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DIVERSIONS
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from providing the site for this very Oregon-based event. 1000
Friends is dedicated to protecting Oregon’s farm and forest lands
and promoting sustainable cities. A range of notable Oregon
nurseries have donated plants for the sale.
Joining in the garden gala are artists from Cracked Pots,
another nonprofit that turns junk into art. Cracked Pots artists
will be selling their wares, including garden furniture and art
made from reclaimed and recycled materials.
Once you’ve loaded up on plants, art and nature sights, you can
continue your gay gardening day by stopping in at gay-owned Joy
Creek Nursery, 20300 N.W. Watson Road, in nearby Scappoose.
Joy Creek is hosting a weekend ‘Celebration of Clematis” (which
sounds like a lesbian love-in but is actually a lovely flowering vine).
For more information and directions, visit www.cistus.com or
www.joycreek.com.
Not so extreme makeover
S
ometimes you have to give kudos to someone for just
being plain nice.
O n May 16, Alberta Street businesses pampered,
primped and otherwise transformed two women just
because they wanted to. Sure, it doesn’t hurt business to sponsor
a makeover contest, but Mitch Bridon, the gay owner of the
lushly d6cored Spank! Salon at Northeast 14th and Alberta,
didn’t really do much advertising or other such horn tooting
for Spanking Portland. He just passed out some fliers, told this
newspaper and let his clients know.
“I wanted to see if the street would go for it...com e togetlv
er and participate with each other. And they did,” Bridon told
me last March. It was a way for the new Portland business
owner to connect with his neighbors and with some deserving
citizens, who were required to submit an essay saying why they
needed their own local Queer Eye day so very badly.
Bridon trained as a stylist in Michigan, where he grew up,
before traveling to Scotland and England to study at Vidal Sas
soon and Rita Rusk. “The training was absolutely incredible and
so much more artistic than anything I had been exposed to in
the U SA ,” says Bridon, who originally moved to Portland years
ago. His business partner’s kids had moved here and “always
communicated how unbelievable Portland was.” Although he’d
never been here, he “wanted a change" and “packed up my
townhouse and came sight unseen. I fell in love with it."
He had to move back to Michigan because of family issues
and stayed five years. But then early last year “I was in a park
ing lot at a Wal-Mart in the middle of nowhere in Nebraska
when I received a phone call from a friend sitting at Tin Shed
restaurant saying they were staring across the street at the
place that was going to be my hair salon/art gallery,” Bridon
smiles. “Two weeks later I was signing the lease.”
For his Spanking Portland brainchild, Bridon and other
representatives from area businesses chose three winners—
one of whom hasn’t yet received the royal treatment. Judging
from the other two, she’s in for quite a day.
Following an orange-juice-and-champagne-soaked consulta
tion, Bridon and Spank! stylist Mark Hunsaker colored and cut
their way through Spanking Portland winners Dayna Schoessler
and Marcia Strickland. A makeup artist touched them up, then
the whole gang went down the street to Frock, where the win
ning pair jazzed up their couture. Bridon ordered dinner, got
some wine, turned up the tunes and joined the Frock staff in
saying “yea or nay” to every outfit.
Frock comes complete with a little runway, and a photogra
pher was on hand to snap away. “It was silly,” laughs Schoesslfcr,
“it was so much fun.”
Schoessler, 35, who hails from Northeast Portland, as do the
other winners, entered the contest because she “kind of had
been feeling like I’m aging,” she says. “I don’t want to be like an
old person who wears too tight of clothes, you knowT’ (I know.)
Before exiting Alberta Street, the women received many rea
sons in the form of gift certificates from restaurants, a fitness
club, a massage therapist and others to come back.
They both went out after their makeovers to show them
selves off. Strickland went to a bar with a friend, who was, she
says, “amazed. She was impressed by the transformation.”
Bridon is beaming. “I was thrilled with the results,” he says.
“They were hot.... If they didn’t turn a bunch of heads, I don’t
know what would.”
Bridon also notes that the day was relaxing, not too over the
top. Very Portland. “We were laughing because you talk about
The Swan and all that stuff, and it was weird how different we
made these two people l<x>k without having to do nip and tuck
and suck fat out.” He pauses and laughs. “We did something to
them, and it didn't have to hurt!”
And, Spank! did something it didn’t have to. And that
doesn’t hurt.
in
Lesbians loving the land
C
alling all metro lesbos: You don’t know what you’re missing!
From May 28 to 30, learn how to garden, prune and even chop
wood during A Weekend at Home at Oregon Women’s Land
Farm in Days Creek.
OWL is launching what it hopes will become a yearly event,
during which women from all over Oregon are invited to spend
a weekend camping out and experiencing the unique setting.
“We want to have an awakening,” says Cory Milecar, who
lives on the property with her partner, Rae, and their 9-month-
old baby girl. “Most women’s lands are coming up on their 30th
birthdays.” She hopes to spark a new awareness of the history
and importance of women-only natural enclaves.
“There is a need to get back to the land,” says Milecar, who
promises that women will have the opportunity to “get their
hands in the dirt," both literally and metaphorically. “Women
find their grounding a lot of times with the land,” she notes.
The Milecars would love to see more residents at OWL Farm.
A several-tiered screening process includes living on the land for
increasing increments of time. A Weekend at Home could serve
as an introduction for some women considering a longer stay.
A welcome circle and bonfire will start the weekend off Fri
day evening. The next day will include a nature walk, entertain
ment and plenty of time to explore and relax. Some housing is
available for those unable to camp.
To make reservations, call the farm at 54T643-2565.
Trans play wins Pulitzer,
earns Tony nominations
1,000 reasons to start gardening
N
ot that you necessarily need a gocxl reason to drive out to the
beautiful ode to nature that is Sauvie Island, but May 22 and
23 gay-owned Cistus Design Nursery, 22711 N.W. Gillihan
Road, plays host to the 1000 Friends of Oregon annual plant
sale, a benefit event for the nonprofit conservation organization.
Cistus is owned by Sean Hogan and Parker Sanderson, who
call their nursery a “home for zonal denial.” In other words, you
can find non-Oregon plants that will nonetheless thrive in
Northwest gardens.
Their international inclinations don't preclude the couple
Spend a day with chicks and gay guys on Sauvie Island for the
Friends of Oregon annual plant sale
Am My Oivn Wife, a
Broadway drama about
famous transgender Ger
man Charlotte von Mahls-
dorf, not only won the
Pulitzer Prize for drama last
month but has been nomi
nated for three Tony Awards,
including Best Play, Best
Direction and Best Actor.
Gay playwright Doug
Wright (who also wrote
Quills) put his obsession with
Mahlsdorf to paper and
adapted the name of
the show from her
autobiography / Am
Jefferson Mays plays more than
My Oum Woman, a
4 0 characters in the Broadway
fascinating kx>k into
hit I Am My Oivn Wife
turbulent 20th centu
ry Berlin and Mahlsdorf’s survival of the Nazi regime.
The well-deserved darling of New York's play season has
also won nearly a dozen other drama and critics awards.
Other particularly queer Tony nominations include
Avenue Q (which stars gay puppets, no less) with six,
including Best Musical, Best Direction and Best Actress;
The Boy from Oz, which stars Hugh Jackman (who we’re
still waiting to hear from in the “is he gay" category) as
entertainer Peter Allen, who died of AIDS; and the
Rosie O ’Donnell-pnxluced Taboo, which earned four
nominations, including Best Actor for Boy George, who
portrayed queer performance artist Leigh Bowery.
The 58th annual Tony Awards air at 8 p.m. June 6 on
CBS. j n
1000
Compiled by LlSA BRADSHAW and M eg D aly
I