Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 6, 1996)
ju s t o u t ▼ S e p t e m b e r 6, 1 9 9 6 ▼ 3 5 Howie Boggodonutz presents from NY It 4 AMAZON TRAIL My P¿e¿44*si¿ EVE ENSLER'S "VAG IN A M O N O LO G U ES" The shameful truth This lesbian now prefers piglets and prize string beans to throngs o f bare-breasted, body-painted women T by Lee Lynch never thought I’d be the kind of person who would pay money to look at pigs. Yet every year, in the same week that throngs of lesbians celebrate at the Michigan Women’s Music Festival, Lover and I visit our County Fair. I’ve never been to Michigan, but I’ve been to the County Fair at least a half dozen times. Surely there must be something wrong with me to stay here with those adorable suckling piglets when I could be frolicking with a multitude of bare breasted, body-painted, hand-holding women. The shameful truth is that I’m a homebody. Oh, I’ve heard the stories of enlightenment through sisterhood and spiritual recharging and mass menstruation. I’ve been at other festivals for the proud construction of stages and the strutting of security patrols and the cheerful mingling on interminable scrambled-tofu lines and the mid I Sept. 13 & 14 • 8pm of Ferris wheel and Tilt-a-Whirl. We’ll tempt ourselves with silly games of chance and wish we weren’t too health conscious to eat cotton candy. While lesbian comediennes tickle the crowd at Michigan, we’ll admire Lover’s co-worker’s third-prize string beans and Joanie’s candidate for Great Pumpkin. Instead of avoiding the body piercing demonstration, we’ll wander the craft building to ogle intricate needlework and lust after racks of glorious quilts. While Amazon night stage stars tune their guitars, we’ll mean der through the art show, disagreeing with the judges’ choices and marveling at Hazel’s water- color. Although we won’t spend a cent at lesbian craft booths, it’s likely the Fair won’t empty our pockets either. Well, I do have to replace that five-buck straw hat I picked up a few years ago, which now looks like a 4-H goat thought it was dinner. Echo Theatre • 1515 SE 37th Advance tickets $13 at It's M y Pleasure & Fastixx 1224-8499); $15 door *+ Two Locations ‘How Open to Serve you Now Open: 1310 NW 23rd (Comer of NW 23rd and Overton) 222-7840 Serving 'Breakfast & Lunch 7 D ays a ‘H ’e ek ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------— , Open for Breakfast Lunch ^ an d rH gzu Dinner & Dessert 3354 SE Hawthorne Blvd. 232-4982 LINDA TILLERY and'The Cufturaf Vieritaye Choir an evening of Traditional African-American Folk Music I night howling as Alix sings. In the Northwest I’ve chopped my share of onions and picked up my tons of trash. At Bloomington I’ve done the workshops and at tended the candlelight 12-step meetings. I’ve walked the miles from tent to dining hall and I’ve tried to sleep through nights reverberating with drums. I’ve endured gnat invasions in New En gland and pitched my tent in mud. I’ve watched for wild fires at Yosemite. I’ve blocked country roads on ticket lines where every driver wondered whether she was creating more pollution by repeatedly turning her caron or by letting it run. I’ve been shouted at by local boys with itchy trigger fingers. I’ve sobbed with Festi Stress Syndrome. I’ve left for home with complaints for souvenirs, as well as a year’s supply of must-have T-shirts I wouldn’t dare flaunt. I’ve read the festi-flaming letters in "Les bian Connection” with feelings of validation as well as annoyance. But tomorrow night Lover and I will hitch up the o f Subaru and mosey on over to the County Fair. With any luck the feature will be Big Wheel, the monster car that thrills audiences by crushing a line of vehicles as long as one waiting to get into a small women’s festival. Not that we’ll be in that audience. The midway clears for Big Wheel, and we’ll be practically alone in the garish neon glow It’s true that I find some of the County Fair booths offensive. The right-wing politicos strong- arm passersby and the Gideon Bible people pros elytize the kids. But the Seventh Day Adventists do a real service with their blood pressure moni toring, and the Girl Scouts are always there. Not to mention Smokey the Bear. There’s no accounting for taste. I know lots of women who enjoy the festivals, but I’m no adven turer. Fighting the Fair traffic is challenge enough for me. I’m glad I’ve had the chance to be knee- deep in lesbian culture (as well as mosquitoes), but I got to see Ferron at an outdoor concert really close to home this summer and that satisfied me. I guess I’m just a little old-fashioned. It’s neat to watch the square dancers, although I know what would happen if Lover put on a flouncy gingham square dance dress, I a string tie, and we tried to join them. And sure, it’s easier to be a vegetarian at a women’s festi val, but being around well-treated horses and bunny rabbits has its good moments. Maybe it’s growing up in Queens that makes County Fairs just a little bit exotic. Maybe it’s the American in me. Maybe it’s the need for a balance—steeped in lesbian culture as I am through my work—a balance among all the cul tures that I claim for my own. Or maybe it’s just the new crop of adorable piglets that draws me back year after year. Vocal Workshop - Linda Tillery A workshop which tocuses on African-American vocal traditions, includes moans, shouts, playsongs, field hollers, and folk spirituals. Cost: $50 Prepart - FFI: 223-0071 $13-IN ADVANCE $16-AT DOOR S25-RESERVED GOLD CIRCLE PRODUCED BY THE LESBIAN COMMUNITY PROJECT FOR INFORMATION: 223-0071 TICKETS AVAILABLE: IT S MY PLEASURE. JELLY BEAN LCP OFFICE/PORTLAND, MOTHER KALI/EUGENE
