10 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE December 10, 2004

eveningsout

What to buy for them?

Books, music and movies answer the seasonal question

by Anthony Glassman

The holiday season has come upon the world like some giant creeping thing, trailing Christmas stockings and menorahs, Chanukah gelt and holly. Of course, that means but one thing: time for the annual consumer frenzy, coupled with the constant question of what to buy for loved ones.

There are thousands of entertaining presents out there, ripe for the plucking. New books come out all the time, as do albums and DVDs. Looking through the multitude of possibilities for the holiday gift-giving, one could

easily become lost, trying to find a way out of the darkened labyrinth of pop culture.

Thankfully, there are a few shining lights to serve as beacons.

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For instance, Sharon Bridgforth's moving, unique novel in a combination of free-form verse and loose prose, Loveconjure/blues on Red Bone Press. Bridgforth has a powerful voice, and her Lambda Literary Award for her previous release on Red Bone, The bulljean stories, is made all the more distinct by the fact that she is an African American lesbian. Were there to be an army of women like Bridgforth publishing books, it probably

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would not be enough.

Dealing with history, society and emotion, the typesetting, the placement of the words, are almost as much a part of the story as the words she has selected, drawing pictures both metaphorically and literally.

For something a little lighter, perhaps a little tastier, although not nearly as meaty, there is A Kitchen Fairy Christmas, allegedly written by the Kitchen Fairy, with illustrations by Disney animator Doug Krohn, published by Trafford.

What can be said about a cookbook with recipes for "A Kiss Under the Kilt" punch and "Ground Beef in High Drag," along with references to tossing Rudolph's Salad? Not for the faint of heart, or those lacking a fine sense of the camp.

Perhaps some coffee table books will clear the taste of atrocious puns out of everyone's mouths. Consider James Spada's Edwardian Men from Pond Street Press, and GMan, drawings by Glen Hanson published by Bruno Gmünder.

Edwardian Men features Spada's lush photography of male nudes

is the Ted Knight quirkfest Too Close for Comfort, which put the Mary Tyler Moore Show alumnus in San Francisco, trapped on the second floor of a house with his wife and two grown daughters. When his downstairs tenant dies, he rents the apartment to his girls to get some privacy but still be close enough to keep tabs on them.

Again, not ostensibly gay, despite being set in San Francisco. Of course, when going through his late tenant's belongings, they discover that he was a drag queen, a fact mentioned in later episodes as well.

More notably, however, the show introduced the world to Jim J. Bullock, who, as gay actors go, is so famous that he's become the

Edwardian Men

Jame

in Victorian-inflected settings, with matching framing on the pages and a cover designed to simulate the leatherbound volumes of yore. Spada went so far as to tint the photos to give them that yesteryear feel, which is a nice touch.

butt of in-jokes in queer culture books.

Next, there are a couple of compact discs that each count as two presents. Keep Hope Alive: Blaze presents Underground Dance Artists United for Life and Broadway's Greatest Gifts: Carols for a Cure Volume 6 both benefit AIDS charities.

Keep Hope Alive features Kenny Bobien, Barbara Tucker, Ultra Naté, Arnold Jarvis, Byron Stingily, Joi Cardwell and Blaze, all performing some of the best dance music around both together and solo, and all to help people living with HIV.

AKICHEN

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CHRISTMAS

On the lighter side, Hanson's book is a collection of comic-style artwork by the co-creator of the strip Chelsea Boys. Hanson draws well, and fans of Joe Phillips and Patrick Fillion will be sure to enjoy this volume. One word of warning, though: do not buy this for someone who likes bears or chubby guys. They will be sorely disappointed.

Fans of the great lady Nostalgia have something to look for in their stockings,or whatever equivalent we Jews use. Two fascinating boxed sets bring viewers back to shows that could never be forgotten, for better or worse. First, Wonder Woman finally gets the respect she deserves with the release of season one of the television series, complete with the high-camp World War II adventures of the Amazing Amazon. And anyone who says the '70s series wasn't gay needs to be smacked upside the head with a tiara-cum-boomerang.

In the pilot episode, for instance, Cloris Leachman as Queen Hippolyta is more Sapphic than Hilary Swank in Boys Don't Cry. Having Fannie Flagg as the Amazon doctor on Paradise Island did nothing to "straighten" the situation up.

Another series getting the DVD treatment

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Broadway Greatest Gifts is a two-disc set of casts from popular musicals singing holiday songs.

It's incredibly Christmas-heavy, with one certified Jewish song and another that might be, although the prevalence of Christmas songs might be some sort of inside joke. As Mel Brooks posited, without Jews, gays and Gypsies, there would be no theater.

However, with the casts of Mamma Mia, Bombay Dreams, Wicked, Rent, The Boy from Oz, Avenue Q, Fiddler on the Roof and others singing carols to benefit Broadway Cares/ Equity Fights AIDS, they could include no yiddishkeit songs and the album would still be above reproach.

Finally, and this would make a great twoin-one present, there's the Scissor Sisters, the queer glam-rock darlings of the world. Their self-titled debut is available now, with the single "Take Your Mama" and, more frighteningly, their cover of the Pink Floyd song "Comfortably Numb."

How is this a two-in-one present, one might ask? Well, they'll be playing the House of Blues in Cleveland on December 13, their only Ohio stop, at least through the end of January. Can you say "road trip?"

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