A headline in today’s Seattle Gay News:

“FDA Wants to Rejecting Gay Men as Sperm Donors.”

First they came for the gay sperm donors, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a gay sperm donor. Then they came for the gay copy editors…

From a news station in — where else? — the American south.

“East Waynesville Baptist asked nine members to leave. Now 40 more have left the church in protest. Former members say Pastor Chan Chandler gave them the ultimatum, saying if they didn’t support George Bush, they should resign or repent. The minister declined an interview with News 13. But he did say ‘the actions were not politically motivated.’ There are questions about whether the bi-laws were followed when the members were thrown out.”

Whoa… are they done attacking us? Are they turning on each other? So soon?

I finally had the chance to see the Rat City Rollergirls in action last weekend, almost a year after writing about the then newborn roller derby league. The long effort to launch their league seems like it was worth it: Saturday’s bout at White Center’s Southgate rink, the league’s third, was sold out. The several hundred fans lucky enough to nab tickets had an incredibly fun time.

Continue reading "Rat City Roller Girls" »

Undoubtedly you’ve heard about Riding The Bus With My Sister, the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie in which Rosie O’Donnell pretends to be retarded.

The movie—and Rosie’s fearless performance—were absolutely mind-bending.

Lucky for all, the good folks at TVgasm posted this amazing video montage of O’Donnell’s choicest moments.

Enjoy, and may God have mercy on our souls.

I second the hearty commendations to SIFF for leading with the Miranda July feature. Not only is Me and You and Everyone We Know an infinitely more exciting movie (and title) than The Notebook (the 2004 opener) or Valentín (2003), but it also seems to indicate a promising change of direction—or at least tone—for the festival.

Continue reading "Re: SIFF is for lovers" »

I would like to state for the record that it is b-a-d-a-s-s of the Seattle International Film Festival to open this year’s festival with a film by the localesque Miranda July. I haven’t always been convinced by MJ’s work in the past, but I believe she has interesting ideas and is full of really impressive energy and ambition. The one conversation I ever had with her, in the green room of the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, left me convinced that she was on the verge of utter brilliance. I’m excited to see the movie, but in the meantime, I’m happy to visit her blog.

It’s weird to go to a show after you’ve written a fairly negative story about the headliner. I went to see Mercury Rev at the Showbox after sullying their good name in this week’s paper , and the turnout was very weak—maybe 200 people (probably more because Doves dropped off the bill than from my disparaging words).

The Rev’s performance was spirited despite the sparse crowd, but they only played material from 1998’s Deserter’s Songs onward, seemingly to spite old fans like me. The cover of Dylan’s “You Gotta Serve Somebody” didn’t compensate for the lack of those amazing early Rev songs. Best part of the gig were the visuals, which were way more psychedelic and compelling than the music they were supporting, and contained pithy quotes from smart folks from many eras—a trend I hope spreads.

The best song ever.

The Weekly’s “Mossback” finally credits The Stranger for breaking the news that Microsoft backed down from supporting a statewide anti-gay-discrimination bill under threat of a national boycott from black Eastside minister Ken Hutcherson.

Those of you who have been following the Streetbeat v. Fankick! drama may
be amused by this Tablet feature. Complete
with erroneous reporting (“after a local publication mistakenly reported
on Streetbeat! as an original idea even though they’ve only been
performing for a short period of time”—go ahead, read Brendan’s column and show me where he says ‘original’) and this priceless exchange, between dancers Debbie Dazzle and Suzi Spotlight: “God, go away copycat.” (DD) “I just sort of feel raped.” (SS)

Oh, and the pullquote in the print edition is about OUR dance battle. Fabulous.

I feel “sick.”

May Suzi Fankick never be forced to learn firsthand how stupid her comment is…

After the rather depressing display at Aftermath last Friday of the Repo Show and Fillistine I’ve been getting all kinds of stories of other variations on the same art theft or art anarchy theme. I think my favorite is the artist Banksy, who recently went on a spree of placing his own art in museums. He went into five museums in New York over the course of a week, dressed in a trenchcoat and a fake beard and pasted his paintings to the walls without getting caught. It’s a little bit like shoplifting in reverse.

Now I’m left struggling to decide which is more upsetting: Oprah Winfrey devoting a show to poop, or me writing a Slog entry about Oprah Winfrey devoting a show to poop.

or, by extension, me reading your Slog entry about Oprah Winfrey devoting a show to poop.

Just in time for swimsuit season, yesterday Oprah provided the world with a peerless appetite suppresant, in the form of a hour-long broadcast devoted to the art and practice of healthy pooping. From discussion of optimal shapes and splashes (apparently soft “S”-shapes that ease into the water are the best of all possible turds) to hands-on fondling of actual colons extracted from dead folks, Oprah hit the ground running and never looked back.

For the record, I adore Oprah, who, for all her contentious elements, remains a incredible force for good.

Still, I don’t know if I’ll ever recover from watching her jump up and down, clapping her hands while exclaiming, “Ooh, I LOVE when I get an ‘S’ shape!”

Now I’m left struggling to decide which is more upsetting: Oprah Winfrey devoting a show to poop, or me writing a Slog entry about Oprah Winfrey devoting a show to poop.

Please weigh in.

A tiny grammar lesson to punctuate your day…

Proper use of that and which:
Both that and which function as relative pronouns but they are not always interchangeable. In American English that is used restrictively to narrow a category or identify a specific subject: With a style that is seductive and inimitable… while which is usually used nonrestrictively—it doesn’t narrow a category or point to a specific subject but instead it adds something about a subject already introduced: Art is his means of awakening from the nightmare of history, which is a strategy common to Germans of his generation.

Note that which (and the clause that follows it) is almost always preceded by a comma (or set off inside parentheses or with emdashes) while that doesn’t need the comma.

Which can be used restrictively, but then it must be preceded by a preposition, as in The room in which he cooked the cat….

Thank you for thinking about your language.

Back in ye olde days when blogs felt primarily the territory of chatroom geeks and their cyberspace friends, LA’s Buddyhead was spewing viscious bile at the bloated music industry on their well publicized web site. Creators Travis Keller and Aaron North (who played in Icarus Line and now is the newest guitarist for Nine Inch Nails) have grown their empire, though, beyond that tantalizing gossip page featuring cell phone numbers of fish-in-a-barrel targets like Fred Durst to a record label and a brand new MP3 blog called Medication. Although Buddyhead’s entire site is going through a slow redesign, Medication offers a ton of opinionated, informative band reviews without all that pretentious Pitchfork poinyheaded crap you’ve got to wade through to figure out of the shit if worth listening to or not.

All hail Seattle Times staff reporter Pamela Sitt, who opens her “TV Addict” column today—covering the LA career of former Q13 newsmuppet Leslie Miller—with this short but impressive lead:

“Whither Leslie Miller? (Ha! I used “whither” in a sentence and I rhymed.)”

For the baffled/unbelieving, no, this was NOT in the Seattle Gay News but the Seattle Times.

I’m sure everyone’s with me in anxiously awaiting more of Ms. Sitt’s rhyming verse, including (I pray) her pairing of “by my troth” with “totally gross.”

Don’t know if anybody else has been following the drama storm leading up to this Wednesday’s scheduled airing of ABC’s “American Idol expose,” but FOX king Rupert Murdoch has threatened an avalanche of legal action should the show make it to air, while ABC is standing its ground.

Fresh delight: This quote, taken from today’s Drudge update on the drama, which deserves some sort of prize:

“I am quite surprised and disappointed ABC is devoting an hour of its prime time programming to air tabloid trash,” a top FOX executive said from Los Angeles.

Hopefully, this now has my name in the byline; if not, this was written by me, David Schmader.

There’s a piece in Salon today by Eli Sanders, about the same-sex marriage movement in Washington, vs. other states (like Oregon). About a year ago, Eli and other writers at this paper were bashing King County Exec Ron Sims for not issuing marriage licenses, Gavin Newsom-style. Eli now argues—and I have to agree—that Sims was right to take the slow road, and we were wrong. That said, I certainly don’t regret marching to the courthouse last March and demanding a license.