Arts & Entertainment
A fond farewell
Gay DJs Bob Mould and Richard Morel bring Blowoff to close
Blowoff is going on indefinite hiatus after Saturday night’s installment. (Washington Blade file photo by Pete Exis)
Blowoff finale
Saturday
11:30 p.m.-3:30 a.m.
9:30 Club
815 V Street, N.W.
$12
Blowoff, a monthly gay dance party helmed by DJs Richard Morel and Bob Mould, started innocuously. The two were collaborating on a project — a 2006 album called “Blowoff” — and finding themselves at the time both living in Washington, the concept was born.
That was 11 years ago.
“We just kind of said, ‘Why don’t we do a party?,’” Morel says. “He had just moved to town. It was really pretty simple. We started at Velvet Lounge on Sunday nights once a month. That’s how it began.”
Saturday night’s event, planned as usual for the January installment to coincide with Mid-Atlantic Leather weekend, will be the duo’s last. There’s no grand proclamation about it being the “last ever,” but with Mould now living in San Francisco, a good long run behind them and schedules as tough to coordinate now as ever, Morel says it was time to put the event on indefinite hiatus.
“It’s been a very successful event and very personally gratifying and fun and it’s done very well, but after 11 years, we both have other projects right now,” Morel says. “So we’re just taking a break for awhile. Who knows what might happen down the road in a year or two, but for now, we’re focusing on other projects.”
Mould, who is traveling this week and wasn’t available for comment, is known widely for his work with the bands Husker Du and Sugar. He’s released a series of well-received solo albums, most recently 2012’s “Silver Age.” Morel, known widely as a DJ, producer and remixer, has mixed hits for everyone from Cyndi Lauper, Tina Turner, Yoko Ono, Nelly Furtado and scores of others.
The Blowoff concept was simple — the two took turns spinning for about an hour at a time. Nick Lopata created the party’s visual effects. Linas Garsys created a series of posters that became easily identifiable in the D.C. gay world over many years.
Jacob Pring, a local gay event promoter and CODE producer, says Blowoff will be missed.
“The music was different, the atmosphere was different and the visual effects were unheard of for the D.C. market,” he says. “I admire that they were able to create a party with a room full of gay men and no attitudes. That’s pretty unusual.”
After about five Blowoffs at Velvet Lounge, the party moved to the basement of the 9:30 Club and for a time was a weekly event. Eventually it moved upstairs in the club’s larger main space.
Morel guesses about 90 percent of attendees on average were gay with a large bear crowd especially. The music was usually a mix of indie rock and house with some dance and electronica, especially in more recent years. Blowoff events were also held at various times in New York, Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco, Provincetown, Dallas, Denver and more.
Pring admires Mould but says Morel has been especially generous with him, sometimes sending him unreleased mixes to play at his own parties.
“It’s always music that just makes you feel good,” Pring says. “He’s a creative genius.”
a&e features
Television loses a legend, longtime ‘Will & Grace’ director James Burrows
Iconic hitmaker leaves behind a legacy of telling LGBTQ stories
You don’t have to be a pretentious film major to name 10 movie directors. But naming television directors is not that simple. They’re the unsung heroes of your favorite shows, and the late James Burrows was the television director. He passed on June 19, but his DNA runs through television history.
He directed over 1200 episodes of television and over 50 pilots. He co-created “Cheers” and directed many episodes of long-running series like “Friends,” “Taxi,” “Frasier,” “The Big Bang Theory,” and “Two and a Half Men.” You also may remember him from playing a heightened version of himself on the Lisa Kudrow comedy “The Comeback.”
He has left an indelible mark on the LGBTQ community. As recently as last year, he directed the series run of “Mid-Century Modern” starring Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer, and Linda Lavin. He was also a longtime director of “Will & Grace” and directed every episode of the series revival. He even directed the unaired “Absolutely Fabulous” pilot with Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Johnston, and Zosia Mamet.
Not to mention he’s worked with queer icons throughout history, including Betty White and Stockard Channing on their single-season series, and Jennifer Coolidge in “2 Broke Girls.”
He started his career on shows like “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Rhoda,” “Laverne & Shirley,” and the first four seasons of “Taxi.”
He continued to work steadily and directed successful pilots that went to series for “Roc,” “3rd Rock From the Sun,” “Dharma & Greg,” and “Wings.” He directed multiple episodes of “Friends,” “Caroline in the City,” and “Frasier.”
This magic continued into the 2000s with him directing the pilots for “Two and a Half Men,” “The Big Bang Theory,” and multiple episodes of “Mike & Molly,” and the entire return series of “Will & Grace.”
What was the secret to his success? He’d enact the “fun clause” in his contract. In his words, “Life is too short to deal with obnoxious leads,” he shared. “So as long as the writing is good and the cast is fun, I’m going to enjoy the experience.”
He had the magic touch, having multiple pilots turned into long-running series. He was nominated for an Emmy 24 times in 26 years and worked consistently until a year before his death.
The secret was the way he brought the cast together. He describes, “it was my job to mold them into an ensemble, and they did round into a group of people who loved each other.”
This earned him 11 Emmy Awards and five Directors Guild of America Awards, including being awarded the inaugural DGA’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Television Direction.
In a 2003 interview by the Television Academy, he was asked how he wants to be remembered, and he said, “That every night forever you can tune in somewhere, and there’ll be a show I did.”
He’s survived by his wife, Debbie, four daughters, seven grandchildren, and the countless people whose careers he launched and the countless viewers he inspired with his television legacy.
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