Queer Synth-Rocker Caleb De Casper Performs at Austin City Limits Festival
Austin, Texas– Caleb De Casper, the “alternative diva crowds want to rally behind” (Austin Chronicle) will be playing Austin City Limits Festival on weekend one, Sunday, October 9th on the Barton Springs Stage at 1:15pm before synth-poppers, Muna. As always, the show promises to be spectacularly unforgettable, but De Casper and the band have new surprises in store for the ACL audience. As Culture Map declared last month, "If theatrics are what you are after, don't miss this performance." The classically-trained artist was previously scheduled for the following weekend, October 16th at 11:15am, but was moved to a more ideal time slot.
The queer, electronic glam-rocker was invited to join the lineup of the popular festival (which draws crowds of 450,000 yearly) after a whirlwind year, which included the release of his new album Femme Boy, the designation of Caleb De Casper Day by the City of Austin on April 21st and being named June Artist Of The Month by tastemaker radio station KUTX FM. The artist also performed at The Long Center for a 2,000 cap Pride event, shared the stage with Big Freedia and A Giant Dog in front of packed crowds, as well as landing notable press including Teen Vogue and an interview on one of the most popular queer podcasts in the country, Feast of Fun.
Up next for De Casper is an otherworldly video steeped in fantasy and mythology for the single “Do You Feel” directed by Mexican filmmaker Robbie Cabrera. Stay tuned…
Photo by Stephanie Tacy
QUEER|ART ANNOUNCES QUEER|ART|FILM FALL 2022 SEASON
Co-Curated by Heather Lynn Johnson and Sarah Zapata
Queer|Art, New York City’s home for the creative and professional development of LGBTQ+ artists, is pleased to announce the upcoming Fall season of Queer|Art|Film, presented in person from September 19th – December 5th. Queer|Art|Film returns once again to the IFC Center with a season curated by multidisciplinary artists Heather Lynn Johnson and Sarah Zapata. Each month Queer|Art invites their favorite queer artists to present a film that inspired them, then holds a fascinating post-screening Q&A that illuminates the film and its impact on our guest's work and life.
This season, as we navigate a rollback of our right to bodily autonomy and rising fascist attacks on our community, these curators seek to find solace and solidarity in unexpected places, and offer not an escape but perhaps a re-lensing of the wavering world around us through films hand-picked by an impressive cohort of queer artists. The lineup includes performance icon Cassils alongside downtown darling Ela Troyano; interdisciplinary artist and oral historian Tamara Santibañez; multidisciplinary queer Caribbean artist Christopher Udemezue; and finally the truly legendary photographer and activist Lola Flash. The films promise to tickle all of your horror and sadomasochistic delights, so don’t miss these one-of-a-kind screenings!
Still images here.
Tickets here.
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Monday, September 19th
Cassils and Ela Troyano present Latin Boys Go to Hell
(Ela Troyano, 1997)
Five young Latinos with extreme passions interact and eventually explode across Brooklyn in this story of self-discovery, friction, and resentment. The film stars Irwin Ossa as 20-year-old Justin, John Bryant Davila as his handsome cousin Angel, and in his film debut, Mike Ruiz as Carlos. Presenting artist Cassils writes that “Ela cast Latin heartthrob Mike Ruiz, centering homosexual Latin representation over cis white West Hollywood twinkdom. This film flags John Waters, telenovela, and Pedro Almodóvar.” Shot in dreamy 16mm, the film glows with the fiery desire of its characters, who find themselves caught between their attraction to a machismo image and a longing for meaningful gay intimacy. Adapted from an unpublished novel by André Salas, this feature debut from legend of the downtown scene Ela Troyano is sure to get your blood pumping!
Tickets here.
About Cassils
CASSILS is a transgender artist who makes their own body the material and protagonist of their performances. Cassils’ art contemplates the history(s) of LGBTQIA+ violence, representation, struggle and survival. For Cassils, performance is a form of social sculpture: Drawing from the idea that bodies are formed in relation to forces of power and social expectations, Cassils’s work investigates historical contexts to examine the present moment. Cassils had recent solo exhibitions at HOME Manchester, Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Perth Institute for Contemporary Arts, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, NYC; Institute for Contemporary Art, AU; Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts; School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston; Bemis Center, Omaha; MU Eindhoven, Netherlands.
About Ela Troyano
Ela Troyano is a writer, director, producer, and interdisciplinary artist. Her projects bring together different aesthetic histories and genres, from downtown New York avant-garde film and performance, to queer cinema, and Latinx film and video as well as commercial television. Troyano received the Teddy Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival for Carmelita Tropicana Your Kunst is Your Waffen—Your Art is Your Weapon, attended the Sundance Institute’s screenwriting workshop with Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and received awards from Creative Capital, the Ford Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Latino Public Broadcasting, Independent Television Service, New York State Council on the Arts, Rockefeller Media, and a United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship.
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Monday, October 10th
Tamara Santibañez presents Bloodsisters: Leather, Dykes, and Sadomasochism
(Michelle Handelman, 1995)
Interdisciplinary artist Tamara Santibañez presents Bloodsisters: Leather, Dykes, and Sadomasochism, a deep dive into a community of Leatherdykes in San Francisco in the mid-90s. This debut documentary by filmmaker Michelle Handelman presents a rough collage of kink and BDSM practices, leaning into forms of play not often shown, even in queer films. From images of needle play to shots of extended BDSM scenes to tops directly addressing the audience as their submissives, the film is unflinching in its portrayal of this leather scene. Through collected interviews, an image of a community that is grappling with questions of forbidden desires, gender & sexual fluidity, and the politicization of their very existence begins to emerge. Between the bright colored overlays and the iconic 90s fashion (mullets everywhere!), the film itself transforms into a kind of a time capsule, documenting a moment in queer history in all its messy, complicated, campy glory.
Tickets here.
About Tamara Santibañez
Tamara Santibañez is an interdisciplinary artist and oral historian living and working in Brooklyn. They approach the body as a site for archiving and accessing personal and collective narratives and view tattooing as a political intervention. As a queer and trans artist, their practice memorializes the language and resistance strategies used by “othered” populations to build alternative worlds.
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Monday, November 7th
Christopher Udemezue presents Annihilation
(Alex Garland, 2018)
Multidisciplinary artist Christopher Udemezue presents Annihilation (2018) starring Natalie Portman as a biologist on an expedition into an environmental disaster zone created by a comet, as she looks for her husband who disappeared into the mysterious zone after volunteering to go on a special forces mission. Based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Jeff Vandermeer, the film follows a team of all female scientists as they embark on what appears to be a suicide mission into the mysterious zone known as “The Shimmer”. The film, directed by Alex Garland (Ex Machina), has drawn comparisons to 2001: A Space Odyssey and Tarkovsky’s Stalker. Annihilation challenges and expands upon what a sci-fi film can do while simultaneously grappling with massive existential questions and highly intimate personal ones in the lives of the characters. With a shocking ending that has kept audiences guessing for years following the film’s release, you won’t want to miss the chance to see this one on the big screen!
Tickets here.
About Christopher Udemezue
Born in Long Island, NY, Christopher Udemezue has shown at a variety of galleries and museums, including the New Museum, Queens Museum of Art, PS1 MoMa, Bruce High Quality Foundation, Mercer Union, Recess Gallery and Anat Ebgi Gallery. Udemezue utilizes his Jamaican heritage, the complexities of desire for connection, healing through personal mythology and ancestry as a primary source for his work. As the founder of the platforms RAGGA NYC & CONNEK JA, he completed a residency with the New Museum "All The Threatened and Delicious Things Joining One Another" in June 2017. In 2018, Udemezue was in the New Museum’s “Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon” 40-year anniversary show and a part of the chosen artists in The Shed's Open Call grant program/group show in 2019. In 2021, Chris was elected to be co-chair of the board at Recess Gallery, Brooklyn NY and had a solo show at Anat Ebgi Gallery in Los Angeles, California.
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Monday, December 5th
Lola Flash presents Beasts of the Southern Wild
(Benh Zeitlin, 2012)
The fall 2022 season of Queer|Art|Film concludes with Beasts of the Southern Wild, a dystopian family drama that takes place on the edge of the world. Six-year-old Hushpuppy (played by the remarkable Quvenzhané Wallis) and her ailing father Wink live in ‘The Bathtub’ – an island in the Mississippi Delta at constant risk of flooding. As her father’s illness worsens, so too does the climate around them, as melting polar ice brings rising floodwaters and prehistoric beasts to bear on their small community. Shot in a cinema-verite style by debut director Benh Zeitlin, and featuring a cast of amateur actors from a small Louisiana parish, the film achieves a documentary style even as it tells a fantastical tale. As presenter Lola Flash writes, “it speaks to the strength of community and centers family, in much the same way our LGBTQ+ families are empowered.”
Tickets here.
About Lola Flash
Lola Flash uses photography to challenge stereotypes and offer new ways of seeing that transcend and interrogate gender, sexual, and racial norms. Flash received their bachelor's degree from Maryland Institute and Masters from London College of Printing, in the UK. Flash works primarily in portraiture, engaging those who are often deemed invisible. Flash has work included in important public collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, MoMA, the African American Museum of Culture + History, in Washington, the Whitney and the Brooklyn Museum. Flash’s work welcomes audiences who are willing to not only look but see.
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About the Curators
Heather Lynn Johnson is an artist and poet living in Brooklyn, New York. Their work is characterized by its lyricism and cultural critique. Centered around Black American liberation and culture with an emphasis on objectification and lost histories, Heather uses an autobiographical framework and considers her work imbued by her lived experience as a butch Black lesbian. Their recent solo exhibition “The Essence We Leave Behind” at Nesto Gallery in Milton, Massachusetts (2022), included paintings and selected poems. Heather has been a co-curator for Queer|Art|Film since 2020, the 2019 Leslie-Lohman Museum Fellow, and the 2017 Literary Fellow for Queer|Art|Mentorship. She is the author of The Survival Guide For Queer Black Youth (Inpatient Press, 2017) and received an MFA with honors from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Sarah Zapata is an artist and writer based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has been shown throughout the United States, as well as Mexico, Peru and the Netherlands. Zapata’s studio practice is firmly based in Fiber Arts, utilizing traditional weaving, coiling and latch-hook techniques to achieve immersive installations. Inspired by her Peruvian heritage and feminist theory, Zapata’s body of work addresses issues of labor, systems of power and control, Queerness, cultural relativism and the intersectionality of identity. She has had solo shows at the Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI, Museo MATE, Lima, Peru; Performance Space New York; Institute 193, Lexington, Kentucky; Deli Gallery, Brooklyn, New York; Museum of Arts and Design, New York; and El Museo Del Barrio, New York. She was a Queer|Art|Mentorship Literature Fellow in 2020.
About Queer|Art|Film
Presently celebrating its 11th consecutive year, this popular screening series, traditionally held monthly at the IFC Center in Greenwich Village, invites New York’s most notable and influential LGBTQ+ artists to present and discuss films that have inspired them. Presented with generous support from HBO, the series has hosted over 100 screenings and reaches more than 1,500 viewers annually. Past presenters include: Anohni, Kate Bornstein, Douglas Crimp, Miguel Gutierrez, Juliana Huxtable, Wayne Kostenbaum, Larry Kramer, Lisa Kron, Kia LaBeija, Craig Lucas, Genesis P-Orridge, Dee Rees, and Flawless Sabrina. Curated by Adam Baran, with special guest season curators.
About Queer|Art
Queer|Art was born out of the recognition of a generation of artists and audiences lost to the ongoing AIDS Crisis, and in a profound understanding that one of the many repercussions of that loss has been a lack of mentors and role models for a new generation of LGBTQ+ artists. Founded in 2009 by filmmaker Ira Sachs, Queer|Art serves as a ballast against this loss and seeks to highlight and address a continuing fundamental lack of both economic and institutional support for LGBTQ+ artists. Our mission is to provide individuals within our community with the tools, resources, and guidance they need to achieve success and visibility for their work at the highest levels of their field.
The current programs of Queer|Art include: the year-long Queer|Art|Mentorship program; the long-running Queer|Art|Film series, traditionally held monthly at the IFC Center in lower Manhattan; and Queer|Art|Awards, an initiative of grants, prizes, and awards that provides various kinds of direct support—monetary and otherwise—to LGBTQ+ artists.
A list of the intergenerational community of artists supported and brought together by Queer|Art includes: Silas Howard, Jennie Livingston, Matt Wolf, Hilton Als, Sarah Schulman, Pamela Sneed, Justin Vivian Bond, Jibz Cameron, Trajal Harrell, John Kelly, Geoffrey Chadsey, Everett Quinton, Geo Wyeth, Angela Dufresne, Nicole Eisenman, Avram Finkelstein, Chitra Ganesh, Pati Hertling, Jonathan Katz, Tourmaline & Sasha Wortzel, Jess Barbagallo, Morgan Bassichis, Monstah Black, Yve Laris Cohen, Troy Michie, Tommy Pico, Justin Sayre, Colin Self, Jacolby Satterwhite, Rick Herron, and Hugh Ryan, among many others.
Website: www.queer-art.org
Instagram: @queerart
RuPaul’s Drag Race Night of the Living Drag
The North American Halloween Tour
Fresh off RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7, Yvie Oddly stars as The Boogieman in RuPaul’s Drag Race Night of the Living Drag, an extravagantly produced live stage production that draws inspiration from Dante's Divine Comedy. Joining Yvie Oddly in the annual Halloween spectacular will be a cast of sinful RuPaul’s Drag Race queens that have been summoned from the depths of the Boogieman’s fiery hell, including Aquaria the Sloth, Asia O’Hara the Envious, Bosco the Lustful, DeJa Skye the Greedy, Kim Chi the Glutton, Lady Camden the Proud, Rosé the Vain, and Vanessa Vanjie the Wrathful. Presented by Voss Events, in collaboration with World of Wonder, RuPaul’s Drag Race Night of the Living Drag will take place in eight North American cities including in Chicago (at the Rosemont Theatre on 10/25) and New York (at Kings Theatre on October 30).
“Prepare for chills and thrills in this year’s production of Night of the Living Drag,” promises Yvie Oddly. “As the ultimate queen of curiosities, I am excited to host a fierce and frightful exploration into all of world’s most wicked sins.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race Night of the Living Drag will feature spine-chilling performances, haunted scenery, and macabre costumes; all meant to shock and amaze. “We are pulling out all the stops with this production,” says the live show’s producer Brandon Voss. “It will be an immersive experience with horrifying tableaus, state-of-the-art lighting and a spook-tacular sound system. We advise audiences to prepare themselves to be dragged into the deepest depths of the Boogieman’s hell.”
The RuPaul’s Drag Race Night of the Living Drag tour launches October 20th in Houston and runs through October 30 in New York with stops in Chicago, Boston, Washington DC, and more.
Tickets for RuPaul’s Drag Race Night of the Living Drag are available at VossEvents.com. Ticket prices range from $50 - $99. There are also a limited number of VIP passes that include a pre-show meet-and-greet available for $249.
CAUGHT IN THE ACT: A MEMOIR BY COURTNEY ACT
Behind SHANE JENEK’s rise to global fame as beloved drag queen COURTNEY ACT is a story of searching for and finding oneself. Told with Courtney’s trademark candor and wit, CAUGHT IN THE ACT: A MEMOIR (Pantera Press: September 13, 2022) is a hilarious, often scandalous, and at times heartbreaking, peek into the entertainment icon’s journey towards understanding gender, sexuality and identity.
In CAUGHT IN THE ACT: A MEMOIR, Courtney writes about growing up in Brisbane, Australia in the 80s and 90s and how adolescent Shane’s unconventional angst was pitted against the love of his traditionally wholesome parents. She shares tales of the thrill in discovering the Sydney drag scene and then unflinchingly recounts her adventures into its seedier side that led her to dabbling in methamphetamines and multiple sexual encounters with a broad spectrum of sexualities and genders including straight-identifying men.
Of course, Courtney also dives deep into her wild ride into the world of entertainment, losing so many TV reality shows and finally winning one. There's lots of Drag Race tea spilled, too, including her shaky introduction to Adore Delano and oh, the time RuPaul blocked her on Twitter.
In CAUGHT IN THE ACT: A MEMOIR, Courtney Act does what she does best: she dazzles and titillates. At the same time, her honest reflections help readers to reexamine and appreciate wrong choices they may have made that ironically helped steer them toward the right path on their own life’s journey.
BMI IS BACK FOR 2022 AUSTIN CITY LIMITS FESTIVAL
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (September 9, 2022) – Broadcast Music Inc.® (BMI®) is thrilled to be back at Zilker Park for the 2022 Austin City Limits Music Festival on October 7-9 & 14-16, 2022. For the 18th year, BMI brings its curated, musically diverse lineup to ACL for two consecutive weekends of exciting music discovery.
The festival kicks off on Friday, October 7th with indie-pop sensation, girlhouse, followed by the energetic and expressive Lilyisthatyou, and Austin-based indie-rock band Sarah and the Sundays, along with several others. Additional Weekend One performers include sibling duo Aly & AJ, Craigslist-based songbirds Darkbird, and the haunting Isaac Dunbar.
Weekend Two will find more exceptional talent on the BMI stage, including the trailblazing country writer Lily Rose, psych-rock and indie-folk band The Brummies, and post-punk rockers Urban Heat. Other acts include R&B songwriter Siena Liggins and avid storytellers Sloppy Jane.
“BMI is always excited to return to Zilker Park for Austin City Limits, and this year is no exception,” says Mason Hunter, AVP Creative, Nashville. “We love working with C3 and are thrilled to be partnering with them for another four years, so that we can continue to invest in the Austin community and highlight our best and brightest talent on the BMI stage.”
For well over a decade, the BMI stage at ACL has had a hand in launching some of music’s biggest stars, including memorable performances from Miranda Lambert (‘03), Alessia Cara (‘15), Luke Combs (‘16), City and Colour (‘08), Gary Clark, Jr. (‘11), Shakey Graves (‘13), Jon Pardi (‘11, ‘14), Catfish and the Bottlemen (‘14), lovelytheband (‘18), and Maren Morris (‘16), who went on to win a GRAMMY within a year of appearing on the BMI ACL stage.
Each year, the BMI Lounge provides shade, rest, food, and drink for our performers and guests. This year’s lounge is sponsored by Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Waterloo Sparkling Water, and Liquid Death Mountain Water.
For more information about the BMI stage at 2022 Austin City Limits Music Festival, please visit aclfestival.com or check out https://www.bmi.com/news/entry/bmi-is-back-for-2022-austin-city-limits-festival. The full BMI stage lineup is below.
WEEKEND ONE
Friday, October 7
Girlhouse
Lilyisthatyou
Sarah and the Sundays
Saturday, October 8
Katzu Oso
Jessia
Charlotte Sands
Aly & AJ
Sunday, October 9
Chicocurlyhead
Darkbird
Isaac Dunbar
WEEKEND TWO
Friday, October 14
Early James
Dro Kenji
Lily Rose
Saturday, October 15
Izzy Heltai
Ben Reilly
Sloppy Jane
The Brummies
Sunday, October 16
Siena Liggins
Joshua Ray Walker
Urban Heat
Jackson Dean
STEWART TAYLOR RELEASES VISUAL FOR SONG, “MAYBE WE SHOULDN’T TALK”
Stewart Taylor is out now with the visual for “Maybe We Shouldn’t Talk”, his catchy true-to-life pop tune about breaking ties with an ex-lover. Directed by Benjamin Farren and filmed primarily at Vasquez Rocks National Park in California, the video depicts the unraveling of Taylor’s last serious relationship. “It can be extremely difficult to move on from someone you love,” he reflects, “even when you know it’s bad for you. Sometimes the only thing you can do to stop the unhealthy cycles of a toxic relationship is to stop talking altogether.” Stewart Taylor’s "Maybe We Shouldn’t Talk" is being distributed independently and is available on Apple Music, Spotify, and all digital platforms.
“My ex and I argued over anything and everything,” Taylor continues from his LA home. “If there was a boundary that I set, he would cross it every time. I’m not saying he was a bad person. I did things, too, that hurt the relationship. It’s just that we all have our demons. I didn’t respond well to his and he didn’t respond well to mine. Some people simply shouldn’t be together.”
The video for “Maybe We Shouldn’t Talk” reflects on the song’s portrayal of the struggles of a venomous relationship. Taylor made sure to include a game of tug of war to depict the constant push and pull. There are also scenes with the two lovers chasing one another, battling it out and then passionately making up, all in front of a fantastical canyon backdrop. “It was fun to recreate my life through the lens of fantasy,” he says. He admits he took some creative license. “Did my ex and I ever fight and chase each other through a desert? No. But it’s more interesting to recreate our dynamic against that backdrop because it represents how it often felt for me emotionally.”
Jake Dean Taylor plays the role of the ex-boyfriend in “Maybe We Shouldn’t Talk”. Australian Actor Stephen Multari and up and coming pop artist Kelechi also play troubled love interests in the video. Dancers are Kyle McCraw and former Glee cast member RILAN. Julie Vegliante, who has worked with Lady Gaga, choreographed the video. The role of the snake is played by Beau, a real-life sweet and well-behaved python that was provided by the same family of handlers who supplied Britney Spears with the seven-foot python she performed with in her “I’m A Slave 4 U” production at the 2001 VMA’s.
Stewart Taylor is an LA-based singer, songwriter, dancer, and MMG model. He grew up in a small town outside of New York City, performing in local talent shows and Lower East Side clubs. He graduated from Boston’s Berklee College of Music.
He has collaborated with a number of Grammy-nominated songwriters and producers including Charlie Puth, Kara DioGuardi, (P!nk, Katy Perry) and David Pramik (Selena Gomez) and has released multiple singles, notably 2019’s “Mess Your Hair Up,” 2021’s “Cover Boy”, and 2022’s “Maybe We Shouldn’t Talk,” a song Stewart Taylor premiered earlier this summer at California’s first-ever Venice Pride Festival.
“My look, sound, and artistry have changed dramatically since I first started releasing music in 2015,” Stewart Taylor acknowledges. “Back in college, I was heavily inspired by David Bowie and everyone I came across expected me to sing rock music. I love rock, but my heart is in soul and pop, more in the line of early George Michael and Prince. I’ve worked hard to get in touch with the R&B influences I grew up on and I’ve become a better dancer, singer, and songwriter in ways that I never could have imagined a decade ago.”
If there is one thing Stewart Taylor has learned these past few years, it’s the importance of great friends, creativity, and walking away from unhealthy relationships. “I learned the hard way that being half of a destructive duo will never make a person whole,” he says. “Walking away is so much easier said than done, but if I can leave the toxic relationship I was in, I believe anyone can.”
Stewart Taylor’s “Maybe We Shouldn’t Talk” is being distributed independently and is available on Apple Music, Spotify, and all digital platforms. Visit stewarttaylorofficial.com. Follow on IG @imstewarttaylor
SNEAK PEEK: A behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming BROS
By Arnold Wayne Jones
We’ve been excited about seeing the upcoming bromantic queermedy Bros ever since the trailers dropped earlier this summer. But we got an even closer look last night when a mobile activation parked just off the Strip. While technical difficulties prevented the public from getting a walk-through, we were able to screen three extended scenes plus some backstage glimpses of the boy-meets-boy comedy starring (and written by) Billy Eichner, which opens at the end of the month. And the sampler was an appetizing taste of what promises to be a feast of laughter and love.
Virtually the entire cast is made up of LGBTQ actors, from drag artists to twinks, from twunks to trans, from dykes to drama-queens, it’s a panoply of sassy, empowering personalities that expertly captures the complicated dynamics of diverse people unified in their goal of living out loud with a sense of empowerment, responsibility and community… with a hearty dose of shade offering cool relief.
We’ll have a full review prior to the Sept. 30 release date, but plan your moviegoing schedule accordingly!
Thank Me Later: De Nada Tequila- Product Review
I first heard about De Nada Tequila from a New York City Pride party hosted at Skylark. Andy Cohen was one of the many names in attendance and while I was upset that I couldn't make it, there seemed to be a silver lining. Our friends at Deussen were kind enough to send some bottles of the reposado to our team in Texas. I figured since they put us back in the Pride spirit I should return the favor by giving our readers a taste in the form of a review. Pinky’s up, now sip… (literally)
De Nada is a high-quality, sipping tequila. While you can make an exceptional margarita with this delicious spirit, it is very much one I would recommend enjoying with a single piece of ice. Personally, with both quality bourbon and tequila, I prefer to allow the drink to breath and the ice cube to melt ever so slightly. This allows your bevie the opportunity to oxygenate and can even shave off the little bite that, let’s face it, comes with even the highest-quality liquors. Either way, I guarantee you will not be needing salt and a lime chaser for this one.
The reposado we enjoyed had palate notes of vanilla, caramel and cinnamon. Breathe deep and you’ll find alluring aromas of peach. I know… yum!
However, if you’re one who must mix a drink (maybe you’re not in the mood for a stiff one), I suggest a variation on a classic. The Old Fashioned.
Moda Classico (Old Fashioned)
You’ll need:
2 orange peel
2 bing cherries (optional)
1 tbsp agave nectar
3 ounces De Nada Tequila
2 dashes orange bitters
The only thing basic about this cocktail is mixing it.
Add small cube ice to a tall glass and mix in your De Nada Tequila with the agave nectar. Next add dashes of orange bitters and stir thoroughly. Once the drink is ice cold, strain the contents into a low ball glass. You’ll garnish with an orange peel and in the case you’re feeling really festive, throw in a couple of bing cherries.
This drink is ideal for pre-gaming. And if you spend the rest of the evening ordering watered-down vodka soda at least you can say you spent part of the night being classy. But in all seriousness, we need to put a little more thought and effort into what we’re consuming. As my late friend Stephen Moser once said: “Alcohol should enhance the atmosphere, not kidnap it.” Wise words that I wholeheartedly agree with. One thing for sure, when your friends try this libation I guarantee they’ll be thanking you for taking the extra time to add something special to the evening- to that you can respond swiftly with… De Nada.
Non-Binary Queer Femme Artist THE ORACLE Releases “Cloud 9 Angel” Visual
The Final Single from Debut EP, Lost Amulet
THE ORACLE returns this month with a new visual for “Cloud 9 Angel”, the final chapter of their debut EP Lost Amulet. The track is magical, dreamy, ethereal; it celebrates the abundance of nature by offering a moment of surreal escapism. Reflecting on the fantastical whimsy of the song, THE ORACLE and co-director Laura Weyl @metametagasm shot its visual in several iconic NYC locations including the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, and on the historic carousel in Prospect Park.
“We aimed to capture the crystal desert, a beautiful place of dreams, in the visual,” THE ORACLE explains. “When I think of the crystal desert, I think of Brian Froud’s Faerie realm, the sandscapes in the sci fi classic Dune, as well as the hallucinatory visual landscapes of the liquid planet in Solaris. The crystal desert can be a wondrous place, but it is also treacherous with danger lurking in hidden corners. It is best to travel over it securely with a loved one at your side.”
“Cloud 9 Angel” is one of the six tracks on THE ORACLE’s debut EP from August 2021, Lost Amulet. In the album, the nonbinary queer femme artist blends a love of poetry with soaring vocals, a futuristic sound, and deeply emotional narratives. “Cloud 9 Angel” stands apart from the other moody tracks on the EP due to the hopeless romanticism and naivete of the lyrics and sound. No other track on the EP features the bouncy glitches, progressive drums, and soaring melodies that carries this track.
“Cloud 9 Angel was written while a friend and I were on crystal cave exploration in Riviera Maya, Mexico,” THE ORACLE continues. “The song came to me with the beat, a progression of dreamy, enduring and playful love between two souls. Galen Tipton provides the production, which is a satisfying blend of drum, bass and twinkly pop beats.”
The song relates to THE ORACLE personally because they are a self-identified hopeless romantic who works to paint the reverie of love through all of their relationships. “I am deeply spiritual, a dreamer, but also woefully timid. It can be hard to relate my deepest wishes to someone I care about when there is so much fear involved. My heart wrote the song from this state of mind.”
THE ORACLE was born in Jerusalem, Israel as Julia Sinelnikova and until five-years-old, lived in St. Petersburg, Russia. Now living in Brooklyn, NY, THE ORACLE remains an artist, working predominantly in sculpture, lighting design and performance, but also currently expanding their expressiveness into recording and DJ production.Their music has become a soundscape for THE ORACLE’S video art and light art ideas to come together through performance. “I want my music to encourage psychedelic exploration, excessive dreaming, and the imagination of new, utopian and dystopian worlds,” THE ORACLE sums up. “Through listening to my songs, I aim to reveal my personas and the details of the worlds in my mind to my audiences.”
THE ORACLE is nearly ready to reveal their ORACLE666 album, the follow-up to Lost Amulet. A music video shot at THE ORACLE’s NYC studio and at The Invisible House in the Joshua Tree Desert is forthcoming, from that album.
Follow THE ORACLE on Instagram.com @ or_acle. Other links.
MEGAN THEE STALLION RELEASES NEW VIDEO FOR “HER” FROM NEW LP “TRAUMAZINE”
“Traumazine is an album that leaves you reeling slightly, both impressed and strangely grateful – convinced of Megan Thee Stallion’s brilliance” - The Guardian
“Traumazine, is a thrill ride of a listen, a motley mix of slick bops and searing confessionals that wonderfully encapsulate all of her various vibes.” - Rolling Stone
Grammy award-winning recording artist, entrepreneur and philanthropist Megan Thee Stallion unleashed the brand-new music video for “HER”, which was directed by Colin Tilley. Watch it HERE.
“HER” comes off the Houston native’s latest LP ‘Traumazine’ and is an anthem that celebrates strong, independent women across the world and embraces all elements of who they are.
Megan recently released her highly-anticipated LP ‘Traumazine’ on Aug. 12, which includes features from the hottest names in music including Dua Lipa, Key Glock, Jhené Aiko, Rico Nasty, Latto, Lucky Daye, Pooh Shiesty as well as Houston staples such as Sauce Walka, Big Pokey & Lil Keke.
The new project invites listeners into Megan’s deepest thoughts and touches on her journey of self-actualization and dealing with trauma. It also includes previously-released songs, such as “Pressurelicious,” “Sweetest Pie,” and “Plan B”.
QUEER|ART & THE ROBERT GIARD FOUNDATION ANNOUNCE WINNER AND RUNNER-UP FOR ROBERT GIARD GRANT FOR EMERGING LGBTQ+ PHOTOGRAPHERS
Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, 2021 by Chen Xiangyun.
Queer|Art, New York City’s home for the creative and professional development of LGBTQ+ artists, in partnership with The Robert Giard Foundation, is pleased to announce the winner of The Robert Giard Grant for Emerging LGBTQ+ Photographers, Chen Xiangyun, and runner-up Camilo Godoy. This year’s awarded projects celebrate the richness of intimacy within queer communities.
Chen Xiangyun will receive a $10,000 cash grant to support the development of her body of work which documents first and second-generation QTPOC immigrants across the United States. The work renders images of queer intimacy and vulnerability, especially among people of color, through authentic visual representations of their worlds. While photographing, the artist interviewed each sitter and asked about how their cultural backgrounds informed their experiences of being queer in America. Xiangyun’s ongoing series depicts people of diverse ethnicities, queer identities and regions, charting the emotional intricacies of queer life.
On receiving the 2022 Robert Giard Grant, Xiangyun writes, "I’m very honored to receive the Robert Giard Grant and I can’t wait to begin traveling the country to meet and photograph more queer people of color. It is my goal to increase queer visibility, portray the richness and complexity of our emotional experience, and reach more diverse ethnicities. As a Chinese lesbian immigrant and emerging photographic storyteller, this grant is an exciting opportunity for me to realize my ideas and grow my LGBTQ+ and art communities. I am very grateful for this award."
Camilo Godoy will receive a $5,000 cash grant to support his long-term project AMIGXS, a series of assertive photographs of friends and lovers engaged in acts of love and lust. The project is inspired by 20th century queer photography and publishing legacies sustained by erotic publications like Physique Pictorial and Sierra Domino. Through AMIGXS, Godoy manipulates scale to toy with the boundaries between the private and the public – presentations of each photograph range from zine to billboard. Ultimately, the photographs in AMIGXS celebrate friendship and insist on love as a way of life to imagine subversive ways of being. Hi
On being named runner-up for the 2022 Robert Giard Grant, Godoy writes, "Support for queer artists is fundamental to resist the ongoing catastrophic and conservative moment impacting us. Receiving this funding from the Robert Giard Foundation is an affirmation of my work. It is also a celebration of my relationship, and the people in my photographs, to the wonderful queer legacy of Robert Giard and of the many artists he photographed."
Organized in partnership with The Robert Giard Foundation and Queer|Art, The Robert Giard Grant for Emerging LGBTQ+ Photographers supports and promotes self-taught, early career or otherwise emerging LGBTQ+ artists, awarded on a yearly basis. This support is vital for emerging artists, who may lack the financial resources or institutional support available to more established artists. 215 applications were received for this award cycle. The 2022 judging panel comprised artists and arts professionals across the United States and Europe including: Jacqueline Francis, Naima Green, Sunil Gupta, Lorena Molina, and Jennie Ricketts.
About Chen Xiangyun, Winner
Chen Xiangyun is a Chinese lesbian photographer living in Brooklyn, New York. Her art practice employs bookmaking, analog film and photographs. Her work is rooted from her sexuality and Chinese upbringing. Chen has shown her work both nationally and internationally, including the Pingyao International Photography Festival in China, Baxter Street Camera Club of New York, Anthology Film Archives as well as Experimental Film Fest. About her series, Chen Xiangyun writes:
“This work is about centering images of queer intimacy and vulnerability, especially queer POC, through authentic visual representations of our worlds. […] I am making pictures that I wish I could have seen. Ever since I was a kid, I had dreamt about being told that it was possible to be gay and live an honest life. Looking back at the discrimination, shame, and guilt that I experienced, I want my pictures to say this to queer people who might be looking for courage like I was.”
2022 Robert Giard Grant Judge and multidisciplinary artist and educator Lorena Molina writes: “I really was drawn by the tension between the intimacy and distance in Xiangyun's portraits. As well as the strong push and pull between coldness and warmness in the work, which I think is realistic in any intimate relationship. Also, the people photographed seem in strong collaboration with Xiangyun, and Xiangyun is in charge of how much they share that special moment with the viewer. I'm really excited to see the project proposed for the Robert Giard Foundation Grant and to learn more about their stories.
About Camilo Godoy, Runner-up
Camilo Godoy is an artist and educator born in Bogotá and based in New York. He has participated in residencies at Movement Research, International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), coleção moraes-barbosa, Recess, New Dance Alliance, among others. Godoy's work has been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, Leslie-Lohman Museum, CUE, OCDChinatown, PROXYCO Gallery, New York; Moody Center, Houston; UNSW Galleries, Sydney; Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Quito; among others. He has performed at Danspace Project, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Center for Performance Research, New York; Toronto Biennial; and Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt.
Camilo Godoy writes: “AMIGXS is a project in which I represent and play with ideas about intimacy and exposure, private and public, and the shifting scales of zine and billboard. The photographs of AMIGXS celebrate friendship and insist on love as a way of life to imagine different subversive ways of being. This project has been in development for over three years, and has been mainly self-funded zines. I’ve had the privilege of presenting this project to be experienced as zines, small framed photographs, large-scale photographs to occupy an entire exhibition wall, and in public programs in which I invited artist friends to perform their work related to love and friendship. The relationship between shifting scales of zine, printed photograph, and billboard is one that I intend to continue in the photobook. I also desire to reference the history of erotic publications to explore ways to be in dialogue with past aesthetic and conceptual legacies.”
2022 Robert Giard Grant judge and photographer, curator, and editor Jennie Ricketts says of Godoy’s work: “Camilo’s AMIGXS is a celebration of friendship, love, lust using black and white photography to assert subversive ways of being, reflecting classical form and scale, which on the page creates a dialogue between contemporary zine and billboard formats.”
In addition to the winners and runners up, three other visual artists were acknowledged as finalists for this year—Heesoo Kwon, Giancarlo Montes Santangelo, and Fred Zucule.
About Heesoo Kwon, Finalist
Heesoo Kwon is a visual artist and anthropologist from South Korea currently based in the Bay Area, California. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Et Al and Studio 2W, San Francisco; Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley; and CICA Museum and Visual Space Gunmulsai, South Korea. She has participated in group exhibitions at the CICA Museum; BAMPFA, Berkeley; 47 Canal, New York; Chinese Culture Center, San Francisco; Slash Gallery, San Francisco; and Site Gallery, Sheffield, UK, among others. Her other accolades include the Young Korean Artist Award from the CICA Museum, a finalist in the 20th Seoul International ALT Cinema & Media Festival, a finalist of the Sheffield DocFest Arts Programme, a winner of the Roselyn Schneider Eisner Prize for Photos and Art Practice, and a finalist of Queer|Art|Prize in 2021.
About Giancarlo Montes Santangelo, Finalist
Giancarlo Montes Santangelo, native of the DC Metropolitan area, graduated from SUNY Purchase in 2018 with a BFA in photography. In 2019, Giancarlo exhibited his photographs alongside Paul Mpagi Sepuya and other collaborators as part of the Whitney Biennial. In 2020, he published his first monograph, "Improvising Sight Lines" with Monolith Editions – a book that weaves together images and writing and is held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the MoMA. Giancarlo was recently awarded the Aperture x Google Creator Labs Photo Fund and completed residencies with Tangent Projects and TILT Institute for the Contemporary Image. He photographs and collages in an effort to map out where he comes from and where he wants to go. Collaged photographs bring together the artist’s own body and staged scenes against archival images.
About Fred Zucule, Finalist
Fred Zucule aka Kuln’Zu is a non-binary lens-based artist born and raised in Mozambique, and Kenya. Their aesthetic practice explores the transformative quality of art to heal and offer strategies of care, intimacy and mindfulness from an Afroqueer lens. They attend to the visual cultures and theories, work and life, of and from, a Black/Queer/Diaspora. This is their frontier. Having lived in 8 cities to complete their degree between ‘homes’ during the pandemic, portraiture was their chosen mode of care and conversation with themselves and their community. Portraiture was a lifeline for a life-in-transit, with bedrooms and living rooms as studios. They hold a BA in Africana Studies from Pomona College, and they are an alumnus of the African Leadership Academy in South Africa.
About the 2022 Judges
Jacqueline Francis is an art historian, curator, and occasional artist. She is the author of Making Race: Modernism and “Racial Art” in America (2012) and co-editor of Romare Bearden: American Modernist (2011). She is co-Executive Editor of Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art and a co-founder of the Association for Critical Race Art History. Her curatorial projects include “side by side|in the world” (2019, San Francisco Art Commission). A member of the Three Point Nine Art Collective, she exhibited the video RUN in the group’s exhibition at Toronto’s Museum of Contemporary Art in June 2021.
Naima Green is an artist, photographer, and educator from New York. Her practice is an invitation to participate, observe, and consider safety, utopia, and intimacy. Her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including at Fotografiska New York, Smart Museum of Art, MASS MoCA, International Center of Photography, Houston Center for Photography, Bronx Museum, BRIC, Gallery 102, Gracie Mansion Conservancy, the Studio Museum in Harlem, Arsenal Gallery, amongst others. Her works are in the collections of Barnard College Library, Decker Library at MICA, Fleet Library at RISD, ICP Library, Leslie-Lohman Museum, MoMA Library, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: Hirsch Library, National Gallery of Art, Olin Library, Cornell University, Smart Museum of Art, and Teachers College, Columbia University.
Sunil Gupta (b. New Delhi 1953) MA (RCA) PhD (Westminster) lives in London and has been involved with independent photography as a critical practice for many years focusing on race, migration and queer issues. A retrospective was shown at The Photographers’ Gallery, London (2020/21) and will move to Ryerson Image Center, Toronto 2022. He is a Professorial Fellow at UCA, Farnham. His latest book is “London 1982” Stanley Barker 2021 and his current exhibitions include; “The New Pre-Raphaelites” the the Holburne Museum, Bath. His work is in many public collections including; Tokyo Museum of Photography, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Royal Ontario Museum, Tate and the Museum of Modern Art. His work is represented by Hales Gallery (New York, London), Stephen Bulger Gallery (Toronto) and Vadehra Art Gallery (New Delhi).
Lorena Molina is a Salvadoran multidisciplinary artist and educator. She is an Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Cincinnati. Through the use of photography, video, performance and installation, she explores identity, intimacy, pain, and how we witness the pain of others. She received her Master of Fine Art degree from the University of Minnesota in 2015 and her Bachelor of Fine Art from California State University, Fullerton, in 2012. She is part of the upcoming traveling exhibition, The Regional at the Contemporary Art Center Cincinnati, and Kemper Contemporary Art Museum.
Jennie Ricketts is an independent photography editor, curator, consultant and mentor. For 17 of those years she was a picture researcher and then picture editor at The Observer Magazine, commissioning and editing photography which attracted international recognition and widespread publication. She launched the Jennie Ricketts Gallery in Brighton in 2006 while writing and lecturing and now operates from County Wicklow, Ireland as an online space representing international photographers. She is currently a Trustee for Autograph ABP, The Martin Parr Foundation and a member of the Advisory Board for PhotoIreland, Dublin.
About Robert Giard
Robert Giard (1939-2002) was a portrait, landscape, and figure photographer who came to the practice of photography relatively late in life. In 1972, he began to take photographs, concentrating on landscapes of the South Fork of Long Island, portraits of friends, many of them artists and writers in the region, and the nude figure. He is best known for photographing over 500 LGBTQ+ writers and activists. A selection from his project, Particular Voices: Portraits of Gay and Lesbian Writers, was published in 1997 by MIT Press and lead to a groundbreaking exhibit at the New York Public Library the following year.
In 1985, after seeing a performance of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart, as the AIDS crisis raged, Giard decided to turn his camera towards the LGBTQ+ literary community to preserve a record of queer lives and histories. He began documenting LGBTQ+ literary figures, both established and emerging, in a series of unadorned, yet sometimes witty and playful portraits that would eventually number over 500 by the time of his death.
Giard’s work can be found in the collections of The National Portrait Gallery, The Library of Congress, The Brooklyn Museum, the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, the San Francisco Public Library, the New York Public Library, the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; his complete archive, including work books and ephemera, can be found at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
About The Robert Giard Foundation
The Robert Giard Foundation (RGF) is a nonprofit charitable organization launched in 2002, following the death of the pioneering American photographer Robert Giard, to honor his legacy and focus on the future of LGBTQ+ photography. RGF promotes the use of Giard’s work for educational purposes and supports public programs focusing on queer photography as well as LGBTIQ+ cultural and political movements.
The Giard Foundation provides annual support to self-taught, early career, or otherwise emerging photographers who illuminate aspects of gender and sexuality in their work. Recipients of RGF grants empower and amplify queer voices while helping to build a strong and self-reflective community. Established at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, City University of New York in 2008, and relocated to Queer|Art in 2019, the Giard Grant program has awarded over $100,000. in competitive prize money to 15 projects in the U.S. and around the world. It is the largest program of its kind anywhere.
Website: http://robertgiardfoundation.org/
Twitter: @GiardFoundation
Instagram: @robertgiardfoundation
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RobertGiardFoundation/
About Queer|Art
Queer|Art launched in 2009 to support a generation of LGBTQ+ artists that lost mentors to the AIDS Crisis of the 1980s. By fostering the confident expression of LGBTQ+ artists’ perspectives, stories, and identities, Queer|Art empowers a population that has been historically suppressed, disenfranchised, and often overlooked by traditional institutional and economic support systems. The current programs of Queer|Art include: the year-long Queer|Art|Mentorship program; the long-running Queer|Art|Film series, held monthly at the IFC Center in lower Manhattan; and Queer|Art|Awards, a new initiative of grants, prizes, and awards that provides various kinds of direct support—monetary and otherwise—to LGBTQ+ artists.
The Queer|Art|Mentorship program, launched in 2010, produces an evolving intergenerational dialogue within the LGBTQ+ arts community that has a direct impact on the landscape of contemporary art and culture as a whole. The program, which supports a year-long exchange between emerging and established artists, has propelled the careers of a new generation of creators. Queer|Art|Film, which has presented more than 100 screenings since 2009, provides a space for invited artists to present films that have inspired them, charting a uniquely queer cultural lineage through cinema to other artistic disciplines. Queer|Art|Awards was initiated in 2017 with the Barbara Hammer Lesbian Experimental Filmmaking Grant and the introduction of the Queer|Art|Prize (for Sustained Achievement and Recent Work). In 2018, the Eva Yaa Asantewaa Grant for Queer Women(+) Dance Artists was initiated; more to be announced soon.
A list of the intergenerational community of artists supported and brought together by Queer|Art includes: Silas Howard, Jennie Livingston, Matt Wolf, Hilton Als, Sarah Schulman, Pamela Sneed, Justin Vivian Bond, Jibz Cameron, Trajal Harrell, John Kelly, Geoffrey Chadsey, Everett Quinton, Geo Wyeth, Angela Dufresne, Nicole Eisenman, Avram Finkelstein, Chitra Ganesh, Pati Hertling, Jonathan Katz, Tourmaline & Sasha Wortzel, Jess Barbagallo, Morgan Bassichis, Monstah Black, Yve Laris Cohen, Troy Michie, Tommy Pico, Justin Sayre, Colin Self, Jacolby Satterwhite, Rick Herron, and Hugh Ryan, among many others.
Website: www.queer-art.org
Twitter: @queerartnyc
Instagram: @queerart
Facebook: @queerartnyc
EPISODIC REVIEW: Low Hanging Fruit: UNCOUPLED
By Arnold Wayne Jones
“I’m not on Grindr – it’s nothing but bottoms… and tops, who are also bottoms.”
That’s the kind of wisely catty one-liner that could only be written by a bitchy gay man of a certain age. It’s also low-hanging fruit when it comes to queer comedy: A bit femme-ist, racy but passable in polite company, and, ultimately, true (especially in Dallas). It’s also emblematic of what’s great and slightly disappointing about Uncoupled, the new eight-episode Netflix series from iconic showrunner Darren Star.
Star made his TV bones with Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place, the ‘90s prime-time meta-soaps targeting Gen-Xers. They were meta, because the melodrama didn’t derive from middle-aged adult tropes about over-privileged 40-year-old cheating on their alcoholic wives involved in hit-and-run accidents during a corporate merger. No, they were about aspirational twentysomethings cheating on their girlfriends after binge-drinking before a big job interview. He rolled back the clock a decade or two and found relatable cliches with a less juicy, more supportive and, frankly, bland tone.
Star then really hit the jackpot with Sex and the City – unlike the hour-long network dramas 90210 and Melrose, a 30-minute cable sitcom where he could be as ratched as he wanted with nudity and language that was shocking for its era. S&tC was a Zeitgeist show that set a benchmark for bougie white girls to fetishize. It showed complicated characters who were also archetypes: The Cougar (before that was a thing), the Prude, the Career Woman and the Single Girl, trying to navigate the world of dating in their 30s.
The recent reboot of S&tC moved those characters into their 50s, which is also what Star has done with Uncoupled, only with a X-chromosome. (The Simpsons famously satirized Sex as being “about four women who act like gay men,” so Uncoupled just removes that filter.) Michael (Neil Patrick Harris) is the clingy half of a couple 17 years into a relationship. He throws a surprise 50th bday party for his partner Colin (Tuc Watkins), only to find out seconds before that Colin has moved out and is leaving him. Michael finds himself being forced to navigate the monkeypox-infested waters of gay dating a generation later, while coping with self-worth and depression not just about being dumped, but dumped by someone he’s still in love with.
Surprise parties? Conveniently inconvenient plot reveals? An awkward toast where we (and the central parties) are the only ones who “get” the subtext? Fish-out-of-water plot points? In the land of sitcom cliches, this isn’t even low-hanging – it’s apples that have already hit the ground and are getting soft on one side.
Uncoupled torpedoes into its complications so recklessly, you’d think Ryan Murphy had a hand in it. (Maybe he did: Murphy has a deal with Netflix, and maybe his style set the template for other content.) We haven’t even “met the characters at the point where we are supposed to have feelings about them. There’s man-whore Billy (Emerson Brooks), schlubby Stanley (Brook Ashmanskas), self-absorbed gal pal Suzanne (Tisha Campbell) and the remote lover, Colin. If this sounds like a plug-n-play redux of Sex and the City, well duh. But if you love S&tC but wished it had more dick, what am I complaining about?
Well, the characters for one. Michael’s desperation comes across not as endearing but as sociopathic; Colin seems selfish and cruel, unworthy of Michael’s ardor; Suzanne is abrasive and tone-deaf when it comes to reading a room.
Uncoupled is sassy and fast-moving, but it also plays out more broadly and one-dimensionally than it needs to; it’s as if Carrie Bradshaw’s reflective voice-overs became all the dialogue, leaving little for us as viewers to ponder over or decipher. The expression on Harris’ face when Michael hears the news couldn’t be more of a mugging if it were done in Central Park at gunpoint. A lot of the performances, in fact, seem to be played more for three-camera “before a studio audience” sitcom style than the filmed version. (That’s apparent in the writing as well: A dinner party where Michael is solo becomes a two-hander convo between Harris and Marcia Gay Harden, as if no other guests exist; a therapy session lasts barely five minutes; entrances and exits sometimes are shot as if an audience is expected to laugh when a door opens.) Its look and feel are more Grace & Frankie than Will & Grace.
Nevertheless, Uncoupled is worth a look-see, if not a full-on binge, for its insightful if not wholly accurate portrayal of gay culture, especially as it pertains to single men over 40: “Hurt people hurt people,” Stanley snipes. There’s pain underlying the comedy here. It ain’t pretty, but it’s real.
FILM REVIEW: Will THEY/THEM make you a convert?
By Arnold Wayne Jones
THEY/THEM -- Pictured: (l-r) Cooper Koch as Stu, Anna Lore as Kim, Monique Kim as Veronica, Quei Tann as Alexandra, Austin Crute as Toby, Darwin del Fabro as Gabriel, Theo Germaine as Jordan -- (Photo by: Josh Stringer/Blumhouse)
The genius of Jordan Peele’s Get Out was his brilliant conceit to disguise a social satire about race behind the genre of a horror film. Peele set up his audience to expect racism, then masked it with a facade of woke tolerance, where gaslighting rises to the level of psychological torture. Of course, the pitfall of that idea is, it is lightning in a bottle: Once you figure it out as an artist, the audience figures it out, too, and it’s hard to revisit that trough again. (Once The Sixth Sense gave us its twist, could anyone ever do “he was dead all along” and not come off as derivative?)
They/Them has to confront a similar anxiety of influence: It’s basically the queer version of Get Out, and once I tell you that, can you really be surprised?
THEY/THEM -- Pictured: (l-r) Theo Germaine as Jordan, Austin Crute as Toby -- (Photo by: Josh Stringer/Blumhouse)
On the surface, at least, it does a pretty good job of creating that off-balance atmosphere: A busload of queer teens of all identities reluctantly arrive at Camp Whistler, what purposes to be a “gay conversion” camp – a phrase so full of repugnance it’s difficult to imagine anyone except the most extreme of homophobes being comfortable saying those words. The camp’s owner is Owen, played by the appropriately reptilian Kevin Bacon, an actor who effortlessly can seem creepy, menacing and friendly almost entirely by the context you put him in. Owen’s welcome speech makes it sound like this is not a conversion camp at all, but a journey of self-discovery: He’s tolerant of the trans-identifying Jordan (Theo Germaine), he avoids bible-thumping and constant indoctrination, he seems kinda hip. It throws off the campers, some of whom want to be there for their own sakes, not their parents.
THEY/THEM -- Pictured: (l-r) Carrie Preston as Cora Whistler, Anna Chlumsky as Molly, Boone Platt as Zane, Kevin Bacon as Owen Whistler -- (Photo by: Josh Stringer/Blumhouse)
But the reality is very different, and underneath we see the hypocrisy and the tension. We know something is afoot; you can’t have seen a horror movie, especially one set at a summer camp, and not be attuned to the tropes of the suspicious handyman, the strange shapes and sounds in the dark, the vulnerability of the shower cabin…. Not to mention the seemingly unrelated but bloody murder in the opening scene. Writer-director John Logan hits these touchstones like a batter hitting each bag as he’s rounding the bases, which is what you want in a genre film, but maybe not so much in a revolutionary issue drama where tropes become cliches. Logan is one of the most respected screenwriters in Hollywood (Gladiator, Hugo, The Aviator) but this is his debut as a director, and his inexperience shows. The performances are perfunctory and the visual adequate and underlit. The film gets stuck in the Sunken Place and struggles to get out to assert an identity of its own.
THEY/THEM -- They/Them Premiere Event on July 27, 2022, at Studio 525 in New York City -- Pictured: Theo Germaine -- (Photo by: Astrid Stawiarz/Peacock)
But is it fair to compare – or at least, as long as you can enjoy a film on its own, does it matter that it doesn’t rise to the level of a genre-defining modern classic? Well, sorta. The similarities are so obvious (a lead character named Jordan? Peele’s last film was Us and now we have They/Them?) it seems to invite comparisons. Do I respect applying the thoughtfulness of Get Out to a gay theme? Sure, despite how humorless and preachy it gets by the end. But as a slasher film, They/Them is clunky and uninspired. I wouldn’t check into this camp.
THEY/THEM -- They/Them Premiere Event on July 27, 2022, at Studio 525 in New York City -- Pictured: (l-r) Matt Strauss, Chairman Direct-to-Consumer & International; Jason Blum, CEO Blumhouse; Quei Tann, John Logan, Writer/Director/EP; Darwin Del Fabro, Anna Lore, Kevin Bacon, Cooper Koch, Theo Germaine, Hayley Griffith, Monique Kim, Austin Crute -- (Photo by: Astrid Stawiarz/Peacock)
They/Them premieres Aug 5 on Peacock.
MEGAN THEE STALLION TEAMS UP WITH FUTURE TO UNVEIL NEW “PRESSURELICIOUS” RELEASE
(Friday July 22, 2022) - Today, 3x GRAMMY® Award-winning superstar, entrepreneur and philanthropist Megan Thee Stallion joined forces with Future to release her new single, ‘Pressurelicious,” prod. by HitKidd which you can stream HERE.
The new single is a punchy, seductive track that showcases the bravado of a woman that knows who she is, what she has to offer and the willingness of a partner to love and embrace every bit of it.
‘Pressurelicious’ marks Megan’s third release of 2022, following the success of her powerful collaboration with Dua Lipa on ‘Sweetest Pie’ in March and her dazzling lyrical display on ‘Plan B’ in April.
The Houston native recently teamed up with French fashion house Mugler to unveil an innovative music video for ‘Plan B’ that creatively bridged the intersection of music, fashion and entertainment. Mugler creative director Casey Cadwadaller both co-directed the visual and created the custom looks that Megan wore.
The release of ‘Pressurelicious’ also comes after Megan’s transcontinental festival trek across Europe, including a thrilling performance at Glastonbury.
Earlier this summer, Megan shined at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards, where she won the “Top Rap Female Artist” award for the second consecutive year. She was also recognized by The Webby Awards and received the 2022 Special Achievement Award for artistry and advocacy efforts.
FLOAT FEST - MUSIC, TUBING & CAMPING FESTIVAL - STARTS THIS WEEKEND WITH NEW ACTIVATIONS AND A SHOW STOPPING LINEUP
Coca-Cola presents Float Fest - the only festival in the world to combine the Texas tradition of floating the river and live music - including new activations, vendors and more for the 2022 festival happening this weekend. The festival will be held on a 765-acre private ranch in Gonzales, TX, conveniently located just over an hour from both Austin and San Antonio, two hours from Houston and situated right off of major highway US 183. Sponsors include Coca-Cola, Minute Maid Aguas Frescas, Topgolf, Monster Energy, Deep Eddy Vodka, Karbach, Bud Light and more. Float Fest also has special amenities for festival-goers hitting the river and staying at the campsites.
Cage the Elephant
The 2022 headliners for Float Fest include Marshmello, Vampire Weekend, Cage the Elephant, Deadmau5, Chance the Rapper, Lord Huron, Chvrches, Kaytranada, Quinn XCII, 100 Gecs and Pusha T. Other artists on the lineup include Tove Lo, Hippie Sabotage, Two Feet, Sueco, Aly & AJ, Nane, Daisy the Great, CVBZ, Sam Austins, Sir Woman, Me Nd Adam, Madeline the Person, Doublecamp, Little Image, Games We Play, and Blossom Aloe. With 27 artists on two identical stages, there will be no overlapping performance times allowing attendees to watch every set, unlike many other music festivals.
Chance the Rapper
Schedule of Headliner Performances:
Saturday, July 23, 2022
8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. - Kaytranada
9:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. - Chance the Rapper
10:30 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. - Vampire Weekend
11:45 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. - Deadmau5
Sunday, July 24, 2022
7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. - CHVRCHES
8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. - Lord Huron
9:30 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. - Cage the Elephant
10:45 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. - Marshmello
WHEN:
Saturday, July 23 - Sunday, July 24, 2022
2:00 p.m. until 1:00 a.m.
*Festival goers can begin arriving as soon as 12 p.m. on Friday, July 22.
WHERE:
1 County Road 197
Gonzales, TX 78629
MORE:
Daily shuttles will be offered from Austin, San Antonio, Houston, and San Marcus to and from the ranch and are available for purchase on the Float Fest website. The location is adjacent to the city center of Gonzales, providing access to grocery stores, retailers, hotels, restaurants, and more. For more information on Float Fest, please visit the pages below.
WEBSITE: www.floatfest.net
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/floatfestival
TWITTER: www.twitter.com/floatfest
INSTAGRAM: www.instagram.com/floatfest
Event Hashtag: #ThisIsFloatFest
New music video - BIG DIPPER w/ TT The Artist + cameo from Nicole Byer pole dancing
Queer internet rapper BIG DIPPER releases A ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Kids’ inspired music video for HAM AND CHEESE. Featuring TT The Artist, a 3D world of meats & cheeses, and a pole dancing cameo from Nicole Byer!
Big Dipper - HAM AND CHEESE (feat. TT The Artist)
The music video for HAM AND CHEESE is a fantasy world where Big Dipper, TT The Artist, and their dancers, shrink to miniature proportions and get jiggy in a grocery bag, a baseball mitt, and on a picnic table in the park all surrounded by giant food items.
Featuring a bikini clad pole dancing cameo from everyone's favorite BBW queen Nicole Byer, the video for this high energy club track makes you want to shake your ass on a ham and cheese sandwich (apologies to the vegan contingency).
Of the collaboration with TT The Artist, Dipper said “Working with TT was so great because she is such a good writer, sounds amazing on any track she works on, and she was so down to play around with this wacky idea we had for the video!”
This is the first of 3 music video releases slated for Big Dipper for summer 2022, following a brief hiatus after his video for BACK UP OFF ME came out in 2020.
The HAM AND CHEESE music video was created in collaboration with animator Michael Chadwick, editor Julian Lormant, choreographer Melissa Schade, and stylist Patrick Gainer with custom clothing pieces by airbrush artist Malcom Stuart.
HAM AND CHEESE was written by Big Dipper and TT The Artist, with music production by So Drove, who created all the music for Big Dipper’s EP: THE HAM AND CHEESE EP (May 2020). Past collaborations between the two include Big Dipper’s body positive viral anthem LOOKIN.
LOU RIDLEY SHARES A SOUTHERN “BLESS YOUR HEART” IN RESPONSE TO ANTI-ABORTION BILL
PHOTO CREDIT: Bethany R. Reed
Today, human rights advocate and self-proclaimed ‘Anti-country’ country and soul artist Lou Ridley returns with her first release of the year titled “Bless Your Heart.” The track, named after a phrase most southerners would agree is more of an acid-tongued remark than a positive well wish, was written after news leaked that The Supreme Court voted to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. Ridley calls to question those who radically demand their right to freedom yet in the same breath limit the same access to the country’s most marginalized communities under the guise of religious scripture.
Raised in the small town of Southlake, Texas, and now, Nashville-based, Ridley is no stranger to navigating and challenging the ideals of far-right extremists and religious conservatives in the deep south. With both women’s and LGBTQIA+ rights at the forefront of recent and continuous attacks, Ridley felt responsible to speak out, especially while partaking in a genre that often looks to remain silent during controversial and conservative discussions.
“I wrote this song before the overturn. I wrote it as a southern woman whose life has been riddled with experiences of misogyny and prejudice under the guise of Christianity and God. I’m speaking directly to the cowards. In honor of not only other women but all the other lives that are threatened due to the willful ignorance of our leadership in this country. My genre (country), and the men especially, have been alarmingly quiet about these issues… so yet again I’ll grab my nuts and walk forward.”
Recently she sat down with Gloria Johnson (D - Knoxville) former teacher and Tennessee representative to learn more about what the overturn means for Tennessee residents, what to expect next, and the different ways that people can get involved. They go in-depth about healthcare, education, and LGBTQIA+ rights as well as what needs to be done to protect and better them.
WATCH EP. 1 PT. 1 OF NO THANKS WITH TN STATE REPRESENTATIVE GLORIA JOHNSON HERE
Lou Ridley has been making waves in Nashville for not submitting to the typical textbook 'country' artist image. She fearlessly aims to push the boundaries by being unapologetically vocal about Nashville's 'boys club' culture as well as its lack of inclusion and representation. Last year Ridley stormed onto the scene with her wildly popular track “Hometown” written about her hometown of Southlake, Texas, and her sophomore EP titled Angel/Outlaw which lead to praise from The Recording Academy/Grammys, People Magazine, and Houston Chronicle to name a few. Aside from music, she works closely with the Patrick Cady Foundation in Los Angeles to aid unhoused men and women fighting addiction (See here on Soft White Underbelly).
PHOTO CREDIT: Bethany R. Reed
PHANTOMS’ SOPHOMORE ALBUM: THIS CAN’T BE EVERYTHING OUT AUGUST 12
LISTEN TO NEW SINGLE “ONLY YOU” FEAT JEM COOKE
Phantoms release “Only You” featuring beloved, long time collaborator, Jem Cooke, which marks the final single before release of their sophomore album This Can't Be Everythingon August 12th via Foreign Family Collective.
Phantoms on the collaboration, “Only You” was written on a trip to London where we got to work with the amazing Jem Cooke. This was the first song we ever wrote together, It’s about feeling safe with someone amongst chaos and uncertainty.
Jem shared a few thoughts on the song: “This song was written [about] wanting to fling your arms around the person you love the most. It was about expressing being with that one person who can make you feel amazing and keep you safe inside the chaos when it’s all raging around you.”
Phantoms have come into their own and taken a new approach to their music following monumental personal and professional life changes and through those experiences have created some of their most dynamic and transcendent music to date. The two were officially signed to Foreign Family Collective earlier this year, (founded by electronic giant ODESZA in 2015) and since have had the freedom to explore new and exciting creative avenues with their music.
With previous support from NPR, Billboard, Stereogum, LA Weekly, Earmilk + more and over 125 million streams across platforms, the duo has solidified themselves as one of the most promising acts entering 2022, with lots more on the horizon.
- CONNECT WITH PHANTOMS -
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phantoms/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@phvntoms
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/phantomsmusic
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Phantoms
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/phantoms
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/phantoms
Bandcamp: https://phantomsmusic.bandcamp.com/
George Takei Takes On PAWS OF FURY: THE LEGEND OF HANK
Legendary actor, advocate, and Twitter sensation George Takei is ready to unleash the dogs for Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JULY 10: (L-R) Rob Minkoff, Cathy Shim, Kylie Kuioka, George Takei and Mark Koetsier attend the 'Paws of Fury' Family Day at Paramount Pictures Studios on July 10, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures)
Ready for it??
A down-on-his-luck hound Hank (Michael Cera) finds himself in a town full of cats who need a hero to defend them from a ruthless villain's (Ricky Gervais) evil plot to wipe their village off the map. With help from a reluctant teacher (Samuel L. Jackson) to train him, our underdog must assume the role of town samurai and team up with the villagers to save the day. The only problem… cats hate dogs! Also starring Mel Brooks, George Takei, Aasif Mandvi, Gabriel Iglesias, Djimon Hounsou, Michelle Yeoh, Kylie Kuioka, and Cathy Shim.
The cast is not who I’d expect from Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies, which is why I’m looking forward to seeing this animated feature— if not only for my main guy, Takei… keep it going?.. “Oh my!”
PAWS OF FURY: THE LEGEND OF HANK pounces into theatres July 15, 2022.
George Takei attends the “Paws of Fury” Family Day at the Paramount Pictures Studios Lot on July 10, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
Rob Minkoff, Director/Writer/ Producer, speaks at the ÒPaws of FuryÓ Family Day at the Paramount Pictures Studios Lot on July 10, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
Josh Peck attends the ÒPaws of FuryÓ Family Day at the Paramount Pictures Studios Lot on July 10, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
Miki Ratsula GeNder Neutral Cover EP ‘made for THEM’
New Project from the Trans, Nonbinary Musician Due July 8 Featuring Gender Neutral Covers Of Tracks From Harry Styles, Phoebe Bridgers & More.
Miki Ratsula has built a sizable audience by openly and honestly welcoming people into their world. The trans, nonbinary artist uses their platform to candidly document their life: from coming out to getting top surgery to their mental health journey. It’s the kind of storytelling that listeners, especially young queer kids, crave and deserve.
Ratsula will release their gender neutral covers EP, made for them, July 8 via Nettwerk. The made for them EP comes on the heels of releasing their acclaimed debut album i owe it to myself this spring. The new project was co-produced by Miro Mackie (St. Vincent, Mallrat, KALI) and features covers of songs by Phoebe Bridgers, Harry Styles, One Direction, Angus & Julia Stone and the EP’s first single, a stunning cover of Dodie’s“she.”
“When I posted my first gender neutral cover on TikTok, I didn't realize how much it would mean for so many of you. There's something special about feeling represented in music. These songs have a special place in my heart and it was an honor to put my own spin on them. I truly hope you enjoy this piece of work. And thank you to the writers and original artists for creating such beautiful songs.” made for them is available for pre-order / pre-save here: https://mikiratsula.ffm.to/madeforthemep.
made for them follows the March 2022 release of Miki’s debut album, i owe it to myself – an acoustic pop dream guided by Miki’s lush, lofi-inspired production that captures the full emotional seesaw that rocks between youth and adulthood. It’s a testament to self-love and a gift to anyone seeking the same, and sees Miki at their most vulnerable and fully realized. Their deeply intimate record touches on mental health, loss, love, and everything in between and the album’s singles received praise and playlisting by the likes of Billboard Pride, them., Under the Radar, PopMatters.
‘made for them’ track listing
01 - big jet plane (gender neutral version)
02 - cherry (gender neutral version)
03 - graceland too (gender neutral version)
04 - she (gender neutral version)
05 - steal my girl (gender neutral version)
‘made for them’ Pre-order / Pre-save link: https://mikiratsula.ffm.to/madeforthemep
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