"It was so good, so GOOD!"

This year we found out...Celine Dion is CRAZY!

Brown Down Crown

Episode One!

"Stop It" episode 3

"She's jealous that I was on The Grind!"

R.I.P Eartha Kitt

Bronski Beat and Eartha Kitt! What!?
"Cha Cha Heels" a song supposed to sung by Divine, and an appropriate video for the end of this Christmas season

The Younger Lovers

"Pagan Rights, Part III" My Barbarian

"PYT" by Tara Mateik

Maybe not just a 2008 fave, but an all timer!

Pretty Thingsss' "Mulberry Commons"

Episode 7, and my favorite in the series

Pretty Thingsss' "Fringe Theater Showcase"

"Straight Boat" by Jason Fritz Michael

Athens Boys Choir's "FAGETTE"

Holding Out For a Hero

with Tandi Iman Dupree

Gay Video -A-Day! (a kind of mix tape!)

For Fun-A-Day (31 projects/activities everyday for the whole month of January), I've decided I'm going to post at least one video, gleaned from the www, that contains some type of queer/trans-related content. I promise to keep vlogs to a minimum, though I doubt I'll be able to resist some Chris Crocker every now and again, and I will try to keep it vaguely thoughtful, or at least provocative on some level. Through viral means, I watch a lot of video on the internet but I often wish I did more exploring. Thus, Gay Video-A-Day!

So, 'til January I will be posting a Chris Vargas Best Of.../Faves of 2008 Gay web video, then beginning January 1st I will create a day-by-day video mix tape to usher in a New Year full of queerness and videoness!

Exegetic Peggy

Another Jenjen Smith video! More Peggy, more JO!

Reporting Live from the Castro!

Feature production still of the week.

Eric, Jason, and I shot this a few weeks ago with Leoni, who needed no coaxing at all, to play Channel 8 news anchor covering the tragic news of the big HRC heist. She profiles the gripping events that knock the Castro by surprise when two unnamed lesbians (Joy and Susan) pull a fast one and make off with bags and bags of jewels, blood diamonds, and Inca gold. She interviews two neighborhood ladies on the street (special walk-ons by Eric Stanley and myself) who are shaken and disturbed that terrorists could strike right there in their own gayborhood!

Hearing to Highlight Issues Faced by LGBT People in California Prisons

This blog has become such a bulletin board. I hate myself for that. I also hate myself for posting an endorsement for Equality California, whom I can't imagine is taking any kind of abolitionist approach in addressing LGBT prison issues. This hearing seems important despite (and/or potentially suspect because of) its affiliates.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 2, 2008

Hearing to Highlight Issues Faced by LGBT People in California Prisons

SAN FRANCISCO – The Senate Committee on Public Safety will hold an informational hearing on Dec. 11 to look at issues facing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in California's prison system.

Chaired by Sen. Gloria Romero, D-East Los Angeles, the hearing will focus on the LGBT population in prison and the unique issues LGBT inmates face while incarcerated. Speakers will discuss issues related to prisoner classification systems, harassment and abuse, and access to healthcare.

A media availability will immediately follow the hearing with representatives from Equality California, National Center for Lesbian Rights, Just Detention International, the Transgender, Gender Variant & Intersex Justice Project, and the Transgender Law Center.

What:
Informational Hearing on Issues Facing LGBT People in California Prisons
Senate Committee on Public Safety

When:
Thursday, December 11
10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Includes public comment period

Where:
Hiram Johnson State Building
455 Golden Gate Avenue
San Francisco

Equality California Founded in 1998, Equality California celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2008, commemorating a decade of building a state of equality in California. EQCA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots-based, statewide advocacy organization whose mission is to achieve equality and civil rights of all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Californians. www.eqca.org

The National Center for Lesbian Rights is a national legal organization committed to advancing the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education. www.nclrights.org

Just Detention International (JDI) is a human rights organization that seeks to end sexual abuse in all forms of detention. JDI seeks to: engender policies that ensure government accountability for prisoner rape; change ill-informed and flippant public attitudes toward sexual assault behind bars; and promote access to resources for survivors of this type of violence. www.justdetention.org

The Transgender, Gender Variant and Intersex (TGI) Justice Project's mission is to challenge and end the human rights abuses committed against transgender, gender variant/genderqueer and intersex (TGI) people in California prisons and beyond. www.tgijp.org

Transgender Law Center (TLC) is a civil rights organization advocating fortransgender communities. TLC provides free legal services to transgender people throughout California and works with community members and partnering organizations on cutting-edge transgender rights policy initiatives. www.transgenderlawcenter.org

Media Contacts:
Molly Tafoya
NCLR
w: 415.392.6257 x305
c: 415.205.2420
mtafoya@nclrights.org

Ali Bay
Equality California
w: 916.554.7683
c: 916.284.9187
ali@eqca.org


Ray Daniels
Just Detention International
w: 202-580-6974
c: 202-669-3039
RDaniels@justdetention.org

Homo-no!-pia

No such thing as bad press...

A scathing politcal critique of mine and Eric Stanley's movie, Homotopia from EDGE, a Provincetown weekly. Read here and feel free to comment/defend our/your position..

"I'ma cut that shit off, then I'm gonna seduce a man..."

My First Project

video by Jen Smith

Post Election Reading Assignment

Inaugurating Multiculturalist White Supremacy
by Dylan Rodríguez

I Still Think Marriage is the Wrong Goal
A Statement by Dean Spade & Crag Willse

Obama: Wiping the Slate Clean
Appearance And Reality In The Relaunch Of Brand America
by Media Lens

The Battle for Marriage Equality and the Intersection with Indie Film
by Eugene Hernandez

Episode 2: Roadtrip! TV Special

Finally, the much anticipated second installment of Falling In Love...(Chris and Greg-style) is now on the internet and ready to pleasure you with obscene pregnant-man jokes, bleeding-tranny references, and misguided dreams of anti-marriage activism.

I am sorry to report, we are not yet ready to begin production on our third episode, as we need to assess our original project vision and determine whether our messages of anti-state, anti-imperial, anti-capitalist, anti-racist, pro-free-loving, free-wheeling, queer-hippie sexuality is in fact being heard and interpreted from this messy irresponsible gay relationship rom-sit-com project we have embarked upon.

My guess is, we'll come back with equal parts irresponsble and hilarious, but incorporating more actors/resses, more camera-angles, and more than a pony with 2 tricks. Now, pack this one in your 'water pipe' and Chong it like 'twas a Chron...

Sunday at The Baths!

Tonight Greg and I are screening a 13 minute excerpt of Falling in Love... with Chris and Greg, Episode #2 "Roadtrip! TV Special!" at K'vetch's 12th Anniversary show. It's at Eros the gay bathhouse in San Francisco at 8PM, 2051 Market Street. Yeah!

Election Fever

I can't believe I'm so caught up in this. It's like sports spectatorship, I suppose. Anyway, regardless if this election has anything to do with my life, or if 'the better candidate' really represents me and my political concerns this is what I'm/The Nation is watching/reading/obsessing about today...

Five Thirty Eight

What To Watch For on Election Night: NY Times

What Do They Have To Lose Your Vote? the Trail of Broken Promises
by Matt Gonzalez

Democracy Now's Live Election Night Coverage

See what they're saying about Mine and Greg's PSA on Queerty.com

Prop 8 Election night blogging on Bilerico

Sarah Palin puppet show


Yes on 8 PSAs



Annoying San Francisco Prop K coverage


Support Prop K



And finally, the Tribe 8 No on 8 PSA me and Greg were kinda spoofing

This PSA is gay

A Special Election PSA

R.I.P. David Hazelton

An amazing death-rock tribute to a dearly departed friend from LA who passed away last week.

This is also the month that Angela died, 2 years ago so I made an altar. I dug out photos of David, Angela, and Arturo-another friend that died a month before he turned 21. I was 19, 11 years ago. Then last night I had a dream about David. I was offering him drinks and food, things to make him more comfortable and he answered back in song. He was happy, and he sang about being free.

Dispatch from NYC

Tonight is the debut screening of mine and Greg's second episode, and I'm psyched! So, today we're having a spa day to relax and ease our nerves before tonight's excitement. Wish me a broken leg.

Sidewalk Finds

This is just one of any number of goodies one may purchase on the glittering sidewalks of the East Bay (specifically near to the Saturday Berkeley Farmer's Market).

Jason Fritz Michael

Last night I had the honor and privilege of paying a visit to the studio/bedroom of my very dear friend and talented San Francisco-based artist Jason Fritz Michael. He showed me some new paintings of his alter-ego Joy and performed some very impressive ventriloquism with his puppet, Eric Stanley. Eric prepared fried okra, biscuits & vegan gravy, and swiss chard just for the occasion.

Resolution 3: Video Praxis in Global Spaces

Also, (wowzers this is a big month for me!) after Chicago Eric and I will be in LA for this symposium, during which we will speak about the exhibition and disbursement of our work. I think.

So, let me break it down for all you groupies who want to pack up your V-dub, and sell bootleg t-shirts in the parking lots, or more realistically if you have friends, or you ARE my friend in one or all of these major US cities:

October 18th, 8PM: NYC debuting Episode #2 of "Falling In Love... with Chris and Greg"
MIX festival
217 Water St.
@ Beekman

Octoberr 22nd, 7PM: Chicago "Homotopia"
Columbia College
Ferguson Hall
600 S. Michigan Ave
1st Floor

October 25th 2-7PM: Los Angeles
"Performative Distribution" A workshop dealing with performance that produces it’s own distribution and life, extending themselves out of established art spaces and into new publics.
With Wafaa Bilal, Eric Stanley, Chris Vargas
Moderator: Jessica Lawless"
L A C E
6522 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA

Homotopia in Chicago 10/22/08

Falling In Love... @ MIX NYC 10.17.08 8PM

Join Greg and I (live and person) at the premiere of our new "Falling In Love..." Episode 2: Road Trip! TV Special, playing in the program...

GIVE TO ME YOUR PLEATHER, TAKE FROM ME MY LACE (76 min)

Friday, October 17th 8PM
At Seaport!
210 Front St @ Bleeker


Queers like to mix. We form our own special kinship structures—families of lovers, exes, roommates, fuck buddies, johns, daddies, surrogate moms, astrologers, sperm donors, caregivers. Yet our films/videos and film/video programs don't always reflect the ways we mix it up. GIVE TO ME YOUR PLEATHER, TAKE FROM ME MY LACE showcases queer artistic collaborations across boundaries: among bioboys and tranny boys, dykes and fags, girls and ladies, sissies and butches. Relationships past, present and future, real and fictional, vertical and horizontal, socially successful and failed, all take center stage. —Nguyen Tan Hoang, Jen Smith & Greg Youmans, guest curators. TRT 67 min.

To see what else is in the program, or to buy tickets: click here

Antony video

Makes my heart feel Fall, and my eyes all misty.

Sea Turtles and Hawai'i

What's not to love about them?

Hawai'i was amazing, FYI. Turtles are great. Especially when you swim with them and watch them-through a snorkel mask, graze on underwater flora, and spy them sneaking secret kisses to one another (or were they fighting?), and strap them up with a saddle and ride with them over a rainbow. All of which Greg and I did, BTW.

We also made this wedding cake...

it's still ok for consenting straight people to get married, right, queer radicals? Just make sure, though, that a gay is making that damn cake! The first layer was carrot cake (Greg is "famous" for it), the second-chocolate (note: everyone loves chocolate), and the top "yellow."

Also, Lava! Everywhere. The islands are made of it, for G-d's sake! Who knew?


Along with lava, are steaming cracks and craters in the Earth suggesting that an eruption could happen at any second (if one should be so lucky). That SO2 smoke, though, is apparently messing with people's health, and the tourist(/hostage*) economy.



*A term that Haunani-Kay Trask uses in her book From A Native Daughter to talk about the Hawai'ian Natives' reliance on service jobs in the destructive tourism sector, making them complicit with the degradation of their culture, community, and land.

Sisterhood is Powerful

in Travertine Hotsprings

Hawaii

Here I come!

Please note I will be out of the office from August 29th til the morning of September 9th. Please direct all inquiries to my assistant Holiday Lopez, who will be fielding all urgent calls and emails.

I went to Ye Ol Ren Faire in Goldengate Park

and it was ye old blast!

"Falling In Love..." @ MIX LA Summer Picnic

The first annual MIXLA, Queer Experimental Film and Art Festival scheduled to take flight in the Spring of 2009 is beginning with a
Summer Picnic Party.

Date: August 16th, 2008
Time: 7:00pm to 12am
Place: The Los Angeles State Historic Park a.k.a. Not a Cornfield.
1745 North Spring Street #4 Los Angeles, CA 90012

Everyone is welcome to this Queer Picnic. Audiences are invited to attend an evening that includes live performances, outdoor screenings of a diverse range of short experimental film, raffles and more. Folks are encouraged to bring their own blankets, food and beverages as well as a suggested (albeit optional) donation of whatever they can afford. Regardless of ability to donate, no one will be turned away.

Hosted by queer hip hop artist, Deadlee and local artist Xochitl Brown. The schedule includes performances by artists Ian Mackinnon, The MOVEMENT movement (featuring Mecca Vazie Andrews), Cucci and select recent film and video work by Erica Cho, Matt Johnstone, Sean M Johnson, EMR, Chris Vargas and Greg Youmans, Patrick Stephenson, Paula Cronin & Juliana Snapper.

For more info please see www.mixla.org or contact irina@mixla.org

Critical Resistance 10, September 26-28

Click on banner for more info

K8 Hardy is an artist

These interviews are hilarious, some of the comments on the website are too vicious. People on the internet play too mean sometimes.

I went to LA

Last weekend, and it was a perfect whirlwind trip. I got to spend the right amount of time with the right amount of people, got to hike 7.5 miles with a 1,700 elevation gain with my Mother, got to have my life flashed before me in Becky's teenage driving car, got to help celebrate my grandparents 46 year anniversary of living in their Pacoima house (purchased for $13,000 in 1962, 3 years after Richie Valens died-which of course, devastated his proud neighborhood). Now, I'm back and ready to harvest honey and soak in natural warm pools of water.

Falling In Love...with Chris and Greg

Criminal Queers trailer

A teaser for the long-awaited, still-in-production trailer for the upcoming sequel to Homotopia. Starring: Ralowe T. Ampu, Jason Fritz Michael, Susan with an S, Kenny KY (aka Kentaro Kaneko), Christina Virgo, Greg Youmans, Angela Davis, and many (many!) more. Original score by Divas On Depakote.