Seattle Gay News
Issue 25, Volume 38, June 18, 2010
Section 4 Books
John Waters celebrates outsiders with his new book Role Models
by Gary M. Kramer SGN Contributing Writer
great horror. They have had to be braver [than me]. They can inspire me through patience like Leslie Van Houten, who has been in jail for 40 years for something terrible she did, or being the opposite of me, like Johnny Mathis. Or they can inspire me as a kid, as Madalyn Murray O’Hair did, even though she turned out to be kind of a horrible person. Sometimes we see john waters page 22
peter krogh
John Waters may be seen as a role model to his fans, but whom does he admire? In his terrific new book, entitled Role Models, Waters writes about “the amazing people who inspire” him. The choices are, as his fans might expect, an eclectic collection of outsiders, ranging from fashion designer Rei Kawakubo and artist Cy Twombly to the singer Little Richard. But
the one quality they all share is that they have lived, what Waters says, is “an extreme life.” Sitting in the living room of his Baltimore home, surrounded by books and copious amounts of fake food – from a plastic hamburger on the windowsill to a tempting box of chocolates on the table – the filmmaker explains what it takes to be one of his role models. “They are certainly people who have survived something – whether it’s great success, or
file photo
Trying to fix what isn’t broken An interview with Dr. Jallen Rix, author of Ex-Gay No Way
The bizarre world of the ex-Gay movement can be difficult to understand. Even now, there are members of our community that are struggling to escape the religious abuse they suffer under. For those of us on the outside looking in, the whole concept is difficult to grasp. Can you really “pray away
the Gay?” In his new book, ExGay No Way, Dr. Jallen Rix tells of his journey through the ex-Gay movement and how he ultimately left that world behind to become an out and proud Gay man and sexologist. Seattle Gay News caught up with Dr. Rix to talk about the book, the ex-Gay movement, and his advice for LGBT people struggling with the issue of religious abuse. “It took about three years to write the book, but it reviews my life over the past two decades,” Dr. Rix told SGN. “I dug through piles of journals and letters. To try and write from the heart of what I was feeling, it was like I relived the whole arduous experience again. Coming to grips with my sexuality, letting go of all the pain and hurt, coming out to my conservative family and friends, letting go of a ministry I had developed – it was hell! But the outcome of the book is that it appears a lot of people can relate to what I went through, and therefore I hope what I did to recover will be helpful to them as well.” Dr. Rix says the ex-Gay movement is a cult-like organization of extreme religious people who, for 35 years, have believed that not only is homosexuality a sickness and a sin, but that they have its cure. “Over the past couple of decades, they have gotten a lot of attention because right wing fundamentalists and political groups have
2
June 18, 2010
by Shaun Knittel SGN Staff Writer
Seattle Gay News
Author Dr. Jallen Rix
Pride Edition 2010
used the ex-Gay movement as leverage to not grant equality to LGBT people, saying, ‘Why give LGBT people civil rights when they can choose to be straight?’” Dr. Rix explained. “Over the years, when ‘praying the Gay away’ failed to work, they took one a more pseudo-psychological persona. Yet dozens of medical, educational, and psychological organizations have come out with warnings against the harm ‘reparative therapies’ cause.” “I will admit, though, even with the title of the book, I am amazed at how many people will ask, ‘Well, did it work? Are you straight?’” he said, adding, “Duh? Shall I don my favorite skirt, bend my writs, and call you ‘girlfriend?’ Of course it didn’t work! Now, with my life so rich and interesting, I’m glad it didn’t.” Dr. Rix says that over the years he’s had a lot of ex-Gay survivors ask what he did to recover from the abuse. “Initially, I wrote the book for those who have gone through the same abusive experiences I have,” he told SGN. “Although it was important to get as much information out there about my recovery process, it was just as important to write it as accessibly as possible. Ultimately, I just write as authentically as I can and I hope people are moved by it.” Even though the book has just come out, Dr. Rix told SGN that people have already contacted him to share their own similar stories. “In researching for the book, I was able to make a clear comparison between the ex-Gay movement and a phenomenon called ‘religious abuse.’ This is not to say all religion is abusive, but there are many ministries that use religion abusively,” he said. “Something that has surprised me is that a number of straight people have contacted me as well, basically saying, ‘I’m neither Gay nor ex-Gay, but I sure can relate to all the religious abuse stuff.’” Dr. Rix says that although the book follows his journey through and out of the exGay environment, any LGBT person can relate to it because “we all have felt a certain amount of corrosion to assimilate into a white, straight, male (mainly Christian) society.” These days, Dr. Rix says that all the aspects of his life – spiritual, emotional, mental, and sexual – feel integrated into a balanced whole. “My self-esteem is strong, and life is engaging and happy – I feel like a kid in a candy store,” he said. Dr. Rix told SGN he has some very sound advice for anyone struggling as an ex-Gay. “Wherever you are in the process, whatever you decide to do with your life, I will unconditionally accept and support you because I firmly believe that each of us is fully capable of managing and finding what’s best for our own lives,” he said. “This is something that ex-Gay leadership cannot do. They will kick you out the first sign of you attempting to love yourself as you are.” “I would suggest that, possibly, the reason you are struggling and the reason reparative therapy at large is such a failure is that what they are trying to ‘fix’ isn’t broken in the first place,” said Dr. Rix. “Your sexuality is exactly what it should be just as it is, and you are not rejected by God for it. I believe we live in an incredibly amazing and multifaceted world, and our sexuality is just one aspect of our colorful lives that reflects beautiful diversity. It’s not something to be squelched and squeezed into a tiny, narrow box. It’s a gift, like any blessing that can be celebrated and responsibly enjoyed.” For more information about Dr. Jallen Rix or to order a copy of Ex-Gay No Way, visit www.exgaynoway.com.
Pride Edition 2010
June 18, 2010
Seattle Gay News
3
{Between} Boyfriends a hilarious guilty pleasure
by Richard Labonte SGN Contributing Writer Tart tongues, caustic commentary, the objectification of less-than-perfect bodies, an overbearing mother, an absent – well, dead – father, angst about aging, revulsion at the sight of a wee penis, men yearning for love but settling for sex: this saucy soap opera of a novel is a Queer-boy bitchfest, stuffed – hilariously so – with every possible Gay male stereotype. Michael Salvatore’s outrageous debut, rather politically incorrect but quite comically adept, serves up at least a
grin on every page, if not a giggle; it’s the very epitome of a guilty reading pleasure. At 33, Stephen Bartholomew Ferrante remains brokenhearted over being abruptly dumped by the man he’d planned to live with forever. Drifting from one one-night stand (the penis! the horror!) to another, his spirits are more often than not buoyed by a circle of sassy friends who gather frequently at the neighborhood Starbucks to dish dirt, ogle boys and show off their studs du jour. Does Stephen find the one true love for which he longs? Happily, the forever-after (perhaps) ending comes as no surprise.
Mexican food the way it's Meant to be!
open for lunch and dinner 7 days a week. Mexican breakfast saturdays and sundays 9am-1pm. happy hour specials, Monday-friday 3:30-5pM
526 broadway seattle, wa 98122 (206)324-2445 elmestizorestaurant.com
4
Seattle Gay News
June 18, 2010
Pride Edition 2010
Insignificant Others keenly perceptive
by Gary Kramer SGN Contributing Writer Both a comedy of manners and a comedy of errors, Stephen McCauley’s Insignificant Others is an outstanding book; easily the author’s best to date. The story is nimbly told with wry, precise language in a series of short, sharp chapters that showcase keen perceptions about relationships – Gay and straight, personal and professional, romantic and platonic. Richard Rossi is an aging HR executive who learns that his partner is having an affair. Although Richard is having his own affair – with a married man, no less – this discovery rankles him, and prompts him to re-evaluate his life. Although it sounds a somber portrait of
Pride Edition 2010
mid-life malaise, Insignificant Others is anything but. Richard’s situation is nicely contrasted with his friends and colleagues – all of whom are struggling with their forms of quiet desperation. Most of the characters are holding secrets or indiscretions from loved ones, and how they work through their problems is both amusing and moving. McCauley is a master of tone and mood. He deftly shows how good intentions can sometimes result in bad behavior. He also shrewdly uses elements from the atmospheric Boston winter to a room’s furniture to comment on the characters. Even an overprepared chicken makes a nice symbol for Richard’s messy life. Insignificant Others has only one drawback: it ends.
June 18, 2010
Seattle Gay News
5
6
Seattle Gay News
June 18, 2010
Pride Edition 2010
Pride Edition 2010
June 18, 2010
Seattle Gay News
7
8
Seattle Gay News
June 18, 2010
Pride Edition 2010
The Midnight Hunt a shadowy world of werewolves and vampires by Richard Labonte SGN Contributing Writer Under the pseudonym “Radclyffe,” the author has written 19 books in three different series and 14 more generic Lesbian romances, and has edited or co-edited another dozen erotic and romantic collections. This new series is quite a change of pace – a new
ers” series – book two, Blood Hunt, is previewed – focuses on Sylvan, the all-powerful Alpha of the Adirondack Timberwolf Pack, charged with negotiating a “preternatural protection bill” with human politicians. She connects, climactically, with medic Drake McKennan, soon to transform from human to Were. Character introductions are crammed into a busy
Here, the prodigiously prolific author crafts a world where werewolves and vampires ... are coming out of the closet, so to speak. genre, and thus a new credit: “L.L. Raand.” Here, the prodigiously prolific author crafts a world where werewolves and vampires – to say nothing of “Mages, Fae and Psi,” other shadow-world races destined to make appearances in planned sequels – are coming out of the closet, so to speak, demanding tolerance from and acceptance by the human race. The first of the “Midnight Hunt-
Pride Edition 2010
book one, leaving scant room for Raand to explore the ramifications of interaction between preternaturals and humans – but that’s the sort of meaty exposition that a continuing series can embrace.
June 18, 2010
Seattle Gay News
9
10
Seattle Gay News
June 18, 2010
Pride Edition 2010
The Lost Library: Gay Fiction Rediscovered a loving memorial for Queer writers by Richard Labonte SGN Contributing Writer
art lives on in these illuminating critical and biographical essays – and in many cases, This is a book of wondrous ghosts. Many where the essayists knew their subjects, so of the writers whose out-of-print books are do the writers. Bill Brent evokes the late remembered and celebrated are still alive, of Paul Reed’s passion for understanding the course: Rabih Alameddine (The Perv: Sto- havoc of AIDS in his reflections on Longries) and Bruce Benderson (User), James ing; Victor Bumbalo, who 20 years after his McCourt (Time Remaining ) and Douglas friend George Whitmore died still misses his Sadownick (Sacred Lips of the Bronx), most phone calls, recalls the “secret cowboy” inwith new work in recent years. Many more side the pacifist author of Nebraska. Cardaare dead – too many of those too young – mone’s collection is part book review, part among them Allen Barnett and Christopher social history, part literary excavation and, Coe, Melvin Dixon and Robert Ferro, Mi- in summation, a loving memorial for Queer chael Grumley and Paul Reed. Their literary writing and writers.
Paradise found in Puerto Vallarta
Casa Linda Cuale This traditional Mexican home has been transformed into what can only be described as sexy – with the Mexican craftsmanship, native art, nautical treasures and antiques.
Looking across the river at the renown Cuale Paraiso Resturant you'll forget you're just 10 minutes away from Los Muerto's Beach and the Malecon. This sensuous little casa has it all – quiet of the jungle – convienience of the city and all the amenities to go with it.
www.casalindacuale.com or call 360-963-2100
Pride Edition 2010
June 18, 2010
Seattle Gay News 11
Mute a handsome collection of deaf poetry by Richard Labonte SGN Contributing Writer There’s a double sense of the interior in Raymond Luczak’s slim, handsome collection of 29 poems. Much poetry verbalizes internal emotion. But the author, a deaf man, navigates a second level of distance here –
starting with the first piece, the poetic “How to Fall for a Deaf Man,” which instructs the hearing-abled, “Do not be startled by how/ much eye contact he requires.” The same refrain – of translating deaf for the hearing – runs through many of the poems; so does the reality of rejection, as in “Pitch”: “A halfhearted promise to keep in touch/ and a day
wasted wondering why I even bother.” The book’s midsection is a litany of memorialization, with several poems dedicated to the dead: “I wish more than anything to see you wink just one more time” is a line for John “Buzzy” Bautista Conterio. And there is, as
12
Seattle Gay News
June 18, 2010
there ought to be in every life, rapture: “My fingers tremble against your chest/ Your sighs are a hymn in rhyme,” reports “Homily.” Joy and fear, passion and humility, reflection and recrimination: Luczak renders many moods.
Pride Edition 2010
Set Sail for Murder the latest Polly Pepper mystery by Richard Labonte SGN Contributing Writer It’s hijinks on the high seas in the fourth Polly Pepper mystery, though deducing who did the deadly deed is more or less beside the point – R.T. Jordan’s tart-tongued blend of comic camp and acidic gossip is hardly about the sleuthing. Fading celebrity Pepper, her investments devastated by America’s economic collapse, is reduced to booking a fan appearance on the Kool Krooz liner Intacti (think Titanic), accompanied as always by her hunky young son, Queer Tim, and her long-suffering servant, Bisexual Placenta – for a reunion of the Polly Pepper Playhouse cast. Murder intrudes when someone slashes the throat (with a sharpened CD from the T.V. show’s boxed set) of egotistical diva Laura Crawford, a much-loathed co-star. The suspect net is cast far and wide, almost capturing Pepper herself, but the real fun in this skewering of celebrity comes from Jor-
dan’s ceaseless stream of bitchy Hollywood asides, name-dropping everyone from Doris Day and Hugh Jackman to Barbra Streisand’s son, Jason Gould, and Charlie Sheen, slammed for his “fluke” of a hit T.V. show.
Follow the path less followed to a place not forgotten but a world apart
in Sekiu, Washington Surrounded by wilderness trails pristine beaches,
world class fishing, your trip starts here. Enchanting cabins, suites and studios by the sea. Perfect for nature lovers who want spacious comfort in a remote and romantic waterside setting. Check out the Clallam bay/Sekiu Video Tour of a "Real Northwest Adventure" on our website
www.straitsideresort.com 360-963-2100
Pride Edition 2010
June 18, 2010
Seattle Gay News 13
My Queer War a cheeky memoir of Gay WWII service by Richard Labonte SGN Contributing Writer As Congress and the military dawdle over the inevitability of repealing the ill-reasoned edict “Don’t Act, Don’t Tell,” art historian James Lord’s posthumous wartime memoir arrives at an opportune time. His cheeky recounting of WWII service as a practicing homosexual – and he was good at it, once he eased out of the closet – makes clear that Queers were everywhere in the military way back when. Early encounters were cautious, including an ambiguously romantic interlude with an aesthetic (and apparently well-hung) lad named Hanno before Lord was posted to Europe after basic training. Of sexual encounters, there are plenty, recalled with jaunty reverence for the thrill of action in “the incautious dark.” Sex aside, Lord also laid the groundwork for his artistic and intellectual future by, once in France, seeking out the likes of Pablo Picasso and
Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. And, always, there is the reality that this is as much a memoir of wartime as it is a Queer memoir: particularly harrowing are passages in which Lord, who landed in military intelligence, tells of Americans torturing prisoners of war. Featured Excerpt
His cheeky “Are you Gay?” “Funny thing,” I said. “That recounting of WWII lady I mentioned, she said I was a Gay service as a practicing blade. She meant somebody withhomosexual ... makes out a care in the world, I guess.” clear that Queers were “Come on” – he cut in brusquely everywhere in the – “that’s not what I’m talking about. I military way back spotted you from the beginning. Takes one to when. know one. So fess up. I’m
14
Seattle Gay News
not the police. Wouldn’t come on to you if I wasn’t Gay myself. Relax.” He put his hand on my shoulder while I was numbed by surprise, and moved his fingertips gently to the nape of my neck, tickling my hair till I shivered and my legs were like danger in deep water. “You like to make love to boys, don’t you?” he said....
June 18, 2010
Pride Edition 2010
Ed Murray and Michael Shioski registering as domestic partners in Olympia
Pride Edition 2010
June 18, 2010
Seattle Gay News 15
16
Seattle Gay News
June 18, 2010
Pride Edition 2010
An Ideal for Living a snappy take on self-loathing by Richard Labonte SGN Contributing Writer What better theme for a Gay novel than the concept of self-loathing? In Marshall Moore’s An Ideal for Living, well-off housewife Grace desperately wants to woo back her philandering husband, while her equally wealthy attorney brother, Robert, yearns to cuddle again with the Latino stud he shared a bed with in more slender days. If only they can shed a few – well, many – pounds. Both are obese in the American way, and diet and exercise as a way to slim down are too daunting – also the American way. So when Robert is introduced to a fit fellow with a spiritual mien and astounding supernatural powers, soon to see his avoirdupois melt away to reveal the muscled bod within, he believes all will be well in his world – and in his world, money can buy anything, a belief embraced by Grace when Robert connects her with his spooky guru. Both fatties are vulgar embodiments of self-centered entitlement, but Moore’s snappy storyline, insightful character depictions and razor-sharp dialogue render their quest for beauty at any cost chillingly irresistible. Featured Excerpt He turned to view himself from every angle. He still had a gut but it didn’t jut out as far. His buttocks looked less like a large
matrix © energetics
set of collapsing parentheses and more like ... well, buttocks. His back, not hairy now, shocked him. In addition to removing the tufts, Stefan had thinned out the galaxy of moles by at least an Orion and a Big Dipper. “One day,” Robert said out loud, “I’m going to have ... obliques!” He spun around like a runway model, lost his balance, and tumbled against the wall. Then he had a laugh at his own giddy stupidity. His next thought was, I have to start getting laid. Without paying for it.
Learn a complete system of transformation driven by a shift in perception and a groundbreaking new consciousness technology developed by
DR. RICHARD BARTLETT Richard Bartlett, DC, ND, founded and teaches Matrix Energetics©, a consciousness technology for insight, spiritual growth – and living a life unbound by the limits we have been trained to believe in. Teachable & transferable, Matrix Energetics© is accessible to everyone, from a 10-year-old child to a medical professional. During this life-changing weekend seminar, we will learn the art of rewriting any rule of your reality – about your health, your happiness, or even your understanding of what is physically possible. Richard Bartlett, DC, ND, has helped thousands of people since founding Matrix Energetics©. He is the author of Matrix Energetics: The Science and Art of Transformation and The Physics of Miracles (Atria Books/Beyond Words), and The Matrix Energetics Experience (Sounds True).
Seattle - Levels 1&2, December 3-6 Practitioner Certification, Tuesday, December 7 Visit our website for seminar schedule, and early registration discounts.
www.matrixenergetics.com 800.269.9513 Pride Edition 2010
June 18, 2010
Seattle Gay News 17
The University Book Store’s reading recommendations by Brad Craft Special to the SGN We’re reading Forster’s Maurice this month for Seattle Gay & Lesbian Book Club. Honestly, I don’t know that I would ever have been induced to reread the book for any other reason. I must say, though, the opening of Wendy Moffat’s new book, A Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E. M. Forster, made such a glorious fuss about Forster’s “secret” novel that I found myself eager to give it another go. When I first read Maurice all those long years ago, I was so repelled by the way the great, chaste romance of the first two parts came to an end, that I disliked the book ever thereafter, and had little more patience with the idyllic last third.
Moffat’s biography, in restoring Forster’s full sexual and emotional history and in telling the story of his last novel, gave me reason to rethink my callow judgment even as I reread. Since, I’ve had a difficult time putting Moffat’s wonderful book down long enough to take Forster’s back up. Another new literary biography that has proved irresistible, Selina Hastings’ The Secret Life of
Somerset Maugham: A Biography, promises to be fascinating. I’ve read Hastings’ previous books, on Nancy Mitford, Waugh, and Rosamond Lehmann, all quite satisfying, and each about a difficult personality. Maugham, likewise. But Hastings, like Moffat, has a unique opportunity to treat her subject’s private life with a candor and understanding that was not likely, or perhaps even possible, for earlier biographers. A beautiful new book, edited by Keri Walsh, offers an astonishing collection in The Letters of Sylvia Beach, perhaps the last great figure of “The Lost Generation” to be given her due in this way. Just dipping into the book, almost at random, presents the reader not only with an amazing view of the greats of 20th-century literature, but also a portrait of this remarkable woman, intellectual, and bookseller.
Not to neglect new fiction entirely, there is a new novel, Insignificant Others, from the always-delightful Stephen McCauley. Few contemporary novelists have contributed so many memorable, yet entirely familiar characters to the literature. In this latest story, McCauley addresses the consequences of infidelity with his customary wry wit, and makes, yet again, the very best of a not altogether funny situation. Emma Donoghue is perhaps best known to general readers as a novelist and the author of such bestselling books as Slammerkin and Life Mask, but in her new book, Inseparable: Desire Between Women in Literature, she takes on the whole history of Lesbianism in literature, and the results are amazingly unpredictable and fun – just like an Emma Donoghue novel. Already, there are a dozen books discussed in this one I would never have thought to even consider reading, but Donoghue’s analysis is making me wonder what I’ve been missing. I’ve laughed out loud more than once, and I’m less than halfway through the book. This is not the usual dry, academic reading; this is a juicy treat.
Legendary cultural terrorist John Waters, in his new book of essays, Role Models, has managed, after all these years, to shock even me. It is full of wonderfully funny and even quite moving portraits of many of the usual – if that’s ever a word to be used with Waters – glorious eccentrics with whom John Waters’ name is most often associated:
strippers, pornographers, the denizens of various low Baltimore bars, but herein the reader will also find tributes to his favor18
Seattle Gay News
June 18, 2010
Pride Edition 2010
ite artists, a fashion designer, and Johnny Mathis. Who could ask for anything more? And finally, how could I let such a Gay roundup go without mentioning a book I read at one sitting with nothing but the purest nelly pleasure: Alison Arngrim’s memoir of life before, during and after her days as the Bad Seed of my generation, Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated. Ms. Arngrim’s little book
Pride Edition 2010
has everything from T.V. stardom, to a Gay father, and a mother who actually was the voice of Miss Polly Purebred, among others. Imagine. Alison herself has been there, done that, and it’s all in here: the abuse at the hands of her monstrous brother, the cattiness, the backstage stories, but also her ongoing activism on behalf of various organizations fighting for the rights of children and fighting AIDS. I’m telling you, this “bitch” is fabulous! And she’s funny as hell.
June 18, 2010
Seattle Gay News 19
Footnotes by Richard Labonte SGN Contributing Writer Death comes in threes: Peter Orlovsky, born in 1933, was poet Allen Ginsberg’s sexual companion for several decades, after they met in San Francisco in 1954, where Orlovsky was an art model. Encouraged by Ginsberg to write, he eventually published several slim volumes of poetry, and taught at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in Boulder, co-founded by Ginsberg. Orlovsky succumbed to lung cancer on May 30... Donald Windham, born in 1920, was an intimate of a constellation of Queer artists, among them Christopher Isherwood, Glenway Westcott, George Platt Lynes, Lincoln Kirstein, Paul Cadmus, Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams, though their friendship was shattered in 1977 after Windham published Tennessee Williams’ Letters to Donald Windham, 1940-1965. Windham wrote several novels with sub-textual Gay themes, including Dog Star and Tanaquil, but received better reviews for his memoirs, including Emblems of Conduct, about his early years in Atlanta, and 1987’s Lost Friendships, about his relationship with Capote and Williams, with whom he collaborated on the play You Touched Me!, based on a story by D.H. Lawrence, which opened on Broadway in 1945. Windham died at his Manhattan home on May 31... John Stahle, whose Ganymede Journal showcased the poetry, fiction, and art of Queer writers
young and older, died alone in his New York apartment some time in April, apparently of a heart attack, shortly after the seventh issue of the Journal went on sale. In its run, the magazine featured work by Edmund White on writing Gay, David Sedaris on loving his man, historical Gay-interest writing by Robert Louis Stevenson, Glenway Wescott, Denton Welch, and Bruce Nugent, and the debuts of Gay poets and fiction writers. Friends have set up a memorial site: rememberingjohnstahle.com. Author and activist Larry Kramer, one of two Pioneer Award recipients on May 27, spoke movingly about how much writing means to him, praised editors who have helped shape his prose, and told an audience of more than 300 people at the 22nd Lambda Literary Awards that his next novel - which he’s been working on since 1978 – has reached about 4,000 manuscript pages. Comedian and activist Kate Clinton, the other Pioneer, was true to her craft, keeping attendees in stitches while recounting a brief history of her career and thanking her Queer peers for being a literate lot. As is the tradition at the Lammys – as the awards are known – not many winners were present. Among those who were on hand, Rakesh Satyal – an editor at HarperCollins by day, a sometime cabaret singer by night – sang his thanks for winning the Gay Debut Fiction category, for Blue Boy, from Kensington Books; Mart Crowley, author of the
1960s play The Boys in the Band, bounced to the stage to accept the LGBT Drama award for The Collected Plays of Mart Crowley, from Alyson Books, noting that it was his first award in a long career, and sure to be an inspiration; and Lynn Breedlove, the Transgender winner for Lynnee Breedlove’s One Freak Show, from Manic D Press, tenderly thanked her mother, recovering from a stroke. Another finalist in the Transgender category, Adam Lowe, author of Troglodyte Rose, claimed the honor of nominee attending from farthest away – he lives in England. For a list of winners in all 23 categories, visit www.lambdaliterary.org. Two veteran writers have assumed new roles in the Queer literary world – starting LGBT-interest presses. Jameson Currier launched Chelsea Station Editions earlier this year with his novel, The Wolf at the Door; is actively reading other submissions; and plans to publish a second of his own books later this year – The Man That Got Away, an “illustrated confessional” about a college student in 1970s Atlanta “who becomes the unlikely pupil of a coterie of drag queens.” And writer and journalist Victoria Brownworth, an acquisitions editor for young adult books for a mainstream publisher for five years, has established Tiny Satchel Press, for YA books “committed to exploring issues of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation” for a ‘tween and teen audience ages 8 through 18. The debut title is The Secrets of Loon Lake by mystery writer J.D. Shaw, followed this year by Greg Herren’s supernatural thriller Sorceress; Diane DeKelb-Rittenhouse’s Immortal Souls, featuring two high school girls and an infamous Lesbian vampire from centuries past; and Brownworth’s own Everyday Monsters, a novel about incest, child abuse, and alcoholism. In 2011, Tiny Satchel plans to debut a series of YA novels from writers of color, including Fiona Zedde, Lisa Nelson and Lowell Boston. For info, visit chelseastationeditions.com and tinysatchelpress.com. Richard Labonte has been reading, editing, selling, and writing about Queer literature since the mid-‘70s. He can be reached in care of this publication or at BookMarks@qsyndicate.com.
20
Seattle Gay News
June 18, 2010
Pride Edition 2010
Pride Edition 2010
June 18, 2010
Seattle Gay News 21
john waters continued from cover
have to embrace the extremes in people that change the laws and how we live, even if they are not so honorable.” Embracing extremes is what Waters has always done, from his infamous 1972 classic cult film Pink Flamingos to his more mainstream success with Hairspray. (The latter became a hit Broadway musical, followed by a hit Hollywood film version/ remake, and a sequel to the movie-musical is due out this summer.) Waters has always “stuck up for those people who had a tough time,” and this is why his fans like the way he thinks. “Everybody feels they are an outsider,” he says. Waters’ chapter on Tennessee Williams is especially revealing. After reading Williams’ One Arm – which he confesses to stealing from the library, because it was forbidden – he writes that, “[I] didn’t have to worry about fitting in with a crowd I didn’t want to hang out with in the first place. … Didn’t want to be part of this dreary conformist life that I was told I had to join.” Talking about his teen years, Waters is candid and thoughtful. “I felt anger, but I never felt I was a victim. I didn’t fit in, but I didn’t know how angry I was about that. I didn’t want to [fit in]. I wanted to hang out with other people who didn’t want to fit in – the ones who chose not to. I hung around with the worst boys and always the trashiest girls. The girls they said were the whores.” The filmmaker returns to the topic of Tennessee Williams only to pause the conversation while he looks for a copy of One Arm. “Have you seen that new little book that just came out?” he asks, as he searches his shelves for Tales of Desire, a new collection of Williams’ stories, published in February by New Directions. Ever the role model – his library contains over 8,000 volumes – Waters’ lengthy search makes me feel better about the difficulties of finding titles on my own overcrowded bookshelves. Securing the copy and effusing about the picture of an electric chair in the book, Wa-
ters admits that he didn’t re-read One Arm when he wrote the essay in Role Models about Williams. But he did read the story again recently. “You know what?” he asks in a confessional hush. “It was better than I remembered. It sooo lived up to my obsession in my mind! Sometimes you don’t even remember what it is [about something], it was just an influence when you were young.” I cite Waters’ own 1987 book Crackpot as something that influenced my outlook 20+ years ago, and he thanks me politely. Then he responds proudly, “Both Crackpot and Shock Value [his 1981 book] have never gone out of print.” It is a testament to his talents as a writer, and his fans’ ardor for his work. If Waters had not become a filmmaker or a writer, he admits he would have probably been a defense attorney. He justifies this interest in law by saying, “That is a world I am fascinated with because there is no clear answer.” Waters has attended numerous trials, including the Manson case, and has taught for many years in prisons. “Corrections is my field, weirdly enough,” he demurs. His chapter “Leslie” in Role Models chronicles his friendship with Leslie Van Houten, one of the Manson Family members. He emphasizes that she has taken “full responsibility” for her crimes, and judiciously includes what the victims’ families said against Van Houten’s release. He ascribes his interest in her thusly: “Leslie is a case like no other – ever. Who meets a madman when they were 17 – and he turns out to be one of the most notorious madmen in the history of criminals?!” Waters himself has been arrested on several occasions. “I went to jail for conspiracy
to commit indecent exposure making Mondo Trasho, for underage drinking twice – in a drive-in movie and a fast food parking lot. I did get arrested once for DWI, but I was actually on Quaaludes. I couldn’t tell the police that.” Role Models also recounts one particular incident that Waters has never really discussed much, in which he was found “not guilty of involuntary manslaughter.” But he admits this episode was not what interested him in criminal psyches. It was villains in movies that sparked his interest in bad behavior. “I wanted to be the Wicked Witch of the West, the Bad Seed, or Captain Hook – not Peter Pan, Dorothy, or Snow White. The evil queen was a better part,” he claimed. “But then the fact that there was a real person that was a villain was something that always intrigued me because I don’t think I could do that – but everyone’s capable.” This idea of being villainous is a continuation of the extreme behavior concept Waters mentioned at the beginning of our interview. He now extends the example of extreme behavior to contemporary artists, whose work is often confrontational. “That’s contemporary art’s job – to wreck what came before it!” Waters insisted. “You have to learn how to see. That’s what contemporary art is – learning how to see something new, in a totally different way, and the artwork/artists [featured in Role Models] make you do that. And that is the kind of art people need, because they refuse to see things in a different way. Initially, it always gets the reaction, ‘Anybody could do that.’ … Well, you didn’t, stupid, and I bought it!” The impressive collection of art in Waters’
“[I] didn’t have to worry about fitting in with a crowd I didn’t want to hang out with in the first place. … Didn’t want to be part of this dreary conformist life that I was told I had to join.”
home, like the books, threatens to overtake the house, appearing on every possible inch of wall or floor space. In the entranceway is Fischli/Weiss’s Invitation, a rubber 33 1/3 record that sits on a pedestal, and practically invites people to use it as a coaster. (As Waters bemoans they do in his book.) The same artists’ Fotografias, a collection of six “underexposed” images that are hard to see, hang in the living room, and are, indeed, dark and hard to see. But it is to the artists’ credit that you DO want to see them. Across the room hangs Moyra Davey’s equally frustrating photograph The Problem of Reading, which presents a handful of books facing spine in, so all viewers see are the edges of the pages. It’s fantastic, and reminds me of Rachel Whiteread’s negative cast of a library. I mention this, and Waters responds that he appreciates Whiteread, too. His dining room is surrounded by some of his favorite pieces, discussed in Role Models, including Mike Kelley’s Wedged Lump, which dares guests to look at it during meals. I am wowed by the seven Cy Twombly prints on the opposite wall entitled Five Greek Poets and a Philosopher, one of the highlights of Waters’ collection. With the possible exception of the Twombly prints, humor seems to be the element that connects most of Waters’ artwork. I Peed in My Pants by Tony Tassett hangs in Waters’ hallway, and this six-foot photograph of the artist with a wet leg, is amusing and yes, artful. Of course, right after this, I zoom in on a spilled cup of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream sitting on top of more books. It is another fun faux-food gag item, and one that momentarily fools me because I’m not expecting to see it. Waters ends his tour, and closes with a comment about humor, art and shock value that appropriately sums up his thoughts on the subject. “Trying to be shocking – especially today – seems to me to be desperate. I can still be surprised, by wit, and shocked – in a good way. But trying too hard is the ultimate sin. I never tried to top myself after Pink Flamingos.” Waters does not try to exceed his limits with Role Models, either. The book is suitably smart and Queer and slightly unwholesome. “My mother is not allowed to read the book,” Waters boasts. “My sister just read it and agreed. It won’t bring her pleasure. Why torture her?” Yet fans of the author/filmmaker will find much to appreciate in this impressive collection of essays. © 2010 Gary M. Kramer
22
Seattle Gay News
June 18, 2010
Pride Edition 2010
Pride Edition 2010
June 18, 2010
Seattle Gay News 23