I was browsing GameSetWatch last week and came across a post about an academic study being conducted on gay and lesbian gamers. There was a link to GaymerSurvey.org where gay and lesbian video gamers can participate in the study by answering a survey.

Although it is a long survey, I found it extremely interesting to take, mostly because it revealed to me how very low my expectations are when it come to seeing gay and lesbian characters in games. Then again, since a lot of my activity within video games involves crashing into things at high speeds, spraying goop on enormous carnivorous plants, and collecting wood resources, maybe it's just not that relevant.

On second thought, I take that back. Collecting wood resources is probably relevant. In fact, if was given an in-game choice to assign a group of townspeople, a clan of orcs, or a bunch of dykes the task of collecting wood, I'd go with the gay girls every time. My people excel at axe-related tasks.

I feel like DC Comics just planted a wet one on me.

Yesterday I read the BBC news piece stating that Batwoman was going to be returning to comics as a lesbian. Some further investigation brought me to a New York Times article,

"Straight (and Not) Out of the Comics," which states: "In her latest incarnation, Batwoman is a wealthy, buxom lipstick lesbian who has a history with Renee Montoya, an ex-police detective who has a starring role in '52.'"

That is SO EFFING HOT!!!!!! I ran out and bought the first issues of 52 today. I'm so frickin' excited! Although, I have to say, my friendly comic book seller was not so excited about the prospect of 52's weekly format. I could see what he meant. There are only a few issues out and he already looked like he was swimming in paper.

Is it just me, or does the red and black combination bring the image of a vampire to anyone else's imagination? I wonder if she'll get to meet Catwoman????

(OMG, that last idea was so thrilling I think I just wet my pants.)

It seems like this had to happen eventually. There is now a podcast for Xena lovers, the XenaCast by Amy Boatman. There's only one episode available so far, and although there's a web address attached to the episode, all you'll find at the site are the words "Coming Soon!"

I found the podcast through the built-in directory in Juice, but you can also find it through podcast aggregator sites like Podcast Pickle.

The first episode is over an hour and includes a personalized summary of the first four episodes of Season 1. This seems to be the format of the show: show summary, but Amy Boatman is asking for feedback on the podcast so here's your chance to give her shape future shows.

The podcast is subtext-friendly, but the summary format of the Xenacast puts the emphasis on plot, rather than the characters. Amy Boatman does describe Xena as she appears in the first episode as "don't touch me, don't love me," which I thought was a nice description.

I'm interested to see how this develops, and if other Xena fans decide to enter the podcasting space.

A planet, I mean. In case you haven't heard already, back in July some scientists named a possible tenth planet Xena. Now they've discovered the planet has a moon. The scientists--good geeks, all of them--named the moon Gabrielle. There is some debate on whether Xena is really a planet at all, but since I still think of Pluto as a planet I am not the best person to fill you in on that argument.

In addition to the "maybe not a planet" issue, I discovered another potential roadblock to claiming Planet Xena. As it turns out, the names "Xena" and Gabrielle" are only "informal" and the planets will be officially named at a later date: "The International Astronomical Union, a group of scientists responsible for naming planets, is deciding on formal names for Xena and Gabrielle."

Once I found this out, I hustled on over to the International Astronomical Union to see what the naming procedure is. As it turns out, the IAU web site has many helpful public FAQs, including one dealing with the topic of Naming Stars after People and Buying Star Names. I felt reassured knowing the IAU had thought through the process, especially when I considered the "Buying Star Names" issue. I mean, I'd be dissapointed if they chose not to name the planet Xena, but at least I can feel certain there will be no planet Paris Hilton or planet Donald Trump in the near future.

Even if the planet hasn't been officially named yet, I don't think it's too early for fan fiction writers to tackle this tricky subject matter. I can't wait to see the first uber fan fic featuring Xena and Gabrielle as celestial objects. It reminds me of a story that the Cute Little Red-Headed Girlfriend, fan fiction connosieur that she is, once gave me to read. It's called Before the Dawn of Time by BladeMast. In this fic, the roles of Xena and Gabby are played by the universe and a light in the void. Similar, but not quite a planet and a moon.

Jeffrey at Sisyphus and the Cuckoo Clock Speech has a great write-up on the psychological theory behind Wonder Woman, plus a great story of how he came to research the subject. It turns out the force behind Wonder Woman also invented the personality assessment test used at Jeffrey's workplace. I can't stand those invasive personality tests. Next time some employer asks me to take one I'm going to say I've already taken it and I know I'm a FCKU.

Continuing my series of posts on my favorite podcasts, I wanted to mention some of the gay and lesbian podcasts I listen to. Of course, you don't have to be gay or lesbian to listen to these, and if they sound interesting to you, I hope you'll try them out regardless of your sexual orientation.

Lucky Bitch Radio is a day-in-the-life podcast starring drag queen Wanda Wisdom. It's a daily podcast, about an hour in length, and the topics are wide-ranging, from politics to poetry. The core of the show is Ms. Wanda Wisdom herself, and she's gained quite a strong following of listeners on the strength of her persona.

As a listener, I find Wanda Wisdom to be very soothing and encouraging. Listening to Wanda when she's at her best is like being tucked into bed with kisses by your very own fairy dragmother. She has a very personal voice. And because Wanda's in recovery from alcoholism, she speaks with a lot of conviction about living through adversity and that is a very moving aspect of her show. At the end of today's show (#130: The Tao of Moo!), for example, she closed by assuring her listeners, "The most important thing is you don't have to go through life alone."

Wanda is a Midwestern gal, and you can hear it in her twang and the types of phrases she uses. One of her verbal ticks that I just love is when Wanda switches from one topic to the next by saying, "Anyhowsenhoosen..." Lucky Bitch Radio also has a catchy theme song which will probably come to haunt you as it has me if you become a regular listener.

I wrote on this blog previously that I was very excited about the prospect of social television. As it turns out, in today's episode, Wanda proposed that all her listeners watch the same film between now and next week and then engage in some sort of long distance discussion. How it's going to work out in every detail has not been determined, but I am very excited by the idea. It's like a remote film group, or a distributed moviefest. Anyhowsenhoosen, it sounds like fun.

I've been trying to get my friend Joe interested in video games but it's been a slow process. Awhile ago he bought a copy of the Sims for PC, so that's a start, but I'd like to see him get excited about console gaming as well. Since Joe is interested in all things Italian, I've tried mentioning Mario games often, hoping this would convince him to buy a GameCube. Now I think I've found the perfect lure for Joe. While reading Joystick, I found a reference to this Japanese fan comic featuring Mario and Luigi as Super Bears. If this doesn't spark his interest, nothing will.

The June issue of Curve Magazine included a really large feature story called "Dykes in Comicland" by Lori Selke with illustration by Colleen Coover. There were also several sidebars on web comics, superhero comics, and manga, with contributions by Jocelyn Voo and Diane Anderson-Minshall. Unfortunately, the article is not available online, and although it's possible to order the back issue it appears in, there's an order minimum of two issues.

The artists discussed include Elizabeth Watasin, Roberta Gregory, Dianne DiMassa, Alison Bechdel, Colleen Coover, Paige Braddock, Gina Kamentsky and many others. It really is a generous overview, and comes at the question of women in comics from an angle outside of the usual industry-centric focus.

I've also noticed that After Ellen has been giving more feature space to comics recently. Their most recent feature is An Introduction to Yuri and Manga.

That lucky bitch friend of mine, Joe, just tagged me with something called "the gay meme." There are 5 questions to answer.

1. Are you single or in a monogamous relationship?
   
   I am in a monogamous relationship with the Cute-Little-Red-Headed-Girlfriend.


2. How long have you been with your partner/significant other/boy/girlfriend?
   
   We have been together for 5 years.


3. How did the two of you meet?
   
   We met online. The Cute-Little-Red-Headed-Girlfriend responded to a
   personal ad I had placed in Planet Out personals. I had mentioned in my ad that my interests included Xena and fan fiction.

   On her end, the Cute-Little Red-Headed Girlfriend did a personals search on the word "Xena" and found me. She wrote to me and I cruised her ad, which had the headline, "Gabrielle is
   seeking Xena." I'm not a ringer for Xena by any means, but I
   definitely have the brooding thing going on big time.
   
   Since the Cute-Little-Red-Headed-Girlfriend was living far away in Washington State, we conducted our courtship for several months via e-mail. It was very 18th Century, very Jane Austen, sending these long elaborate letters back and forth for so long without ever having met in person. Finally we spoke on the phone, and things built from there.



4. What do you like to do together?
   We like going out to restaurants and enjoying good food and drink, especially with friends like our buddy, Joe. We actually have fairly different interests, but we do enjoy sharing them with each other.


5. If you are are single, what would life be like with your ideal
   spouse/partner?
   I'm not single, so this doesn't apply to me.

My eyes bugged out the other day while reading an interview with game designer Cliff Bleszinski in Electronic Gaming Monthly. The designer was talking about his intent in creating the forthcoming XBOX 360 game, Gears of War:

'You have these two guys that are engaging in this dance of death where it's almost like the prom date where the room melts away and it's just the two them focusing on each other,' says Bleszinski. 'Except instead of trying to have a nice moment of romance, they're trying to kill each other.'

Ugh. I had thought this death-obsessed homosocial thematic had been tapped out years ago, by Hemingway (pick a novel) and Norman Mailer ("The Homosexual Villain"), and all that crowd. Maybe this guy should make Women in Love into a video game; I'm sure the naked wrestling scene would translate very well.

All this fucked-up homosexual bogeyman stuff is coming back these days. Everything hatefully old is Bushy and new again.

When I was a kid my parents used to take me and my sister to local Catholic school and church fairs. They were in mostly Mexican-American neighborhoods in East Los Angeles. My parents would hear about them or see them on the news, or sometimes my Dad would spot a new one on the way home from work. He'd notice the arcing lights on the rides from his car. During certain times of the year, we might go to one of these fairs every week.

Most of the fairs had some mechanical carnival rides, the kind that get put up and taken down in a week's time. We'd pay something like 2 dollars to get in, then buy script for the rides and games. We would listen to mariachis, or some sort of musical entertainment. Play a little bingo to round out the evening. Before we left, my parents would buy a week's worth of homemade enchiladas or tamales and that would become our dinner for the next week.

I mention all this because I've been writing about the Gay Pride Festival here in L.A. What I wanted to say is that when I first started attending the festival many years ago, it was kind of like a low-budget version of one of these fairs. I mentioned in a previous post how the entertainment at the festival has changed over the years. Another thing that has changed over the years is corporate sponsorship. As a result, today's Gay Pride Festival feels more like a business fair crossed with a county fair.

At the entrance to this year's festival, a Hummer was on display as part of a car giveaway. I didn't take a close look, but I imagine it was the new H3. This seemed wrong on several levels. In L.A., we go through car fads quickly, and the Hummer is so last year, so I-just-cast-my-vote-for-Ahnold. But this is what has happened with gays going mainstream: you can't even count on gay men to reliably stay on top of trends anymore.

It's not just the gay men who've succumbed to mainstream influence. There was a time when putting a gas-guzzling, military-inflected vehicle favored by the ultra-wealthy in front of a crowd of lesbians would have been an invitation to mayhem. At the very least, it would have been pushed over on it's side, possibly even defaced. Many harsh words would have been spoken. Now, it's a door prize.

Of course, I recognize that there's also a positive aspect to corporations' interest in gays. Corporations have found gays and lesbians' pockets, and no matter how much the religious right tries to threaten Disney or Ford or Microsoft, it doesn't change the fact that our money is still green. It just goes to show that one man's disordered sex deviant is another man's potential Subaru owner.

I always like to see what companies have decided to market to us, or which products or brands they think we will embrace. So I walked through all the festival booths, noting the banks and bottled water and whatnot. Then something caught my eye; it was the Tylenol PM booth. I was floored. "Now this relates to my lifestyle!" I thought. I scurried over to the booth and was greeted by "the sleepy boys," two attractive pajama-clad men. They ladled sample packets into my outstretched hands.

After reading my earlier mention of Lucy Lawless's resemblance to Ann-Margret, a reader, Anne, sent me a picture of Lucy to illustrate the point further. I've also put up a pic of Ann-Margret for reference, just in case her image has not been burned into your memory banks by long fits of lust as it has been with me.

I also want to point out that more of Anne's photos from Lucy's appearance at Gay Pride as well as a detailed report of the event are available elsewhere for your reading and viewing pleasure. It's a worthwhile read and I concur with everything she has to say about the performance.

Incidentally, I wanted to thank everyone that took the time to comment recently and to apologize to everyone who tried to comment and had difficulty with the forms. I realize now that somehow my MT installation has gone awry and needs to be fixed. Heavy sigh.

Blondie is one of those bands that seems to punctuate my life's timeline with their music. Certain songs and albums are a date-stamp for different eras or periods in my past. Although they're not my favorite band, I have quite a lot of sentiment tied up with Blondie and the band's lead singer, Deborah Harry.

When I was in high school, Blondie's first album (still my favorite) was the main soundtrack to the first teen party I attended where illicit drinks were served. My friends and I would always demand that the song "Rip Her to Shreds" be played at regular intervals.

I think of that era as "pre-gay." Many of my male high school friends would later become gay adults, but in high school we shuffled along in romantic indeterminacy. My male friends worshipped Bowie and Abba; I was enthralled by Baudelaire's Les fleurs du mal. We paired up in intense but platonic mindmelds based on our shared sensibilities.

At a certain point in my teenage years I became more entwined with L.A.'s rock culture. Those were my punk years. I met Deborah Harry then, at a party for a local radio personality. We stood next to each other at a meager refreshment table, sharing Triscuits from a box. It was one of my first experiences of the dream-like ennui that results from hanging out with celebrities.

Another dating memory comes from the debut of Eat to the Beat. Blondie released the album along with an unusual cable TV special consisting of videos that went with each song. At the time, cable TV was a luxury so finding a place to watch the Blondie videos was a challenge for me and my teenage friends. We watched and found the whole "music video" concept a bit arty and avant-garde.

Parallel Lines was unforgettable because it spun off a mainstream hit, "Heart of Glass." The song rose steadily higher on the charts, eventually reaching the point of painful ubiquity that only the biggest, fattest megahits can achieve. Songs like "You Light Up My Life" or "I Will Always Love You." They soon become unbearable to listen to.

How strange and gratifying then, that so many years later, while seeing Deborah Harry perform at the L.A. Pride festival, I felt an almost transcendent joy when I heard the opening beats of "Heart of Glass" boom over the outdoor speakers. It was by far my favorite song out of a short but fantastic set that included "Rapture" and "In the Flesh."

I really wasn't expecting such an amazing performance. But the songs, the attitude and the choreography were just right for the occasion. Debbie came out in a costume similar to the black short shorts and halter worn by Liza Minelli in Cabaret. Behind her, dancers in similar Cabaret-inspired outfits provided performance accompaniment.

During the opening song, one of the male dancers twirled twin fire batons while Debbie sang. Throughout the set, the dancers unfurled a giant rainbow flag behind Debbie. Sometimes, they would tuck the flag in the back of Debbie's shorts and she would stomp around the stage with the flag fanning behind her, like some demented psychedelic peacock. It was very punk and very gay. The whole thing drove the audience wild.

The second blonde alluded to in my title was introduced to the crowd as a special surprise guest just before Deborah Harry came on. I was standing near the stage, close to a metal barrier at the time. Suddenly, a fast-moving gang of faux-Secret Security types went rushing by me, dressed in black suits and shouting into walkie talkies. Peering into the middle of these self-important bouncers, I realized who was less than 5 feet in front of me. It was Paris Fucking Hilton.

A wave of horror mixed with fascination seemed to sweep over the crowd as people recognized her. I imagine this is the standard reaction to seeing Paris Hilton. We were told by the emcee that Paris Hilton would be introducing Deborah Harry and were reminded that she was this year's Parade Grand Marshall (along with her mother, Mrs. Hilton). Around me, people began to ask, "Why is she the Grand Marshall?" It was a question I overheard strangers repeat throughout the weekend.

Paris Hilton took the stage wearing a fringed sheaf dress in the gay rainbow colors and began gushing to the crowd about how much she loved gay people. I suppose it's a good thing that there are pro-gay millionaire heiresses out there. Perhaps gay people should encourage it; perhaps the world would be a better place if only there were more pro-gay millionaire heiresses. Maybe it's even a tipping point of sorts: if only enough millionaire heiresses were for us, the whole country would then rush to embrace gay civil rights. Still, I find it hard not to interpret the stark fact of Paris Hilton acting as Parade Grand Marshall as a slap in the face.

Last night, I went to go see Lucy Lawless at the Gay Pride festival in Los Angeles. Before Lucy came on, I also caught Ce Ce Peniston and Deborah Harry performing onstage.

The night made me think back to the first time I attended the Gay Pride festival in L.A., more than 20 years ago. (Did I just write that?) It was a very different time then, and the gay scene was much more underground. There were no celebrities onstage back then, that's for sure. In fact, if I remember correctly, the highlight of the performance schedule on Saturday night was a drag group called "The Mandrew Sisters," who sang covers of golden oldies by the Andrew Sisters.

So it was really exciting for me to see acts like Peniston, Deborah Harry and Lucy Lawless performing at Gay Pride. I wrote last year about how excited I was by Lucy's appearance at the Gay Pride Run. I wasn't expecting her to come back this year to sing, but I was certainly happy she did. Especially as I didn't see much else in the way of lesbian-centric entertainment this year.

Lucy was wearing a costume that included a long, luxurious golden blond wig. I actually think the audience was a bit unsure it was Lucy at first. But since I've seen Lucy in different wigs and costumes at the various Xena conventions it didn't throw me off one bit. In her costume and wig, I felt I could see a certain physical resemblance between Lucy and The Ultimate Sex Goddess of All Time, Ann-Margaret. Lucy sang a single disco song--I wish it had been a longer set, but it was still great to see her.

I was sort of hoping that someone from the L Word might make an appearance at Gay Pride but that wasn't the case. However, it makes me appreciate Lucy's willingness to perform for a lesbian crowd all the more. It's still an act of bravery for a celebrity to appear at Gay Pride, and I'm grateful to Lucy for having the guts to do it.

I love DIY stuff generally and DIY art stuff in particular. Lately, I've found a lot of DIY comics links for the artistically impaired. For example, there's a new Mac program called Comic Life that lets you easily create comics from photographs. Over at Mac Merc, there's a tutorial on achieving a "comics art look" from photographs using Photoshop. Via Boing-Boing, I found two interesting community-oriented web sites: one allows you to create and share comic strips online and another uses game screenshots to create comics.

The game site seems like an interesting extension of the "fan media" movement, in which fans use a commercial property such as a TV series as a jumping-off point for fiction, movies, songs, and now comics based on but extending the original premise. I just read through the archive of The L Ward, a site that uses comic strips based on screen shots from The L Word to comment on the series. I imagine programs like Comic Life are going to make this type of fan media much more prevalent.