Tranny Thursday: Gula Delgatto

Somewhere in the barren plains of central Oregon there is a dusty trail; unmarked and little traveled by any but the most desperate or unsavory. Those who trod the Whiskey Trail tell strange tales. Stories of animals that talk like men, encounters with the ghosts of friends long past, and of a cruel temptress known only as "Gula Delgatto."

Friendsday: Where The Bears Are

Hey gang it's Wednesday-Friendsday and before I head out to picnic in the park I want to share this new web-series with you. It's a mystery-comedy set right here in Silverlake called "Where the Bears Are." It's "The Golden Girls" meets "Murder She Wrote" but gay gayer. And it features my buddies Chad Sanders as a sexy detective trying to solve the mystery and and Mario Diaz the sleazy (possibly evil) bar owner. The episodes are super short and the jokes are genuinely funny, especially several episodes in as the actors really begin to inhabit their characters. Get into it.

(hi chad!)

New Music Monday: Esthero

I've always loved Esthero, ever since those halcyon days when the late 90's became the early aught's and my basic uniform went from Hawaiian shirts and corduroy shorts to fat pants and finger-less gloves. Her first album, Breath From Another, makes up a large piece of my aural landscape from that time and I can't listen to "Heaven Sent" or "Country Livin'" without being flooded with memories of late night drives to the beat-filled warehouses of Los Angeles, or a dozen drug deals that almost went wrong. But despite being awesome, Breath From Another, wasn't a big commercial success.

Esthero's second album, Wicked Lil' Grrls, is also seeped in Los Angeles for me. Though this time the LA of 2005, when I lived my life as study in making poor choices. I was pretty miserable in those days; my dad had just died, my boyfriend and I broke up, and my life generally fell apart. I spent a lot of time getting wasted with unsavory characters and listening to this album. It was also not a huge success, commercial or critical, but was still awesome (despite the awful Myspacian spelling in several of the song titles.)

Now Esthero is going to be releasing her third studio album. It's called Everything is Expensive and its not supposed to come out until October, but she's already released the first single, and if it's anything to go by, this album is going to be a big hit. The lyrics are clever the hook is catchy and beat propels my body into motion. Get into it.

Friendsday: Summertime Realness

This music video by my little brother, Little Rikki, and Chicago-based Bear-hopper, Big Dipper, came out a few weeks ago. But as I was cruising the hot and sticky streets of Los Angeles today I found myself humming it today, and I just had to share. Happy Friendsday everybody, enjoy!

Wednesday: Friendsday

My buddy Jimmy Vogel (he of the eponymous zine) organizes a weekly picnic get together. Every Wednesday we get together to share food and stories, and watch the sunset over the hills to the west. Our little band of brothers is spread out, across the both the sprawl of Los Angeles and the vast empire of America. And the regular meet up provides a very welcome opportunity to bask in some community. We call it "Wednesday Friendsday," I look forward to it every week, and I get incredibly bummed when I have to miss it. A big part of the heartbreak is rooted in the sheer awesomeness of my friends. I am privileged to know some of the most talented and interesting homos in the world. And so many of my talented friends did interesting things in the last few weeks i thought I'd share.

First up a collaboration between between my friends, film maker Aron Kantor and Drag Diva Ambrosia Salad, and featuring some of San Francisco's most adorable boys. The video is an appreciation of Roisin Murphy's long ago leaked future single, 'Simulation.' and it's getting a lot of love all over the internets.

Simulation - Roisin Murphy - ft. Ambrosia Salad from Dirtyglitter on Vimeo.

Chick-fil-a Fallout: A Sign of Changing Times

Yesterday (7/30) R. Clarke Cooper, Executive Director of the Log Cabin Republicans, weighed in on the recent controversies swirling around Chick-fil-a after it's president, Dan Cathy, admitted that his company gives financial support to anti-gay causes, and decreed that the whole debate was an "empty calorie diversion from equality." And warned us that an "anti-Chick-fil-a crusade" might play well in the "Democratic Enclaves" (read: godless pits of vice) on the coasts, but in "America's Hearland" (you know, the real America) queers loudly and visibly standing up for our rights is turning conservatives, moderates, and independents against us.

Don't get him wrong, Mr. Cooper doesn't have any problem with us "voting with our feet" and spending our gay dollars elsewhere, he doesn't even mind if we ask our friends and allies to do the same. He just doesn't want us to do so too loudly. You see, Mr. Cooper seems to feel that we've just about convinced social conservatives that we are human beings; and if we stay on our best behavior for just a little bit longer and don't cause a ruckus, then they will graciously grant us our natural rights. And by drawing attention to Mr. Cathy's material support for bigotry we are somehow betraying those conservatives who have stood up for common decency and marriage equality (I love you, Meghan McCain! I hope you don't feel betrayed!). Then he invokes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., (seemingly without irony.) and then Thomas Jefferson.

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

Mr. Cooper asks what would we gain if marriage activists "won" and Chick-fil-a went out of business, besides one less source of money flowing into the coffers of hate groups and the transformation of a  fried chicken fast food chain into a "martyr for religious freedom."  But the thing is, this isn't a debate about religious freedom, any more than it is a debate about fried chicken. I don't care one lick if Dan Cathy believes in ten Gods or twenty. I care that Mr. Cathy runs a business that has given thousands of dollars to organizations that work to pass anti-gay legislation all over America. That does "pick my pocket and break my leg" and yours Mr. Cooper, and the collective legs and pockets of our people.

You are wrong, Mr. Cooper. There most certainly is not "room for disagreement" when it comes to marriage equality. Just as there is no longer room for disagreement on school integration. or disenfranchising women voters. These are the positions of the truly un-American. And if Chick-fil-a ends up shutting it's doors for good it wont be because America's 9 million or so homosexuals and a couple of liberal mayors were able to somehow bully them into oblivion, but rather because of a change in American culture. A refusal to accept bigotry and persecution, no mater the scripture sighted to justify it.

And that culture is changing, but the work is far from over. And it never will be if we heed the advice of self appointed "leaders" who tell us to play nice and wait patiently for discrimination to fade away. In the words of Dr. King.

"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent."