Might need a workplace feature!
Friday, July 21, 2023
On the Rag, Vol. 769
A weekly look at what's making news in the gay magazines:
Between the Lines: Biggest 'Golden Girls' production to date comes to Michigan
Dallas Voice: Laura and Deanna McFerrin Hogan are raising two children in a home where labels are not important
Georgia Voice: Our pets are our pals
Cliff Bostock: Scared of dogs, in love with cats
Passport: Pack your bags for Key West
Out in Jersey: Jason Mraz is having a mystical magical summer
Thursday, July 20, 2023
Sign Me Up
My "Sign Language" posts are typically for misspelled or poorly punctuated signs, so maybe it's time for a new feature for wonderful ones. I'm thinking "Sign Me Up"!
Remains of the Day (07/20)
The Randy Report: LGBT projects killed by Republicans in appropriations markup
Thursday Watch: I'd like him to make a direct deposit
USA Today: Andrew Rannells talks 'Uncle of the Year' memoir, old 'crush' on Murray Bartlett and why he doesn't like to be called 'guncle' ... sadly his entire book tour was inexplicably canceled
The Advocate: Where are the original 'Queer Eye' guys now?
ABC News: Activists condemn violence against LGBT community in St. Vincent, where gay sex is illegal
Wednesday, July 19, 2023
The Fiesta's Over
Me with my friend Greg outside our second home (1986)
These photos (below) were posted by an alumnus of my high school in Mesa, Ariz. The Fiesta District was once one of the hottest shopping areas in the country and the site of my first job -- as an usher and concessionaire at the Fiesta Village movie theater, where "Sixteen Candles," "After Hours," "Desperately Seeking Susan" and "Just One of the Guys" once played. And it's where I bought my first Blondie, Pretenders and Go-Go's albums.
Hard to believe how different childhood is for today's youth, many of whom appear to live their entire lives online. (I ditched school and walked to Wherehouse Records the day Blondie's "Island of Lost Souls" came out!)
Jason Layne writes:
Well, there goes the last part of many of our childhoods 😡🙄😒The entire area is now gone 😥 The nickel arcade, both movie theaters, Tower Records, Rockaway Records, the Warehouse, Fiesta Mall, Toys R US, Lionel Playworld, Circuit City, used to be the best hangout area in all the East Valley ...
I also spent countless hours at nearby Hollywood Records, across the street from Mesa Community College, which always had the best 12-inch single imports in town.
This demolition was a long time coming -- the mall was pronounced dead in 2018 -- but it still makes my Gen X stomach turn, which other readers of Jason's post agree with:
"This hurts my heart. I grew up around this mall."
"I worked in Juniors at Broadway Southwest! And my friend Skinny Bill worked at the record store inside the mall. Was it Bill's Record & Tapes? << tapes! 🙂 We were all new waver/punkers. I took acid one day with my dorm roommate after finals and remembered, "I have to work at 3!" so I DROVE to Fiesta Mall from ASU and told one of my co-workers that I was tripping. "I'll just go over here and sort out those two big clearance racks. Keep customers away from me, OK?"
"A sad day for anybody that grew up in that era. The younger generation is never gonna know the feeling and excitement of going to a mall to actually hang out and interact with people. RIP Fiesta Mall."
"The other malls still left don't hit the same as Fiesta did, either."
"Don't forget Montgomery Wards and Service Merchandise."
"Waiting in line for concert tickets at Dillard's ..."
"Will be so strange to drive by when I come back to visit."
"I learned to drive around that mall's circuit road and parking lots."
Rich Kochanski shared this interior photo, writing: The fire department was given permission to train inside for about a month before the demolition. These are from about a week before they started bringing it down.
1985 and 2023: Hello and goodbye
"We spent so much time there instead of class."
Having a camera, much less one with film, wasn't common back then. But here are a few Fiesta Mall memories I do have:
Judy's turn to buy
My friend Yuki on the elevator at Fiesta Mall, in its earth-tones heyday!
The Wild life
Krush grooved: Breakin' in '85
Mall of confusion
The ticket window at AMC Fiesta Village. My first day on the job, this brash Italian girl from New Jersey walked right up to me and asked me if I'd had my nose broken. At the time I didn't even realize I have an off-center nose -- like my father and brother Bill -- so sheepishly said no. "Oh, I was just wondering cuz you look just like all my uncles back home." (Charmed, I'm sure.)
1983 fare
Village life
My place of employment in 1984
The Musicland (near the Sears anchor) where I bought Cyndi Lauper's "She's So Unusual" on the same day my friend Greg bought "Madonna" by Madonna so we could hear them both!
Aladdin's Castle, where I'm proud to say I never spent a penny!
Looks like some other Dobson High alums are taking it to the streets ... or at least the parking lot!
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
Remains of the Day (07/18)
Metal Hammer: “In those days, you didn’t talk about those kind of things”: Rob Halford's reaction to becoming metal’s first gay icon
Twitter: In last 8 seasons, 16 women have won a 1st Slam singles title -- in same period, just 3 men
Washington Blade: Rufus Gifford steps down as State Department’s chief of protocol
HBO: I have mixed feelings about "The Stroll," a new documentary on Max that "tells the history of New York's Meatpacking District from the perspective of transgender sex workers who lived and worked there." The footage and interviews are riveting -- I moved to NYC during this era's heyday and used to frequent bars in the area, including Hell and the Lure, so ate up all the old clips -- yet for a film that won a special jury prize for clarity of vision at Sundance, its point is deeply muddled. Given the lack of employment opportunities for trans people, it's a fact that many turn to sex work to survive. But the film seems to spend an inordinate amount of time harping on the notion that T people haven't been given their due from the LGB community -- specifically white lesbian, gay and bisexual people -- while largely ignoring who the real villains are here.
Lesbian, gay and bisexual people (white or otherwise) aren't the ones who criminalized prostitution. Lesbian, gay and bisexual people aren't the ones who passed so-called "walking while trans" laws, making trans people's lives miserable. Lesbian, gay and bisexual people aren't the ones murdering trans women of color. And above all else, it isn't lesbian, gay and bisexual people who are throwing their trans children of color out on the street just for being who they are. Many of the gals interviewed were very endearing, making the film highly watchable. But it was equally frustrating feeling like no one in the room ever seemed to recognize what the real problems are. (Where was the PFLAG outreach to communities of color? Where was the focus on legalizing sex work the way others pushed to decriminalize marijuana? Muscular white guys on a Pride float aren't what's making trans people's lives more difficult than they need to be.)
Instead, the residents of the West Village who objected to people having sex outside their apartments are almost made out to be as problematic as the cops raping sex workers in exchange for not arresting them. (I'm sorry, but there's nothing wrong with not wanting to see someone getting sucked off in a car when you're just trying to go to the corner to buy a quart of milk.) While well-meaning, the film's message is all over the map and confusing. Seeing some of the women watch and then try to judge RuPaul's lightweight visit to the hooking area back in the day on a campy cable access TV show through a 2023 lens only reiterated my ambivalence.
The Randy Report: Experimental Alzheimer's drug shows early promise
Hot Cat of the Day: Reach out and touch somebody's paw ...
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