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OCTOBER 15, 2015

METROWEEKLY.COM

METROWEEKLY.COM

OCTOBER 15, 2015

EDITORIAL
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Randy Shulman

OCTOBER 15, 2015

Volume 22 / Issue 24

ART DIRECTOR
Todd Franson
MANAGING EDITOR
Rhuaridh Marr
SENIOR EDITOR
John Riley
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Doug Rule

NEWS

The Democratic Debate

12

Walk To End HIV

by Rhuaridh Marr

by Doug Rule

14

Community Calendar

19

LGBT History Month

20

Mark Segal

22

Joe Lobdell

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Julian Vankim

23

ARC/AIDS Vigil

SALES & MARKETING

24

P.L. Travers

SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHERS
Ward Morrison, Julian Vankim
CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATOR
Scott G. Brooks
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Sean Bugg, Chris Heller, Connor J. Hogan,
Troy Petenbrink, Kate Wingfield
WEBMASTER
David Uy

PUBLISHER
Randy Shulman
BRAND STRATEGY & MARKETING
Christopher Cunetto
Cunetto Creative
NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE
Rivendell Media Co.
212-242-6863
DISTRIBUTION MANAGER
Dennis Havrilla

PATRON SAINT
John Boswell

COVER ILLUSTRATION
Christopher Cunetto

METRO WEEKLY
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2015 Jansi LLC.

OCTOBER 15, 2015

METROWEEKLY.COM

FEATURES

26

by Jen Colletta

by Ray Simon

by Matthew S. Bajko

by Gary M. Kramer

Transgender Timeline
Compiled by the Staff of the
San Diego LGBT Weekly

FEATURE
28
DJ Billy Carroll Celebrates the
Music of Velvet Nation at Town

by Doug Rule

OUT ON THE TOWN

32

Crimson Peak

34

Ravens Night

FILM

37

Steve Jobs

STAGE

39

Cake Off / The Guard

GAMES

41

Yoshis Woolly World

NIGHTLIFE

45

Otter Crossing at Green lantern

by Randy Shulman

by Doug Rule

by Chris Heller

by Doug Rule

by Rhuaridh Marr

photography by Ward Morrison

SCENE
52
Love, Love, Love - A Celebration of
Life for Carl Rizzi and
Mame Dennis at Town

photography by Christopher Cunetto

54

Last Word

METROWEEKLY.COM

OCTOBER 15, 2015

OCTOBER 15, 2015

METROWEEKLY.COM

METROWEEKLY.COM

OCTOBER 15, 2015

HIV Vaccine Enters Human Trials

Jack Black on Brothers Death from AIDS

CNN

LGBT

News

Now online at MetroWeekly.com

(L-R) Webb, Sanders, Clinton, OMalley and Chafee

Debatable Success

CNNs Democratic debate was the perfect antithesis to the circus antics
of the prior two GOP affairs
by Rhuaridh Marr

HAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES. OR,

rather, what a difference four weeks, restrained
set design, competent moderation, and refined,
respectful candidates can make. This weeks
Democratic Party debate may not have had the same degree
of excitement and newsworthy bickering that has defined its
Republican counterparts, but as an actual debate, it was leagues
better than the pandering mess of Fox News or the quixotically
unmoderated CNN debate last month.
Anderson Cooper is to thank for its success. Unlike Fox
News, who moderated well but threw ludicrously softball
questions to candidates not named Trump, or CNNs own Jake
Tapper, who could have watched from home and had the same
impact on the GOP field, Cooper maintained a vice-like grip on
proceedings only occasionally relinquishing it to offer other
moderators the spotlight. If this is the standard for the debates
moving forward, its something well all benefit from, as Cooper
wasted no time in fact-checking candidates or pressing them
for answers though theres legitimate concern that CNN gave
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders vastly more time to talk than
the other candidates.
Its also somewhat telling, especially in comparison to
Republicans, that LGBT issues were essentially a footnote in
this debate. Unlike their GOP competitors, support for same-sex
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METROWEEKLY.COM

marriage, transgender rights, nondiscrimination and other factors are tacitly implied: Democrats support the LGBT community. Clinton affirmed as much during her opening statement as
did Martin OMalley in his closing, but thats about as much as
it was discussed. Its somewhat disheartening CNN didnt allow
candidates to offer counterparts to GOP arguments against
transgender servicemembers, or the threat of religious freedom
laws, but there are several debates still to come.
Instead and, really, thankfully this was a debate about
the issues.
In that context, Clinton was arguably the strongest candidate
on the stage. With the most to lose coming into this debate, the
former Secretary of State had to convince voters that she was
still the partys best candidate to challenge a Republican opponent. With polished, confident delivery and strong command of
her own policies, Clinton set forth the terms of her presidency
to repeated applause from the audience. Challenging views that
her political career has been one of flip-flopping between the
issues depending on public support, Clinton stuck to previous
assertions that her positions constantly evolve, saying: I have
been very consistent, she said. Over the course of my entire
life, I have always fought for the same values and principles,
but...I do absorb new information.
Not that she was given an easy ride on other matters. Her

METROWEEKLY.COM

OCTOBER 15, 2015

LGBTNews
email scandal inevitably cropped up. Clinton stated she had
been as transparent as I know how to be a very carefully
chosen answer before iterating that she wanted to talk not
about my emails, but about what the American people want for
the next president of the United States.
It was here that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders came to
Clintons aid perhaps to the surprise of some, but not to those
whove watched him consistently chastise the media for focusing on scandal rather than the issues. Responding to Clinton,
Sanders stated: Let me say something. I think the secretary is
right. And that is that the American people are sick and tired of
hearing about your damn emails! It was enough to draw a big
laugh from Clinton and a standing ovation from the audience.
Clinton, however, pulled no punches in asserting herself as a
more electable version of Sanders. (Im a progressive, but Im a
progressive who likes to get things done, she quipped.) When
asked if Sanders was tough enough on gun control, Clinton forcefully responded, No. Not at all. We have to look at the fact that
we lose 90 people a day from gun violence. This has gone on too
long and its time the entire country stood up against the NRA.
Sanders, who has previously opposed gun control measures
due to attitudes in rural Vermont, found himself on the defensive against a more liberal opponent something that cant
often be said for the Democratic Socialist. We can raise our
voices, he said. But I come from a rural state, and the views
on gun control in rural states are different than in urban states,
whether we like it or not.
Clinton was also predictably taken to task for issues that
have put her at odds with the Democratic base. On Iraq, which
Sanders called the worst foreign policy blunder in the history
of this country, Clinton was attacked for voting in favor of the
war. There was no real evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, said former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln
Chafee. I know because I did my homework. Clinton couldnt
be shaken, however, instead spinning the attack into a defense
of her strong record on foreign policy.
After the election, [President Obama] asked me to become
Secretary of State. He valued my judgment, she said, before reiterating her policies on Syria, ISIS, her role in capturing Osama
bin Laden and the stance shed take with Russias President
Putin. When former Maryland Governor Martin OMalley tried
to attack Clinton on being too quick to use military intervention, she slapped him down. I was very pleased when Governor
OMalley endorsed me for president in 2008, she said with a
smile, and I enjoyed his strong support in that campaign.
Clinton was also, predictably, strong on womens issues.
On her Washington insider status considered by many to
be poisonous in this campaign she retorted: I cant think
of anything more of an outsider than electing the first woman
president. She also used Planned Parenthood to contrast the
Democratic field with their Republican counterparts: They
dont mind having big government to interfere with a womans
right to choose and to try to take down Planned Parenthood,
she said, to loud cheers and applause. Theyre fine with big
government when it comes to that. Im sick of it.
For Sanders, last night was more of what the liberal Senator
has become known for: impassioned speeches, off-the-cuff
remarks, factual arguments, and ideological rants. The same
charisma that has filled venues across the nation spilled over
the CNN stage, offering a counterpart to Clintons carefully
refined poise.
Sanders took big swipes at corporate America and class
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OCTOBER 15, 2015

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inequality. The irony of his railing against the casino capitalist

process while standing in the Wynn in Las Vegas wasnt lost,
but his attacks on Wall Street, the hoarding of money by the
richest one-percent, and the incredible inequality in American
society played into the hands of the partys liberal base. It also
offered a chance for Sanders to combat smear tactics against his
Democratic Socialist ideology.
What Democratic Socialism is about is saying that it is
immoral and wrong that the top one-tenth of 1 percent own 90
percent, he thundered, before stating his affinity for Nordic
nations and their liberal attitudes towards welfare and social
care. Those are some of the principles that I believe in, and I
think we should look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden
and Norway and learn from what they have accomplished for
their working people.
Clinton quickly stepped in to retort: We are not Denmark....
We are the United States of America. And its our job to rein in
the excesses of capitalism so that it doesnt run amok.
Sanders also appealed to those disaffected with current
foreign policy, while defending his decision to conscientiously
object to the Vietnam War. I am not a pacifist, Anderson. I
supported the war in Afghanistan, he said. I happen to believe
from the bottom of my heart that war should be the last resort
that we have got to exercise diplomacy.
He also had arguably the strongest answer when asked about
the Black Lives Matter movement. Black lives matter, he stated emphatically. On any given day some innocent person like
Sandra Bland can get into a car, and then three days later shes
going to end up dead in jail.... We need to combat institutional
racism from top to bottom.
The issue also gave OMalley the opportunity to defend
against criticisms of his stewardship during the Baltimore protests. When I ran for Mayor of Baltimore...we were burying
over 350 young men every single year, mostly young, and poor,
and black, he said. I said to our legislature...that if we were
burying white, young, poor men in these numbers we would be
marching in the streets and there would be a different reaction.
Indeed, OMalley had a few choice moments during the
debate, such as calling Donald Trump that carnival barker,
but particularly on climate change. The entire Democratic field
supports efforts on climate change (the fossil fuel industry is
funding the Republican Party, railed Sanders), but OMalley
has used the strongest rhetoric, demanding that we move to
a 100 percent clean electric energy grid by 2050 promising
that it would be the first order he signed in office.
However, he struggled against Clinton and Sanders. His liberal politics are overshadowed by Sanders, while Clinton ran rings
around him in foreign policy. Attempts to attack the latter on
Syria fell flat, after his question of whether she underestimated
the Russians gave Clinton carte blanche to put forward her own
policies, rather than let OMalley state his own. He did, however,
have perhaps the strongest closing statement of the night.
On this stage, you didnt hear anyone denigrate women,
you didnt hear anyone make racist comments about new
American immigrants, you didnt hear anyone speak ill of another American because of their religious belief, he said. What
you heard instead on this stage tonight was an honest search for
the answers that will move our country forward.
Conversely, neither Lincoln Chafee nor former Virginia
Senator Jim Webb provided voters enough reason to elevate
them from their meager positions in the polls.
Webb was arguably the more confusing candidate, with

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LGBTNews
many of his policies and ideals speaking more to moderate
Republicans than Democrats. He also found himself on awkward footing when discussing issues of race. Asked whether he
was out of step with the party for his opposition to affirmative
action, something hes called state-sponsored racism, Webb
responded that he supports it for African Americans, but not
everyone, quote, of color, other than whites.
Webb spent most of his time on stage complaining that he
wasnt given enough time to speak. He wasnt incorrect estimates put him and Chafee last that regard but whining to
Cooper did little to make him seem presidential.
This debate...is kind of frustrating because unless somebody mentions my name I cant get into the discussion, Webb
complained.
You agreed to these rules and youre wasting time, Cooper
snapped back.
Chafee, meanwhile, offered occasionally thoughtful responses and took swipes at Clinton by espousing his 30-year career
with no scandals. However, he derailed any momentum with
bizarre responses to questions.
Asked whether he could be trusted by voters, given hed
switched from Republican to Independent to Democrat the

latter occurring just two years ago Chafee called himself a

block of granite when it comes to the issues.
It seems like pretty soft granite, Cooper responded.
Later on, when asked about Glass-Steagall, Chafee defended
voting to remove it because his father had died. [It] was my very
first vote, Id just arrived, my dad had died in office, he said.
Are you saying you didnt know what you were voting for?
Cooper asked.
Id just arrived at the Senate. I think wed get some takeovers, and that was one, Chafee responded, to little enthusiasm
from the audience.
If viewers didnt like Hillary before the debate, her performance is unlikely to have changed any minds, but it will certainly boost her flagging campaign and have appealed to unsure
voters. Sanders was able to present himself to his widest audience yet and took full advantage of the opportunity though his
liberal policies are still at odds with more moderate parts of the
Democratic base. If this weeks debate was the standard bearer
for those moving forward, however, and if Webb and Chafee
drop out to allow the other three candidates to breathe more
and go deeper, the next debate on November 14 is certainly one
to look forward to. l

HIV Heroes
Stepping Out

people to raise awareness and as much as $1 million to fight

a deadly disease ravaging the nation. While theres still an
element certainly of memorializing folks who have passed,
Mallory says the walk, which last year attracted over 7,000
people and raised $700,000, reflects a far more optimistic era.
Were at a much more hopeful point where we actually can,
through education, through testing and through providing care
immediately, reduce HIV infections in this city. Last year,
there were 533 new HIV diagnoses, down by more than half
from as recently as 2008. Eventually, as last years name change
makes plain, the goal is to end HIV something unthinkable
even just a few years ago.
I think we took a calculated risk with the name change, says
Shawn Jain, Whitman-Walkers Director of Communications.
Taking a 28-year institution and changing the name, that
probably wasnt the most brilliant move from a pure branding
perspective, to be honest. But we did it because we really believe
that that term AIDS is so old-fashioned, and so stigmatizing.
So many people, even when they come in to get tested,
still have so many misconceptions about HIV, Jain continues.
People still talk about the cocktail, or the side effects, as if were
in 1994. Thats hard to overcome, but I think the language is a
really important part of it especially when we had decades
of AIDS equals death mantra. I think in order for us to really
make progress, we have to talk about it as HIV. As a chronic
condition.
Despite all the changes over the years, Mallory says the walk
still attracts a diverse community that has HIV as one of its
priorities, including representatives from every college and a
lot of high schools in the region, as well as corporate groups and
LGBT groups. Seeing so many different types of people just
come together for a common effort, he says, its always inspiring, its always uplifting, its always encouraging.

Danny Pintauro to be honored at Whitman-Walker

Healths 29th annual Walk to End HIV

by Doug Rule

AST MONTH, DANNY PINTAURO CAME OUT AS

HIV-positive. The actor, who, in his youth, portrayed
Jonathan in 80s sitcom Whos The Boss, also announced
his intention to become an HIV activist, with a particular focus
on outreach to younger LGBT people.
Whitman-Walker Health will honor Pintauro by presenting
him with a Courage Award at the organizations 29th Annual Walk
to End HIV next Saturday, Oct. 24th. Also receiving a Courage
Award at this years event is Dzon Dixon Diallo, who, in 1989,
founded the Atlanta-based SisterLove, Inc., the first womens
HIV/AIDS organization in the southeastern United States.
Both Pintauro and Diallo will take part in the walk, WhitmanWalkers largest annual public fundraiser, this year organized
around a superheroes theme and the tagline Superheroes Dont
Fly, They Walk to End HIV. Participants in the 5-kilometer,
timed run and walk are encouraged to dress up in superhero garb,
with awards and prizes for Best Couple, Best Team, even Best Pet.
David Mallory, Director of Annual Giving at Whitman-Walker
and lead organizer of the walk, says adopting a theme is one way
of trying to keep people especially younger people engaged.
We recognize were in competition with a lot of other walks
and good causes out there, Mallory says. This is an opportunity to hopefully make the event fresher, make it memorable,
make it a fun experience.
Fun certainly wasnt a motivating factor of the event when
it was started nearly three decades ago as the AIDS Walk. Back
then, anger, fear and sadness compelled as many as 20,000
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OCTOBER 15, 2015

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The Walk to End HIV is Saturday, Oct. 24, including entertainment at 8:15 a.m., the timed 5K run at 9:15 a.m. and the walk at
9:20 a.m., all at Freedom Plaza, 14th Street and Pennsylvania
Avenue NW. Registration will start at 7 a.m., or can be done in
advance at walktoendhiv.org. l

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OCTOBER 15, 2015

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LGBTCommunityCalendar
Metro Weeklys Community Calendar highlights important events in the D.C.-area
LGBT community, from alternative social events to volunteer opportunities.
Event information should be sent by email to calendar@MetroWeekly.com.
Deadline for inclusion is noon of the Friday before Thursdays publication.
Questions about the calendar may be directed to the
Metro Weekly office at 202-638-6830 or
the calendar email address.

BRAZILIAN GLBT GROUP, including

others interested in Brazilian culture,
meets. For location/time, email braziliangaygroup@yahoo.com.
DC AQUATICS CLUB (DCAC) practice
session at Hains Point, 972 Ohio Dr.,
SW. 8:30-10 a.m. Visit swimdcac.org.
DC FRONT RUNNERS running/walking/social club welcomes all levels for
exercise in a fun and supportive environment, socializing afterward. Meet
9:30 a.m., 23rd & P Streets NW, for a
walk; or 10 a.m. for fun run. dcfrontrunners.org.

THURSDAY, OCT. 15

FRIDAY, OCT. 16

SATURDAY, OCT. 17

The DC Center hosts a monthly

meeting of its POLY DISCUSSION
GROUP, for those interested in discussing polyamory and other consensual non-monogamous relationships.
7-8 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.
For more information, visit thedccenter.org.

LGB PSYCHOTHERAPY GROUP for

adults in Montgomery County offers
a safe space to explore coming out
and issues of identity. 10-11:30 a.m.
16220 S. Frederick Rd., Suite 512,
Gaithersburg, Md. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.

ADVENTURING outdoors group

hikes 7.5 strenuous miles with 1700
feet of elevation gain on mountain
overlooking Harpers Ferry, WV.
Bring beverages, lunch, sturdy boots,
bug spray and about $15 for fees.
Carpool at 9 a.m. from GrosvenorStrathmore Metro Station. Jeff, 301775-9660. adventuring.org.

WEEKLY EVENTS

WEEKLY EVENTS

DC AQUATICS CLUB (DCAC) practice

DC AQUATICS CLUB (DCAC)

practice session at Takoma Aquatic

Center, 300 Van Buren St. NW. 7:30-9
p.m. swimdcac.org.

DC LAMBDA SQUARES gay and les-

bian square-dancing group features

mainstream through advanced square
dancing at the National City Christian
Church, 5 Thomas Circle NW, 7-9:30
p.m. Casual dress. 301-257-0517,
dclambdasquares.org.
The DULLES TRIANGLES Northern
Virginia social group meets for happy
hour at Sheraton in Reston, 11810
Sunrise Valley Drive, second-floor
bar, 7-9 p.m. All welcome. dullestriangles.com.

session at Hains Point, 927 Ohio Dr.

SW. 6:30-8 p.m. Visit swimdcac.org.

GAY DISTRICT holds a facilitated

discussion group for GBTQ men,
18-35, on the first and third Fridays of
each month. 8:30-9:30 p.m. The DC
Center, 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.
202-682-2245, gaydistrict.org.
HIV TESTING at Whitman-Walker
Health. At the Elizabeth Taylor
Medical Center, 1701 14th St. NW,
9 a.m.-5 p.m. At the Max Robinson
Center, 2301 MLK Jr. Ave. SE, 9
a.m.-4:30 p.m. For an appointment
call 202-745-7000. Visit whitmanwalker.org.
METROHEALTH CENTER offers

METROHEALTH CENTER offers

free, rapid HIV testing. Appointment

needed. 1012 14th St. NW, Suite 700.
202-638-0750.

free, rapid HIV testing. Appointment

needed. 1012 14th St. NW, Suite 700.
202-638-0750.

PROJECT STRIPES hosts LGBTSMYAL offers free HIV Testing, 3-5

p.m., by appointment and walk-in, for

youth 21 and younger. 202-567-3155
or testing@smyal.org.

US HELPING US hosts a Narcotics

Anonymous Meeting, 6:30-7:30 p.m.,
3636 Georgia Ave. NW. The group is
independent of UHU. 202-446-1100.
WOMENS LEADERSHIP
INSTITUTE for young LBTQ women,
13-21, interested in leadership development. 5-6:30 p.m. SMYAL Youth
Center, 410 7th St. SE. 202-567-3163,
catherine.chu@smyal.org.

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OCTOBER 15, 2015

affirming social group for ages 11-24.

4-6 p.m. 1419 Columbia Road NW.
Contact Tamara, 202-319-0422, laycdc.org.

SMYALS REC NIGHT provides

a social atmosphere for GLBT and
questioning youth, featuring dance
parties, vogue nights, movies and
games. More info, catherine.chu@
smyal.org.
SMYAL offers free HIV Testing, 3-6
p.m., by appointment and walk-in, for
youth 21 and younger. Youth Center,
410 7th St. SE. 202-567-3155, testing@smyal.org.

METROWEEKLY.COM

Black Women for Positive Change

presents a DMV SUMMIT ON

NON-VIOLENCE COMMUNITY
FORUM at the Metropolitan African

Methodist Episcopal Church, on

the roles for youth, parents, community and religious leaders, and law
enforcement in preventing violence. 9
a.m.-3 p.m. 1518 M St. NW. For more
information and to register, visit
eventbrite.com.
The DC Center hosts a monthly

ASYLUM SEEKERS/ASYLEES
FORUM for LGBT asylum seekers/

refugees and their supporters. 7-9 p.m.

2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more
information, visit thedccenter.org.

CHRYSALIS arts & culture group

visits six private homes during 14th

Annual Reston Home Tour. $30.
Meet at 9:45 a.m. at the Wiehle
Avenue Metro Station. Kevin, 571338-1433. kgiles27@gmail.com.

BURGUNDY CRESCENT, a gay volunteer organization, volunteers today for

the Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation
at Falls Church PetSmart. To participate, visit burgundycrescent.org.

WEEKLY EVENTS
ANDROMEDA TRANSCULTURAL
HEALTH offers free HIV testing, 9-5

p.m., and HIV services (by appointment). 202-291-4707 or andromedatransculturalhealth.org.

BET MISHPACHAH, founded by

members of the LGBT community,
holds Saturday morning Shabbat
services, 10 a.m., followed by Kiddush
luncheon. Services in DCJCC
Community Room, 1529 16th St. NW.
betmish.org.

DC SENTINELS basketball team

meets at Turkey Thicket Recreation

Center, 1100 Michigan Ave. NE, 2-4
p.m. For players of all levels, gay or
straight. teamdcbasketball.org.

DIGNITYUSA sponsors Mass for

LGBT community, family and friends.

6:30 p.m., Immanuel Church-on-theHill, 3606 Seminary Road, Alexandria.
All welcome. For more info, visit dignitynova.org.

GAY LANGUAGE CLUB discusses

critical languages and foreign languages. 7 p.m. Nellies, 900 U St. NW.
RVSP preferred. brendandarcy@
gmail.com.
IDENTITY offers free and confidential

HIV testing in Takoma Park, 7676

New Hampshire Ave., Suite 411. Walkins 12-3 p.m. For appointments other
hours, call 301-422-2398.

SUNDAY, OCT. 18
ADVENTURING outdoors group hikes
several moderate miles along historic
road in Shenandoah National Park
at the height of fall color season and
enjoys annual Apple Harvest Festival
at nearby Graves Mountain Lodge.
Bring beverages, lunch (or buy one at
the Festival), bug spray and about $15
for fees. Optional dinner at Lodge follows. Carpool at 9:30 a.m. from East
Falls Church Metro Station. Bill, 443244-5495. adventuring.org.

MONDAY, OCT. 19
CENTER FAITH, a group for LGBT

and questioning people and their religious allies, holds its monthly meeting
at The DC Center. Brown bag dinner
starts at 6:30 p.m., before the meeting. Meeting runs from 7:30-8:30 p.m.
2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more
information, visit thedccenter.org.

WEEKLY EVENTS
DC AQUATICS CLUB (DCAC) practice session at Hains Point, 927 Ohio
Dr. SW. 7-8:30 p.m. Visit swimdcac.org.

METROWEEKLY.COM

OCTOBER 15, 2015

15

DC SCANDALS RUGBY holds

practice, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Garrison
Elementary, 1200 S St. NW. dcscandals.wordpress.com.
GETEQUAL meets 6:30-8 p.m. at
Quaker House, 2111 Florida Ave. NW.
getequal.wdc@gmail.com.
HIV Testing at WHITMANWALKER HEALTH. At the Elizabeth
Taylor Medical Center, 1701 14th
St. NW, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. At the Max
Robinson Center, 2301 MLK Jr. Ave.
SE, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. For an appointment call 202-745-7000. Visit whitman-walker.org.

KARING WITH INDIVIDUALITY

(K.I.) SERVICES, 3333 Duke St.,

Alexandria, offers free rapid HIV

testing and counseling, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
703-823-4401.

METROHEALTH CENTER offers

free, rapid HIV testing. No appointment needed. 11 a.m.-7 p.m. 1012 14th
St. NW, Suite 700. 202-638-0750.
NOVASALUD offers free HIV test-

ing. 5-7 p.m. 2049 N. 15th St., Suite

200, Arlington. Appointments: 703789-4467.

SMYAL offers free HIV Testing, 3-5

p.m., by appointment and walk-in, for

youth 21 and younger. Youth Center,
410 7th St. SE. 202-567-3155 or testing@smyal.org.

THE DC CENTER hosts Coffee DropIn for the Senior LGBT Community.
10 a.m.-noon. 2000 14th St. NW. 202682-2245, thedccenter.org.
US HELPING US hosts a black gay
mens evening affinity group. 3636
Georgia Ave. NW. 202-446-1100.
WASHINGTON WETSKINS WATER
POLO TEAM practices 7-9 p.m.

Takoma Aquatic Center, 300 Van

Buren St. NW. Newcomers with at
least basic swimming ability always
welcome. Tom, 703-299-0504, secretary@wetskins.org, wetskins.org.

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OCTOBER 15, 2015

METROWEEKLY.COM

WHITMAN-WALKER HEALTH

HIV/AIDS Support Group for newly

diagnosed individuals, meets 7 p.m.
Registration required. 202-939-7671,
hivsupport@whitman-walker.org.

TUESDAY, OCT. 20
CENTER BI, a group of The DC

Center, hosts a monthly roundtable

discussion group examining issues
of bisexuality and identity. 7-8 p.m.
2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more
information, visit thedccenter.org.

WEEKLY EVENTS
ANDROMEDA TRANSCULTURAL
HEALTH offers free HIV testing, 9-5

p.m., and HIV services (by appointment). 202-291-4707, andromedatransculturalhealth.org.

ASIANS AND FRIENDS weekly dinner

in Dupont/Logan Circle area, 6:30 p.m.
afwash@aol.com, afwashington.net.

DC AQUATICS CLUB (DCAC)

practice session at Takoma Aquatic

Center, 300 Van Buren St. NW. 7:30-9
p.m. swimdcac.org.

DC FRONT RUNNERS running/walking/social club serving greater D.C.s

LGBT community and allies hosts an
evening run/walk. dcfrontrunners.org.

THE GAY MENS HEALTH

COLLABORATIVE offers free HIV

testing and STI screening and treatment every Tuesday. 5-6:30 p.m.
Rainbow Tuesday LGBT Clinic,
Alexandria Health Department, 4480
King St. 703-746-4986 or text 571-2149617. james.leslie@inova.org.

THE HIV WORKING GROUP of THE

DC CENTER hosts Packing Party,

where volunteers assemble safe-sex

kits of condoms and lube. 7 p.m.,
Green Lantern, 1335 Green Court NW.
thedccenter.org.

OVEREATERS ANONYMOUSLGBT
focused meeting every Tuesday, 7 p.m.
St. Georges Episcopal Church, 915

Oakland Ave., Arlington, just steps

from Virginia Square Metro. For
more info. call Dick, 703-521-1999.
Handicapped accessible. Newcomers
welcome. liveandletliveoa@gmail.com.

5:30-7 p.m. 1331 Rhode Island Ave.

NE. For more information, contact
June Pollydore, 202-483-7003.

SMYAL offers free HIV Testing, 3-5

p.m., by appointment and walk-in, for
youth 21 and younger. Youth Center,
410 7th St. SE. 202-567-3155, testing@smyal.org.

AD LIB, a group for freestyle conversation, meets about 6:30-6 p.m.,

Steam, 17th and R NW. All welcome.
For more information, call Fausto
Fernandez, 703-732-5174.

SUPPORT GROUP FOR LGBTQ

YOUTH ages 13-21 meets at SMYAL,

DC AQUATICS CLUB (DCAC) practice session at Hains Point, 927 Ohio

Dr. SW. 7-8:30 p.m. Visit swimdcac.org.

410 7th St. SE, 5-6:30 p.m. Cathy Chu,

202-567-3163, catherine.chu@smyal.org.

US HELPING US hosts a support

group for black gay men 40 and older.

7-9 p.m., 3636 Georgia Ave. NW. 202446-1100.
Whitman-Walker Healths GAY

MENS HEALTH AND WELLNESS/

STD CLINIC opens at 6 p.m., 1701

14th St. NW. Patients are seen on

walk-in basis. No-cost screening for
HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia. Hepatitis and herpes testing
available for fee. whitman-walker.org.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 21
BOOKMEN DC, an informal mens
gay-literature group, discusses selected essays from Love, Christopher
Street: Reflections of New York City,
edited by Thomas Keith. 7:30 p.m.
at the DC Center, 2000 14th St. NW,
Suite 105. All welcome. bookmendc.
blogspot.com
THE TOM DAVOREN SOCIAL
BRIDGE CLUB meets for Social

Bridge. 7:30 p.m. Dignity Center, 721

8th St. SE, across from the Marine
Barracks. No reservation and partner
needed. 301-345-1571 for more information.

WOMAN TO WOMAN: A SUPPORT

GROUP FOR HIV-POSITIVE
WOMEN WHO LOVE WOMEN,

meets on the third Wednesday

of each month at The Womens
Collective. Light refreshments served.

WEEKLY EVENTS

DC SCANDALS RUGBY holds

practice, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Garrison

Elementary, 1200 S St. NW. dcscandals.wordpress.com.

HISTORIC CHRIST CHURCH

offers Wednesday worship 7:15 a.m.

and 12:05 p.m. All welcome. 118 N.
Washington St., Alexandria. 703-5491450, historicchristchurch.org.

HIV TESTING at Whitman-Walker

Health. At the Elizabeth Taylor
Medical Center, 1701 14th St. NW,
9 a.m.-5 p.m. At the Max Robinson
Center, 2301 MLK Jr. Ave. SE, 9 a.m.4:30 p.m. For an appointment call 202745-7000. Visit whitman-walker.org.
IDENTITY offers free and confiden-

tial HIV testing in Gaithersburg, 414

East Diamond Ave. Walk-ins 2-7 p.m.
For appointments other hours, call
Gaithersburg at 301-300-9978.

JOB CLUB, a weekly support pro-

gram for job entrants and seekers,

meets at The DC Center. 2000 14th St.
NW, Suite 105. 6-7:30 p.m. For more
info, www.centercareers.org.

NOVASALUD offers free HIV testing.

11 a.m.-2 p.m. 2049 N. 15th St., Suite
200, Arlington. Appointments: 703789-4467.

PRIME TIMERS OF DC, social

club for mature gay men, hosts
weekly happy hour/dinner. 6:30 p.m.,
Windows Bar above Dupont Italian
Kitchen, 1637 17th St. NW. Carl,
703-573-8316. l

METROWEEKLY.COM

OCTOBER 15, 2015

17

18

OCTOBER 15, 2015

METROWEEKLY.COM

AVEMEN SCRATCHED THEIR HUNTS INTO

walls, Egyptians lined their tombs in hieroglyphs,
the Ancient Greeks commemorated important
figures in beautiful sculptures. Cataloguing our
existence for future generations is part of what defines our
humanity to inspire, to teach, to warn, to be remembered.
History matters.
Nowhere is that sentiment more important than in the LGBT
community. As we face ever more insidious challenges religious bigotry, veiled discrimination, the onslaught of extremism its important to reflect on those who helped transform
our lives from an intolerable past to a more palatable present.

Every Pride parade, every Scruff message, every time a person

is chastised for not addressing Caitlyn Jenner with the proper
pronoun all are advances brought by the trials and tribulations
of the heroes of our past.
Thats what LGBT History Month is for. Throughout October,
we celebrate those who worked so hard to ensure a gay child, a
transgender teen or a lesbian grandmother today can feel that
little bit more secure in themselves. Courtesy of Philadelphia
Gay News and LGBT publications from across the nation, we
present a series of articles acknowledging forgotten heroes,
incredible progress and inspiring leaders. Its our history, after
all. Its our duty to learn it.
METROWEEKLY.COM

OCTOBER 15, 2015

19

Dancing With History

By Jen Colletta

M STANDING ACROSS THE STREET FROM STONEwall in Sheridan Square. Here I was, an 18-year-old kid
living at the YMCA in six-dollar-a-night room with no
job, no prospects for the future, no real place to live and
no money in my pocket. Im thinking, What am I going to do?
And it came to me: This is exactly what I want to do. Im going
to be a gay activist.
More than 45 years after that fateful night outside the
Stonewall Inn, Mark Segal still considers himself, first and foremost, an activist.
Thats whats inside me and what always will be, he says.
Everything else is secondary.
Adding to his list of secondary titles is a new one: author.
Segal, the founder and publisher of Philadelphia Gay News, has
just released his memoirs, And Then I Danced.
The 320-page book takes readers from Segals meager beginnings in a Philadelphia housing project, to his pinnacle of dancing with his husband in the White House.
Its a journey that many have prompted him to write about
over the years. But, it wasnt until a 2007 reunion of Gay Youth
which he founded in New York City in 1969 that he started
to gain an appreciation for his own role in the LGBT communitys development.
We had the reunion in the New York Gay Community
Center and there were about 100 of us who created this big
circle, Segal says. Each of us talked and, as they went around,
people were saying that the organization saved their lives, that
they were going to commit suicide until they found Gay Youth or
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OCTOBER 15, 2015

METROWEEKLY.COM

that we saved them from bullying or harassment. It wasnt until I

was halfway home on the train that it all of a sudden hit me what
had just happened. Literally in the train car, I just started howling, just crying out loud. It really affected me.
A few years later, another incident again brought Segal full
circle: Comcast senior executive vice president and chief diversity officer David L. Cohen invited him to join the media conglomerates Joint Diversity Council.
I thought it was going to be just a rubber-stamp position
and I said I didnt have time for it, he recalls. And David said,
Mark, there are only 40 people nationwide being asked to join
this advisory board. Dont you understand your history? There
you were 40 years ago disrupting media, and now were asking
you to advise media.
Cohen was referring to Segals infamous zaps, in which he
targeted media personnel on air to raise awareness about LGBT
issues. That such encounters caught him by surprise are in part
attributable to his tendency to stay forward-focused.
I usually just go project to project to project and dont look
back, he says. So I really didnt look back at all the things I had
done or what the full impact of them was.
But, as the significance of his decades of activism began to
evince itself to him, Segal started seriously considering recounting that work in book form especially at the prompting of his
now-husband, Jason Villemez.
Jason would say to me every night, Do the book, do the
book. Sit at your computer and start writing, Segal says, noting that at the time he was wrapping up work on one of the

nations first LGBT-friendly affordable senior-living facilities,

and Villemez knew the memoir-writing would be a good way to
keep that momentum going. He was conscious that the minute
that ribbon was cut, Id go from being 2,000 feet into the air to
crashing to the ground if I didnt have a project to work on.
Hiring an agent and publisher was easy work, but deciding
what information to include and what to leave out was not.
Segal had been amassing vignettes of his recollections, which he
thought could serve as the memoirs foundation.
I thought I would just take what I had started writing and
put it into book form. It didnt quite happen like that. Once I
signed the contract, we basically threw out everything I had and
went back to scratch, he laughs.
He set to work creating an outline of his life, checking dates
and facts and researching his own storied history.
That history began in 1951. Segals hardworking yet povertystricken parents, Shirley and Martin, raised him and his brother
in a South Philadelphia housing project, after the city took over
Martins bodega by eminent domain. As a member of the only
Jewish family in the project, Segals feelings of being an outsider
germinated from a young age, compounded by his worn clothes
and lack of material possessions.
But what Segal didnt lack as a child was conviction: in elementary school, he refused to sing Onward, Christian Soldiers,
his first act of civil disobedience, which was supported by his
mother. His grandmother, Fannie Weinstein, also played a
pivotal role in his upbringing. She brought Segal, at age 13, to a
civil-rights demonstration at Philadelphia City Hall, his first (of
many) public demonstration.
Exploring the struggles of his childhood in that first chapter
was among the most challenging aspects of writing And Then
I Danced as the self-doubt Segal experienced in his youth
resurfaced.
The first chapter was extremely difficult to write because
there are a lot of things in there that people dont know about
me. I struggled to continue with it because I really didnt believe
in myself, he says. I had Jason read the first chapter and at the
end he was sitting on the sofa crying, and I said, Wow, you really
didnt like it that much? And he said, No, there were things here
even I didnt know. He really liked it and his support got me to
continue.
Working with editor Michael Dennehy, Segal crafted and
recrafted 15 chapters for a final product that takes readers
through the LGBT communitys evolution, seen alongside
Segals own development. From his burgeoning coming out
beginning with a childhood pull to the Sears Roebuck male models Segals story is as much a commentary on the times as it is
on his own experience. There was no name for it, at least none
that I knew, but somehow it seemed wrong that I was looking at
the men in the catalog, he writes.
Eventually, Segal learned the name for it and came out to
his family, who, despite the wholly unaccepting societal nature
of the time, embraced his identity. Segals own self-acceptance
was intrinsically tied to New York City. He realized at a young
age that the city was a haven for gay people, so he moved to the
Big Apple the moment he graduated high school.
He quickly became immersed in a growing and changing
LGBT scene. The premiere LGBT activist group, Mattachine
Society, was gradually becoming outdated, being brushed aside
by a new wave of social revolution.
And, a month after he moved to New York City, Segal found
himself at Stonewall Inn on June 28, 1969. And Then I Danced
recounts Segals first-hand experience of the seminal riot and

ensuing LGBT mobilization. From those four reactionary nights

came Gay Liberation Front, an organization that Segal believes
hasnt gotten the credit its due.
From the ashes of Stonewall came GLF, and GLF created
the foundation of everything that today is the gay community,
Segal says. We created the first trans organization in America in
1969. We created the first gay youth organization that dealt with
gay issues in 1969. We created the first medical alerts for the gay
community and the first gay community center. And at the end
of that first year, we created the first gay Pride march. And all of
it had to do with ending invisibility and creating community.
It was with those missions in mind that, upon his return to
Philadelphia in the 1970s, Segal undertook a campaign to target
television coverage of LGBT issues, an undertaking that secured
a wealth of television firsts and forged his unlikely friendship
with Walter Cronkite.
From the airwaves, Segal turned his attention to political
circles, using his burgeoning notoriety to stage uniquely crafted
demonstrations, such as chaining himself to a Christmas tree in
Philadelphia City Hall and throwing a faux reception in the office
of then-District Attorney Arlen Specter to thank him for his support for gay-rights legislation which he had not yet offered.
Segal said its those kinds of actions that are needed to enliven
the LGBT communitys modern political activism.
We need that spark of creativity and fun again. Gay liberation can be fun, Segal says. We have to get away from the
Internet and the online petitions and start doing things to get
peoples attention. Our leaders are stuck in this quagmire because
theyre used to being in suits and ties in offices in New York and
Washington, D.C., and not out among people. We need to think
outside the box. Be nonviolent, but think outside the box.
Creativity needs to be paired with tenacity, Segal noted
another message he hopes readers, especially of the younger
generation, take from his book.
I wanted to show young gay people how our community got
the rights that we have today. It wasnt writing letters or visiting
Congresspeople, he recalls. Many of us got arrested, received
death threats, were targets of physical violence. It was a rough
ride getting to where we are today. It wasnt, One, two three.
Were there. Any social-justice movement takes a lot of work
and a lot of time.
For Segal, much of that work in the past four decades was
focused on getting Philadelphia Gay News off the ground.
And Then I Danced traces the history of the publication,
which celebrates its 40th anniversary next year, from its meager beginnings in a building with no plumbing and a leaky roof,
where staffers would use quarters from the newspaper boxes
for lunches, to a 2014 awards dinner where it received a national
award for its investigative series on the murder of a local transgender woman.
Exploring such transitions through the writing process, Segal
said, was eye-opening.
I encourage anybody, whether you publish it or not, to write
your own memoir. You learn so much about yourself, he says.
It sounds strange, but I dont think I had an appreciation for
what Ive accomplished until I read the finished book. This made
me look back. I didnt realize all the issues I was involved in, and
how much change they had made over the years. Im just beginning to get in touch with my own history. And Im finding out
Im a different person than I thought I was.
Jen Colletta is the editor of the Philadelphia Gay News. She can be
reached at jen@epgn.com. l
METROWEEKLY.COM

OCTOBER 15, 2015

21

Tragedy and Triumph

By Ray Simon

HEN JOSEPH ISRAEL LOBDELL PASSED

away in 1912 at the Binghamton State
Hospital, his death went largely unnoticed.
Joe, as he was known, was 82 and had been
confined to mental institutions since 1880.
In his lifetime, Joe was a crack shot and a wonderful fiddle
player. He opened a singing school and, for a while at least,
found modest success with that business. There was adventure
in his life, too. Joe traveled west to Minnesota, where he guarded land on the frontier.
Within the context of 19th-century American social history,
experiences like these were not uncommon, but one aspect of
Joes life is extraordinary: He was born in 1829 as a woman,
Lucy Ann Lobdell.
Although Joe Lobdell died in obscurity, hes recently
started to attract attention. In 2011, for example, Dr. Bambi
Lobdell, a distant cousin, published A Strange Sort of Being: The
Transgender Life of Lucy Ann/Joseph Israel Lobdell, 1829-1912.
And earlier this year, journalist William Klaber released a novel
about Joe, The Rebellion of Miss Lucy Ann Lobdell.
It seems as if Joes time has come.
Dr. Lobdell, who teaches gender studies and literature at
SUNY Oneonta, certainly feels that way. Her book includes both
an analysis of Joes life informed by queer theory and transgender studies, as well as primary documents about him.
She regards Joe as a gender outlaw and argues that he is best
understood as a transgender man. It was a term unknown to Joe,
but Dr. Lobdell believes that it most closely approximates his
understanding of himself and restores a modicum of dignity
to him.
I use the word transgender, in its widest application, to
mean not cisgender and not gender-conforming, she says.
For Dr. Lobdell, this isnt simply an academic exercise. She contends that many of the issues confronting Joe, including societal
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OCTOBER 15, 2015

METROWEEKLY.COM

expectations and gender roles, are still relevant to LGBT people.

Joes history is important, Dr. Lobdell explains, because it
tells a story of how his otherness was framed as deviance and
signaled by his gender presentation, his refusal to conform.
So he crossed the boundaries of gender roles and gender
presentation and sexuality, though the people back then didnt
realize that, she adds, because most people, including women
in the 19th century, thought that women didnt have any sexual
desire.
Fortunately for scholars, there are contemporary, written
accounts of Joes life. Chief among them is a book Lobdell published in 1855: Narrative of Lucy Ann Lobdell, the Female Hunter
of Delaware and Sullivan Counties, N.Y. In a 2012 podcast with
Susan Rich, Dr. Lobdell described it as part-melodrama, partfeminist manifesto.
One immediate result of the books publication was a measure of notoriety for its author. The Female Hunter became
fodder for journalists. For the remainder of his life, whenever
Joe ran into trouble, periodicals like The Stamford Mirror and
The Jeffersonian mentioned the Female Hunter.
Copies of the narrative are rare. Fortunately, Dr. Lobdell
includes it in its entirety in A Strange Sort of Being. Thats
partly because she conceived of her work as an academic textbook, one that could be adopted for college classes in gender
studies and sexuality. I just packed it full of all sorts of gender
theory and gender analysis and queer theory, she said when
asked to sketch its contents.
Within Lucys narrative, there are a few confirmed facts
worth noting. To begin, Lucy Ann Lobdell was born Dec. 2,
1829 just outside of Albany, N.Y. The family was poor, but Lucy
wanted an education. To pay for schooling, she was given chores.
That was how she learned to shoot, a skill she put to use at various times later in life.
Around 1852, the Lobdell family moved to Long Eddy,

N.Y. Roughly a year later, Lucy married a man named George

Washington Slater and gave birth to a daughter her account
depicts an unhappy marriage. When Slater abandoned them,
Lucy returned to her family, left her daughter with them and
slipped away one evening in 1854.
Shortly afterwards, Joseph Israel Lobdell appeared in
Bethany, Pa., where he opened a singing school. From this point
forward, details of Joes life can be pieced together if sketchily from occasional newspaper accounts or court documents
about him.
In retrospect, it appears that the writing and publication
of Lobdells narrative marks a significant transition. For the
remainder of his life, more than five decades, he uses the name
hes chosen for himself and dresses as a man except on those
occasions when a sheriff or deputy tried forcing him to wear
womens clothes.
The singing school attracted students, most of them the
daughters of well-to-do farmers and businessmen from the provincial town. There is some evidence that Joe was well-liked by
his pupils. According to Dr. Lobdell, someone once interviewed
the descendant of a woman who had attended the school.
Apparently, a lot of women danced with Joe when he was a
singing teacher, Dr. Lobdell said. And this one woman remembered her grandmother saying, I cant believe thats really a
woman. He was the nicest boy I ever dated.
Problems arose, however, when Joes identity was revealed.
He was chased out of Bethany by a mob threatening to tar and
feather him.
Undaunted, Joe headed west, arriving in Minnesota, where
he sometimes went by the name La-Roi. In Minnesota, Joe
worked odd jobs and even guarded land for its owners. His
physical courage should be noted: Minnesotas winters were
harsh, he was living on the edge of the wilderness with only his
rifle to protect him, and clashes with Native Americans were
always a distinct possibility.

Once again, however, Joes identity was revealed. After a

trial, he was sent back east to his parents home. Depressed and
unable to find work, he entered the County Poor House in Delhi,
N.Y., in 1860.
Its there, roughly a year later, that Joe met Marie Louise
Perry. Marie, who had been abandoned by her husband, arrived
physically weakened and emotionally upset. Joe helped nurse
Marie back to health, which restored his spirits, too. One night,
the two escaped from the Poor House and were married by a
Justice of the Peace. Joe now had a bride, a woman about a
decade younger than him.
Joe and Marie were together for almost 20 years, but their
life was not easy. They eked out a living doing odd jobs or
survived on whatever food Joes hunting provides. Often, they
lived outdoors in the thick woods of upstate Pennsylvania and
New York. The couple was desperately poor and, consequently,
always in imminent danger of being arrested for vagrancy.
Joes life took a turn for the worse around 1878. Shortly after
receiving a Civil War pension (Slater was killed in the war), his
brother has him declared insane. In 1879, he was taken away to
the Willard Insane Asylum in Ovid, N.Y.
While locked up, Joe became a patient of Dr. P.M. Wise,
who published a brief article about Joe in 1883. In that account,
entitled A Case of Sexual Perversion, Dr. Wise related a telling
statement from Joe. The patient, whom he insisted on viewing
as a woman, told him that she considered herself a man in all
that the name implies.
Dr. Lobdell thinks we should take Joe at his word, something
she views as paramount.
What Im trying to do is give Joe back his voice, because and
this is another way it should resonate with people today transgender people oftentimes are not allowed to tell their own story.
Ray Simon is an editor and writer based in Philadelphia. To learn
more about Joe Lobdell, visit lucyjoe.com. l

Vigil-ization
By Matthew S. Bajko

HIRTY YEARS AGO THIS MONTH, TWO SAN

Francisco men, fed up with government inaction
as AIDS decimated the gay community, chained
themselves to a federal building within sight of City
Hall. Their act of civil disobedience would inspire countless
other activists to join them, and, later, local political leaders. The
demonstration, which became known as the ARC/AIDS Vigil
(ARC standing for AIDS Related Complex), lasted a decade and
was the citys longest-running protest.
It started on Oct. 27, 1985 when Steve Russell and Frank Bert,
who were both HIV-positive, handcuffed themselves to the
doors of 50 United Nations Plaza, a federal building in the citys

Civic Center district. Soon, a core group of volunteers joined

them to keep vigil 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
A tent kitchen was set up, staffed by volunteers, to feed the
protesters, who took turns sleeping on mattresses and tents in
front of the building. Over time, the vigil turned into a place
where people, whether living with AIDS themselves or struggling to care for or grieve for a loved one, could find camaraderie
and comfort.
When I am out here talking to people about my condition,
about my health, it helps me. It helps me to talk to them because
I was there. My family disowned me since I came down with
AIDS, Wes North, who married Bucky Stewart at the vigil in
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OCTOBER 15, 2015

23

December 1985, told a television news reporter at the time. My

family has not wanted to have anything to do with me since I
came down with AIDS.
According to archival materials about the vigil, the demonstrators listed six demands they wanted to see federal officials
act on, including publicly recognizing AIDS and condemning AIDS-related discrimination. They also were calling for a
Manhattan Project-type effort to find an AIDS cure.
We need $500 million in federal money for research to
find a cure for ARC/AIDS Related Complex, read one flier
handed out by vigil organizers. We make a moral appeal to the
American government to condemn AIDS hysteria and bigotry
through education.
Numerous politicians joined the vigil and were arrested,
helping to revive the medias waning interest in the demonstration. According to old news clippings, gay former San
Francisco Supervisor Harry Britt and former Berkeley Mayor
Loni Hancock, now a state senator, both were arrested after
chaining themselves to the building.
One flier advertised a Breakfast with Nancy at the vigil one
February, referring to Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-San
Francisco), now the House minority leader. In the summer of
1987, two years into the vigil, Pelosi entered Congress and her
main objective at the time was to demand action on AIDS.
It was also a site to collect the names of those lost to AIDS,
several of whom died while taking part in the vigil. Both Russell
and Bert died prior to the vigils end, said several participants.
In November 1985, the annual candlelight march honoring
former Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first gay person to win elective office in San Francisco, and former Mayor George Moscone
both of whom were assassinated in City Hall in 1978 ended
at the federal building, where marchers attached placards bearing the names of those lost to AIDS on the facade.
Longtime gay-rights activist Cleve Jones, who helped organize the march, conceived of the AIDS quilt that night, according to a history of the national HIV memorial, as the wall of
names looked like a patchwork quilt.
More than just an encampment for demonstrators, the vigil
served as a clearinghouse for people to learn the latest news
about AIDS. The volunteers also used bleach to clean injection
drug users needles and passed out condoms.
It was an educational experience for me, from the outof-towners and those from other countries stopping by and
thanking us for what we were doing, saying they were not even
mentioning AIDS in their state/country, to the times I had to

console someone whose partner was suffering from dementia,

said Terrie Frye.
Starting in 1987, Frye spent three years working as an AIDS
Vigil volunteer, after she happened to ride her bicycle through
U.N. Plaza and noticed the mess tent.
I was not HIV-positive, and only HIV-positive folks could be
members of the vigil, but I wanted to cook for them, and they had
a rule that only members were allowed in the mess tent, so they
made me an honorary member, she recalls.
The outdoor protest came to an end 10 years after it started,
when a severe rainstorm blew away the tent encampment. Just
three demonstrators remained at that point, according to media
accounts in December 1995.
Since then, the AIDS Vigil has been mostly forgotten to the
history books and the fading recollections of participants. During
the 25th anniversary of the protest, Frye created an exhibit about
it that she displayed during the citys 2010 Pride festival.
Four years ago, an effort was launched to erect a plaque or
monument at the location in order to commemorate the protest
and its participants, but nothing has come of it.
And a local filmmaker who, as a graduate student in San
Francisco State Universitys broadcasting program in the mid1980s, was part of a small crew who interviewed several vigil
participants had tried to pull together a documentary in time
to screen on Oct. 27, 2015 to mark the 30th anniversary of the
start of the vigil. But he has struggled to line up financing to
make the film, titled Not With Standing, and is unsure if it will
ever get made.
The reaction is always, There is no AIDS crisis anymore.
Nobody cares about AIDS, said Nick Aquilino, 61, who is gay
and HIV-positive and now lives in Sausalito.
With another film about the 1969 Stonewall protests released
this fall, Aquilino remains dumbfounded as to why the years-long
demonstration in San Francisco fails to spark similar interest.
The thing that sticks out for me is these guys were so
determined to gain some kind of acceptance for a disease they
didnt cause, says Aquilino. Thirty years ago, this kind of thing
wasnt very common. They werent on the street for weeks, they
werent like the Occupy people and done with their protest and
said, Lets go back to our normal lives. These guys who were
living there, they were there for 10 years.
Matthew S. Bajko is an assistant editor at the Bay Area Reporter.
To see archival footage about the AIDS Vigil and interviews with
several participants, visit notwithstandingfilm.com. l

P.L. Travers: A spoonful

of speculation
By Gary M. Kramer

.L. TRAVERS, AUTHOR OF MARY POPPINS,

was born Helen Lyndon Goff on Aug. 9, 1899 in
Queensland, Australia. She moved to England in
1924, and used the name P.L. Travers an abbreviation of her pseudonym Pamela Lyndon Travers, which she
used in her days as a dancer and Shakespearean actor on the
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OCTOBER 15, 2015

METROWEEKLY.COM

Australian stage. Reportedly, her wealthy relatives did not

approve of Travers performing, so, being independent-minded,
she moved to England where she forged a career as a writer.
The name P.L. Travers appealed to Goff because it sounded
more masculine or at least, gender-nonspecific. Travers
was the name of her father, an alcoholic banker whose career

Travers (right) with Julie Andrews and Walt Disney

declined almost as quickly as he did (he died of tuberculosis at

43). His daughter was 7 years old when he passed.
The author, who first published poems as a teen in Australia,
was fond of myths and fantasies. TShe constructed her own
rather mysterious persona so that no one could really know her
truth. Her famous literary heroine, based on an aunt of Travers,
was a magical nanny who helped her charges through difficult
situations with sensible, even tough advice. Travers, who was
very no-nonsense herself, was also fascinated with eastern philosophy and theosophy, Sufism and Hinduism.
In England, Travers lived with Madge Burnand, the daughter
of the editor of Punch. The women shared a flat in London, and
later rented a cottage together in Sussex. Much speculation has
been made about whether they were lovers.
Actor Emma Thompson played Travers in the 2013 film
Saving Mr. Banks, which depicted Travers battle with Walt
Disney to make Mary Poppins. The actress spoke with The
Advocate about Travers relationship with Burnand.
I dont know whether they were lovers or not, she stated,
but she did live with Madge for a long, long time, and she
certainly had very complex, passionate relationships with both
women and men. She was an explorer of her own condition, and
very possibly her own sexuality.
It was while living with Burnand that Travers published
Mary Poppins, the work that would give the author her greatest fame. Travers wrote five sequels and, as Saving Mr. Banks
depicted, she reluctantly sold the rights to Disney. Travers,
apparently, was not fond of the Julie Andrews/Dick Van Dyke
musical and particularly hated the animated dancing penguins.
Few specifics about Travers sexual relationships have ever
been detailed. Her diary recounted her friendship (and possibly a relationship) with Jessie Orage, whose husband, Alfred
Richard Orage, was a pupil of the spiritual teacher G.I. Gurdjieff.
Travers became a follower of Gurdjieff, and through him
became an occasional member of The Rope a group that consisted mostly of lesbian writers, including Jane Heap, founding editor
of Little Review, and Kathryn Hulme, author of The Nuns Story.
Valerie Lawson, author of Mary Poppins, She Wrote, a biography of Travers, indicated that both Travers and Orage loved
men. Their close friendship, Lawson indicates, was formed
over the loss of Orages husband, and Travers editor, George
William Russell.
Whether their friendship crossed over into a sexual relationship is not known. But Jim Korkis, a Disney historian, was
quoted in the Orlando Weekly (around the time of Saving Mr.
Banks) saying that, It has been assumed that Travers was
bisexual, although no one really knows for sure. She was known
to be extremely flirtatious around younger men. At one point,

she told an acquaintance that she thought that Walt [Disney] had
eyes for her.
Travers certainly was secretive and private. It was perhaps a
source of pride for her. New Statesman quotes her as saying, Im
a private sort of person, as anonymous as possible and thats
not humility.
Other articles about the author that surfaced around the time
Saving Mr. Banks was released have been even more candid.
According to the Daily Mail, Travers was said to be neither
warm nor kindly. She was an intellectual snob who wrote erotic
prose, was a one-time fascist sympathizer, occasional lesbian and
appalling mother.
Unpacking that quote, Travers is known to have written
poetry for the erotic publication The Triad, and she wrote book
reviews for New Pioneer, an anti-Semitic British magazine of
the far right in the 1930. The articles last point likely refers to
the fact that, at age 40, Travers adopted a son, Camillus, who
discovered he was a twin at age 17. Upon learning this and that
his twin grew up poor in Ireland his relationship with Travers
became strained.
It is entirely possible that Travers adopted Camillus so she
would have someone to love. While she lived with Burnand,
and was close to Orage, her rumored same-sex encounters may
have happened without being disclosed. This is likely because
Travers was alive (and prominent) during the era when women
did not discuss relationships outside of marriage. Females in
those days were expected to marry if they lived together, there
was always speculation about them being lovers. Moreover, if a
woman lived alone, it was presumed she was likely promiscuous.
Travers was certainly sharp enough and discrete enough not
to let anyone know her true nature. For all anyone knows, she
could have been asexual, given how little evidence there is of
any lover(s).
But whether Travers was asexual, bisexual or something else
entirely, it was certainly a taboo at the time for a woman to be
intimately involved with other women. As Travers was gaining
fame as a childrens author, the exposure of a same-sex relationship could have been especially harmful to her career. (Travers
was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1977).
This may account for why she felt she needed to maintain privacy.
Travers never published an autobiography. And while the
news articles and biographies hint at what might have been, all
anyone can really do is speculate.
Gary M. Kramer is an award-winning, Philadelphia-based
film critic, author of Independent Queer Cinema: Reviews
and Interviews and co-editor of Directory of World Cinema:
Argentina. l
METROWEEKLY.COM

OCTOBER 15, 2015

25

Transgender
Forward

Compiled by the Staff of the San Diego LGBT Weekly

S GAYS AND LESBIANS CELEBRATE MARRIAGE EQUALITY

across the United States, the transgender members of the
LGBT community continue to work diligently to place their civil
rights front and center, as we move into the next chapter of
LGBT equality.
To many, it seems as if the transgender movement has come from
nowhere in the last decade, but the reality is that transgender Americans
have been fighting for civil rights along with the lesbian, gay and bisexual
members of our community for decades. Here are a few key highlights of
transgender people within the tableau of American LGBT civil-rights history:
c. 1800: Woman Chief
Barcheeampe
A leader of the Crow nation, the
woman chief was known for her war
exploits and had several wives.
1871: WeWha
Two-spirit Zuni Native American who
was born male but lived as a woman.
An accomplished weaver and potter,
in 1886 the 6-foot Zuni maiden met
President Cleveland, who was unaware
that she was two-spirit.
1952: Christine Jorgensen
A trailblazer who was the first person in
America to receive sexual-reassignment
surgery. Jorgensen, a former GI,
became a household name and put the
issue of gender identity in the
American conscience.
1957: Billy Tipton jazz album released
Renowned jazz musician lived his life as
a man and married several women.
He was discovered to be biologically
female upon his death.
1965: Deweys Coffee Shop Protest
One hundred and fifty nonconforming
people protested Deweys Coffee Shop
in Philadelphia because it refused service to young people who were dressing in clothing that did not conform to
their gender. The protest led to an end
of the discriminatory policy.
1966: Transsexual Phenomenon
published
Dr. Harry Benjamin published a seminal
work that described the medical transition for transgender people. Benjamin
helped Jorgensen in her transition and
acknowledged her in the preface of the
book: Without Christine Jorgensen and
the unsought publicity of her
conversion, this book could hardly
have been conceived.
1969: Stonewall Riots
The legendary seminal event of the
LGBT civil-rights movement included
members of the transgender community. The LGBT community resisted
police abuse on the night after Judy
Garlands funeral, which many cite for
the frayed nerves.
1970: Street Transvestite Action
Revolutionaries (STAR)
Started by transgender legends Sylvia
Rivera and Marsha Johnson, STAR was
an advocacy group for transgender
people. Both Rivera and Johnson were
rioters at the Stonewall Inn and helped
usher in the tepid acknowledgment of

26

OCTOBER 15, 2015

transgender Americans as part of the

gay civil-rights movement.
1975: Minneapolis passes
transgender legislation
Minneapolis becomes the first city to
pass an antidiscrimination law protecting transgender people. Thats right,
Minneapolis, in 1975.
1977: Rene Richards
The next transgender icon who pierced
the American consciousness. Richards
was an eye doctor who became a professional tennis player and challenged a
ban that prevented her from playing in
the U.S. Open as a woman. The New
York Supreme Court overruled the ban,
making Richards the catalyst for a landmark decision concerning
transgender rights.
1986: FTM newsletter
Lou Sullivan published the FTM newsletter, which was later transformed by
Jamison Green into FTM International,
the worlds largest information and
networking group for female-to-male
transgender people and transsexual
men. Sullivan is credited with bringing
female-to-male transgenderism
to the forefront.
1991: Rift with Michigan Womyns
Music Festival
Nancy Burkholder was removed from
the Michigan Womyns Music Festival
when she was discovered to be transgender. The removal led to an annual
protest by the transgender community,
which continued through this year,
when the festival ceased.
1993: Brandon Teena
Teena, a transgender man, was murdered in Nebraska. The story of his journey and death was later chronicled in
the Oscar-winning film Boys Dont Cry.
1995: GenderPac formed
Transgender activist RiKi Wilchins
formed the first advocacy group dedicated to gender identity and expression.
The organization ushered in the period
in which the national transgender movement took hold.
1999: First Transgender Day of
Remembrance
The first Transgender Day of
Remembrance honored those who have
died due to anti-transgender violence.
The commemoration was a direct
result of the murder of Rita Hester in
Massachusetts.

METROWEEKLY.COM

Transgender Pride flag created

Monica Helms created the transgender
flag, saying, The stripes at the top and
bottom are light blue, the traditional
color for baby boys. The stripes next to
them are pink, the traditional color for
baby girls. The stripe in the middle is
white, for those who are intersex, transitioning or consider themselves having
a neutral or undefined gender. The pattern is such that no matter which way
you fly it, it is always correct, signifying
us finding correctness in our lives.
2002: Transgender legal-aid
organizations established
The Sylvia Rivera Law Project in New
York and the Transgender Law Center
in San Francisco were created to
advance transgender civil rights using
the legal system.
2003: National Center for
Transgender Equality established
Activist Mara Keisling, with the support
of other transgender activists, founded
the organization dedicated to advancing
the civil rights of transgender people.
Expansion of San Diego anti-bias law
The San Diego City Council added
gender identity to the citys anti-discrimination ordinance, the Human Dignity
Ordinance, with a unanimous 7-0 vote.
2006: Californias Gwen Araujo
Justice for Victims Act
AB 1160 passed into law to prohibit the
use of so-called panic strategies in
criminal defenses. The legislation was
named in the memory of a transgender
teenager from Newark, Calif., who was
attacked and killed in 2002. The law
proved ineffective when tested during
the murder trial for Larry Kings killer.
First transgender person elected to
statewide office
Kim Coco Iwamoto was elected to
statewide office in Hawaii as a member
of the Board of Education.
2008: First transgender mayor
in America
Stu Rasmussen became the first
openly transgender mayor in America
in Silverton, Or. Rasmussen previously
had served as the mayor prior to coming out as transgender. He prefers male
pronouns but dresses as a woman.
2009: Chaz Bono transition
Child of Sonny and Cher, Chastity
Bono transitioned to become a man.
He chronicled his transition in a documentary, then went on to become a
contestant on Dancing with the Stars,
as well as a transgender activist and
spokesperson.
2010: First transgender presidential
appointees
President Obama appointed the
first two transgender people in history. Amanda Simpson was appointed
as senior technical adviser in the
Commerce Departments Bureau of
Industry and Security, and Dylan Orr
was appointed as special assistant to
the Department of Labor
Assistant Secretary.
First transgender judge in America
Victoria Kolakowski became the first
openly transgender judge in America,
elected by the voters of Alameda
County, Calif., in the Bay Area.

New passport policy

The U.S. State Department announced
a new policy eliminating the requirement for surgery to update gender
markers on passports.
2011: First NCAA trans athlete
Kye Allums became the first openly
transgender athlete to play in the
National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Californias Gender
Nondiscrimination Act
AB 887 passed into law, expanding
the states nondiscrimination laws to
protect transgender people by including discrimination based on gender
identity and expression as a type of
gender discrimination.
New veterans policy
Veterans Health Administration (VHA)
established a policy of respectful delivery of healthcare to transgender and
intersex veterans.
2012: Matrix director transitions
Lana Wachowski came out as transgender while promoting her movie Cloud
Atlas. She is most noted for the Matrix
Trilogy, created with her brother.
2013: Official debut of
gender dysphoria
The American Psychiatric Association
debuted the term to describe those
who deem themselves transgender.
2014: Laverne Cox covers Time
The Orange is the New Black star made
headlines as the first transgender person to be featured on the cover
of Time magazine.
Womens colleges open doors
Mills College and Mount Holyoke
allowed transgender women to enroll at
their female-only institutions.
Gender identity protected in
federal employment
The Department of Labor issued a rule
banning discrimination based on gender
identity in federal employment.
Surgery covered by Medicare
The Obama administration lifted a
decades-old ban on using Medicare coverage for gender-reassignment surgery.
2015: Caitlyn Jenner debuts
The former Olympic athlete and reality
star came out as transgender, going on
to be featured on the cover
of Vanity Fair.
First trans national anthem singer
Breanna Sinclair became the first
transgender person to sing the national
anthem at a professional sporting event
at the Oakland Coliseum before the
Oakland As game with the
San Diego Padres.
Pennsylvania gets transgender
physician general
Pennsylvania made U.S. history with
the appointment and confirmation of Dr.
Rachel Levine as the nations first openly transgender state physician general.
White House appointment
President Barack Obama appointed
transgender attorney Shannon Price
Minter to the Presidents Commission
on White House Fellowships. Minter
was the lead attorney arguing before
the California Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 8. l

METROWEEKLY.COM

OCTOBER 15, 2015

27

Classic Carroll

PHOTO COURTESY OF BILLY CARROLL

This Saturday, Billy Carroll steps out of

retirement to relive Velvet Nation Classics at
Town Danceboutique
By Doug Rule

Metro Weeklys Velvet Nation archive photos by Henry Linser and Michael Wichita

ILLY WAS ONE OF THE PEOPLE WHO REALLY

HELPED create the identity of Nation in its musical presentation, says Ed Bailey, who organized the weekly gay
party Velvet from 1999 to 2006 at the now closed Nation
nightclub. His unique style was well-accepted by a large
group of people, including two main types of Velvet regulars those
who preferred his more edgy, urban house sound, and devotees of the
diva-driven, tribal circuit sound.
So when Carroll, who retired as a club DJ four years ago after a 35-year
career, proposed stepping out of retirement to play a Velvet Nation
Classics party at Town, Bailey didnt hesitate for a second. I wanted to
give Billy the opportunity to come back and play again, he says.
Calling Carroll a sweetheart and one of my favorite people in general, Bailey adds, This just kind of made sense. It just feels right.
METRO WEEKLY: What was it about Velvet Nation that inspired you to come
out of retirement?
BILLY CARROLL: Nation was such a monumental club, at such a monumental
time for clubs. I played there so many times, and the parties were just so
epic back then. It was such a magical time not uncommon to have 3,000
people there. And that room. They dont make them like that anymore.
I just want to celebrate Nation, playing all the big anthems and some of
the songs that were very popular there that might not have been popular
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OCTOBER 15, 2015

METROWEEKLY.COM

elsewhere. Nation was very different, it was a

very musically intellectual crowd. They were
people that would travel for DJs. They knew
all the mixes of obscure house tracks and stuff.
And thats what made it so fun to play.
MW: What triggered you to retire in the first
place?
CARROLL: I had a really, really great 35-year
career. And I wanted it to end on my terms.
Because just being a DJ doesnt seem to be
enough anymore you need to be a producer,
you need to be some sort of a musical artist.
And my thing was always taking a little bit
from every producer and weaving it together
and making a night out of it. Thats what I
enjoy doing. I didnt have a desire to sit in the
studio and create stuff.
MW: Your big breakthrough came with gigs at
New Yorks legendary Studio 54.
CARROLL: I played at Studio 54 a few times, as

NATION WAS VERY DIFFERENT,

IT WAS A VERY MUSICALLY
INTELLECTUAL CROWD.
And thats what made it so fun to play.
one-offs. I filled in for somebody, or played a party with another
DJ, or it was a special party and somebody brought me in on
it there were a few of those different sorts of situations. But
I started with a regular gig in New York, and it was not playing
for gay people, which didnt happen until 1990. Back in the 70s
and 80s, I played more of an urban program for a more urban
setting. It was a very unique situation theres this white gay DJ
playing in black straight clubs. It was definitely a novelty.
MW: Did you grew up in New York?
CARROLL: I grew up in Connecticut, but I would go out dancing in
New York City when I was 16, and my father knew I was doing
it. I got caught coming home in the morning a couple of times,
and my father finally just put his foot down: You aint going
anywhere. So I just made plans to move there. I worked at Lord
& Taylor selling shoes during the day and finished high school at
night. And went out pretty much every night after that.
MW: Did you start DJing then?
CARROLL: No, I started DJing when I was 19. The turning point
METROWEEKLY.COM

OCTOBER 15, 2015

29

was going to the club Gallery with DJ Nicky Siano. It was just
amazing to me. And the people I used to dance with at the club,
who were also in high school Frankie Knuckles and Larry
Levan. We were all in that room. Obviously they went on to be
very famous DJs. But I had a very long, steady career. Never
really famous, but just a long, healthy career. And I always was
employed. It was enough for me.
MW: Did you start your company Billy Carroll Events after you
retired?
CARROLL: I started a small catering company in 1987, and now
were a full event-planning service from catering to the decor.
Especially with gay marriage now being legal everywhere,
theres been a huge uptick in business the last couple of years.
MW: Have you become a wedding DJ? Is that a service you offer?
CARROLL: No, I never do my own events. Never. I definitely keep
the two separate. When youre planning someones wedding,
you have to wear so many hats that day, I certainly cant be in the
DJ booth focusing on music.
MW: Are you married yourself?
CARROLL: I am. On October 30th Ill be married a year to my
husband of 35 years. We got married last year on our 34th anniversary. Even after 34 years, its different. Its always been good,
but its been amazing, being married. I just love saying the word
husband. I love it. And I lucked out, I got a great partner in
my life. It just feels really good to be married legally so. I just
never thought Id see that.
MW: I understand youre turning 60 next year. Any plans for a big
party?
CARROLL: No, its just a number. I certainly dont feel 60, and I
definitely dont act 60. I am still waiting to grow up. [Laughs.]
MW: Do you plan to take more gigs as a club DJ again or will you

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OCTOBER 15, 2015

METROWEEKLY.COM

go back into retirement?

CARROLL: Do I want to go back on the road every week? No. But

when I get a time or an occasion like this to play music that

I love, and I know other people reminisce about and love, at a
time that we all loved I jump at the opportunity. I have been
contacted by other clubs, and they also want to relive the glory
days for one night.
MW: So you dont expect to DJ events featuring contemporary
dance music then?
CARROLL: Well, no pre-recorded sets, no EDM I dont relate
to EDM at all. It doesnt speak to me. But also right now, oldfashioned house production is coming back into vogue. And
Im really excited about that. Some of the older producers are
making records again, and theyre going up the charts David
Morales, Tedd Patterson. Danny Tenaglia is a perfect example
hes never gone out of vogue. People dance to Danny, they dance
to Dave. They dont face the DJ and just fistpump. They interact,
they participate. I dont want people to look at me. I want people
to dance to me. [Laughs.]
I still want to play by the seat of my pants. Sometimes I get
a spontaneous, oh this sample would sound great. Ive got to
find that CD, get it in the machine, sample it. I do it live. Its not
always 100-percent perfect, but its real, a real raw energy.
MW: So we should expect some on-the-fly mixing and selecting on
Saturday?
CARROLL: Oh, most definitely! It will be an incredibly playful evening. You can put that in quotes playful.
Billy Carroll spins the Velvet Nation Classics party this Saturday,
Oct. 17, at 10 p.m., upstairs at Town Danceboutique, 2009 8th St.
NW. Tickets are $12. Call 202-234-TOWN or visit towndc.com. l

METROWEEKLY.COM

OCTOBER 15, 2015

31

OCTOBER 15 - 22, 2015

CHRISTOPHER CUNETTO

Compiled by Doug Rule

Gothic Creep
Guillermo del Toros visually ravishing Crimson Peak terrifies you
in ways you least expect

RIMSON PEAK IS NOT THE HORROR FILM YOURE EXPECTING AT LEAST IF

you go by the marketing for Guillermo del Toros creepy callback to the horror genre of
yesteryear. The previews build expectations that will almost certainly let down those
expecting a film pivoting around a supernatural showdown. Written by del Toro and
veteran Matthew Robbins (Sugarland Express, Mimic), Crimson Peak (HHHHH) uses misdirection
to its advantage, as del Toro edges toward expectations, and then delivers something else entirely.
Ghosts are real, says Edith Cushing (a porcelain, luminous Mia Wasikowska) at the start of a
journey that will forever change her life. And while ghostly apparitions, both blood red and deep
black, are indeed crucial to the narrative, its brother and sister Thomas and Lucille Sharp (Tom
Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain) who generate the real ambiguity, dread and fear. Forcing themselves on the naive, impressionable Edith, they are sinister siblings whose slow, insidious burn
inevitably reaches a terrifying, truly disturbing boiling-over point.
Lustrously photographed, and lavishly art directed with attention to ubiquitous metaphor
(bright red clay oozes from crumbling floorboards like blood seeping through rotting flesh),

Crimson Peak harkens to the

movies of the 40s. The dialogue is heavily starched and
delivered with meticulous
precision it feels out of
time and unnatural, and yet
its absolutely perfect, evoking nostalgia for a time when
movies wore their artifice
with pride.
If Crimson Peak has
a patron saint, its Alfred
Hitchcock, with Rebecca,
Notorious and Suspicion supplying the oxygen from which
the story draws life. (The film
has a bit of Robert Wise and
Roman Polanski tossed in for
good measure.) Its a potent,
old-school experience, with
perpetual dread giving way to
isolated, shocking moments
of brutality that produce full
throttle screams. In these days
of movie action unfolding at
a hyper-rapid clip, its nice to
encounter a film that takes its
time to get to its climax.
Chastain gives a delectable, malice-filled performance as Lucille, one both
subtle and overt. Hiddlestons
feral romantic sear, tinged
with mournful regret, helps to
explain why Edith, an aspiring
novelist who eschews the idea
of romance, chooses his Tom
over Charlie Hunnams overly
polite, gorgeous young doctor.
As Ediths authoritative yet
loving father, Jim Beaver steals
every moment hes on screen.
Gothic horror of the purest
kind, Crimson Peak gets under
your skin and crawls away
with abandon. It leaves you
alarmed, unsettled and, most
importantly, in a giddy state
of cringe-in-your-seat squirm.
Randy Shulman

Crimson Peak is Rated R for violence and runs 119 minutes. Opens at area theaters on Friday, Oct. 16.
32

OCTOBER 15, 2015

METROWEEKLY.COM

SPOTLIGHT
7TH ANNUAL VELOCITYDC
DANCE FESTIVAL

A special partnership with several

local dance organizations and presenters, this festival showcases worldclass dance of various styles all
of it D.C.-based. D.C. is not often
seen as a major dance hub nationally,
but it should be, Samantha Pollack
of Washington Performing Arts told
Metro Weekly last year. We really
have some incredible companies
that perform in everything from tap
to flamenco to modern ballet to Sri
Lankan. More than 20 area ensembles are set to take part this year,
including the Washington Ballets
Studio Company, Christopher K.
Morgan & Artists, the Suzanne Farrell
Ballet, RebollarDance and Step Afrika!
Theres also pre-show RAMP! performances featuring some of D.C.s
up-and-coming dancers as well as
site-specific works. Thursday, Oct. 15,
through Saturday, Oct. 17, starting at
6:15 p.m. Also Saturday, Oct. 17, starting at 1:15 p.m. Sidney Harman Hall,
610 F St. NW. Ticket are $18 for each
program. Call 202-785-9727 or visit
velocitydc.org.

A JOURNEY FROM CIVIL WAR TO

CIVIL RIGHTS

Tied to next months revised version

of Philip Glass opera Appomattox,
the Washington National Opera pres-

ents a related photo exhibit also commemorating the 50th anniversary of

the Voting Rights Act as well as the
sesquicentennial of the end of the
Civil War. The exhibit was curated by
Journey Through Hallowed Ground,
named after the 180-mile-long,
75-mile wide National Heritage Area
stretching from Gettysburg, Penn.,
to Thomas Jeffersons Monticello in
Charlottesville, Va. Opens Friday, Oct.
16, at 10 a.m. On exhibit through Nov.
29. Kennedy Center Hall of Nations.
Free. Call 202-467-4600 or visit kennedy-center.org.

ANDERSON COOPER AND

ANDY COHEN

The open-ended Q&A portion of this

discussion, dubbed Deep Talk and
Shallow Tales, comes at the very
end, after personal anecdotes from
inside the celebrity machine as well
as the gay Andys shared experiences
as longtime friends. Saturday, Oct. 17,
at 8 p.m. Warner Theatre, 513 13th St.
NW. Tickets are $75 to $125. Call 202783-4000 or visit warnertheatredc.
com.

BALTIMORE SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA

Marin Alsop leads the BSO in Edward

Berkeleys concert adaptation of
Prokofievs sumptuous ballet piece
Romeo and Juliet, derived from the
Bards classic play, featuring seven
local actors and presented in association with Folger Theatre. Friday, Oct.

16, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 18, at

3 p.m. Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony
Hall, 1212 Cathedral St., Baltimore.
Also Saturday, Oct. 17, at 8 p.m.
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301
Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda.
Tickets are $10 to $99. Call 410-7838000 or visit bsomusic.org.

CHEFS FOR EQUALITY

Now in its 4th year, the Human Rights

Campaigns foodie fundraiser returns
to the Ritz-Carlton, where former
chef David Hagedorn has once again
organized an event featuring concoctions and libations prepared by more
than 100 celebrated area chefs and
mixologists. Naturally, it wouldnt be
a marriage-themed event without a
wedding cake or seventeen, made
by pastry chefs from Georgetown
Cupcake, Momofuku Milk Bar, Bayou
Bakery, Buttercream Bake Shop and
Charm City Cakes. Tuesday, Oct. 20,
from 6 to 9:30 p.m. The Ritz-Carlton,
1150 22nd St. NW. Tickets are $200.
Visit chefsforequality.org.

MACKLEMORE AND RYAN LEWIS

In advance of plans for a new

album following on the success of
its Grammy-winning The Heist, this
gay rights-supporting Seattle rap duo
announces a tour in which one dollar
from every ticket will go to support
various progressive groups committed to equity and justice. Tickets on
sale Friday, Oct. 16, at 10 a.m., for
show Wednesday, Jan. 27, at D.A.R.

Constitution Hall, 1776 D St. NW.

Tickets are $50 to $70. Call 202-6281776 or visit dar.org/conthall.

DAVID SEDARIS

Everybodys favorite gay social satirist

returns to the area to share his witty,
sardonic jokes on stage. This summer
it was at Wolf Trap, now he returns to
his more usual D.C. stomping ground,
Lisner Auditorium. Thursday, Oct.
22, at 8 p.m. GW Lisner, The George
Washington University, 730 21st St.
NW. Tickets are $35 to $50. Call 202994-6851 or visit lisner.org.

MICHAEL POLLAN

As part of this months Jewish Literary

Festival, Lisner Auditorium presents
the leading voice in the slow food
movement, and noted author of bestselling books including The Omnivores
Dilemma. Michael Pollan discusses
the cross-section of agribusiness, the
environment and health in the quest
to be a more ethical eater, in a conversation with NPRs Renee Montagne.
Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 8 p.m. GW
Lisner, The George Washington
University, 730 21st St. NW. Tickets
are $40. Call 202-994-6851 or visit
lisner.org.

PUSSY NOIR, ANAT NIR:

DECONSTRUCTING MASCULINITY

A Wider Bridge and Transformer

present a show featuring D.C. performance artist Pussy Noir and Tel
Aviv LGBT event producer Anat Nir

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2015
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DATE 0,15,2003

33

in An Evening Deconstructing the

Masculinity Paradox in Gay Culture.
GLOE at the DCJCC, Moishe House
DC and Nice Jewish Boys DC co-sponsor this event with A Wider Bridge,
an LGBT organization building connections to Israel. Thursday, Oct. 22,
at 7 p.m. Ulysses Room, 52 0 St. NW.
Tickets are free, donations to A Wider
Bridge accepted. Visit takeoffthemasc.
eventbrite.com.

SKELETONS: EXPLORING UNDER

THE SURFACE

Alexandrias rather quirky gallery Del

Ray Artisans presents a Halloweenpegged exhibition that goes beyond
predictable displays of animal and
human skeletons to also include 2D
and 3D artworks in a range of mediums. All of them dig deeper to discover
whats under there, examined literally and figuratively. Now to Nov. 1.
Del Ray Artisans in the Nicholas A.
Colasanto Center, 2704 Mount Vernon
Ave. Alexandria. Call 703-731-8802 or
visit thedelrayartisans.org.

STAGE
ANIMAL

STEREO VISION PHOTOGRAPHY

Return
of
the
Raven
The queer-run Ravens Night offers special spectacles at The Birchmere
L

AST YEAR, BELLADONNA AND KEN VEGAS GOT MARRIED ON STAGE AT THE
Birchmere, to the surprise of everyone family and friends included in attendance
at their annual show Ravens Night.
We didnt want to tell people ahead of time because it would have been really weird
selling tickets to our wedding, show organizer Belladonna says. Instead, the program simply noted that Bella and Ken would perform together as the final act of the evening, which
was built around a sci-fi theme. They performed and married in costume: Ken, the drag
king extraordinaire, portrayed Boba Fett, the Star Wars bounty hunter, who successfully
ensnared Bella as Inara, the elite escort from Joss Whedons Firefly.
Bella and Ken dont hope to top that spectacular personal display at this years fourth
annual Ravens Night. Though, if they were to reenact their same-sex marriage, at least this
year it would be legally recognized in the state of Virginia. Still, the evening promises to have
plenty of appeal with its supernatural theme. Bella will serve as the shows host and also
portray Mrrgan, Celtic goddess of war and sovereignty, leading a troupe of dancing sword
jugglers. Ken plans to stick to a behind-the-scenes role as producer and coordinator. Shell
ensure that a hex-breaking witch, several pagan goddesses, angels and X-Files reenactors,
among others, all stick to the script.
The wide-ranging show is rooted in Bellas primary work as a tribal fusion bellydance
performer and teacher, as well as her background as a medieval re-enactor. It also encompasses other forms of dance, performance art and music, with performers from all over the
country. In many ways, not least because the audience is encouraged to dress up, Ravens
Night is the sort of event youre only going to experience around Halloween not least for
its name, an homage to Baltimores master of macabre, Edgar Allan Poe.
We just wanted to create something where people could dress up, have a sense of community and come see a lot of different styles of entertainment, Bella says. Its really meant
to be a festive, all-inclusive space where people get to play with their creativity. Doug Rule
Ravens Night is Saturday, Oct. 24, starting with a pre-show All-Hallows Exposition carnival at 5:30 p.m., before the main Cabaret Melancholia at 7:30 p.m. The Birchmere, 3701
Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria. Tickets are $25. Call 703-549-7500 or visit birchmere.com.
34

OCTOBER 15, 2015

METROWEEKLY.COM

A Studio Theatre commission from

Clare Lizzimore, this dark comedy
looks at the underside of domesticity and the thin line between sinking
and survival, from the perspective of
a woman who seems to have it all,
yet cant shake the self-doubt that is
becoming an increasingly psychological burden. Gaye Taylor Upchurch
directs a cast including Kate Eastwood
Norris, Cody Nickell, Michael Kevin
Darnall and Rosemary Regan. Now
to Oct. 25. Studio Theatre, 14th & P
Streets NW. Call 202-332-3300 or visit
studiotheatre.org.

BAD DOG

A deliciously dark comedy featuring

six of Washingtons greatest actresses, including Holly Twyford, Naomi
Jacobson and Alyssa Wilmoth Keegan,
about a dysfunctional family and an
intervention gone awry. Written by
Jennifer Hoppe-House, whose television credits include Showtimes
Nurse Jackie and Netflixs Grace and
Frankie. This is Olneys contribution to the Womens Voices Theater
Festival. Now extended to Nov. 1. The
Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab at Olney
Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy
Spring Road, Olney, Md. Tickets are
$42. Call 301-924-3400 or visit olneytheatre.org.

CANT COMPLAIN

Spooky Action Theater launches

its new season with the world premiere of Christine Evanss Cant
Complain, focused on three generations of women who meet in a hospital. Michael Bloom directs the
production, part of the Womens
Voices Theater Festival, and featuring
Cornelia Hart, Wendy Wilmer, Tonya
Beckman, Nicole Ruthmarie and
Eric M. Messner. Evans, a native of
Australia, is part of the theater faculty

at Georgetown University. Weekends

to Oct. 25. Universalist National
Memorial Church, 1810 16th St. NW.
Tickets are $25 to $35. Call 202-2480301 or visit spookyaction.org.

becomes more a dance of life than

Wildes dance of death. To Nov.
8. Lansburgh Theatre, 450 7th St.
NW. Call 202-547-1122 or visit shakespearetheatre.org.

CHIMERICA

THE MAGIC TREE

A sensation in London, Lucy

Kirkwoods epic play Chimerica covers Sino-American relations from
Tiananmen Square to the 2012 presidential elections. Studio Theatre
offers a production directed by David
Muse and featuring a cast of 12. To
Oct. 18. Studio Theatre, 14th & P
Streets NW. Call 202-332-3300 or visit
studiotheatre.org.

DESTINY OF DESIRE

The latest from Helen Hayes Awardwinning playwright Karen Zacarias

(The Book Club Play) is a telenovelastyle, fast-paced modern comedy set in
Mexico. Jose Luis Valenzuela directs
a cast featuring Esperanza America,
Gabriela Fernandez-Coffey, Carlos
Gomez and Nicholas Rodriguez. To
Oct. 18. Mead Center for American
Theater, 1101 6th St. SW. Call 202488-3300 or visit arenastage.org.

ERMA BOMBECK: AT WITS END

Twins Allison and Margaret Engel

(Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of
Molly Ivins) offer a pits-and-all portrait of the award-winning humorist
Erma Bombeck. Arena Stage presents a world production as part of
the Womens Voices Theater Festival
directed by David Esbjornson and featuring Barbara Chishold as Bombeck.
To Nov. 8. The Arlene and Robert
Kogod Cradle at Arena Stage, 1101
6th St. SW. Call 202-488-3300 or visit
arenastage.org.

HOOTENANNY

Guillotine Theatre, formerly known

as the Georgetown Theatre Company
and devoted to presenting classic plays as well as modern takes on
classic literature, presents Monique
LaForces new play Hootenanny, set
backstage during a performance of a
bluegrass musical version of Macbeth.
The local bluegrass band Dead Mens
Hollow performs original music in
this co-production with the National
Museum of Women in the Arts and
presented as part of the Womens
Voices Theater Festival. Guillotines
Catherine Aselford directs a cast
featuring Cate Brewer and Doug
Khrebel. Performances Saturday, Oct.
17, and Sunday, Oct. 18, at 3 p.m. The
Receiving Vault at Ivy Hill Cemetery,
2823 King St. Alexandria. Tickets
are $25. Call 202-783-5000 or visit
georgetowntheatre.org.

SALOME

Yael Farbers new adaptation of Oscar

Wildes landmark play uses ancient
Arabic, Hebraic and Babylonian texts
to offer a fresh look at the womans
voice in history, presented by the
Shakespeare Theatre Company as
part of the Womens Voices Theater
Festival. In the South African-native
adaptor and directors hands, Salome

Ursula Rani Sarmas story of love born

in a very dark place examines why
good people do bad things and repeat
the mistakes of the past. Matthew J.
Keenan and Colin Smith jointly direct
Keegan Theatres contribution to the
Womens Voices Theater Festival and
featuring Brianna Letourneau, Chris
Stinson, Scott Ward Abernethy and
Ryan Tumulty. To Nov. 13. Keegan
Theatre, 1742 Church St. NW. Tickets
are $25 to 36. Call 703-892-0202 or
visit keegantheatre.com.

TINY ISLAND

The Washington Stage Guild offers

a production of Michael Hollingers
bittersweet comedy Tiny Island, an
ode to movie theaters of yore. Bill
Largess directs a cast featuring Laura
Giannarelli and Lynn Steinmetz portraying sisters in the early 80s struggling over the fate of the familys
movie theater as video stores encroach
and cable TV looms. Weekends to
Oct. 25. Undercroft Theatre of Mount
Vernon United Methodist Church,
900 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Tickets
are $40 to $50. Call 240-582-0050 or
visit stageguild.org.

UPRISING

For its contribution to the regionwide Womens Voices Theater

Festival, Alexandrias Metro Stage
presents the rolling world premiere of
Uprising, inspired by true tales from
playwright Gabrielle Fultons greatgrandmother. Thomas W. Jones II
directs this play with music, led by
William Knowles, exploring notions
of freedom and sacrifice, family and
community, and set in the aftermath
of John Browns raid on Harpers
Ferry. To Oct. 25. MetroStage, 1201
North Royal St., Alexandria. Tickets
are $55 to $60. Call 800-494-8497 or
visit metrostage.org.

MUSIC
ANTIGONE RISING

You may have seen bass guitarist Kristen Ellis-Henderson on the

cover of Time kissing her wife, Sarah
Kate Ellis-Henderson the head of
GLAAD who recently graced Metro
Weeklys cover in a celebration of
marriage equality. Next Saturday, Oct.
24, she joins her bandmates, including
her sister Cathy Henderson, in another show this year at Jammin Java.
The all-lesbian country/rock quartet
is touring in support of the album
Whiskey & Wine - Volume 2. Saturday,
Oct. 24, at 6 p.m. Jammin Java, 227
Maple Ave. E. Vienna. Tickets are
$17. Call 703-255-3747 or visit jamminjava.com.

CRYSTAL BOWERSOX

Last year the runner-up on the ninth

season of American Idol in 2010 was all
set to make her unexpected Broadway
debut, playing the role of an unexpected musical icon: Not Janis Joplin,
whom Bowersox sometimes recalls,
but the pioneering female country star
in Always, Patsy Cline. But the show
has so far failed to secure a proper theater on the Great White Way, so the
bisexual singer-songwriter continues
to tour in support of her sophomore
album, 2013s All That for This. Friday,
Oct. 16, at 8 p.m. The Barns at Wolf
Trap, 1635 Trap Road, Vienna. Tickets
are $26 to $28. Call 877-WOLFTRAP
or visit wolftrap.org.

DUKE DUMONT

Part of a strong, young British crop

of soul-informed deep house DJs/
producers also including Disclosure
and Gorgon City, Duke Dumont has
had some impressive early success, as
his first two singles both reached the
top of the charts in the U.K. and also
snagged back-to-back dance Grammy
nominations. First was Need U
(100%) featuring the Sierra Leoneborn British singer A*M*E, and next
came his song I Got U featuring
producer Jax Jones and vocalist KelliLeigh in an inspired interpolation and
homage to Whitney Houstons My
Love Is Your Love. After a show
at the 9:30 Club just this past April,
Dumont returns to DJ a Club Glow
party at Echostage supporting new
EP Blas Boys Club Part 1. Saturday,
Oct. 24. Doors at 9 p.m. Echostage,
2135 Queens Chapel Rd. NE. Tickets
are $25. Call 202-503-2330 or visit
echostage.com.

IMANI WINDS

North Americas premier wind

quintet and also one of its most successful and prolific chamber ensembles performs at the Clarice Smith
Performing Arts Center as part of
the 2015-2016 Visiting Artists Series.
The University of Maryland School
of Music Graduate Wind Quintet will
share the stage with Imani Winds
for a program of works by Valerie
Coleman, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Astor
Piazzolla, Paquito DRivera and
Rimsky-Korsakov. Thursday, Oct. 22,
at 8 p.m. The Clarice at the University
of Maryland, University Boulevard
and Stadium Drive in College Park.
Tickets are $25. Call 301-405-ARTS
or visit claricesmithcenter.umd.edu.

SAMORA PINDERHUGHES
ENSEMBLE: BILLY STRAYHORN
TRIBUTE

The East River Jazz Series presents

a local performance by this local
septet led by recent Juilliard Jazz
grad Samora Abayomi Pinderhughes
presented by Smithsonian Associates
and the Kennedy Center. The concert, Billy Strayhorn: The Sutherland
Hotel, focuses on the period when
some of the greatest jazz compositions of all time were written by
Strayhorn, who was Washingtonnative Duke Ellingtons right hand

man for decades, responsible for many

of the Dukes most famous compositions, including Take the A Train. In
the Dukes shadow, Strayhorn was also
notably an openly gay man, at least as
open as one could expect to be half
a century ago. Strayhorn, who died
in 1967, would have turned 100 this
November. Friday, Oct. 16, at 6 p.m.
Kennedy Center Millennium Stage.
Visit eastriverjazz.net.

TERRI WHITE

Legendary Broadway vocalist Barbara

Cook brings Terri White back to the
Kennedy Center for a night of cabaret
after her show-stopping performance
in Follies two years ago. Friday, Oct.
16, at 7 p.m. Kennedy Center Terrace
Theater. Tickets are $50. Call 202-4674600 or visit kennedy-center.org.

THE CHORAL ARTS SOCIETY OF

WASHINGTON

The Wesley Hymn Project was the last

project of Choral Arts founder Norman
Scribner, which the organization completed after Scribners unexpected death
earlier this year. The organizations Scott
Tucker leads the Chamber Singers plus
organist Julie Huang Tucker, trumpet
player Terry Bingham and timpanist
Julie Angelis Boehler in a performance
celebrating the upcoming release of the
album featuring anthems and organ
works by Wesley, a founder of the
Methodist church, and his descendants.
Sunday, Oct. 18, at 4 p.m. Metropolitan
Memorial United Methodist Church,
3401 Nebraska Ave. NW. Recommended
donation is $20. Call 202-244-3669 or
visit choralarts.org.

THOMAS CIRCLE SINGERS

James Kreger leads this chamber choral ensemble kicking off its 40th anniversary season with the program I
Have Had Singing, featuring works
by favorite composers including Aaron
Copland, Z. Randall Stroope, Stephen
Paulus and Irving Fine. Mezzo soprano
Rebecca Henry will perform Gwyneth
Walkers A Heart in Hiding, a lush
suite of passionate love poems by
Emily Dickinson commissioned for
Thomas Circle Singers in 2007. The
group focuses on performing diverse
choral works and raising awareness
and funds for nonprofits addressing
needs of the citys underserved citizens. Saturday, Oct. 17, at 5 p.m. Live!
at 10th and G, 945 G ST. NW. Tickets
are $25, followed by a reception. Call
202-628-4317 or visit thomascirclesingers.org.

VERGE ENSEMBLE

After 42 years as the New Music

Ensemble-in-Residence
at
the
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washingtons
oldest contemporary music organization recently announced its new affiliation with the Washington Conservatory
of Music. The latter, a nationally
accredited community music school
for students of all ages, presents members of Verge in a one-hour Piano Plus
Concert featuring three new works
for marimba, violin, cello, electronics and piano, by composers includ-

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OCTOBER 15, 2015

35

ing Marc Mellits, Steve Antosca and

Dan Visconti. Sunday, Oct. 25, at 4
p.m. Westmoreland Congregational
Church, 1 Westmoreland Circle.
Bethesda. Suggested donation of $20.
Call 301-320-2770 or visit washingtonconservatory.org.

YUNA

Malaysias first international pop star,

whose music has featured on So You
Think You Can Dance, returns to the
area for two shows that come a year
after a stirring double-bill concert at
Lisner Auditorium. Tuesday, Oct. 20,
at 7 p.m. U Street Music Hall, 1115A
U St. NW. Tickets are $25. Call 202588-1880 or visit ustreetmusichall.com.
Also Saturday, Oct. 24, at 8 p.m. Rams
Head On Stage, 33 West St., Annapolis.
Tickets are $25. Call 410-268-4545 or
visit ramsheadonstage.com.

DANCE
CAMILLE A. BROWN & DANCERS

Black Girl: Linguistic Play uses

African-American social dancing,
rhythmic play and mesmerizing
movement to explore the complexities
of carving out a positive identity as
a black female in an urban American
culture that is racially and politically
charged. A leading voice in contemporary American dance, Camille A.
Browns exuberant choreography and
restless curiosity will be on display at
the University of Marylands Clarice
Smith Performing Arts Center as part
of its 2015-2016 Visiting Artists Series.
Friday, Oct. 23, at 8 p.m. The Clarice,
University Boulevard and Stadium
Drive in College Park. Tickets are $25.
Call 301-405-ARTS or visit theclarice.
umd.edu.

GIN DANCE COMPANY

Local choreographer Shu-Chens

dance company premieres her newest works at the Reston Community
Center as part of its 2015/16
Professional Touring Artist Series.
The program Chasing Horizons
includes Lost and Found, exploring the
human instinct to continually chase
after dreams and desires, often at the
expense of what we already have,
and features visual artists Teri Ann
LaBuwi and CinCin Fang. Wednesday,
Oct. 21, at 7:30 p.m. CenterStage at the
Reston Community Center, 2310 Colts
Neck Rd. Tickets are $20. Call 703476-4500 or visit gindance.org.

THE WASHINGTON BALLET

The Washington Ballet opens its season with a toast to Latin culture featuring works by three of the biggest
names in contemporary choreography: Bitter Sugar by Mauro de Candia,
Sombrersimo by Annabelle Lopez
Ochoa and La Ofrenda (The Offering)
pas de deux, La Llorona by Edwaard
Liang. Hans van Manen, one of
Europes eminent choreographers, is
also represented with a performance
of 5 Tangos, as is Marius Petipas classic wedding pas de deux from Don
Quixote. Remaining shows Thursday,
36

OCTOBER 15, 2015

Oct. 15, through Sunday, Oct. 18, at

7:30 p.m. Also Saturday, Oct. 17, and
Sunday, Oct. 18, at 1:30 p.m. Kennedy
Center Eisenhower Theater. Tickets
are $30.50 to $102. Call 202-467-4600
or visit kennedy-center.org.

COMEDY
RYAN SCHUTT, DANNY
CHARNLEY, ALEXX STARR AND
ALLAN SIDLEY

The Hill Center presents D.C.-reared

New York-based comic Ryan Schutt
for a headline show as part of what it
calls its Sublime Stand-up Comedy
Series also featuring Chesapeake
Bay native Danny Charnley, Obamaimpersonator Alexx Starr and Allan
Sidley, leader of the improv group
Lafrrican Americans and host of
the show. Friday, Oct. 16, at 8 p.m.
Hill Center, Old Navy Hospital, 921
Pennsylvania Ave. SE. Cost is $10 in
advance, or $15 day-of. Call 202-5494172 or visit HillCenterDC.org.

COLIN WINTERBOTTOM: SCALING

WASHINGTON

Celebrated local gay photographer

Colin Winterbottoms debut museum
exhibition features stunning, largescale images of the post-earthquake
restoration of the Washington
Monument and Washington National
Cathedral. Now to Jan. 3. National
Building Museum, 401 F St. NW. Call
202-272-2448 or visit nbm.org.

MICHELLE PETERSONALBANDOZ: NEW WORK

Long View Gallery offers another show

from Michelle Peterson-Albandoz, the
Chicago-based lesbian artist whose
large, hanging-wood sculptures are
made from reclaimed wood, often
found in dumpsters and back alleys.
Her latest work on display includes
a moon made out of slats of brownand white-painted wood and American
flags placed under wooden lattices.
Now to Oct. 25. Long View Gallery,
1234 9th St. NW. Call 202-232-4788 or
visit longviewgallery.com.

SEATON SMITH

ONE LIFE: DOLORES HUERTA

As part of its Comedy series the

Kennedy Center presents this up-andcoming Hollywood comic, currently
part of the cast of the forthcoming Fox
series Mulaney alongside star John
Mulaney plus Martin Short, Elliot
Gould and Nasim Pedrad. Sunday, Oct.
18, at 6 p.m. Kennedy Center Family
Theater. Tickets are free, distributed
in the lobby starting at approximately
5:30 p.m. Call 202-467-4600 or visit
kennedy-center.org.

The National Portrait Gallery offers

its first exhibition devoted to a Latino
figure. Dolores Heurta co-founded the
National Farm Workers Association
with Cesar Chavez in 1962 and fought
for the passage of the California
Agricultural Labor Relations Act of
1975. Taina Caragol curated an exhibition that vividly traces the 13 years
between those two actions. Through
May 15. National Portrait Gallery, 8th
and F Streets. NW. Call 202-633-8300
or visit npg.si.edu.

GALLERIES

ROBB HILL: HOMELANDS: A

PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION

CHAMBER MUSIC: THE LIFE AND

LEGACY OF ELIZABETH SPRAGUE
COOLIDGE

In honor of the 150th anniversary of

her birth, the Library of Congress
presents a new exhibition about the
woman who supported establishment of the institutions first music
venue, the intimate, finely tuned
Coolidge Auditorium that required an
act of Congress but finally opened in
1925. An accomplished pianist and
avid composer, Elizabeth Sprague
Coolidges passion was chamber music
and her mission was to make it more
widely available and accessible by
sponsoring concert tours around the
world and commissioning new works.
The exhibit features 40 items, most
drawn from the Coolidge Foundation
Collection at the Library, which
holds the worlds largest music collection. Through Jan. 23. Performing
Arts Reading Room Gallery in The
Library of Congresss James Madison
Memorial Building, 101 Independence
Ave. SE. Call 202-707-8000 or visit
loc.gov/exhibits.

METROWEEKLY.COM

HomeLands: A Photography Exhibition

includes Robb Hills striking black and
white images offering a powerful meditation on the themes of home, land
and loss. Through this Sunday, Oct.
18. PhotoWorks Gallery at Glen Echo
Park, 7300 MacArthur Boulevard.
Glen Echo, Md. Call 301-634-2274 or
visit glenechophotoworks.org.

THE ART OF JOHN LENNON

Road Show Company presents the

whimsical peace and love artworks of
the late Beatle in a collection of reproductions overseen by Nim Vaswani, an
authority on the works of Lennon. Did
you know Lennon was an artist before
he was a musician? On exhibition from
Friday, Oct. 16, through Sunday, Oct.
18. Tysons Corner Center, 1961 Chain
Bridge Rd. Tysons Corner, Va. Free and
open to the public, with a portion of
the sale proceeds to be donated to the
Capital Area Food Bank. Call 844-8109100 or visit roadshowcompany.com.

THE BIG HOPE SHOW

Baltimores American Visionary

Art Museum offers its 21st annual
exhibition, featuring over 25 artists
offering works in various media that
champion the radiant and transformative power of hope. Its an original and unabashedly idealistic exhibition, curated by Rebecca Alban

Hoffberger, founder and director of

this original and unabashedly unusual
20-year-old museum. To Sept. 4, 2016.
American Visionary Art Museum, 800
Key Highway. Baltimore. Tickets are
$15.95, or $20 for the preview party.
Call 410-244-1900 or visit avam.org.

UNCENSORED: INFORMATION
ANTICS

The DC Public Library presents an

all-media exhibition featuring local
artists, including Brian Davis, Nekisha
Durrett, Hasan Elahi, Paul Shortt,
Fabiola Yurcisin, and DC Public
Librarys Makers in Residence the
FreeSpace Collective. The artworks
focus on the intersection of data and
censorship as part of Banned Books
Week. Through Thursday, Oct. 22.
Martin Luther King. Jr. Memorial
Library, 901 G St. NW. Call 202-7274943 or visit dcplf.org.

WINDOW TO WASHINGTON

Window to Washington: The Kiplinger

Collection at HSW is an exhibition at
Washingtons Carnegie Library that
traces the development of the nations
capital from a sleepy Southern town
to a modern metropolis, as documented through the works of artists. The
Historical Society of Washington, D.C.,
exhibition was made possible by a donation from the Kiplinger family. Its also
an early step in a reorganization effort
by the society, which has struggled to
revive ever since its short-lived effort
a decade ago to run a City Museum
of Washington proved too ambitious.
Open Tuesdays through Fridays from
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Historical Society
of Washington, D.C., at the Carnegie
Library, 801 K St. NW. Call 202-3931420 or visit dchistory.org.

ABOVE AND BEYOND

D.C.S DIFFERENT DRUMMERS:
DCDD DOES DRAG VI

Yes We Can...Can is the theme for

this years annual drag benefit by local
gay marching band D.C.s Different
Drummers. A raffle will also be part of
the festivities. Sunday, Oct. 25. Doors
at 7 p.m. Town Danceboutique, 2009
8th St. NW. Cover is $10. Call 202-4033669 or visit dcdd.org.

ROBIN GIVHAN

As part of a discussion series tied to its

Ingenue to Icon exhibition about the
20th century transformation of women
through fashion, Hillwood presents
this Washington Post Pulitzer Prizewinning fashion critic for a talk about
fashion and self-identity. Givhan will
also sign copies of her book The Battle
of Versailles: The Night American
Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and
Made History. Thursday, Oct. 22, starting at 5:30 p.m. Visitor Center Theater
at Hillwood Estate, 4155 Linnean Ave.
NW. Tickets for the lecture are sold
out but a simulcast in another space at
Hillwood costs $5. Call 202-686-5807
or visit HillwoodMuseum.org. l

film

Think Different
Steve Jobs isnt afraid to bend the
truth, and thats why it paints such a
memorable portrait of the Apple mogul
by CHRIS HELLER

WORD OF ADVICE: DONT BELIEVE ANYthing you see in Steve Jobs. This movie is not
a biography. Its an interpretation of a famous
persons accomplishments. The words authoritative and accurate and fact check do not belong in any
discussion about it. If you see an article titled What Steve Jobs
Gets Wrong About X and you will, because the Internet is
filled with bad ideas dont read it. Its not worth your time.
Steve Jobs (HHHHH) deserves much more than that. Director
Danny Boyle and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin dont try to capture
Jobs as he was, or define his life and his intentions. They dont

paint him as a sinner or a saint. No, Jobs doesnt get off that easily. They didnt intend to sing gospels about him.
Heres what they did do, though: they adapted details from a
nonfiction book, an honest-to-god biography written by Walter
Isaacson in 2011, while also conjuring scenes and conversations wholesale from the make-believe corners of their minds.
Fact and fiction, mixed together. Sorkin has called the script an
impressionistic story, more similar to a painting than a photograph. The goal here isnt mimicry. Its cultivation.
Thats why its so tempting to pretend Boyle and Sorkin hit
their mark. Think of the tepid Hollywood biographies that,
just in the past year alone, dribbled out to audiences: American
Sniper, The Theory of Everything, Get On Up, and on and on and
on. These movies exist to imitate actual lives, to remix facts into
entertainment. Steve Jobs does something else entirely, something much more ambitious. The ambivalence it has toward Jobs
(Michael Fassbender) never quite blends especially when the
finale embraces a tidy reunion with his estranged daughter Lisa
(Perla Haney-Jardine) but its doing something different.
Thats enough to make it one of the seasons most daring films.
Thank Aaron Sorkin for that. The Moneyball scribe ditches
METROWEEKLY.COM

OCTOBER 15, 2015

37

almost every element of conventional storytelling, transforming

Isaacsons book into a tightly focused presentation of Jobs rise,
fall, and return to Apple Computer. Its a traditional narrative
arc, of course climb the mountain, fall into the valley, then
finally reach the summit but its framed within three highly
original acts, which Boyle stitches together with characteristically slick montage work.
In other words, its an unlikely creation myth. Steve Jobs ends
before Apple Inc. became the largest company in the world. No
iPod! No iPhone! No iPad! These world-changing gadgets never
appear in Jobs hand during the movie perhaps because they
dont have to. Anyone who watches Steve Jobs will think about
what comes after the credits roll. We still live in that world; we
dont need to see it on screen. Fassbender does slip into a prerequisite black turtleneck and dad jeans by the third act, though.
The man must evolve into his own legend.
As structured by Sorkin, each act follows a similar pattern. Minutes before Jobs is set to introduce a new Apple
product in front of a delirious audience, he faces off backstage
against his friends, family, and colleagues. The usual suspects
include his confidant Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslet), Apple
co-founder Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen), Apple CEO John
Sculley (Jeff Daniels), Macintosh developer Andy Hertzfeld
(Michael Stuhlbarg), and his ex-girlfriend Chrisann Brennan
(Katherine Waterston). The conflicts unfold in real time, all
at an absurdly reliable clip. Its like five minutes before every
launch, everyone goes to the bar and then tells me what they
really think of me, Jobs quips in the only movies sole selfdeprecating moment.
When each argument erupts always because Jobs wants
something, or Jobs believes he is right, or Jobs refuses to apolo-

38

OCTOBER 15, 2015

METROWEEKLY.COM

gize the characters famously intense focus comes into relief.

Pay careful attention to where he allows it to go, where he
doesnt, and the tremendous effort a person spends to attract his
attention. Fassbenders Jobs is always battling to maintain control, even as hes talking with his nine-year-old daughter.
The relationship between Jobs and Lisa is the beating heart
of the movie. In 1984, he refuses to acknowledge that she is
his daughter. In 1998, he refuses to pay her tuition to Harvard.
During the years between, Jobs tentatively invites her into his
life but always at arms length. He is a cruel and controlling
parent, sensitive to his daughters pettiest sleights, and only
attempts to patch their relationship as its on the verge of crumbling apart.
The movies strongest scene comes late in its third act, as
Fassbender and Haney-Jardine face off in a hallway lined with
Apples Think Different advertisements. Minutes earlier, a
glimmer of doubt leaked out from beneath Jobs persona, a
wound opened by a blitz of criticism from Hoffman, Wozniak,
and Hertzfeld about his ego and selfishness. When he finally sees
Lisa or rather, when she finally agrees to let him see her she
steamrolls him.
Whyd you say you werent my father? she demands to
know. Its the defining question of the movie, and it has absolutely nothing to do with Apple. His answer is as close to honesty as
he gets: Im poorly made. And thats when, just for a moment,
Steve Jobs accomplishes the unthinkable. It transformed the
myth back into a man.
Steve Jobs is Rated R and runs 122 minutes. Opens Friday at
Landmarks new Atlantic Plumbing Cinema and other
area theaters. l

stage

Half-Baked
Signatures Cake Off doesnt rise
to the challenge, while Fords
The Guard is just a challenge
by DOUG RULE

MARGOT SCHULMAN

HE THIRD TIME PROMISES TO BE THE CHARM

for Rita Gaw, a contestant in the fictional Millberry
Cake Off, which this year will award an unprecedented $1 million to the top baker.
) at Signature
You enter new musical Cake Off (
Theatre already rooting for Rita largely because shes being
played by Sherri Edelen. Any regular patron of Signature Theatre
knows how effectively this Helen Hayes Award winner can win
over audiences with her powerhouse vocals and her ability to
portray larger-than-life characters as if they were little more
than sweet, unsung mothers-next-door from Mrs. Lovett in
Sweeney Todd to Mama Rose in Gypsy.
In fact, your support for Rita never wavers over the course
of the intermission-less 95-minute musical, which is as much
a compliment to Edelen as it is criticism to playwright Sheri
Wilner. Based on an earlier play of Wilners, she transformed
it into a musical with assistance from Julia Jordan (Murder
Ballad) on the book and lyrics and Adam Gwon (Ordinary Days)
on music and lyrics.
Ritas main rival is Paul Hubbard (Todd Buonopane). There

are few redeeming or likable things about Hubbard, who is as

bumbling in his personal life as he is in the kitchen. There are
several tedious scenes in which the single father looks into the
audience and begs his unseen adolescent son not to leave him the
way the boys mother did. Among other problems, this detracts
from what the show is supposed to be about: baking cakes and
showing skill in the kitchen.
Its certainly an odd premise for a musical. One early number
has Rita and Paul taking turns singing the ingredients lists as
they mix together their respective cakes, for instance. Its all set
to director Joe Calarcos light, complementary choreography,
and performed on Jason Sherwoods turntable set which adds
some dramatic excitement. Fortunately, the show eventually
rises to become more than the sum of its melodically presented
ingredients.
Cake Off offers some trenchant ideas about our cultures
rather casual, everyday misogyny and subtle gender prejudice.
Its clear to everyone that Rita is the better baker, but her confidence and determination threatens to be her undoing in a way
that such traits never would be for a man. If Ritas male rival had
been portrayed as equally confident and determined, with the
only real difference being less skill, I cant help but think Cake
Off would have been more provocative and revealing about gender norms and assumptions.
As it is, Cake Off might stir up some girl-power passion, especially with the penultimate number You Cant Have This. And
you might be amused by Jamie Smithsons work in barely changing his look or attire to play the shows host as well as a couple of
minor roles both male and female. But the final product isnt
satisfying or sweet enough especially as the last number finds
METROWEEKLY.COM

OCTOBER 15, 2015

39

SCOTT SUCHMAN

Rita resorting somewhat to gender stereotypes, sublimating her

dreams and desires into those of her unseen daughter. It leaves
a rather unpleasant taste.
YOU ALSO MIGHT GO INTO The Guard with a certain expectation based on at least one of its actors. And just as with Edelen
in Cake Off both shows are their respective theaters contributions to the region-wide Womens Voices Theater Festival
you leave Fords Theatre once again impressed by the work
of actor Craig Wallace, who has proven himself before to be an
acting powerhouse (most recently in Fords Driving Miss Daisy).
Wallace is the ace up The Guards sleeve, since he doesnt appear
until the plays final 30 minutes.
By that point, you may have already lost interest in The Guard
(
), Jessica Dickeys dry, drab and pretentious play

40

OCTOBER 15, 2015

METROWEEKLY.COM

overloaded with themes everything from Rembrandt and

Homer and the mysteries of art and artists, to modern love and
ways of grieving. A cast of five actors portray different characters across four vastly different scenes, all while being whisked
around the world and into the past on James Kronzers turntable
set. Mitchell Hebert takes on the titular role as an aging gay man
who, until the final scene, shows more love and compassion
for the art on the museum wall than he does for his own dying
partner. After a short soliloquy as Homer, Wallace becomes that
dying partner in the plays final, touching scene that leaves you
wanting more.
Sharon Ott directs the show, centered around one of the
lesser-known paintings featuring Homer by the Dutch master
Rembrandt, whose general personality and artistic intentions
are still the subject of debate. (We know even less of Homer.)
Dickey attempts to bring these artists to life, imagining what
they might have been like and may have been trying to do. Of
course, the difference between what something might have been
and what it actually is can often be a disappointment.
Thats certainly true here. What might have been a tender,
intimate drama of an aging gay couples relationship with
interesting diversions to talk about art instead is a drama that
heads off to the museum only to lose its way down a cultural
rabbit hole.
The Guard runs to Oct. 18 at Fords Theatre, 511 10th St. NW.
Tickets are $20 to $64. Call 800-982-2787 or visit fordstheatre.org.
Cake Off runs to Nov. 22 at Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell
Ave., Arlington. Tickets are $40 to $101. Call 703-820-9771 or visit
signature-theatre.org. l

games

Unravelled
Yoshis Woolly World is a beautifully
made platformer that cant quite
fashion itself into a compelling game
by RHUARIDH MARR

INTENDO HAS A VERY SPECIFIC ABILITY.

Its something of an expert at creating experiences
youll want to play, but not necessarily ones youll
switch console allegiances for. Now, thats a bold
statement and it certainly doesnt ring true for staple franchises like Mario and Zelda but for the vast majority of content
that Nintendo feeds to its systems, gamers on rival platforms will
look, covet, and then move on.
Thats a problem, not least when the Wii U, Nintendos flagship home console, is lagging behind its competitors in sales
despite a years head start. Nintendo needs its big, flashy
franchises to pull gamers to pick up a Wii U, even as a second
system. This year theyve had a few, but leading into the holidays
Nintendos cupboards are definitively more barren than Sonys
except Sony has the luxury of numerous third party titles to
compensate for its weak first party offerings.
This is a long-winded way of saying that Yoshis Woolly World
(HHHHH) is another typical Nintendo title: itll pique interest,
generate column inches, but will do little to convince people to

invest in a Wii U. Its a game for those who already own the console all ten million of them but no one else. The only problem is that, even among those millions of gamers, Im not entirely
sure it amounts to more than further proof that Nintendo has a
serious content problem on its hands.
That kind of pressure, however, is exactly why Woolly World
cant possibly live up to expectations. As a cheap downloadable
title, it would probably be a near-perfect game. As a full price,
first party release, Yoshis yarn starts to unravel.
Thats not the impression youll have when first playing it,
however. To call Woolly World gorgeous feels like a cruel understatement. Much like LittleBigPlanet and Nintendos own Kirbys
Epic Yarn, developer Good-Feel has taken a fabric inspiration
and wrapped, stitched and threaded it into every fiber of Woolly
Worlds digital existence. The joy of seeing Yoshi knitted together, complete with fuzz and button eyes, traverse this handmade
world never ceases to amaze.
From cotton clouds to leather grounds, felt flowers to knitted enemies, Woolly World exploits its aesthetic to maximum
effect even foes carry the kind of weaponry that would genuinely terrify anyone formed from yarn, such as crochet hooks
and pins. Marios classic Piranha Plants are here fire a ball
of yarn at them and their deadly mouths will be wrapped tight
before Yoshi dispatches them with a well placed leap. Shy Guys
will unravel and waft away on the breeze. Yoshi will revert
to a single strand and wrap himself around a spool to launch
between islands. Every facet of Woolly World has been thought
out, designed and finished with delicate stitching to accurately
convey its theme. Even the overworld, which sits in a massive
METROWEEKLY.COM

OCTOBER 15, 2015

41

room filled with craft materials, provides the impression that the
world has been lovingly put together, just for you.
Yoshi travels this world with all of the cutesy gusto he can
muster. However, underneath its layers of carefully placed fabric, Woolly World is a rather generic 2D platformer. You have a
relatively limited moveset: Yoshi can jump, hover for a limited
amount of time, throw out his tongue to grab enemies and swallow them, before spitting them at others or digesting them and
pooping out a color-coordinated ball of yarn complete with
an exclamation of Bum! (Yoshi may say something else, but
after many hours with him Im pretty convinced its bum.) That
yarn Yoshi can drag several behind him can then be spat
at enemies to wrap them up, dispatch them, form platforms, or
reveal secrets and activate mystery boxes.
Yoshis main motivation falls into a long canon of pretty simplistic Nintendo plots. A bad guy (evil wizard Kamek) disrupts
the Yarn Yoshis, deconstructing all but two (classic green and
vibrant red Yoshi) into little clumps of yarn. Yoshi sets out to
find his friends and stop Kamek and his evil wrongdoings. Oscarworthy it isnt, but it fuels the story about as much as is necessary. Really, the story is quite charming told through speech
bubbles between characters but its utterly inconsequential
as Woolly Worlds real aim is to make you collect things. Lots of
them.
Each level there are 55 in total, across six world is
crammed with flowers, yarn bundles, health pickups, stamps
and rhinestones. Those yarn bundles (five per level) will form
back into the various Yoshis at the end of levels, the flowers
will unlock special levels in each world, while the stamps can
be used to draw images that will randomly pop up in other gamers worlds. The rhinestones are used to augment the game: buy
power-ups to reveal hidden secrets or to skip a level entirely, for
instance. Speaking of hidden secrets, these are arguably Woolly
Worlds biggest challenge. Some of the collectibles will require
real thought and exploration to find hidden walls, defeating
specific enemies, beating timed sections, etc. Its a welcome
challenge, as the rest of the game is almost laughably easy.
Woolly World offers two modes, an easier option for casual
and younger gamers, and a classic mode for more experienced
gamers. I opted for the latter, but not once did I feel genuinely
threatened during my playthrough. Yes, there are varying enemy
types and Yoshi can indeed die if he loses enough health, but
not even boss levels posed a real threat. If I died, it was more
often than not due to Yoshis oddly inconsistent controls
standard jumping and movement is impeccably smooth and
balanced, but Yoshis hover mode was still irksomely awkward
42

OCTOBER 15, 2015

METROWEEKLY.COM

after several hours with it.

Whats more, apart from glimmering moments of brilliance,
this a well trodden path that many gamers may quickly tire of.
There are flashes of Nintendos platforming excellence, but
thats all they are: flashes. Like a gaming Snapchat, you enjoy
them briefly then theyre gone, never to return. In certain levels,
Yoshi transforms into certain objects or creatures: a plane, an
umbrella, or a mermaid, for instance. These present their own
unique challenges as the umbrella, youll float on the breeze
through levels, sailing past enemies, unable to attack them,
collecting gems, and against the clock. Sometimes the levels
themselves offer unique challenges, such as one set entirely on
curtains depicted in typically exquisite fashion with Yoshi
grabbing and sliding along them to the end of their rail, before
leaping to the next. These levels are perhaps the most exciting
and interesting part of Woolly World, but theyre also in the
minority. If anything, they only highlight how generic the rest of
Yoshis adventure is, which is a terrible shame.
Multiplayer is present, though its local only a rarity in
todays constantly connected world. It works surprisingly well,
and if your teammate is utterly hopeless you can swallow them
and carry them through tougher sections. Whats less convincing is Nintendos amiibo integration. If you have amiibo from
other games, such as Mario, touch them to the Gamepad and
Yoshi will transform I cant intimate how wonderful it is
seeing Yoshi dressed up as Mario, complete with knitted moustache. However, if you touch a standard Yoshi amiibo to your
Gamepad, a second Yoshi will appear onscreen. You cant control him instead, he mimics your every movement and action.
Thanks, but its more annoying than anything.
Its an incredible testament to the efforts of developer GoodFeel that, a dozen or so hours later, as Woolly World concluded,
I was still captivated by the fabric world Yoshi inhabited.
However, by that point cute just wasnt cutting it any more. I
couldnt play Woolly World for more than a few hours at a time
before apathy set in and I sought out something more challenging, exciting, engaging? Thats not to say that Woolly World is a
bad game, far from it. For younger gamers, or a relaxing couple
of hours of stress-free gaming, its great particularly for satisfying any collectibles addicts. Over the course of a full game,
however, Woolly World is just too satisfied to rely on its looks to
succeed. In a market where Wii U gamers are starved for content
and Woolly World is unfairly being forced into the position of a
flagship release, it just cant justify itself at full price.
Yoshis Woolly World is available October 16 on Wii U. l

METROWEEKLY.COM

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43

44

OCTOBER 15, 2015

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NIGHT

LIFE
LISTINGS
THURS., 10.15.15

9 1/2
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm Multiple
TVs showing movies,
shows, sports Expanded
craft beer selection
Music videos featuring
DJ Wess
ANNIES/ANNIES
UPSTAIRS
4@4 Happy Hour, 4-7pm
$4 Small Plates, $4 Stella
Artois, $4 House Wines,
$4 Stolichnaya Cocktails,
$4 Manhattans and Vodka
Martinis
COBALT/30 DEGREES
Happy Hour: $6 Call
Martini, $3 Miller Lite,
$4 Rail, $5 Call, 4-9pm
$3 Rail Drinks, 10pmmidnight, $5 Red Bull,
Gatorade and Frozen
Virgin Drinks all night
Stonewall Kickball
Sponsorship Night
Locker Room Thursday
Nights DJs Sean Morris
and MadScience Ripped
Hot Body Contest at
midnight, hosted by Sasha
J. Adams and BaNaka
$200 Cash Prize Doors
open 10pm, 18+ $5
Cover under 21 and free
with college ID
DC9
1940 9th St. NW
Happy Hour, 5-8pm
dcnine.com
DC EAGLE
Thursday Night Football
Touchdown Specials
Jock Night specials
for men in jocks, 8-10pm
Blackout Night, 9pm-close

FREDDIES BEACH BAR

Crazy Hour, 4-7pm
Karaoke, 8pm

METROWEEKLY.COM

45

46

OCTOBER 15, 2015

METROWEEKLY.COM

scene
Otter Crossing at the Green Lantern
Friday, October 2
scan this tag
with your
smartphone
for bonus scene
pics online!

Photography by
Ward Morrison

GREEN LANTERN
Happy Hour, 4-9pm
Ladies Drink Free Power
Hour, 4-5pm Shirtless
Thursday, 10-11pm DJs
BacK2bACk
JR.S
All You Can Drink for $15,
5-8pm $3 Rail Vodka
Highballs, $2 JR.s drafts,
8pm-close Throwback
Thursday featuring rock/
pop retro hits
NELLIES SPORTS BAR
Beat the Clock Happy Hour
$2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm),
$4 (7-8pm) Buckets of
Beer $15 Drag Bingo
NUMBER NINE
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm No Cover
TOWN PATIO
Open 6pm No Cover
$4 Drinks and $3 Draughts,
6-9pm
ZIEGFELDS/SECRETS
All male, nude dancers
Shirtless Thursday DJ
Tim-e in Secrets 9pm
Cover 21+

FRI., 10.16.15

9 1/2
Open at 5pm Happy
Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink,
5-9pm Friday Night
Videos with resident DJ
Shea Van Horn VJ
Expanded craft beer selection No Cover
ANNIES
4@4 Happy Hour, 4-7pm
$4 Small Plates, $4 Stella
Artois, $4 House Wines,
$4 Stolichnaya Cocktails,
$4 Manhattans and Vodka
Martinis Upstairs open,
5-11pm
COBALT/30 DEGREES
All You Can Drink Happy
Hour $15 Rail and
Domestic, $21 Call &
Imports, 6-9pm Walk
to End HIV Kickoff Party,
6-10pm Guys Night Out
Free Rail Vodka, 11pmMidnight, $6 Belvedere
Vodka Drinks all night
Watch your favorite
music videos with DJ
MadScience in the lounge
DJ Keenan Orr on the

dancefloor $10 cover

10pm-1am, $5 after 1am
21+
DC9
1940 9th St. NW
Happy Hour, 5-8pm
dcnine.com
DC EAGLE
Free Happy Hour Buffet,
6-10pm $4 Rail, $3
Domestic, $10 Bucket of
Stella SigMa on Club
Bar, 10pm-2am $2
Draughts
FREDDIES BEACH BAR
Crazy Hour, 4-7pm
Karaoke, 8pm
GREEN LANTERN
Happy Hour, 4-9pm
$5 Smirnoff, all flavors,
all night long SIREN
presents Active Seniors:
A Madonna, Janet, Cher,
Mariah & Friends Dance
Party, 10pm-close
JR.S
Happy Hour: 2-for-1,
4-9pm $2 Skyy Highballs
and $2 Drafts, 10pmmidnight Retro Friday

$5 Coronas, $8 Vodka Red

Bulls, 9pm-close
NELLIES SPORTS BAR
DJ Matt Bailer Videos,
Dancing Beat the Clock
Happy Hour $2 (5-6pm),
$3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm)
Buckets of Beer $15
NUMBER NINE
Open 5pm Happy Hour:
2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm
No Cover
PHASE 1
DC Gurly Show presents
Something Wicked This
Way Twirls: A Halloween
Burlesque Show, 9:30pm
Doors open 8pm $10
Cover 21+
TOWN
DC Bear Crue Happy
Hour, 6-11pm $3 Rail,
$3 Draft, $3 Bud Bottles
Free Pizza, 7pm No
cover before 9:30pm
21+ Drag Show starts at
10:30pm Hosted by Lena
Lett and featuring Miss
Tatianna, Shi-QueetaLee, Epiphany B. Lee
and BaNaka DJ Wess

upstairs, DJs BacK2bACk

downstairs GoGo Boys
after 11pm Doors open
at 10pm For those 21
and over, $10 For those
18-20, $15 18+
TOWN PATIO
Open 6pm No Cover
before 10pm Cover after
10pm (entry through Town)
ZIEGFELDS/SECRETS
All male, nude dancers,
hosted by LaTroya Nicole
Ladies of Ziegfelds,
9pm Hosted by Miss
Destiny B. Childs DJ
Darryl Strickland in Secrets
VJ Tre in Ziegfelds
Cover 21+
SAT., 10.17.15

9 1/2
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 3-9pm $5 Absolut
& Titos, $3 Miller Lite
after 9pm Expanded
craft beer selection No
Cover Music videos
featuring various DJs

METROWEEKLY.COM

COBALT/30 DEGREES
Drag Yourself to Brunch at
Level One, 11am-2pm and
2-4pm Featuring Kristina
Kelly and the Ladies of
Illusion Bottomless
Mimosas and Bloody
Marys Happy Hour: $3
Miller Lite, $4 Rail, $5
Call, 4-9pm Kickball All
Star Game After Party,
3-10pm The Ladies
of LURe present BARE,
10pm-close Featuring
DJ Rosie and DJ Keenan
Featuring the DystRucXion
Dancers Doors open
10pm $7 before midnight, $10 after 21+
DC9
1940 9th St. NW
Happy Hour, 4-6pm
dcnine.com
DC EAGLE
Mr. DC Eagle on Club bar
$2 Draughts Jello
Shots Scarlet Screams:
Halloween Baked Goods
Sale and Costume Ball
Youve seen Scarlett at
Valentines, come see her
at Halloween and try out

OCTOBER 15, 2015

47

your Halloween costume!

Prizes for best costumes
cash and drink tickets

NUMBER NINE
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 3-9pm No Cover

FREDDIES BEACH BAR

Drag Queen Broadway
Brunch, 10am-3pm
Starring Freddies
Broadway Babes Crazy
Hour, 4-7pm Freddies
Follies Drag Show,
8-10pm, hosted by Miss
Destiny B. Childs No
Cover

TOWN
DC Rawhides host Town
& Country: Two-Step,
Line Dancing, Waltz and
West Coast Swing, $5
Cover to stay all night
Doors open 6:45pm,
Lessons 7-8pm, Open
dance 8-10:30pm DJ
Billy Carroll presents
VelvetNation Classics,
highlighting the music and
scene photos from Nation
throughout the years,
10pm-close Special
guest Pearl from RuPauls
Drag Race performs in
the Drag Show Music
and video downstairs by
DJ Wess Drag Show
starts at 10:30pm
Hosted by Lena Lett and
featuring Miss Tatianna,
Shi-Queeta-Lee, Epiphany
B. Lee and BaNaka
Doors open 10pm Cover
$12 21+

GREEN LANTERN
Happy Hour, 4-9pm
$5 Bacardi, all flavors,
all night long The 495
Bears presents Bears
Can Dance, 9pm-close
Featuring DJ Jeff Eletto
No Cover
JR.S
$4 Coors, $5 Vodka
Highballs, $7 Vodka Red
Bulls
NELLIES SPORTS BAR
Guest DJs Zing Zang
Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer,
House Rail Drinks and
Mimosas, $4, 11am-5pm
Buckets of Beer, $15

48

OCTOBER 15, 2015

METROWEEKLY.COM

TOWN PATIO
Open 2pm No Cover
before 9:30pm Cover
after 10pm (entry through
Town)
ZIEGFELDS/SECRETS
Men of Secrets, 9pm
Guest dancers Ladies
of Illusion with host
Ella Fitzgerald, 9pm
DJ Steve Henderson in
Secrets DJ Don T. in
Ziegfelds Doors open
8pm Cover 21+
SUN., 10.18.15

9 1/2
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 3-9pm Multiple
TVs showing movies,
shows, sports Expanded
craft beer selection No
Cover
COBALT/30 DEGREES
$4 Stoli, Stoli flavors
and Miller Lite all day
Stonewall Kickball
Post-Game Party, 5pm
Homowood Karaoke,
10pm-close No Cover
21+

DC9
1940 9th St. NW
Happy Hour, 2-6pm
dcnine.com
DC EAGLE
Doors open noon $7
Buffet with $2 Bud and
Bud Light Draughts
Sunday Football
FREDDIES BEACH BAR
Champagne Brunch Buffet,
10am-3pm Crazy Hour,
4-7pm DC Gurly Show
presents A Nightmare on
Freddies Street: A Tribute
to Wes Craven, 9pm No
Cover charge Karaoke
after the show
GREEN LANTERN
Happy Hour, 4-9pm
Mamas Trailer Park
Karaoke, 9:30pm-close
JR.S
Sunday Funday Liquid
Brunch Doors open at
1pm $2 Coors Lights and
$3 Skyy (all flavors), all
day and night

NELLIES SPORTS BAR

Drag Brunch, hosted by
Shi-Queeta-Lee, 11am3pm $20 Brunch Buffet
House Rail Drinks, Zing
Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie
Beer and Mimosas, $4,
11am-close Buckets of
Beer, $15
NUMBER NINE
Pop Goes the World with
Wes Della Volla at 9:30pm
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on
any drink, 3-9pm No
Cover
ROCK HARD SUNDAYS
@THE HOUSE
NIGHTCLUB
3530 Georgia Ave. NW
Diverse group of all male,
all nude dancers Doors
open 7pm Shows at
8:30 and 10:30pm $5
Domestic Beer, $6 Imports
Happy Hour 7-8pm
$10 cover For Table
Reservations, 202-4876646 rockharddc.com
TOWN PATIO
Open 2pm No Cover

ZIEGFELDS/SECRETS
All male, nude dancers
Decades of Dance DJ
Tim-e in Secrets Doors
8pm Cover 21+
MON., 10.19.15

9 1/2
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm Multiple
TVs showing movies,
shows, sports Expanded
craft beer selection No
Cover
ANNIES
4@4 Happy Hour, 4-7pm
$4 Small Plates, $4 Stella
Artois, $4 House Wines,
$4 Stolichnaya Cocktails,
$4 Manhattans and Vodka
Martinis
COBALT/30 DEGREES
Happy Hour: $2 Rail, $3
Miller Lite, $5 Call, 4-9pm
RuPauls Drag Race
Viewing and Drag Show
hosted by Kristina Kelly
Doors open at 10pm, show
starts at 11pm $3 Skyy
Cocktails, $8 Skyy and Red
Bull No Cover, 18+

DC9
1940 9th St. NW
Happy Hour, 5-8pm
dcnine.com
DC EAGLE
Monday Night Football
Happy Hour, 8-10pm
Jersey Night support
your favorite team Free
Pool all night
FREDDIES BEACH BAR
Crazy Hour, 4-7pm
Karaoke, 8pm
GREEN LANTERN
Happy Hour all night long
Michaels Open Mic
Night Karaoke, 9:30pmclose

NUMBER NINE
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm No Cover

FREDDIES BEACH BAR

Crazy Hour, 4-7pm
Karaoke, 8pm

TUES., 10.20.15

GREEN LANTERN
Happy Hour all night long,
4pm-close

9 1/2
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm Multiple
TVs showing movies,
shows, sports Expanded
craft beer selection No
Cover
ANNIES
4@4 Happy Hour, 4-7pm
$4 Stella Artois, $4 House
Wines, $4 Stolichnaya
Cocktails, $4 Manhattans
and Vodka Martinis

JR.S
Happy Hour: 2-for-1,
4-9pm Showtunes Songs
& Singalongs, 9pm-close
DJ James $3 Draft
Pints, 8pm-midnight

COBALT/30 DEGREES
Happy Hour: $2 Rail, $3
Miller Lite, $5 Call, 4-9pm
Edie Beale Show, 7-9pm
SIN Industry Night
Half-price Cocktails, 10pmclose

NELLIES SPORTS BAR

Beat the Clock Happy Hour
$2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm),
$4 (7-8pm) Buckets of
Beer $15 Texas Holdem
Poker, 8pm Dart Boards

DC9
1940 9th St. NW
Happy Hour, 5-8pm
dcnine.com

METROWEEKLY.COM

JR.S
Birdie La Cage Show,
10:30pm Underground
(Indie Pop/Alt/Brit Rock),
9pm-close DJ Wes
Della Volla 2-for-1, 5pmmidnight
NELLIES SPORTS BAR
Beat the Clock Happy Hour
$2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm),
$4 (7-8pm) Buckets of
Beer $15 Karaoke and
Drag Bingo
NUMBER NINE
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm No Cover
Safe Word: A Gay Spelling
Bee, 8-11pm Prizes to
the top three spellers
After 9pm, $3 Absolut,
Bulleit & Stella

OCTOBER 15, 2015

49

TOWN PATIO
Open 6pm No Cover
Yappy Hour: Happy Hour
for Dogs and their best
friends $4 Drinks and
$4 Draughts
WED., 10.21.15

OCTOBER 15, 2015

METROWEEKLY.COM

DC9
1940 9th St. NW
Happy Hour, 5-8pm
dcnine.com

9 1/2
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm Multiple
TVs showing movies,
shows, sports Expanded
craft beer selection No
Cover

FREDDIES BEACH BAR

Crazy Hour, 4-7pm $6
Burgers Drag Bingo
Night, hosted by Ms.
Regina Jozet Adams, 8pm
Bingo prizes Karaoke,
10pm-1am

ANNIES
4@4 Happy Hour, 4-7pm
$4 Stella Artois, $4 House
Wines, $4 Stolichnaya
Cocktails, $4 Manhattans
and Vodka Martinis

GREEN LANTERN
Happy Hour all night long,
4pm-close The Boys of
HUMP upstairs, 9pm

COBALT/30 DEGREES
Happy Hour: $2 Rail, $3
Miller Lite, $5 Call, 4-9pm
Edie Beale Show,
7-9pm Wednesday
Night Karaoke downstairs,
10pm Hosted by Miss

50

India Larelle Houston

$4 Stoli and Stoli Flavors
and Miller Lite No Cover
21+

JR.S
Buy 1, Get 1 Free, 4-9pm
Trivia with MC Jay Ray,
8pm The Feud: Drag
Trivia, hosted by BaNaka,
10-11pm, with a $200
prize $2 JR.s Drafts and
$4 Vodka ($2 with College
ID or JR.s Team Shirt)

NELLIES SPORTS BAR

SmartAss Trivia Night,
8pm and 9pm Prizes
include bar tabs and tickets to shows at the 9:30
Club $15 Buckets of
Beer for SmartAss Teams
only Bring a new team
members and each get a
free $10 Dinner
NUMBER NINE
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm No Cover
TOWN PATIO
Open 6pm No Cover
Half-Price Hump Day
half-price drinks all day
ZIEGFELDS/SECRETS
All male, nude dancers
Shirtless Night, 10-11pm,
12-12:30am Military
Night, no cover with
military ID DJ Don T. in
Secrets 9pm Cover
21+ l

SEE MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS EVENT AT WWW.METROWEEKLY.COM/SCENE

51

scene
Love, Love, Love - A
Celebration of Life for
Carl Rizzi and Mame
Dennis at Town
Saturday, October 10
scan this tag
with your
smartphone
for bonus scene
pics online!

Photography by
Christopher Cunetto

52

SEE MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS EVENT AT WWW.METROWEEKLY.COM/SCENE

METROWEEKLY.COM

OCTOBER 15, 2015

53

[We] have with great sorrow,

voted to remove your name immediately
from the church membership role.

An excerpt from a letter sent to DYLAN SETTLES, a young gay man in Brookland, Ark., from Woods Chapel General Baptist
Church. The church expelled Settles from their ranks after learning that he had made it known publicly,
of your choice, to embrace the homosexual lifestyle.

We have so much work left to do

and we cant do it alone.

JUDY SHEPARD, mother of Matthew Shepard, in a Facebook post. Shepard wrote the post to commemorate 17 years since her
son was abducted, tortured and murdered by two men near Laramie, Wyoming. After 17 years, Dennis and I
are so grateful to still see such a huge outpouring of support from all of you, she wrote.

If you
change the definition of marriage for one group
what defense do you have for the next group that comes along and wants it changed?

BEN CARSON, speaking with radio host Eric Metaxes. Can you say, No, were just changing it this one time and it will this way
for forever, Carson continued. Well, how is that fair? I mean, it doesnt make any sense.

John and I had a big talk about it, saying, basically,

all of us must be bisexual.
YOKO ONO, speaking with the Daily Beast about John Lennon. Ono claims that she didnt want to have sex with other women,
but Lennon was open to experiences with men. I think he had a desire to, but I think he was too inhibited, she said.

As he rooted in homosexuality,
his creative energy started running dry.
ARCHPRIEST VSEVOLOD CHAPLIN, spokesperson for the Russian Orthodox Church, speaking with Interfax about Elton John.
Homosexuality changes a persons psychology, his public and creative priorities, he added.

It was 1989 all these young men were dying of AIDS and
I was worried you were going to get AIDS.
EVELYN COHEN, mother of Andy Cohen, speaking on the latters RadioAndy Sirius XM radio show about discovering that her
son was gay. When Cohen eventually came out to her, she retorted: Well, I never would have liked your wife anyway.

54

OCTOBER 15, 2015

METROWEEKLY.COM

METROWEEKLY.COM

OCTOBER 15, 2015

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