There’s a very good reason straight people are afraid of the gays—because they think we’re all the same! They see all homosexuals as either swishy (Jack from Will & Grace), or mentally retarded (Rosie O’Donnell). They have no idea of the myriad of subspecies that exist within gay culture! And so, in the spirit of […]
Will Gardner
Posted inMovies & TV
Great Pecs and Tight Story
Taking a Bite Out of Layer Cake
Layer Cake dir. Vaughn Opens Fri May 27 Fox Tower Layer Cake‘s neophyte director is Matthew Vaughn, whose filmmaking experience to date largely consists of producing Guy Ritchie’s films (yes, even Swept Away). Vaughn doesn’t steer too far from the neo-British gangster/heist film genre with this one, and considering I’m the only person under the […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Mercury Video Picks
Chopper Chicks
Biker movies are normally about dudes–the bikes they ride, the women they rape. Fortunately, some of these films have female protagonists, allowing the viewer to delve into their psyches and discover the wants and needs of the chopper chick. (Don’t worry, there are still enough bare-ass titties to send a biker to hog heaven.) • […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Less Than Its Parts
Allen’s Disappointing Melinda and Melinda
Melinda and Melinda dir. Allen Now Playing Various Theaters Woody Allen’s latest, Melinda and Melinda, has a promising premise: In a familiar Allen scene where pretentious, cardigan-clad, arty folk philosophize over wine in public, two playwrights discuss a situation they’ve overheard. That situation belongs to Melinda, an unstable, travel-worn woman who interrupts an important dinner […]
Posted inBooks
Petroleum Man
Petroleum Man by Stanley Crawford (Overlook), reading at Powell’s on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne, Monday March 28, 7:30 pm A friend of mine recently gave his two-year-old niece Crime and Punishment for her birthday. Last year he bought her Ulysses. Believing she, at 20, will appreciate his gifts, he plans to help her amass a […]
Posted inBooks
Lost Lake
Lost Lake by Phillip Margolin (HarperCollins) Sometimes I think that, as long as he featured at least one high-speed criminal chase and ended it with newfound love, my cat could write a book and strike it rich. But then I remember that as clever as my cat is, he lacks the credentials that Phillip Margolin […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
The Killing Game
The Killing Game defunkt theatre at the Back Door, 4319 SE Hawthorne, 993-9062, Thurs-Sat 8 pm, Sun 4 pm, through Feb 26, $10-15 Choosing Presidential Inauguration Day to inaugurate the defunkt theatre company’s new season was probably not coincidental. Choosing Eugene Ionesco’s The Killing Game as the inaugural play probably wasn’t either. Parallels between George […]
Posted inBooks
Pig Boy’s Wicked Bird: A Memoir
Pig Boy’s Wicked Bird: A Memoir by Doug Crandell, reading at Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside, Wednesday January 19, 7:30 pm When I was seven. I had memorized all the state capitals (honestly) and every episode of Charlie’s Angels, but I was still seven. I didn’t notice important things like my father’s drinking […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Winslow Corbett: Co-Star to the Stars
Winslow Corbett: Co-Star to the Stars appearing in The Graduate, Keller Auditorium, SW 3rd & Clay, 790-ARTS, Thurs-Sat 7:30 pm, Sat 2 pm, Sun 1 & 6:30 pm, $15-56, one week only Morgan motherfucking Fairchild is coming to town! Reprising Mrs. Robinson, a role formerly played onstage by the likes of Kathleen Turner, Linda Gray, […]
Posted inBooks
Sammy’s Hill
Sammy’s Hill by Kristin Gore (Miramax) Aware that Al Gore’s daughter Kristin once wrote for Futurama and Saturday Night Live, I went into her book Sammy’s Hill expecting a clever and even subversive story deriding the kids who work on Capitol Hill (you know the onesÉ the obnoxious valedictorians, and the Tracy Flicks of the […]
Posted inNews
How the Other Half Thinks
Eastern Oregon Talks about Measure 36
Sandy and I discussed Measure 36 during her break outside the Pendleton Wal-Mart. She supports the measure because “[gay marriage] is wrong according to the Bible.” When I asked for a specific passage and whether she knows any gay men or women personally, she appeared primed to spit on me. Instead, she stamped out her […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Party Monsters
The Overly Moralistic Bright Young Things
Bright Young Things dir. Fry Opens Fri Sept 17 Fox Tower Essentially ancestors of Club 54, the parties thrown by the “bright young things” (a group of well-heeled, bored socialites) were the talk of 1930s London. Much like their debauched NYC progeny, the balls were extravagant, costumes were outlandish, and cocaine abundant (and here I […]