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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 7, 2000)
4uiyz.2000 42 fU ........ ▼' 6th Annual Gay & Lesbian Cruise 4 - A A U g U S t I Z til 11 : 00 P M - 2 : 00 AM Pre-boarding at 10:30PM 21 and over, ID required MILLENNIUM CRUISE Aboard the Luxurious Portland Spirit. Located @ Front & Salmon Streets. Pre-Cruise Party at ’’The Lotus’’ 932 SW 3rd & Salmon S t.-, 9:00PM-10:30PM ' No host bars Club Cruise Buffet Grand Door prizes Great dance music Reserve your tickets K a V/- ,VV/ K 'T in advance! r n Mail your check or money order to: Ticket Vendors Socialites PO Box 6002 A Gentle Strength 2110 Main St. Vancouver, WA 360-750-5676 It's my Pleasure 3106 NE 64th & Sandy Portland, OR 503-280-8080 Vancouver, WA Rainbows 1136 SW Alder St. Portland, OR 503-525-9630 98668 Gai-Pied 2544 NE Broadway Portland. OR 503-331-1125__________ Sponsored by the SW WA Gay & Lesbian Socialites, Contact us at 360.735.190I or email -T ' ,, . • ?.. * ...» TRACY CHAPMAN JEFFREY GAINES FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 1 mm SHOWPLACE Lui AT PORTLAND MEADOWS 6PM GATES/7PM SHOWTIME • RESERVED SEATING & GENERAL ADMISSION &MUGHT r/ O o o b ip W \ T |V |1 ,m m daub le tee l .com / From increased picture quality to bonus footage, DVD technology enhances gay and lesbian films by New Years Eve 2000 all over again! $20.00 in Advance $25.00 Day of Cruise The revolution will be digitized R a d io np-tuuù’w. A ndy M angels ing to pick up.” Gai-Pied also sells and rents a ollywtxxl studios and independent film line of adult-oriented erotic DVDs, some of companies are increasingly targeting gay which offer the option of multiple camera and lesbian consumers, upping the num angles! ber of queer characters on television and W hen Mike Clark, owner of Movie Mad in films. As a result, there are an increasing ness, opened his Southeast Portland video store number of choices at the video store. And now, 10 years ago, he initially had 20 queer titles; a new technology that can add even more that number has risen to somewhere between queer content to the viewing experience is 400 and 500 videos and a growing group of catching on in homo households: DVD movies DVDs. Although his store mainly has the more and players. popular titles on DVD, Clark notes that he is Teri Inman, lesbian co-owner of Portland- “beefing them up.... As they become available, based electronics store Stereotypes, says she I will get them.” He sees that DVD will he sees “more lesbians buying them than gay “broadening and expanding and becoming men,” though both groups are buying DVDs something of the future that a lot of people will more than heterosexual shoppers. Although be turning over to.” her store has only carried DVD players for a So what’s out there, and what are the year, it now offers five models. _______________ extras? This is the first “1 would imagine OmQIMAL DIRECTOR'S OUT installment of reviews of within the next year, it t f T T i R B O X TOBMAT mm m1 W A mm. 7£ m DVDs with a Q quotient. will probably go to 10,” mix# wm IV: i *un :i«us says Inman, who notes that the players range in R elax ...I t ’ s J ust S ex price from $149 to A f i l l Y: V i J . C C i < S S tH ii $1,200. Though the first DVD players were released in Japan in late 1996, the majority of discs and players have been released within the last year. Currently, more than 100 gay-and-lesbian- themed DVDs are avail able on the market, with more released each month. So, what is a DVD? The acronym stands for digital versatile disc, and it’s a CD-sized silver or gold disc that stores video and audio images that can he played back in an unprecedented crisp fashion. “Like CDs are to music, DVDs are to films,” says Ron Rich, publisher of the quarterly DVD Guide. “It basically has replaced what was the highest quality home video device [the laserdisc]. It is clearly the best medium for appreciating home video entertainment.” W hat makes DVDs so special? An improve ment over VHS video, the picture and audio are recorded digitally, which results in almost crystal-clear images and sound. Additionally, most DVDs present the film in “widescreen” format (meaning that you see it the way you would in a theater) instead of using the half- the-picture-is-missing “pan and scan” method of preparing films for video and television. Most DVDs also feature a lot of extras, including director and star audio commentaries that can be played over the film, isolated music scores, outtakes, uncensored footage, behind- the-scenes clips, alternate endings, music videos, foreign language subtitles and more. “I didn’t know what I was missing before I got my DVD player,” enthuses Rick Spencer, owner of Portland’s Gai-Pied bookstore. “My partner likes the letterboxed aspect of the films, and I like the quality of the picture, as well as the behind-the-scenes supplements.” Spencer’s store carries about 40 DVDs for rental, mostly gay male-oriented, though he has a few women’s titles, and more available to order. He notes that the DVDs, which general ly carry a lower price than videos, “sell more than they rent, but the rentals are really start- his film follows multi ple couples— straight, lesbian and gay— as well as a gay man looking for Mr. Right, a bisexual woman unsure of what she wants, and a gay man just diagnosed with AIDS. A n incredible movie, Relax. . .It’s Just Sex starts out quite funny, hut toward the middle of the film something hone- chilling and shocking happens, altering all expectations. The ensem ble cast dissects everything from monogamy to spirituality, from revenge to the government’s involvement in the AIDS crisis. This is a lot of ground to cover in one story, hut it is done superbly. Ultimately uplifting and tremendously well-acted, this film will make you cheer, cry and truly think. The DVD is the unrated director’s cut and features bonus footage and outtakes. B etter T han C hocolate pixyish young lesbian bookstore clerk meets the girl of her dreams, but her moth- ier and brother have just arrived to live with her in a borrowed loft. W hile the two women keep their affair uncomfortably quiet, a transgendered woman struggles to love the butch dyke bookstore owner, who is having her own battles with Canadian customs. Gorgeous ly filmed and warmly funny, this film from British Columbia hits all the right notes, including an erotic body-painting session and a too-real confrontation between an angry les bian and the transgendered woman. The DVD version of Better Than Chocolate features a commentary track and the director’s cut of the film. H appy , T exas T wo convicts break out of prison and hijack the motor home— and identities— of a pair of gay guys who produce children’s beauty pageants. Unfortunately, once they reach
