Hold your people close
The 19th week of queer things we’ve been up to and into
We’ve been busy! H is writing a chapter for an academic book about horror fandom and A is preparing for her first solo art exhibit, as well as making some favorite pieces available to buy as prints.
We have been in a weird space thinking about life and loss, friendships old and new, and especially what we value most, as individuals and a couple. Processing the deeper feelings and fears of life simply feels harder when we have a day of loss like Wednesday, saying goodbye to both Kenneth Anger and Tina Turner. Kenneth was one of H’s first beloved queer filmmakers and Hollywood gossip to boot, and Tina Turner was little A’s first fave—plus, we both think… well… she’s simply the best. The world feels a bit dimmer knowing Tina’s gone and we yearn to blast her music on repeat.
Through the challenges, pain, and mourning, we focus on continuing to build a life filled with fabulous, creative queerdos. We aim to hold the people we love even closer and we look forward to the time we can spend with longtime friends and those we haven’t yet made.
Heklina’s memorial. She definitely would’ve hated the love-filled memorial, but we loved it and gathering in grief and celebration is part of the queer community’s history—so we were grateful we could join from our distance thanks to the incredibly well done and wonderfully accessible (including auto-captioned) livestream. There were so many loving, raunchy, hilarious, and perfectly shady tributes and eulogies, from Peaches Christ to Sister Roma, Honey Mahogany to Páll Óskar, Icelandic pop star who hit the international scene when he represented Iceland at Eurovision 1997 (and who came from Iceland to be in Heklina’s memorial with a eulogy and songs, including a cover of Björk’s Hyperballad—go to 03:57:00 in the memorial to see that bit), as well as tons of performances by Heklina’s chosen family. In the words of Pippi Lovestocking: “If she had known her memorial would be such a huge hit, she’d have died three times a month." It was lovely to see so many back-in-the-day photos and footage included in the memorial, including clips of some of Heklina’s roles in Peaches Christ’s drag horror shorts, which H shot on a Hi8 camera, all stirring up wonderful memories and bittersweet feelings.
Putanesca came out of retirement to close out the memorial and stunned us with her cathartic and vital performance to Siouxsie and the Banshees’s “The Last Beat of My Heart.” Might as well have ripped our hearts out and stomped on them (in the very best of ways). Go to 04:13:40 in the memorial link for this haunting, beautiful experience.
Les Cinq Diables / The Five Devils by Léa Mysius. We don’t want to spoil anything about the experience of first seeing this terrific hybrid-genre film with captivating performances, so we’ll tiptoe our way through this recommendation. For starters, this is the sapphic story starring Adèle Exarchopoulos that we deserve (not the other one featuring close-ups of Adèle eating spaghetti, which shall not be named because the director is a giant pile of excrement). Secondly, a karaoke version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” has never destroyed you so beautifully. Also, we’re completely and totally into the recent batch of French films that feature gentle, understated magical realism, from The Five Devils to Céline Sciamma’s wonderful Petite Maman (2021). Just go watch this film and tell us what you think. Really! Tell us! (There’s a comment box below!) We want to talk about this film!
The Other Two created by Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider. The best sitcoms are incredibly funny and entirely ridiculous. And while The Other Two is a great example of both, this show—like the best comedies—makes us laugh while also touching on hard truths of life and relationships. Also, if you watch shows, support the WGA. Shit, support the WGA regardless. Writers and artists and makers and creators deserve to make money and to be treated right. Fuck corporate greed.
Samantha Irby has a new book out, y’all! If you don’t already know (get out from under your rock, FFS), Samantha is HILARIOUS. Bust your guts funny. You can get into her brain with this NPR interview here, but really just go get her book here. It is sure to be a perfect summer read.