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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE JANUARY 14, 1994
ENTERTAINMENT
At the Miss Gay Akron '93-'94 Pageant
Story & photos by Jimmie
On Dec. 5th at the Interbelt Nightclub in Akron the Miss Gay Akron '93-'94 Pageant was held. The pageant, "rumored" to begin at 10pm, finally got underway at midnight. The stage was decorated by Alexandria; small trees adorned with white lights and the stage floor underneath them was snow covered. It made for quite an elegant setting for the show.
This year's pageant had six entrants competing in three categories, consisting of evening wear, talent and a question and answer session. The pageant was inter-
spersed with several entertainers. Simone, aka Bobby Beech (an ex-Miss Gay Akron and Mr. Gay Akron), impersonated Loni Gordon (who recently appeared at Numbers Nightclub in Cleveland) looked amazingly like Loni with short white hair. During the whole song all I could think of was Susan Powter (the Stop the Insanity chick). Later in the pageant Simone/Bobby returned to do a Janet Jackson tune, looking amazingly like the real thing. Both of his performances were virtually flawless. Denise Russell also entertained with her impressions of Eartha Kitt, Katharine Hepburn, Mae West, etc. with the crowd
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Deneé Samuels
ISS GAY AKRON
loving everything she did. The only problem being her show was not long enough. Valerie Hill and Alexandria shared m.c. duties this night with each also performing. Valerie performed a show stopper (as always) in her short red dress and worked the crowd raw and had everyone on their feet throwing tips to her-so much so she was given a small bag which she walked around on the stage with for her admirers to throw tips in. I have yet to see a show where
Valerie did not tear the crowd up-Akron loves their Valerie!
The pageant was dedicated to the memory of Cherresse, a previous Miss Gay Akron and a well known and loved member of the community. She received several standing ovations to her memory and several tributes to her throughout the night. Alexandria performed a tribute song by Cher (Cherresse fashioned herself after Cher, hence the name). Seeing Cherresse perform at last year's Miss Gay Akron and at Miss Gay Cleveland Northcoast showed how serious she was about her craft and how incredibly professional she was. She will be greatly missed, but never forgotten.
Two of the three judges for the night were Greg Lakota and Trixie Morgan. Trixie performed near the end of the show with a seasonal tune. Having never seen her perform before I knew this girl was serious when she walked onstage and pulled her own personal microphone out of her purse. It looked gold 'in color to me. In the audience were several notables: Alex Perry (former Mr. Gay Akron and Cleveland), Jessica Michaels (Miss Ohio Continental), and my good, good friend Jennifer Phillips (Miss Gay Cleveland Northcoast '93-'94).
Well, finally to announce the winner: Miss Gay Akron '93-'94 is Deneé Samuels.
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Cleveland Cinematheque
This weekend there are two films of interest to the lesbian and gay audience being shown. On Friday and Saturday, the 1993 Derek Jarman film Wittgenstein is scheduled. Jarman, well-known for his homoerotic style and subject matter (Sebastiane, Edward II) follows the life of one of the century's most influential philosophers, Ludwig Wittgenstein, who mightily struggles to pigeonhole humanity's thought process into a neat structure, all the while changing his own thoughts. He also struggles to accept his homosexuality and doesn't seem to mind sharing the young man, Johnny, lent to him by friend and intellectual John Maynard Keynes.
Jarman's approach to the story, called "humorous" by the film's publicity department, is also sometimes distant with its staging. Set much like an abstract play, the actors are in isolated scenes with the barest of props. Wittgenstein, played to studious perfection by Karl Johnson, sometimes seems ready to pop a blood vessel while resolving the self-posed challenges in the heady British intellectual environment of Cambridge.
Gayness, while never hidden, is never explored either. It's hard to tell if it's the lead character or the film that is trying to
take itself too seriously. Wittgenstein premieres Friday, Jan. 14 at 9:30 pm and Saturday, Jan. 15 at 7:30 pm.
Lesbian science fiction buffs can catch Flaming Ears (Rote Ohren Setzen Durch Afche), a 1991 Austrian cult hit. This is a real low budget, futuristic, darkly lit, shabbily photographed sequence of scenes that calls itself a movie. The story is set in the year 2700 in a burned out city, following the lives of three women, Volley, Nun and Spy. Spy is a comic-book artist whose printing presses are burned down by Volley, a sexedup pyromaniac. Seeking revenge, Spy goes to the lesbian club where Volley performs every night. Before she gets there, she is wounded in a fight and is found by Nun, an amoral alien in a red plastic suit who likes to dine on small live reptiles and who is also Volley's lover.
Explaining much more of the plot really doesn't help the viewing, but the scenes are often startling, violent and graphic. The film's publicity calls it a cyberdyke movie. The subtitles are low budget, too. It appears the person translating was not at the head of their class in English. But hey, maybe speak is that like in 700 years. The premiere showings are Saturday, Jan. 15 at 9:05 pm and Sunday, Jan. 16 at 7 pm.
The Cinematheque is at 11141 East Blvd in the Cleveland Institute of Art building.
-Joseph Morris
"I'm alone because I hate trying to
meet someone at the bars
"
NO EXCUSES.
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