Sophie Sumwar, a make-up artist touches up her face at the camp for the LGBT earthquake refugees

Like may parts of the world, transgender Nepalis have grown up risking exclusion from society and their own families –but last month’s earthquake brought fresh problems; finding a safe place to get shelter.

The director of the Blue Diamond Society, Manisha Dhakal’s mission is to improve the sexual health, human rights and well-being of sexual and gender minorities in Nepal. Nepal’s government made headlines when it announced in January that its citizens could identify as a third gender on their passports, but in the temporary camps set up across Kathmandu for earthquake survivors, facilities are segregated into male and female – excluding third gender people. They struggle to access even the basic like toilets. In the aftermath of the earthquake, many third gender and LGBT people slept under a Blue Diamond Society banner for security and identification.

Tara Bhattarai is the head of the Nepal Red Cross Society’s gender and inclusion department;

“It’s our duty to support this vulnerable group. Many transgender people don’t get help from their families and are left to fend for themselves, even in times like this.”

Working closely with the Blue Diamond Society, the Red Cross is raising awareness of minority groups among its staff and volunteers across the country. Society founder Sunil Babu Pant thanked its partners and local police and medical teams for coming to the aid of LGBT people after the disaster;

“What Nepal is going through is beyond imagination. But we, the LGBT people of Nepal, pledge with all Nepalese, that we will rebuild our lives, our families, our societies and our nation.”

Millions of people still urgently need basics such as shelter, food and medicine. Jessica Letch is a gender and protection advisor for the Red Cross emergency earthquake operation in Nepal. She was on the ground within days of the disaster and is determined that help will reach the most vulnerable – including women, children, people with disabilities and LGBT people;

“The Red Cross wants to respond to the diverse needs that exist within society, and avoid a one-size-fits-all approach. It takes a little bit of a change in thinking, and the Red Cross wants to be part of that change.”

To donate to relief efforts in Nepal, you can go here.

Sophie Sumwar with Manisha Dhakal and Petter Tamang

Sophie Sumwar

Malaika Lama

Amisha Shrestha (left) and Anjali Lama (right) stand outside a makeshift tent

Anjali Lama

(via Pink News)

The post #LGBT: Life For Transgender Nepalis After The Earthquake Is Even Tougher appeared first on World of Wonder.

Melanie at Woodstock

You’ve heard the sweet duet Miley did, Don’t Dream It’s Over, with Arianna Grande…? To launch The Happy Hippie Foundation, Miley created these Backyard Sessions and invites special guests to to make these music video collaborations. Here she is with Melanie Safka, like Miley, known mostly by her first name. Melanie’s the original happy hippie. The Happy Hippie Foundation is a nonprofit organization started by Miley that raises awareness of young people to fight injustice facing homeless youth, LGBT youth, and other vulnerable populations. To donate you can go here. Watch.

The post #HappyHippie2: Miley & Melanie Do A Gorgeous Duet of “Peace Will Come” appeared first on World of Wonder.

So, THIS GUY asked for some Photoshop help from the Internet and they obliged and gave him plenty of options, just probably not what was looking for…. but honestly, they are MUCH better than his original request, don’t you think. Which is your fave? The last one is inspired…

(T/Y Casey; via Pleated Jeans)

The post #TheEiFAILTower: The Internet Gives This Guy Photoshop Lessons – With Hilarious Results appeared first on World of Wonder.

Manhattanhenge, a spectacular sunset when the sun aligns with New York City‘s street grid, happens only twice in 2015. The first time will be at 8:12 p.m. on tonight and Saturday –this according to the Hayden Planetarium. On Friday, half the sun will align with the grid. The following day, the full sun will set in the grid. On a clear day, the typical resulting effect of Manhattanhenge is a “radiant glow of light” across the skyscrapers and buildings. The best views of Manhattanhenge are as far east in Manhattan as you can go without losing view of New Jersey. Cross streets like 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd and 57th streets are great because they are wide… I’ll be looking at you can be sure to see you Twitter and Instagram feeds full of pics tomorrow.

The post #OnlyInNewYork: It’s #ManhattanHenge Again! appeared first on World of Wonder.

May 30, 1926– Before the lovely Laverne Cox, before Alexis Arquette, before Chaz, even before Bruce broke the big news to Diane Sawyer & the world, a little boy from the Bronx became a lovely lady. It was 1952 & science was still popular, unlike our times. Engineers could build rocket ships, researchers could cure diseases, & medical doctors could turn a seemingly regular guy into a glamorous woman. This was an era before there was a T in the equal rights movement, before there was even an L,G, or B. In fact Transgender wasn’t even a term yet.

Recently discharged Army Private George Jorgensen made headlines around the world when he returned to the USA from Denmark as a blond woman named Christine Jorgensen. Jorgensen shocked the world, & freaked out Americans. People were afraid & angry. They still are.

While serving in the Army, Jorgensen, who said that she had felt trapped in the wrong body since childhood, read an article about a doctor in Denmark who was experimenting with sex change & hormone therapy.

Brave Jorgensen was just 24 years old when she made the journey to Copenhagen to meet with Dr. Christian Hamburger who diagnosed the young GI as “transsexual”. Hamburger prescribed female hormones & encouraged Jorgensen to dress in women’s clothing. Hamburger & a psychologist had to petition the Danish government for permission to perform the illegal act of castration for surgical purposes.

Hamburger changed Jorgensen’s special stuff from male to female. Jorgensen chose Christine as her new female name in honor of her doctor.

Her transition made headlines when she returned to the USA in 1955. Curious crowds & eager journalists showed up at NYC’s Idlewild Airport to cover her return from Denmark. The December 1^st, 1952 headline on the cover of the NY Daily News read: “Ex-GI Becomes Blond Beauty”.

”At first I was very self-conscious & very awkward, but once the notoriety hit, it did not take me long to adjust.”

Jorgensen was resourceful & like a true American she was able to take that media attention & turn it into nightclub engagements. With a straight face, she sang I Enjoy Being a Girl & Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered as part of her act. My city of Portland’s own Mary’s Club, the oldest strip club in the USA (Portland has more strip clubs than churches) engaged Jorgensen with a gig as a go-go girl. Often the butt of TV comedian’s jokes, she always had a sly sense of humor about herself.

Jorgensen didn’t hide away. She became the first, but certainly not the last, transgender American to grab that publicity about her transition & run with it, so to speak. All network news broadcasts, every major magazine & newspaper, & every popular radio show covered her transition. Books were written about her. She smartly wrote her own: Christine Jorgensen: A Personal Autobiography, a bestseller in 12 languages, adapted into a film in 1970. She got a record deal & released Christine Jorgensen Reveals, a spoken-word album where she was interviewed by comedian Nipsey Russell. She even cut a few singles. Jorgensen made $12,000 a week performing her stage act in Hollywood. Other people who were considered “cross-gender” always existed, but no one had the guts to go public, become famous & make money until Jorgensen.

Just like in our 21^st century, the government didn’t know how to handle a change in gender. She sought a marriage license in 1959 but was denied because her birth certificate classified her as male. She had worked as a chauffeur, but her permit was revoked.

Jorgensen claimed that public reaction to her surgery was one of the first steps in the new sexual revolution of the 1960s. She said that she never regretted her decision. The public acceptance of Jorgensen as a woman showed that gender & the body were not always connected, & that gender was something that a person could create. This changed the world in no small way.

Jorgensen lived a quiet private life after her notoriety had run its course. She resided at the famed The Chateau Marmont in Hollywood, occasionally taking speaking gigs. Lovely to look at, smartly dressed, with a smoky, sexy speaking voice, she would have been perfect for today’s TV programming. I am sure that World Of Wonder Productions would have had a place for her in their smart line-up. In fact, at the end of her life she said that her only real regret was not appearing on Murder, She Wrote (an achievement that I did manage).

She never married & lived alone. Jorgensen took her final curtain call in 1989, gone from that damn cancer. She was just 62 years old. I like to imagine her still alive, living as the queen of the movement that she gave voice to.

“Does it take bravery & courage for a person with polio to want to walk? It’s very hard to speculate on, but if I hadn’t done what I did, I may not have survived. I may not have wanted to live. Life simply wasn’t worth much. Some people may find it easy to live a lie, I can’t. & that’s what it would have been… telling the world I’m something I’m not.”

 

The post #BornThisDay: Christine Jorgensen appeared first on World of Wonder.

Bruce Jenner brought the trans community into the mainstream, so to speak. And now, the 65 year-old former Olympian, who calls his female identity “Her,” will appear as her in a Vanity Fair pictorial, to hit newsstands this summer. It’s Jenner’s first print photo shoot as his new self and by the legendary Annie Leibovitz, no less –so she will look GOOD!

This fascinating BuzzFeed video has various trans people talking about their opinion of “Bruce effect” on the transgender community.

“As a kind of social moment, it only interests me in as much as it elevates the entire community…”

Watch.

The post #LGBT: Trans People Talking About Bruce Jenner (Who Will Debut “Her” On the Cover of Vanity Fair!) appeared first on World of Wonder.

Oh, gurl.We’re gagging over our queen Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 and the hilarity that ensues every time we’re in her presence! I mean, anyone who gets the opportunity to be asssssked a question by the great Ms. Thunderfuck is a very lucky individual! And anyone who gets the opportunity to asssssk the RuPaul’s Drag Race season 7 queens a question is a very lucky individual! Watch this amazing exchange below in two parts, as well as “Can I Asssssk You A Question: Fan Edition” below! YAAASSSS!

Don’t forget to check back for more videos of your favorite queens as we count down the days until the Grand Finale airs, Monday at 10/9c on Logo!

The post Watch Alaska 5000 Assssssssk The Season 7 Drag Race Queens A Question! appeared first on World of Wonder.

The biggest spec house in L.A. has gotten even bigger. The finished project will be more than 100,000 square feet and it’ll feature a 74,000-square-foot main house, with a 5,000-square-foot master bedroom, a 30-car garage, a “Monaco-style casino,”(?) and three smaller houses spread across four acres. Prolific spec house builder and movie producer, Nile Niami says;

“The house will have almost every amenity available in the world.”

There will apparently be thousands of gallons of wasted water too. One pool is just dull, if you have the $500 million price tag, you want four pools, right? This palace will have one underground, another on the second level of the mansion and two more outside, according to permits. In the middle of a devastating statewide drought that has provoked mandatory water cutbacks, it will have all those pools plus 20,000 square feet of grass. The mansion’s architect, Paul McClean, says;

“There a lot of things in the house that will help to preserve water. But those are things that correspond with luxury houses, and I can’t tell you that it’s a green and energy-efficient house.”

Originally, the plans called for five pools, so getting rid of 20% of your pools, that’s conservation, right?

The LA Business Journal estimated last year that the project would ask “in the $150 million-plus range.” Jonathan Miller, president of appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. told Bloomberg;

“I’m skeptical. My first reaction is laughter. But we’re in this perpetual state of surprise as new thresholds are broken.”

As a comparison, the new, 200,000 square foot Whitney museum cost $440 million to build –in Manhattan. It this sells for even half that, it’ll still be the most expensive sale in the U.S. I’d say, they need some better marketing materials because these renderings look like a place you could get (in Miami?) for about $25 million.

(T/Y Tad; via LA Curbed)

The post #RealE$tatePorn: The Most Expen$ive House In The Country…? Would You Believe $500 Million?! appeared first on World of Wonder.

What has been called “the finest estate in America” is now back on the market after being originally listed at $135 million. It’s in Dallas, next door to the George Bush‘s place, unfortunately – Hicks lets the former POTUS use his helipad. In the ultra-snooty Preston Hollow, it includes the 27,092-square-foot main house with 10 bedrooms and 12 full bathrooms, the 3,347-square-foot guest house with two bedrooms and two bathrooms and three-story, a 4,836-square-foot pool house that includes a game room, country club-sized pool and a 20-person movie theater for a combined total of over 35,000 square feet. Check out the art deco bar, the chicest room in the house, I think. Listing agent Allie Beth Allman says;

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a new buyer — only the third owner in 77 years — to acquire this magnificent property.”

It was built in 1938 by architect Maurice Fatio for Italian Count Pio Crespi and his wife, Florence who lived in the house until she was 99. It was bought by Tom Hicks and his wife in the 90s and renovated and updated in 2003 (at a reported $100 million!) by architect to the rich and famous (and leather queen) Peter Marino. All this luxury is set on 25 acres in the middle of Dallas. It can be yours for $100 million. But seriously, if you’re not a Republican, don’t bother…

The post #RealE$tatePorn: $ummer $ale! The Finest Estate In The U.S., 25% OFF – Now Just $100 Million! appeared first on World of Wonder.

MJ with Bubbles and a llama at Neverland in his heyday.

The ranch FKA, Neverland, once owned by Michael Jackson is on the market for $100 million. The Los Olivos, California property is about 40 miles from Santa Barbara, and is now called Sycamore Valley Ranch. The amusement park rides are gone, as is the private zoo with orangutans and elephant, although there still is a lone llama on the property. The clock made of flowers, which spells out Neverland, is still there, and so is the building for the “Neverland Valley Fire Department“, although it’s no longer staffed with firemen, as it was in MJ’s 15 years here, but the railroad tracks and train station remain. The property is 2,700 acres and has 22 structures on it; the 12,000 square foot main house (which is not that great) and sits between the property’s two lakes, has six bedrooms plus an staff quarters. There are two guest houses, one four-bedroom and another two-bedroom one, plus a swimming pool with a cabana, basketball court and a tennis court and a 50-seat movie theater with a stage with trap doors for those magic shows.

Jackson paid nearly $20 million for the ranch in 1987 but mid financial struggles, he defaulted on a $24.5 million loan backed by the ranch and a real-estate investment firm bought the note in 2008 for $23 million and put the title into a joint venture it formed with the pop star. Colony spent millions on upgrades, intending to eventually sell it. The listing agents warn they’ll be doing “extensive prequalification” of potential buyers before showing the property, so don’t get any ideas about touring the joint, unless you’ve got millions…

“Our seller is not encouraging a lot of showings. We’re not going to be giving tours.”

Seems kind of too bad Michael didn’t keep the whole place intact. The investors could have easily made it into a Graceland style attraction. My friend Casey leaves nearby, and this was her and her neighbor’s biggest fear; endless hordes of Michael Jackson fans – FOREVER.

(via The Wall Street Journal)

The post #RealE$tatePorn: Neverland Is on Market For $100 Million (Minus The Zoo & Amusement Park) appeared first on World of Wonder.

The West Village is one of the priciest neighborhoods in the country and realtor to the stars, Dolly Lenz, calls nearby 165 Perry…

“one of the most magnificent penthouse homes in New York City”

Of course, it’s her listing. Robert De Niro rented the apartment for two years following a fire in his UWS place for $80,000 a month (according to Curbed.) Dolly has it listed for $95,000 a month. The five bedroom, four bathroom duplex penthouse is also on the market to purchase for nearly $40 million. For that you get 11,000 square feet of space with glass floors, a 3,000-square-foot, 7-car garage, which is UNHEARD of in the area, where a parking spot rents for $800+ a month. The wow-factor double-height living room with fireplace opens onto huge bi-level terrace overlooking the Hudson. The master’s suite has another fireplace with windowed walk-in closets, a steam room. Also, a library, home office, formal dining room, eat-in chef’s kitchen, separate prep kitchen, and walk-in pantry, etc, etc. Have a look…

(via Business Insider)

The post #RealE$tatePorn: You Can Rent DeNiro’s Former Penthouse For A Million A Year (& We’ll Be Neighbors!) appeared first on World of Wonder.

Season 4 contestant Latrice Royale performs her single “Weight” during the audience warmups at season 7’s RuPaul’s Drag Race Grand Finale at the Orpheum Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles. Don’t forget to check back for more WOWPresents videos as we anticipate the crowning of our next drag superstar!

The post Latrice Royale Shuts It Down with Her “Weight” at the RuPaul’s Drag Race Grand Finale appeared first on World of Wonder.

Breaking News: This just in from Lady Bunny via express email…

Just in time for the finalé of Season 7, Monday on LOGO, the demented drag diva from NYC ‘salutes’ the cast in a new version of her classic Laugh-In style jokes. Fans of the show have complained that this season’s contestants didn’t quite measure up, which many attribute to the fact that last season’s winner Bianca Del Rio is a very, very tough act to follow. So a little ribbing is in order!

“I’m not saying Tempest DuJour is old but when she came out of the closet she actually knew who Michelle Visage WAS!”

Let’s watch, shall we…

The post #LibraryIsOpen: Lady Bunny READS Season 7 of RuPaul’s Drag Race appeared first on World of Wonder.

Archie Panjabi
Azealia Banks
Brooke Shields
Chris Elliott
Clint Eastwood
Colin Farrell
Corey Hart
Eric Christian Olsen
Farrah Abraham
Joe Namath
Lea Thompson
Patti Stanger
Phil Keoghan
Roma Maffia
Sandrine Bonnaire
Sharon Gless
Susie Essman
Tom Berenger
Wacka Flocka Flame

The post It’s Birthday, Bitch appeared first on World of Wonder.

May 31,1918– When I write about individuals from history that were homosexual, I avoid using the term Gay, because for me, there was no Gay before the 20th century, until I consider Walt Whitman. Whitman was Gay, using the 20th/21st century definition.

Has there ever been a poet so thoroughly American as Walt Whitman?  Whitman’s book of poetry Leaves Of Grass holds the essence of being an American. It also reflects the ways in which our country’s ideals have been forsaken. Whitman’s personal life suffered much because of our American Puritan taboos against sex.

For too many people, Whitman is also this country’s biggest embarrassment. If what he says about our democracy is true, the American ideal of universal equality must embrace gay people. Whitman is a subversive & radical poet. American school children for the past 50 years have been carefully protected from exposure to America’s greatest poet. I have always been an avid reader, but I did not read Whitman until I was finished with college, when my mother, of all people, gave me a volume of Leaves Of Grass as a gift.

A leaf for hand in hand;

You natural persons old and young!

You on the Mississippi & on all the branches & bayous of the Mississippi!

 You friendly boatmen & mechanics! You roughs!

You twain! & all processions moving along the streets!

I wish to infuse myself among you till I see it common for you to walk hand in hand.

I identify as bohemian, but Walt Whitman was a true bohemian. He never gave into having a regular occupation & he was a singularly solitary man, probably not by choice.

In 1819, Whitman was born on Long Island. He did the usual boy things until he was 11, when he quit school. He ran errands for a lawyer & a doctor, & then became an apprentice typesetter for a Brooklyn newspaper.

He then taught school in several small villages & contributed articles to various periodicals. In 1841 he left country life for the big city. In NYC he worked for newspapers, starting as a typesetter, & working his way up reporter, feature writer & eventually an editor. Whitman also took to a life of theatres, cafes & nightclubs. He went to art exhibitions, museums & the opera. He watched the ships come into the harbor & walked among the people of the great city. He made a habit out of sitting near the hot, rugged carriage drivers, & cross back & forth on the Brooklyn ferry to gaze at the deck hands.  Because he was repressing his gayness, he was a loner in the crowd. He liked to watch.

Sometime after 1855, when Leaves Of Grass was first published, Whitman experienced a kind of emotional/spiritual crisis that transformed him from a newspaper man to a poet. In the manner of so many gay men in NYC & San Francisco in late 1970s, he gave up being a dandy & he became a hyper-masculine clone.

Crowds of men & women attired in the usual costumes, how curious you are to me

On the ferry-boats the hundreds & hundreds that cross, returning home, are more curious to me than you suppose

 & you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence are more to me, & more in my meditations, than you might suppose…

 I was one with the rest, the days & haps of the rest,

Was call’d by my nighest name by clear loud voices of young men as they saw me approaching or passing,

 Felt their arms on my neck as I stood, or the negligent leaning of their flesh against me as I sat,

Saw many I loved in the street or ferry-boat or public assembly, yet never told them a word.

Nowadays, if Whitman is taught in school as part of the canon of American literature, there is still much resistance to identifying him as gay, despite well documented evidence.

I share the midnight orgies of young men…

I pick out some low person for my dearest friend,

He shall be lawless, rude, illiterate, he shall be condemned by others for deeds done

I will play a part no longer, why should I exile myself from my companions?

As I have been noting the protests of the right-wingers & religious fundamentalists to the recent legislation adding references to gay people in history to the curriculum in public schools of California, I consider how liberating it will be for young gay people to acknowledge that the most notable American poet was not just a homosexual, he was gay.

I recommend the excellent & very readable: Walt Whitman: A Gay Life by Gary Schmidgall.

The post #BornThisDay: Poet, Walt Whitman appeared first on World of Wonder.

Adore Delano warms up the crowd with “I Adore U” from her debut album Till Death Do Us Party at season 7’s RuPaul’s Drag Race Grand Finale! Don’t forget to check back for more WOWPresents videos as we anticipate the crowning of our next drag superstar!

The post Adore Delano Performs Her Hit “I Adore U” at the RuPual’s Drag Race Grand Finale appeared first on World of Wonder.

When Phil Ferguson, @chiliphilly, isn’t serving burgers at Tuck Shop Take Away in Melbourne, Australia, he’s crocheting hats that look like pizza and watermelon slices, plates of spaghetti and donuts…

“I started watching RuPaul’s Drag Race and got a real appreciation for drag. I was thinking of different sorts of hats I could create a character with. I think of food first, then get appropriately colored wool and go from there. I don’t plan or sketch – I just do.”

And see what he do – we love. Follow him on Instagram to see what he makes next.

(Photos, Instagram; T/Y Fenton)

The post #Instagram: Inspired By RuPaul’s Drag Race, Phil Ferguson Crochets Fun Hats appeared first on World of Wonder.

This has been old home week for the downtown scene and photography. Ann Magnuson and Paper‘s Carlo McCormick reminisced for Tseng Kwong Chi‘s exhibit at the Grey Art Gallery on Wednesday and Thursday night was Friends In Deed‘s photo auction benefit at Sikkema Jenkins Gallery. Friday night brought out the 70s & 80s rock scene to the Leslie-Lohman’s Prince Street Project Space for an exhibit and book signing by Paul Zone for Playground. Zone recalls back in the day, when Debbie Harry, and the NY Rock scene was raw and new;

“They weren’t even in bands yet, they were in the audience or in the club watching the New York Dolls. Basically you would walk into a Bowie concert or other concerts at the Fillmore and there would be a handful of people who would be dressed a little bit better than everybody else, I’m talking about a very small group of people. When the Ramones and Blondie started to play at CBGB, and clubs like that, there were only about 20, 30, or 40 people in the audience and all of them had their own bands and they were just friends.

Taking pictures and hanging out with everybody wasn’t even something that you thought about. I did have a 35 mm later on, but it was just a $20 camera and I’d get the photos developed at the drug store or something like that, so they never were professionally blown up.

There was that aspect of wanting and needing to be with something new and different and exciting and of course glam rock was the most exciting thing that was happening.”

Paul started his own band, The Fast, with his two brothers, Miki and Mandy. In 1976 they released anthem, “Boys Will Be Boys”.

About ten years ago, when he was at an exhibit in L.A. that featured some photos of his famous friends back from the day, he had the idea to dig up his old photos:

“I went back to my parents’ house, and I went to my sister’s garage, and I went here and there, because I’ve moved around so much over the last 40 years. The main thing that I did find was a tremendous box with every negative still in tact. I went into the darkroom with a friend and we started developing all of the photos and blowing them up to big professional-sized prints. And that’s when I started to realize what I had.”

“It was definitely an exciting thing to see, because I never realized – there were so many negatives that had shots on them that I never even remembered, I might not have developed them or may have given the photos away.”

And after a few exhibits of the work in L.A. and Europe, the idea for Playground was born…

“It’s not just a photo book, I wanted to put a story to it and talk about what it was like being a young guy at that time and having all of these friends and taking all of these photos and being involved in the New York underground.”

Growing Up in the New York Underground: From Glam to Punk, was just up for three days at Leslie-Lohman Gallery’s Prince Street Project Space in SoHo. Playground: Growing Up in the New York Underground is available here.

The Padilha brothers, Mao & Roger, with Debbie Harry

Paul Zone (left) with artist Scooter LaForge

The bikini-clad bartender was serving wine and WTF realness

Dee Dee Ramone and Connie Gripp in the kitchen at Max’s Kansas City, 1975

(Photos, Paul Zone; via Bedford and Bowery)

The post #PictureThis: Paul Zone’s “Playground” Gets Up Close With Rock Idols appeared first on World of Wonder.

Everybody has pictures of their friends doing fun things and if you hold onto them long enough, they might just be seen as something other people are interested in. Today billions of pictures a week are shot and plastered all over the internet (what will happen to all of these photos, who knows?) But this week three shots I’m in (and two I took too) were all in NYC galleries, a feat I have never managed before as I’m primarily a painter… here are my stories of how that happened…

Halloween 1988 at Kenney Scharf’s loft. Can you spot me (in drag) and Ann Magnuson, Joey Arias and Keith Haring (with the giant black dildo)? Photo, Trey Speegle

Kwong and Kenny, 1988. Photo, Trey Speegle

Both shots are in the book documenting the exhibit

Tseng Kwong Chi; Performing for the Camera
Last month the fab retrospective of photographer Tseng Kwong Chi opened at the Grey Art Gallery at NYU. I knew Kwong, who was famous for his Chinese national costume portraits and documenting a lot of Keith Haring‘s public works. They were pals along with a lot of mutual friends like Ann Magnuson, Kenny Scharf, Bruno Schmidt, Pilar Limosner, Walt Cessna (my ex) and others. But when I walked into the exhibit one of the first pictures I see? A group shot of all of us on Halloween in 1988 at Kenny Scharf’s studio. The only thing was – I took the picture, not Kwong! It took some time to unravel the mystery of how two shots made it into his retrospective, but after I met up later with Muna Tseng, Kwong’s sister who manages his estate, I discovered the large print, along with another I took of Kenny & Kwong (left), that were blown up really large for a dual show of Kwong & Kenny’s work for an exhibit at Eric Firestone‘s gallery. When this retrospective got organized, the big prints were included in this show as well, as well as the book which I recommend. Actually, I’m thrilled it happened this way. Back in the day, I would shoot 35mm black and white film and then get little prints made of selects at Duane Reade, for like $1 each or something. When it was a group shot or a particularly good one, I’d make multiple prints and mail them to friends. Kwong died 25 years ago, not long after Keith, and the images were found among his things. As I said, I’m happy about the pictures seeing the light of day, as well as the pretty lady “realness” drag of my youth.

Trey & Spot, 1986. Photos, Mark Morrisroe

David Armstrong, Mark Morrisroe, Nan Goldin; Boston to New York
I once designed graphics for art galleries. It was my business. Invitations, catalogues, ads. The Pat Hearn Gallery was near me in the East Village and Pat Hearn, the person, was a friend. She came to New York along with a group of photographers and artists who are now very well-known; Jack Pierson, David Armstrong, Nan Goldin and Mark Morrisroe, all of who are in the new Whitney‘s opening exhibit, America Is Hard To See. Pat hired me to design a poster/fold-out invite (that’s now kinda collectible) and introduced me to Mark Morrisroe. We became friends and he asked to photograph me with my dog Spot in my apartment at the Christadora House. I had just gotten a MAJOR flat top haircut the day before, somewhat shocking if you are used to me with a shaved head of today. Mark was a really intense guy, who was a street hustler at one time and walked with a sever limp, but he was such a sweetheart one-on-one. He took about 8-10 shots, I still have one. There’ one he kept in a book on his work. These two small images are now up in this new show at Clamp Art in Chelsea, if you want to see them up close. Sadly, Pat, David and Mark are all gone. That’s the great (and sad) thing about photography freezing time for us to remember people and moments.

Jackie Curtis at The Pyramid (Straight To Hell), 1985. Photo, Trey Speegle

Friends In Deed, Benefit Photo Auction
Another friend thing, in deed. Tom Cashin, the charming partner of Jay Johnson, both of Jed Johnson Interiors is a friend and BIG supporter of the AIDS organization Friends In Deed. I’ve contributed to their auctions in the past and volunteered to contribute this year. I thought I would feature a shot from a new photo series I’ve been working on, but as the time got shorter I realized I couldn’t have it framed properly, and so I decided to include a vintage Polaroid shot of the late Warhol Superstar, Jackie Curtis. Back when Polaroid was still “a thing” you could send them shot and they would blow it up and frame it for you. So I did just this one test, this shot of Jackie. It was taken at a series I used to do at The Pyramid for Straight To Hell magazine; The Manhattan Review of Unnatural Acts. I had a full-time job in the art department of Vanity Fair at the time but every Sunday night, I hosted different downtown luminaries like John Waters, Fran Leibowitz, Kenneth Anger… and Jackie Curtis come talk or perform at the club. When I see the line-up of people it was kind of amazing. The magazine was true stories of gay hook-ups that was edited by my friend, Victor Weaver (that’s me on the cover, btw) Anyway, I put that shot in the auction and everyone seemed to LOVE it. Tom bid on behalf of mega-collector Beth Rudin DeWoody and won it, so I’m thrilled. And Jackie got her moment in the sun for everyone to appreciate her again. Sadly, she died a few months after this shot was taken of a heroin overdose, which I believe was accidental. She had just gotten “married” to a young guy and was very happy here. Another moment frozen in a week of them on display.

In Good Company; Marilyn Monroe by Andre de Dienes, Debbie Harry by David Croland
and Jackie Curtis by Trey Speegle

The post #PictureThis: I Get My 15 Minutes of New York Photo Fame (With A Flattop, Shirtless & In Drag) appeared first on World of Wonder.

June 1^st, 1926- Norma Jeane Mortenson

“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius & it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”

53 years after her death, Marilyn Monroe remains an enchanting enigma. She was once the most famous woman in the world & maybe the truest definition of “Movie Star” ever, but her real self will be forever out of reach. Monroe is the most endlessly talked about & mythologized figure in Hollywood history. She remains the ultimate superstar. Her rise & fall are the stuff that both dreams & nightmares are made of. Her estate continues to rake in millions. Just this weekend, yet another film about her life, The Secret Life Of Marilyn Monroe aired on the Lifetime network, with the great Susan Sarandon playing her mother Gladys (can someone please find Sarandon some film roles befitting her talent & stature in Hollywood so she can turn down Lifetime stuff?).

There have been nearly as many screen portrayals of Monroe as films that she herself made. I don’t any of them to be very good, certainly not fitting of Monroe’s legacy, but I watched one for a second time yesterday to prepare myself for this post. I thought that Michele Williams came close to getting Monroe right in the charming & cheeky My Week With Marilyn (2011). Williams accomplishes the near impossible, portraying Monroe as an actual person, not just an easily caricatured icon. The film centers around the production of Laurence Olivier‘s film The Prince & The Showgirl (1957). Based on a pair memoirs by Colin Clark, played in the film by adorable, freckled Eddie Redmayne, who worked as an assistant on Olivier’s film. Williams captures not only Monroe’s fragility, both on-screen & off, but also her magical, unclassifiable charisma. My Weekend With Marilyn entertained & touched me. I recommend this film.

Monroe, starred in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), The Seven Year Itch (1955), How To Marry A Millionaire (1953), & Bus Stop (1956), but she wasn’t always Marilyn Monroe. She was born Norma Jeane Mortenson, appropriately, in LA.

She signed her first studio contract with 20th Century Fox in 1946 for $125 a week. Norma Jeane dyed her brunette hair blonde & changed her name.

A living contradiction, Monroe was divine & profane. She became both myth & metaphor as Hollywood’s most famous martyred saint. At the height of her fame, she had received 10,000 fan letters a week. Many were from men, but women wrote too, telling about the sadness in her eyes, her vulnerability & how they identified with her.

From Monroe’s first film, Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (1948), to her last, The Misfits (1962), she went from a studio created blonde bimbo to a well-trained, heartbreaking actor of depth & soul. She is beyond camp, making her different than Jayne Mansfield & Mamie Van Doren, who Hollywood chose to replace her. She turned out to be irreplaceable.

Amazingly, Monroe still sells magazines. I remember when the May 2012 issue of Vanity Fair arrived in my mailbox with Monroe on the cover. The issue featured even more “newly discovered” photographs of her by Lawrence Schiller. Never think you have seen the last of Monroe. Books have been devoted to her some lovely & filled with photographs, many lurid & badly written. Songs have been dedicated to her. Plays have been produced about her, even an opera. She still sells millions of posters & calendars.

I am not certain that I would say that she was a fine actor, but she sure had something. My own favorite Marilyn Monroe performance is in Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot (1959) one of the most perfect film comedies in history. Her performance seems like Champagne, bubbly & effortless. Odd, because Monroe was at her worst making this classic: perpetually tardy, unprepared, unable to remember her lines, pregnant & sick, calming herself with vodka & downers, making the shoot tough for pros Tony Curtis & Jack Lemmon. But, her role as Sugar Cane Kowalczy allowed her play the dumb blond without giving a dumb performance.

Gay men of a certain age held Monroe as an ultimate icon. She was a gorgeous, but tormented person, making a career out of being sexually & emotionally open in a brutal straight-male world. Monroe worked hard for her fame, but it was her suffering that we identified with the most. She was undervalued by the industry. In 1961, when Elizabeth Taylor was being paid a million dollars to film Cleopatra for 20th Century Fox, Monroe, also with Fox was pulling in just $150,000 for The Misfits.

We wanted to save her. That was Monroe’s shtick. It worked. We all know the sad story, with the battering studio heads, the husbands, the Kennedys, the Strasbergs, the acting coaches, the pills & the booze, the insecurities, the misunderstandings. We don’t need a Lifetime movie.

On an early morning in the summer of 1962, Monroe died in her sleep at her little stucco cottage on dead end street in Brentwood. She loved the house & had installed a plaque with the Latin phrase “Cursum Perficio” which translates to “My Journey Ends Here”. Suicide, accident or murder? We will always specultate. She was just 36 years old. Monroe remains a most important Gay Icon. She would have celebrated her 89th birthday today.

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