Chris Crocker turned to the internet to escape the torment of being chased by gangs of boys at the mall.
The internet helped him connect with the greater world around him when he couldn’t create a gay-straight alliance in his school and he left to be home schooled. To grow up a gay, eccentric and [...]
Chris Crocker turned to the internet to escape the torment of being chased by gangs of boys at the mall.
The internet helped him connect with the greater world around him when he couldn’t create a gay-straight alliance in his school and he left to be home schooled. To grow up a gay, eccentric and flamboyant teen has never been easy especially in a small conservative town in Tennessee.
If it weren’t for the internet where would Chris Crocker be?
Today Chris is one of the most watched and imitated video bloggers online. His iconic video of himself weeping and imploring the public to “Leave Britney Alone” made him a household name.
Chris’ videos represent the dramatic change we’re seeing in how we create and consume media. Chris’ videos are just as popular as the YouTube Presidential debates or the evening news. For millions of people everywhere, his opinion matters.
Despite this, old media companies are threatened by Chris popularity because of his bold desire to express himself at any cost. They can’t control him and he doesn’t need them.
It’s easy to question the authenticity of Chris’ videos because he’s just that good. He’s eerily in touch with his dark emotions and quickly cuts through the hypocrisy of the “haters” with his wit and words.
“Leave Britney Alone” proves to be one of the most emotionally over the top videos I’ve ever seen online. I believe Chris cried not so much for Britney Spears but rather to express the pain and suffering he endured having gone through the hell of homophobia as a teenager. In many ways, Chris Crocker represents the tortured gay youth who fought back and lived.
Chris Crocker really is a huge fan of Britney Spears, even though she has conservative leanings and a complete lack of interest in gay rights of any kind. Remember, she was FOR the War in Iraq and said in many interviews that we should “stand by our President” despite his reckless policies.
Chris sees something bigger inside of Britney. He believes her to be a liberal person trapped by the conservative world around her.
People can’t leave Britney alone or any other tragic celebrity for that matter because they help us cope with our everyday problems. When we see someone richer, more attractive and more powerful than us struggling to hold on, it makes it easy to come to peace with our place in the world.
On today’s show Chris Crocker joins us to talk in-depth about his popular video blog, his passion for following people’s horoscope and how he may team up with Puerto Rican TV astrologer Walter Mercado to reach a hip, young new audience. We also talk with Chris about how he personally deals with the vicious hate online and offline, what he thinks of all those parody videos of his work and where in Los Angeles you should hang out if you want to hook up with Chris.
And we put to rest the rumors surrounding Chris’ HIV/AIDS conspiracy as a government biological weapon gone wrong and being vilified for simply being himself and being good at it!
Your broken beer bottle in the bar fight against homophobia- Feast of Fools.
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For many people, seeing the cult-film “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” for the first time was a breakthrough.
I remember my first time in college hearing about this bizzare film experience where people threw food at the movie screen and re-enacted the entire film in costume and it had a murderous mad scientist transvestite named Dr. [...]
I remember my first time in college hearing about this bizzare film experience where people threw food at the movie screen and re-enacted the entire film in costume and it had a murderous mad scientist transvestite named Dr. Frankenfurter. It was a celebration of sexuality, laughing at the ridiculousness of homophobia as we “gave ourselves over to absolute pleasure.”
One of my first experiences dressing up in drag was landing the part of a chorus member in the live musical production in Austin, Texas where we were required to wear vampish make-up, leather, lace and panty-hose. I was quite popular with the audience members, as I always found an excuse to sing the “Time Warp” song and land on some hunky audience member’s lap.
When Rocky Horror picture show was first released, it wasn’t well received despite the live musical version being a hit in London. Still some imaginative people saw gold in the celluloid and decided to embrace the film for it’s quirky campy self. The movie ignited the careers of actors Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick.
For Peaches Christ, every Midnight Mass movie event is a celebration of the queer experience in film. Every summer Peaches and her pals get together and camp it up before a sold-out crowd with their special brand of cult-film inspired mayhem. Peaches knows and loves these campy films like a momma knows the sound of her child’s voice.
On today’s show Peaches joins us to talk about some of the hottest and campiest sci-fi films every gay man must see.
Why is the film Flash Gordon so boring? It has everyting you could ask for, hunky football playing heroes, campy villians and a score by Queen. Yet somehow this film puts everyone to sleep, despite it’s decadent costume, plot and sets.
Is Starship Troopers the sequel to Showgirls? And why do gay people love blood, gore and guts with a sci-fi twist? Maybe it’s our shared experience in having to live a life outside of our own. Maybe we just like tacky movies and glittery things.
The film Xanadu, shot in the late 70s featured Olivia Newton-John playing Kira, a greek muse that inspires a struggling record company artist to quit his job and pursue his dreams. Gene Kelley joins in the fun as a big band orchestra leader-turned-construction mogul who decides to launch Xanadu, a decadent, post-modern futuristic nightclub which fused 1980s rock with 1940s swing jazz music.
The deliciously over-produced film gave us a vision of the 1980s from the vantage of the 1970s as a sexual, liberated time where people valued creativity and passion over money and responisbiloity. Boy were they off the mark!
Despite dealing a fatal blow to Olivia Newton-John’s film carreer, she married dancer/choreographer Matt Lattanzi who played a young Gene Kelly in the film (they divorced a decade later). Everyone was busy hooking up during the making of that movie!
The movie even inspired me to create my own medley for one of our past live shows.
A podcast where all your hopes survive, where all your hopes survive, they call it: Feast of Fools.
Check out our sponsor: Steamworks Gym, Sauna and Baths.
Don’t miss the Ultimate IML Play Party event: RE-BOOT
featuring San Francisco DJ Sean Greene, Saturday May 25th 11:30PM-11AM. Check out the parties every day of IML /Bear Pride weekend May 22-26th. Visit Steamworks for details.
If you thought beauty pageants were for women, think again. Come join us as we hang out in the dressing room at the Mr. Chicago Gay Competition, 2008.
NOTE: Because some fine booty is shown, this video may not be safe for work.
Thanks to Stephen for editing this!
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If you thought beauty pageants were for women, think again. Come join us as we hang out in the dressing room at the Mr. Chicago Gay Competition, 2008.
NOTE: Because some fine booty is shown, this video may not be safe for work. Thanks to Stephen for editing this!
Steven Rosengard was the first Chicago based designer to be on Project Runway, the fabulous reality television show where contestants compete against each other to create the best clothes. Their designs are judged and one or more of the contestants are eliminated each week.
Project Runway Season Four was filled with a lot of great talent [...]
Steven Rosengard was the first Chicago based designer to be on Project Runway, the fabulous reality television show where contestants compete against each other to create the best clothes. Their designs are judged and one or more of the contestants are eliminated each week.
Project Runway Season Four was filled with a lot of great talent and we are glad Steven got as far as he did. He was “auffed” or kicked off of the show after re-styling a wedding dress of a women who have lost a significant amount of weight.
When given the challenge to create a new outfit out of a woman’s former favorite “fat clothes,” Steven was given the impossible task of transforming a woman’s wedding dress. As soon as I saw that dress, I knew whomever got it was going to lose.
The judges said that Steven turned her “wedding dress into a funeral dress.”
Still, Steven doesn’t shy away from talking about his design choices and explaining his reasons for making it.
Steven is a blast! We had a lot of fun with this Chi-town fashionista. He loved our idea for “Project Runway: The Musical!”
Of course all the contestants would play themselves and there would be awesome fashion show montages throughout the show. Jack Mackenroth is already working on his routine. Check him out in this over the top Flashdance number.
Since leaving Project Runway, Steven has spent a lot of time attending charity functions. He’s hosting Make a Statement: Design for the Cure, which showcases top fashions from Chicago’s favorite boutiques and rising designers, to raise HIV/AIDS awareness among Chicago’s 21 – 35 demographic. Presented by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago Junior Board, the event will feature models wearing t-shirts with such statements as: “Condoms: For Wieners Not Wallets,” “AIDS Apathy Makes Your Ass Look Big,” and “HIV Only Needs One Chance.”
Listen as we chat with Steven about the future of Project Runway and how its move to another network will effect viewership. Is Heidi nicer on air than she is off air?
Steven continues to further his design work. If you’d like him to make you a dress just contact him through his website StevenRosengard.com
The podcast that makes it work- Feast of Fools
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Mexican’s aren’t just gang-bangers, kitchen help or street peddlers of oranges. I should know I’m Mexican, so I can get away with bringing up such stereotypes. Actually, my entire adult life I thought I was half Mexican, but last year I found out that my dad is a quarter Apache indian too. Neglecting to share [...]
Mexican’s aren’t just gang-bangers, kitchen help or street peddlers of oranges. I should know I’m Mexican, so I can get away with bringing up such stereotypes. Actually, my entire adult life I thought I was half Mexican, but last year I found out that my dad is a quarter Apache indian too. Neglecting to share that kind of information is typical in my family, but I love them anyway and now I can make fun of Indians too. (more…)
Happy Cinco de Mayo everybody! Okay, so it’s a little hard to celebrate the Mexican equivalent of St. Patrick’s day, a drinking holiday, on a Monday, but bear with us.
Sal-E joins us to start off the show right with a pitch shifted, hi-NRG version of La Bamba. Then afterwards we serve up a little [...]
Happy Cinco de Mayo everybody! Okay, so it’s a little hard to celebrate the Mexican equivalent of St. Patrick’s day, a drinking holiday, on a Monday, but bear with us.
Sal-E joins us to start off the show right with a pitch shifted, hi-NRG version of La Bamba. Then afterwards we serve up a little multicultural “es-spanish” lesson, Feast of Fools style.
One nice discovery we made while readying the karaoke music for today’s show is that all music sounds better if you pitch shift it up and speed it up. Try it!
In today’s busy world, we just don’t have time to listen to our audio/video content the same old “real time” way, now with quicktime you can speed things up and get your heart pumping and energy flowing.
Speeding up songs and pitch shifting them up is so much fun, I’m predicting that we’ll soon hear musicians on major labels release songs pitch shifted up to make everyone sound like chipmunks at 160 beats per minute.
Instead of “chimping” think “chipping” or “chipmunking” the song. You heard it here first.
In Chile, a mayor is handing out free Viagra to men 60 years of age and older. But, who are they going to screw? There wives are probably perfectly content to have not had sex in a while and the South American nation recently repealed giving out the “Morning After Pill” free to low income women. We are hoping that the Chilean tiny drag queen superstar “La Pequeña ” will intercede on behalf of these poor ladies.
Can’t you just imagine La Pequeña at a pharmacy demanding her free birth control, right after a night of reckless sex? Check her out in a hot blooper’s session of her la Pequeña Hillary Clinton video here on the right.
Join Sal-E, Marc Felion and me Fausto Fernós as we follow-up on Sal-E’s baby fetish party and talk about suicide Disney style, when seals attack penguins and those dirty, dirty keyboards.
Please take a moment and spray your keyboard with some sanitizing wipes or windex on a rag to kill those nasty germs. Don’t ever spray anything directly on your computer.
A technicolor dazzle of fabulousness- Feast of Fools.
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Armpits are sexy. Even sweat-drenched pits that aren’t in a dress shirt can be sexy. Am I right? My friend Donald is sexy and I know he loves his armpits because he’s always drawing them. He likes to draw his hairy legs and his crotch too and this is so great because he’s a very [...]
Armpits are sexy. Even sweat-drenched pits that aren’t in a dress shirt can be sexy. Am I right? My friend Donald is sexy and I know he loves his armpits because he’s always drawing them. He likes to draw his hairy legs and his crotch too and this is so great because he’s a very talented illustrator.
Sex is like lot like pizza- no matter how bad it is it’s still pretty good.
But the thing with sex is that everyone thinks they are the greatest lover, but sex is also like baseball; everyone can play baseball, but how many of us are good enough to make it to the world series?
In [...]
Sex is like lot like pizza- no matter how bad it is it’s still pretty good.
But the thing with sex is that everyone thinks they are the greatest lover, but sex is also like baseball; everyone can play baseball, but how many of us are good enough to make it to the world series?
In the 1934 film Sex Madness, the opening credits implore us that syphilis “must no longer remain hushed, but must be fought in the open like any other dangerous contagious disease….humanity must be enlightened! Ignorance must be abolished! Young and old.. rich and poor, they must be told.”
Sex Madness is a camp movie but even way back in the 1930s people struggled with how to discuss sex out in the open. Substitute HIV/AIDS for syphilis and you can see we might not have come as far as we thought in thinking about diseases and sex.
On today’s show, join for a lively discussion at the Center on Halsted in Chicago on gay men’s relationship to sex and risk.
Discover some of the inaccurate and damaging psychological concepts that are being used to describe gay men. Are some of the studies being done actually making us sick? What do we all ultimately desire?
Click here to check out our photo gallery from the event.
The podcast that keeps on giving- Feast of Fools.
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She was left for dead when her next door neighbor stabbed her in the neck, suddenly and without warning. Luckily she had the presence of mind to call 911. That phone call saved her life.
On today’s show singer songwriter Mekole Wells lives to tell her story of her near death and then being confronted with [...]
She was left for dead when her next door neighbor stabbed her in the neck, suddenly and without warning. Luckily she had the presence of mind to call 911. That phone call saved her life.
On today’s show singer songwriter Mekole Wells lives to tell her story of her near death and then being confronted with heart problems. After a heart bypass surgery Mekole healed herself through the healing powers of words and music. It is hard to keep a good diva down!
It is our pleasure to welcome back to the show Mekole Wells, whose last appearance happened on the Feast of Fools in August of 2006.
Today Mekole Wells returns to spread the word about her fabulous performance at the Alt Q Music Festival at the Old Town School of Folk Music on May 17th. We hope you can all make it out to this fabulous event filled with top notched musicians.
Are men on the verge of extinction? It seems that one scientists claims that the male chromosome will eventually degrade so much that there won’t be anymore men around. Listen up ladies, although it may take 120,000 years for men to become extinct, it looks like the Earth may someday be called Lesbos.
Listen as we chat with Mekole about finding your passion and creativity through your extraordinary and everyday struggles. We also talk about who will be the future president of the United States. We hope it’s a good one.
Mekole Wells gives us an a cappella taste of her new song “Come Over Me” which she’ll be singing at the Festival on May 17th.
The podcast that is hard to kill- Feast of Fools.
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Mekole Wells - Anything Worth Mentioning: Amazon | CD Baby | Site
I am a woman, ok? Tracy is in a bit of a quandry. Our modern day suburban tranny Tracy Tyler is in a bit of a stick since she got cast as a man in a local production of the musical Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
Since Tracy has spent the past couple [...]
I am a woman, ok? Tracy is in a bit of a quandry. Our modern day suburban tranny Tracy Tyler is in a bit of a stick since she got cast as a man in a local production of the musical Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
Since Tracy has spent the past couple of years working hard to unveil the woman inside herself, being cast as a man in a musical challenges her gender identity, as well as her identity as an actor. What will Tracy do an how will she pull off this Victor/Victoria and then Victor again story?
She’s isn’t the only one playing around with gender. Isabella Rossellini has become a transpecies porn star in a series of short films about the sex lives of bugs, insects, and various creatures. Each episode begins with Isabella speaking to the camera “ If I were a…(firefly, spider, dragonfly etc.).” She then dons a male costume of that species and explains how the species does “it.” Birds do it, bees do it, let’s fall in love.
So after CNN interviewed the three tools wearing the Abercrombie & Fitch t-shirts to confirm that the Bama isn’t taking advertisers, the general public (including me) have come out with their own “Obamacrombie” and “Hillister” t-shirts. Who will win this fashion election?
OR
Bikini season is just around the corner and Tracy is wondering if she will sport a bikini or will she cover it up like that incident in Katmandu, or was that Kalamazoo? Maybe it was in Kankakee or in Kenosha? We’re just glad it wasn’t in Cucamonga.
Plus tips on tipping the pizza delivery guy, how to get what you want from a hot sexy man. Stick around!
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Always a little bit off center- Feast of Fools.
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Only crazy people, beauty pageant winners, drag queens and royalty wear tiaras- when it comes to the folks of the Windy City Empire, you can check “all the above.”
It’s always such a nutty delight to see them out and about in your local gay bar holding court and raising money for a wide variety [...]
Only crazy people, beauty pageant winners, drag queens and royalty wear tiaras- when it comes to the folks of the Windy City Empire, you can check “all the above.”
It’s always such a nutty delight to see them out and about in your local gay bar holding court and raising money for a wide variety of charities.
Every year these courts all around the country raise money for charities through large fancy fundraisers which mainly consist of court members and their friends hanging out in royal attire and bestowing upon each other large colorful royal-sounding names.
On today’s show, Alexandra St. James joins us to shed some light on the Imperial Court System. Are they for real? Is this mostly tongue in cheek or do some people truly believe themselves to be royalty?
Alexandra’s full name is: Her Imperial Majesty the Ruby Phoenix Sorceress of Radiance Renewal and Redemption the Empress Prima Alexandra Saint James. What a mouthful!
At coronation time, many court members pick their names after monuments in the city where they live in and Alexandra named herself after Chicago’s Buckingham Fountain, don’t ask us why.
Alexandra is busy these days pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music studying Opera, where she hopes one day to sing among the best of them in theaters around the world.
And what a set of pipes this diva-in-training has! The Lady Alexandra can easily imitate many of the famous women of music, stage and screen. You will be floored by her effortless take on Tina Turner, Gladys Night and the powerhouse Patti LaBelle.
Listen as we talk with her majesty about the Cinderella Syndrome and what’s the matter with young kids today.
Did you hear? A recent survey of GLBT youth suggests most of them want to be married with kids by the age of 30. That’s a lot to chew on. When I was younger, many of my female friends thought having a kid in their youth would be a disastrous blow to their futures but now many young people think of getting married and having kids as their future.
Is this just the romanticism of youth or are we seeing a fundamental change in queer identity here?
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The podcast that doesn’t look crazy wearing a tiara- Feast of Fools.
Determination is a drag queen’s middle name. And this photo is a good example of fortitude and endurance in the face of adversity. Actually, she does have legs, but I like this Polaroid more when I imagine that she is dragging herself down the stairs because she has nothing below the waist. And a [...]
Determination is a drag queen’s middle name. And this photo is a good example of fortitude and endurance in the face of adversity. Actually, she does have legs, but I like this Polaroid more when I imagine that she is dragging herself down the stairs because she has nothing below the waist. And a drag queen under 6′7″ tall who leaves a trail of blood behind her is just too ripe for ridicule.
Sit tight! We’ve got a drag-queen filled, delicious roller coaster ride of podcasting for you today.
Sal-E’s best gal-pal Teri Yaki joins us to talk about why so many people love to claim a drag queen as their best friend, why drag queens fight so much with each other and the origins of his delicious [...]
Sit tight! We’ve got a drag-queen filled, delicious roller coaster ride of podcasting for you today.
Sal-E’s best gal-pal Teri Yaki joins us to talk about why so many people love to claim a drag queen as their best friend, why drag queens fight so much with each other and the origins of his delicious name.
I met Kevin years ago when he was a bartender and had just moved from Detroit, Michigan. Back then, he considered himself to be a performance artist and identified as a bi-guy and was dating his college sweetheart cabaret singer Amy Armstrong.
Today Kevin lives with his partner Ray in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago and performs all over the city as Teri Yaki.
Teri Yaki is quite a hoot and she crashed the taping of our live podcast at Steamworks and managed to titillate the unshockable crowd by flashing his nuts through his fish net stockings.
Why did Teri Yaki pee on top of her friend one fateful night? Why did he get kicked out of the Eagle leather bar? Who will win the drag queen wars? All this and a “Cher-Off’ on today’s show.
A merry go round of fabulousness- Feast of Fools.
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