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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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

Lesbian video from AfterEllen.com

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!

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.