GAYLETTER

One of GAYLETTER’s friends, Matthew Placek, is throwing another edition of his party ‘Wet Noise’ at the Mockingbird in the East Village. He’s thrown this party before, and he told us that the last edition was “off the damn chain.” It’s “a filthy funk dance party.” That means be prepared to dance. Matthew told us before that he’s trying “to make a place for people to release HARD and all night :).” When this party came about he wanted 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…” At times like these, that seems like a pretty great idea. Music for the night is by Ana Matronic (from Scissor Sisters) and Amber Martin (she’s one of our favorite people). Cheap drinks! “$5 Well Drinks from 10-11PM & 3-4AM.” It sounds like a great way to release some stress. Something we could all use right now.  —Abi

Bailey House provides housing and medical assistance to people living with HIV. It all started in 1983, when “a group of visionary and compassionate men and women organized the nation’s first response to homelessness among men living with AIDS.” Bailey House were the first to do anything to help homeless people with HIV and AIDS. Dealing with the disease back then was hard enough, but also not having a home, now that’s another level of struggle. We’re so happy we can write up this event. The work they have, and continue to, do is impressive!! Each year they do an auction to raise money for the organization and this year they have some pretty impressive artists involved. “Alan Cumming is hosting the event and art pieces will be available from artists like Robert Mapplethorpe and Herb Ritts but also newer artists like Gio Black Peter and Sean O’Connor.” While you’ll be helping out an amazing charity, auctions like this are often a pretty smart way to buy valuable art at a discount. It’s an auction after all, so they have to sell the pieces to highest bidder. Sometimes that’s a lot less than the pieces are worth on the open market. Of course that’s not the main reason you should go, but just saying, it’s something to think about.  —tom

As you may have gleamed from reading GAYLETTER, I love a podcast, especially one aimed at us homos — there’s honestly not that many good ones out there. A new addition to this group is Food 4 Thot. Hosted by Joe Osmundson, Tommy Pico, Fran Tirado and Dennis Norris II — the podcast discusses everything from “sex, relationships, race, identity, what we like to read, and who we like to read.” The hosts are all writers, Fran is an editor at Hello Mr. Magazine, Tommy is a poet and the “founder and editor-in-chief of birdsong, an antiracist/queer-positive collective, small press and zine,” Dennis and Joe have written for online publications including Gawker and The Los Angeles Review. They’ve only produced a couple of podcasts so far, and are clearly warming up to the medium. In the two episodes I heard they sounded open and honest (mandatories for a successful podcast) and covered a good range of topics. I am having a little trouble differentiating the voices, but that’s often the case when a podcast has more than 3 people (it’s weird how one extra voice can make such a difference.) If you are looking for a new queer podcast to add to your rotation, Food 4 Thot is def worth a listen.  —tom

There’s so much going on this week, I seriously can’t (read this one with a Valley Girl’s voice), like seriously, it’s too fucking much. I just came back from LA, and now we have a magazine to make! OK, let me take a deep breath and let you know what’s happening as part of the NADA Art Fair this week. Gordon Rabichaux Gallery is curating a contemporary drag program. According to Tyler Ashley who is part of it, “everyday of the fair will feature a series of performances, talks, or presentation each day, including film screenings.” For the final day of the fair, Sunday, March 5th, “BABY TEA takes over and features a talk between Hamm Samwich and Me, and performances by Matt Savitsky, Merrie Cherry and Patti Spliff. It will then become a closing gay tea dance. On top of all of this, many of the artists included in the contemporary drag program will also participate in a collab with PAOM (Print All Over Me) from which they have designed something that will be available in limited edition.” Check out their calendar of events from March 2-5. It all sounds very fun!  —t&a

This one sounds lit. Here’s what the organizers had to say about this jam-packed party: “We have been long waiting to find the arcade, and now have found one over in Greenpoint. 3 Floors 4 Rooms to play in.... cyberpunk. cybergoth, hackers, TRONS, weLCUM to the motherfucking Queer matrixXx... you are all invited, freaks, geeks, scifi weirdos, Gravers, RAVERS come and RAVEL and unRAVEL. live. action. roleplaY. in our new DIGITAL PLAYYYGROUND. where HI FI and LOW FI collide....” I mean, shit, how are we not meant to go this event after reading all that? On a more specific note, there’s about 20 hosts, soooo, sorry but I’m gonna skip over you guys. Instead I’ll focus on the music. There’s gonna be a live show by Richard Kennedy, then music across three rooms by Joey Labeija, DjDj DESE, A Village Raid vs. Donnatella Presents Metal Dance 1, Films by Robert Fox, Justin Cudmore, Michael Magnan. It starts at midnight, cos as I said it’s lit and goes until 4:00AM. Amazingly they say there’s more to be announced. Get it girl!  —tom

While there have sadly been an uncountable amount of horrific things that have happened since the Brock Turner case (hi Donald), the Committee to Recall Judge Aaron Persky is not just going to let this one go. On Friday night they’ll be putting on Stand Up Against Rape, a comedy fundraiser. The money raised will go towards collecting signatures to get Judge Persky on the ballot in California so he can then be voted off. Otherwise he won’t be back on the ballot until 2022 and most likely never face the consequences of his actions. To remind you, Judge Persky sentenced rapist Brock Turner to only six months in jail, ignoring the minimum sentence of two years. Not to mention his long standing record for biased outcomes in favor of white, male athletes. He’s a real gem! Hosted by Blair Socci and Farah Brook, Stand Up Against Rape will feature comedy from Lane Moore, Janelle James, Marcia Belsky, Giulia Rozzi, Arti Gollapudi and Marlena Rodriguez. There will be raffles, prizes and a chance to celebrate the demise of misogynists. Come join the fun!  —Gayletter