jamie Pedersen: Too Gay for Dan Savage".

Are Southern Baptists too gay?

Speaking of "too gay"... It seems incredible that anyone would find the Southern Baptist Convention too gay, but the wackos of Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas (aka "GodHatesFags.com") thought so when they sent some of their zanier members to picket the church's annual convention in Greensboro, NC.


The woman who spoke for Westboro at the convention also appeared on Fox News in early June where she seemed to be channeling Piper Laurie's character in the movie Carrie.

FYI: Seattle's gay-friendly copper-topped First Baptist Church on First Hill is a member of the more liberal American Baptist Convention and is not part of the larger Southern Baptist confederation.

Episcopal Church kind of apologizes for gay bishop

Another denomination was in the news last week as bigwigs of the Episcopal Church met in Columbus, Ohio for their triennial general convention. One of the big issues for conferees was responding to a flurry of criticism from members of the worldwide Anglican communion about the US church's consecration in 2003 of a gay man, V. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire.

The conference sidestepped a deepening controversy when the Episcopal Diocese of California in early May voted to elect one of the four non-gay candidates as their next bishop. Three of the seven candidates for that post, including the Very Rev. Robert Taylor, dean of Seattle's St. Mark's Cathedral, were gay or lesbian priests.

An angry debate about the election of a gay bishop and the blessing of same-sex unions in the United States has frayed the church at home and threatened to fracture the Anglican communion, the world's third-largest church body. [NYT]

But then, the conference seemed to highlight their theological and cultural clashes with other Anglican conferences and some US Episcopal churches by electing a woman, Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schorli of Nevada, as their presiding bishop.

The election of the first woman to preside over an Anglican conference deepens the divide between the US church and other national conferences.

Many Anglican conferences do not even allow the ordination of women priests.

Jefferts Schorli told the New York Times

"We need to send a message that we fully intend to be part of the [worldwide Anglican] communion," she said on her way to the daily Eucharist service. "All of this calls for us to grow and stretch. I think we're willing to stretch very far indeed."

She quickly signalled that she wouldn't back down from the US Church's embrace of its gay and lesbian members.

Interviewed on CNN, Jefferts Schori was asked if it was a sin to be homosexual. "I don't believe so. I believe that God creates us with different gifts. Each one of us comes into this world with a different collection of things that challenge us and things that give us joy and allow us to bless the world around us," she said.

Later in the week, however, the conference that had elected her adopted a less tolerant stance when it accepted a preliminary resolution that apologizes for offending other national Anglican churches in 2003 when it approved consecration of Robinson as bishop.

The approved statement says the U.S. church expresses its "regret for breaching the proper restraints of the bonds of affection" with the events surrounding the 2003 convention and "the consequences which followed."

It offers the church's "sincerest apology" to those "who are offended by our failure to accord sufficient importance ... to the impact on our church" and asks "forgiveness as we seek to live in deeper levels of communion one with another."

Executions in the name of god

More disturbing religious news filtered (without much US media coverage) out of Iraq where the US military (aka "coalition forces") admitted that it was aware of the murders, but hadn't done much about religiously motivated executions of gay folk in the country. The killings had accelerated when Iraq's primary Shiite cleric, the Ayatolla Sistani, issued a stern fatwa calling for executions of homosexuals. In May, A London-based group of gay Iraqi exiles managed to get Sistani's people to remove parts the fatwa from their website, but it remained in effect and the executions apparently continued as well. (The section of the fatwa calling for execution of lesbians remained on the website.)

The Army spokesman, Maj. Joseph Todd Breasseale, who talked with the Washington Blade insisted there isn't much that the US can do about any of this.

Faced with a highly volatile atmosphere brought about by warring Islamic factions, the U.S. and its coalition allies must use caution in addressing the issue of homosexuality, Breasseale said.

"It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, when we're in a fledgling time like this, to go in and say, 'Here's these issues that are going to repel 80 percent of the population and this is what we want to inflict on you,'" he said. "We're trying not to get into too many values judgment type issues and just do the right thing."

But that attitude might not be all that surprising given the US military's own recent fatwa-light against gay folk.

Another indication of how bad things are for gay folk over there comes from the story of a Canadian peace activist, James Loney, who was kidnapped and held captive for 118 days. Loney is gay, but his partner in Toronto, his family, the Canadian government, and the church group he worked with conspired to keep that a secret, fearing that he would be killed if his captors discovered his sexual orientation.

Back home in Toronto, Dan Hunt had to endure a double dose of pain. He had to contend not only with the daily anguish of wondering whether his partner was still alive, he also had to cope with being forced back into the closet.

Shout-outs

As part of its Pride issue, Seattle Weekly finds and talks to a few gay evangelicals.

Metroblogging Seattle discovered that The Weekly's writers has now started blogging. We're guessing that they won't call it "wogging". (Metblogs also noticed our pride list. Thanks.)

Speaking of which... yesterday, we added a few more events that we missed in the original to our roundup of Pride events. And let us note for SOP's lawyers that when we put up a graphic on other pages of this site for the listing, we avoided using the term "Seattle Pride." Happy?

For whatever this kind of endorsement might be worth, the Seattle Times's Nicole Brodeur thinks that City Council member Sally Clark has stepped to the front.

We were delighted to get a shout-out from WonderRobbie, [we think that will take you to the post, but we'll admit to being often confused by MySpace] whom we featured a while back. Rob was even kind enough to thank us in an email, "I just wanted to say thank you. Who'd have ever thought this little froot with a videocamera would be the topic of a fantastic blog?? haha I'm just having fun and I'm glad people love it." Now, we just hope that he might make it over here to the left coast in early August sometime so we could feature him on the Cruise.

We mentioned CapitolHillSeattle up top. They were feeling neglected a while back on behalf of all us little local blogs. Let us mention that we display links to them and other local blogs via a secondary way via those Squidoo links over to the right. The Seattle Info page has links to CapHill and several other neighborhood blogs (most of which CapHill has pointed out to us), along with some of the local biggies. The Gay Seattle page has some feeds and links to local LGBT resources. And the Gay News page shows feeds from a few of our favorite gay-info blogs.

Tags: Link bites Washington politics, Iraq, equal rights, religion

Labels: link bites, video, WonderRobbie, youtube

Note to Tim Eyman: This is how Star Wars drag is done.



But then again, "I think you're crazy" could serve as an Eyman theme song. Maybe he was trying to tell us something more with his getup.

Technorati tags: Star Wars Gnarls Barkley Eyman Video

Labels: drag show, video

The video that we posted in the previous message came to us through an email. We figured he must really be a pro somewhere, so we checked and found WonderRobbie's MySpace blog. We learn that he's a 25-year old New Yorker from Long Island. But -- amazingly enough -- he doesn't seem to be a pro or -- judging from his blog posts -- even an amateur performer.

Somehow, we're pretty sure that's gonna change sometime soon. He posts a collection of 29 of his videos showing his great range in doing divas of all stripes and eras -- even an incredible take on Rosemary Clooney.

And when Robbie and his boyfriend went to see Wicked on Broadway, Robbie showed that he knows how to work the stage line.

Watch the videos while he's still doing them for free, because we're guessing he'll be in a high-cover club somewhere real soon now. (Unless, of course, he only wants to do it for his camera and for those of us who enjoy the vids.)

Technorati tags: Divas WonderRobbie Gay Video

Labels: video, WonderRobbie, youtube

Let us clarify from the very start that we're not saying anything else about WonderRobbie, the cute guy in this great vid, except that she he sure does hit it for the lip synch part of a drag act. (And that is a rare talent, after all.)

Let's not assume anything from the cutesy fantasy print hanging on the wall behind him or from Robbie's impeccably pressed t-shirt featuring an exaggerated fantasy chick of some sort. Nothing. OK?

But if anyone wanted to offer costuming and dressing services for him, we figure you'd be hooking up with a star. Come now. Look at him. Look at those eyes. You gotta admit, getting him dragged up as Jennifer Holiday would be fun, no?



Compare his act with Jennifer Holiday's original from the '82 Tony Awards. (Jennifer's solo starts at 3:30 into the scene.) Notice that Robbie avoids doing that shaking chin bit that nearly every Jennifer impersonator falls into. A star, we say. A star.

Technorati tags: Jennifer Holiday WonderRobbie Gay Video

Labels: drag show, Dreamgirls, video, WonderRobbie, youtube

We offer this very funny video for those of us who haven't quite been able to overcome the "We was robbed" feeling after yesterday's game.

This first came to us in an email a couple of weeks ago, but we felt a bit uncomfortable at the time about posting it. We'll admit to just enough irrational football-watching superstition to be wary of the bus that is featured in this video.

Ah! But our superstitions didn't much help. There were, after all, just a few too many short and almost imperceptable movements of the ball after encountering the big fat Bus. So, now, those of us who cared at all about the game will just have to hum along with Gloria Gaynor: "I will survive!"



Technorati tags: Superbowl Gay Video

Labels: video

The very funny folks calling themselves SlackCircus have recreated Adam, Prince of Eternia, in his very own music video in which he asks, "Hey, what's going on?" You can watch the video here if you have a fast connection.

Be sure to read Adam's very own "secret" journal while you enjoy the video.

Labels: video