Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Gingers

I've been going to Ginger's since I returned home from college a few years ago. In that time I've only come to know it in it's former glory. Since Cattyshack was opened an avenue and a few blocks away, Gingers, once the ONLY and first GLBT bar in Park Slope has gotten significantly quieter. As such it was the nice laid back bar I went to when I was not in the mood for non-stop, all night dancing. It also always has a nice, mixed crowd as well. Well imagine my surprise when I stopped by this last Saturday and found a nice swell of people. With a DJ to liven things up to boot. While still not as packed and non-stop as Catty, sometimes that's just what a gal wants on a night out.

Ambiance: 2 Buddha Bellies (typical bar)
Music: 3 Buddha Bellies (DJ on weekends, jukebox all other times)
$$$: 4 Buddha Bellies (No Cover!, reasonably priced drinks)
Crowd: 3 Buddha Bellies

Overall: 3 Buddha Bellies A refreshing change of pace from the often packed and loud Cattyshack, Henrietta's and even Cubby Hole. Recommended.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

More L-Word Goodness.

Here are a few videos to help pump up the excitment as the premier date nears. Oh and for those of you who can't make it to any of the HRC L-word premier parties or don't have showtime, Ourchart will be previewing the premier on the site December 30th. Along with the premier there will also be backstage tidbits thrown in for good measure. Be sure to check it out.

5 Things in Season 5


Jennifer Beals Interview.

Friday, December 7, 2007

I Heart Anna Faris

My first introduction to Anna Faris was through her goofy sexy role as Cindy Campbell in Scary Movie. While not exactly a superstar and prone to taking odd supporting roles, I always find myself twitering excitedly when I spot her in the peripheral of any movie. Well last night I got I was twitering with such glee that I would put a chipmunk to shame.

I finally conceded to a friend of mine and watched May, a movie my friend has been a fanatic about since it came out. While I expected an odd story line, cheesy special effects (it's an indie film) and a tragic heroine, what I didn't expect to see was a quirky Anna Faris prancing around. That is, prancing around as a lesbian. A silly come hither, getting tons of play and even owns a cat, lesbian. Oh happy friggin day! While I found the film amusing, I think that I'll just skip all the May parts and go straight (er towards) to the Anna's scenes.

"Shut up you hooker!" ~Polly (Anna Faris in May)

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Jodie, peeking out of the closet...

This week Jodie Foster recieved a Sherry Lansing Leadership award. Durinig Jodie's acceptance speech, in a suprising admission about her personal life, thanked Cydney Bernard, many of whom speculate to be Jodie's long time partner, by stating "my beautiful Cydney who sticks with me through all the rotten and the bliss". This is another step in the right direction, that is, right out of the closet. I for one am elated that Ms. Foster is finally admitting what we all knew and cheered for all along. Now if Queen Latifah would give up the goose...



Gay. And Sherry Lansing.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Gua si Hokkien

This last Sunday, my family's typical food gatherthon night, my aunt asked me to look up a youtube video for her and to show my parents. Quirking an eyebrown at her search word of "Hokkien Funny Song", she explained quickly that she was informed that it was supposedly hysterical. Unfortunately, before she could offer any further explanantion for this odd video search request she had to bounce out of my house, as one of my little cousins started getting rather ill and needed to be herded home. Well, my interest piqued I decided to take a looksee myself. The video appeared to beone of a drag queen performer singing a traditional Hokkien song (which I recognized, as my father insists on importing traditional Hokkien folk music from Malaysia and playing them incessantly in the car...this or his other preferred music choices of Celine Dion, Abba and various country).

While I appreciated the comedic appeal of a drag queen singing tunes from my father's childhood, I didn't really see what all the hoop-la was about,as I am sad to say unable to understand most of it. So I called over my mom to take a look. She spent about 30 seconds watching, before chuckling and claiming she couldn't see anymore. "What? What's so funny? I don't get it?" Was my query to my mom. Her reply, "It's a dirty song. Tsch. Dirty." This lead my mother to urge me to call my dad over to take a look, as Hokkien happens to be his primary language. He also watched the video for about 30 seconds before responding with the same reaction. A bit irked that there was a dirty joke that my parent's got and I didn't (something that hasn't happened since I was 10) I decided to take matters into my own hands. I googled learning Hokkien.

Now for those of you who are not in the know about my personal ethnic heritage, my family is ethnically chinese, but culturally Malaysian. My father's side of the family is almost entirely settled in Malaysia or Singapore, as is the majority of my mothers. While I never realized the extent of my inablity to speak Hokkien the most common Chinese dialect of Malaysia, I didn't realize it was this bad. Well since it bothers, mortifies and annoys me that I can't effectively communicate with half of my family (overseas) and that there's a large component of my cultural literacy missing I have decided to learn Hokkien. I'd also like to point out that it appears that Hokkien is pretty slangy and used in some rather deragotory ways, so hopefully I'll pick it up quick enough.

Note: Apparently chee-bye means vajayjay. Who knew?

Here's the video for those of you who are curious.

Monday, December 3, 2007

Lesbian PSA

One of the few websites that I visit on the daily is the queer women's media site known as AfterEllen.com
. Their daily articles, blogs and vlogs all feature queer women media exclusively and are filled with endearingly geeky humour. I was looking over their site yesterday when this post caught my attention, Lesbians on TV PSA. I was thoughroughly amused by them. Do take a look over at these PSA's (the second one is more "smartass" like than the first)I'm sure you'll get a kick out of them too.


Online Videos by Veoh.com

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Gaysian's Top Five Straight Guestbians

I'm sure all of you ladies are familiar with the sensation of watching, reading, or listening to an artist and suddenly thinking "Wow are they really gay? Or...?" And then wishing really really hard that they were. Well here's my top 5 list of various leading ladies that despite the gay roles, ambiguous lyrics or just sheer cuteness I really wish were "gaydies".

1. Zhao Wei and Karen Mok




Aside from my penchant for trashy lezzie romance novels, I also have a secret love affair with equally trashy and often time cheesy Hong Kong movie flicks. I can sincerely say that the times that these two guilty pleasures of mine ever intermingle are few and far between. Though you'd think there would be more of a call for a seriously badass lezzie martial artist, but regardless, I have to say I was merrily surprised and more than a little disbelieving when I came across this film a few years ago.

So Close

Granted a lot of it is subtext, but the director admitted that it was his aim to create an ambigious cop/criminal relationship with the two leading ladies and I can't help but think that they too agree that it was a good idea.




2. Lynn Chen



Lynn Chen was the second half of perhaps one of the most beloved films, Saving Face, in the East Asian lesbian community. I can sincerely say that Saving Face is one of my favorite movies of all time. The story of an awkward NYC based Chinese lezzie who has to deal with a dysfunctional family and all the while try to get the girl in the end. The very hot girl! Lynn Chen plays the confident, sweet and assured Vivian ::sigh::. The scandal! The drama! The Sugar Shock!
Oh and another reason I love her? In an interview, Lynn admitted to having a mini-crush (and subsequently being nervous about meeting her for the first time) on her co-star, Michelle Crusick, after researching some of the films she had been in. So cute!

3. Jennifer Beals



The L-Word, Alpha-Bette, Tibette Shippers...this woman has a tremendous lesbian following...it's not hard to imagine why.

4. Lily Allen


*Note the practical shoes. Hm.

Hate her or lover her, you can't deny that she has charm. She also has a troll of a boyfriend, but has admitted that she would not entirely rule out getting with another gal. She's even admitted to having some naughty dreams of that nature. My advice to you Ms. Allen, is despite losing some material for all those angry break up songs of yours, if you acted out on some of those dreams, it'd be more than worth it ^_~.

5. Shakira



Okay this may be a throw away, but c'mon you gotta admitt, she's got a "bummy" (butchy femme) charm. Oh and FYI I'm calling the term "Bummy" as mine! I have yet heard it be used in common dyke dialouge, so I lay claim to it, ha!

Saturday, December 1, 2007

The Lezberado

The other week I was introduced to a little video called "Two Girls and One Cup". If you have already viewed this little morsel of internet magic than no other explanation is needed, if you have not...well then google at your own risk. In any event this lead me to further youtube the reactions of some viewers to this video and well amusing as they were, didn't quiet fill the lesbian media viod I've been feeling lately.

In case your curious, this void refers to not having ANY available lesbian tv in my life. And yes I know Dante's Cove season 3 is currently on air as well as Exe's and Oh's, but I don't have Here! and I just can't seem to get into Exe's and Oh's. That may have something to do with Heather Matarrazo's (or Stacey Perkin,aka vagina wig, according to a Jenny Schecter) two toned hair character. That's not to say I don't absolutely love Michelle Paradise and her partner in crime Marie Alton, but their collective charm is not enough for me to get over the collective grimace inducing Kris and Chris phenomenon...and the suddenly apt nickname of Vagina Wig. Sorry ladies, I know this declaration may be gasp inducing, but I don't have to love all things gay.

So returning back to my youtube adventures, I decided to see what was the most viewed L-word video to date. The first was a showtime promo clip and the second was this little vlog by Lezberado, titled Revenge Fantasies. After hesitantly clicking on the link I found myself quite amused, as it's true that there's nothing more cathargic than hating on Jenny. I've posted below another vlog by the deadpan and witty Lezbarado.

"I got hooked because I was, well watching the ladies, who doesn't?" Her ability to unerringly hit the truth astounds me.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Whoo...

Really there are no words to describe how awesome it has been discovering all the nifty tricks and tweeks of my little MacBook. From the new Leopard OS with it's ichat, stacks, spaces and time machine to just how pretty it is, I'm finding myself very impressed. My one issue right now is that it's still a tad akward getting used to the new OS and all the different hotkeys and such. Though that one can only be remedied with time.

Along with my Mac goodness Showtime has also released another offical L-Word trailer. This trailer has a narrative that appears to highlight all of the major storylines for season 5.



Some observations...
Shane's hair is outta control and what is up with this series and trying to add depth to her character by constantly putting different spins on her sexual and romantic relations? You know L-word writers there are other interesting aspects of that character.

Bette is smoking hot...

Did they pull a Sous Chef move and just up and disappeared Mangus, b/c I didn't see any mention or sight of him throughout the entire trailer. Perhaps he got called to a prestigious manny convention over in Paris.

Tina is also looking quite nice this season.

Since when is Jenny capable of actually writing? The fact that the writers are trying to convince me that not only can she pen short fiction and author a novel, but also screenwrite (when all references to her alleged writing ability have always been met with a grimace in my home) is beyond laughable.

Jodi looks like a drowned rat when wet.

Alice is looking cute as always, but please don't dampen her happy chipper character with an overly dramatic and serious love story. You can only do that so many times to our beloved quirky radio host!

Overall the preview promises more campy fun from season 4. My favorite line is "You need to get a daddy..."

My new leading lady.

It's true, I'm starting a new relationship with a younger, sleeker,trendier and better performing leading lady. I've gone over to the dark side...the mac side. After much internal (and external) debate, I finally decided that I would finally make the switch I've been threatening to do for the last few years and have moved on over to the Mac. I referenced 3 magazines, 2 electronic review sites, got a number of testimonials from friends and family, and even had an international email forwarded to me. The answer was clear, overwhelmingly, Mac was the way to go. Two days ago I came to this grandiose conclusion.

So as the gadetphile that I am, I could not resist and headed over to the Soho Mac store last night. After a few questions with a "genius" and his slightly flamboyant but enthusiastic trainee, I found any of my additional concerns to be resolved and made the mucho dinero plunge. I even got a free printer/scanner/copier out of it. Oh happy day.

Well I hauled it home and since I got back relatively late decided that it was best that I left it to tonight to explore. That being said, I still couldn't resist looking up applications and widgets to download. Here are some fun widgets that may come in handy.

Bush Countdown
Countdown for time remaining in office for President Bush. No judgements, just a fun timer to monitor how much time he has remaining. (Though yes I do have judgements and get your mind outta the gutter!)

Cluck the Chicken Widget
Cluck the Chicken will answer any question. Save yourself from indecision. (Indecision is the headline of my life...)

Hula Girl
What Dashboard is complete without a dancing Hula Girl?

Peep Attack Pro
A variation of the Peep Attack Widget, the Peep will randomly change to one of 7 colors after being dropped into Dashboard.(B/c I have a sugar tooth obession with Peeps)

Hah! I can't wait till I get home tonite!
Oh and I fixed the duplicate video link for the L-Word Season 5 Promo in the previous post.

Monday, November 26, 2007

L-Word

If you were to ask any of my friends what my number one pop cultural obsession is I'm sure the majority of them would respond with "Oh, god. Don't start her off. The frigging L-Word." Since the premier of the series in January of 2004 I have been merrily fanatical about this series. Now to be honest the show has had it's ups and downs, but if it's one thing lezzie's are know for, it's for sticking with something for the long haul (and yes as in U-Haul'esque dedication). So in celebration of the 5Th and what appears to me from the promo, very exciting season of The L-Word, here are some vids!



I'm happy to say that I actually have been personally (and no get your head out of the gutter) exposed and a witness to Lesbian Turkish Oil Wrestling. It is a spectacle that everyone should witness at least once in their lives ^_^. Oh and this scene would be ten times better if it were NOT Jenny.

And the official Showtime Promo.



Ack a love triangle! One that I actually care about and not that lame ass Shane+Carmen+Jenny triangle. You know nobody was rooting for Jenny and she never had a chance to begin with. Ugh.

Thanksgiving Lessons

Usually when Thanksgiving rolls around, my family being the all-American Asians that they are, find ways to bridge the cultural gap between our two diverse cultures. This cultural tight-rope walking is done primarily by taking advantage of the holiday vacation time by indulging in the Chinese favorite pastime of gambling. Yes, that's right, gambling. As a result there typically is no gobble gobble feast for me during this holiday, the appetizer holiday of the Holiday season. No, usually my family's predilection for risking their cash at Mah Jong or poker leaves me with not much choice but to feel orphaned at home, with my equally Thanksgiving dinner neglected brother, to brood over the unfairness of an empty stomach.

My friends taking pity of my rather pitiable situation always rise to the occasion and offer me a place to go. One Thanksgiving (about 5 years ago actually) I took them up on it. This year was no different and bunking with them has become a Thanksgiving tradition. I'm happy to report that this year, much like the last five, I am now brooding over the unfairness of being able to cram down only one corn bread pudding slice and the wonder of Thanksgiving left overs. Along with my musings about the size of my stomach relative to the food greediness of my eyes, I have learnt some other life lessons. They are as goes.

1. Grenada apparently has a severe goat problem. Part of the problem being that you can't curry any of these delicious little fellas due to some "conservation society". I am inclined to believe that the removal of this society would quickly lead to a solution to the aforementioned goat problem.
2. I should be wary of cloven hoofed women.
3. Lack of dumplings lead to a lack of goodwill. Typically this is directed at the person who attacked the pot before me, but for these particular food transgressions I know who to send my ill will.
4. Crashing a one-year old birthday party is more acceptable than I initially believed it to be.
5. Babies are racist, especially when they come from the ho's. (One loves dem Asians...the other hates...erm. yeah.)
6. Spoiled cats=Spoiled night's worth of sleep.
7. Apparently I must carry the Ox-tails to glory with my classically trained guitar hero shredding skills.
8. It would appear that no one else has noticed and therefore has not been ironically amused by the fact that our rock band demographic consists of no less than:
1 Asian Lesbian and 3 Trinies (which consist of 1 displaced Trini, 1 faux doctor and 1 "token".)

Thanks once again Ho's for taking in this Atlantic City produced orphan.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Bringing back the 90's!

I have to admitt and I do so proudly that I am an addict of HK dramas. Or at least I was when I had the time for them, back in the day. My grandma, mom and every other subsequent chinese female figure in my life had or has been fanatical about these cheesy HK dramas and that penchant for those predictable, low budget and often time shoddily acted chinese tv shows has passed on to me. I've been following TVB (a major Hong Kong television broadcast company) series since I can remember and some of my fondest memories involve hudling around with my grams or mom, caught in mutual amusement or suspense, while "chasing" (canto slang for determinedly watching episode after episode of a series in order to get to the finale) various series.

I had a pretty isolated childhood. A large three family house to run around in, more or less unsupervised, so with only public access tv as my warm winter companion, my young self happily gobbled up all the HK series I could get. One of my favorite memories was creating a blanket fort in the third floor (it was an old forgotten bedroom my aunts used to use, it had the most awesome tacky beach sunset wallpaper) and settling down at night watching my shows. It felt like I was totally removed from the world, but warm and safe at the same time. Some kids have cartoons, I had HK dramas. My favorite genre (and still is actually) were the comedy "ancient" series. If you're Chinese a number of series should pop into your head, if you're not...well sorry I'm too lazy to explain.

This bout of nostalgia was brought on by my cruising crunchy roll looking for a interesting Asian/anime movie to watch. I was able to find some series from the late 90's, but sadly they were all badly dubbed or incomplete. So this lead me to do a torrent search. Once again, no mas. I am sad to say that I may actually have to try and hunt down these series on DVD, as truthfully, I would like to own some of them. Most of them were produced in the mid to late 90's and I'm rather unsure of how Asian DVD companies release them, if at all. The funny part of all of this is that my family mostly rented these series on bootleg VHS from Chinatown.

Well the hunt for them continues I suppose. The trend now are Korean soaps. I can't say that I'm too impressed by them, though, much like other soaps I can get drawn in...still it's not the same. Ahh well, if anyone has any sites for dl or places I can pick any of these old series up do hollar at me.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Henrietta's Revisted

Henrietta Hudson, the first girl club/bar that I've ever visited holds fond memories for me. My nostalgic magical first time of entering a hazy, dimly lit, woman filled corner of the world was one I will always keep near and dear to my queer heart. That milestone moment of my life was a little over four years ago and since that time I have made myself a bit of a home in the NYC LGBT nightlife.

That was why I was so surprised this last Saturday when I revisited Henrietta's, I realized that the last time I had been there was during Gay Pride 2006, which by the by unless you have a penchant for long lines, being herded like some farm animal by anxious waitstaff, and the ability to weave through the mosh-pit like conditions that surround the bar, it is NOT the optimal time to visit this usually mellow girl club. My buddies for this round of late night revelry were quite diverse. That being said I was a bit nervous about the door policy and the attitude that we would be greeted with at Henrietta's. I was needlessly concerned, because as it turned out, there was no rude "manhandling" (a phenomena that refers to when friendly male friends, gay or otherwise are treated with unwarranted hostility which may include increased door/drink fees or an overall nasty attitude).

As a matter of fact the clientele of Henrietta's was quite diverse itself. We were not the only motley group of friends out partying there that night. The music was decent. While there were a few awkward song transitions and bad song selections, overall the d.j did a great job. It should be noted that the Henrietta's dance floor space is fairly limited. It is actually quite a small space overall. Though the bathrooms were more spacious and cleaner than most of the LWS clubs I had been to before. Drinks were reasonably priced, even though they didn't have any drink specials to speak of. The tap selection was decent. They also have a fenced off area out front that housed a giant, dangerous looking heater to accommodate their smoking clientele. Overall we all had a fun and comfortable night.

Ambiance- 2 Buddha bellies (Why they felt the need to play random music video's on all of their LCD screens was beyond me. Confusing and distracting. Did not add to the ambiance at all!)
Cleanliness- 4 Buddha bellies (A clean bathroom and no sticky surfaces, one Buddha belly away from paradise)
Music- 3 Buddha bellies (Decent selection of music, small dance space)
Cost- 3 Buddha bellies (A ten dollar door fee on Saturday nights, comparable with other bars in the area)
Clientele- 4 Buddha bellies (A fun mixture of ladies and the occasional gent)
Drinks- 3 Buddha bellies

Overall rating- 3 Buddha Bellies- Highly recommended.

Hi Big Great Straight World at Large!

Well this is my second attempt at managing a blog. My first while still in existence, is through myspace, which to be quite frank really fails at being an easy to use or efficient blogging server. So that being said, I have decided to type my rants, reviews, rave and random mental bits here. So enjoy my shameless attempt at indoctrinating you all to the "gay agenda".