Saturday, November 25, 2006

The Big Voice: God Or Merman?

Above: Steve Schalchlin, me, and Jim Brochu, after last night's rehearsal performance of The Big Voice: God Or Merman, written by and starring Steve and Jim.

The show was fantastic, by turns hilarious and moving, recounting the childhoods of Steve and Jim, the strange meeting that brought them together 21 years ago, and the funny and painful times since then. The Farmboyz, Eddie, Captain Steve and Brian and I had a wonderful time and it was particularly nice meeting some new guys in the audience who read this here website thingy. Those in attendance last night would agree with my recommendation to add this show to your holiday season must-see list. Visit BroadwayOffers.com and enter in code BVBBX72 to receive a special discounted ticket rate of $29.50!

UPDATE: The Farmboyz turn in a great review. Read it. Father Tony, as usual, delivers a pitch-perfect take on the evening. And JMG reader Andrew reports having made out with another audience member after the show, which I'd say is a good review too! Also, here's composer Steve's own take on the evening.

Zune, Deferred

I have created life. Upon the suggestion of a reader, I tried unbreaking my iPod mini by smashing it to the ground, as that's how it broke. Sure enough, it has sprung back to (probably temporary) life. Now if I could only get iTunes to recognize me as the administrator. Thanks to David for the tip!

Friday, November 24, 2006

Big Holiday Meat

Not usually in NYC on this weekend, my plans to see the Macy's Parade yesterday were ruined by rain and high winds. We intended on crossing the park and watching the parade from its starting point on the Upper West Side, but Eddie and I got as far as my corner before we were turned back by our blown-out umbrellas. Retreating to the apartment, we settled for watching the parade on television, blocks away from the actual thing.

I've spent the last few Thanksgivings at my sister's house in Orlando, but at least my spending this holiday in NYC wasn't a total loss, as I got to enjoy a lovely Thanksgiving meal with some great friends at Keen's, a strangely wonderful / wonderfully strange 121-year old place in Herald Square.

Our party of seven including a Roman Catholic priest and a former Franciscan monk, the conversation covered a broad range of topics, including the Easter Vigil, the BVM, amyl nitrate, Billie Burke, 90's NYC sex club Zone DK, Fort Lauderdale real estate, valium, and how we all recognized this year's Macy's Parade Santa Claus as a regular at the Dugout. The food was almost as delicious as the dish.

Tonight! The Big Voice: God Or Merman?

Here's a reminder of tonight's gypsy performance of the award winning musical, The Big Voice: God Or Merman, which is free to JMG readers: 10:30 PM, The Actor's Temple, 339 W.47th Street (btwn 8th & 9th).

Complaint: Resolved



If you remember this post, you might be as pleased as I am to see that Valley National responded to my email. Or maybe you won't be. Maybe I'm the only lunatic that notices these things. Yes, it's a slow blogging day.

Morning View - My Street

Here's my street on Manhattan's Upper East Side, looking west towards Central Park. The tallest building is Trump Palace.

B.A.R. Hacked?

It looks like the website for San Francisco's gay newspaper, the Bay Area Reporter, has been hacked, or at least the homepage has. The rest of the site appears to be there. Anybody know the scoop? Equidrag? Some kind of guerilla drag movement?

UPDATE: The hack is gone. Anybody know what that was all about? Equidrag? Huh?

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Screwed By Bush

Open Thread Thanksgiving

Who's your favorite float in the Macy's Parade? Mine is Snoopy. I'm heading across Central Park with Eddie to watch right now. Wave if you see me on TV.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Noted, With Interest

Bob Mould is working on a solo follow-up to 2005's Body Of Song, as well as a live performance DVD. - Billboard.com.

Savage Love asks its readers to support Mike Jones, mentions JMG. - A.V. Club.

An indie record store owner supports it's local high school Gay/Straight Alliance Club, business drops off dramatically due to boycott. - The Gay Guru.

Rosie rips Ripa re Clay Aiken. - 365gay.com.

Barack Obama nixes gay marriage. - Advocate.com.

"Magician" David Blaine does another non-magic trick in a Times Square commercial for Target. - New York Daily News.

Charmin installs 20 free restrooms in Times Square for holiday season. - Gothamist.com.

While Shopping This Weekend, Remember....

I would never ordinarily support shopping at Wal-Mart, but those wack-ack-acky fundies will be out in force this weekend, protesting Wal-Mart's recent membership in the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber Of Commerce. I support sodomy. Do you? (See what the fundies have driven me to? Supporting Wal-Mart! They's evil, evil I tells ya!)

UPDATE: Alert readers have pointed out a new wrinkle, as Wal-Mart is now waffling on its previous position and the fundies have just called off their boycott. I feel sorry for the Wal-Mart bureaucrats, caught between their seeming desire to do the right thing, and the radical nonsense of the fundies, who have mischaracterized Wal-Mart's membership in the NGLCC as a tacit corporate endorsement of gay marriage, dog fucking, and drinking the blood of the unborn.

Special Invite To JMG Readers

The producers and cast of The Big Voice: God Or Merman? invite the readers of JMG to a special free gypsy performance (a dress rehearsal for the Broadway community) this Friday, Nov. 24th, at 10:30 PM, at The Actor's Temple at 339 W.47th Street (btwn 8th & 9th Avenues). The show officially opens November 30th. Reviews here and here.

The Big Voice: God Or Merman? is the winner of the L.A. Theatre Alliance Ovation Award for Best Musical and the L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Score. "A true life gay musical romantic comedy written and performed by the two men who lived it, Jim Brochu and Steve Schalchlin. It's a romantic story about a (former) Catholic from Brooklyn and Baptist from Arkansas who find each other, true love and "God" in the temple of musical theatre." Jim and Steve last were off-Broadway in 1997, in their show The Last Session, which ran for 9 months.

I'll be there on Friday night. Who's in?

The Big Voice: God Or Merman?
10:30 PM, Friday, Nov.24th
The Actor's Temple
339 W.47th Street (btwn 8th & 9th)

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Gay, Straight, Or Stupid?

Lifetime has announced a new dating show called Gay, Straight, Or Taken? , in which women will go on a series of solo and group outings with three men and try to determine which one is gay, which one is straight and single, and which one is straight and in a relationship. If she picks "right" one, namely the single straight guy, she wins an exotic trip with him. If she picks one of the others, the chosen "wrong" guy wins a trip with his significant other.

Talk about endorsing heteronormative repression.

If I understand the Lifetime concept properly, the task for the gay guy is to completely sublimate any hints of his gayness. He must pass, to win. What an uncharacterically vivid evocation of real life, especially for Lifetime. The producers are likely grooming the gay candidates with tons of pointers: "Don't dress too well. Talk about sports. And for God's sake, don't fawn over her haircut. In fact, don't express a whit of your natural personality or real self. Don't act, look, think, talk or walk GAY. Because that will make you a loser."

It guiltily reminds me of my stint on 20/20, although at least none of the producers at ABC asked us gay guys to pretend we were anything we weren't. There's plenty of gay guys out there who don't bear the slightest outward sign of their queerness, but I don't think game shows should be giving out prizes for it.

Mr. Eagle Does Disco

Brian Kent, a former Mr. NYC Eagle, has released a pretty ripping music video, I'm Not Crazy. Check out the video and his MySpace page. It's nice to see a music video with some hot man-on-man, girl-on-girl dance action. Well done, Brian!




This Is My BOOM Stick!

Last night David and I went to see Evil Dead: The Musical. Three words, people: See. This. Show. Hands downs, Evil Dead is the best thing I've seen on or off-Broadway since I got to NYC. A wacky combination of Rocky Horror, Grease, and splatter-film, I don't know when I've been so thoroughly delighted to see decapitations and limb amputations set to doo-wop and endless bad puns.

We were lucky enough to attend a performance packed with devotees of the Evil Dead film-trilogy, which if you are unfamiliar, are perhaps the best and funniest of the entire chainsaw, cabin-slasher, head-on-a-stick genre. Every time the lead (a Bruce Campbell lookalike) let loose one of the many trademark catch phrases from the movies, the audience howled and cheered. David and I were seated far enough back from the "splatter zone" to avoid the buckets of blood that squirted onto the audience from stab wounds, torn out organs and severed hands. Seriously, the entire first five rows were given yellow raincoats at intermission to protect their clothes from all the squirting blood. And they loved it.

All of the performers were just outstanding and they pulled off some rather grueling dance and fight sequences that left the audience gasping and cheering. David and I left singing the catchy opening number, Cabin In The Woods, resolving to buy the cast album. I'm definitely going to see Evil Dead again and again. (And most of the shows I go to, I would not, not even for free.) And it's just occured to me that I've seen two musicals in the last three days. I may just explode into a rainbow of fairy dust and glitter.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Coming Soon From Regan Books

If I Did Rape Her, The Bitch Screamed Real Loud
- by Kobe Bryant.

Steroids I'd Take, If I Took Them -Vol.1
- by Barry Bonds.

McCauley Caulkin : Totally Not The Sweetest Piece Of Ass
- by Michael Jackson.

SLDN.Org

Last week's Veteran's Day Blowoff was a special fundraiser for Service Members Legal Defense Network, the advocacy and legal advice organization for LGBT members of the armed forces. Mould & Morel's monthly party saw its biggest crowd ever, including a couple of hundred GI's, who had their admissions comped. I took tons of pictures of the crowd, but obviously I can't use any of them here. Instead, here's handsome David, an SLDN staffer, working their booth.

Ruth Brown, Queen Mother Of The Blues

Legendary r&b and blues singer Ruth Brown died this weekend at age 78. A Grammy winner, a Tony winner, and a 1993 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Brown is probably best known to gay audiences as Hairspray's Motormouth Maybelle.

"Tidely papa, I am a whopper!"

I was and remain a huge fan of Ruth Brown. In 1997, I was lucky enough to meet her while I was working promotion on her release R+B = Ruth Brown. Here's a few classic Ruth Brown tracks for your reverent consideration. If Lucky Lips doesn't bring a smile to your Monday face, you're beyond hope. And If I Can't Sell It was a bit of a drag standard back in the day.

Lucky Lips
Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean
If I Can't Sell It (I'll Keep Sittin' On It)

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Isn't It Queer?

It was definitely a little late in my career, but I finally popped my Sondheim cherry yesterday. Aaron, the Farmboyz and I attended the matinee performance of A Little Night Music, starring our own Little David. David is a long-time member of the St. Bart's Players, a 79-year old community theatre group that performs at St. Bartholomew's Church on Park Avenue. David was outstanding, of course, and we especially enjoyed Robyn Macey, as the maid. The performances aside, making my entrance with my usual flair, all I could think was how strange it was to be inside a church.