http://www.metroweekly.com Weekly gay publication of Washington, DC including features on news, arts, politics, lifestlye, film, music, as well as events calendars, classifieds, home ads and free personals. en-us http://www.metroweekly.com/xml/mw_logo_small.gif http://www.metroweekly.com webmaster@metroweekly.com http://www.metroweekly.com/feature/?ak=4354 Crowd of Pride partiers at Charles and Eager Streets in Baltimore ''We need more love in the world,'' Amber shouted from Baltimore Pride's main stage last Saturday evening, June 20, using her headliner status to inject a bit of passionate politics with pointed barbs for Proposition 8 and support for the protestors in Iran.
It was a well-received injection, as pride celebrants felt both the love and the beautiful weather at the 34th Annual Baltimore Pride -- although the latter was never guaranteed.
''We dodged a bullet with the weather,'' says Craig Wiley, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Baltimore, the organization presenting Baltimore Pride. Forecasted thunderstorms and heavy downpours never materialized Saturday night. Instead, there was a slight breeze and a largely clear-blue sky. ...more]]> Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.metroweekly.com/gauge/?ak=4353 Frank Kameny in the 2009 Capital Pride Parade Fifty-two years after being fired from the federal government for being gay, Frank Kameny has now being honored by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for his accomplishments as a gay-rights pioneer.
''I would not have been able to accomplish what I have in my career without all of Frank's work,'' said OPM Director John Berry, the highest-ranking openly gay appointee in the Obama administration, at the June 24 ceremony. Berry's agency is the successor to the U.S. Civil Service Commission, the agency whose policy against gays in the federal government resulted in Kameny's termination.
Berry presented Kameny with a letter officially apologizing for the firing. ...more]]> Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.metroweekly.com/gauge/?ak=4355 Sitting on the back of his Toyota Corolla, framed by a rainbow sticker and an HRC decal, is his new ''boy4boy'' license plate, just a few months old.
''My last plate was 'hotboyz,''' says Antommarchi, ''but I got that with my ex-partner, and it was time for a change.'' ...more]]> Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.metroweekly.com/gauge/?ak=4356 It's the name of the man who attacked him last summer during an incident that Howard does not recall, due to the concussion he suffered.
''All I remember is leaving the club,'' says Howard, a 28-year-old manager at a college bookstore in Fairfax. The club was the Roxy in Boston, which hosts a gay night on Saturdays. ...more]]> Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.metroweekly.com/arts_entertainment/film.php?ak=4362 Petr (Pavel Liska) has left Prague behind to teach at a small country school, working for a principal who doubts that he will make it outside the big city. But rather than miss the life he left behind, Petr quickly falls into the rural routine, sleeping in piles of hay and befriending the simple, hard-working locals. Whether Petr is running away from something or towards something is not immediately known. What is clear is his incredible loneliness.

'The Country
Petr soon befriends Marie (Zuzana Bydzovská), a neighbor who, despite her often-troubled son, the never-ending work on her farm, and the lack of available water, is still capable of smiling broadly and appreciating the simple things -- like the smell of last year's hay. Petr and Marie's friendship is beautiful and painful to watch, because she is falling in love and he is gay. ...more]]> Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.metroweekly.com/arts_entertainment/music.php?ak=4364 Months before release, Fergie teased that the album would be its most energetic. ''A lot of the BPM's being higher has helped my workout,'' she joked to Entertainment Weekly. The songs are mostly consumed with partying and getting drunk -- health and fitness isn't really a lyrical driver here. Still, Fergie wasn't lying: The title stands for ''The Energy Never Dies'' -- and this quartet, which constantly raps about making music ''to infinity,'' isn't about to call it quits. The album may not be continuously mixed, but the songs often bleed into one another. It registers with as much impact and inspiration as any DJ-mixed dance compilation. The music is also uptempo and varied enough that, as with Fergie, chances are your workout will be enhanced.

B.E.P. to Infinity
There's an undercurrent of French house on the album, in good measure because one of France's leading house producers, David Guetta, is on board for several tracks. This includes the band's current hit, ''I Gotta Feeling,'' which launches with a simple guitar riff straight out of the Max Martin/Kelly Clarkson playbook, before turning into modern Euro-pop, with builds and twists inspired by progressive house. ...more]]> Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.metroweekly.com/arts_entertainment/stage.php?ak=4361 But for those of us who prefer their Shakespeare unadorned, whose idea of seeing it live is to be drawn inexorably into the language -- and in the case of Lear, the unfolding of a particular kind of madness -- these rather too clever trappings are a frustration. Though we would like to spend our time with these actors, savoring their interpretations, seeing what they can bring to this disturbing tale of familial destruction, we are thwarted. Barraged with an endless stream of exciting props, ostentatiously choreographed violence and culturally charged fashion, we end up doing little more than playing catch-up to our emotions. Lear needs spaces and silences, director Robert Falls gives us far too few.

Keach in 'King Lear'
Mostly holding his own amid the stimuli is a grizzled Stacy Keach in the title role. Unlike the pared down Frost/Nixon, in which he offered emotion with the hunch of a shoulder and the flex of his jaw, here Keach must play it way larger than life just to avoid obsolescence in this crash-boom-bang of a production. But how, under such circumstances, can anyone hope to generate the pathos Shakespeare so carefully weaves into the disintegration of this huge and powerful personality? ...more]]> Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.metroweekly.com/arts_entertainment/stage.php?ak=4363 Urban or not, the Cardiff of Peter Gill is populated by closely knit, hardscrabble people, making due during his post-war era childhood, and flavored with the isolation and homophobia he experienced.
Unlike previous works by Gill, however, Cardiff East takes place in contemporary Cardiff over the course of one day, following three storylines, each of a different generation from the same gritty neighborhood. The play doesn't focus exclusively on gay themes, but one storyline follows two young men in a burgeoning romantic relationship. ...more]]> Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.metroweekly.com/nightlife/clublife/?ak=4359 But that's just one of several special events being thrown around town over this year's long holiday weekend. Friday, July 3, has been designated a federal holiday, so it's a day off for most. To help kick it off, on Thursday, July 2, starting at 9 p.m., EFN Lounge becomes a ''country western paradise,'' with drag queen Destiny B. Childs playing Carrie Underwood. This Stomps and Stripes Forever party will help usher in the IAGLCWDC's Hoedown 2009, taking place all weekend at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill. That same night, the Green Lantern hosts its popular Shirtless Men Drink Free event, from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. From midnight to 1 a.m., after its regular best-package contest, the bar will offer ''late night happy hour'' discount prices.

Meanwhile, Town launches a new monthly Thursday night party, dubbed ''WTF?'' DJ rAt, Summer Camp and Ed Bailey will all spin at this party, intended to bring together everyone. ''We're trying to take it back a little to an early '90s club-kid era of craziness,'' says Bailey. ''What some people romanticize about Tracks.'' Town has also teamed up with the alt-queer party Taint at DC9, which will throw a Lady Liberty Taint that night. A $10 wristband provides access to both parties. Cover is $5 each otherwise. ...more]]> Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.metroweekly.com/gauge/commentary.php?ak=4357 That does not get the president and his staff -- including senior folk at DOJ -- off the hook. Even conceding that the president has to defend the law on the books despite favoring its repeal, the DOJ brief goes beyond the call of duty with illogical and insulting arguments. There is a claim that DOMA is not discriminatory because a gay person can marry someone of the opposite sex, and a claim that federal neutrality on state law requires it not to recognize same-sex marriages, whereas in fact the federal practice is to recognize state choices.
Gay legal commentator Dale Carpenter writes, ''Of most interest is what the DOJ has to say about the due process and equal protection claims, rejecting just about every single variation of an argument that gay-rights scholars and litigants have made over the past 30 years.'' ...more]]> Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.metroweekly.com/domestic_partner/horoscope/?ak=4358 Aries: If you can't stand the heat, get out of the area. If you can't stand the introspection, busy yourself with new projects and old acquaintances. If you can't stand the direction your life is taking, stand at the crossroads and follow the toss of a pebble. Persuade, don't push.
Taurus: Isn't it amazing how much one comes to rely on the little daily things to get one through the tough times and the dull? Isn't it amazing how much one may take for granted without noticing the assumptions? Isn't it amazing how it all adds up? Call on Friday. ...more]]> Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.metroweekly.com/domestic_partner/spree/?ak=4360 Cuffs and Stuff
Why stop with your home when you can primp yourself, too? Try the rustic cuff for $54.95 for a bit of butch, paired with the distressed leather belt with wooden buckle for $74.95. The locally made cufflinks are $120, bracelet with moonstone amethyst for $89.50, or knitted sterling bracelet for $60. And a bit of billiard ball never looked so good, hanging here from a sterling necklace for $140.
Boogie Woogie Bookends
Nothing says reliability and determination like Rosie the Riveter. Let Rosie prove that's she's got what it takes to secure your titles for the duration with these stone-resin beauties inspired by America's WWII factory home front. The set sells for $39.95. ...more]]> Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.metroweekly.com/domestic_partner/family/?ak=4365 That's a motto Tim Williams had to accept growing up in his parent's home in Southeast Georgia.
''My mom used to always tell me, 'When you get a house of your own, you can keep your animals in the house.' And that's exactly what we do.'' ...more]]> Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT