GAYLETTER

This film stars the kind of lead character that we all need at the moment to inspire us and shake us out of our snowed-in-winter-ruts. Her name is Mary Maples and she is one of the best journalists out there, she broke the Abu Ghraib story and a few years back was unceremoniously fired, along with CBS anchor Dan Rather, for some stupid bullshit reason. Basically she worked on a 60 Minutes story alleging that George W. Bush had not only skipped out on the Vietnam war by having his daddy’s friend get him into the National Guard, but he even skipped out on the National Guard for a whole year. The White House basically said Mary and her team had presented faked documents to support their story and, surprise, surprise the media went along with it. But she hadn’t!! It was all true. They were telling the truth and big biz, special interests, lobbyists, and shady people threw them under the bus. Cate Blanchett plays Mary and is in top form. She’s all fiery and unblinking and not afraid to stand up to the bullies. There’s moments where even glimpses of Blue Jasmine come out to play (she loves her white wine and Xanax). This film is very much in the vein of Erin Brockovich. It’s fast paced and fun to watch and the fact that they made a film out of this story is satisfying, because even if Mary and Dan lost their jobs back then, at least the whole world now knows who was telling the TRUTH!  —tom

Here’s a new monthly party for you bitches, brought to you by artist/dancer Richard Kennedy. “Hiii! Yes it’s my new monthly! It’s in prime Williamsburg and it’s a straight up dance party” I say yessss 2016 keep the new parties coming — Kwik come thru! The DJ sets at this party are all under an hour, they’re Kwik, get it? I think this is great because you’ll get a nice variety of talents in the same night. Richard told me more about Kwik, (the name does have a nice sound to it, I can’t stop repeating it) “The venue is small and run by my homie. I haven’t done my own party in a while and I aim to create a space that’s less about exclusivity and hype and more about dancing, not super gay but very mix-y. Very music focused and showcasing of my favorite New York talents…there’s a great sound system and a stage. It’s way nice to hear people performing on a proper system.” The line-up seems promising, it includes some cool people: Slava, DJ DJ DESE, DonChristian, Prince Harvey, Tygapaw, Avillageraid, Andy Pandy, Mistervaction, Robofoxnyc, and more. The party is booked through April and they are promising “lots of surprises.”  —Abi

“This performance contains adult content.” I love a show that includes that as a disclaimer. And when it comes from a woman often described as an “art world provocateur” even better. Performance artist Ann Liv Young is back with her first American commission in over 8 years, and we couldn’t be more excited. “Created in collaboration with Annie Dorsen, the epic evening begins with her potent and corporeal vision of Sophocles’ story of a family steeped in murder, revenge, and deception — Young plays the title role with an intrepid cast of performers (including her 8-year-old daughter, Lovey), cycling through versions of the text splintered by pop songs and sequences of bold, jarring movement. A lush intermission features performances by a special musical guest from Norway, drowning the theater and inviting a visit to the lobby bar. The evening rages on with Young’s critically acclaimed, rough and tumble Elektra Cabaret.” The point of the show is to get the audience to challenge social norms. Ann is a unique artist and I love the intention of this work — be an individual, think for yourself, get free. We’re into it.  —tom

We wrote about this party the last time they threw it, and we try to not repeat, but we can’t help it because we love Julius way too much. That bar is a fucking institution. I’m not one of those people who bemoans gentrification, as far as I am concerned cities change, we all evolve, it’s a part of life blah, blah. HOWEVER, Julius needs landmark status. If that bar were to close, I would be majorly bummed. But fear not, it is open this Thursday for the latest edition of Owl. To give you some idea of what to expect the organizers of this party have decided to share with us the 3 things they believe in: “1. Disco music that ripples the buns. 2. Free mini-therapy sessions by an actual therapist. 3. Bad caricatures.” So, yes, admittedly they are three pretty obscure things to have a strong belief system around, but gay people are weird, and if you’re planning on going to this party you’re probably weird to. So just go with it. Dance, having some therapy and take a drawing of yourself home as a souvenir.  —tom

The Canadian artist Zachari Logan is back in NYC for a residency at Wave Hill at their Winter Workspace Program. During his time here, he has a few things coming up and we are gonna tell you about one you shouldn’t miss. Just to give you some background on Zachari, his drawings are amazing and a lot of his work deals with “the intersections between masculinity, identity, memory, and place.” In previous work, related to his current practice, Logan investigated “his own body as a site of exploration...” In this early work he used to be really into himself, naked and often flaunting his massive penis. Now I think I got the attention of some of you. He will be giving a talk at the New York Academy of Art this wednesday, January 27th at 1:00PM. He told me that he’ll be discussing: “the narrative and material shifts in my work away from the exclusive pictorial use of the figure (my figure), to an engagement with the queer embodiment of space, landscape and nature, where ideas of my body as ever an ever-present catalyst, explore intersections between masculinity, identity, memory and place.” Sounds deep, just don’t forget to show the peen!  —Abi

Well this is about the darn cutest thing I’ve ever hear of. It’s a gay skating and tea dance on ice at Bryant Park. And even better they are serving booze! That’s right: gays, ice skating and vodka, what could possibly go wrong! I’m kidding, this sounds like a fucking blast. Season 6, RuPaul's Drag Race contestant, and GAYLETTER issue 3 contributor, MILK (pictured) is also doing a live performance. We’re super excited for that as I have a feeling that queen is pretty good on ice. Music is by DJ XAVIER and there’s also performances by Michael Paul Dionysiou, and the Drags On Ice Spectacular. Also a portion of proceeds go to benefit the Ali Forney Center. I mean, what are you waiting for, lace up those skates and getting down to Bryant Park this Sunday, January 24th. We’ll be there, just don’t get in our way, we’re real cunts on ice.

I haven’t seen Sam Ashby in years… He’s a friend, and the creator of the film magazine Little Joe, which as far as I know is the best queer magazine about film out there. For those of you that don’t know why it’s called Little Joe, it’s a reference to the Warhol star Joe Dallesandro — who Sam refers to as “the man of my dreams.” Yeah I get it, he looked tasty in those Warhol films and his peen looked correct. The magazine was in hiatus for a bit but now it’s back with the 5th issue. This is the first co-edited issue, in collaboration with Toronto-based curator Jon Davies. “We worked together but apart, through a year of a lot of change for the both of us... The cover is the original cover from Cruising the Movies by Boyd McDonald (founding editor of Straight to Hell) and it’s by the artist Joseph Modica.” He told us. This latest issue is packed with 240 pages of essays, interviews, fiction, and art. This Saturday, January 23th, Sam is gonna be in NYC to launch the issue at Printed Matter. They’ll have drinks, reading, temporary tattoos and you can also get the new issue. I can’t wait!  —Abi

I got a message recently from Matthu Placek about his bi-monthly dance party Wet Noise and it sounds promising to me. Here’s what Matthu told me about it: “I started this party a few years ago and only did the one. It was a huge success and hella fun! The point was to create a party that offered up filthy dirty funk music on vinyl and urged everyone to put their damn phones away, don’t take pictures, check your chatter boxes at the door…” I think that’s a great initiative, but these kids are not gonna put their phones away, he told me that he wishes he could literally omit phones at the party, but he can’t, cos people are cunts when it comes to their devices. Make Matthew happy and at least keep it out of sight all night. You’ll probably have more fun. He also wants “people to be prepared to dance and sweat! I want bass lines that grab you by the taint… anchored straight down the center with pelvic thrust.” Sounds wonderful!  —Abi