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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 7, 2003)
41 DIVERSIONS ................. ▼................. But this doesn’t have anything to do with ’ Ellen being gay. I’m no t naive enough to think that being gay doesn’t make a difference; a lot of people will or won’t watch any show starring Ellen based on her being openly lesbian. But a gcxxl queer show will (and should) outlast a bad queer show any time. (O f course, Will & Grace also sucks, and it’s still on the air, so what do I know?) Anyway, if this eventual queer channel— which promises to run movies, sitcoms, specials and maybe even game shows all around being bent— is good, it’s OK with me. If it’s not at all good, it’s no t OK. T hat seems simple enough. A nd speaking of being gay, how about those Academy Awards? Wow, we queers have never had so much influence and content in Oscar- he reports have been coming in for more nom inated movies as this year. Too bad spokes- than a year now about the all-gay cable people are pretending that “gay” just doesn’t network. Reportedly, Showtime and • matter. M TV ’s joint venture called O utlet will Everyone who has anything to do with The launch in the next few months. In the m ean Hours, for instance, are quick to point out that time, C anada’s all-queer channel has gone the sexuality of the characters has nothing to bankrupt. do with the emotional impact of the Best Pic T he am ount of conjecture in the press ture contender. T he March 18 issue of The about w hether this kind o f cable channel is a Advocate notes that the lead actors “argue that good or bad thing is deafening. Is this the next transcending such labels is exactly what has logical step of queer acceptance into the m ain made the film so successful.” A nd the British playwright who adapted the novel for the stream, or will it prompt networks to stop putting queer characters into programming i screen insists, “The Hours is not a gay film.” with the notion we’re all congregated in one (Isn’t it funny how you don’t have anyone place? In essence, are we being ghettoized? jumping to m ention when films aren’t straight? Forgive me, but my response is, W ho cares? There’s none of this nervous, “O h, gosh, no, There is one reason and one reason only to this movie isn’t just for hets" or “T he married tune into any cable channel, any cable show, | couple in this movie transcends those kind of any show on any station anywhere, anytime. Is ! sexual labels.”) it good? W hile I agree The Hours, like any film, is ■ W hy did the British first-of-its-kind Queer | appropriate for any adult who wants to see it, as Folk fare so well amid the naysayers who said | let’s not pretend that being a queer in the the world just wasn’t ready for this kind of in- world today doesn’t matter. Let’s not pretend your-face gay sexuality and th at it would make th at sitting in a theater full of straight people us all look bad? It was good! It was fun, the per , who see Meryl Streep and Allison Janney play formances were great, th e style was hip, the ing women in a long-term relationship and stories were a hoot, the sex was hot. My part their perfectly well-adjusted daughter and their ner and I rented it and watched the whole sea intense, poetic friend dying of AIDS (Ed H ar son in one weekend. We couldn’t stop. A nd ris, no less) isn’t a thrilling, positive influence. then Showtime copied the whole thing to wide It’s easy to say queer doesn’t m atter when acclaim, too. you’re straight. It seems to me a lot of T V works this way. We finally get some great recognition at the For instance, I may be going out on a limb Academy Awards (Frida and Far from Heaven, here, but I think the reason Ellen DeGeneres’ too), and now we’re supposed to be beyond first series got canceled is because it sucked. those labels? W hen were we supposed to be happy about it? Did we miss a decade or some T he second one— The Ellen Show— did not thing? I’ll be post-gay in a post-homophobic suck and would have done fine if the network executives (as they have done with other gcxxl world, thanks. Put your big, queer arms around these big shows) hadn’t moved it all over trying to save queer movies and shout Hallelujah. JT1 it until no one could find it and just gave up. wood offer backdrops for everyone from The Ora cle to Darth Vader. Annals of history reappear as historical figures rant, while head honchos (and honchas) of the university’s humanities depart ment pick through Milton’s Paradise Lost via appropriations of thesis advisers, school funding and almost-make-out scenes. (Yes, kids, even one with S<crates and his muscle-bound protégé.) Moses weaves two acts of multiple plot layers with a set complete with giant arched stairway, tiered substages and a circular map of the sky. Outrage offers a chance to romp in both ancient and modem pretty-boy land, where teachers can be students and students can he, well.. .you’ll see. Outrage shows at 8 p.m. March 7 and at 2 and 8 p.m. March 8 and 9. Tickets are $ 12-$47 from the box office or 503-274-6588. It’s all about quality T Wyoming in Oregon H e is M en M agazine's H u n k of the M onth, graces the pages of Honcho and is walking among us Straight shot I l f orget T h o r...A ll Hail the Mighty Atlas!” hanks to Equity Foundation, Artists Reper tory Theatre will take its production of The Laramie Project— seen last summer in Port land— on the road to rural parts of Oregon. Equity initially raised money to get the show prtxluced in Portland and has come up with nearly $10,000 to help get it out to com munities that otherwise wouldn’t see it. T he play is about the people of Laramie, Wyo., in th e afterm ath of th e M atthew Shepard murder and, according to A R T ’s A llen Nause, “utilizes a structure th at reflects th a t of most any com m unity in A m erica.” He feels it “asks questions of our T ■■ So reads the headline to the nude photo I spread of Portland hottie Zeb Atlas (not his real name, believe it or not) in the March issue of M en Magazine. The 32-year-old, straight pharmaceutical salesman and personal trainer is also the cover hoy for this m onth’s Honcho Magazine and one of the featured performers in Body Image Prcxluctions’ Sob Series, Volume 4- A t 6 feet 3 inches tall, Atlas is a m oun tain of muscle with an appealingly goofy face. A nd he handily won Men Magazine’s “Hunk of the M onth” contest with 65 percent of vot ers casting their ballots for the dark-haired beauty. Comments A rtists Repertory Theatre takes The Laramie Project on the road range from “h o t” to around Oregon “cutie” to “amazing" and include ones that feature sexual fantasies selves about where we stand on issues o f to l with the local stud. erance. O ur hope is th a t it will resonate w ith com m unities across our state.” Atlas certainly isn’t the first straight rruxlel to pose for m en’s magazines or appear in gay The prcxluction has already played in Pendle pom. (Is a solo jerk-off scene technically ton and will show March 8 in Bend (ticket info pom?) But his appearance does make one won from 541-383-7575), March 10 in The Dalles der what kind of thrill straight men get by (ticket info from 541-993-0678) and March 12 in being sexual fantasies for gay men and what his Newport (ticket info from 541-265-2787.) family and friends think about it. Unfortunately, Atlas declined to talk with Just Out, so we weren’t able to find any ollowing in the f<x>tsteps of other organiza answers. We can only gaze and wonder. tions around the country, Portland’s Explorers Club is sponsoring N ude for Peace— a group nude photo to protest the war against Iraq. A t 2 p.m. M arch 16, organizers will herd hat could Stx:rates, Galileo, a humanities people into the shape of the Chinese symbol professor and Bertolt Brecht have in for peace for an aerial photograph. Spokes common besides controversial politics? woman Theresa Reed (aka Dark lady) explains, Well, we could just tell you, hut that would he, “Although we are no fans of Saddam Hussein ahem, an outrage. or his com ipt and cmel administration, we do Running through March 9 is Portland not believe that Bush is being honest ah m t his C enter Stage’s prcxluction of 26-year-old Yale reasons for pushing for this war.” graduate Itam ar Moses’ new play Outrage at To participate in Nude for Peace, register at Newmark Theatre. It is, according to artistic www.explorers-cluh.com/peace or e-mail director Chris G )lem an, “perhaps the most edie@explorers-cluh.com. J H ambitious play by a new playwright that I’ve read in the past decade.” Compiled by L isa B radshaw , M arie A college campus in 1999, ancient Greece, F leischmann and F loyd S klaver 1940s Nazi Germany and 20th century Holly Get naked for peace Outrageous! PHOTO BY OWEN CABEY W F
