A Lezticle

The 16th, 17th, and 18th weeks of queer things we’ve been up to and into.

“They’re baaaack” (at least one person will get this reference).

Yeah, we took some time off… We all need it sometimes.

Photo by José Alberto Guzmán Colón

Heklina: A Memorial (she would have hated this) on May 23, 2023. While we’re still not over the shock of Heklina’s death, we are looking forward to the (hopefully cathartic) celebration of her life. Heklina’s memorial will certainly embody her warmth and raunch. Heklina, a drag icon, altered the course of SF’s queer history, creating spaces for queerdos to find raucous respite and each other. It’s fitting, then, that her memorial is going to be public and that Castro Street will be shut down to accommodate the HUGE public outpouring. For those of us no longer in SF and/or for those of us who aren’t safe to be in large unmasked crowds, thankfully Heklina’s memorial will be streamed live. C U Next Tuesday when we join hosts Peaches Christ and D’Arcy Drollinger for an event sure to have memorable performances and stories all in tribute to a bright light dimmed far too soon. In the meantime, you can read BenDeLaCreme’s Out magazine essay on Drag & Heklina. 

Eurovision. Okay, okay all of our UK and European friends will need to forgive us for just learning this year how very queer Eurovision is… and, yes, while we are just getting on board with something that has been around since 1956, we will be watching this international singing competition for the foreseeable future, certainly as long as it stays so campy and gay. We were both stoked with Sweden’s bisexual (and two time Eurovision) winner Loreen and have been into the “acoustic” version of her winning song “Tattoo” all week. Honorable mentions go to a few others we were also totally into: the oddness of Finland’s performance (this guy sums it up best), the random AF Croatia, and the great showy Germany performance (we are still shocked they came in dead last).

Second seasons. We have been loving the second seasons of a couple of queerrific shows: Yellowjackets and Somebody Somewhere. There are many things that we love about these two shows (that are very different from each other), especially their dynamic portrayals of queer friendship and the meaty and meaningful roles for awesome Gen X actors. That’s all. Watch these shows. 

Lie With Me by Philippe Besson, translated by Molly Ringwald (yes, that Molly). Everyone writing about this beautiful short novel seems to insist on comparing it to other gay stories, but it truly holds its very gay own. The writing is wonderful and the story is aching but sweet.

Huesera: The Bone Woman by Michelle Garza Cervera. If you know us IRL, we’ve probably strongly encouraged you to watch this fantastic debut feature film. We also already encouraged you all to watch this film previously with our back-and-forth about our experience watching it the first time… and we are now encouraging you one last time. This horror film continues to reward with multiple viewings and since it’s now streaming on Shudder, we will be watching it a lot more. (It’s terrible that Shudder misspelled Michelle’s last name—it is Cervera, not Cerveza). 

Hannah Gadsby: Something Special. Hannah insists at the beginning of their new stand-up special on Netflix that it is feel-good… and they didn’t lie! It’s a well-crafted set/arc and an enjoyable hour and fourteen minutes with a clever and hilarious queer artist. We certainly need a lot more of that these days.

“Lipstick Lover” video by Janelle Monáe. Just watch the video if you haven’t already done so and thank us after. This is a short write up because we are busy watching this video. Again. And again. And again…

Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, edited by Carmen Maria Machado. It’s important to occasionally read a “classic” and especially with an understanding of its context and a critical lens from today. Carmilla is THE mother of vampires and a lusty lesbian to boot.

The Boulet Brothers’ Halfway to Halloween TV Special directed by Swanthula Boulet, Dracmorda Boulet, Nathan Noyes, and Michael Varrati. In the tradition of great Halloween variety show specials (one of our faves is the Paul Lynde Halloween Special which we watch every year), this cute special let us have fun celebrating the halfway mark to the unholiest of the high homo holigays. Having a friend who worked on this special only heightened our enjoyment of this fun and campy TV special. 

Linda Perry’s career as a songwriter. A long time ago, in a lifetime that feels far, far away… Linda Perry bought H a drink during a concert at Slim’s (RIP) in SF. Linda talked about her imminent move to Los Angeles in order to give herself another shot in the music industry. It had been quite a number of years since the fame (and ubiquity) of the song “What’s Up?” (1992) with the 4 Non Blondes—and Linda was feeling stagnant. Well, Linda made that move and then made some hits. We spent some time the past few weeks listening to some of the varied hit songs that Linda Perry wrote since she made that move to LA, such as Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” (2002), Pink’s “Get the Party Started” (2001), Céline Dion’s “My Love” (2008), Hole’s “Letter to God” (2010), and Miley Cyrus’s “Hands of Love” (2015). Needless to say, she’s a huge songwriting success. We appreciate Linda’s story as a reminder to ourselves that it’s never too late to follow your dreams, make a move, and/or find an outlet for your art. 

Evil Babylon by the Body Academics (a queer multimedia collective). Here’s to queer collectives creating weird queer art! And here’s to civic funding for queerdo art projects! More of this please! You can’t readily see this film yet because Evil Babylon just had its world premiere, but we want to make sure this film, which is described by the filmmakers as a “a phantasmagorical psychosexual science fiction movie musical masterpiece,” is on your gaydar. You can get into the groove by buying the Evil Babylon soundtrack (Original Cast Recording) here.

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