(MK SCOTT) MK catches up with the Legendary, Joey Arias as 'Lightning Strikes' Seatte!

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by MK Scott

When I met the legendary, Joey Arias, in October 2010, I really felt the magic of someone special. Right before, the screening of her Documentary, 'Arias with the Twist', the story of his life and the eventual collaboration, with Famed Puppeteer, Basil Twist, I witnessed the on-camera interview from our special contributor, Adrian Ryan. Arias has seen it and been part of it and has traveled all over the world. The show, Zumanity,  that I saw in Vegas, while on Tour in 2011, was created for him (Edie the Entertainer has assumed duties)! When I heard that Arias was returning to Seattle with his touring show (with original composer, Kristian Hoffman), at REbar this weekend, I know I wanted to personally do this interview. Enjoy!

HEAVEN SENT: Christopher Hitchens Dead at 62!

Author, intellectual, and firebrand atheist Christopher Hitchens has died at the age of 62 after a long fight with esophageal cancer. The British-born writer, who had lived in Washington DC since 1982, chronicled his illness with the same caustic insight he directed at targets including Bill Clinton, Mother Teresa, and Henry Kissinger, and scoffed at the idea that terminal cancer would change his mind about religion, NPR notes. Hitchens, who wrote 17 books, was a radical leftist in his early days but shifted to the right over the years and became one of the left's fiercest critics after the September 11 attacks. His greatest passions, friends say, were politics and argument—as well as drinking and smoking. "There will never be another like Christopher,” said Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair, where Hitchens was a columnist for nearly 20 years. “A man of ferocious intellect, who was as vibrant on the page as he was at the bar. Those who read him felt they knew him, and those who knew him were profoundly fortunate souls.'"

RIP, Gay Journalist and Activist Paul Varnell Dies!

Journalist and activist Paul Varnell has died, The Windy City Times writes that Varnell died from pneumonia and a stroke, and posts a lengthy article on his accomplishments and personality: Varnell held nontraditional jobs and began his activism in full force in Chicago. He was a board member of Parents and Friends of Gays in Chicago from 1983 to 1984; chaired the Media Committee of the Illinois Gay and Lesbian Task Force from 1983 to 1990 ( for part of that time he was also IGLTF's research director ) ; was a member of the Chicago AIDS Task Force from 1982 to 1990; was a co-founder of CARGO, the Chicago Area Gay Republican Organization, in 1984; and helped to promote the Gay History Month founding in 1994 ( some sources list him as co-founder, but he was not a founder of the event, though he was very supportive of the efforts ) . 

DO IT: Dylan McDermott Won't Mind if You Hit on Him!

American Horror Story's Dylan McDermott talks to The Advocate's Brandon Voss about his favorite roles, his nude scenes, and his comfort with gay men.

McDermott says he has no problem with the show's overt sexual content, or with guys hitting on him: "I’ve never been uncomfortable with sexuality. That goes back to my growing up in New York in the ’70s, which was a very sexual time. I was sort of a club kid, and I’d go to places like the Mudd Club and Max’s Kansas City. Being a part of that whole world, sexuality always seemed very normal to me....Honestly, I’m cool with everyone, and people pick up on that. I’d say, 'I’m not gay, but it’s all good.' It’s kind of like going to Paris when you don’t know the language; some Americans get into trouble over there, but I’m just like, 'Sorry, I don’t speak French.'"

He does all his nude scenes:
I knew going into it that there was nudity and that a lot of people would be watching, so I knew I had to be in really good shape. I’m no fool, so I hit the gym and watched what I ate. Actually, when I first got the role, production called me and asked, “Who’s your body double?” I said, “Oh, hell no. It’s going to be all me, baby.”

ICON: Farewell To Barbara Grier, Pioneering Publisher Of Lesbian Books!

Farewell to Barbara Grier, a brave and resolute woman who had the wild idea to begin a serious lesbian publishing house in the dim and unenlightened January of 1972. The resulting company, Naiad Press -- which Grier co-founded with her lifelong partner, Donna McBride, as well as Anyta Marchant and Muriel Crawford -- became the biggest and most important lesbian publishing house in the world.

From the Los Angeles Times: By the time it folded in 2003, it had published more than 500 titles by authors such as Rita Mae Brown, Katherine V. Forrest, Jane Rule and Sheila Ortiz Taylor.

"She created Naiad Press because the mainstream would not publish any of our books," Forrest, whose career was launched by Naiad in 1983 with the publication of her novel "Curious Wine," told The Times on Friday. "Her accomplishments are just monumental, given the obstacles she faced. There was such virulent homophobia. Barbara was nothing if not fearless."

ICON: Pioneering Gay Activist and Advocate Co-Founder Aristide 'AJ' Laurent Dies at 70!

Aristide 'AJ' Laurent has died. He co-founded The Advocate in 1967 and participated in many gay rights protests, the San Diego Gay and Lesbian News reports: Everyone on the paper used pseudonyms, he noted. “It was dangerous to be a ‘pervert’ prior to the liberation movement. You didn’t use your real name for fear of reprisals, not only harassment by the LAPD, but the ever-present possibility of losing your day job, family and friends,” he wrote in a 2007 blog marking the publication’s 40th anniversary.

Some of his early activism: In 1967 he participated in pre-Stonewall “Black Cat” protests against police harassment of gays. In the 1980s, he was part of the ACT UP movement that fought indifference to the AIDS crisis. In 1993, he attended the historic gay march on Washington. But it was an act of charity that got him in trouble with the Los Angeles Police Department.

In 1975 Laurent was one of 40 arrested during a charity “slave auction” benefiting the Gay Community Services Center held at the Mark IV Bathhouse in Hollywood. The raid, which deployed more than 100 officers and cost a reputed $150,000, became a public relations disaster for the police and a rallying point for the gay community. Felony slavery charges against those arrested were later dismissed.

Laurent was 70 and died after a long illness, according to the paper.