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October 23, 2006
New Advocate and Progressive Articles
Check out the new Advocate and Progressive articles in the Multimedia section.
Enjoy
October 20, 2006
Don't Get Me Started
The first 15 minutes of Jon Stewart have saved what's left of my political mind many a night. I watch and I sleep a little better. So I was excited to watch Stewart emcee Comedy Central's "Night of Too Many Comics". Wrongo bongo. There were only two women comics - Amy Sedaris and Amy Poehlert - both allowed to sit pretty at the phone banks and both misidentified. The only other woman was Kristin Chenoweth, a fabulous Broadway singer and comic actress who did a number with the insufferable Martin Short. She sang about three bars, he clocked her, she fell to the stage and stayed there for the rest of the bit. It should have been called "Night of Too Many White Male Comics". I couldn't sleep that night.
The next morning I read Bob Herbert's wonderful column, "Why Aren't We Shocked?" in the New York Times, "Degrading women is the rule, not the exception." For days the press is agog and aghast about a Florida representative's inappropriate advances to Senate pages and practically yawns through men's new open season of rounding up schoolgirls and shooting them down. There's only one woman on the Supreme Court. If you look at the sports pages, no women ever play sports. According to the obit page, not many women even seem to die. "Boy crisis"? my feminist ass. Wars everywhere, nuclear threat unleashed, environment deteriorating. If this is the best that guys can do, then it's time for them to get out of the way. The only reason Hillary Clinton could not get elected in this country is sexism. Pure and simple. I tell people I'm for Hillary. Then I like to bust their craven, unquestioned sexist chops. Try it. Mae West's said it best, "Most men want to protect me. Can't figure out from what." Challenge the dominant paradigm. Get hysterical. You'll feel better.
October 18, 2006
It's Come To This! Soundtrack
As we travel across the United States and Canada you have been dancing in the aisles to the It's Come To This! Anniversary Tour soundtrack. Since so many of you have asked about the songs that Kate has chosen for her tour, we thought it was best to pass along the tracks for this music for your soul.
Thank You - Sly and The Family Stone
Groove Is In The Heart - Dee Lite
100% Pure Love - Crystal Waters
Do You Wanna Funk - Sylvester
Hot In Here - Nelly
Got To Give It Up - Marvin Gaye
In Da Club/Beyonce - 50 Cent
Push It ( Remix) - Salt-n-Pepa
Get Up - James Brown
U Make Me Feel - Sylvester
Baby Got Back- Sir Mixalot
It's Your Thang - EU & Salt-N-Pepa
Shoop - Salt-N-Pepa
Da' Butt - E.U.
and while we are at it---
Talkin A Blue Streak Soundtrack
Am I Blue - Bette Midler
Busy Being Blue - k.d.lang
Almost Blue- Diana Krall
Blue Bayou - Linda Ronstadt
Hang On Little Tomato - Pink Martini
Without Your Love I Am So Blue - Lyndon
Am I Too Blue - Tres Chicas
Astral Projection Blues - Jimmie Vaughn
Devil and The Deep Blue Sea - Frank Sinatra
Blues Never Die - Koko Taylor
Blue ( Import) - Mick Jagger
Moody Blue - Elvis
If I Were A Man - Andrea Menard
Damn Right, I've Got The Blues - Buddy Guy
Don't Start Me To Talking - Etta James
Got My Mojo Working - Etta James
Middle Of The Road - Pretenders
October 17, 2006
The Running of the Mulllets
That's what they used to call Ptown's Women's Week, years and years ago. And you know who they are. But this year, with the glorious blue sky, sunny warm days and full fall color spectrum as thier background, the women of Women's Week were mostly mulletless and gorgeous. And from all over the county - Texas, California, Vermont, Staten Island.
You'll be relieved to know that no one was hurt during the Kate Clinton Touch Football Classic. The hundreds of spectators were encouraged to step forward to catch any high flying lesbians veering toward any sort of cement. They all took their job very seriously. The New Hampshire cheerleaders were there with their home made pom poms and willingness to lead the wave. Vicki Shaw, Poppy, Jenny McNulty, Suede, Karen Williams, Suzanne Westenhoffer and many others took turns calling the game on the bullhorn my girlfriend gave me for Christmas two years ago. This year we had jerseys! thanks to the sponsorship of NCLR, the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
Kate Kendell, indefatigable executive director of NCLR was rooting her blue team on, while I rooted my white jerseyed team on. When we switched teams, not that way, there was the lovely viewing of lesbians taking off their shirts. The Battle of the Kates was great fun and ended in, my personal favorite, a tie game. We all went off to the Pied Piper after for rub-downs and post-game interviews.
There were parties, proms, concerts, dinners, tours, shows, sale shopping, and events all over town. I was glad that NCLR was a presence at so many events, because for thirty years their mission has been to defend the rights of lesbians. It is thier visionary, courageous work for so many years that makes events like Women's Week, these thirty years later, possible.
I've stayed in Ptown a few extra days and this week in town, it is Fantasia Fair. Cross-dressing men, often accompanied by their wives, enjoy the welcome mat of Ptown and once again, I am reminded of the promise of sexual liberation. Sure there might be a couple of Pilgrims spinning in their cold, lonely graves, but I am so proud of the people of Ptown. Next for the town that theme weekends built - The AA Roundup, Single Men's Weekend and Holly Folly.
One Day Away from A Private Internet Chat with Kate Clinton
Not to late to get your password-
That's right -- you, other fans, and Kate herself, chatting live online! Here's everything you need to know to jump in on this exclusive intimate evening with Kate.
- CommuniKate Newsletter subscribers received the password in a special edition of CommuniKate. If you're not a subscriber or you lost the email, email us for it now!
- On Wednesday, October 18, 2006, at 9:00pm EST, go to:
http://www.lingr.com/room/5pzGiQKXop6 - Enter the password and hit the "Enter the room" button
- Enter the nickname of your choice and click the "Start chatting" button
- Chat!
October 10, 2006
George Clooney
"Kate Clinton is the lesbian George Clooney."
- Shelly Mars, performance artist
The Fortunate Fall
They say, and you know who they are, that the colors of fall are always in those leaves and it just takes the stoppage of chlorophyll production to let those colors shine through. It was a wet spring, remember those mosquitos? the northern earth has tilted a bit more from the sun, nights are cool. I'm no Kate Nye, the science gal, but the conditions are perfect for a rip-roaring riot of fall colors.
Flying up to Colby College in Waterville, Maine, the earth below was a welcoming red carpet. And the carpet was rolled out by all the folks from the Women and Gender Studies Department, under the direction of Elizabeth Leonard. Many students were in attendance at the show and lots of Maniac gals came out of their little towns to attend the show. It was a great night of celebration.
It was again a pleasure to return to The Theatre at Raritan Community College in New Jersey. Alan Liddell, the theatre director, could not have been more welcoming. The New Jersey audience seemed thrilled not to have to go through a tunnel or over a bridge to see me. My intrepid publicist, Michele Karlsberg and her hard-working posse was there with product and made the evening a very special stop on the 25th Anniversary Tour.
Got back to New York, just in time to celebrate the birthday of my favorite Libra and partner. We all trundled out to the Catty Shack in Brooklyn and danced til we dropped, or actually until we all had birthday cupcakes from Magnolia. Everyone spiked on the sugar, dance frenzy broke out and then everyone crashed. Not as bad as the Yankees. It was a blast. I'm off to Women's Week in Provincetown for more harvesting of laughter. And the Kate Clinton Classic touch football - Thursday, high noon. Bring your pinnies! I'll be in the middle with the bullhorn, touching girls. Appropriately, of course.
Don't Get Me Started
This week we celebrate National Coming Out Day. Started in 1988, it is a day on which you take another step in coming out. After eighteen years of Coming Out Days, I'm almost out of come outs. Every year I come out to my older brother. It doesn't help my totals but it is good practice. Since I moved to New York City from Provincetown, there is a wider pool of random people to come out to. This year I've got my sights set on the unflappable guy at my tiny dry cleaners. Starch? No starch? I'm gay. But after witnessing last week's Mark Foley flame-out and the vertiginous spinning from both parties, the crisp, clean honesty of unambiguous coming out is more important than ever. We have seen the corrosive, confusing effects of the closet on those in and out of it. When we come out, we are no longer willing conspirators in talibanic, puritanical sexual repression. The good news is that sometimes messy coming outs can change the House of Representatives! But does anyone thank us gay people? Nooooooooooooooo. See you OUT there!
October 03, 2006
A Private Internet Chat With Kate Clinton: Wednesday, October 18, 2006, 9:00pm EST
That's right -- you, other fans, and Kate herself, chatting live online! Here's everything you need to know to jump in on this exclusive intimate evening with Kate.
- CommuniKate Newsletter subscribers received the password in a special edition of CommuniKate. If you're not a subscriber or you lost the email, email us for it now!
- On Wednesday, October 18, 2006, at 9:00pm EST, go to:
http://www.lingr.com/room/5pzGiQKXop6 - Enter the password and hit the "Enter the room" button
- Enter the nickname of your choice and click the "Start chatting" button
- Chat!
October 02, 2006
Don't Get Me Started
Whenever I'm in danger of political paralysis - and believe me that's just where they want us - I have to laugh to save myself. As you know I've been talking about being a faith-based comedian for the last, oh say, six years. It's time to make it a part of your daily non-violent political practice. The sit-in was a brilliant political strategy of the civil rights movement. The die-in was a brilliant strategy of ACT-UP. It's time for the Laugh-in. Next time you hear of a pompous lecturer coming to town, have dinner with four or five friends, pick numbers one through five and then go to the event. As yet, security is unable to detect your dangerous weapon. Don't sit together. About five minutes in, at some outrageous statement you hear, the first of you should let go with a whooping large, bend at the waist laugh. Really laugh for a bit, then with a wave of your hand that you are recovered. Five minutes later, the second co-laugher should let it rip. Apologize politely. Repeat. It really gets them off their game. It feels great. You'll be surprised how many people will join in.
"You Rock the Vote"
On Tuesday, September 26 I had a blast at the Lambda Liberty Awards held at the Director's Guild in Los Angeles. I spent the day with my friend Leslie and her nine year old daughter Sophie. As I was leaving for the event, Sophie looked at me and hooted, "Woo hoo - lipstick!" That's the kind of compliment that can send you out the door!
First, out in the lobby, there were hors d'oeuvres going into lots of familiar faces and then the program in the theater. Those Lambda folks know how to get people in and out. I emceed and presented awards to Jackie Goldberg, longtime LA activist and state pol and to Martina Navratilova for her out and outspoken support of justice for GLBT and their pets. It was great to see Martina and I look forward to seeing her more while she is "retired". From tennis anyway.
And it wasn't just because it was so accessible, but I had a great time with the Diversity Group at Prudential in Newark, New Jersey. The event was a networking opportunity for Prudential workers and an information session for GLBT employees and allies trying to plan for their financial futures midst the half-measures of domestic partnership which vary state to state. Since I tend to glaze over when financial planners or insurance people speak, it was good to have my publicist, Michele Karlsberg, there to poke me when my head started to bob. At the dinner after, I loved hearing the stories of the Prudential workers. They like where they work. I still have no idea what "compliance" means, but I'm pretty sure I'm not in it.
I wouldn't dream of speaking for you, just to you, but this really has been the longest six years of my life. I have Bush boredom, not the good kind, in almost paralytic proportions. If we actually do win some advantage in the mid-term elections, I have no faith that they will actually leave in 2008. They love those coup coup kachoos. All we can do is the next right thing, but check out the Laugh-in tactic in Don't Get Me Started. Try it. And work for a candidate and register and vote.
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