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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 20, 2006)
26 JUS tOUt JANUARY 2Q. 2QQt WED • JAN 25 Lisa Newman, co-director of 2 Gyrlz Performative Arts, presents the workshop Performance Art— The Creative Process Wednesdays through April 5 at Oregon College of Art & Craft. (6-9 pm. 8245 SW Barnes Road. $340 from 800-390-0632 or www.ocac.eduj * Radical Women commemorate the 33rd anniver sary of Roe vs. Wade with a screening of The Last Abortion Clinic, a documentary about the steady decline in facilities that perform the operation in Mississippi, at the Bread and Roses Center. Savory soup and casserole will be served. (6:30pm. 819 Killingsworth St $6-$10 dinner donation ! JD Samson of Le Tigre spins records and shows images from her new calendar Jan. 20 at Holocene. Q-LAND invites men to discover how to make wellness and intimacy priorities during its second anniversary open house featuring noncompetitive games to help everyone get to know each another better and unlock their creativity and laughter. (3-7:30 pm. RSVP to www. love tribe, org/menspirit.) Jackpot Records presents a free in-store performance by The Gossip to celebrate the release of Standing in the Way of Control. (6 pm. 203 SW Ninth Ave.) Literary Arts invites you to Delve into The Waves, one of Virginia Woolf's most challenging and experimental works, with a series of readers' seminars exploring issues of lan guage, identity, meaning and the possibilities for human communication Tuesdays through Feb. 28 at Wieden + Kennedy. Tuition includes text. (6:30-8:30 pm. 224 NW 13th Ave. $150 from 503-227-2583.) Grammy-winning musician Am DiFranco hosts this month's episode of the gay and lesbian newsmagazine In the Life on OPB. "The Principles of Youth" is dedicat ed to stories about queer youth, including the blogger wrfo created GoodAsYou.org and a trans youth in New York City's ballroom community. (11 pm.) The Gossip kicks off its new record tour with Swan Island and Lovers at Wonder Ballroom. (9 pm. 128 NE Russell St. $12 at the door, $10 in advance from Ticketmaster.) Holocene presents The Kelly and Jason Show, a comedy variety show from the married couple behind Koto y Soto, with musical guest Caught in Candy! (10 pm. 1001 SE Morrison St. $1.) Two starry-eyed teens experience their first great romance in Portland Center Stage's The Fantasticks through Feb. 5. THU • JAN 26 Salon Q2, a new version of the monthly mixer, invites queers to Riverscape Showroom to dance, nosh and take in the sights of the models for townhomes being built on the edge of the Willamette River. (6 pm 308 NW 11th Ave.) Lesbian-owned taco bar Dingo's presents Girls Night Out every Thursday. (7 pm. 4612 SE Hawthorne Blvd 503-233-3996.) The indomitable Indigo Girls fill Crystal Ballroom with songs of environmentalism, idealism and, of course, heart break. Proceeds benefit Portland Habitat for Humanity's Women Build program. (8 pm. 1332 W Burnside St. $35 from www.pdxhabitat.org or Ticketmaster.) Cutting Edge We all have our fetishes, right? That something that arouses sexual desire—a material object or non- sexual part of the body—that can become necessary for sexual grati fication. What turns you on? Feet? Leather? The crack of a paddle? How about silk slipping against your private parts while your wrists are restrained to the headboard and Josh Groban sings an Italian aria in the background? Oops! Oversharing again. Sorry. Regardless of what floats your boat, The Edge—a racy, fetish- oriented themed night Wednesdays at Embers, 110 N. Broadway—seems to have cap tured not just rhe crowd but also the ambiance of the fetish-hungry. The most packed and popular night of the week at Embers, The Edge brings in an intriguing mix of whatever turns you on. every Wednesday. Some of this is nothing new. You’ll find men and women in corsets, goth wear and lots of leather. The club is divided into two areas: dance floor and performance space, complete with stage and seating areas for patrons. Dance your ass off wearing your Matrix overcoat, or sit and be aroused by the fetish show. What is unexpected is that this is a head trip into the fetish arts. Hosted by Miss Lynnda, the reign ing Ms. Oregon State Leather—and, I am told, an expert in bondage, fetish and the art of being a dom inatrix—the entertainment parts of this night skew to fetish-type acts. You’ll find scenes featuring mas ter and servant, people being tied up (most of this is rather playful) and hardcore alternative music by the likes of Staind and Kom. It is definitely darker and edgier than the typical queer scene in Portland. Consequently, the crowd is diverse, wild, often younger than normal and more angst-ridden. But for the uninitiated and those seeking something besides the typical queer experience, this might be the night for you. The show features plenty of women, some men, some couples and fetish-focused drag as well. Bring your own proclivities, and be open to explore a scene that previously was left safely within the confines of your imagination. —Joshua Ryan Guest DJ Sugar Bear shows Puppet, Stormy and MoRocca what's up his sleeve during Booty, an alterna-queer night held every Thursday at Porky's Pub. (9 pm. 835 N Lombard St. $3.) MTV's groundbreaking documentary series True Life pre mieres "I Have Gay Parents," a candid portrait of three teens whose worlds aren't much different than many of their peers with straight parents—full of joy, angst, confu sion, despair and, above all, love. (10 pm.) FRI • JAN 27 The Luna Music Series presents political, conscious, sen sual, poetic, intelligent and human songs by Cristina Orbe and edgy folk rock with a twist of slide and grit by queer Annie Vergnetti at In Other Words. (7 pm. 3734 SE Hawthorne Blvd.) Get down tonight! The Village People open for KC & the Sunshine Band at Spirit Mountain Casino in Grand Ronde. (7 pm. 27100 SW Salmon River Highway. $45-$55 from 800-585-3737.) C'mon out and chase away those winter blues! The Pacific Northwest Gay Rodeo Association presents The Chicken Ranch Comes to the City, a special evening of food and fun featuring a delicious dinner, a stage and fashion show and country western dancing with DJ Crystal. (7 pm-midnight. 110 NW Broadway. $17.95 with dinner, $5 without. RSVP to Greg 541-905-6885 by Jan. 24 for dinner.) Bad Girls present dyke night at the Eagle PDX featuring drink specials, live entertainment and a charity raffle and auction with donations from Spartacus Leather, It's My Pleasure and more. Proceeds benefit Our House of Portland. (9 pm-midnight. 1300 W Burnside St. To perform or make a donation, e-mail con- tact@pdxbadgirls. net.) Mock Crest Tavern presents the acoustic insanity of Sneakin' Out. pm-midnight. 3435 N Lombard St.) The Oregon Bears throw their monthly Double X Dance at C.C. Slaughters. (9 pm-1 am. 219 NW Davis St. $2.) SAT • JAN 28 Queer poet and folksinger Anne Weiss brings her fine, warm voice and great guitar chops to Backgate Stage Theatre for Artichoke Music's "Local Heroes" series. (Noon-1:30 pm. 3130 SE Hawthorne Blvd.) Your Place or Mine? Productions hosts Eat My Martini, a suave cocktail party where 60 lesbians can mingle in an elegant and fun atmosphere in West Portland. Activities include martinis, mocktinis, appetizers, billiards, back gammon, movies, music, cards and darts. Dress to impress! (6-9 pm. $25 at the door, $20 in advance from 503-481-9870 or www.yourplaceormineproductions.com .) Fresh off accompanying Sissyboy’s Halloween production, the Accidental String Quartet, an all queer chamber music quartet with more than 60 years of musical training among them, plays Schubert's String Quartet in D Minor during its first stand-alone recital at Liberty Hall. (7 pm. 311 N Ivy St. $5-$10 sliding scale.) Hey, what's your vice? Holocene presents Double Down, the fab queer party where the player always wins, every fourth Saturday. (8 pm. 1001 SE Morrison St. $5.) Luscious lesbian Lynn Frances Anderson performs bluesy folk-rock originals from her third CD, Bom Lucky, at Owen's Place in Lake Oswego. (8 pm. 3975 Mercantile Drive.) Political Discord Leads to Comedic Harmony A “queer, political, musical comedy variety show” is how Portland performers Mark Steering and Elizabeth Lavenue—better known to some as the Humble Divas—describe Civil Disunion, their new cabaret-like act that finds tuneful humor in subjects ranging from the re-election of President Bush to the * war in Iraq to the legal roller coaster of gay marriage in Oregon. “There isn’t really a story,” says Steering, “but a combination of original songs and parodies, making fun of our political climate and the challenges of being gay in the 21st century. It’s an opportunity to laugh at our screwed-up political situation and inspiration to be proactive in our community.” Among the duo’s repertoire of unusual characters are Peter and Polly Paranoia, a couple collecting peti tion signatures for “Ballot Measure 666,” an effort to keep queers from adopting children. Steering and Lavenue later transform into Butch and Blaze Belligerent, an outlandish pair bent on recruiting high school seniors to Friends of Dorothy University. Beyond the music and the humor, though, Steering and Lavenue see the show as an acknowledgment of the dichotomy of desires. “We realized we had chosen several songs about desire and the huge dichotomy between our fantasies and reality. We also explore how being closeted can create those chasms,” says Steering. In addition to serving as musical theater instructor at Oregon Children’s Theatre, Steering recently penned the music and lyrics for Road Rage, a musical presented earlier this year at Arts Equity theater com pany in Vancouver, Wash. Lavenue is a voice teacher and performer who teaches at Northwest Institute of Voice and has been seen on a number of local stages. The two openly queer “singing Sagittarians” teamed up several years ago to create their first original show, Romantic Mythtakes. After maternity leave for Lavenue, the two reunited last year and began to workshop this new production in response to current events. Civil Disunion plays 8 p.m. Jan. 20 and 21 at Rose City Park Presbyterian Church, 1907 N.E. 45th Ave. Tickets are $5-$2O sliding scale from 503-234-1140. Timothy Krause
