Upcoming
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Tennessee Vals
Newsletter JANUARY 2002
Upcoming
Group Meetings
In This Issue:
The Queens Throne by Marisa
Richmond
marisaval@aol.com
As we move into yet another year, but sadly without the venerable Mary Kay Ash (yes, that Mary Kay, friend to crossdressers throughout the country!) who died in Dallas at the age of 83, I can begin to break another New Year’s Resolution to lose weight. I also cannot help but wonder what lies ahead. If you think back over the last year of the 20th Century and the first year of the 21st, who would have predicted the bizarre election of Al Gore.....uh, George Bush, or of the direct terrorist attacks upon honest, hard-working people within the country whose only crime is that they lived here. And no, Nostradamus did not predict either! It was Gandalf....Still, I cannot help but try and look ahead. I do predict that here in the U.S., a leader of the Talibaptists will make some intolerant remark about other beliefs, women or gays--although they will continue to ignore Transies since they still have not figured out what we are.
On a personal level, I am looking forward to returning to Babylon By the Bay (San Francisco) at the very beginning of the year. I went to graduate school in the Bay Area many years ago (we don’t need to discuss exactly how many....), and I always look forward to returning and getting out in one of the best places to be transgendered. In fact, it was during my student days that I went out in public Just Like a Woman for my second time ever at a club called Chez Mollet. Nothing of interest happened there since it seemed pretty dead. I really couldn’t tell how many where there that evening since I left my glasses in the car, but the fact that I was able to find a parking spot directly in front of the door that night should have tipped me off.
In April, we here in Nashville will be hosting the annual IFGE Convention, which we are calling the Tennessee Waltz. The hotel we will be using is bright pink and right by the Nashville Airport. If any airlines are still operating this spring, we hope you will all come and join us. I was, however, saddened to read in the November issue of The Channel, the newsletter of TransGender San Francisco, that California Dreamin’, which was scheduled for late April, three weeks after we are going to meet in Nashville, has been cancelled for 2002. They cited concerns over travel for people who wanted to attend. Maybe they know something I do not, but we did not cancel Southern Comfort in September, just one week after the attacks, and we still drew 600 people. And we have every intention of going forward with the convention in Nashville as well. Personally, if we stop our activities, whatever they may be, then the terrorists have won.
Anyway, after the Tennessee Waltz, I plan to relax for awhile although I will work again on Southern Comfort–but as an assistant organizer this year! I also look forward to attending Fantasia Fair for my first time ever in October.
Now this year features the official introduction of the Euro.(€) This new currency will replace the Deutsche Mark, Escudo, Franc, Guilder, Lire, Markka, Peseta, Punt, and Schilling. Now, I will admit, it is hard to get nostalgic about the demise of the Lire since I just cannot imagine missing any denomination worth less than a Chiclet. Right now, I have a whopping £1100 in my possession–or a grand total of 50¢. For you traditionalists, we will still have several holdouts like the drachma, Krona, Krone, and British Pound. You can always count on the British to remain aloof. So what has the Euro got to do with being transgendered? Well, aside from the fact that it makes travel across Europe easier, especially for those intending to visit Dr. Segers in Brussels, I welcome anything that reduces any barriers anywhere in the world. We create far too many lines to separate us even though we are all one species occupying one planet. When we recognize that we as humans have more in common than we have differences, then much of the hostility one group directs towards another becomes more difficult to justify. And if you have any Lire, I recommend holding onto them. A single one may actually be worth a whole French Fry one day!
Finally, I cannot end without paying homage to one of my musical heroes, George “Nelson Wilbury” Harrison. I feel fortunate that I actually saw him perform live in Washington, D.C. back in 1966 (he sang lead on “If I Needed Someone”). While his recent death by cancer was not a surprise, it does serve to remind us all that–yes, All Things Must Pass and that we are all getting old. No matter how much we try to hold onto our youth, we inevitably ask “What is Life?” as we contemplate the reality that the march of time cannot be stopped. Harrison accomplished a lot in his 58 years, but it is probably safe to say that most, if not all, of us have probably not accomplished all we set out to do All Those Years Ago. For me, this may finally be the spark I need to learn the guitar. I actually did study violin when I was young, but never guitar. What dreams have you put off? If not now, when? Think For Yourself and then get out and do it.
Have a Happy New Year.
A
Blonde, Brunette AND Redhead
byJulie
Phillips FabulBabe@aol.com
I’ve thought with think tanks, consulted pundits and talking heads; I‘ve even made phony telemarketing calls to Miss Cleo’s house— all in preparation for this: my personal predictions for the year 2002. For legal purposes, I am required to state that I cannot guarantee any of these predictions will come true (though I am a licensed psychic through the respected Internet site SuckersRUs.com.) Now, without further stalling:
Here’s to happiness and health to all of us in 2002!
My Closet by Leslie Louise DuPaix lldupaix@hotmail.com
We are in a new year now and I wonder if I am glad the old one is over. I am pretty sure that I am, but the new year could be worse than the one just over, and we might long for a return to the past year. I hope not. I hope that 2002 will see things back on track. I hope our economy is back on track well before the end of 2002. I hope that the economies that spawn world problems are healing and that we can all be on the way towards enjoying the fullness of life that is out there.
2001 has been full of significant changes for me, all for the better (although that is not to say painless), for which I am thankful. The transition from the old year to the new and the changes within my worlds all cause me to look back and see where I have come from and to consider where all of this is leading.
Tibetan Buddhists call the time between incarnations the “bardo.” Bardo is creeping into our language and replacing “inter-life” and is akin to the Greek “kairos” which is only one of several kinds of time for which the Greeks had words. Kairos and the bardo all apply to the point at which we always are--the point in time where it is not yet past nor is it future. Where we are not what we were, yet are not what we will become. “Transitioning” in the “T” sense of the word could well be thought of in terms of kairos and bardo. And what we do in the bardo influences, if not creates, the past and the future, as we will come to know it. December and January are, for me, bardo months.
Looking at where I think I am now, and then looking farther back to where I was 40 years ago, it becomes clear that there has been a lot of change. Looking closely and reflecting, I can see some distinct stages that defined my past and made possible my future.
The archetypal stages for a GG are Maiden, Mother and Crone. For a t-girl this is not enough. (I am going to make a distinction here between t-girl, femme in the CD sense, and T-girl in the TS sense. I can claim to speak with some authority on the t-girl experience, but I cannot on the T-girl experience.) To the GG stages I would add Child before Maiden, and replace Mother with Adult.
In the “child” stage, the activities are innocent, playful, partial and full of magical thinking. The birthday-candle-wish to be changed fits into this stage, as well as panties in the clothes hamper. It is important to note that these stages have little or no relationship to the chronological age of the male host.
The “maiden” stage starts when one has made a complete and reasonable presentation (the presentation may be made privately and does not have to be well done. I think a major part of it is a conscious desire to carry out as complete a transformation as circumstances and abilities permit. The so-called “Barbie Stage” is part of this and includes a lot of experimentation (not always showing any good sense of style, taste nor ability at execution). This would be similar; I would guess, to the activities of a 13 to, say, 18-year-old GG.
The “adult” stage is characterized by a satisfaction with an appropriate and practical presentation. The skills, lessons and practice from the “maiden” stage pay off. Cleaning house on a Saturday? Wear jeans and a sweatshirt (with the appropriate enhancement within and without) and be done with it.
The “Crone” is where the adult understands some of the lessons of her journey and wishes to share with her sisters in the other stages whatever wisdom she thinks she may have. When Lesa writes this column, she is in crone-mode most of the time.
All of that is offered as a possible path. There is no time schedule. Wherever you are, or are not, is exactly where you need to be. Likewise there are no steel doors that close after moving past a stage. One is never only in one stage. One cannot rush through any stage, nor can one stay too long in any stage. I think that some of the discussion about “how one looses interest” may have something to do with being in the bardo between stages, where the lessons and experiences “soak in” before we continue our journey.
According to Carl Jung, within the unconscious of every woman there is a male principle, and in every male there is a female principle. “In the language of the spirit these two parts unite within us in the bridal chamber of our heart, and when the two become as one, they are transcended and bring us back to the original state of Wholeness or Union with God.” * So the stages I have seen in my own physical and spiritual wanderings that I have shared above, I see as part of a not so chaotic nor accidental path. It is a path leading toward a spiritual wholeness that is only really starting to make sense as I make it into the last stage. Lesa the Crone has spoken!!
Left
of Center by Pamela DeGroff
One of the changes that have occurred for Nashville's GLBT community during the last year involves an almost venerable institution-The Center. Not only has it moved from the old 703 Berry Road location to an office suite at 961 Woodland, it also now has a new name. Gone is the tongue twisting "Center For Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Life in Nashville". In its place is the new, shorter, user friendly "Rainbow Community Center". Since September 15, 2001, the newly named Center is now a welcome part of East Nashville. The Center's history at the old Berry Road address dates back to 1987, when that property was purchased by Emily Whitcomb for the express purpose of providing meeting space for the organizations within the community. Prior to that, various groups had been meeting whenever they could, wherever they could. The Berry Road property was the first concerted effort towards a stable, fixed location for community resources. I was recently privileged to speak at length with Dr. Joyce Arnold, Rainbow Community Center Executive Director, about the Center's past, its present new location, and what the future has in store for this newly named, well seasoned organization.
Pamela: What was the original
reasons for starting the Center, all those years
ago?
Dr. Arnold: There were more and
more people coming out, finding each other. It was becoming more of "...where
can we go, what can we do, how do we meet people, how can we find
resources..."
I think The Center came together
more than anything because people were looking-there wasn't anything basically,
is what I've heard a number of people say.
One of the early volunteers told
me that the switchboard-as it was called then; we call it the Resource Referral
Line now-had somebody staffing it and answering it from 3 o'clock in the
afternoon until midnight, seven days a week. They had that many people doing
it, but they had phone calls, enough phone calls.
The Center keeps reinventing itself,
depending upon what's going on, what kind of needs, so that programs kind
of come and go. The phone answering has remained central throughout the this
whole time. How often it's done has varied over the years, but it's never
completely stopped, it's always been at the middle of
everything.
Pamela: Do you think the community
needs have changed any since that time?
Dr. Arnold: Yes, I think they keep
changing. For example, we've discovered that answering the phones three nights
a week...pretty much meets the need.
The other thing we're about to
do is put the whole resource guide on our web page (www.nashcenter.org);
that's one of the thing's that have changed...lots of people get their
information through the web. They don't need to call us because they can
go online to find it.
It's changed in a lot of ways.
There's a whole lot more to choose from and be involved in, yet we still
get the same questions "....where can we go to meet people if we don't want
to go to a bar..." over and over.
There are still a lot of needs.
That's one of the reasons we have a new women's talk group, and a new men's
discussion group beginning. There's a film group that's starting...things
like that. I think the difference, more than anything else, is that we have
a location people can feel good about coming to. I think that's the key
piece.
Pamela: Speaking of your new location,
how have you been received by the neighbors?
Dr. Arnold: Really well. It's been
interesting. One of the things that we decided when we first came over here
to look at it was that we were going to be totally up front with everybody
about who we were, starting with the landlord. And, it's been fine. There's
an insurance company and an attorney in the same
building.
Pamela: How has the community
received it?
Dr. Arnold: Extremely positive.
Obviously, the people who live over here-and there are a lot of us who live
over here in East Nashville-there are a lot of people who are very happy
about it. The health food store across the street is family
owned.
Before we were settled in, I was
getting phone calls. Now that we're settled in, people are coming by and
looking at it and saying "Oh, good."
Pamela: Why the name change to
"Rainbow Community Center"?
Dr. Arnold: It was a board decision.
I proposed that we think about it, initially, but it was a board decision.
One reason...is that I got really tired of going somewhere and saying, "Hi,
I'm Joyce Arnold, executive director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender Community Center for Life-whatever-in Nashville." What I started
doing was saying, "I'm only going to say this once, so listen to me carefully.
I'm just going to say "The Center" after that.
It's just not workable to use all
that. You try to print that on letterhead-anything with that is just
unmanageable. We were very confident that calling it "The Queer Center" would
not go over very well for some people. We wanted something that most people
could recognize what it was. Rainbow seemed kind of the obvious one. It's
kind of unoriginal, but the more we tried it out with different people, we
got a consistently positive response.
Also, it goes along with the perception
that it's a fresh start. We're not forgetting our history, because that's
important...but this is a new place and a new time, and we'll build on
that.
Pamela: In talking about the local
community's history, The Center's old Berry Road location was where a lot
of people first made contact with others of like mind. Besides the bad parking
situation, any comments on the old versus the new
location?
Dr. Arnold: I think there were plusses
for being there. In a strange sort of way, the very fact that we were there
for almost 14 years, there was a continuity, there was a history there. There's
a lot of people who have a lot of sentiment for 703 Berry Road. It's very
real.
Pamela: Would you say The Center
outgrew The Center?
Dr. Arnold: Oh yeah, we did...we
really did. It's interesting because that was one of the reasons it stopped
growing. We had to say no to too many things. People couldn't meet there
anymore and had to move on. A good example is the Tennessee Vals. We'd love
to have the Vals meet at The Center, but there was no way they could meet
in that little space any more.
A problem was visibility. We were
not visible there. The benefit of being here is that we are much more in
public view. This is a fairly busy street, there are businesses all around,
and people in and out all day long.
Pamela: Have the services that
The Center offers changed now?
Dr. Arnold: Well, the phone, the
library, the meeting space, that continues...and developing
programming.
I'm doing more education and advocacy,
going out and speaking and meeting with various groups.
That's one of the things we really
want to increase. I would like to have a group of people available who I
could bring for a day, a half day, or an hour. I would like to bring people
from across our communities. I think that would be a very good thing to
do.
One of the things I'm not surprised
at, and I've had it reaffirmed again and again, is that even in our own
communities, there's still a great deal of misinformation. This is one of
the needs that we have, and I think The Center can offer some of that "...come
and find out about your communities..." in general. The diversity is
huge.
Pamela: What does the future hold
for The Center?
Dr. Arnold: We signed a three year
lease. I seriously thought about signing a five year lease because the price
is good. But...part of the reason for doing the three year was because we
wanted to leave a "near-future" option of moving on to a larger space.
I think we're going to find out
in the next three years if the response is going to be such financially-along
with volunteers coming forward to do the work-is it going to be enough that
we can warrant keeping this open?
I believe it will, but I'm hoping
that by the midpoint of that three year lease we'll have an idea of seriously
looking at purchasing something.
I think people can look at this
and say, "Yeah, I can call this my community center and it would feel okay."
So, it's really, totally where we are. In two, or three, or five years from
now...it's going to depend on the board, it's going to depend on what I do,
and it's going to depend on a bunch of volunteers...but overall, it's going
to depend on all the communities.
Right now, we don't have any trans
people on our board, and we'd love to have some. I'd love to have straight
people on the board, but I haven't had time to pursue that
yet.
Pamela: Any last
words?
Dr. Arnold: I guess mostly just
to encourage people to come see us, come talk to us. If you've got ideas,
things that you'd like to see happening, or just to find out what is going
on. But if you've got ideas, then I definitely want to hear it. Then I'll
probably immediately ask you what can you do to help make it
happen.
(Author's note: Please feel free to contact The Rainbow Community Center directly for further information at: Rainbow Community Center 961 Woodland Street P.O. Box 60886 Nashville, TN 37206 615/297-0008 Website: www.nashcenter.org Email: info@nashcenter.org)
NEWS TRANS-missions
news, media mentions, etc...
Move to Canada and Elect a Drag Queen
Can a 5'9 drag queen in 10 inch stilettos become the leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition?
Toronto's Enza Anderson is betting 'yes'. Enza is throwing her blonde wig into the Canadian Alliance Party leadership ring.
The CA is the Official Opposition, and leader Stockwell Day is in the race of his life. Day has not made his candidacy official, but it is a forgone conclusion that he wants to be re-elected.
The affable Anderson will no doubt keep plugging
on Day's knickname, Dorris. Day, who opposes partnership unions and other
gay rights, along with abortion, and relaxed immigration laws has had a troubled
time ever since he took on the leadership of the party. Plagued by gaffes
and party defections he's a perfect target for Enza.
Not that Day hasn't had his own brush with transvestism. During the last election a Canadian political satire program proposed a referendum on changing his first name to Doris, after Day said "contentious social issues such as homosexual rights should be put to a referendum."
The show's phone poll recorded enough names in the first day to meet Day's own criteria for holding a national vote.
For her part Enza is not an unknown to voters. She came in third in Toronto's last civic election in a field of more than 20 candidates. "It's my legs!," she said. "I've got 100% legs. They get me where I need to go."
"The blonde hair and the 36B's didn't hurt either."
"It's time that the Alliance got out of the closet and showed its real colours," quipped Anderson, 37, launching her official www.enza.ca Web site.
She'll need to come up with the $25,000 and the 300 signatures from supporters in 30 different ridings in five provinces that she needs to register as a candidate. But, the ever confident Enza isn't worried. She's convinced she can raise the cash by the Jan. 31 deadline. Anderson has already joined the party, a prerequisite for running.
And, what does Day think about running against Enza? "We're a very open party," Day said. "I'm just pleased that we continue to attract people from across the spectrum.....our policies and principles, we're very open, we're very diverse."
One Liberal backroom operative in Ottawa speculated that with Enza in the race, the circus that has become the Alliance Party will become "The Circus Maximus."
"And, when Stock Day claims the Alliance is diverse, he's speaking in some sort of code. To him diverse means, homophobic, misogamist, and xenophobic."
Enza says she's ready for the race. "I have new spike heels, a smart mini, and my hair is out being set."
Source: by Jan Prout @ Toronto bureau
of
365gay.com
Her campaign website:
www.enza.ca ..
Sir Elton John Loves his Lipstick
Out pop legend Sir Elton John will pucker up as the new spokesman for MAC's Viva Glam VI lipstick, according to Reuters. Proceeds from sales of the lipstick will benefit the company's AIDS fund. Mary J. Blige and Shirley Manson will join John in the ad campaign, scheduled to launch in February, which will be shot by gay photographer David LaChapelle. Mac's Viva Glam line has raised more than $24 million for HIV and AIDS services since its creation in 1994.
Source: The Advocate 12/15/01
All Singing,All Dancing Mrs. Doubtfire
U.S. movie audiences have already seen the story of Mrs. Doubtfire unfold on the big screen; now, everyone's favorite housekeeper may be making a comeback in the American theater.
While stage versions are already must-sees in Italy and France, talks are under way for an English-language version of the European theater adaptations to run on Broadway and in London...
For the past two years, a musical version, dubbed ``E Meno Male Che C'e' Maria,'' has been running in Rome, and a non-musical French version kicked off in October at the Theatre de Paris.
``Interest in the theatrical version -- both with and without music -- has proved so strong that we hope to bring 'Mrs. Doubtfire' back from her European holiday for a real run at Broadway,'' Bernsen said.
In addition to the pending U.S. version, productions in Japan, Spain, Germany and Austria are possibilities.
source: Variety 11/27/01
Winn-Dixie Tries to Shut Down Website
Winn-Dixie Stores, the Southern grocery giant and major Fortune 500 company that has been under attack for 14 months for allegedly firing a truck driver who cross-dressed off-duty, is trying to shut down a Web site protesting the company's actions, according to a press release from the American Civil Liberties Union.
"Winn-Dixie fired Peter Oiler because they thought he'd harm the company's image--but now they see it's their own discrimination that's harming their image," said Matt Coles, Director of the ACLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project.
For the second holiday season in a row, ShameOnWinnDixie.com provides background on Oiler as well as information on the ACLU's pending federal lawsuit on his behalf. Oiler worked for nearly 20 years at Winn-Dixie's Louisiana branch before being fired. The Web site, created and maintained by a coalition of activists working with the ACLU, also includes contact information for Oiler's former supervisors and executives involved in firing him. In a letter to a transgendered woman in rural Alabama who helped design the Web site more than a year ago, Winn-Dixie's corporate attorney demanded that the Web site be removed from the Internet "immediately." Coles said Winn-Dixie's demands are groundless.
Source: The Advocate 12/21/01
(Editor‘s Note: Below are categories we’re sure feature a transgender theme or character. They are highlighted in this bizarre color.)
Outstanding Film, Limited Release: Big Eden, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Nico and Dani, Punks, Songcatcher
Outstanding Drama Series: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Education of Max Bickford, ER, Queer As Folk, Six Feet Under
Outstanding Television Movie: Anatomy of a Hate Crime, Armistead Maupin's Further Tales of the City, A Glimpse of Hell, Stranger Inside, What Makes a Family
Outstanding Daily Drama: All My Children
Outstanding
Newspaper, Overall Coverage: Cortez [Colo.]
Journal, Newsday, The Roanoke [Va.] Times, USA
Today, The Village Voice
Outstanding Magazine Article: "Backlash" by Michael Riley (American Journalism Review), "Does a Sex Change Mean the End of the Relationship?" by Sara Corbett (The New York Times Magazine), "The Firemen's Friar" by Jennifer Senior (New York), "Growing Up Gay" by Matthew T. Everett (Metro Pulse of Knoxville, Tenn.), "A Question of Identity" by Malcolm Venable (Vibe)
Outstanding Magazine, Overall Coverage: AsianWeek, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine
Outstanding New York Theater Production, Broadway and off-Broadway: Dogeaters, Dragapella! Starring the Kinsey Sicks, Four, The Invention of Love, Resident Alien
Source: The Advocate 12/01
Pat Robertson
Retires as Leader, Though His Haggard Visage Still Haunts TV sets
Nationwide
Christian Coalition founder Pat
Robertson, who made the group one of the most powerful forces in conservative
politics over the past decade, resigned Wednesday as the group's president.
The move raised questions about whether the organization, seriously weakened from its peak political influence in the mid-1990s, would survive.
In an announcement on his personal Web site, Robertson said that at age 71, he wants to focus on more spiritual pursuits. "With the few years left to me of active service, I must focus on those things that will bring forth the greatest spiritual benefit," he wrote. He said the nation is experiencing a spiritual revival, and "I want to be part of that."
He said the Christian Coalition had "fulfilled all of the 10-year political goals" set when it was founded in 1989, a year after his failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination. Those goals included electing more Christian conservatives to public office and increasing the political clout of Christian evangelicals.
"Without us, I do not believe that George Bush would be sitting in the White House or that Republicans would be in control of the United States House of Representatives," he wrote.
But the decade also saw a series of fierce political battles. The government denied the coalition's claim to tax-exempt status in 1999, and the group got into court fights over its voter guides distributed in churches. Candidates it opposed complained that their positions on issues were mischaracterized.
Most recently, Robertson and evangelist Jerry Falwell said on Robertson's TV program that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks occurred because God was angry at American gays, liberals and those who favor abortion. Both later backed down.
The coalition's membership has declined and so have financial contributions. The group ceased publication of its magazine and lost a succession of directors, including its most aggressive, Republican strategist Ralph Reed.
In his letter, Robertson said "it is now time for the Lord to raise up someone to take my place."
A persistent critic said that is unlikely, however. The group "cannot survive without the financial and political clout of Robertson," said Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "This suggests ... that he is jumping off a ship that is sinking."
Robertson remains head of the Christian Broadcasting Network and will continue to host his television program, The 700 Club.
Source:by Jim Drinkard USA Today 12/06/01
PA TS Convicted
of Manslaugther in Husband's Death
A Pennsylvania transsexual woman
whose husband died days after a crude castration in their trailer home was
convicted Friday of involuntary manslaughter.
Tammy Felbaum, 43, testified Friday that on the day of the operation she accused her husband James, 40, of being unfaithful and that he castrated himself to prove that he wouldn't cheat on her. According to Felbaum, she awoke from a drug-induced sleep to find James had performed the castration. Earlier in the trial, one of Felbaum's previous husbands said she helped him perform a similar operation in 1983, and her husband's brother testified that she repeatedly threatened to castrate James Felbaum if he ever cheated on her.
Coroner Cyril Wecht determined James Felbaum choked to death on his own vomit and said the castration did not lead directly to his death. The castration was performed on a Thursday and Felbaum died the following Sunday, court records show.
Prosecutors argued that James Felbaum died from a combination of the pain of a castration performed by Tammy Felbaum and the effects of the painkiller OxyContin.
In addition to involuntary manslaughter, Tammy Felbaum was found guilty of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, and unauthorized practice of medicine. She will be sentenced February 27.
source: The Advocate 12/18/01
Some Like It
Hot--and Often
Some like it hot, and some like
to pay $150 for it.
Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot is a sumptuous, oversized (15.7 by 9.8 inches) homage to the 1959 movie that the American Film Institute named the funniest comedy ever made. The fall book has already gone into its second printing.
"It's such a light film, and yet it inspired such a heavy book," says Dan Auiler with a laugh. Auiler interviewed director Billy Wilder, who turned 95 in June, and stars Tony Curtis and the late Jack Lemmon for the book (Taschen, 384 pp.). "It must weigh about 10 to 15 pounds. A box of four weighs about 50."
Adds Cologne-based publisher Benedikt Taschen: "It is certainly the most unique book ever made about a single film, and I really don't think anything else compares to it. Billy Wilder is my all-time favorite director, and Some Like It Hot is the best-loved comedy of all time, so it was an easy decision."
You can judge this book by its canary-yellow leather cover. What's inside, edited by Alison Castle, is just as impressive. It includes:
This last feature will fascinate Monroe's many fans. Monroe had an infamously tough time getting through this movie, even though her performance is perfect.
"It took her
more than 80 takes to say the line 'Where's that bourbon?' " says Auiler
(pronounced "Iler"), whose previous book was Vertigo: The Making of a
Hitchcock Classic. "It went late into the night, and they all were just
exhausted by it. Jack Lemmon recalled that she could do long paragraphs very
easily and would knock out a complicated scene in two or three takes. But
when the line was two or three words, it wouldn't come out right. Or if they
came out right, she would insist there was something wrong with the take."
One person who was not convinced that the book was a good idea was Wilder himself (Wilder himself, or a caricature of him, is the tome's oversized bookmark).
Taschen recalls that when he first proposed the book to Wilder, the filmmaker responded modestly: "All right, but who would buy such a book? You will certainly make no money with it."
Taschen replied: "We will surely find some people out there, from young girls to elderly gentlemen, gay, straight, and from all walks of life, whose all-time favorite cult movie is Some Like It Hot. There can't be more than 2 billion.
"And if it doesn't sell," he added, "we will have great gifts to give for years to come."
source: by Andy Seiler USA Today 11/27/01
How About you Just Give the Woman Her Money?
An attorney for a Kansas transsexual woman told the state's highest court Tuesday that if it doesn't declare her marriage valid, it will create the impression that it supports same-sex unions. The supreme court is reviewing a dispute over the $2.5 million estate of Marshall Gardiner, a stockbroker and former newspaper reporter who died in 1999 without a will. The outcome will determine whether his widow, J'Noel Gardiner, and his son, Joe Gardiner, will split the estate or whether Joe Gardiner will claim it all. Normally the estate would be split evenly under Kansas law. But J'Noel Gardiner was born a man and had sexual reassignment surgeries in 1994 and 1995. She married Marshall Gardiner in 1998, when she was 40 and he was 85. Kansas has long refused to recognize same-sex marriages, and legislators enacted a 1996 law to reiterate that point. However, the law doesn't mention transsexuals. J'Noel Gardiner's attorney, Sanford Krigel, of Kansas City, Mo., told the justices that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that adults have a right to marry. Concluding that J'Noel Gardiner remains a man despite her surgeries and declaring her marriage to Marshall Gardiner invalid would leave her the right to marry only women, he said. "You're creating a situation where you would essentially be approving what would appear to be a homosexual marriage," Krigel said. "There's all kind of potential pitfalls."
.Source: The Advocate 12/06/01
80s
Dance Group Dead or Alive is Very
Alive
Eighties
pop stars never die, they just get big in Japan. And, uh, start looking a
lot like Cher. At least if you’re Dead or Alive’s Pete Burns. The
singer’s 10th album, "Unbreakable," a "hyper-techno" collection of his
old hits, was just released in record stores all over Tokyo. But Burns yearns
to do more than just sing for his makeup. Next year, Burns will transition
into the very unlikely role of television host. According to Burns’
official Web site, the mad, bad and dangerous one has just signed on as presenter
for a new television series called "The Male Peacock" which begins production
in New York after the first of the year. The show will explore the male as
a focus of glamour and beauty. And who, for Pete’s sake, would be better
suited and booted for that job?
Source: Dish in
Southern Voice 12/07/01
Dead or Alive's Official Website:
www.deadoralive.net