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Gossip from
across the pond
Warren Allen Smith
talks this month about suing God, hairspray
and wigging out, Matthew Mitcham and
remembers the late Jean-Marie Gustave Le
Clezio.
God in the
dock
In 2007, State Senator
Ernie Chambers, in Omaha, Nebraska,
sued God for having made terroristic threats
against him and his constituents, as well as
having inspired fear and caused “widespread
death, destruction, and terrorization of
millions upon millions of the Earth’s
inhabitants”.
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Ernie
Chambers
sues God |
But, on 15 October 2008,
a Nebraska District Court judge threw out
the lawsuit because the defendant was not
served a legal notice. Judge Marlon Polk
wrote:
Given that this court
finds that there can never be service
effectuated on the named defendant, this
action will be dismissed with prejudice.
Ergo, and as
Hamlet’s clown would add
se offendendo,
God cannot be served in Nebraska, except if
you get out of its public buildings and into
its holy buildings.
Naked truth
Harvey Fierstein, at the opening
night of Hair at Shakespeare in the
Park, an outdoor production staged in New
York City’s Central Park, was asked if he
would go nude onstage. Fierstein, the
atheist and humanities humanist who in 2003
starred as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray
and as Tevye in the 2005 revival of
Fiddler on the Roof, responded to the
magazine New York (25 August 2008):
Oh, honey. In 1972, I
was in Satyricon at La Mama,
and we were all naked. I held a jewel in
my anus. We had a big orgy scene where
we wore glow-in-the dark penises and
vaginas. We held them up in the air
while we actually had sex onstage. I
don’t know how you can get more naked
than that.
Did you
see . . .?
Did you see coverage of
the Beijing Olympics during the summer?
What you definitely did
not see on NBC was that, when
Australian Olympic-diving champion
Matthew
Mitcham won his gold medal, no
mention was made of his being gay, nor were
shots shown of his kissing and hugging his
long-time partner Lachlan Fletcher.
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Matthew
Mitcham with Lachlan Fletcher |
Of course, NBC have since
apologised, though a little belatedly, but
if you were unlucky enough to be watching
their coverage, that’s little comfort!
However, a quick surf on
line will lead you to tribute videos,
including showing Mitcham’s
Olympic-Gold-winning final dive, the
celebration afterwards where he hugs
practically every other diver, the
medal-awards ceremony and the lad jumping
into the stands to give his flowers and a
kiss to his partner, Lachlan Fletcher.
Under the
sheets
It’s New York, not Paris,
that’s recently been burning in an
off-Broadway drag show entitled
Wig Out!.
Its dynamic actors
reminded one of the 1990 documentary film
Paris is Burning, which described
the ball culture of poor African-American
and Latino gay and transgendered people who
engaged in drag balls that involved contests
in new-way and old-way vogue dancing.
In the first of two acts,
we met five males who live in the House of
Light, two who live in the House of
Di’Abolique, The Fates 3 (gals who explain
the action in song, much like a Greek
chorus), and Eric, a seemingly straight
handsome guy who is tempted to come out.
In Act II, we saw the two
houses engage competitively as they “walk”
the runway and are judged on appearance,
dance skills, costume, and attitude. With
laughter and tears, the audience marvelled
at the elaborate costumes, the consummate
performances by every actor, and the
unexpected conclusion.
Vogue is in
vogue
In November 2008,
Tarell Alvin McCraney’s
play was shown at the Royal Court Theatre in
London. Since opening at the Vineyard
Theater on 30 September to rave reviews, the
play sold out nightly and closed in
November.
To get ticket holders
back to their seats after the intermission,
a several-hundred-pound femme queen dished
individuals who were late or eating,
“shading” or “dissing” them so the show
could go on.
Straights were shocked.
Gays and lesbians were picking which person
they wanted to meet afterwards at the stage
door (like Erik King, Clifton Oliver, or
Andre Holland, the last of whom, if you sat
close to the stage during the nude sex
scene, you could see under the sheet).
The dancers in the New
York showing of Wig Out! are as good
as or maybe even better than those shown in
the YouTube link above. Vogue is in vogue!
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Jean-Marie
Gustave Le Clezio |
Visit Philosopedia
for a quick read about
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, the
author who won the Nobel Prize in literature
in October. I distinguish between
dues-paying Humanists and humanities
humanists, you’ll note.
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