25 B FE
009 2 03 R A -M
4 O3 N 3 L1 O •V
BAGELS, BACKHOES & DAVID BROMSTAD THE HOME & GARDEN SHOW • THE
2• K C A L NEW B
A
X NNO E L NNIE
02 • OUTLOOK WEEKLY FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
SNAPSHOT
FRIENDS, FANS, AND ADMIRERS TURNED OUT TO LIFESTYLE COMMUNITIES PAVILION ON VALENTINE'S DAY TO CELEBRATE THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF KATIE REIDER. WHILE KATIE LEFT US TOO SOON, THE COMMUNITY WILL NOT LET HER WORK GO UNDONE. KUDOS TO THE ORGANIZERS FOR KEEPING KATIE'S NAME - AND SPIRIT - ALIVE.- PHOTOS BY SALLY SMITH
VOLUME 13 NUMBER 34
OWNERS AND PUBLISHERS Michael Daniels & Chris Hayes EDITOR-IN-CHIEF / ART DIRECTOR Chris Hayes hayes@outlookmedia.com ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR / PHOTOS Robert Trautman traut@outlookmedia.com
TITZ N’ MILK
BONGO BALLYHOO
NIFTY RIFFS
HUMMIN' AND STRUMMIN'
FINGERING THAT AXE
ROCK ON, SUZIE
MANAGING EDITOR Adam Leddy aleddy@outlookmedia.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Tom Moon, Jacob Anberson-Minshall, Leslie Robinson, Wayne Besen, Mickey Weems, Mary Martineau, Gregg Shapiro, Romeo San Vicente, Jack Fertig, Dan Savage, Jennifer Vanasco
BUSINESS & ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Michael Daniels mdaniels@outlookmedia.com NATIONAL ADVERTISING Rivendell Media - 212.242.6863 ADVERTISING DEADLINE Each Wednesday - 8 days prior to publication Call us at 614.268.8525.
BURLESQUE AT HAVANA - THINGS GOT A LITTLE SMUTTY AT HAVANA FOR A BURLESQUE SHOW. A LITTLE SKIN, A LITTLE SLAP, A LITTLE TICKLE ... VA VA VOOM, BABY! PHOTOS BY ROBBIE DANIELS
HOW TO REACH US Outlook Media, Inc. 815 N High St, Suite ii Columbus, OH 43215 614.268.8525 phone 614.261.8200 fax
PURE MISFIT
www.outlookweekly.net web www.outlookmedia.com business www.myspace.com/outlookweekly friends www.flickr.com/outlookweekly photos SUBSCRIPTIONS Call 614.268.8525
PLENTY OF THROAT SPACE READERSHIP: 210,000 PEOPLE / MONTH Outlook Weekly is published and distributed by Outlook Media, Inc. every Thursday throughout Ohio. Outlook Weekly is a free publication provided solely for the use of our readers. Any person who willfully or knowingly obtains or exerts unauthorized control over copies of Outlook Weekly with the intent to prevent other individuals from reading it shall be considered guilty of the crime of theft. Violators will be prosecuted. The views expressed in Outlook Weekly are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or personal, business, or professional practices of Outlook Media, Inc. or its staff, ownership, or management. Outlook Weekly does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or reliability of any interpretation, advice, opinion, or view presented. Outlook Media, Inc. does not investigate or accept responsibility for claims made in any advertisement. Outlook Media, Inc. assumes no responsibility for claims arising in connection with products and services advertised herein, nor for the content of, or reply to, any advertisement. All material is copyrighted ©2009 by Outlook Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
FILL ME UP, BUTTERCUP
QUEENS OF HEARTS
THAT SLY COME HITHER STARE
KISS ME, DARLA-ING
SNAPSHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 ABOUT TOWN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3,26 COMMON LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 COMMUNITY CORNER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 COMMENTARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 OUT BUSINESS NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 OUT IN FAITH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 INSIGHT OUT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 FEATURE: HOME AND GARDEN SHOW . . .14-18 DEEP INSIDE HOLLYWOOD . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 ARTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 INTERVIEW: ANNIE LENNOX . . . . . . . . . . . .22 CLASSIFIEDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 SEX TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 SAVAGE LOVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 THE LAST WORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 SCOPES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 NEXT WEEK: OUT@WEX & ST PAT’S DAY
OUTLOOK WEEKLY • 03
ABOUT TOWN WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 THAT’S SO METRO Columbus Metropolitan Club Lunch Forum @ The Athletic Club of Columbus, 136 E Broad St, 614.464 .3220, www.columbusmetroclub.org: “The Economy’s Impact on Social Services.” 12p-1:15p; $17-$35. STAY SAFE Protecting Your Loved Ones Legal and Financial Seminar @ Stonewall Columbus, 1160 N High St, for more info 614.841.9650 or stonewallcolumbus.org: Susan Finefrock and Sheila Clark teach how to protect yourself and your loved one financially and legally for the future. 6:30p-8p; free.
by Adam Leddy
A BROADWAY CLASSIC Machinal @ Thurber Theatre, 1849 Cannon Dr, 614.292.8241, theatre.osu.edu: A stenographer commits murder in the 1928 Broadway hit. Thru March 6. Thu-Sat 7:30p, Sun 3p; $12-$18. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27 BANG IT OUT Drums Downtown IV @ The Capitol Theatre, Riffe Center, 77 S High St, 614.469.0939: A multimedia experience with lively choreography and impressive percusson. Fri-Sat 8p; $12-$17.
BETTER THAN SLUMDOG? Sita Sings the Blues @ The Wexner Center for the BRING YOUR BRAINS AND PIPES Arts, 1871 N High St, 614.292.3535, www.wexarts.org: Trivia & Karaoke @ Score Bar, 145 N 5th St, An animated take on ancient Hindu mythology. Intro614.849.0099, scorebarcolumbus.com: Anything Goes duced by the director on Friday. Fri & Sat, 7p; $5-$7. Trivia with Sam and fabulous prizes at 7p, followed by karaoke with KJ Mark and a chance to win a trip to Ft ANYA FACE? I’M IN! Myers, FL. 7p; no cover. Project DJ @ Wall Street Nightclub, 144 N Wall St, 614.464.2800, www.wallstreetnightclub.com: UpI KNOW WHAT BOYS LIKE and-coming DJs spin their tunes. This month: DJ Anya Face. No cover with college or military ID. 9p; $5. Boy Night @ Wall Street Nightclub, 144 N Wall St, 614.464.2800, www.wallstreetnightclub.com: Music SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28 by DJ Michele Chaney with $3 Long Islands and hot, IT AIN’T SIDNEY POITIER … OR IS IT? sweaty boys. Dee Ranged in the Hot Spot! 18 & up. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner @ BoMA, 583 E 10p; no cover with college ID. Broad St, tix @ 614.294.7867 or www.bravo-ohio.org: The annual evening of mystery dinners is back. Come A 4TH ‘D’: DAMN! 3D Wednesdays @ Q, 205 N 5th St, 614.222.2401, out to support BRAVO and meet some new friends. 6p; www.q-nation.com: Divas, dick, and dance, hosted by Reception only $40, reception & dinner $125. Anisa Love. DJ Huas spins the hot tracks. $3 Bacardi, $4 cactus bowls. $5 cover after 11p. HOME-OS AND GARDEN GAYS Central Ohio Home & Garden Show @ The Ohio Expo BUTCH IT UP Center, 717 E 17th Ave, dispatchevents.com: ExhibiHome Maintenance/Repair Workshop @ Lazelle tions, celebrities, and much more. Thru March 8. Sat Woods Community Recreation Center, 8140 Sancus 10a-9p, Sun 11a-6p, Wed & Fri 12p-9p, MTR 4p-9p; Blvd, 614.275.4663: Learn basic repairs and regular $10. See pages 14-18 for full coverage. inspections to maintain your home. 6p-8p; free. HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26 Royal Renegades Prom Show @ Wall Street NightMERRILY WE ROLL ALONG club, 144 N Wall St, 614.464.2800, www.wallstreetSimply Sondheim @ Club Diversity, 863 S High St, nightclub.com: The Renegades take you back w/ their 614.491.4070 (box office), www.clubdiversity.com: The Happy Days prom. Bring your letter sweater! 8p; $7. songs of Sondheim, raffles, and all for a good cause proceeds benefit CATF. 9:30p-12:30a; $10. MARY GET YOUR GUN The Columbus Gun Show @ Veterans Memorial, 300 GAY PRESENCE NEEDED W Broad St, 614.221.4341, www.fcvm.com: See some State of the City @ East High School, 1500 E Broad St: of the prettiest pieces in town. You may even get to If ever there were a year to catch the mayor’s speech, hold one. Sat 9a-5p, Sun 9a-4p; $8. this would be it. 6p; free. SUNDAY, MARCH 1 MAD ‘ABOOT’ HOCKEY, EH? MELTS IN YOUR MOUTH, NOT IN YOUR HAND Ohio Mayhem vs. Perpetual Motion @ Chiller Dublin, Melt @ Liquid, 1100 N High St, 614.298.3000, www.liquidhotspot.com: Men’s night at Liquid. Dance 7001 Dublin Park Drive, 614.764.1000, www.gayhockeyohio.com: See the gay hockey team in action, while party with DJ Durty Dolce. 10p-2a; no cover. yelling fun things like “Skate over his neck!” 5p; free. IS MANHUNT COVERED? Isaac, I Am @ MadLab Theatre, 105 N Grant Ave, info PEEL A BANANA SLING at 614.495.7946, www.rtheatre.org: Raconteur TheExtreme Strippers @ Score Bar, 145 N 5th St, atre presents the award-winning play that explores 614.849.0099, scorebarcolumbus.com: Need we say our online lives. Thru March 14. Thu-Sat 8p, Sun 2p & more? 9p; no cover. 8p; $8-$12. MONDAY, MARCH 2 PUSH IT REAL GOOD WHEN DAMES BOND, DAMES THRIVE Thursday Thrust @ Tradewinds II, 117 E Chestnut St, Dames Bond Networking @ The Columbus Metropoli614.461.4110, http://tradewindsii.com: Buck-a-beer tan Library, 96 S Grant Ave, 614.209.3556, domestics for happy hour, $3 Long Islands all day, and www.damesbond.com: Networking for women. This hot strippers at midnight. No cover. month: How to buy, sell, and finance a home in 2009. 6p-8p; $5. SEXY NEVER LEFT ME, BABY Bringin’ Sexy Back @ Shadowbox Cabaret, Easton MOTHER SUPERIOR Towne Center, 614.416.7625, shadowboxcabaret.com: Mother Mother @ Skully’s, 1151 N High St, Shadowbox redefines sex appeal with outrageous orig- 614.291.8856, ticketweb.com: The acclaimed live perinal comedy sketches and raucous rock ‘n’ roll dediformers open for Sam Roberts. 9p; $10. cated to America’s favorite pastime. Thru March 21. Thur 7:30p, Fri-Sat 7:30p & 10:30p; $20-$30.
FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
04 • OUTLOOK WEEKLY
COMMON LIFE by Jennifer Vanasco
Waiting on the Freedom to Marry
My girlfriend and I are talking about getting married. We’ve wandered down 5th Avenue in New York looking at engagement rings and have spent hours trolling the web studying wedding dresses. Our friends are excited. They’ve offered us wedding books. Florist tips. The names of photographers and caterers. One even asked if I wanted to borrow the dress she used for her wedding. We’ve also started imagining where, exactly, we’d get married. We split our time between New York and Chicago, but we’d like to tie the knot in Manhattan, where we fell in love. We’re not even engaged yet, so probably all the dreaming about wedding day specifics is a little premature. In fact, it’s a lot premature, because last weekend, New York state senate majority leader Malcolm Smith said that equal marriage would not come to New York this year. Despite the state senate now being led by Democrats, he simply doesn’t have enough votes. Smith told those at an HRC gala: “We are committed to pursuing [equal marriage’s] passage. And the question is not if; the question is when. So our work still needs to happen for it to happen this year. But I’m going to need your help, and I’m going to need your prayers . . . . we all want marriage and family, and a home to raise our families.” The delay of marriage in New York is a quandary for my girlfriend and me, because New York actually recognizes gay marriages performed out of state. So if we were to get married in Massachusetts or Connecticut or Canada, South Africa, Belgium, Spain, or
another country that recognizes marriage between gay couples - then New York would happily list us on its registers as married. That means that we could take a train to New Haven, get married in the clerk’s office, and then celebrate with a ceremony and reception the next day or next month. But that’s not really what we want. What we want is to have a wedding surrounded by our family and friends in the city we will make our home, and - when the preacher pronounces us “spouses for life” have it be legal. We’re not the only couple who feels this way, of course, which is why this is the 12th annual Freedom to Marry Week. All over the country, couples will be dropping in to their local city halls to try to get marriage licenses. They’ll be refused in most states, of course, but the point till have been made. They’ll also be lobbying their legislators, attending rallies and - most importantly - talking to their friends, colleagues and family about marriage. I myself have decided to target brides. We all know straight couples who are getting married this year. One of them is my baby sister and her fiancé. I don’t want to upstage their wedding planning or their big day, but I do want them to understand how painful it is to me that they can get married in New York City, but my girlfriend and I cannot. It’s tough to have
those conversations, but they’re necessary. We now know that merely knowing a gay person isn’t enough to change someone’s vote. But talking politics with them might change their thinking. And it is changed thinking that changes laws. I also want wedding vendors to understand that gay marriage laws affect them, because I believe that pressure from the market is one of the best ways to get unfair laws overturned. So when I begin attending to wedding expos with my sister and before I get a sugar rush from all that cake tasting, I want to start saying, “Hey, do you guys do gay weddings, too? You do? Oh, isn’t it a shame that we can get married in Connecticut and not New York? Think of all the gay business you’d have…” The New York state legislature - and the Iowa legislature and the California legislature and the New Jersey legislature and the Illinois legislature - need to know that the unions are behind us, businesses are behind us, and they should be behind us, too. In the meantime, my girlfriend and I are hoping that New York will see its way to equal marriage in 2010. We are waiting on the freedom to marry. Jennifer Vanasco is an award-winning syndicated columnist. Email her at jennifer.vanasco@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/JenniferVanasco.
The Reader Poll
Last week we asked:
Do you plan to attend The Central Ohio Home & Garden Show ?
Yes 55.56% No 38.89% Maybe 5.56% NEXT WEEK’S QUESTION:
What’s your favorite gay movie? Log on to: www.outlookweekly.net to take this week’s poll.
63%
SOURCE: GALLUP
FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
CATEGORY
JAN 20 ’09
FEB 23 ’09
DIFFERENCE
AMERICAN DEAD
4,226
4250
24
AMERICAN WOUNDED
30,934
31,054
120
IRAQI CIVILIAN DEAD
98,605
98,968
363
NATIONAL DEBT
$10,605,968,804,933 $10,721,365,792,566 $115,396,987,633
DAYS IN OFFICE
1
27
26
OUTLOOK WEEKLY • 05
FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
06 • OUTLOOK WEEKLY
COMMUNITY CORNER New Faces at Equality Ohio
fun! $30; $25 for Center on High members. Call Suzie Simpson at 614.930.2260 or mail ssimpson@stonewallcolumbus.org. • March 7 - Yoga - Saturdays 11a-12p. $30; $25 for Center on High members. This course is suitable for those who have never done yoga and those who have some experience. It will introduce body awareness, basic yoga poses and their components, breath work, and relaxation techniques. Students will discover newly developed strength, flexibility and mind/body awareness at their own level in a relaxed, lighthearted atmosphere. This class is most appropriate for those who can easily get up and down from the floor. Wendy Erin $30; $25 for Center on High members. Call Erin is completing her master’s in social work at Suzie Simpson at 614.930.2260 or mail ssimpson@stonewallcolumbus.org. Call Michele FregoCase Western with a concentration in social and community development. Previously she was the nas at 614.930.2262 to pay by credit card. regional field organizer and community health edFinefrock and Clark Host Legal ucator for Planned Parenthood of Central Ohio. Rev. Wendy Sherer is an ordained Lutheran and Financial Seminar on (ELCA) pastor living in Toledo. For the past three Protecting Your Loved Ones years, Wendy has represented Lutherans ConStonewall Columbus invites you to a free semicerned as the region 6 coordinator, helping to identify and equip those within the ELCA who de- nar: “Protecting You and Your Loved Ones: Legally sire a church that affirms, includes, and loves all & Financially.” Many of us do not realize that as GLBT citizens, of God’s children. we do not have all of the rights with regards to family law that our straight friends and allies enjoy. It is important to protect yourself and your loved ones financially and legally for the future. Join us as Susan Finefrock of Money Concepts and estate planning attorney Sheila Clark explain important financial and legal issues that we all need to know. Contact Susan Finefrock at 614.841.9650 for more information. In March, Equality Ohio will welcome two new faces. Erin Upchurch, a former EO intern, will begin on staff as a community organizer, and Rev. Wendy Sherer has been awarded the independent contract for faith organizing.
Stonewall Announces Dance, Yoga Offerings Stonewall Columbus will offer the following classes: • March 5 - Ballroom Dancing - Thursdays at 6:30p and 7:30p Intermediate Ballroom at 6:30p, Beginner 2 at 7:30p. Beginner 2 will also include Cha-Cha, Waltz and Tango! Even if this is your first time for a ballroom class, you are welcome to sign up for Beginner 2 and you will feel very comfortable and do just fine. $30 per person, $50 per couple. Call Suzie Simpson at 614.930.2260 or email ssimpson@stonewallcolumbus.org. • March 3 - Aerobic Line Dance - Tuesdays at 7p A six-week class with instructor Mary Bova. One hour of instruction includes: Zumba Fitness: An aerobic exercise training to slow and fast rhythms that will sculpt and tone your body. It targets the arms, abdominals, glutes and legs. The cardio is excellent for your heart and it’s fun dancing to the Latin music. Line Dancing with Pizzazz: A class teaching the latest dance in the nightclubs of line dancing.You get plenty of exercise with good music and fun fun FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
Games. At Forget Your Fear, Ohio Splash will be on hand to provide information about becoming a member of Ohio Splash and to put the word out to the community about the World OutGames, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, July 25-August 3. Members of Ohio Splash will compete in a regional swim meet on Saturday, February 28, in Milford, OH. In addition to the Milford meet and the World Out Games this July and August in Copenhagen, Ohio Splash has targeted swim meets in Toronto (April), Cleveland (June), and Philadelphia (Fall) for its 2009 competition calendar. Ohio Splash welcomes new swimmers and swimmers who never intend to swim competitively. The swim team holds three coached swim workouts a week. If you have ever wondered about giving Ohio Splash a try, or if you just want to show your support for the team, come on out and meet them at Forget Your Fear, Union Cafe, Friday, March 13, for a great time!
LinkedIn Success Week Tour Hits Columbus
Like many things, the cliché “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” has been updated. According to entrepreneurs and authors of the newly released LinkedWorking: Generating Success on the World’s Largest Professional Networking Website, Frank Agin and Lewis Howes, “it’s who you know and who knows you.” The act of networking with people to generate new business is also changing as unemployment numbers continue to increase throughout most every industry. Instead of lavish organizational gatherings, people who seek new clients - or new jobs - are likely to connect with others via social or virtual media networking websites like LinkedIn, as well as Twitter, Facebook and others. “Your personal brand is your most valuable asset, and we found that people were signing up for social networking services but didn’t proactively promote their unique selves,” said Howes, who has created an international reputation for helping businesses attract clients and advance careers with LinkedIn. “They didn’t know what to do to make their LinkedIn experiences productive.” Agin, founder and president of AmSpirit Business Connections, at which he works to empower entrepreneurs, sales representatives and professionals, said that LinkedWorking and events such as those he and Howes are scheduled to host help reveal how everyday, real-world networking practices can help people succeed when they use networking sites such as LinkedIn. “While we will take people through a tour of the simple-to-follow information in the book, we want people to come to these events to talk about their experiences with LinkedIn, share their success stoClub Theatre Co. to Hold Audi- ries or even concerns,” Agin said. “The goal is to leave the intimidation factor behind.” tions for Steel Magnolias The LinkedIn Success Week Tour hits Columbus In April and May, the Club Theatre Co. will preson March 5, with a networking event at BoMA. The ent Steel Magnolias at Club Diversity. Interested actresses should plan to attend an audition at the event starts at 5:30p; visit club (863 S High St) on Monday, March 2 or Tues- www.linkedworking.com for more info. day, March 3. Auditions are at 7p both evenings. Callbacks will take place Wednesday, March 4, also at 7p. Characters: M’Lynn Eatenton - 50s, mother of Shelby, socially prominent career woman. Truvy Jones - 40s, owner of a beauty shop. Louisa “Ouiser” Boudreaux - 60s, wealthy curmedgeon, acerbic but lovable. Annelle Dupuy Desoto - 19, beauty shop assis- Join Governor Arnold tant, very religious, very strange. Schwarzenegger for the RISING Belcher - 60s, widow of former mayor, a Ohio Splash Hosts “Forget Your bitClairee STARS VIP Reception posh and snooty. Fear” Social/Fundraiser at U Shelby Eatenton Lachery - 25, prettiest girl in - Friday, March 6, 5p-6:30p at The Hyatt on Ohio Splash (www.ohiosplash.org), the only town, diabetic, M’Lynn’s daughter. Capitol Square, 75 East State Street. local Masters swim team for fitness and competiPlease prepare a one-minute monologue of your - Celebrity guests include event chair & Columtion in the GLBT community, will host Forget Your choice. Serio-comic style monologue is recombus City Councilman Andrew Ginther; UFC superFear, a martini night fundraising and social event mended, but not required. star Randy Couture; baseball great Ray Lankford; at Union Cafe on Friday, March 13. At 8p, Ohio Rehearsals will begin Monday, March 9 and be Mr. Olympia, Ronnie Coleman; World Bodybuilding Splash members will gather for an evening of fun, held Mon-Thurs from 6:30p-9:30p and on Sundays Legend Franco Columbu; and the Honorable celebrating Ohio Splash as the Masters swim from 1p-4p. The rehearsal period is six weeks. Pro- Michael B. Coleman. Also on hand will be CBS suteam that has represented Columbus’s GLBT com- motional appearance: Saturday, April 4, 6p-10p, perstar Josh Radnor of How I Met Your Mother and munity in regional, national and international Short North Gallery Hop. Performances are Friday ABC’s Lindsay Price, star of Lipstick Jungle. competitive swimming events for over ten years. and Sat at 7p and Sunday at 2p, April 17-May 3. - Tickets are $200 through Ticketmaster at tickOhio Splash has always been a member of IGLA Please bring a list of schedule conflicts to your au- etmaster.com or by telephone at 614.431.3600. (International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics) and has dition. - All proceeds benefit After-School All-Stars consistently sent swimmers to IGLA ChampiColumbus. onships, the Gay Games, and the World Out
OUTLOOK WEEKLY • 07
FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
08 • OUTLOOK WEEKLY
FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
OUTLOOK WEEKLY • 09
COMMENTARY by Mickey Weems and David Parker
T h e N e w B l a c k , Pa r t 2 : M a b e l a n d B a y a r d
If Gay is the new Black, as some Black civil rights activists have observed, it’s important for Gay people to acknowledge those African Americans who paved the way for Gays and Blacks. Here are 2 important Americans whose life stories reflect real power and grace under pressure. Rather than allowing themselves to be torn apart by competing bigotries, Mabel Hampton and Bayard Rustin acted as sutures, binding and healing the self-inflicted wounds of our nation.
Mabel Hampton (1902-1989) When asked when she came out of the closet, Mabel Hampton responded, “What do you mean? I was never in!” The first years of life for Mabel Hampton were marked by instability and tragedy. Born in WinstonSalem, North Carolina, she was only 2 months old when her mother died. At the age of seven, her life shifted once more when her grandmother, who cared for Mabel after her mother died, also passed away. She was sent to New York City to live with her aunt and uncle, but she ran away from home within a year after being raped by her uncle, an incident that led to another shift. Mabel’s own words about the rape describe a little girl who refused to simply bow to her fate: “My aunt went out one day and he raped me. I said to myself, ‘I’ve got to leave here.’ … So this day, I got tired of that. I went out with nothing on but a dress, a jumper dress, and I walked and walked.’” From age eight to seventeen, Hampton stayed with a White family by the name of, coincidently, the Whites, who took her in when Bessie White found her at a playground that same day her uncle raped her. Bessie refused to send her back, and kept Mabel safe as much as she could until she too passed away. But membership in a White family could not protect her from police brutality. During that time, she was falsely accused of prostitution and served a two-year sentence in Bedford Hills Reformatory, where she found comfort in the arms of other women. It was yearning for that same comfort that caused her to serve out her entire sentence when she had been granted early release - she got busted when a neighbor snitched on her for attending parties in NYC. When finally released for good, Hampton continued to live “in the life” in the company of women who love women. She worked as a dancer in Coney Island for an all-women’s troupe, then made her
way to Harlem in the 1920s where she joined the chorus lines in all-Black stage productions at the Garden of Joy nightclub, and became an actress in the Cherry Lane Theater. With the decline of the Harlem Renaissance and the onset of the Great Depression, Hampton took on work as a cleaning woman. When asked about her career choice, Mabel said, “I like to eat.” Hampton may indeed have loved to eat, but she also loved justice. She set aside time and money as an activist for African American civil rights and volunteered in 1943 for the New York Defense Recreation Committee, where she gathered refreshments and cigarettes for American soldiers at the Harlem USO during World War II. She also functioned as air raid service warden for her community. In 1932, she met Lillian Foster. “And Lillian of course, Lillian was my wife,” Mabel said about her beloved, eschewing the label “domestic partner” that was en vogue during the years when the interview took place, after Lillian had passed away in 1978. They were together until Lillian’s death. “There is nobody like you to me,” wrote Lillian to Mabel when Mabel was away from home in what seemed to be a perpetual search for employment. As a couple they would go out as “Mabel and Lillian Hampton.” Later in her life, Miss Mabel (as her friends and admirers called her) would contribute to the Martin Luther King Memorial Fund and to LGBTQ organizations. She marched in the first National Gay and Lesbian March on Washington, no doubt inspired by the same determination that compelled her to take that first fateful walk at the age of 8. In 1974, Hampton helped found the Lesbian Herstory Archives that is currently housed in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The Archives are a grassroots collection supported by a non-hierarchical women’s collective, available for all Lesbians and housed within a communal setting in a four-story limestone brownhouse. The small circle of women who originally made this project possible included Joan Nestle, the daughter in one of the families whose homes Mabel had cleaned. Nestle reports the following story told to her by Mabel. When Joan’s mother Regina found out Joan might be a Lesbian, she called Mabel late that night and threatened to kill herself if it were true. Mabel’s response? “I told her, she might as well go ahead and do it because it wasn’t her business what her daughter did and besides, I’m one and it suits me just fine.” The Lesbian Herstory Archives include Mabel’s personal library, a collection of material spanning her adult life in New York. Mabel’s memorabilia have been invaluable in helping Queer historians understand the rich culture in which African American Lesbians lived, loved, and struggled for their rights during a large part of the twentieth century. Mabel appeared in two documentaries chronicling Gay history: Silent Pioneers and Before Stonewall. Photographs and her oral history are also included the documentary Not Just Passing Through, which includes Columbus’s own out-and-proud 1950s butch, Marge MacDonald. On October 26, 1989, Mabel Hampton died of pneumonia. In 1985, Hampton was the grand marshal of the New York City Lesbian and Gay Pride March. The year before, she spoke to the crowd gathered for that
same annual march: “I, Mabel Hampton, have been a Lesbian all my life, for 82 years, and I am proud of myself and my people. I would like all my people to be free in this country and all over the world, my Gay people and my Black people.”
Bayard Rustin (1912-1987) Rustin was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and raised in a Quaker household by his grandparents, who entertained such luminaries as James Weldon Johnson and W.E.B. Du Bois in their home. Bayard studied at a number of colleges on music scholarships because of his fine tenor voice, ending up at City College of New York. At twenty-five, he trained with the American Friends Service Committee to become an activist, and worked to free the Scottsboro Boys, nine young African American men who were falsely accused of raping two White women. Like many other politically committed men of the era, he joined the Communist party. In 1939, Rustin sang in John Henry, a musical starring Paul Robeson and blues singer Josh White. Rustin joined White’s band, Josh White and His Carolinians, and performed at Greenwich Village’s Café Society nightclub. In 1941, he left the Communist party and joined the staff of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an organization dedicated to the work of Gandhi. When Rustin received his induction notice in 1943, he informed his draft board that, as a conscientious objector, he would not submit to the draft and sent back his registration and classification cards. That earned him a twenty-eight month imprisonment in a number of federal prisons, during which time he was identified as a “notorious offender” for refusing to accept either segregation or celibacy during his confinement. In 1947, Rustin participated in bus rides with members of the Fellowship of Reconciliation to test Morgan v. Virginia, a Supreme Court decision that outlawed segregation in interstate travel. The following year, he went to Europe on a lecture tour and then to a world conference of pacifists in India; on his return, he was arrested for his participation in the 1947 bus rides and jailed in North Carolina, where he was put on a chain gang. In 1952, Rustin spent several months in Africa, working with the independence movements in Nigeria and the Gold Coast (now Ghana). In January 1953, he was arrested in Pasadena for “lewd vagrancy” - in other words, cruising. This ended his affiliation with the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
After several weeks in jail, Rustin returned to New York, where he worked with the War Resisters League, a group of independent secular radical men, several of whom were also Gay. Late in 1955, Rustin joined a group of New York activists calling itself “In Friendship,” which was led by A. Philip Randolph, the president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the largest African American union at the time. When Martin Luther King, Jr.’s house was bombed during the bus boycott, the group sent Rustin south to bring Gandhi’s nonviolent political philosophy to the civil rights movement. King agreed with his teachings, but kept Rustin under wraps as much as he could. Participation of a former Communist, conscientious objector, and Gay man like Rustin could be used to discredit the movement. Nevertheless, Rustin helped King found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, and organized a rally at the Lincoln Memorial. This rally turned out to be a rehearsal for the 1963 March on Washington. Rustin was sent to Birmingham to promote the march to the SCLC staff. Again, his background posed a problem. But A. Philip Randolph, the official director of the event, appointed Rustin his deputy. Rustin organized the march in eight weeks, bringing 200,000 people into Washington, DC, and providing a stage for King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Rustin disappeared from the pacifist movement and, while he opposed escalation of the war in Vietnam, he criticized the antiwar movement’s flirtation with Communists. He also found the new militancy of the civil rights movement, by now in its Black Power phase, repellent. Although his public profile was higher than ever in 1969, Rustin had lost credibility in the Black community. During the 1970s, Rustin continued to work on issues like voter registration and with organizations like the Urban League and the NAACP. He worked through organizations like Freedom House and the International Rescue Committee to dramatize the plight of refugees of war, particularly in Southeast Asia. In 1977, he met Walter Naegle, a twentyseven-year-old who became his lover. Naegle helped him renew his ties to the War Resisters League, and one of the last acts of Rustin’s public life was lobbying Edward Koch and the New York City Council to add sexual orientation to the city’s human rights code. Rustin died of a heart attack on August 24, 1987. Since his death, Rustin has been reclaimed as an icon for LGBTQ people, but he has yet to be given his due by society at large. During the opening ceremonies for the inauguration of Barack Obama at the Lincoln Memorial on January 18, 2009, that referred time and again to King’s speech and included (for the first time) openly-Gay participants, there was no public acknowledgment of Rustin outside of LGBTQ blogs, demonstrating the necessity of restoring Rustin to his rightful place in the history of the twentieth century. A year before he died, Rustin said, “Twenty-five, thirty years ago, the barometer of human rights in the United States were [sic] Black people. That is no longer true. The barometer for judging the character of people in regard to human rights is now those who consider themselves Gay, homosexual, Lesbian.”
FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
10 • OUTLOOK WEEKLY
FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
Spotlight:
OUTLOOK WEEKLY • 11
OUT BUSINESS NEWS by Adam Leddy
Pat McCarthy
Score Bar and Piercology “I’ve never been afraid to hire people who know more than I do,” says Pat McCarthy, owner of Score Bar (www.scorebarcolumbus.com) and Piercology (www.piercology.com). He says this in reference to Sam Schisler, general manager of Score, but the statement underscores what seems to be Pat’s principal business principle: do what works. Pat is a pragmatist, and that probably explains why he has been in business for so long - Piercology, after all, opened in 1994 and is still going strong. He just knows his business. Or rather, his businesses. Pat also knows what it is to be the victim of discrimination, having lost a job for being gay. (His employer actually offered to send him to therapy for his sexual orientation.) That experience motivated Pat to become self-employed, so that he was never at the mercy of an unfair boss again. He started with a mail order shirt business out of his condo, then opened Piercology at its original location on High Street. Pat hasn’t looked back since, as he explained to me in wide-ranging conversation that I only wish I could do justice to in the space that I have here.
down [to Piercology] to shop. They come to get done what they want to get done and leave. The parking had become such an issue that I was losing business. That’s when I bought the building on West 2nd, which came with a whole street of parking. We really like the 2nd Avenue building because, again, we’re a destination. You don’t walk down the street and decide you want to get pierced. A lot of people couldn’t believe that we moved off High Street. Would I have started in the West 2nd Ave location? No, because I needed that High Street location [to build the business]. But we’ve done very well in the new location. AL: Was it tough to trust your instincts when other people questioned that decision? PM: No, because I knew we were a destination. People think [getting pierced] is like shopping, when it’s not at all like shopping. If you want to get tattooed or pierced, you’ve done some investigation. It’s not something people typically do on the spur of the moment. Once you explain it to someone, it makes perfect sense, but to most people it didn’t.
Adam Leddy: You’d built Piercology’s name and reputation on High Street. Why did you decide to move the business a few years ago? Pat McCarthy: I wanted to move out of the Short North. I would lose business during gallery hop. My clients were destination clients. People don’t come
AL: How has the recession affected Piercology’s business? PM: We have been affected by the recession, and I have plans in place for that. Our numbers are actually up from last year. We’re holding our own. Some other studios are really struggling. After all, when it
comes to putting a piece of jewelry in your body or gas in your gas tank, you’re going to put gas in your gas tank. AL: Piercology was established and you were doing well. Why did you decide to branch out into a new field and open a bar? PM: I had some extra money from rental properties that I had - I love to rehab houses and apartment buildings. I wanted to do something with [the money]. I wanted to diversify. I wanted something different. AL: So you’re looking around… PM: … And I realized that Columbus did not have a good sports bar. I looked at what we didn’t have, and being an alumnus of Ohio State and a huge Ohio State fan, this is what I decided to do. … The funny thing about Score is, there will be times when you’re in here and it’s predominantly straight. There will be times, particularly when we used to host the Crystal Club, that Score is predominantly transgender. It is what it is. There are times it’s mostly gay. There are times it’s mostly drag queens. There are times it’s mostly lesbian. That’s because of the sports: it’s one thing everybody has in common. AL: Beyond the sports, what else has helped to
make Score a success? PM: We have something for people to do. You go in most bars and they might have a Mega Touch. We have poker, trivia, Wiis, beer pong, the pool table. We’ve got cornhole outside. People want something to do; they don’t want to just sit. AL: Tell us about your relationship with the other downtown bars. PM: We’re all working together. People feel like we’re competing against each other. That’s not true. We all want each other to succeed, because it’s better for all of us. AL: Finally, what can we expect from Score and Piercology in the next year, and beyond. PM: Piercology is going to be celebrating its fifteenth anniversary. Score Bar’s not going anywhere. We change with the times. We’ve got some new things planned for both businesses, but nothing I really want to share yet. You’ll just have to wait and see.
BBB Warns Job Hunters to Steer Clear of Rebate Processing Job Scams Tough Economy Raises Interest in Work-at-Home Jobs, but Not All Are Legitimate Better Business Bureau is warning job hunters to beware of opportunities to work from home processing rebates. While the job offer may claim that people can earn up to a thousand dollars a day without leaving the comfort of their home, BBB has received hundreds of complaints from victims nationwide who never earned a dime and were, in fact, ripped off for hundreds of dollars in upfront fees. The nation’s unemployment rate expected to hit a 25-year high in early 2009, and work-athome websites which promise big money for little or no experience are extremely tempting even in the best of times. But now, with so many cash strapped families trying to make ends meet, they’re especially appealing. In 2008 alone, more than one million people checked with their BBB about the legitimacy of companies that offer work-at-home jobs. Unfortunately, BBB warns that most work-at-home opportunities, such as supposed “rebate processing” jobs, are ultimately scams. “With the nation’s unemployment rate hitting double digits in some states, more families are desperately searching for ways to bring in in-
come, and these rebate processing scams lure them in with promises of big money for little work or no experience,” said Joan Coughlin, BBB spokesperson. “No one ever wants to lose money, but in these hard times, job hunters are getting scammed when they can least afford it.” According to complaints on file and research conducted by the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau and the BBB serving Central, Coastal and Southwest Texas, the larger offenders which have racked up hundreds of complaints from consumers nationwide - operate under such names as Angel Stevens and Cindy Dalton with web addresses including www.processathome.com and www.rebateprocessorjobs.com. While the names might be different, the scam remains the same. Victims stated that they paid an upfront fee anywhere from $40 to over $500 for a trial program earning money by processing rebates from home. The companies profess that the opportunity is affiliated with 11,000 companies including some household names like Hewlett Packard and Home Depot; complainants are deceived into thinking that the offer is legitimate. Instead of guidance and a starter kit on processing rebates, victims report that they actually received instructions on how to make money by
sending emails, posting blogs and paying for ads on the Internet in order to sell various products. The products being sold are marketed with a rebate and the victim allegedly makes money by receiving a percentage of sales for any products sold as a result of the ads they placed. “Adding insult to injury, recent complainants state that after paying the initial fee of $359, they find that their credit card or checking account is charged each month thereafter for $59. The charges continue even though the victims cancel and demand refunds,” said Coughlin. Complaints have been received by the BBB serving Central Ohio for a company operating under the name of Credit Processor with the web address www.rebatework.com. Complainants allege that after paying fees of $97 to begin work as a rebate processor, they were directed to the company’s affiliates’ web addresses where they are required to pay additional fees to promote their products by writing and placing ads. If the products are purchased as a result of the respondent’s ad they are to receive some sort of compensation; however, no rebate work exists. Complainants allege that they are victims of misleading advertising and demand their money back. A few complainants who decided to try placing Internet ads to earn money became dis-
satisfied after they failed to make the amount advertised after spending even more money on ads and additional training. The marketing language on “rebate processing” websites makes the offer sound risk-free and usually advertises a “90-day money back guarantee” or “100% Satisfaction Guarantee,” but complainants state that the companies failed to honor the guarantee. If they respond to requests for refunds at all, it’s usually with an excuse for not making the refund. BBB offers the following advice to help job hunters avoid being taken by a work-at-home scam: • Beware of offers that sound too good to be true, including the promise of big bucks for little work or no experience. • Always check out the company’s BBB Reliability Report for free at www.bbb.org to see if the company has received a passing grade from BBB. • Never give your credit card or checking account information to an individual or business that promises employment. Legitimate employers never charge fees to prospective employees. Period.
FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
12 • OUTLOOK WEEKLY
OUT IN FAITH by Rev. Eugene Brundige
God’s Love Story
“Don’t give up on the church - God hasn’t given up on it or us.”
Wednesday, February 25 will be celebrated as Ash Wednesday in Christian Churches around the world. Ash Wednesday is a time for self-examination and for seeking forgiveness. It is my sincere hope that in the midst of our self-examination, all churches will ask God for forgiveness for the spiteful acts of rejection that have been perpetrated on GLBT persons. I serve two small United Methodist churches on the Westside of Columbus that have long been open and welcoming to anyone who walked through their doors. But, when it came to the matter of gay persons in our midst, the churches practiced an informal version of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Last year we challenged the churches to step forth in faith and follow Jesus in the practice of really welcoming all God’s children into our midst. The churches passed intentional statements of being “open and affirming,” and the evidence of God’s grace has become even more visible in our gatherings. As of this writing, two other United Methodist congregations on the Westside have passed similar statements. We all know there are those who can use the “hammer” verses in the Bible to justify their own fears, prejudices and homophobia, but when the Bible is read in context, one can only see that this great book of faith is a story of God’s love affair with humankind - a love affair that embraces all people without distinction. Those who read Leviticus and point to the GLBT lifestyle as an “abomination” conveniently ignore the companion passages in the same book which demand we refrain from eating shellfish (and I love shrimp) and that we should not plant different kinds of seed in the same furrow (I never could figure that one out). If this “holiness code” is to be taken literally, I know straight people who should tremble. Leviticus advises that if a man commits adultery with the wife of another, both male and female must be put to death. Instead, I read the words of Jesus when he says “come unto me all you who are weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest” and I know he is speaking to every GLBT person who has ever felt the sting of rejection and separation as well as every straight person who is hurting from the wounds acquired on life’s journey. I firmly believe God loves every person, gay or straight, young or FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
old, without regard to gender, economic status, race, handicap, etc. And I also believe there is a very warm spot in the heart of God for those whom life has kicked in the teeth. Thus, my challenge to all GLBT persons reading this column, who miss the comfort and support of a church (and for those of all faiths who have been estranged from other faith centers), is this: Don’t give up on the church because some narrow-minded zealots have closed their eyes, ears and hearts to the beautiful person God created in you. Instead, find a church or other faith center that is welcoming, open and affirming, and connect with people who believe that God’s grace is abundant and available to all. This Lenten season I will be praying for forgiveness of my own sins (and I have many), but I will also be praying for the United Methodist Church and all other denominations, that the new wind which is blowing in so many places will grow to hurricane force, and once and for all sweep away the remaining policies and practices which keep the church from ordaining gay clergy, performing same sex marriages, and blessing of civil unions. But while I and others pray, we will also be continuing the journey to full inclusion and acceptance in more and more congregations. At our Thanksgiving Eve service, I invited people to say a word about what they were most thankful for. One of our somewhat bashful gay members stated with genuine heartfelt sincerity that he was most thankful for his life partner. The people of the church smiled with appreciation, and my heart nearly burst with pride: first for the love these two young people share, but secondly for a church family which recognizes that all love comes from God our parent and our creator. So find a church or other faith center that welcomes and celebrates you just the way you are and the way God made you. And join the journey knowing that God will not forsake us. Rev. Eugene Brundige is the pastor of the New HorizonsHilltonia United Methodist Charge. He can be reached at ebrundige@columbus.rr.com. The New Horizons & Hilltonia United Methodist Churches welcome all God’s children to worship and full participation in the life and membership of the church without regard to race, culture, age, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, physical or mental handicaps or any other life situation that we fail to recognize. We believe God’s love and grace is sufficient for all, and embrace the rich diversity of gifts and persons in our neighborhood. We seek to live out the slogan of the United Methodist Church by offering “Open Hearts, Open Minds and Open Doors.”
OUTLOOK WEEKLY •
13
INSIGHTOUT by Regina Sewell
Letter to Stan Dear Stan,
I feel moved to write this because even though I barely know you, my heart hurts for you. The part of you that has been hurt that reminds me of the part in me that has also been hurt. I can’t honestly say that I understand your pain. I don’t. I’ve never been a soldier in someone else’s war. I’ve never had to don heavy black armor to protect myself from danger in the streets and have never run with a particularly rough crowd. But I do know what it’s like to be betrayed by the people I should be able to trust. I do understand the pain of an internal war. I’ve felt the pain, fear and rage that stems from physical and emotional abuse and know the teeth grinding determination to never ever let anyone hurt me like that again. I do understand what it’s like to feel like I’m on guard as I walk down the streets lest someone with a hair up their butt or a machismo complex take a notion that today would be a good day to bash a random queer’s brains out with a baseball bat. So while I can only begin to imagine the jagged edges of your pain, I suspect that were I in your shoes, I’d do my best to stay numb, to pretend like it didn’t hurt or sweep it back into some closet of my past - a secure closet with a deadbolt strong enough to keep the demons at bay. I’m guessing, further, that I would do my best to put up a tough front, to avoid feeling vulnerable, because logic would tell me that being vulnerable gets me hurt. I imagine that you might do this because this is what I did with my pain for years. I felt it in the core of my heart when you stated that you never want to be attached to anyone or anything ever again, because it hurts too much. I know that you feel alone in this. The irony is that as isolated as you feel, your approach is actually
pretty normal. I remember working with a young man in a runaway shelter years ago whose father was a boxer and used my client as a punching bag. The young man had run away and had lived on the streets in Camden, NJ. I was talking to him because he’d just thrown a brick through the window of the transitional house he’d been living in and had threatened to attack the staff member on duty. The program was contemplating washing their hands of him, leaving him to fend on his own. I pointed this out to him and was trying to help him come up with a different strategy and contract with him to act differently in order to keep the housing and support he was receiving. He tried to shake it off. He knew, he said, how to survive. But that’s all he was doing. Surviving. Getting by. I pointed this out to him. And then I asked him what he had wanted, why he went back to the transitional apartment when he had his own apartment. Not the excuse he gave, but the real reason he went back. He finally admitted that he wanted someone to talk to, that he was lonely. How fast and far do we have to run to avoid our pain? And does it ever really work, at least without causing other problems? I remember running a group on the detox ward and one of my tough guy clients confessed that he was there because he’d gotten arrested for assault and, when pressed by other group members, admitted that the assault was an effort at bravado largely fueled by Jack Daniels. And why the drinking that night, and the six-month bender he’d been on before the assault? Self-induced anesthesia to block the pain he felt after his girlfriend dumped him. Sober, on the detox ward, with a bus waiting to take him back to jail upon release, he admitted that perhaps the alcohol not only hadn’t stopped the pain he was feeling, but
that it actually made his life worse because being in jail really sucks. And, while he was whiling his time away on the detox ward and in jail, he was not able to work and might even lose his job. And then there were the fines and fees for treatment. Most people end up needing rehab because they’ve been using drugs or alcohol to avoid their pain. Worse, they discover that the cost of better living through chemistry has caused an avalanche of other problems. Though the legal consequences of other addictions - work, food, exercise, video games, surfing the Internet, reading, watching TV - may not be as serious, they all have a hidden cost. Obviously, if you drown your sorrows in Doritos and candy bars, your waistband is going to complain, which for many people leads to shame, self-disgust and self-recrimination. Purging those Doritos and candy bars may not affect the waistline, but then you’ve got an addiction on your hands that may be more difficult to tame than an addiction to crack. Working - well, it’s hard to maintain relationships, even with colleagues, if you’re working all the time. Then, when you do want to talk, who is there to talk to? And how do you get your bills and other personal details taken care of when you’re so busy expanding your hours or fleshing out your time card? When do you find time to take care of yourself - eating healthy meals, exercising, meditating or other practices that help get you or keep you grounded - when you’re always working? And then there’s the deeper cost of avoiding pain: the loss of self. Ultimately, the only way to avoid feeling pain is to avoid feeling everything. In this space, we’re not consumed with sorrow or anger, but we also miss the experience of love, wonder, and gratitude. We can’t feel our misery, but we also can’t feel the rapture of being alive. Life then becomes a matter of putting one step in
front of the other, a form of misery that almost begs for relief though drugs, alcohol, work, eating, gambling, or a thousand other ways of turning off and tuning out. And Stan, I know that the man in you does not want to cry. I know that you grew up hearing that “real men don’t cry,” and as a consequence, you see crying as a sign of weakness. But what I know is that it takes a lot more courage to face one’s tears than it does to get drunk, stoned, or otherwise numb out. So I’d like to encourage you to find a place for your tears, maybe not around people who will laugh at you or use your tears against you, but in a place where it’s safe, or around people who are safe. And if you don’t have anyone in your life right now who is safe enough to cry around, find a counselor who’s brave enough and strong enough to hold your tears. If you need help, email (through my website) or call me (office: 614.769.2006), and I’ll help you find someone who can work with you. Stan’s name has been changed to maintain confidentiality. Regina Sewell is a mental health counselor with a private practice in Worthington. To ask a question, propose a column topic, read about her approach to counseling, or check out her books and other writing, go to www.ReginaSewell.com. Her most recent publication, “Sliding Away,” can be found in Knowing Pains: Women on Love, Sex and Work in Our 40s, edited by Molly Rosen.
FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
14 • OUTLOOK WEEKLY
FEATURE STORY
David Bromstad had been plugging away as a designer for years when he decided to make his own luck. He tried out for HGTV’s Design Star with the intention of merely having his work noticed. David certainly never expected to win the competition. His victory in the first season of the show set in motion a series of events that has changed David’s life immeasurably. He is now the host of HGTV’s Color Splash, where he shares his design knowhow with loyal viewers. When I spoke to David about his rollercoaster ride from starving artist to savvy television personality, he was walking his dog and preparing for his first trip to Columbus. Adam Leddy: Tell us a bit about what your life was like before the HGTV’s Design Star, and why you decided to try out for the show. David Bromstad: I had a pretty good life. I was poor as hell, but I was an artist and I was doing things I really loved. My friends suggested [that I try out for the show], and I’m like, what do I have to lose? I really had no intention of actually winning. I figured I’d be on TV for one or two episodes and show a great room or a great project I did and maybe get noticed. Well, I went on the show and I won, so my life is completely different now. I spend my time in Miami and San Francisco, so I’m always flying back and forth. AL: I imagine poverty is no longer an issue. DB: It isn’t. And that’s a good thing! AL: What happened after you won the show? DB: A week-and-a-half later I started work [on Color Splash]. … I just fell in love with the whole TV thing; it just was so much fun. It was a lot of work, but at the same time, it didn’t feel like a job at all. AL: Do you miss having the time to do your own design work and projects? DB: I miss having my own warehouse space and design studio where I can just go in and build stuff on a whim. My partner and I used to work together and we used to have so much fun. That’s kind of how we fell in love, from working together. There are two things that I lost [after winning the show]: one is the freedom to make FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
Central Ohio Home & Garden Show Overview
by Adam Leddy
my own schedule, and the other is just being able to make stuff when I want to. AL: Since this wild ride started for you, have you run into any obstacles from being openly and unapologetically out? DB: It definitely has not been an obstacle. HGTV has been amazing. They have said, “Just be yourself and be who you are.” [I decided] I was just going to be myself and not put on heirs because that’s just not who I am. … HGTV is a huge supporter of the gay community. And they weren’t just supportive of me; they were encouraging. AL: How has your life changed within the gay community? DB: It’s just changed me for the better. I guess I am a recognizable face in the gay community. It’s weird, I never really thought about that. I’m just kind of an ordinary guy with an extraordinary job, which happens to be in front of millions of people. We need as many positive gay role models out there as possible, and I was ready for that. I prepared myself to be that positive role model for gay people who might need one. AL: Going back a bit further in your life, is it true that you wanted to be an animator for Disney at the beginning of your career? DB: That’s why I went to art school. I wanted to do animation. This was back when they did hand drawings, which dates me a bit. I took some of the classes and realized it just wasn’t for me. Drawing the same thing over and over and over doesn’t do anything for me. As an artist, I like change. I like things that aren’t the same all the time. TV is the perfect place for that. Nothing is ever the same. We’re never in the same spot. I never have an office. I got the change I wanted! AL: Do you have some advice or encouraging words for our readers who are in the position you found yourself in a few years ago? Maybe they started off on one path and it turned out to be the wrong path for them; maybe they are not doing exactly what they want to do, or not making a living at it. What would you say to them? DB: I’ve always been a firm believer in going with your instincts and never giving up on what you
really want to do. I know it’s hard, especially in this economy, but you really have to keep doing what you want to do and never stop. There are many times when I couldn’t make bills and I was really struggling, but I made it through somehow. It’s because I kept doing what I wanted to do and remained a starving artist that I eventually got a lucky break. Granted, the lucky break isn’t going to happen for everyone the way it did for me, but if you’re doing what you love and you’re good at it, you’re definitely going to be discovered someday. AL: What’s next for Color Splash? DB: We’re airing season five right now, and we just started filming season six this week. There will be new episodes all summer long. AL: You’ve had time now to get comfortable in the show. What’s changed in how you approach your job? DB: The thing that we’ve changed in seasons five and six is that we’re shooting the show very reality-style. Our show is the new blueprint for what all design shows need to look like. We shot all of season five very honestly, very run-and-gun - if I don’t say something perfectly the first time, it may be that way in the final cut. We’re allowed to mess up, laugh about it, and continue on. It’s shot in a really fun, cool way that allows for a lot of character building and shows how much fun we really do have. It’s different from anything HGTV has done before. AL: You’re on the coasts. In traveling to the Midwest, what’s your sense of the level of talent in your field - and I’m thinking of design rather than television - that exists in places like Columbus. Do we get the attention or recognition we deserve, or is it very much a bi-coastal field? DB: I think the coasts definitely get the majority of the attention, but I’m from Minneapolis, so I guess I’m representing the Midwest. I think a lot of people from the Midwest probably move to the coasts to get that attention in New York, LA, and Miami. But I think anyone can get ahead. As long as you’re good, you can be good in Columbus or good in Miami.
• The 53rd Central Ohio Home & Garden Show features more than 400 exhibitors and attractions. The show introduces area homeowners to the best money saving home improvement tips, new green products and ideas, the latest styles and the trendiest, most luxurious new products and services for home and garden. • Headlining the show this year will be HGTV’s Myles of Style host Kim Myles, making two appearances at 11a and 3p on Saturday, February 28. And HGTV’s Color Splash star David Bromstad will appear at 11a and 1p on Saturday, March 7. • The Central Ohio Home & Garden Show gives visitors their first peek at spring and at the hottest gardening trends through the 2009 Garden Showcase, produced by the Columbus Landscape Association. • This year’s Garden Showcase theme is Hooray for Hollywood!, featuring remarkable living landscapes inspired by favorite Hollywood movies including: Raiders of the Lost Ark; Tombstone; Notting Hill; Ratatouille; Under the Tuscan Sun; Cast Away; Lord of the Rings; Mary Poppins; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; The Secret Garden; Mamma Mia!; The Terminator; and Herbie the Love Bug. • The Garden Stage will feature the Home & Garden Show Talent Series, presented by Ohio Mulch, including garden and landscape seminars, workshops and appearances by special guests and lawn, garden and landscaping experts. • The At Home in Columbus Stage, presented by Giant Eagle, offers continuous appearances by celebrity chefs leading cooking demonstrations, plus home improvement seminars, workshops and special guest appearances. • Senior Day is Wednesday, March 4, offering special programming and pricing for seniors. • Kids’ Day is Saturday, March 7, and features special events and attractions just for kids, including Kids Korner Activities, presented by The CW on WWHO53-TV, a fun hands-on building project offered by The Home Depot and appearances by Matt the Balloon Guy. The Central Ohio Home & Garden Show opens Saturday, February 28, and runs through Sunday, March 8, at the Ohio Expo Center. Show hours are Saturdays 10a-9p; Sundays 11a-6p; Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 4p-9p; and Wednesday and Friday 12p-9p. Tickets are $10 for adults. After Feb 7, $2-off discount tickets may be purchased at the Special Services Desk at area Home Depot stores. Children 12 and younger are admitted free. Complete show information is found at dispatchevents.com. The Central Ohio Home & Garden Show, a favorite among Central Ohioans, was named the National Association of Consumer Shows’ Show of the Year in 2006.
OUTLOOK WEEKLY •
15
FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
16 • OUTLOOK WEEKLY
FEATURE STORY
HOLLYWOOD-THEMED GARDENS TO WOW YOU AT THE HOME&GARDEN SHOW The 2009 Central Ohio Home & Garden Show will feature magnificent living landscapes inspired by favorite Hollywood movies. Show guests will discover garden and landscape ideas in fourteen full-sized gardens produced by talented professional designers from the Columbus Landscape Association. Upon entering the Garden Showcase, guests will be greeted by the Lang Stone Company’s entry garden, featuring pattern flagstone, a stone seating wall, raised beds and an HDTV that presents an introduction to each of the themed gardens. A student garden created by the students of Tolles Technical in Plain City, and their awardwinning instructor Jim Scott, will feature a small café with tables where show guests can purchase movie food and relax. This year’s dazzling gardens include: Benchmark Landscape Construction, Inc. Tombstone: The movie Tombstone depicts the old American West’s struggle between Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday and the outlaw Clanton gang. Benchmark centers its garden on the town saloon. Arizona’s arid Southwestern desert can be felt as you enter the garden. This Wild West landscape features old-growth red pines, yucca, cacti and other succulents. An Arizona flagstone path, complemented by rust red desert dust, leads to the saloon entry. Inside, patrons saddle up to the bar or perch themselves at the poker table. Rolling tumbleweeds and an old desert cemetery complete the experience. Cedarbrook Landscaping and Garden Center - Ratatouille: Visitors will be swept into Paris as the Eiffel Tower soars overhead and the trickle of a sewer pipe waterfall brings the City of Love and its culinary creatures to life. Weeping willows embrace guests while birch trees, rhododendrons, roses and lilacs intoxicate with texture, color and fragrance. A 1930s delivery truck brings crates of produce to create the fine cuisine for the French café and its outdoor pizza oven. An arbor is flanked by water-splashed vases. Italian cedar, pine and spruce trees reach up to the sky, while boxwood, taxus and andromeda create formal hedges, adding to the garden’s Old World style. Creative Spaces Landscape Design and Construction Ltd. - Terminator 2: “Hosta” la vista. In that most memorable scene in Terminator 2, Arnold Schwarzenegger utters that famous sendoff, “Hasta la vista, baby.” Creative Spaces takes a slightly different spin on the phrase, and takes full advantage of the many hosta varieties available. With hundreds of cultivars, each with different leaf colorations, textures and sizes, hostas and their foliage are this garden’s primary attraction. Many varieties also have a flower or fragrance that is equally desirable. The garden is situated under a lush canopy of large trees, and rhododendrons, azaleas and specimen plants add even more interest to this unique interpretation of Terminator 2. FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
Darby Creek Nursery & Landscaping - Notting Hill: This garden is inspired by the romantic comedy starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, and set in a London neighborhood known for large, landscaped private gardens. Gated pillars open to a stone-tiled walkway. Visitors will feel the sense of enclosure amid raised planters that are home to the shrubs and trees. A center fountain is ringed by a riot of tulips. October Glory maples, still sleeping, rise above the garden. A waterfall tumbles into a pond surrounded by azaleas, Japanese maples and weeping Norway spruce. Hydrangeas and hyacinths add spring color and scent. Holly still holds its winterberries, while junipers and cedars give off distinctive perfume. A cedar pergola encloses a sitting patio blanketed by serviceberry shrubs, rhododendrons and azaleas. Just as in the movie, the wooden sitting bench bears an inscription. Evergreen Landscaping, Inc. - Under the Tuscan Sun: This Tuscan-style family garden features an outdoor eco-kitchen with a wood-fired pizza oven, cedar wall, vertical garden, patio lounge and fire pit. Three main areas are designed so that groups, both large and small, can gather, prepare dinner, relax in the TV patio lounge and toast marshmallows in the fire pit. Twin stone pillars welcome visitors. The relaxing sounds of the waterfall anchor the front of the garden. Lighted birch trees are framed by sunny forsythias and boxwood. In the center, a Tuscan fountain creates soothing sounds and fills the garden with moisture. The kitchen and lounge area are covered and connected by a custom-designed, shade-giving arbor made from sustainable cedar. Five Seasons Landscape Management, Inc. Herbie the Love Bug: Herbie returns for one last curtain call as the former racecar turns waterfall. He’s the perfect centerpiece to this collection of favorite garden features and plantings. Natural stone is found throughout in walls, pillars, fire pit, paved patio and walkways, which anchor the space with strong, dramatic hardscapes. The garden also features everyone’s favorite “retro” plant material, taking show guests back to 1968, when Herbie took his first ride across American movie screens. Azaleas, rhododendrons and blooming cherry trees, as well as many other classic trees, shrubs and flowers, remind visitors of the good old days when American backyards featured timeless favorites, and moviegoers flocked to theaters to watch Herbie’s antics. Franklin Park Conservatory - Jurassic Park: Show guests will step through the gates of this garden into an all-time favorite dinosaur movie, where they will find themselves in a tropical oasis with surprises around every turn. Palm trees, Australian tree ferns and a variety of tropical foliage plants create the backdrop of this garden. Hidden within the plant materials are a Brachiosaurus, Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops,
each created from plywood cutouts covered with dried plant materials from Franklin Park Conservatory. Visitors are encouraged to look inside the dinosaur nest to see what might await them. M.L. Longaberger, Inc. - Cast Away: As Home & Garden Show guests enter this garden through the hollowed out cargo plane, they will be surrounded by sounds of a plane crash. Once through the wreckage, they’ll walk in on a beautiful tropical island. A lovely view of the ocean is screened by varieties of palms and an undergrowth of azaleas, rhododendrons, hyacinths, magnolias, hydrangeas and hibiscus. A bamboo hut and boulder fire pit protect and warm our castaways. An engraved stone bears the names of missing friends. The angled leaves of the Japanese maple add contrast to the yellow Carex grass in this tropical paradise garden. Oakland Nurseries - Lord of the Rings: Guests are welcomed to Bag End, the family home of Bilbo Baggins. Located in the Shire, Bag End is a superb example of the landscaping skills of the hobbits, who take special pride in their homes and gardens. Built into an existing hillside, this landscape reflects the area’s natural beauty. Spruces provide protection from the cold winter winds, while flowering dogwoods and willows line the path to the house. Blooming azaleas and rhododendrons are a welcome sight after a long, cold winter. Assorted perennials provide a splash of color to the outside of this traditional home. A natural stone, walled patio invites visitors to relax and enjoy the view of the village, just down the paver path. The outdoor fireplace extends outdoor entertaining with friends well into the coolest fall evenings. Riepenhoff Landscape, Ltd. - Mary Poppins: Guests will experience musical adventure as they stroll through the London park and relive a cinematic classic that’s a favorite for all ages. Columns soar above a paver path along Bert’s sidewalk paintings. Show guests will hear the sound of splashing water well before they near the beautiful fountain area with its period wrought-iron benches. They’ll take in the view along garden walls filled with colorful coral bells and a variety of hostas. Blooming crabapples, lilacs, rhododendrons and viburnums add a sweet scent to the scene. A majestic wrought-iron fence adds the final touch surrounding Riepenhoff’s magical Mary Poppins Garden. Seely’s Landscape Nursery - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Reminiscent of the actionpacked movie, the moon gate entrance draws guests in and frames a beautiful display of water, plants and stone. Ancient plaster walls enclose the garden, leading upward to large bamboo, willow and pine trees. A winding cobblestone path, edged with boulders, leads visitors past a rippling creek to a beautiful koi pond. A zigzag plank bridge weaves through iris beds and over the pond, where guests are mesmerized by a large
stream-fed waterfall that splashes down rocks into the pond. A path leads past the Zen garden directly to an elevated bluestone patio where visitors can sit, meditate and take in the sights, sounds and smells of spring. Spellacy’s Turf-Lawn - Raiders of the Lost Ark: Adventure takes over the garden where Arctostaphylos, or bearberry, is featured throughout as groundcover and an accent. Bearberry completes the lush tropical feel created by the layers of dense jungle plantings. The garden entry features a Raiders-like air travel map set in pavers, plus a bistro table. Visitors will want to watch their step - and flying blow darts - as they move through booby-trapped South American ruins and past a giant boulder in search of a gold idol. Should they make it through alive, visitors will embark on an Egyptian archaeological dig and find themselves entombed with Anubis, God of the Underworld, in the Well of Souls. Finally, relax after your journey in the Middle Eastern-inspired terrace, featuring a custom grill and fireplace. Warwick’s Landscaping - The Secret Garden: The timeless tale comes alive as show guests walk through the ivy-gated entrance into this enchanted secret garden. They’ll discover beautiful flowering bulbs, including hyacinths, tulips, daffodils and crocuses. Flowering dogwoods, redbuds and rhododendrons line a lovely stone pathway. Visitors are welcomed by lush green trailing ivy, soft-flowing ferns and the trickling sounds of the water fountain. Beauty, peace and tranquility embrace visitors in a world where, “If you look the right way,” as Mary says, “You can see the whole world is a garden.” Wood Landscape Services, Ltd. - Hollywood at Home: This garden focuses on the value of time spent at home with your own home movie stars. Guests will discover the ability to extend interior living spaces into the outdoors. Using a hub design, the kitchen becomes the center of this outdoor space, with all other garden “rooms” flowing around it. All areas of the garden allow excellent vantage points from which to watch your best home movies at your own outdoor Hollywood movie theatre. Yard Solutions - Mamma Mia!: This private garden was inspired by Mamma Mia’s beautiful Mediterranean scenery. Guests will enter through sea-worn doors, kick off their shoes, and cool their feet on the patterned stone floor after a hot night of dancing. Stone pathways with decorative arbors open up to an informal patio area furnished with lounge chairs and planted containers bursting with color and texture. Guests are encouraged to take a break on the rustic seat wall bordering the patio. The inner garden is filled with lush, flowering trees, shrubs and perennials, and surrounded by the ruined walls and sandy soils prevalent on a Greek island.
OUTLOOK WEEKLY •
17
FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
18 • OUTLOOK WEEKLY
FEATURE STORY
phase 1
MYLES OF STYLE DESIGNER KIM MYLES DEMONSTRATES HOME DÉCOR ON A BUDGET HGTV Design Star winner Kim Myles will appear on the At Home in Columbus stage, presented by Giant Eagle, at 11a and 1p on Saturday, February 28. Myles will present ideas for beautiful home décor on a tight budget. Her show has skyrocketed in popularity due to her uncanny ability to inject life and style into ordinary spaces with her budget-friendly designs. Myles’ unique blend of “girl next door“ sweetness, straight-from-the-heart honesty and “Yeah, I’ve lived in New York City” style enables her to connect with people from all walks of life. Though she had no formal training in interior design, she always felt that design was her calling. She followed that dream, capturing the hearts of millions of Americans and winning HGTV’s Design Star, the American Idol of interior design. A celebration of her sophisticated-meets-eclectic aesthetic, Myles of Style is heading into its fourth season.
THE CITY’S GREAT GARDEN A native of Bakersfield, CA, Myles started her professional career as a classically trained actor and New York City hair stylist. But her creative passion drove her to dabble in interior design. Her sparkling personality and out-of-the-box design solutions have earned her multiple appearances on NBC’s Today Show, as well as features in InStyle, Redbook, Essence, Life & Style, USA Today and New York City’s Daily News. Myles lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two kitties.
MONEY-SAVING IDEAS, DISCOUNTS, DEALS AT THE HOME & GARDEN SHOW Dozens of exhibitors are offering show-only deals and discounts that are good only during the show - February 28 through March 8 at the Ohio Expo Center. In addition, two stages at the Home & Garden Show will feature programming on how homeowners can save money and improve and operate their homes inexpensively. Everything from how to cut your grocery bill in half with a vegetable garden to gorgeous décor ideas on a budget will be presented. “We understand that homeowners are especially budgetconscious at this time,” said Jean Nemeti, executive director of the Central Ohio Home & Garden Show. “So we’ve worked hard to ensure that their visit to the show offers them unique programming on the At Home in Columbus Stage and the Garden Stage, along with show-only discounts and special offers.” With the current economic situation, many homeowners are considering remodeling instead of selling. The Home & Garden show is the perfect place to find the experts and the materials needed to fix up a house at an affordable price. Just some of the dozens of specials and discounts include: • Columbus Glass Block: $75 off three or more glass block windows installed • Bath Doctor: $300 for an acrylic tub and wall system, installed • DogWatch Hidden Fences: FREE Hidden Fence, up to half-acre for one pet; $50 off instalFEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
lation fee • Color World Housepainting: 10 percent off interior, 30 percent off exterior paint jobs; $159 whole house paint washes (up to 2,500 s.f.) • Five Seasons Landscape: 10 percent off any work valued at $5,000 or more • At Home Greens: FREE indoor putting green with any purchase • Feazel Roofing: FREE 17point inspection, checking for damage from September’s wind storm. • Patio Enclosures: 10 percent off a sunroom • Quality Air: $250 off furnace, air conditioner, heat pump or system installation • Unique Bulbs: Entire “Bag of Bulbs” for only $80; two bags for $150 • TNT Powerwash, Inc.: Power wash up to 2,300 square feet for only $175 • Wood Landscape Services, Inc.: One 2-inch caliper tree with $2,000 purchase • Able roofing: FREE solar powered vent with purchase of a roof • Executive Security Consultants: One year of free monitoring with the purchase of a security system • Lighthouse Landscape Lighting: Free transformer • Pet Stop: $200 off any package for the first 25 customers • Today’s Quilts: 25% off all retail
Columbus Commons to Replace City Center City Center mall is no more; long live Columbus Commons and the lush, tree-shaded development that will boost the economy, raise property values and serve as a central gathering place downtown. “We are starting with a clean and green slate for this site, which is unusual in the development world, but the perfect solution for this site,” said Guy Worley, CEO of Capitol South. “Eventually, we will create an entirely new neighborhood Columbus Commons - with residential, retail, office and entertainment uses that will change the face of Downtown Columbus.” Located just south of the Ohio Theater, the Fifth Third Center and the Hyatt on Capitol Square, the approximately nineacre site will be leveled to bare ground in less than a year. “This is a transformative announcement for downtown and all of Columbus,” said Mayor Michael B. Coleman. “Turning a closed, empty bunker into a public gathering place and mixed-use development will serve as a catalyst for economic growth while improving the quality of life for people who live and work downtown.” By 2010, the area will have become a park with seating and common areas that could initially remind visitors of Bryant Park in New York, and later following mixed-use development, more closely resemble McFerson Commons in the Arena District. Both parks were reference points during the planning process for Columbus Commons. The plan anticipates multiple phases, starting with residential units above street-level retail along High Street that fits into the Mile on High concept championed by Mayor Coleman. It also envisions a return to a more pedestrian-friendly street grid and an improved landscape that also enhances walkability. “Every great American city has green space integrated into the urban environment, which enhances the quality of life for residents and visitors,” said Council President Michael C. Mentel. “Columbus Commons will be a tremendous addition to the growing list of downtown amenities that will help define us as a city.”
The initial phase of the Columbus Commons project, which includes demolition of the current structure, preparation of the site for redevelopment and creation of a park, is expected to cost approximately $15-20 million. As a green, jobs-producing, shovel-ready project and one of central Ohio’s top priorities for revitalization, Capitol South will apply for federal stimulus funding. By investing in basic infrastructure and green space on an existing site downtown, the project will combat urban sprawl and improve quality of life and transportation phase 2 efficiency. Capitol South can begin work within 90 days. This figure does not include subsequent private or public investment that may occur, which is estimated to exceed $100 million. Background In December 2007, the board of directors of Capitol South selected The Georgetown Company as its development manager in order to prepare a Master Development Plan for the 8.9-acre City Center site. During this period, MSI Design was also engaged to create an Urban Design Study illustrating ideas for a phased mixed-use development and related technical issues, using The Georgetown Company’s concept as its basis. Capitol South is taking on this new project in the midst of a streak of successful downtown revitalization projects, including two new parking garages, 5,000 new apartments and condominiums, the upcoming Scioto Mile riverfront park and the nearby Grange Insurance Audubon Center, all of which are part of the city’s Downtown Business Plan. The City of Columbus is helping lead the implementation of the Downtown Business Plan with the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation and local businesses. This year marks the seventh year of the ten-year plan to bring new investment, energy and activity into downtown as the city approaches its bicentennial in 2012. Visit www.downtowncolumbus.com for more information about Downtown Columbus.
OUTLOOK WEEKLY •
19
FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
20 • OUTLOOK WEEKLY
DEEP INSIDE HOLLYWOOD by Romeo San Vicente
Universal Pictures
justlikejessejames.files.wordpress.com
JULIA ROBERTS MAY EAT, PRAY, LOVE WITH RYAN MURPHY
BEALS GOES FROM L TO ELI
ONE MORE WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE
With the Showtime drama’s final season wrapping up, fans of The L Word are girding themselves to face a world without Bette, Tina, Jenny, Shane, Kit and the gang. Still, the stars of the show, most of whom have gotten a definite career boost from the Sapphic soapiness, are moving on to exciting new projects. Jennifer Beals will reunite with her Devil in a Blue Dress co-star Denzel Washington for The Book of Eli, a postapocalyptic Western directed by Allen and Albert Hughes (From Hell, Menace II Society). Beals plays a blind woman seeking to protect her daughter (played by That ‘70s Show‘s Mila Kunis) in a desolate wasteland while Washington’s Eli seeks a sacred book that could be the key to mankind’s salvation. Also featuring Gary Oldman, Eli could gallop onto the big screen as soon as next year.
If you’ve never watched the polygamy soap Big Love then you probably didn’t become aware of Amanda Seyfried until the Mamma Mia! poster at the bus stop made you wonder, “Who’s that girl?” Well now the accomplished young up-and-comer, who plays the eldest child of the four-way marriage on HBO’s acclaimed series and who held her own singing opposite Meryl Streep in the Abba musical, has joined the cast of A Woman of No Importance opposite Annette Bening. Based on the Oscar Wilde play of the same name, it’s one of Wilde’s darkly funny satires of Britain’s upper crust, full of mistaken identities and past sins coming back to haunt those who committed them. The film version is due this year, under the direction of Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy). And as long as Pierce Brosnan doesn’t pop round to sing a few numbers, it’s already on its way to being immune from critics looking to re-appropriate “no importance” in their reviews.
Even in a time when reading’s popularity seems to be at a historic low, you can count on a zeitgeisttapping best-seller to make its way to the big screen, especially when it’s one of those warm, Oprah-beloved “food = emotional healing” books. Currently making the rounds in Hollywood is Elizabeth Gilbert’s smash memoir Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, tracking Gilbert’s post-divorce global trek in search of meaning and fulfillment. Columbia Pictures is looking to snag rights to the book from Paramount, and the studio is already setting up its dream team to make the movie: Julia Roberts in the lead role, with gay Nip/Tuck creator and Running with Scissors director Ryan Murphy behind the camera. Negotiations are ongoing, so nothing is yet set; still, if Columbia can get its ducks in a row, we could be love-ing Roberts on screen again before the end of 2010.
www.celebritywonder.com
movieblog.ugo.com
BY THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL, HERE COMES HE-MAN Young gay boys whose first and favorite toys were the action figures in the He-Man and Masters of the Universe playset - even if the more prurient appeal of He-Man didn’t become fully understood until later in those boys’ lives - have a new pop-culture event to count down to: a live-action He-Man movie. Yes, yes, Dolph Lundgren and Courteney Cox starred in the beyondawful 1987 version already. But this one could turn out to be actually good, given that the kids who loved this stuff as children are the ones running Hollywood now. There’s no casting news yet; in fact, there’s barely any news at all save for a few gay blogs going down the fantasy actor trail. But cards played correctly, this could be as big and, even better, as gay as 300. Details as they emerge. Meanwhile, actors with 50-inch chests, please contact your agents ASAP.
Romeo San Vicente is not unfamiliar with the nickname “Master.” He can be reached care of this publication or at DeepInsideHollywood@qsyndicate.com.
ARTS
CAPA PRESENTS SPRING AWAKENING COMPOSER AND POP ARTIST DUNCAN SHEIK With the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Spring Awakening, composer Duncan Sheik has successfully accomplished what few other pop or rock artists before him have done - create original music that seems right at home on Broadway yet feels very much his own. Those efforts earned him a Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. The 1996 hit single, “Barely Breathing.” Duncan Sheik’s songs, with heartbreakingly poignant lyrics by poet-playwright Steven Sater, don’t try to move the story forward in the manner of a traditional musical, but refract the actions and emotions through a musical prism. That’s part of the strange and wonderful alchemy of the Spring Awakening. The adolescent characters occupy the late 19th century world of German playwright Frank Wedekind, but when the band starts to play, they turn their adolescent turmoil into emotionally charged and exuberant contemporary rock. The original cast recording, which Sheik produced, is very much an album that rewards devoted listening. It immediately becomes clear why fans of the show, grownups as well as teenagers, return to see it again and again. While other singer-songwriters struggle to find their niche in a fractured marketplace, Broadway has had a revitalizing effect on Sheik’s career, and
FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
the transformative relationship has been reciprocal. As New York Times theatre critic Charles Isherwood put it in his stellar opening night review of Spring Awakening, “Broadway, with its often puerile sophistication and its sterile romanticism, may never be the same.” Sheik’s own second-act triumph has been a unique combination of hard work and happenstance. He’d found receptive ears within the music biz from the moment he graduated Brown University in 1993 and headed to Los Angeles, with vague plans and a cassette full of demos. For a meteoric minute after he’d released his 1996 self-titled debut album, produced by Englishman Rupert Hine, the handsome 26 year-old Sheik was cast into the role of swoon-worthy pop star. An unusually erudite and emotionally intimate hit single, “Barely Breathing,” spent 55 weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100; only three other singles in the history of the chart have ever topped that run. Other works include is sophomore album, Humming, his 2000 release Phantom Moon, the musical Spring Awakening, and 2006 solo album, White Limousine. Sheik has also been developing The Nightingale, based on the stories of Hans Christian Anderson, with Sater.
CAPA welcomes Duncan Sheik to the Southern Theatre (21 E. Main St.) on Saturday, March 7, at 8p. Tickets are $34.50 and $29.50 at the Ohio Theatre Ticket Office (39 E. State St.), all Ticketmaster outlets, and www.ticketmaster.com. To purchase tickets by phone, please call 800.745.3000 or 614.469.0939. The Southern Theatre Ticket Office will open two hours prior to the performance.
Students between the ages of 13-19 may purchase $5 High Five tickets while available. Special guest will be singer/songwriter Lauren Pritchard who recently completed a 2-year run on Broadway as Isle in Spring Awakening.
OUTLOOK WEEKLY •
21
FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
22 • OUTLOOK WEEKLY
INTERVIEW by T. Straube
HER HITS This self-proclaimed diva may forever be known as the androgynous face (and voice) of Eurythmics. But her latest disc, The Annie Lennox Collection, which includes 14 of her solo hits from the past 16 years, reminds the world why this musical force is an icon in her own right. In discussing the collection, Annie offers an intimate portrait of her artistic life, her passion for HIV/AIDS advocacy work, and her connection to queer audiences. T. Straube: First off, you have two new tracks on the collection. The exultant “Shining Light” - a cover of the Ash single - is out now. The other, “Pattern of My Life,” is more of a mystery. Annie Lennox: It was written by Tom Chaplin of Keane, but I don’t believe it was ever released. Somebody pointed it out to me, and I thought, this is just up my street. I started recording it, so we let them know, and they were fine with it. TS: Any truth to the online rumor about a companion dance album? AL: This is how things get out of hand. I just happened to say it would be a lovely thing to do, which it would, but I haven’t decided what my next musical experiment will be. I never do know. I play by ear and am instinctive. I would love to do a dance album. TS: Are you hands on with the remixes that come out? AL: No. Quite honestly, it’s something that I don’t get. I don’t go to clubs. I wouldn’t know a remix if I met one. But I bet I could do it if I wanted to - it’s just another form. People seem to like them. TS: The song “Precious” was inspired when you had your first daughter. She’s starting university to study music? AL: Yes! She’s a classical singer and wants to be trained. TS: Are you one of those artists who look at songs as their children? AL: No. But they’re quite special to me, they’re parts of my life. I hugely invest energy and time with those pieces of work. TS: Does that make it hard to choose favorites for a best-of collection? AL: I thought of it a bit like choosing beads - I like making necklaces - it’s like you get these beautiful beads and this one would be a centerpiece and this other will suit it really well adjacent to it. TS: A deluxe version of the collection also includes a DVD of videos. You’ve said “No More ‘I Love You’s” is your favorite. Why? AL: When I started to think what visualization would go with that song, I had an idea of a Toulouse-Lautrecian tableau, the intimate bordello scene; you can imagine tobacco-filled rooms with absinthe and prostitutes and old men. I was thinking in terms of romantic love verFEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
A NNIE LENNOX &H S A G B
sus sexuality and how human beings express themselves through sexuality and the masks and roles they play. Then I had these beautiful creatures that were men dressed as ballet dancers it’s playing with sex roles and identities. TS: I was reading the viewer comments about the video on YouTube. Many posters said, “I loved the song…then I saw the video and it freaked me out.” AL: Aha! [Laughs.] TS: Do you enjoy playing the role of a provocateur? Since your gender-bending beginning, you’ve always done that. AL: It’s not that I do things with the intent to provoke. But I like to make statements and explore metaphors, and I’m very interested in human psyche and human emotions and the psychological conundrums we find ourselves in. TS: “Sing” launched your project to raise money and awareness of HIV/AIDS among African women and children. I saw your concert in New York for Songs of Mass Destruction, and when you were talking about HIV/AIDS, someone yelled out “Shut up and sing!” AL: Oh how rude. TS: I’m hoping that was a drunken anomaly. Are people receptive to your advocacy work? AL: About 90% receptive. And then you’ve got the “shut up and sing” bunch. But hey, this is who I am and that’s part of it. TS: Madonna sings on that track, and she’s been active in Africa. Have you two sat down, like over tea and biscuits, to discuss changing the world? AL: No, never. TS: You attended the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City last summer as an Oxfam
ER EX
DVICE FOR
ambassador. What was your message? AL: My message was this: Wake up Latin America! You have a really special window of opportunity at the moment to get the message out there, to prevent what happened in Africa. The most vulnerable segment of that population is married women. In Mexico City, we had a meeting of women from all across South America. I said, “Okay, put your hands up, those of you who know you were infected by your husbands.” Almost every hand went up. Imagine this: There’s a woman in Latin America, a very machismo culture, and she’s dependant on finances of the husband. She gets infected through him, and he goes, “You whore! You’ve been sleeping around, I’m going to kick you out.” The people are terrified. Part of the stigma is that not only is AIDS a scary thing, but that you have to reveal your infidelity. TS: Your platform about HIV/AIDS in Africa has been based on women’s rights issues and on viewing the pandemic in terms of human rights. AL: It’s a human rights issue because people are dying. They can’t get access to treatment. They don’t know how to get it. And it’s not there. In the last 15 to 20 years, a whole generation of men and women have been wiped out, and left millions of orphans. When it comes to Africa, you have endemic poverty and women don’t have political rights and don’t know how to organize themselves. Pregnant women [with HIV] present themselves at maternity hospitals, and they can prevent the baby from having the virus [by using] nevirapine. It’s an important first step. What I’m interested in is finding and supporting ways that can affect that wipeout factor. TS: In America, at least, HIV has mostly been viewed as a gay disease. How do you think that has affected our ability to fight the epidemic? AL: Through advocacy the gay community organized itself brilliantly and demanded its rights and
AY
OYS
said, “Hey guys, we need to protect ourselves and educate ourselves, and certain things need to be changed.” Mainly because of that, you have access to up-to-date medication that can extend and save lives. Also, by they way, in the West, we don’t have the issue of malnutrition. In Africa they don’t have access to state-of-the-art medication and still have to take the old-fashioned cocktails, which can have side effects. But from what I can gather from talking to some of my friends is that young [gay] guys are being very risky. That worries me. I could just ask you: Do you think that is because young guys think, “Hey if I catch the virus I can just take a pill; it’s like herpes?” TS: Sure, there’s that. But it’s complicated. The latest US numbers show the biggest increase in men who have sex with men is among young blacks and Latinos. I’m not sure they’re as aware of the new meds. Also, most of the younger generation hasn’t lost friends or lovers to AIDS. They don’t have that factor. AL: No, I don’t think they do. They haven’t seen people dying. [In the ’80s] people were dying left, right and center. People in music and fashion or anything like that, most of us know people who have died because of AIDS. A friend said in one year she lost 12 friends. But it’s very dangerous that young guys are approaching it recklessly. If young boys are having unprotected sex now, it’s going to blow up in their faces. I know it! Shouldn’t the gay papers start the advocacy again? We have to keep the issue on the table, and it’s the hardest thing to do. Heterosexual community: Hello, wake up! Boys and girls, do you know where your partner has been? You don’t! It’s like, Fuck. It’s really scary. TS: You’ve never shied away from life’s unpleasantries. Your song “Dark Road” explores the rough patches we all go though. So finally, what have been your highs and lows? AL: So many. My God, it’s been a rocky road. I can tell you that. The best thing in my life is that my children came into the world and they were healthy. Because the dark point obviously is I lost a child, a baby, and I don’t even have a word to describe that. It was a bolt of lightening through the blue. But it made me grateful for things I possibly took for granted before. The Annie Lennox Collection (Arista) is available now. For more information, to read her blog or to donate to Sing, visit annielennox.com.
OUTLOOK WEEKLY •
23
CLASSIFIEDS COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE
HOUSING/FOR RENT
HISTORIC FRANKLINTON Retail or office space available. Over 3,000 sq feet right on Broad St. Get your business or office on the ground floor of the next “hottest” area in town. Get in while the prices are low! Call 614.390.6369 and leave a message.
BRYDEN ROAD HUGE, sunny, luxury 2+ bdrm, 2 bath townhse w/attic and bsmnt. Ref HWF, CA, DW, Sec. Syst, new high eff. furnace, custom kitchen w/pantry, 1st floor laundry. $1,000 + sec. dep. Call 202.360.7790.
HELP WANTED UNEMPLOYED? UNDEREMPLOYED? Do you routinely scan the classifieds? Are physical, emotional, or mental health issues or handicaps causing you roadblocks to successful and satisfying employment? Vision & Vocational Services and Outlook Weekly are partnering to provide free needs assessment. Call Rebecca Melton or Toi VanHorn at 614.294.5571 and mention this ad. You can Accomplish Anything - Outlook Media and Vision & Vocational Services are committed to helping you do so.
MERION VILLAGE AREA Cute 1-Bedroom apartment. 638 E Jenkins. 1 BR apartment with everything! Clean, new paint, ceiling fans, AC, washer/dryer unit, dishwasher, appliances. $350/month. Josh Martin. 614.657.2366 or 614.446.0106. OLDE TOWNE EAST 1096 & 1104 Bryden Rd, 1 BR apartments available, new kitchen, wd flrs, vaulted ceiling, $450/mo. More OTE rentals available. Call Beacon Property Mgmt. at 614.228.6700.
FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
24 • OUTLOOK WEEKLY
SEX TALK by Simon Sheppard
Masturbation Horny? Sometimes relief is right at hand. Of all the sex you might have, masturbation is the most trouble-free. No precoital chitchat, no negotiations. You don’t even have to shower and shave. So, unsurprisingly, pud-pounding’s popular; Kinsey found that 92% of men have wanked. (What’s keeping the other 8% back is a mystery, but it’s safe to say they’re missing out.) “Sure, it’s wonderful to relate to another guy, to discover all sorts of stuff about his body, to give and receive pleasure,” says one gay man. “But let’s face facts - nobody knows more about what feels good to you than you do yourself. Some of my very best orgasms ever have occurred when no one else was around.” Yet, weirdly, masturbation is sometimes seen as second best. Phrases such as “He’s a jerk-off” and “mental masturbation” put down the noble art of playing with oneself. And for such a risk-free activity, some mighty peculiar taboos have clustered around choking the chicken. In olden times, it was believed to cause insanity, and even recently, masturbation could still be misrepresented. One man in his 50s recalls, “When I was a kid, my Boy Scout Handbook warned that no real boy engaged in such an energy-sapping activity. And my father, who was an educated man, cautioned me as a teenager that overindulgence in onanism would desensitize me for the pleasures of the real thing - by which he meant sex with women. Well, it’s been four decades, I’ve earned my masturbation merit badge, but I still like interpersonal sex just fine … as long as it’s with another guy.” One of the pleasures of self-pleasuring is that it’s a no-paraphernalia-required activity. There are those, however, who like to hump pillows or shoot into a sock. And advanced consumer capitalism has come up with some nifty masturbatory gizmos, especially one - sold under a variety of names - that’s basically a flashlight-shaped plastic cylinder with a soft lining and an aperture at one end that’s shaped like a mouth or asshole. Just stick your dick inside, and pump away. As one happy user raves, “It feels great, is easily washable, and it’s a lot less grotesque than one of those blow-up dolls.” Another big plus for solo sex is that it provides opportunities for experimentation. If you’d like to try orgasm-delaying techniques, need to practice putting on a rubber, or want to FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
know what it feels like to come while you have a buttplug up your ass, go right ahead and give it a whirl. No one will be the wiser. Fucking your fist provides a fertile field for fantasies, too. That guy at the office, the untouchable hunk? You can share an orgasm with him, if only in your head. And jack-off fantasies allow a masturbator to get off on scenarios too risky or tough to do in real life. That’s not to say that self-stroking can’t get genuinely kinky. Recalls our 50-something guy, “A friend of mine was into bondage, and if he couldn’t find a top willing to play, he’d tie his own ankles together, wrap some rope around his cock, and jerk.” Monogamously partnered men masturbate, too. Wanking can provide consolation when your honey’s not around, provide release when one of you is hornier than the other, or make for a semen-spilling shared activity. And - except for unintended discovery when a guy neglects to lock the door - there’s precious little downside to slapping the salami. No STDs, no heartbreak. Just the possibility that overdoing it will leave you with a sore whizzer. Oh, and the cost of Kleenex. Another confirmed masturbator rhapsodizes, “I love to jack off, always have. It was exciting when I was young and incurably horny, and it will be lovely when I’m old and infirm. Masturbation helps me get to sleep, and it’s the perfect accompaniment to watching porn. I can get myself off even when I’m sick as a dog. And in times of economic downturn, it’s still utterly affordable. What a swell invention!” So let us sing the pleasures of pounding the pud. Nearly everybody does it, from presidents to panhandlers, and no one but a celibate saint is likely to stop stroking anytime soon. Be it a quick tug for relief, or a long, leisurely evening of self-abuse, wanking’s one habit that never grows old. And get this: It even seems to lower blood pressure and lessen the risk of heart disease and prostate cancer. Yes, beating off is actually good for you! Just remember: It’s not second-rate sex, it’s excellent masturbation. Simon Sheppard is the editor of Leathermen and Homosex: Sixty Years of Gay Erotica, and the author of Sex Parties 101, Kinkorama, and In Deep: Erotic Stories, and can be reached at SexTalk@qsyndicate.com. Visit Simon at www.simonsheppard.com.
OUTLOOK WEEKLY •
25
SAVAGE LOVE by Dan Savage
I dropped by four large universities last week - the University of Lethbridge, SUNYAlbany, the University of Maryland, and the University of Alaska-Anchorage - to do “Savage Love Live,” the college-speaking-gig version of my sex-advice column. I enjoyed visiting all four campuses and, as ever, learned a few things out on the road. (Brinking? Who knew?) People submit questions - the ones they don’t want to be seen asking - on three-byfive-inch cards at the events. Sadly, I couldn’t get to everyone’s questions at the U’s of L, NY-A, M, and A-A. Here are answers to some of the questions I missed. At what point in a relationship is it “safe” to have an open relationship? There’s no standard gestation period for an open relationship, no set period of time that you have to spend in the exclusivity pod. In my experience, however, the most successful open relationships I’ve witnessed - with “success” here defined as “long-lasting,” which is kind of arbitrary (can we all get behind the idea that a relationship can be short-lived and still be a success?) were sexually exclusive for at least a year, sometimes longer, at the outset. When asked, “How do you make anal sex more comfortable for women?” by Marie Claire magazine, Dr. Drew Pinsky said, “Don’t do it. Your butt will leak when you’re old.” (I am paraphrasing.) My question: Is Dr. Drew homophobic? Dr. Drew isn’t a homophobe. He’s an asshole-o-phobe - and a BDSM-o-phobe, a premarital-sex-o-phobe, a three-way-o-phobe, etc. Basically, when it comes to human sexuality, there’s not a lot of daylight between Dr. Drew and Pope Benedict XVI. And I’ll let you in on a little secret: Odds are good that your ass is going to leak when you’re old, anyway - I’ll betcha the pope’s ass is leaking all over the throne of St. Peter right now - so you might as well enjoy it while you can. I’m a 24-year-old male who has been out for 11 years. I’ve been into this guy “Joe” for several years, but I always assumed he was out of my league. We recently started hooking up. I’m totally into him, and it’s amazing. But for some reason, I can’t stay hard. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Do I have ED? I have no health insurance and am not sure what to do. If you’re not having trouble keeping it up when you’re alone, and you didn’t have trouble keeping it up with other guys, you’re probably just nervous. You like this guy, he’s
way hot, the stakes are high, and a little routine performance anxiety is chasing away your boners. If Joe is continuing to hook up with you despite your inability to keep it up for him, well, then he’s not only a hot dude but a patient one as well - and a dude who’s into you, too. So take a deep breath, try to relax, and enjoy. How do you become a nationally syndicated sex-advice columnist? I’m not telling. Because one sure way to stop being a nationally syndicated sex-advice columnist is to create a lot of competitors. When Sue Johanson was here, she spoke against trying anal sex, due to damages, etc. What would you tell people? I would tell people to refrain from fucking Sue Johanson in the ass - and please don’t fuck Dr. Drew’s ass, either. They both seem as terrified of anal sex as they are ignorant about it - and tense, inept people can hurt themselves engaging in anal sex. And if their asses start to leak in old age, I don’t want either of them to be able to pin the blame on anal sex. We are a couple in a long-term committed relationship and have casually considered the possibility of a three-way. It would have to be with someone neither of us knew (or saw) to reduce any chance of an emotional attachment. Good idea? Three-ways with complete strangers are kind of difficult to arrange - unless you’re willing to go the rent-a-third route. But if you want to have a three-way with someone trustworthy and safe, you’re better off doing it with an acquaintance or an ex. When did you first realize you were LGBTQ, and how did people react to that? Did you struggle to find support? I didn’t realize I was L, B, T, and Q until I arrived in Albany. And I’m not sure how friends and family are going to react to my recently discovered lesbianism, bisexuality, impending transition, and questioning status - question: now that I’m LGB and T what outstanding Qs could there be? - but I expect they will be supportive. Just as confused as I am, but nevertheless supportive.
dear to the hearts of UM students: “Cornerstone,” “Fear the Turtle,” and “Diamondbacking.” Cornerstone: When you get high in order to break through a sexual inhibition - like when pot helps you “turn a corner” sexually. “Sue wanted to peg her boyfriend Drew, but he just couldn’t do it until he got cornerstoned.” Fear the Turtle: What a woman experiences when she realizes halfway through vaginal intercourse that her bowels are full and her enjoyment of the sex has been superseded by her fear of crapping the bed. “Sue had to ask Drew to stop fucking her because she feared the turtle. She got on the can for a minute, then hopped back in bed, and no longer feared the turtle.” Diamondbacking: Consenting to anal sex in the hopes that doing so will inspire a boyfriend to propose. “Sue knew that Drew was totally into anal sex, so she let him diamondback her. Now they’re engaged.” I’m a lesbian, and my girlfriend is bisexual and wants to have a three-way with a man. This makes me nervous. What should I do? Get yourself a refillable Xanax prescription, or get yourself an actual lesbian girlfriend. If she hasn’t orgasmed yet, will she ever? Yes, but probably with someone else. Thanks again to all four universities for bringing my skanky ass to their campuses last week. My primary mission when I do these events, of course, is to undo in an evening the damage done by abstinence educators over the course of many years. But the events are always a blast. If you want me to come to your school, get in touch with Keppler Speakers at savagelove@kepplerspeakers.com. I’m looking forward to my upcoming gigs at Liberty University, Brigham Young University, and the University of Notre Dame. Download the Savage Lovecast (my weekly podcast) every Tuesday at thestranger.com. mail@savagelove.net
Did Sarah Palin ever get back to you about your offer to be her gay friend? No, she didn’t - but the offer is still on the table. I’m here for you, Sarah. Please assign new salacious definitions to the following terms, which are near and FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
26 • OUTLOOK WEEKLY
ABOUT TOWN
SATURDAY MARCH 7 & SUNDAY MARCH 8
THE AUTHOR OF SQUARE FOOT GARDENING WILL CUT YOUR GROCERY BILLS IN HALF Central Ohio Home & Garden Show guests will learn how they could cut their grocery bill in half by taking the advice of Mel Bartholomew, author of Square Foot Gardening. Bartholomew will be on the Garden Stage for several appearances, demonstrating his simple, unique approach and answering questions. He will appear on Saturday, March 7, at 6p and Sunday, March 8, at 11:30a and 1:30p. Attendees will learn ten basic steps to start their own Square Foot Garden, including how to pick the perfect location, what to grow when, and other proven tips for success. Bartholomew’s appearance is part of the Home & Garden Show Talent Series, presented by Ohio Mulch. Square Foot Gardening is a simplified method of gardening that produces 100% of the harvest
in 20% of the space of conventional gardening, requiring less work than single-row gardening. This new, easy-to-understand method is economically and environmentally efficient. Using the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle concept, it is highly productive and easily protected from pests and weather. It can be located anywhere and requires fewer chemicals, less water and no weeding, tilling or digging.
ROYAL RENEGADES GO TO THE PROM SATURDAY, FEB 28 Columbus’s premiere drag troupe is at it again! The Royal Renegades proudly present their annual prom show, and this time they’re takin’ you back letter sweaterstyle for Happy Days. This night of ’50s frolics starts with a drag show, picks up steam with hula-hoop and prom royalty contests, and climaxes into a real live prom, with music spun by Wall Street’s own DJ Michele Chaney. Now, the 4 Ws: WHO: You, of course! And your favorite Fonzie wannabes: the Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens of the Royal Renegades!
WHAT: Happy Days. $7 at the door. Prom attire encouraged! WHERE: Wall Street Nightclub. 144 N Wall St. Call 614.464.2800 for table reservations. WHEN: Saturday, February 28. Doors at 8p, show at 9p. So find yourself a fine-toothed comb
and Vaseline, put your poodle on a skirt, and get on down to Wall Street Nightclub, cuz these cats’ll have you hoppin’ your socks off!
FRIDAY, FEB 27: CONTROL COMES TO CLEVELAND Regular Outlook contributor Gregg Shapiro has this to say about William Control: ‘The latest disc from William Control, the omnisexual alter ego of goth-punk unit Aiden’s William “wiL” Francis, indicates that he has spent a lot of time listening to Nine Inch Nails and Dresden Dolls. Whether or not his fan base will embrace this more electro-driven side is of no concern to the unapologetic Control, who titled his disc Hate Culture (Victory) and included a special brand of mash-note in the CD
booklet.’ Clevelanders can catch Control live at the Beachland Ballroom & Tavern, 15711 Waterloo Rd, on Friday, February 27. Also on the bill are Black Tide, Attack! Attack!, and headliner Escape the Fate. The show starts at 7:30p. Tickets and more info are available at www.beachlandballroom.com/calendar or at the door.
COLUMBUS NEXT MEETING: MAR 11, 6P-8P; LOCATION: SHERMAN OAK CONDOS (143 SHERMAN AVE, OLD TOWNE EAST); COLUMBUS COMPACT EVENT • WWW.NETWORKCOLUMBUS.COM
FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009
OUTLOOK WEEKLY •
fin
27
THE LAST WORD by Kelli Medaglia
Trans-Friendly Columbus Employers Still a Tough Find Funny how an employer can effuse enthusiasm over a resume, then - upon an in-person interview - suddenly react as if you’re facially deformed and applying for runway modeling work. While it’s been documented that Columbus is more open to GLBT diversity than many other areas, such “openness” is not reflected in every workplace. Relative to culture, this city - like all locales not espousing a Dark Ages mentality definitely has an edge, particularly as evidenced in neighborhoods like German Village, Short North, Clintonville, and Victorian Village. Bear in mind, however, that our capital city is encircled by conservative surroundings. Many unenlightened hiring managers and the like reside in some cultural black holes with zip codes both within and beyond the fabled I-270 swath. Moreover, many job searchers find that the common adage that people are “afraid of what they don’t know” proves true far too often. The “T” of the GLBT constituency is very much a foreign entity in mainstream circles, and especially within the mindsets of human resource and general business administrators. With the variables of increased unemployment and a dwindling job pool, a person
identifying as androgynous or outwardly transgendered has the added mountain of naked discrimination to contend with. This is naturally fostered by a lack of intellectual curiosity and knowledge on the part of their metropolitan neighbors. It’s time for blissfully ignorant and often myopic employers to understand that the “best and brightest” potential employees are comprised of multi-faceted individuals - neighbors - who offer a wealth of life experiences, knowledge, and wherewithal to the central Ohio business base. Unfair treatment in hiring is all but impossible to prove. A common scenario entails the job seeker responding to an inviting email or enthusiastic voice message for the purpose of setting up an inter-
view. Despite the transperson immediately stating their name and purpose for calling, the administrative voice inevitably asks, usually awkwardly, if this is the person matching the name on the resume. The uncomfortable and obvious throat-clearings with notable change of tone are little carvings etched into the collective memory of the otherwise unassuming, well-intentioned (and qualified) applicant. Most don’t advance beyond this humiliating stage regardless of whether they’ve disclosed their transgendered status. Perhaps the ultimate irony is that an entire department can be labeled Human Resources. Societies evolve while glass-bubbled departments don’t.
When I experimented with the disclosure scenario, the number of responses I received to cover letters that included my forthright, respectfully written disclosure was not surprising: zero. It stands to reason that letters devoid of such informative language were perceived as being written by a “regular” person - someone who “doesn’t make me the slightest bit uncomfortable.” Hence, the number of phone calls and emails increased substantially without disclosure. Throughout the painstaking job search process, self-confidence and feelings of doubt can overwhelm. I remain hopeful, still, that the greater whole of our community (and beyond) will be enlightened in honing their recognition and perception of our wideangled world - the very surroundings, city, and world shared by all. Kelli Medaglia is a transgendered freelance writer in Columbus and can be reached at kellimedaglia.com.
HOROSCOPES by Jack Fertig
PISCES (February 19 - March 19): A generous idealist by nature, you often expect and desire a return of more than others can give. Taking a quiet retreat away from everyone will be good for all involved. If you must have company, choose very carefully!
GEMINI (May 21- June 20): Arguments are too likely to go to overheated extremes. If there’s any possibility of make-up sex, scream and shout! Otherwise try your best to be civil and open-minded. Family disagreements can be especially volatile. You can call Mom next week.
VIRGO (August 23 - September 22): Saturn in your sign can make you feel old, but take that as a challenge to be more responsible. To restore your youth, start or revise an exercise plan that you can focus on and commit to!
SAGITTARIUS (November 22 - December 20): Try to keep arguments out of work. That’s what friends and siblings are for. Those disputes could help you re-evaluate your work and career, but stay calm with colleagues and bosses, especially if you really must be critical - or get criticized!
ARIES (March 20 - April 19): Showing off and accepting friendly dares can get you badly hurt. Instead, focus your wit on actions you can take to improve your work and your well-being. Friendly suggestions should be considered only as a spur to better ideas.
CANCER (June 21- July 22): Keeping the fire in your relationship is less a problem than keeping the flames where they belong! Air your disagreements in a calm respectful manner and save the screaming, yelling craziness for bed!
LIBRA (September 23 - October 22): There may be a touch of desperation in your efforts to play. This could feed artistic creativity (It made Edvard Munch famous!) or undermine your social efforts. Don’t take out your frustration on folks at home.
CAPRICORN (December 21 - January 19): Money is an especially touchy subject and could start arguments. The less you like hearing the other side, the better you should listen. Impulse spending is like heroin right now. Avoid it the best you can.
TAURUS (April 20 - May 20): New ideas can boost your career, but don’t go too far out on a limb. While revolutionary approaches have their day, this ain’t it! Get creative with careful, traditional methods and discuss improvements with your boss or some experts first!
LEO (July 23 - August 22): Arguments over money come way too easily. Behind that touchiness lie real troubles that need addressing. Stay calm, meditate, relax. You’re too prone to getting unduly excited, which only exacerbates the problem and blocks any solution.
SCORPIO (October 23 - November 21): Political arguments at home can help you hone your ideals, maybe see better how they fit with reality. They could also change how you relate to your family, but don’t let your temper lead you to precipitous or hurtful decisions.
AQUARIUS (January 20 - February 18): Take time away to figure out what’s making you so bloody touchy. Your attitude may provoke people to think you should be tied down and flogged. That could actually help, but you have to ask the right person nicely for it.
Jack Fertig, a professional astrologer since 1977, is a founding member of the Association for Astrological Networking. He can be reached for consultations at 415.864.8302, www.starjack.com, and by e-mail at QScopes@qsyndicate.com.
FEB 25 - MAR 03 2009