Upcoming Events

PAUL NICHOLLS + JEFFREY SANKER: DESTINATION
invites you to Get Carried Away...


SEX AND THE CITY
RELEASE PARTY

SATURDAY MAY 24
8 to 10 pm
HERE LOUNGE
696 N. Robertson Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA

HOSTED KROL Cocktails from 8 to 10 pm.
The celebration continues at Here Lounge Saturday Destination all night!

ENTER TO WIN A TRIP TO NEW YORK CITY with HOTEL ACCOMMODATION AT MARITIME HOTEL!
GIFT CERTIFICATE TO JIMMY CHOO SHOES!
EXCLUSIVE SEX AND THE CITY GIVEAWAYS and much more!

ONE NIGHT STAND

Join us May 22nd for another smashing ONE NIGHT STAND, this month with none other than In LA Magazine's Courtney Jackson.

Miss Jackson is responsible for steering the lesbian content in SoCal's hugely popular LGBT publication, IN MAGAZINE.

Join us early for our meet and greet with complimentary featured cocktails from 9-10, meet the stunning Ms. Jackson, learn about the fab new section in In LA Mag called "L in LA," and meet fab new people.

Dance from 10-2 to the sounds of DJ Saratonin and Kathy Valenti.


ONE NIGHT STAND is located at The Standard Hotel in the Purple Room. Outside patio, inside chic.





SARA FELDER in OUT OF SIGHT

Wednesday, May 21, and Friday, May 23, 8:00 p.m.

Skirball Cultural Center

Solo theater artist and world-class juggler and out lesbian Sara Felder presents a bold new play about a nearly blind woman and her adult lesbian daughter. As they struggle for balance in their relationship, their differing views of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis underscores intergenerational differences that they must overcome in order to find common ground. Felder's unique integration of circus arts, shadow puppetry, and personal narrative invites viewers to explore the big questions of life, laughing as we recognize ourselves in her stories.

"Out of Sight is a charming night with a charismatic performer." —Philadelphia City Paper


$18 General, $15 Skirball Members, $12 Full-Time Students
Advance tickets available on site at the Skirball, by phone at (877) SCC-4TIX or (877) 722-4849, or online at www.skirball.org.



COFFEE WILL MAKE YOU BLACK!!
At The Celebration Theatre
7051-B Santa Monica Blvd.
Thursdays-Saturdays @ 8pm, Sundays @ 3pm


COFFEE WILL MAKE YOU BLACK is adapted from the award-winning novel by April Sinclair, traces the coming of age story of Jean "Stevie" Stevenson, a black teenager on the brink of sexual awakening during the turbulent and politically charged late 1960's.

A story of strength, discovery, and acceptance, this "Coffee" will have you craving a second cup!

Starring
Aasha David (South of Nowhere), Colette Divine and Sonia Jackson.

For more information call 323-957-1884
Here's a links to our very cute myspace page: (Aretha Franklin will grt you!)

http://www.myspace.com/CoffeeWillMakeYouBlack

For tickets, visit the Celebration Theatre's website:
http://www.CelebrationTheatre.com



June 5, 2008
First Thursday at East|West - 6 - 8 p.m.
East|West Lounge
8851 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069

Come join the LAGLCC for our new mixer series - First Thursdays at East|West! This is the networking event of the year! Join us the first Thursday of every month to mix, mingle and network with other Chamber members. Bring a Business Guest and your Business Guest gets in Free!!! Free appetizers! Drink specials! Raffle prizes! And More! Members and guests- $5. For more information, call 888-5LAGLCC or email kylemgibson@gmail.com.





Be a part of the biggest gay event of the year! Come sit at TheSmokingCocktail.com table and be near Janet Jackson, TR Knight and every gay person and gay loving person in the business.

Buy tickets here and click on THESMOKINGCOCKTAIL under host to sit with me.

Click on any of the above invites to enlarge.

GAYS R US at the Famous Hollywood Improv

This is my favorite night of the month. For more info go to http://www.myspace.com/queerontheirfeet

First Wednesday of every month!!!
8 pm Show time
June 4, 8pm
Hollywood Improv
Gays R Us
10 bucks with attached flyer
www.improv2.com

The Hollywood Improv
8162 Hollywood Boulevard

A major Los Angeles theater event!

THE LOST PLAYS OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
Mister Paradise, The Palooka, And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens

Last fall the Actors Studio workshopped the L.A. premiere of recently discovered one-act plays by the American theater master Tennessee Williams. Now the Center is continuing the premiere with the same brilliant cast and one new play.

The casts include: Chris Carver, Brian Foyster, Jack Heller, Melissa Lechner, Jason Lopez, Timothy V. Murphy, Jonathan Runyon and Chris Rydell.

March 21-June 8
Fridays & Saturdays at 8 pm

The Davidson/Valentini Theatre
The Village at Ed Gould Plaza
Tickets: $20
click here to order tickets.

Sunday, May 18th, 2008
MOLLY MALONES - http://www.mollymalonesla.com
9pm sharp!
575 S. Fairfax Ave. (just north of Wilshire)
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323-935-1577
Price: $5

LAYNE is:
Laurie Geltman: Guitars, Vocals, songs
USA Mike: Bass, Baritone Guitar, Vox
Aaron Tap: Guitars, Oh So Sweet Harmony Vox
Jamie Vavra: Drums

Check out Laurie's LA band LAYNE on Myspace at
http://www.myspace.com/LayneMusicUSA
and our official site http://www.LayneMusic.com

In Memory: Reluctant Activist Mildred Loving

 “I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others.”

Mildred Loving on the 40th anniversary of Loving v Virginia

Mildred Loving's challenge to Virginia's ban on interracial marriage led to the landmark 1967 Supreme Court ruling striking down such laws nationwide. Loving died May 2 at the age of 68.

From the Los Angeles Times

By Jocelyn Y. Stewart, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer 

May 7, 2008

For marrying the only man she ever loved, Mildred Loving paid a price: She was arrested, convicted and banished from her home state.

In the 1950s, the Commonwealth of Virginia handed down such punishments to couples whose love the state did not sanction: She was black. Her husband, Richard, was white. Their union was prohibited by law.

The marriage could have collapsed under the hammer of Jim Crow. Instead, the Lovings' challenge of the law led to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1967 that toppled bans on interracial marriages nationwide and opened the door for mixed race couples to marry without prosecution.

For Loving, a soft-spoken, gentle woman who eschewed the limelight, the issue was always simple: "I think marrying who you want is a right no man should have anything to do with," Loving said in 1967 segment on ABC News. "It's a God-given right."

Loving, 68, died of pneumonia Friday at her home in Central Point, Va., said her daughter, Peggy Fortune. Loving's story was turned into a 1996 Showtime movie, and her case resonates with supporters of same-sex marriage.

The case of Loving vs. Virginia took place against a legal landscape altered by the demands and victories of the civil rights movement.

From MajorCox.com
Early on the morning of July 15, 1958, Richard and Mildred Loving awoke in their bed with three flashlights shining in their eyes. A voice behind the lights demanded, "What are you doing in bed with this lady?"

"I am his wife," Mildred answered. Richard pointed to their five week old Washington DC marriage license hanging on the wall.

The marriage license did not impress Sheriff R. Garnett Brooks. "That’s no good here," he informed the couple. The Caroline County sheriff, along with two deputies, who had entered the house through an unlocked door at 2:00 a.m., arrested Richard and Mildred Loving. The lawmen charged the couple with violating Virginia’s law prohibiting interracial marriage, Richard was white and Mildred was "colored."

The arrest and conviction of the young couple…Richard, 24 and Mildred, 18…is similar to the arrest four years earlier, of civil rights heroine, Rosa Parks. Whereas Rosa Parks refused to obey Montgomery’s ordinance requiring colored people to sit in the rear of city buses, Richard and Mildred Loving refused to obey Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law, prohibiting marriage between individuals classified as being of different races. Writing about the case in Emerge magazine, Victoria Valentine says the Lovings "didn’t start to make history, they just wished to live as husband and wife."

Okay, I'm finally going to do it...

Okay, I've been debating this for a while, but I'm finally going to do it. Seriously, I'm going to finally - I can't believe I'm actually saying this at the age of 42 - but I'm going to start cooking for the animals.

The pathetic state of the dog and cat food industry was brought to everyone's attention last year during the pet food recall, where thousands of domestic animals in America suffered kidney failure due to a protein additive from China. Meanwhile, it's not like I haven't seen the "making of dog food" on PBS and the internet, and really, it's enough to turn your stomach.

On the flip side, I've had animals my whole life and they've alway eatten the crap from bags. My childhood dog and cat both lived to be 21. Although come to think of it, when they did die, it was of kidney failure and the last five years of my dog's life, my mom made her food from a vet's recipe.

Anyway, I've already started mixing carrots, flax and oatmeal into Charlie's food and I guess I'll get the vitamins and recipes and be cooking a week's supply every Sunday night.

Okay, that's off my chest. Now onto gay news.

Last night, as always, was the best night of gay in Los Angeles at the Gays R Us at the Hollywood Improv. I laughed so hard, my face and stomach actually hurt!Cortney Jackson from IN MAGAZINE with writer Kid Rock Barnes and Jenny enjoying drinks and conversation after the show.
Me with Jason Dudey whose bit about his mom is absolutely hysterical.

Comics Jennie McNulty and Erin Foley. Erin regailed us afterwards with tales from her appearance on LAST COMIC STANDING - so look for that later this year. In addition to performing in P TOWN, Jennie can also be seen on LOGO and has performed for the troops in Iraq under the lesbian exchange program.

Joey with Page Hurwitz. She killed. I especially loved a bit she did that I had seen before. During the writer's strike, she couldn't (wouldn't) write anything for her shows so she just read letters to the editor from the OLIVIA lesbo cruise line site. HYSTERICAL.

After the show we all piled into the bar of course to drink and chat. Biggest topic: Will Hillary withdraw.

Meanwhile, on this past Sunday I went to the Instinct Magazine's 10th Year Anniversary Party at the Standard.
The Lair's David Moretti and Brian Nolan, with Outfest's Jeff Mack who is afflicted with that disease many gays over 30 have in LA - refusing to smile so wrinkes won't show.

Me with two of the Janice Dickeson models from the fashion show. They were both in SHELTER!

Hot guy soup. All the models jumped in the pool. Some were nice enough to take their skippy little trunks off before doing so.
I watched the fashion show with these guys - cover boy Brandon, Ant and Ross.
Dominick was afraid I'd show his penis, so he's covering it. Maybe you recognize him from all the SHELTER photos?
Management telling them they can't be naked in the pool and making them put trunks on.
The guy receiving I guess is Marc Jacob's boyfriend. This is right after they forced him to put clothes on.


There was a room on the bottom floor with a video of a cat running for hours. Ant said it was probably tweekers, but one other man queeried, "Is that the lesbian VIP room?"





Poppy and I with Mr. Jones from Instinct.