Another Queer Jewish Buddhist

South Park Meets Chelsea In Violet Tendencies, Giving Mindy Cohn a Hilarious & Politically Incorrect Star Turn

Remember Mindy Cohn from The Facts of Life? Well, director Casper Andreas did, and gave her a part that she goes to town with in Violet Tendencies.

Cohn plays, to use the language of the film, “the oldest living fag hag.” Which means she has sacrificed her own love life to live through the loves and lives of her younger gay friends. She doesn’t seem to mind until she finds herself as the last fag hag standing when another female friend of the friends of Dorothy gets married.

What happens next? Well amidst the swirl of Chelsea boys who haven’t grown up and don’t seem like they will ever reach emotional maturity, Cohn’s character Violet starts seriously looking for love in other places. Problem is, she has so much fun with the gay boys that the straight men pale in comparison.

Sounds serious huh? All I can tell you is I sat with a group of gay men watching this film and we all literally screamed with laughter. And occasional horror at how politically incorrect it truly is — think South Park meets Chelsea. 

There will be moments that make you cringe with embarrassment that you are actually laughing at this, but laugh you will. Out loud. The dialog is sharp and the cast is pure pro. You’ll recognize soap stars Marcus Patrick and Samuel Whitten among others. Mindy Cohn gets to be center stage and matches comic timing and delivery without holding back on the central emotional isolation she feels. She may be neurotic, but she is a fully developed character: I wish I could say the same for any of the gay men in this film. They are horrifically shallow. But if I think about the film as a live action cartoon in the mold of Family Guy, well then, it’s brilliant.

It’s the closing night film at NewFest 2010 this year, and there will be a party after the screening with much of the cast since this is a pure New York City production. It promises to be a wild night, so get your tickets for Violet Tendencies here; don’t miss it.

Music, memory, Match boxes and coffee: An appreciation of Tokyo's La Scala-za Café

While rummaging through a drawer recently I came across a box of matches I’d been saving since 1987. It was from La Scala-za, a café in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district, and one of the most memorable café’s in Tokyo at a time when these businesses thrived on competition to be the most individual, eccentric and creative (all the more astounding in a culture that denied this urge in the citizenry).

What made La Scala-za an experience was visible even  before you entered: vines clung to walls that looked as though they were built of stone. There was a turret, and the roof along the side street was crenellated.  There was a tall and narrow stained glass window in front that ran from the first through third floors. The effect was of a decrepit castle. 

Inside there were overdone crystal chandeliers, curiosity cabinets filled with odd knick knacks, a suit of armor standing in a stairwell, and antimacassars on the red velvet chairs. Today’s Goths would feel totally at home there, or perhaps today’s vampire fans. However, I think the intention was to capture the 19th Romantic European sense of beauty. And in fact, the decorative metalwork in front of the second floor window looks like the image on their match-box cover.  

When you consider that the place opened in 1954, only two years after the end of Japan’s occupation by the Allied Powers, in an only partially rebuilt Tokyo where, La Scala-za must have stood as a monument to a fantasy escape from the privations of post-war Japan. But that escape was only partially fueled by the architecture (and caffeine). No, what made La Scala-za so special, and what had people going there regularly was that they played Western classical music non-stop at a time when buying records must have also seemed an incredible luxury.

In fact, Scala-za published a schedule of what they would be playing in advance. A program of sorts. So if you wanted to come and hear Verdi, or Chopin (since it was not only opera, despite the name) you knew just when to show up. Though you couldn’t be guaranteed a seat, since regulars seemed to almost live there.

Students would be there hunched over books, smoking furiously and discussing important issues in art at politics. And young lovers made La Scala-za a meeting place for decorously romantic coffee dates.   I know, because my boyfriend Hiroshi took me there for the first time when we had just started going out in 1982. So finding that box of matches was a moment of romantic memories and nostalgia for Tokyo in the go-go 80s, so different a time from La Scala’s beginning.

The image on the match-box cover, a sort of 19^th Century Romeo and Juliet on the  balcony, with a dash of My Fair Lady meets Dracula, captures the recherché spirit of the place.

La Scala-za closed after a 48-year run on December 31^st,  2002, a victim of the real estate boom. People lined up outside to say goodbye. But recently, it has re-appeared in a new incarnation, though in the basement of a modern building and so without the feel of the old place.

This is the story of cities, and life. I remember going up 6th Avenue in Manhattan with my father when I was a boy and listening to him complain about how it had been ruined by all the new glass and steel buildings. Now, I can’t walk through the city without being surrounded by ghosts of people and places past.

Memories and impermanence. The evanescence of existence — the blossom falls. The beautiful sadness of things. So lets keep dancing. In this moment now — because really, that’s all there is Peggy.  

NewFest 2010: How DADT Affected Over 100 Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Alumni of The US Naval Academy.

Out of Annapolis gives the LGBT alumni of the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, the chance to tell their stories after serving their country in silence as Navy and Marine Corps officers.

These brave citizens speak candidly about difficult circumstances that some service people have found more stressful than battle.

As DADT lumbers slowly towards repeal, you might think this film will be just another bit of history — documenting the past. However, what makes this film a moving portrait of LGBT Americans is how it captures the strong bond they feel towards the Naval Academy. And how it shows the many positive ways the Naval Academy shaped their character.

Out of Annapolis will be showing at NewFest on Saturday, June 12^th at 2:30. Tickets are on sale now at the NewFest website.

It will be shown with Silent Partners, documenting how DADT affects the lives of the partners of 3  deployed service members and the screening is sponsored the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

Gregg Araki wins the first Queer Palm at Cannes

Gregg Araki's new film has won the first prize ever awarded at Cannes for Queer Film. The new movie, Kaboom, is a teen comedy with a sci-fi/supernatural twist features explicit scenes of gay, lesbian and bisexual sex. Perfect for an LGBT film festival, no? Take a look at the Kaboom trailer on youtube.

NewFest 2010: Topp Twins called "The Lesbian Carol Burnett Show"

The Topp Twins were interviewed this week in the Toronto Star, where their brand of sketch comedy was compared to Carol Burnett's comedy. Well, if Carol Burnett were channeling Murray Hill and Lily Tomlin perhaps.

I loved learning that they are not only out and proud lesbian, but they are very politically involved at home:

...the movie... shows how the Topp Twins have been agents of political change in their homeland, campaigning against nuclear power and for Maori land rights, gay and lesbian rights and demanding the 1981 tour of New Zealand by the South African football club the Springboks, be halted

....“It’s so subversive when you think about it,” says singer Billy Bragg in the film of the twins’ cross-cultural appeal. “Of all the forms, to choose county and western (music) is the most redneck, the most gender-specific of all popular culture. To use that as a way of pushing forward gay rights, it’s so subversive.”

Untouchable Girls: The Topp Twins will play at NewFest on Thursday, June 10th at 7:30pm. Get your tickets here.

Queer Shamanic Transcendental Cabaret: Taylor Mac at Joe's Pub.

Seeing Taylor Mac is a spiritual experience of deep joy. He is enchanting and erudite at the same time. I'm not going to write about the experience of this concert because I was fortunate enough to be there with Frank Grimaldi, whose writes about concerts he attends on his blog, Concert Log.  As an out and proud singer/songwriter who knows his stuff, he will capture it better than I could. What I will say is that as a fan of both David Bowie and Tiny Tim, the evening was profoundly beautiful, and very seriously silly. He read a Shakespeare sonnet and an excerpt from Lady Chatterly's Lover. And it all made supreme sense.

I came late to Taylor Mac, who has been on the downtown scene for at least a decade, but I saw The Lily's Revenge last November, and it is one of the top five theatrical experiences of my life. It's no surprise he won an Obie Award this week. After tonight, well, I'll go see him do anything, anywhere.

Cannes Film Festival: Who will win the first award for gay film at this premier festival?

So the Cannes Film Festival has decided to give an award for queer film: and Xavier Dolan, whose I Killed My Mother won more than 30 awards last year (and it will be at NewFest 2010 in NYC in June) has a new queer film at Canned this year. Yes, he's back and cuter than ever.

This heart-throb's new films is called Heartbeats, and it's a situation many of us recall from our youth: falling in love with a guy who is unattainable. The wrinkle here is that his friend, a young woman, is also in love with the unattainable guy. He's beautiful and beyond both their reach. It seems.

He's 21. And he's up against the old man in queer film. Gregg Araki. Never thought you'd see that sentence anywhere did you? Time is relentless, and there's always a new generation behind you. And there's also a film about Grace Slick, the lead singer for the Jefferson Airplane, that involves her in a lesbian relationship. 

Who's going to win? I have no idea — but I certainly hope all three of these movies will be at NewFest, NYC's lgbt film festival next year. Meanwhile, there's more than 100 films from 20 countries that you can see from June 3rd to 13th. Like Dolan's much lauded film from last year at Cannes. It's at NewFest 2010. Get your tickets now.

NewFest 2010 at the JCC: Gay Jewish Film, Uncut.

NewFest, New York’s LGBT Film Festival has hooked up with the Faigele Film Festival, New York’s Jewish LGBTQ Film Festival: presenting Gay Days and The So-Called Movie.

A Movie About A Gay Hip Hop Cowboy Klezmer DJ Video Artist. Say Nu?

The NewFest program describes Josh Dolgin, the subject of the documentary "The So-Called Movie" as the love child of Woody Allen and Lil Wayne. Uh huh. Okay. Well, What I can say is that Dolgin is one very interesting character whose passion for music of all kinds is infectious, and whose beats just make me happy. Makes me want to get up and dance.

Along with Gay Days, a documentary about the lgbt movement in Israel, this NewFest trek uptown represents a move to recognize the fact that the lgbt community is made up of many communities around the city. So on June 8^th, NewFest will be at the Jewish Community Center on the Upper West Side.

The night before, on June 7^th, NewFest will be at Harlem Stages showing Children of God, a high-tension romance that takes places in the midst of a homophobic crackdown in the Bahamas. Complete with a right-wing preacher on the down-low, this film captures the claustrophobia of life in a society where shame, secrecy and the threat of violence are always present.

Tickets are available now at Newfest.org

Glee Fan? Here's your cheat sheet to seeing movies at NewFest, New York’s LGBT Film Festival.

Gleeks Have Plenty to see at the LGBT Film Festival, Starting With After The Storm

After The Storm: What happens to a real community when natural disaster strikes and the local high school students are separated from families? Not to sound glib, but they put on a show. In this stunning documentary, After the Storm, the playwright and director of the Broadway production of Once On This Island, went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and helped the rebuild a community center and young lived by staging a local production of the show with the teens. This is Glee for real.

Tickets are on sale now for members, and will go on sale for non-members on Monday, May 24th. You can get your tickets at NewFest.org And you can see trailers for many of the films at the NewFest YouTube channel.

Broadway Show Queen Alert: Put Gypsy in a blender with Hairspray and you’ve got Leading Ladies.

Leading Ladies: An over the top backstage mother pushes her daughter to be a star — on the ballroom dancing circuit. Her sister fades into the background. The gay boy dance partner brings the “ugly duckling” sister to a gay bar where he dances up a storm with his boyfriend and she discovers she’s a lesbian. With a stage mom straight out of John Waters territory and hot dance numbers, this is one fun movie. The boy is played by last year’s So You Think You Can Dance winner, Benji Schwimmer. Cute, very cute. So this is a lesbian love story with a gay male sidekick and is a movie that both lesbians and gay men will enjoy.

Fruit Fly: From the people who made the indie hit, Colma, Fruit Fly has 19 original songs in a story that follows Bethesda, a young Filipina woman, who like Rachel in Glee, is searching for her birth mother — in San Francisco while living with a house full of gay men. The opening number is also the title of the film, about how she gets dubbed a fag hag and what it means for her.

Singing, Dancing, Waiting: There’s a shorts program that are all musicals! I always love the shorts programs.

Prima Donna: A documentary about Rufus Wainwright putting on his opera. If you’re a fan, this is a must see.

The Topp Twins – Untouchable Girls: This is THE LESBIAN FILM EVERY GAY MAN WANTS TO SEE! Imagine if Dolly Parton had children with Lily Tomlin, and those children would be the lesbian twin singing sister act from New Zealand, the Topp Twins. They do drag king character sketch comedy. Country singing. And yodeling. Yep, yodeling that you just have to hear. Trust me on this. Oh, and after the film, the Topp Twins will be there in live performance. This is an event. And you won’t want to miss it.

A Gay Men’s Cheat Sheet to Seeing Movies at New York’s LGBT Film Festival - Part 1

My Top Picks For Gay Men at NewFest 2010

NewFest 2010, the Gay & Lesbian Film Festival in New York (or more accurately New York’s LGBT Film Festival) has just posted their movie schedule. There’s a great line up of gay movies with cute boys and hot men. Not to mention sizzling stories, provocative documentaries and men in sexy shorts (short films that is).

So with so many movies to choose from, how can you know what to see? My taste is entirely subjective, but here’s part 1 of my quick overview of the must-see movies for gay men (more will follow tomorrow). I wanted to share my top picks with you now, since tickets go on sale exclusively to members on Monday, May 17th. If you want to buy your NewFest tickets this next week, you’ve got to be a member. And there are some really hot films this year, so if you can join rather than wait, I say go for it.

Must-see movies for gay men:

David’s Birthday: A hot Italian story about a jaw-droppingly sexy 18 year old boy whose hormones awaken suppressed desires on a family beach vacation — I you liked Call Me By Your Name, think of this as a similar story from the adult’s point of view.

I Killed My Mother: Lets start with the shallow — lead actor 20 year old Xavier Dolan is such a sexy boy with pouty lips it’s stunning to discover he is also the writer and director of this award winning film debut. Award winning? Over 30 awards internationally, including 3 at Cannes last year. It’s a great movie about the tension between a young man coming into his sexuality and the tension it creates in his close relationship with his mother. Intense. Funny. Moving. Go.

Is It Just Me? Cyrano de Bergerac for the modern online age, with gay men. Need I say more? Cute guys, sweet romantic story, go-go boys, muscles and true love. Go and feel good falling in love.

Release: What kind of release are we talking about here? Well, this is a prison movie. And for those of you who miss your Oz fantasies, this movie tackles a relationship between a prison guard and a jailed priest that other inmates suspect was guilty for molesting boys. A film both violent and spiritual, it’s going to be an intense experience.

Boys Will Be Boys: If you like cute boys in shorts, you’ll see them. But lets be serious for a moment. Some of these shorts explore important stories that don’t often get told, which is why I love NewFest and support lgbt film. One film, Billy and Aaron is about the African American jazz composer Billy Strayhorn and the consequences in his life of living openly as a gay man the 1940s. That’s a lot of drama to pack into ten minutes. And that’s why I love short film. When done right, it’s powerful. Powerfully moving, or funny, or provocative. And the shorts in this program run the full range. You can be sure I’ll be in the audience for these films.

By the way, you can see trailers for many of the films at the NewFest 2010 YouTube channel. And check back here tomorrow for part 2 of my cheat sheet of top picks for gay men.