Archive for January, 2005

Phoenix Film Festival

January 28, 2005 | Pop Culture

For those of you who live in the Phoenix area, now’s the time to go to Out Far!, the annual international lesbian and gay film festival. It’s actually located in Scottsdale, and runs from February 4th to 6th. Lesbian films include the Gal’s Short Subject Program, D.E.B.S. (which looks hilarious), and Hearts Cracked Open - which features Annie Sprinkle! Tickets for the entire festival are $100, a five-pack of tickets is $45, and you can get individual show tickets for $10 in advance or $12 at the door. Hopefully these films will make a tour of the queer film festivals around the country for the rest of us to see, too!

Network Update: Serafina Sox

January 27, 2005 | CyDy Network

What a nice treat came in the most recent update at Serafina Sox! It features the enchanting Bridgett of RopeLover.com. Her own website is mostly about rope bondage, self suspension, and the like, but her appearance this week at Serafina Sox is all about stockings. While wearing a little underbust corset (my latest obsession) she demonstrates the proper way for a lady to dress up in stockings with garters. According to the blurb on the CyDy front page, next week’s update will include Zille as well! By the way, Bridgett has a LiveJournal if you want to check that out too. (Yes, she posts free pictures there!)

Incidentally, I noticed she has a “corset fund” set up through PayPal. I wonder if anybody would contribute if I did the same thing to get one of these? It would be $212.75 for my current natural waist size.

Postcards from Buster

January 26, 2005 | News Reports

Margaret Spellings, the new education secretary in the Bush cabinet, took office just a couple of days ago and already she is attacking the queer community. My wife sent me a link to HRC’s take action page about this and mentioned that she’d sent an e-mail. It turns out Spellings criticized the PBS show Postcards from Buster for its recent episode “Sugartime!” which featured two lesbian couples.

I’ve seen Postcards from Buster, and it’s pretty darn cute. It’s a children’s show, but it’s good public television and it’s educational - the show presents various cultures from around the world. And yet Spellings has asked PBS to refund a federal grant for the show, and remove any links from the Department of Education to Postcards from Buster. Didn’t I mention this is a children’s show? I haven’t seen the episode, but I’m certain the two couples were quite innocuous and the situation was handled with extreme tact. Unfortunately Spellings doesn’t see fit to conduct herself with similar restraint.

I have to admit, though, I’m not completely surprised. I’ve heard that Bush is filling his cabinet with “yes men” and this is pure evidence of that. Send a note to Spellings and let her know what you think of this outrageous announcement!

Discrimination in America

January 25, 2005 | News Reports

According to the National Gay and Lesbian Task force, 47% of the U.S. population lives in a jurisdiction where discrimination based on sexual orientation is illegal. Only 25% of Americans are in an area banning hate crimes based on gender expression.

So if it’s illegal in nearly half the country to discriminate against gay people, why am I still so worried for the future of this country? Why does the red state/blue state map look so red? What does it mean that red states have laws against discrimination against gays? Are these areas shades of red (dare I say pink?!) or what?

Interesting questions. Who’s got the answer?

School Guidance Counselors

January 24, 2005 | News Reports

School guidance counselors in the state of Indiana are reporting that they are not equipped to deal with the issues queer and questioning students might bring to them. This was almost certainly the case when I was in high school - I didn’t know a single other queer student, and nobody ever mentioned that there was anywhere I could go to discuss it. What were your high school experiences like?

Network Update: darkPlay

January 22, 2005 | CyDy Network

The lesbian news has not been so great lately - women raping each other, burning each other, etc. - so I’m going to kick back and relax with some very hot pictures over at darkPlay. There’s a double update this week, two galleries from the archives of a shoot Zille and Alexi did a while back for another site. Zille is looking really hot in these, very goth/mobster/elegant, innocently (?!) reading a magazine. Alexi comes in looking disarmingly debonair - that hat! those boots! - and proceeds to menace her to great effect. I wonder if they’ve thought of taking up acting? The emotions in this are express really well. Both galleries are super-hot: pure dyke on dyke kissing, molesting, torturing (oh yum)… but just when things are getting good, we have to wait until next week!

OutFlicks

January 21, 2005 | Cool Links

Sorry for not posting for a couple of days - my host did wacky migration things and broke just about everything! Thanks to Volker for the heads-up about it. Anyway, I have a neat link for you today: OutFlicks provides reviews of queer films, written by members of the queer community. Anyone can write a review, and if a movie isn’t listed they will add it for you. Currently there aren’t many movies to review at all, but that’s kind of why I’m posting this link - I think the site has good potential, and I’d like to see more people use it. So check it out, sign up, pick a favorite movie, and write a review!

Harvard President and GPAC

January 18, 2005 | News Reports

GPAC distributed a press release today that criticized Lawrence Summers (president of Harvard University) for his recent comments at the National Bureau of Economic Research conference. Mr. Summers apparently believes that there are biological reasons girls aren’t as good in math and science as boys.

I thought Harvard was supposed to be for smart people!

Network Update: darkPlay

CyDy Network

Hey everybody - sorry for the lack of much updating over the weekend! I wasn’t near a computer as often as I usually am. This week’s update at darkPlay features a video! That’s right, as promised there are more videos coming to dP. This week’s update gives us a real live-action view of Lupa’s appearance in the recent Diesel Dyke series that appeared over the past few weeks. This is one of the hottest dP shoots I’ve ever seen, so if you’re not a member sign up now!

Kitten Coquette

January 15, 2005 | Cool Links

Also via Unscathed Corpse I found the website for pinup/fetish model Kitten Coquette. She’s based in Vancouver, and lets her love of retro looks show up in her pictures. There are many free galleries, with Kitten wearing everything from a French Maid costume to just a pair of satin gloves. She’s a very pretty lady, and her ink work is impressive - I just love the whimsical stars she has across her arms!