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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 15, 2007)
In Other Words screens and discusses Beyond Disability: The Fe Fe Stories to kick off the new disabled women’s sup port group Disability Express. (7 pm. 8 NE Killingsworth St.) Dad's Group, a monthly support/social group for men coming out later in life, meets every third Thursday at Q Center. (7-8:30 pm. 69 SE Taylor St.) Eowyn Wood reads from Naked in the Rain at St. Johns Booksellers. (7:30 pm. 8622 N Lombard St.) FRI • JUNE 22 The Back Room— an occasional series of presentations, symposia and bacchanals hosted by queer scribe Matthew Stadler—presents gay author Tom Spanbauer (The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon, Now Is the Hour) with a meal planned and cooked by Morgan Brownlow (Clarklewts) and live music by Phil Elverum (aka The Microphones, aka Mount Eerie) at Podkrepa Hall. (7 pm. 2116 N Killingsworth St. $45 from www. thebackroompdx. com.) Show Me the Pink performs with Dan Deacon, Videohippos and DJ Beyonda at Holocene. (9 pm. 1001 SE Morrison St. $7.) SAT • JUNE 23 The Oregon Gay and Lesbian Lawyers Association hosts the legal workshop Financial Planning for Same-Sex Couples at Q Center to answer questions about what to do in light of the newly passed domestic partnership legisla tion. (Noon-5 pm. 69 SE Taylor St. $15.) Come to the Q-LAND/MenSpirit Celebration Feast to honor all of the powerful transformations that men have experienced in its old Northwest Portland studio for the past three years. (6-9 pm. RSVP to 503-223-8822 or www. lovetribe, org/menspirit.) Fez Ballroom hosts the 2007 Gay Oregon Pageant. This year's theme is 'Through the Looking Glass—An Adventure in Chaotic Steam Portland celebrates Pride with porn star Matt Cole on June 16. Characters." Proceeds benefit the Pride of the Rose Scholarship Fund. (7 pm. 816 SW 11th Ave $15 from www. rosecourt, org.) The Portland Lesbian Choir presents its 20th anniversary concert, Feel Like Goin'On, at Bridgeport United Church of Christ. (7:30 pm. 621 NE 76th Ave. $12 from In Other Words, It's My Pleasure or Music Millennium.) Hey, what's your vice? Holocene presents Double Down, the fab queer party where the player always wins, every fourth Saturday. (Bpm. 1001 SE Morrison St. $5) SUN • JUNE 24 The Adventure Group takes a difficult mountain bike ride among the spectacular scenery at Mount Hood National Grace Under Fire Gay-owned Onda Arte Latina unveils Pepe Moscoso Paniagua's photographs of Mexican indigenous women June 28. Don't miss the group show of Latin queer artists closing June 26I Forest. Bring food, water and a helmet. Meet in Starbucks at Hollywood Fred Meyer or two hours later at trailhead. (7:45 am. 3030 NE Weidler St. Laurent 503-227-2914.) The Adventure Group takes an easy hike at the colossal Lewis River Falls in the foothills of Mount St. Helens. Meet in Starbucks at Hollywood Fred Meyer. (9 am. 3030 NE Weidler St Evan 503-701-7922.) Q-LAND and LoveTribe take a moderately challenging Men's Eco-Hike to Monte Cristo Ridge, a secret place full of rare Columbia Gorge wildflowers, old-growth forest and spectacular views of Mount Adams. Facilitated by a naturalist and Northwest native plant specialist. (10 am. RSVP to 503-223-8822 or www. lovetribe, org/menspirit.) Keshet holds a potluck for all who identify as queer Jews as well as their spouses, partners, significant others and good friends and family, whether Jewish or queer or not. Bring a dish and a bever age. (5 pm David 503-224-7075.) ' MON • JUNE 25 Learn about opportunities to help during the Q Canter Volunteer Orientation. (6-7 pm. 69 SE Taylor St.) Q Center hosts the Queer Trying to Conceive discussion group for women interested in pregnancy every fourth Monday. (7-9 pm. 69 SE Taylor St.) Q-LAND and MenSpirit present Life Circle of a Man, a workshop to help men rediscover their dreams, the play- Warm, Lo-Fi and Fuzzy At first glance, Semper Fi looks like Grizzly Bear is an indie band based in Brooklyn that’s generated considerable buzz during the past few a standard-issue queer confessional with all years for its gorgeous and ghostly elegies, especially with its second album, Yellow House, released last fall on the expected elements: a gay kid growing up Warp Records. The album’s title refers to the yellow house of band founder Ed Droste’s mother, where it was in the Bible Belt and harassed as a “sissy”; recorded. Its 10 eerily timeless songs evoke the peaceful, easy feeling of dozing in a hammock on a honeyed the minister praying for his hetero redemp summer day or leafing through old photo albums, interrupted by sudden surprise bursts of energy. tion; the father who “can’t understand it”; Droste (rhymes the loving mother who gives unstinting with “toasty”), who is acceptance. The opening scene of a some gay and in a long what awkward, and seemingly amateurish, term relationship (and one-man play with the film’s star, Jeff Key, happens to be the in Marine dress uniform talking about his cousin of Pink Martini experiences as a gay soldier seems like some chanteuse thing we’ve heard before. Forbes), is more or The early section of the film explores Semper Fi premieres 8:30 p.m. June 25 on Showtime. China less the band’s front his upbringing, with revealing interviews man but, in typical with family and friends; it’s the kind of “God, don’t let me be gay” narrative that’s depressingly familiar. indie style, shies away Then something unexpected happens. Key quickly emerges as a thoughtful, charismatic man who cannot from rock star self- live inauthentically. He comes out to his parents and eventually moves to California. There, he finds aggrandizement. He’s a new family in the form of loving friends, and shocks them by living a boyhood dream of public service— quick to point out that in this case signing up, at age 34, to serve in the Marines. Soon he’s shipped to Iraq. His experiences there, the both as soldier and gay man, are the meat of the film, and he paints a remarkably vivid, sometimes heart album, unlike its 2004 breaking picture both of the conflict at ground level and his unusual place in it. debut, Hom of Plenty, band’s second Key is a gifted storyteller whose stories are deepened by still photographs and video footage he shot in was written not by Iraq. As in any war, there are sad and startling extremes everywhere. One of the most haunting scenes him alone but collabo profiles Key’s friendship with a 10-year-old ragamuffin who tattoos the Marine’s name on his arm. Another ratively, with contri telling moment occurs when Key and his company realize the “unparalleled humanitarian effort" they’ve butions from all four members. The band recently played a number of festivals, including Coachella, All been told would rebuild Iraq fails to materialize. They desperately dispense M&M’s to the hungry Tomorrow’s Parties in England and the just-concluded Sasquatch Festival in George, Wash. Of these, children leaping around them. Droste says, “Coachella was great just for how huge it was, Sasquatch had the most beautiful scenery, and In a brilliant sequence unfortunately not caponed on film, he tells of meeting a gorgeous Iraqi soccer Grizzly Bear founder Ed Droste (second from left) shies away from rock star self-aggrandizement. we played the best at ATP.” player in the desert and trying to figure out a way to connect. It’s clear there’s an intense mutual attraction— The day I spoke with Droste, he was preparing to entertain friends at his Brooklyn flat and was hav not surprising considering Key’s strapping 6-foot-4 form and rugged handsomeness—and each knows the ing trouble with his Cuisinait. The next day the band was flying to Barcelona, Spain, to take part in the important questions to ask: “Do you have a wife.7” “Nor The Iraqi presses his lips to his palm and holds it Primavera Sound Festival, to be followed by a stateside tour in support of Canadian singer/songwriter Feist, up to Key—a bittersweet stand-in for the kisses they can’t manage to exchange. including a June 26 gig in Portland. Droste says that this will complete Grizzly Bear’s support for Yellow Contrary to the cliché, Key’s queemess caused barely a ripple with his company. Those who claim openly gay soldiers would compromise the unity and trust within the platoon need to watch this film. Not only was Key accepted (after a few homophobic remarks are crushed by supportive straights), he was I louse but that a follow-up has yet to take shape, save for a couple of incipient songs. “I can’t write songs when I’m traveling," he says. “To write music I have to be at home, stationary, in a zenlike, almost catatonic state.” admired, respected and loved by his fellow soldiers, whose interviews are among the most poignant in the The man’s easygoing demeanor is much what you’d expect, at least based on his music. He seems to film. All in all, Semper Fi is a beautifully wrought portrait of a man driven to serve a country that proba take everything calmly in stride, whether it’s hanging out with Paris Hilton, Mika and Peaches at bly doesn’t deserve him. Coachella or making cabbage in a Cuisinart. —Gary Morris Tony LeTigre
