Another Year for PhillyQueer
Well, first of all, Happy New Year.
It’s been several days. I totally bailed on doing my weekly PGN-reaction post thing, I tripped out of Philly for a couple days, and I haven’t even had being at work as an excuse. But on the Resolutions list is to write more and blog more, so I’ll try to make it up: for it is Friday, once again, and I see some interesting news tidbits, once again. I really like the PGN’s new format; it’s much easier on the eyes, much more colorful, and just better in terms of organization. Not that there was anything terrible about the old one, but a fabulous newspaper should be fabulous in every way, nicht wahr?
Actually, first of all, the Mummers’ Parade. I’m happy it didn’t get cancelled, and it lasted several hours as usual, because it’s such an integral, unique part of Philadelphian lifestyle. Plus, look at those outfits! Those mummers could give any drag queen a run for her title, which is really funny, because I get the impression that the vast majority of the mummers (at least the male ones) are exactly the kind of proud-to-be-hetero guys that would throttle you if you mentioned them in the same sentence as “drag queens”; the father of a friend of mine is one, and lord knows he’s as straight as they get. Anyway, it’s nice to have a bit of color on New Years’, because the next display of out-and-out frippery of this magnitude won’t happen until Pride in six months.
In other news: apparently Campbell’s Soup (conveniently across the river, where I grew up) ran an ad with a famous lesbian chef with her partner, their son, and a bowl of bisque that’s causing an uproar. (The ad, that is, not the bisque.) And Campbell’s is refusing to back down because they’re awesome. It’s like that ad from Britain with the chef guy making his kids and “husband” breakfast in the morning that caused such a fuss because there was a male-male peck on the lips. I love when companies take chances like that, even if the decision is a logical one (such as “do we want to gain a large base of consumers from the LGBT community even if it means right-wing crazies are going to pitch a bitch?”) rather than a social-justice one. Campbell’s, I fully support your businesslike approach to the issue of gay parenting, and your cream of chicken soup isn’t half-bad either.
The building at the corner of 12th and Spruce remains vacant and unloved, and it’s a damn shame because that’s prime Gayborhood territory. It’s a little awkward with tranny prostitutes hanging out on that particular corner all the time, but even so, there have been numerous beloved businesses in there; Spruce Street Video lived there for 22 years, according to the article. I know it’s a little pre-emptive, but I wish I could get hold of a space in there, either an apartment or (and this is a dream that’s going to be building over the next several years) a cafe-style establishment of my own. I’ve always wanted to run a liberal, LGBT-friendly cafe, and there’s few better places to do it. They’re in talks to pay back the owed taxes on the property, and get some renovation work done, so maybe someday it will be a possibility, but for now: don’t let 1201 Spruce die!
I’m always amused when I see people I know in photos or articles.
There’s interesting theatre and performing arts bits here and there — Hairspray is still at Walnut Street! — but by far the most interesting in my book is Mauckingbird Theatre’s lesbian production of Hedda Gabler that’s coming up. I can’t believe no one has thought of this yet. If you want to talk about strong women, Ibsen wrote the original archetypes in a number of his plays, most especially this one; to take that scandalous idea of the independent female and update it for the 21st century, adding homosexuality into the equation is brilliant. (Plus, Mauckingbird does a good job with this kind of thing, as seen in R+J.) I might have to actually go see this one and report back.
I suppose that’s all for now. Cheers!
~~ PQ
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