eveningsout

John Waters kicks off series with exhibit, screening

by Miles Rosenberg

Columbus-The Wexner Center for the Arts was the site of glamour and deviance, as filmmaker and photographer John Waters introduced their Bride of B-Movie Mania! series with the director's cut of his 1974 cult film Female Trouble. Waters was also on hand to sign his new book, aptly titled Director's Cut.

Over a hundred people turned out for the book-signing. Admirers dressed in wigs, faux stoles, and sunglasses to celebrate the campy spirit of Waters' starmaking films. Fans offered everything from their own arms to plastic pink flamingos to be signed.

Waters' photos are impressive, combining obscure art film clips with his own early film shots to create new narratives. This summer he has had gallery showings in Paris, Brussels, Columbus, and two in Provincetown, Rhode Island.

A packed house filled the Film and Video

Theatre to see Female Trouble, a satire starring drag queen Divine as Dawn Davenport, a runaway teen who becomes a "crime model" for the wealthy owners of her local beauty salon. Waters noted that the film, which puts crime and beauty at center stage, was highly influenced by French novelist Jean Gênet.

After the film, Wexner Center media curator Bill Horrigan led a long question and answer session with Waters. The director said that Female Trouble reminded him of how many of his friends he has lost; many of the core group of Dreamland players, including Edith Massey, Divine, and David Lochary, have passed away.

He said that the film was really made to launch the career of Divine, his childhood friend Glenn Milstead, who starred in several of his later films including Polyester and Hairspray. He spoke lovingly of the diva, saying, "He was very shy and not flamboyant in high school. He was a dear, dear friend." When asked about the wider acceptance

Opera sets Cinderella in superficial South Beach

by Richard M. Berrong

Cleveland—Everyone thinks they know the story of Cinderella, but there is more than one way to look at a fairy tale. For its third and final production of the season, Lyric Opera Cleveland will offer northeast Ohioans a new perspective, with openly gay director Gary Race's adaptation of Rossini's comedy about the mistreated step-daughter who gets the prince.

Rossini's version of the story is very different from the one featured by Disney. There is no fairy godmother, no pumpkin, no glass slippers, no magical mice. Instead, it is a tale about people and relationships, good people who treat others well and are rewarded, bad people who do not and are not.

Seeing this as the core of the work and looking for an interestingly new way to present it, Race decided to focus on the distinction between those who care only about the external and the superficial, and those like Cinderella and the Prince who, instead, concentrate on the inside, the person, the heart. Asking himself what the most superficial aspect of our society might be, Race came up with the idea of setting the work in modernday Miami South Beach, the land of vanity, externals and status. Unlike in Disney, the two step-sisters are no longer ugly, wart-covered hags. They are now beautiful, if only externally.

Cinderella, on the other hand, is not a beauty queen just waiting for the right hairdo and outfit to have her potential realized. Though not ugly, she is now plain, physically, but inside she has the beauty that really counts. As a result, this time the Prince falls in love with her not when he sees her beautified at the ball, but when he gets to know her inner beauty while she is still dressed as a cindermaid.

Though a preoccupation with superficial beauty and status is not limited to gays or universal among them, Race admitted that he thought about the relevance of his adaptation to certain segments the community. Gays and straights alike who are bothered by such preoccupations should particularly enjoy Race's

Gary Race

way of presenting the transformation of the superficial characters at the end to seers of real beauty.

There is also a great deal of comedy in this work. Don Magnifico, Rossini's replacement for the fairy godmother, becomes a failed pizza baron in Race's adaptation, driven to ruin by the sudden popularity of sushi. Guests at the Prince's party, now held pool-side, show up on that South Beach staple, the Rollerblade.

Northeast Ohio's gay community will have a chance to enjoy the comedy and insight of Race's adaptation of the fairy tale when Lyric Opera Cleveland presents Cinderella July 21, 24, 29, and 31 at 7:00 pm and July 25 at 2:00 pm.

The evening performances have an hour intermission and there are tables on the grounds of the Cleveland Institute of Music, where the performances will take place, so theatergoers can bring a picnic dinner or order one from Lyric Opera. (Box dinners must be ordered at least three days in advance.) To order tickets and dinners call 216-231-2910.

Richard M. Berrong is a freelance writer living in Kent, Ohio.

of sexuality as a film subject, Waters said he was optimistic. He cited the work of directors Todd Haynes, Bruce LaBruce, and Todd Solondz, who also tackle taboos, as steps in the right direction.

His newest film, Cecil B. Demented, about

bigtips

a group of underground filmmakers who force an A-list movie star to be in their film, is in production.

Miles Rosenberg is a Chronicle contributing writer living in Columbus.

People are nice, money's okay; why do I hate my job?

by M.T. "the Big Tipper" Martone

Since I filled you in on the romantic beginnings of my gardening, I thought I'd give you the mid-summer update. I can't stop singing "Oklahoma," because "Fer Me it's All 'Er Nothin." My plants are either busting out of the ground like crazy autonomous clown wigs, or non-existent, with tiny tumbleweeds blowing over the dry blank strips which once held the dream of, say, parsnips or carrots.

The radishes are fat and beautiful and growing right out of the ground, and are so sharp that no one can eat them. My pea plants just revealed a first pod, tearing out of a damp, tissue-thin flower.

I thinned my roots and ate some microbeets, which were dee-lish. I can't tell my herbs apart, so I'll wait until I'm desperate to flavor something, and then I'll pinch them. My tomato plants are thick, fuzzy, twisting, and acidy smelling; no flowers yet.

But it turns out that I need patience in an unexpected arena. Despite the attempted distraction of Kiera the boxer, she's her own personal natural disaster. So far, she's ravaged four whole heads of lettuce, but at least she eats what she kills. (She's also systematically consuming our $5.00 picnic table, but since we paid about $4.99 too much for it, at least she's saving us that trip to the dump.)

A friend gave her a dog house, but she doesn't understand it, so she's found her own shady patch for napping, nestled in between the peonies and the tomatoes, causing not minimal damage to both. And so it goes.

Dear Tip,

I am miserable in my job. I make a reasonable living at an office job, where the people are nice enough. I don't have to be in the closet, so that's not it. I just can't focus any

more.

I've been here for seven years, since I got out of college. I can't stop surfing the net on the job, just to make the day pass, and then I'm afraid I'll get in trouble for not getting my work done.

I feel like I'm supposed to be toiling to secure my future, and I know that life isn't all fun, but I feel so unhappy. What should I do? Whine to Five

Dear Shirker Bee,

Hmm. I'm thinking you're probably burned out, but you could be in the right job

Jeffrey Mostade PCC, NCC with the wrong attitude, or it might not be

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your job that's really what's getting you down.

Here's what happens to me sometimes. I start to slack a little at my job, then I don't get the satisfaction that comes from completion, or praise for my work. I get nervous about not meeting a deadline. Work sucks. But then I get off my keister, crank for a while, do some good work, and I remember why I'm happy with what I do. Duh. You might need to jump start a positive feedback cycle.

On the other hand, did you know that the average American has five distinct careers in her lifetime? Ding! Maybe the timer just went off on this one, and you're burned out. Any dreams deferred? If you're about 27 or 28, you may be feeling the heat to figure out what you really want to do with yourself. It's not too late to be anything you want to be, except a pregnant teenager.

Be careful about racking up debt going back to school to change careers: It can be tempting to use school as an escape, but unless it's med school, it may be hard to deal with the debts when you're done.

There are other options: co-op programs where you learn and work at the same time, night classes, internships and volunteer work.

Or maybe you're just sad or depressed. How long have you felt this way? If it's hard to go to work in the morning, and hard to go home at night, maybe life in general just isn't clicking the way you want it to right now. You might want to look for a support group or a counselor to help put things in perspective.

And of course, you're coming up on your Saturn return. Whether you believe in astrological phenomena or not, lots of people have opinions on what happens when Saturn loops its way back to where it was in the solar system when you were born. Every issue you've ever dealt with will now emerge again, to be dealt with, all at once. Or you take care of resolving all of your past-life issues. Or you shed all your old stuff. Whatever you believe, the crap tends to hit the ceiling fan of orbiting planets. Just go with it, and you won't have to deal with again until you're about 56.

Dear Big Tipper,

My lover says it's weird to wear my watch with the face toward my body. I don't wear it facing out, because then the crystal gets scratched. You're supposed to wear it on your non-dominant side so it doesn't get scratched, so why not wear it face in? He thinks the way I wear it is inappropriate and looks like I don't know better.

Dear Time on Your Side,

Watch Out?

Who cares? Why is your boyfriend filling your head with garbage about what other people are going to think about you? And why are you listening?

I think we owe it to our lovers to let them know that their shirt is on inside out or that their fly is down, and if they ask what we think of some reprehensible outfit, you may say what you think at your own risk, but nit-picking is hurtful and demoralizing and manipulative. ♡

Burning questions? Contact me at the Chronicle, attention Big Tips, P.O. Box 5426, Cleveland 44101, or fax to 216-631-1052, or e-mail to martone@drizzle.com.