The Gayest Thing I could possibly post today...

Madame Lives!!!

If you're a Geigh over the age of 40 you probably have fond recollections of Wayland Flowers and his delightful wooden friend, Madame. They were one of the few visible gay/camp icons on tv in the 70's and 80's and any drag queen who grew up in that era has stolen a bit or two from the Great One, (who herself borrowed freely from Auntie Mame and Norma Desmond). Sadly, Flowers died of AIDS in 1988 and Madame was forced into the what seemed a permanent retirement...

Today I learned, via the website PopBytes (http://popbytes.com) that "handler" Joe Kovacs has resurected the Divine One from her rosewood and satin lined coffin and has begun making appearances in New York in a show called "Madame and Me". You can check it out at Madame's website: http://madameandme.com/

Puppets of the non-Muppet variety seem ridiculous and tacky, but Madame really was a great character; bitchy but funny and generally warm-hearted. There are clips of her old short-lived sit-com on YouTube and you can check out a pre-pubescent Corey Feldman as one of her co-stars.

I'm hoping she'll come to Seattle, but I don't think she'll get a good reception in a town that prides itself on being hip and jaded...

This pretty much says it all.

Avenue Q is a very funny and charming show...

and I'll be the first one to admit that these two clowns have a strong influence in my life, despite the fact they recently became Scientologists...Sadly, I take their advice on a daily basis.

Another humorous note from the show we saw on Sunday night; my brother recognized an actor in the show from his headshot in the programme. The guy had been posting sex ads pretty much every day he was in Seattle on the website, Bear411.

And used his headshot, which I find lazily ironic.

Scary Motherfuckin' Shit...as seen on Juxtapoz.

This is the work of the demonically twisted Kansas City photographer, Joshua Hoffine. These are NOT Photoshopped images but actual photographs using sets, costumes and extensive make-up effects and props. Check out his website at:

http://joshuahoffine.com/splash.html

Best. Website. Ever.

I typed in "Gay Ken Doll" in Google image to find a picture of the actual Gay Ken Doll that I own to show to a friend of mine, (it's really Earring Magic Ken, but it's still really, really fucking gay...) and I discovered an image from this website: http://www.ultrasparky.org/poseablethumbs/main.html

Why didn't I think of that? Really well done and strangely erotic...

UPDATE: Duh, this guy had his art on the cover of the Stranger last fall!!

Notes from the Underground:

I'm still alive...still grumpy...not prone to posting much. I guess it's a futile protest against this dreary weather.

Also, my life is boring.

I did the John Waters lecture at Benaroya last week. I loved the Master's profane one man show/stand-up act but I have an embarassing confession to make. That was my first visit to Benaroya Hall and I've lived in the area since November of 2000.

Oh, and I hated the interior design of Benaroya. I'm not sure if it should be compared to a midsize regional airport terminal, a Methodist university lecture hall or one of those big, new, scary, suburban megachurches normally presided over by the likes of Casey Treat. Whatevers, it was fuckin' bland, boring and beige. The only bit of oomph was the Chihuly chandeliers (and I'm not a big Chihuly fan) and those were situated over the lameass food court area. And the acoustics were weird in there. I could hear John Waters just fine, but all the house noise, (the laughter and applause) bounces back in a series of time delayed waves. I know that the audience noise isn't important, but it WAS off-putting.

Maybe I'm overly fussy, but shouldn't Seattle have a kick-ass symphony space to go with our kick-ass library? It seemed a little more suitable for Boise or Spokane than Seattle...