NOVEMBER 21, 2008 iUStlOUt
25
I
4% Total Commission.
No Kidding
Continued from Page 23
master’s degree and begin his own practice for drug
addiction.
“1 knew I always wanted to empower and create
positive self-esteem in our community,” Kallioinen
said. “Being a public figure and participating in nu
merous fund-raisers and organizations wus a way for
me to raise awareness with love and laughter."
my intellectuality” instead of fixating on his fame
with Mala Noche, he says. As pnxif, he points to
his 35 years on KBOO-FM co-hosting The Talking
Earth, a program about words and ideas. Indeed,
Curtis has been a Portland poetry legend almost,
it seems, as long as he’s been in town (he arrived
to the Rose City from Oregon City in 1959), pub
lishing, reading and ranting his voluminous words
with the zeal of a pulpit-pounding preacher.
WALT CURTIS
WALTER COLE
•
CONGRATULATIONS
ON 25 YEARS
OF SERVICE.
HOPE TO SEE
ANOTHER
25 YEARS PLUS.
BLACKOUT
j|
L eather
P roductions
•
WWW.BLACKOUTLEArHLR.ORG
f.i* st red'/wet
Claim to Fame: Author of the chapbook Mala
Noche, the inspiration for Gus Van Sant’s first
feature film.
So They Say: “I’m the ‘outsider,’ a gay one,
who lived Mala Noche, loved the Mexican boys,
wrote vividly and well about the relationship—and
also about racism which is directed toward Mexi-
cans.... 1 did this in 1977, exposing myself to as
persions and criticisms from all quarters. If seems
somewhat bizarre, bitchy and inexplicable that my
effort wouldn’t he recognized in a ‘gay’ community
newspaper published in Portland.” (February 1990
letter to the editor)
Walt Curtis is digging for magic. In his inner
Southeast Portland basement hovel, he zips from
bookcase
to
corner to desk,
unearthing
Stumptown
queer history
artifacts like
some possessed
archaeologist.
Curtis
digs out some
old
papers
and magazines from the 1970s, with titles like
Willamette Bridge and Portland Scribe, taking care
to point out an article oh early gay liberation,
and shows off some of his early poetry in the
long-forgotten poetry mag Mississippi Mud. Then
he offers up rare finds from his bcxik-scouting
adventures, plucks the strings of a bizarre-
instrument inspired by Harry Partch and points
overhead to an elegant Calder-like mobile made
by an old friend named “Ghost/
Claim to
Fame: Reign
ing producer
of the epony
mous
Dar-
celle XV drag
club.
So They
Say:
“It
worked out for
the best—15 is
a much better number than 14 ” (Oct. 3, on how
Darcelle landed her title as Rose Empress XV)
Who’s Next: Kendall Clawson of Q Center
and Michael Kaplan of Cascade AIDS Project.
Ask Walter Cole to rattle off 40 years of Port
land drag history while he’s sewing 20 yards of
chiffon. Then sit down and let the dazzling show
begin. Cole can spin out an oral history of Port
land gay nightlife with the same type of bravura
flourish he brings onstage to an Ethel Merman
showtune. And just like Merman, he’s all guts,
brass and balls—and some kind of larger-than-life
Portland legend.
The septuagenarian Portland native, propri
etor of the longest continually running drag show
case in the United States, shrugs off the “legend"
status with a wink. “I do what I do. I-suppose if
you live long enough you become a legend, an
icon and those sorts of things—an institution."
But an institution he is: a ubiquitous presence
at most major gay events, especially Portland’s
Imperial Sovereign Rose Court; an indefatigable
entertainer still MCing four nights a week of live
shows at his Old Town club; and, as suggested in
“1 wish that people would talk a little bit about
Continued on Page 28
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