Turn off of Pacific and hit up Cafe Pergolesi for sweet caffeine and local art shows. They have the best outdoor patio and rival the Saturn Cafe for best cruising spots. I recommend the “Soy Mexican Mocha.”
Get back onto Pacific and locate the only gay bar in town The Dakota. Yes, they have dance floor and Wednesday night is ladies night. 1209 Pacific Ave.
No, unfortunaltey Gus Van Sant’s newest film Paranoid Park does not have girls skateboarding in it. Although, it does have cute sixteen year old boys and beautiful color super eight skateboarding footage. ( These days, if those boys were walking down Valencia street in San Francisco, they might be mistaken for dykes.) The film is actually about a murder that takes place near a skateboard park that these boys frequent and includes honestly written coming of age moments. Of course, my favorites parts of the film lean towards the latter such as when he car dances to classical music, relaxes in the driveway after finally landing a skateboard trick, and the beautiful shots of him alone writing a letter on a bench in a grassy field overlooking the ocean.
So, why am I mentioning girls skateboarding? Well, there were a few reasons I was drawn to this film. I love Gus Van Sant’s work, coming of age films, and skateboarding. Well, I used to love skateboarding when I was a young teenager and often rode by myself. And while I can watch Paranoid Park and find areas to identify with him at this point in life, I’m still on the search for girls on skateboards!
I would love it if women and trans folk around the world would upload videos/photos (use youtube and flicker) of themselves skateboarding. I want to know where you are from and where the photo/video is taken exactly. This blog is about exploring queer community through location and travel.
For one, get over it or embrace it. Remember it’s a Hallmark holiday or have fun with the cheese factor. I know it can be hard sometimes, we get lonely; just remember when you were 7 years old and single all the time. Or remember when you were 7 and what you did for fun, like hang out with friends, watch movies, and play games.
Last year I got Peanuts valentines, wrote them to my friends, and rode my bike around the neighborhood delivering them. Yes, I have had my bad valentine’s story too. One year I went to meet friends for dinner and decided to go outside to call the girl I was sort of rebound dating. The phone call was awkward and she was making dinner with “friends.” Just as I heard giggling in the background, the girl I had recently been dumped by walks by hand in hand with a boyfriend I didn’t know she had. Right? I mean Valentine’s shmalintines.
Tonight, a group of us are making pizza, strawberries dipped in chocolate, and watching the movie Lucas that I already blogged about. If a story about nerd love strikes your fancy, I recommend it.
Or, if you are ‘over’ love and don’t want to remember being 7, then rent some queer porn with a bunch of lezzies. I recommend Shine Louise Houston’s work. Yes, I am biased (it’s my PG-13 acting debut.) The SF GLBT center is actually screening her latest film In Search of the Wild Kingdom tomorrow night at 6:30pm.
This past Friday night was another walk down history lane. Well, actually it was the first time I ever walked in a vigil for Harvey Milk, I’m only 27, but there were many local SF folks who came out that night to do the walk one more time to pay their respects to their history, their culture, and especially to Harvey Milk.
These two men, part of the ’second time around crew, dressed up in their old 70’s jean jackets they pulled out from the back of the closet, grew their mustaches out, and pulled on some tight jeans. No wonder the production coordinator was making announcements about our butts not being on camera. It must have been a concern. I’m sure some of these guys were on a gym routine for their cameos.
While standing around doing the classic ‘hurry up and wait’ routine that comes with being an extra in a real film, my friends and I, all queer women in our late 20’s, were chatting loudly. Well, one of us was and so these guys in the picture to the left took the liberty to ask her why she was here. “To be in a movie! Everyone wants to be in a movie.” she says half joking half just being honest. They chuckled. I was curious why they asked that question, so I asked them, “Why are you here?” They replied, “Because it’s part of our culture, part of our heritage.” I smiled and said, “It’s part of ours too.” They liked that answer and we all marched happily ever after.
Hospitality and sharing - the two life lessons I’ve taken away from Brazil each time I visited (3x-I know I’m a big fan). The first time I went was on a travel whim with my older sister the summer after freshman year of college. To make a long story short, I crushed out on this Brazilian girl, Gabriella, who I met at a tourist bar in Ipanema. I promised myself I would learn Portuguese and return as soon as a I could.
After two years including two semesters of studying Portuguese, I returned to search out my long lost crush under the guise of producing a short documentary about a queer political group called Arco-Iris for my senior thesis project. Well, it turned out Gabriella was straight, but her brother was pretty flaming. She sweetly advised me to go out with him, “He can show you around,” she offered. They were very hospitable and so was Arco-Iris.
Five years pass and the opportunity arose to return again with my ‘partner in crime’ Lauren. A short documentary that I associate produced and edited was screening in the (GLBT) Festival Mix Brasil in Sao Paulo. And guess who was going to be in Sao Paulo at the same time? Yes, Luiza of the band Cansei de Ser Sexy or CSS, who happens to be Lauren’s good friend. “Hey, let’s produce Rockstar Travel guide videos!” we thought.
There was a lot more to it than that, including a test shoot with the band Ice Cream Socialitesmade up of Jenna Riot and Katastrophe. Anyway, off we went to Sao Paulo where the gracious film festival put us up in a fancy hotel for the week while we watched great GLBT films, hung out with Luiza and her grandparents, and went out shooting with our other amazing tour guide Leticia (for the girl’s guide series-more on that later!). Everyone gave us so much time and energy!
There were so many priceless moments that didn’t make the final cut. I have to say that having Sunday dinner with Luiza’s grandparents had to have been the sweetest gesture ever. Grandma fed us my favorite Brazilian dish, the Portuguese fish Bacalhao marinated in coconut with veggies and showed us baby photos of Luiza. Grandpa was stubborn about practicing his English and Grandma kept speaking in Portuguese, but then would say, “oh yeah, they can’t understand me.” Even though I kept assuring her that I could!
We often would meet up with Luiza either on her lunch break or after she left the studio where CSS was working on their new album. They were kind and let us sit inside the control room for some of the mixing sessions. Now, I’m not the musician here, Lauren is, but what I saw were millions of fancy buttons and some rock stars having fun. So I was having fun. Thanks for all your hospitality and sharing everyone!
Watch the Hot Situation - Sao Paulo, Brazil trailer.
From the producers of Rhapsody’s Rock-Star Guide to the Galaxy comes Hot Situation: a magazine-style travel/culture/art/music/food series for the Lesbian/Bisexual/Trans/Queer identified community. Each piece creatively explores the relationship between queer identity, culture and location via candid interviews with local “celesbians,” playful explorations of must-see spaces, and suggestions for dining, drinking and dancing. Hot Situation is current, relevant and also has a fun and campy sensibility that stays true to it’s objective: to explore what is unique about different communities and what experiences bring us together. The mission of Hot Situation is to encourage travel, community, acceptance and good times. Humor, bright colors, and costumes are welcomed and appreciated.
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Alexa Shae
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