New Year’s resolutions are definitely the recurring theme of this month’s magazine. My resolution for this year is to get myself a little better organized than I currently am, both in my work and in my personal life. I am finally wrapping up my Master’s thesis at well over 125 pages and look forward to finally accomplishing this goal that has been 4 years in the making.
Strangely, the magazine layout although electronic, goes through a lot of wear and tear over the course of the year as we duplicate, delete, and move design elements around. The first month of the year is our time to clean things up again, review comments and suggestions from our readers and makes changes to the content and layout of the magazine.
One very large change has been in the Classifieds area, where we finally found the time to make it all a little more user friendly. We assembled a completely new list of categories better suited to the needs of our readers, and headings are now color coded to easily identify their subject. Also, when multiple classifieds appear under a single category, they are no longer divided by redundant category headings – hooray for saved space!
We have several new articles and columns starting this month. Since we have porn reviews for the men, we decided to take on a monthly Lesbian sexuality column for the women. Trust me ladies, I’m going to dread proofing these so I truly hope you enjoy them! Also by reader demand, we have taken on a monthly travel column to showcase gay destinations outside of Calgary and Edmonton. Lastly, I’ve decided to spin off a number of topics I usually discuss in the Publisher’s column into a news clips section I call “Newslets”. I wanted to do this so that I can write about them in a reporting capacity, rather than mixing them in with my personal experience and perceptions. I may still make mention of some of the topics from my own perspective here in the Publisher’s column, if I have something subjective to mention.
We are making an amendment to our photography policy for the upcoming year in order to make things fairer. Although it has been our policy to concentrate on special events and fundraisers, we have been making exceptions in the case of weekly for-profit drag shows. Call this a grandfathered guideline from the days when we photographed the drag shows at Metro Boyztown and Detour alternating weekends, but it is time to retire this exemption. Sadly, even though weekly shows may vary in song selection, getting distinctive photographs boils down to what the queens are wearing…and it’s a little hard for the regulars to show off a new outfit every week. We even joked about printing photos from months prior to see if anyone would notice. In Edmonton, we are not even sure if there will be drag shows any more, since The Roost is no longer operating and, last we heard, Buddy’s was debating on cancelling their shows. From now on, for-profit weekly drag shows will only receive coverage in the magazine if they are part of a special event, or if we are notified of special circumstances.
Christmas with the Polyaks
Since I’ve known Steve, we have followed a similar schedule each December – I spend a peaceful Christmas Eve and part of Christmas day alone with my mom and dad, and then join Steve (by his own insistent request) for “moral support” as he visits with his own family on the 25th and 26th. There is never a dull moment thanks to family drama, and it takes a toll on him to keep smiling as some of his more colorful relatives do and say outrageous things.
First off, Steve’s mom got a free Christmas tree as a gift from a friend of the family. Unfortunately the thing was as wide at the top as it was at the base, containing about 8 branches concentrated at the top and bottom - a concave cylinder, as opposed to a cone. Still, they didn’t want to be rude and so this tree was put up in the living room and decorated. Steve and I couldn’t help making snide jokes about using dead squirrels as ornaments, but Mom secretly had a chuckle over it all the same. Steve’s older sister just about died laughing, as she admitted that she had coincidentally encountered squirrel road kill round about the time the Christmas tree arrived.
Then there’s Steve’s aunt who, when he was a child told him that he should kill himself if he was gay. Since then she has come a complete 180 degrees, telling us at Steve’s brother’s wedding two years ago that she accepted us and gave her blessings. This year we were all pre-warned that she was experiencing some emotional problems directed toward grandma and other relatives, and though none of us sought to breach the topic, she was more than happy to bring it up on her own. I can see that there is a good person inside her, but her high-strung behavior sadly rubs people the wrong way, and receiving disapproval from them only seems to make things worse. She is receiving help, and we definitely hope she can work things out.
Also there is a friend of the family who comes to visit each boxing day, who is constantly gifting religious and fad diet literature (and sometimes a bizarre combination of the two) to family members. Every year it is a new thing – last year it was eating particular foods according to your blood type, this year it was about the evils of pasteurized and homogenized milk. Steve’s younger sister and her fiancée are now expecting, and they received a gift from her which was a book about the benefits of feeding their child unpasteurized milk. This sounds like a stunningly bad idea, since pasteurization is required to eliminate ecoli and salmonella. Still she insists that the pasteurization process eliminates powerful healing properties of milk, and hopes to team up with like-minded people to buy their own cow (since it is illegal for farmers to sell unpasteurized milk products). We just hope she isn’t going to make herself sick…or do we?
After three Christmas dinners, Steve and I finally got a chance to spend time at home again, and play with some of our gifts. I bought Steve the latest Dance Dance Revolution game with floor dance mat, so that we can occasionally have a fun and physically active break from working. We coordinated this so that Steve bought a second mat as a gift to me, this way we can play simultaneously. We’ve been having great fun with it and are amazed at what a workout we get even at the beginner level.
So even though we didn’t get a chance to put up a Christmas tree in our own home, we still had a good (and interesting) holiday season.
Community Banter
Momma G’s annual Christmas dinner at The Calgary Eagle was sold out once again this year, but attendees (including Steve and myself) were treated to something way beyond turkey and mashed potatoes. We all received a five-course meal including French onion soup, garden greens in an edible cheese-bowl, turkey-mushroom medallions, and several other delicious things I didn’t even know the name of. We were forewarned that the meal would be served at a relaxed pace, which I found to be a good strategy - I couldn’t possibly have eaten everything if not for the time between courses to digest and socialize.
Similarly, Money Pennies sold out for their New Year’s Eve dinner. I arrived to take photos at around 10pm to find the place chocker-block full, and DJ Curtis was keeping the dance floor hopping. I don’t normally do crowd shots as I can’t ask everyone’s permission, but I managed to get a good one where only the face of a staff member was visible.
The Calgary Men’s Chorus held their annual concert, this year entitled “Guitarra”, back at the Rosza Centre at the University of Calgary. They took on a Spanish theme which proved to be a challenge, however the show went over very well. One of the attendees, a former member of the chorus, believed it to be their best turnout ever.
Steve tells me that many of the gay, lesbian, and straight parents who have regularly attended the Roost’s annual Children’s Christmas Party event were having trouble not feeling depressed that this was the last year it was going to occur. The Roost closed its doors at its current location after New Years Eve, bringing a 30 year legacy to a close. Already rumors are circulating madly about what is coming to take its place. So far we have been unofficially informed of two separate plans, both from capable Edmonton residents, and both not happening for a little while still. The ad for one appears in this magazine, the second is said to be tentative. For now we have been asked to keep all additional details under wraps, pending future updates.
Looking Forward into 2008
This year is going to see changes in the usual schedule of yearly events. For one, Apollo Western Cup occurs on Easter long weekend which has the event placed in March instead of April. March is typically the month of the Vagina Monologues, Calgary Cares and the Different Strokes Mardi Gras Dance. However, because of the proximity to Western Cup, Different Strokes has opted to cancel their dance this year in order to focus on competing in the tournament.
The ARGRA Rodeo long weekend falls entirely in June this month, which for us, puts it together with Calgary and Edmonton Pride. Leading into this busy month is the 10th annual Fairy Tales Film Festival, at the end of May.
GayCalgary.com Website
This month, as promised, I completed the online form to submit new listings for our free business directory. The listings link into the new user login system, so businesses and non-profit groups must create a user account before they can submit or edit their listing information. Unfortunately this leaves all of the listings from the previous incarnation of the site orphaned.
We are encouraging any organization that wishes to update their old listing, to create a user account and get into contact with us so that we can return control of their listings. Whenever possible, we recommend creating an account specifically to be shared by the group, rather than using a personal account. Creating a user account is easy and takes no more than 10 minutes of your time as we verify your E-mail address. Visit the Signup page to get started – www.gaycalgary.com/Signup.aspx.
Additionally, I got the website search feature up and running. You can search the GayCalgary.com Business Directory, Events Calendar, and even Magazine articles with the click of a button! Photo and user searches are planned for the future.
Unfortunately a website form for adding events to the calendar is still not ready. Phew, I tell you, the calendar is no simple thing to program, and I don’t yet have it at a level of user friendliness that I would want to expose to the general public. For the time being, please continue to send us event information by E-mail and we will add them to the calendar appropriately.
Food for Thought
I would like to leave you with an allegory that I recall learning all the way back in Elementary school. It is of fairy tale stock, but has an interesting moral not just for the gay community, but humanity in general.
Once upon a time there were two villages that had been at war with one another since before anyone could remember. One village obtained a magical object that granted them a single wish, on the condition that whatever they chose would be given in double to their rivals. With war-like intentions on their mind, they knew they couldn’t wish for weapons, but were quick to scheme up the idea that half of their own village should be destroyed in a fire, so that they could finally be rid of the people they had fought with for so long. But not everyone was prepared to withstand such unbearable hardship to be rid of their enemies. Some of the more level-headed villagers suggested instead that they should wish for peace and prosperity, and an end to the greed and jealousy that had started the villages warring in the first place. Even though the other village was twice as peaceful and prosperous as their own, they themselves benefited from their humble generosity and spirit of cooperation, and they all lived happily ever after.
We want to hear what YOU have to say about the topics in this article, and any other articles in our magazine. Visit the chat forums at www.gaycalgary.com and write your heart out! Or write us a letter to the publisher by E-mailing publisher@gaycalgary.com, and we may respond to it in the magazine!
