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Have you ever seen a man so overtly masculine that you felt you could almost smell his musky manscent from across a busy street? Or men with backs so wide that they have to walk into rooms sideways? I’m talking, men so hulking that their clothes constantly tear away to tatters leaving them in only a well-worn jockstrap. These are the hulking, hairy and heavily tattooed men that Michael Alago photographs and calls “Rough Gods”.
Michael Alago
This article first appeared in Baltimore OUTLoud on Jan. 1, 2009
If you’ve been out in Baltimore and happen to see a beautiful woman dressed like a canary and swinging from a trapeze, you were probably at the Club Charles on a Saturday night watching Nikki LeFaye. Or maybe you’ve seen her in one of her other incarnations, such as Joyce DeSalvo, a gaudy middle-aged singer and travel agent to the stars. No matter what character she happens to be, it is impossible not to take notice.
NIKKI as The Virgin Mary Read the rest of this entry »
This article first appeared in Baltimore OUTLoud on Dec. 18, 2008
Baltimore has more nicknames than any other city in the world. That’s certainly a more likely statement than saying it’s the “Greatest City in America” as our city benches proclaim. Mobtown, Charm City, Harm City, Armpit City, Bulletmore, Crabtown, Monument City, Birdland, Ravenstown, Tiny Town, The City of Firsts, and Bodymore, Murderland are just a few of the names that are used to describe our fine city. But it’s the innocuous nickname Smalltimore that resonates with most of us on a regular basis and that’s what makes writing this column so fun.
This article first appeared in Baltimore OUTLoud on Nov. 21, 2008. Additional photos are posted here.
By nature humans are gluttonous. If given more than their share, they will certainly take it. Hoard it. Own it. Consume it. And in an era where the internet offers up every conceivable type of perversion, we now want to possess those as well. It starts with online exhibitionism as a rite of passage and accelerates to bolder acts and more extreme interests. If this increasing sexual gluttony were made into a film, it may end up looking a little like 29 Needles by S. Philip G.
S. Philip G. on the set of 29 Needles
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BUCK ANGEL WASN’T ALWAYS AS HAPPY AS HE IS NOW. In darker days he traveled the world as a high-paid fashion model, living the dream of countless young men and women. The only problem was that Buck was booking jobs as a woman and his mind, body and soul screamed out that he was a man. Buck is a transsexual and was going through the classic mind-body struggle that effects so many transsexuals. To some, the mantra is, “Change or die.” and Buck was ready for big changes.
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This column first appeared in Baltimore OUTLoud on Nov. 7, 2008.
DEFEKTIVE ARTS, Nov. 7, 2008
WHEN I WAS asked to contribute an Arts and Entertainment column to OUTLoud, I thought it would be an exciting opportunity to share with readers some of the things that go on outside as well as inside of what I call the “Mt. Vernon Bubble”. It’s great that Baltimore has something close to resembling a Gay District, but when did the word “gay” become synonymous with the word boring? Don’t get your low-rise Calvin’s in a bunch just yet . . . I am here to work with you, not against you. I love Lube Wrestling and Drag Queen Bingo just as much as the next homo. In fact, I am certifiably and pathologically obsessed with the glamorous and (preferably) filthy world of drag queens. I have drag queens on my mind almost constantly and it’s no wonder that I thought of Dazzlestorm, Baltimore’s reigning gender-bending art band, to help break-in my first column. Read the rest of this entry »
A couple of months ago I curated an exploitation movie poster show and screened the 70s-style exploitation film “Starrbooty” starring RuPaul. The film was a huge crowd-pleaser…sleazy raunch and karate chopping drag queens will do that to a crowd.
I did a short Q&A with drag legend Lady Bunny to help promote the event, but unfortunately the interview which was supposed to run in Baltimore OutLoud never ran because the offices of the paper burnt down! So here, for the first time is the short interview I did with Bunny!
PopX: Can you tell me a little about the shooting of Starrbooty and how you became involved?
Lady Bunny: Well, Starrbooty was not the first time Ru had parodied 70′s blaxploitation films. And I was in a few of those extremely low-budget “films” we made in Atlanta in the 80′s. I did not have my look together back then, or even much of a sense of who Lady Bunny was other than there was always lotsa liquor involved, so I really hate those old shorts! I looked horrible, even though I was young and thin! So I was thrilled to go back and do it right with a little more budget.
