Arts & Entertainment
Calendar through September 26
Events through Sept. 26
Filmmaker and transgender advocate Buck Angel will be at Secret Pleasures on Wednesday for a workshop on gender and sexuality. (Photo courtesy Secret Pleasures)
Friday, Sept. 20
DJ Joe Gauthreaux spins at Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W.) tonight. Free rail vodka drinks from 11 p.m.-midnight. Cover is $10. Admission is 21 and up. For more information, visit cobaltdc.com.
Town (2009 8th St., N.W.) hosts Bear Happy Hour tonight from 6-11 p.m. There is no cover charge and admission is limited to guests 21 and over. For more information, visit towndc.com.
Gay District meets at The D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) tonight from 8:30-9:30 p.m. The facilitated group discussion covers building understanding of gay culture and personal identity and awareness of community events for LGBT men between the ages of 18 and 35 in the D.C. area. For more details, visit thedccenter.org or gaydistrict.org.
SMYAL hosts “Vogue Night” (410 7th St., S.E.) tonight from 5-7 p.m. Learn the art of voguing and practice your moves at this event designed especially for youth. For more information, visit smyal.org.
Saturday, Sept. 21
Burgundy Crescent, a gay volunteer organization, volunteers for the Lost Dog and Cat Foundation at PetSmart (6100 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church, Va.,) from 11:45 a.m.-3 p.m. today. For more information visit burgundycrescent.org.
The Library of Congress holds its 2013 National Book Festival on the National Mall (10th St., N.W. and Constitution Ave., N.W.) today from 10 a.m.- 5p.m. and Sunday from noon-5:30 p.m. Have books signed and meet best selling authors including the Food Network’s Giada De Laurentiis, co-host of “Today” Hoda Kotb and author of “The Kite Runner” Khaled Hosseini. For details, visit loc.gov/bookfest.
Wolf Trap Ball and the Embassy of France host “Joie de Vivre” on the Filene Center Stage (1645 Trap Road, Vienna, Va.,) tonight at 7 p.m. Honorary hosts include Speaker of the House John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Ambassador of France François Delattre. Proceeds benefit Wolf Trap Foundation’s arts and education programs. RSVP required to [email protected]. For more information, visit wolftrap.org.
Layla Lounge (501 Morse St., N.E.) hosts an “Elite Boyz” dance party tonight from 10 p.m.-3 a.m. Admission is limited to guests 21 and over and is free before midnight and $10 afterward. For more information, visit layladc.com.
Sunday, Sept. 22
Black Fox Lounge (1723 Connecticut Ave. N.W.) hosts “Tula’s Drag Cabaret Show,” a lip-synch performance by local drag performers, tonight from 8-11 p.m. Admission is free. For details, visit blackfoxlounge.com or call 202-482-1723.
Perry’s (1811 Columbia Rd., N.W.) hosts its weekly “Sunday Drag Brunch” today from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. The cost is $24.95 for an all-you-can-eat buffet. For more details, visit perrysadamsmorgan.com.
Rainbow Families D.C. hosts a family picnic at Meadowbrook Park (7901 Meadowbrook Lane, Chevy Chase, Md.,) today from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Activities and games for both kids and adults. Bring own picnic lunch and snack or dessert to share. For details, visit thedccenter.org.
Adventuring, an LGBT outdoors group, hosts a Fall Equinox Night Hike through Old Rag today at 1:15 a.m. to watch the sunrise at 7 a.m. Meet at the East Falls Church Kiss and Ride lot at 1:15 a.m. Hike begins at 3:30 a.m. Cost is $25. Bring a head lamp, beverages, bug spray, sturdy boots and gloves. For experienced hikers only. For more information, visit adventuring.org.
Gay author Manil Suri will read selections from his novel “The City of Devi” today at 12:55 p.m. at the National Book Festival on the National Mall. Details at loc.gov/bookfest. Also look for him on Sept. 27 at 4:30 p.m. at George Mason University’s “Fall For the Book Festival” in Fairfax. Details at fallforthebook.org.
Monday, Sept. 23
D.C. celebrates its first “Bi Pride Day” in the first floor conference room at The Residence at Thomas Circle (1330 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.) today from 6:30-8 p.m. The program includes a panel discussion with two elders in the D.C. bisexual community. Refreshments served. Open to the public. For more details, email [email protected].
Dotgay LLC hosts a town hall discussion and reception about using the domain .gay on the fourth floor of the NGLCC Supplier Innovation Center (729 15th St., N.W.) from 6-8:30 p.m. tonight. Topics include new opportunities .gay will create for the community, community funding initiatives and more. Featured speaker is CEO and co-founder of dotgay LLC Scott Seitz. Event is free. Refreshments provided. Dress casual. Please RSVP to [email protected]. For more details, visit facebook.com/dotgaycom.
The Mankind Project has a “Special GBTQ New Warrior Training Adventure” tonight from 7:30-9:30 p.m. at Cedar Lane Unitarian Church (rooms 30-31) at 9601 Cedar Lane in Bethesda. It’s free.
Tuesday, Sept. 24
SMYAL (410 7th St., S.E.) provides free and confidential HIV testing drop-in hours today from 3-5 p.m. For more information, visit smyal.org.
Bachelor’s Mill (1104 8th St., S.E.) offers all drinks half price tonight until 2 a.m. Enjoy pool, video games and cards. Admission is free. Must be 21 and over. For more details, visit bachelorsmill.com.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation hosts free STD testing at the University Medical Building (2141 K St., N.W.) from 5-7:30 p.m. For details visit freestdcheck.org.
Wednesday, Sept. 25
The Lambda Bridge Club meets tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Dignity Center (721 8th St., S.E.) for duplicate bridge. No reservations required and new comers welcome. If you need a partner, call 703-407-6540.
Secret Pleasures hosts “Sexing the Transman with Buck Angel” tonight at 7 p.m. Includes interviews with trans men and people who love trans men. Cost is $25. For more information or to buy tickets, visit secretpleasuresboutique.com.
The D.C. Ambassadors of the Trevor Project have a “cocktails and conversation” event this evening from 6-8 p.m. at 9½, the upstairs video bar of Number Nine (1435 P Street, N.W.). Drinks are two-for-one. A $10 donation is suggested. Attendees will discuss the Trevor Project’s “Talk to Me” campaign as it relate to LGBT youth in connection with National Suicide Prevention Month.
Thursday, Sept. 26
Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV) hosts its monthly meeting at the D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) tonight at 7 p.m. The organization works to reduce violence toward LGBT people through community outreach, education and monitoring legal cases to ensure the dignity of LGBT victims. For more information, visit glovdc.org.
The D.C. Center and Pros in the City host speed dating for lesbian and bisexual women at Chi Cha Lounge (1624 U St., N.W.) tonight from 7-9 p.m. Dating is approximately one hour. After enjoy a mixer with fellow speed daters. Cash bar. Check in is at 7 p.m. and dating begins at 7:20 p.m. Complimentary valet parking offered to anyone who purchases two drinks or other items from the bar or restaurant. Cost is $30. For details, visit thedccenter.org.
Whitman-Walker Health provides free HIV testing at Miriam’s Kitchen (2401 Virginia Ave., N.W.) today from 4-6 p.m. For more information, visit whitman-walker.org.
Rude Boi Entertainment hosts “Tempted 2 Touch,” a ladies dance party, tonight at the Fab Lounge (2022 Florida Ave., N.W.). Doors open at 10 p.m. Drink specials $5 and vodka shots $3 all night. No cover charge. Admission limited to guests 21 and over. For more details, visit rudeboientertainment.wordpress.com.
Gay singer/songwriter Tom Goss is performing with full band accompaniment tonight at The Dunes (1402 Meridian Pl., N.W.). Goss will be joined by fellow out performer, Jeremiah Clark. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12 and can be purchased at www.tomgossmusic.com.
The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund National Champagne Brunch was held at Salamander Washington DC on Sunday, April 19. Gov. Andy Beshear (D-Ky.) was presented with the Allyship Award.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
The umbrella LGBTQ sports organization Team D.C. held its annual Night of Champions Gala at the Georgetown Marriott on Saturday, April 18. Team D.C. presented scholarships to local student athletes and presented awards to Adam Peck, Manuel Montelongo (a.k.a. Mari Con Carne), Dr. Sara Varghai, Dan Martin and the Centaur Motorcycle Club. Sean Bartel was posthumously honored with the Most Valuable Person Award.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Television
‘Big Mistakes’ an uneven – but worthy – comedic showcase
In the years since “Schitt’s Creek” wrapped up its six season Emmy-winning run, nostalgia for it has grown deep – especially since the still painfully recent loss of its iconic leading lady, Catherine O’Hara, whose sudden passing prompted a social media wave of clips and tributes featuring her fan-favorite performance as the deliciously daft Moira Rose. Revisiting so many favorite scenes and funny moments from the show naturally reminded us of just how much we loved it, even needed it during the time it was on the air; it also reminded us of how much we miss it, and how much it feels now like something we need more than ever.
That, perhaps more than anything else, is why the arrival of “Big Mistakes” – the new Netflix series starring, co-created and co-written by Dan Levy – felt so welcome. We knew it wouldn’t be the Roses, but it seemed cut from the same cloth, and it had David Rose (or at least someone who seemed a lot like him) in the middle of a comically dysfunctional family dynamic, complete with a mother who gets involved in town politics and a catty sibling rivalry with his sister, and still nebbish-ly uncomfortable in his own gay shoes. Only this time, instead of running a charmingly pretentious boutique, he’s the pastor of the local church, and instead of a collection of kooky small town neighbors to contend with, there are gangsters.
As it turns out, it really does feel cut from the same cloth, but the design is distinctly different. Set in a fictional New Jersey suburb, it centers on Nicky (Levy) and his sister Morgan (Taylor Ortega) – he openly gay with an adoring boyfriend (Jacob Gutierrez), yet still obsessive about keeping it all invisible to his congregation, and she drudging aimlessly through life as an underpaid schoolteacher after failing to achieve her New York dreams of show biz success – who inadvertently become enmeshed in a shady underworld when a gesture for their dead grandmother’s funeral goes horribly awry.
They’re surrounded by a crew of equally compromised characters. There’s their mother Linda (Laurie Metcalf), whose campaign to become the town’s mayor only intensifies her tendency to micromanage her children’s lives; Yusuf (Boran Kuzum), the Turkish-American mini-mart operator who pulls them into the criminal conspiracy yet is himself a victim of it; Max (Jack Innanen), Morgan’s live-in boyfriend, who pushes her for a deeper commitment and is willing to go to couples’ therapy to prove it; Annette, his mother (Elizabeth Perkins), who lends her society standing toward helping Linda’s campaign against a misogynistic opponent (Darren Goldstein); and Ivan (Mark Ivanir), the seemingly ruthless crime boss who enslaves the siblings into his network but may really be just another slave himself. It’s a well-fleshed out assortment of characters that helps our own loyalties shift and adapt, generating at least a degree of empathy – if not always sympathy – that keeps everyone from coming off as a merely “black-and-white” caricature of expectations and typecasting.
To be sure, it’s an entertaining binge-watch, full of distinctive characters – all inhabiting familiar, even stereotypical roles in the narrative – who are each given a degree of validation, both in writing and performance, as the show unspools its narrative. At the same time, it makes for a fairly bleak overall view of humanity, in which it’s difficult to place our loyalties with anyone without also embracing a kind of “dog eat dog” morality in which nobody is truly innocent – but nobody is completely to blame for their sins, anyway.
In this way, it’s a show that lets us off the hook in the sense that it places the idea of ethical guilt within a framework of relative evils, as it permits us to forgive our own trespasses by accepting its “lovably” amoral characters, each of whom has their own reasons and justifications for what they do. We relate, but we can’t quite shake the notion that, if all these people hadn’t been so caught up in their own personal dramas, none of them would have ended up in the compromised morality that they’re in.
However, it’s not some bleak morality play that Levy and crew undertake; rather, it’s more an egalitarian fantasy in which even “bad” choices feel justified by inevitability. Everybody’s motivations make enough sense to us that it’s hard to judge any of the characters for making the choices – however unwise – that they do. In a system where everyone is forced to compromise themselves in order to achieve whatever dream of self-fulfillment they may have, how can anybody really blame themselves for doing what they have to do to survive?
Of course, all things considered, this is more a relatable comedy than it is a morality play. As a comedy of errors, it all works well enough on its own without imposing an ideology on it, no matter how much we may be tempted to do so. Indeed, what is ultimately more to the point is how well this pseudo-cynical exercise in the normalization of corruption – for that is what it really about, in the end – succeeds in letting us all off the hook for our compromises.
In the end, of course, maybe all that analysis is too deep a dive for a show that feels, in the end, like it’s meant to be mostly for fun. Indeed, despite its focus on being dragged into the shady side of life, the arc of its messaging seems to be less about a moralistic urge toward making the “right” choice than it is a candid recognition that all of us are compromised from the outset, often by choices we only force upon ourselves, and that’s a refreshing enough bit of honesty that we can easily get on board.
It helps that the performances are on point, especially the loony and wide-eyed fanaticism of Metcalf – surely the MVP of any project in which she is involved – and the directly focused moral malleability of Ortega; Levy, of course, is Levy – a now-familiar persona that can exist within any milieu without further justification than its own queer relatability – and, in this case, at least, that’s both the icing on the cake and substance that defines it. That’s enough to make it an essential view for fans, queer or otherwise, of his distinctive “brand,” even if he – or the show itself – doesn’t quite satisfy in the way that “Schitt’s Creek” was able to do.
Seriously, though, how could it?
Victory Fund brunch draws top LGBTQ officials, 2028 hopeful Andy Beshear
Inside the lonely world of MAGA gay men
PHOTOS: National Champagne Brunch
PHOTOS: Night of Champions
‘Big Mistakes’ an uneven – but worthy – comedic showcase
Science said stop; the Supreme Court said no
Response to a personal attack against me
Queery: Meet artist, performer John Levengood
Charlie Kirk Act advances in Tenn.
