Heroes: The Super-Gay White Tigers Really Are Gay!

Okay, I’m believing Perez on this one because I can’t read German, but it sounds like Siegfried and Roy officially came out of the closet to a German newspaper. Did you even realize they were in? Yes, like certain other public figures (who maybe have the initials JF) who everyone “knows” about, they simply ignored the question. But now they answered it!

Good for them. All of America loves the white tigers. I bet there were a ton of folks in the conservative Midwest who saw the show in Vegas and prayed for Roy’s recovery after the tiger attack, even though he and Siegfried are so…colorful.

Maybe now some closed-minded people will have to say, hey, I liked those gay dudes before I knew they were gay, so maybe it’s okay to be gay. Or maybe not. It didn’t exactly work like that for the beloved Liberace. But it’s a start.

I hope the boys are chosen to be the grand marshals for SF Gay Pride this year. We could use a little Vegas on Market Street.

We Watch: Harlan County USA

Last spring, I was on the Netflix four-at-a-time plan and I burned through my stash in about a week (note: SANE). Other than 1940’s screwball comedies and “woman’s pictures,” I clocked a lot of time with documentaries, and my favorite of the bunch was Harlan County, USA.

Barbara Kopple, who also directed American Dreams (about the Hormel Foods strike) and Shut Up and Sing (Dixie Chicks), spent her late 20’s in Harlan County, Kentucky, following miners who were on strike to protest unsafe working conditions, unfair labor practices and low wages.

Throughout the film, the crew is harassed by representatives from Duke Power (called “gun thugs”), who seem too evil to be real, leering out of their pick-up trucks to harass workers they house in shacks without electricity or water. The corrupt union, with a leader who was later convicted of murdering his rival and that man’s family, doesn’t have to workers best interest at heart, either.

The hero of this tale is spitfire Lois Scott, a miner’s wife (and miner’s daughter), who keeps a gun in her bra and convinces a group of women to protest with switches when the company wins an injunction to keep more than 6 (male) miners from picketing at one time.

It’s tragic, scary, funny, thoughtful, and you should see it. Like, today.

"I’ve never wanted anything I couldn’t have."

For the first official wishbone clover interview, we speak with Matthew, who used to be a buyer for our favorite San Francisco emporium of weird, Paxton Gate. When I first interviewed for a job with Knickerbocker, I was unconvinced that corporate life was for me. When I walked into Cat’s dimly-lit office, spied her green nailpolish, and chatted about stationery and monkey skulls, I thought I’d fit right in.

Matthew: Is this the interview now?

Me: Yes.

Matthew: Would you like water or cheap beer that isn’t refrigerated?

Me: Beer. How did you get a job with Paxton Gate?

Matthew: I was living down in Humboldt, a friend came back from visiting San Francisco and said, “I found this place in San Francisco that looks just like your bedroom. It’s called Something Gate.” I was working for a place in Humboldt called Something Gate, so I didn’t think much of it. Then I was traveling through Uruguay and decided to move to San Francisco. On Tribe, I found a job at Paxton Gate listed under the “bizarre” category. I had to jump through a lot of hoops to get it, but they were intelligent hoops.

Me: How long did you work there?

Matthew: 10 months. Hey! I found my fortune! (He pulls out a Mason jar filled with slips of paper from fortune cookies.) In the end, I wanted a life outside of work.

Me: What’s the weirdest thing you were ever offered?

Matthew: A film reel of a monkey being tortured. I purchased a still, but I had to get rid of it. I couldn’t stand to look at it.

Me: Do you shop there now?

Matthew: No, I’ve always had an affinity for finding odd things on my own. Which is probably why I worked there. We really got into taxidermy when a retired captain of industry offered us his collection. He had a warehouse of trophies from his safaris.

Me: What’s the one thing you wouldn’t sell, no matter how much someone offered you?

Matthew: My art. Any of it. That’s a heart in a vial. Vertebrae. A preserved duck heart. Some wings.

Rosalind Russell

Because she was tough, funny, smart and stylish.

Because she titled her autobiography Life is a Banquet.

Because she is Auntie Mame.

Because her eponymous cocktail (two parts Aquavit, one part Noilly Prat) was also created by her. She contributed the recipe to the Stork Club Bar Book in 1946; it’s now numbered among the “101 Cocktails that Shook the World.”

Because she was one of seven children (check: Catholic) from a Waterbury, CT family, and if you’ve been to Waterbury–or even driven near it–you realize what a feat it is to escape at all, much less escape in fabulous heels and shiny brooches.

Because she was a dame.

(Image of Rosalind Russell’s grave courtesy of www.seeing-stars.com)