JULY 15. 2011
ISU M M ER
IU P H 0L S T E R Y
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W W W .J U S T O U T .C O M
A Slow Dance for Fast Times
John Cameron Mitchell brings NYC’s hottest party,
and .a faerie-inspired vision, to the Rose City
BY NICK MATTOS
#
open daily 11 -6 Sunday 12-5
c a llig a ris
natuzzi
nuevo
cam erich
gus m odern
soho co n ce p t
later
ligne pure
bdi
jesp er
greenington
eilersen
1829 nw 25th avenue
T h e re ’s no place
like hip.
“I wrote my first song this week,” John
Cameron Mitchell explains, excitement in
his voice. For someone who’s proven himself
as a director, actor, producer and dancer, and
who is perhaps most famous for writing and
directing the story of a transgender rock
musician named Hedwig, he sounds surpris
ingly pleased by this recent musical develop
ment. “A friend of mine encouraged me,” he
continues, “but I’ve never really written a
song before. There’s always something new
that can come out of you.” Innovation and
surprise, with a little help from your
friends—exactly the vibe that Mitchell cre
ates at his celebrated New York City party
Mattachine. On August 6, Portlanders will
get a taste of how innovative old school can
be when Mitchell brings the party, and its
vision of ethical and creative homo culture,
With this intense undercurrent of nostal
to Mississippi Studios.
gia, some young queers may think that Mat
Three years ago, Mitchell teamed up tachine sounds a bit like your father’s gay
with Justin Bond, PJ DeBoy and Paul Daw dance night. Au cotitraire, asserts Mitchell.
son to start Mattachine as an underground, “You know, there’s this sort of ageist thing in
unadvertised party at the nation’s oldest gay the gay world that gets on our nerves,” he
bar, Julius in New York City. The party explains, which runs counter to the party’s
quickly gained a devout following for its stated intent of “promoting ethical gay cul
distinctively creative vibe, unlike anything ture everywhere.” But what exactly is Mitch
else in the scene at the time. “We at M at ell’s notion of ethical gay culture? “It’s just
tachine have an old-
promoting a good vibe—
“It’s
just
promoting
a
good
school style—we play a
respecting everybody, all
lot of old music, kind of vibe— respecting every
ages, all genders, making
keep it mostly pre-1984
up your own gender, keep
body,
all
ages,
all
gen
with a little new stuff too,
ing it relaxed,” he says.
but we avoid club music,” ders, making up your own
“That’s the ethical part—
he explains. “It’s a Ma
everybody is welcome, so
gender,
keeping
it
relaxed.
donna-free and Gaga-free
please be friendly. Get off
zone. We play a lot of old That’s the ethical part—
your phone! Look people
soul and country and
in the eye!”
everybody
is
welcome,
so
classic rock, New Wave.
Mitchell
continues:
We ll even play LCD please be friendly. Get off
“Being queer is a privilege
Soundsystem once in a
in that you have to ques
your
phone!
Look
people
in
while, but we avoid the
tion everything you’re told.
clichés of gay bardom.”
You see a lot of queer peo
the eye!”
One of the most un
-JOHN CAMERON MITCHELL, ple questioning less and
usual elements of Mitch
ON MATTACHINE less. Unfortunately, the
ell’s devotion to the old
price of acceptance is me
school is shown through a dance that many diocrity, which is better than the way it was
haven’t swayed through since junior high. but eventually there’s going to be as many gay
“My specialty is slow dancing,” he explains, Republicans as there are straight Republicans.
“which is something a lot of gay people—or Selfishness is a trait that humans have a prob
anyone really, nowadays—just didn’t experi lem with. So, the ethical part is self-respect,
ence unless they were 13 and perhaps danc and respect for others—not judging, not cor
ing with someone that they didn’t want to ralling yourself into a category. No sheeplike
dance with. I’m rediscovering and reclaim mentality that says that you need to identify
ing the slow dance, which was very impor yourself with endless thumping music, or the
tant to me as a 13-year-old deejaying in my haircut that you have, or your body hair, or
basement, playing Barry Manilow and Teddy your size. Those things are based on fear.”
Pendergrass and then bumping up to Boston
With his talk of fearlessness and remak-
and the Sylvers."
ing gay culture into something loving and
MARK TUSK
JULruc
AUGUST 11
John C am eron M itchell (center) in the
DJ booth at Mattachine in NYC with PJ
DeBoy and Amber Martin.
ethical, Mitchell sounds remarkably like his
hero, Harry Hay. “I’ve always been very in
terested in him,” he says of the early gay
rights activist who was a founding member
of the Mattachine Society. “I never met him,
but strangely I did go to his memorial, which
was very beautiful, and met his partner of
many decades [John Burnside]. John told a
story about their relationship: Every night
before they went to bed, Harry would tell
him that he loved him. On the last night
before he died, Harry couldn’t speak, but he
told him the same thing with his eyes. John
described it as ‘unendurable,’ ‘an unendur
able love,’ which was a strange way to put it,
but it’s made me fascinated with him.”
Beyond the tenderness of Hay as a lover,
Mitchell also appreciates the great variety of
other roles Hay played throughout his life.
“He had so many guises,” he says, “and I re
ally appreciate that he’s one of the American
heroes that we won’t hear being recognized
because he was queer. He won’t get the sort
of recognition that women’s suffrage activ
ists or civil rights activists get because he
was queer.”
One guise of Hay’s that has proven par
ticularly influential to Mitchell was his role
as founder of the Radical Faeries. Mitchell
has been involved with the Faerie community
for decades, and cites the Faerie sensibility as
a major inspiration behind 2006’s sex comedy
Shortbus. The idea for the tour even came
through the Faeries: Mitchell and his Mat
tachine mates (including Portland’s own
Amber Martin) brought the West Village
party down to a Radical Faerie sanctuary last