// Category Archive for: LGBTQ

Words, Guitar, and Passion: The Music of Sleater-Kinney

By Laura L.

I remember where I heard about Sleater-Kinney for the first time.

It was in the unlikeliest of places: Seventeen magazine. This was in 1997, when they were promoting what’s now my favorite Sleater-Kinney album, Dig Me Out. I wanted to know more about them, but for some reason, I was afraid. I was so self-conscious at the time about listening to a band I’m sure none of my friends would have heard of.

Photo from The Sleater-Kinney Archives

Fast forward three years later. I was in college, and it was the height of Napster’s heyday. Sleater-Kinney had another album out, All Hands On the Bad One, and, after sampling a few tracks on Napster, I decided to finally buy the album. I was hooked from “Ballad of a Ladyman” all the way to the last track, “The Swimmer.” As soon as I could, I bought all the other Sleater-Kinney albums.
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Rufus Wainwright At Celebrate Brooklyn!

By Maureen

I hadn’t even realized that I had expectations about Rufus Wainwright’s show for the Celebrate Brooklyn! series until I saw it. I guess was expecting some old classic songs, a few new ones, and an opening act by Loudon Wainwright III. What I got, however, was an entirely different experience altogether.
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Top Five Funniest Evil Mad Scientists

By Lisa Anderson

The Evil Mad Scientist is a familiar figure in popular culture, and is found most often in science fiction, horror, or superhero tales. Evil Mad Scientists are not to be confused with their more benevolent counterparts, like Emmett Brown of Back to the Future. While the Evil Mad Scientist can be a figure of great terror, when this archetype is used for comic effect the results can be hilarious. Following are five of the best examples.
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William S. Burroughs, A Man Within: Interview With Filmmaker Yony Leyser

Interviewed by Kaye Telle

“Back in 2005, when I was 21 years old, I got my hands on a nice video camera and decided to make a documentary about William S. Burroughs. When I started making a documentary about William S. Burroughs, I had no idea it would turn into THE documentary about him.”
—Filmmaker Yony Leyser

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More Than Shakespeare Slash: Q&A With Author Myrlin Hermes

By Jemiah Jefferson

The Lunatic, the Lover, and the Poet, the new novel by Portland, Oregon author Myrlin A. Hermes, dismantles some of the best-known works of literature in the English language—the plays and sonnets of good ol’ Willie Shakespeare, most particularly Hamlet—and builds from their parts a unique, steamy, bisexual love triangle between three famous characters.
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From Maniac to Mother: Remembering Divine

By Eric Weber

Twenty-one years ago, on March 7, 1988, legendary comic performer Divine (a.k.a. Harris Glenn Milstead) passed away in his sleep from heart failure. It was on the eve of his debut performance on FOX television’s popular show, Married. . . with Children. Divine was at an exciting moment in his career as he was receiving terrific reviews for his dual role in the recently released Hairspray. At last he was getting the one thing he had always dreamt about: acceptance from his peers as a legitimate actor and performer. He was finally shedding the “drag queen” stigma and beginning to be appreciated and acknowledged as a true talent instead of a “transvestite” or freak. Sadly, and like so many other unique and talented performers, his life was cut short much too soon.
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Not Your Mother’s Biopic: Gus Van Sant’s Milk

By Maureen

“My name is Harvey Milk, and I am here to recruit you.” At many of his public appearances, the late politician uttered these words. They’re also my words, because I am also here to recruit you . . . to see the film version of Milk’s life, directed by Gus Van Sant.
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Mashup Ex-Voto: Fanvids as Devotional Objects

By Jessica Melusine

Being a student of religious practice, magick, and mysticism as well as an avid pop culture devotee means that certain things look very different in my eyes. Ever since a turn-of-this-century Vericon in Cambridge, MA, I have been fascinated with fanvids.
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