COUNTERCULTURE "Promise of Life" Atlanta AIDS Video Focuses on Outliving Expectations

by Johnny Walsh

On Tuesday evening, July 25, 1989, Picasso's Performance Cafe in Dccatur, was the sccnc for the first viewing of a new Atlanta video production about AIDS. Produced by SAME (Southeastern Arts, Media & Education Project, Inc.) and funded in part by a $2,700 grant from Hcartstrings/DIFFA (The Design and Interior Furnishing Foundation for AIDS), the video is a compilation o f sep­ arate interviews with five people with AIDS: George Kish, Stcbbo x v ■ ■ tf ■ -* H r i

Quality eyewear at affordable hi-NRG hits were by women articulating male desire, such as "Scarchin' (I prices has only A Culture Takes Root Gotla Find a Man)" sung by Hazell Dean, a lesbian. one name: Cont’d. from Page 4 Encouraged by the enormous success of gcndcr-bender Boy George and a wave of androgynous techno-poppcrs, a few openly gay male performers homosexuality as long as you make it seem so weird that it doesn't look like reclaimed hi-NRG as a gay expression, including members of Bronski Beat, the chronicle is endorsing the practice.' This presented me with the greatest Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Dead or Alive and Erasure. All had hits. challenge of my career, which was to write the most matter-of-fact treatment Cowley didn’t live long enough to enjoy the success of his stylistic off­ of homosexuality I could muster." spring. He died of AIDS in 1982. By 1980, straight white America had turned its back on , and the AIDS became an epidemic just as openly gay people in the arts started to music went back to its urban black and gay male roots. Small gay-owned All others are just copies... get official recognition for their achievements, particularly in theater and record companies, like the local Mcgatone and Moby Dick labels, sprung up film. 2441 Cheshire Br Rd. 636-9727 or 636-9811 to satisfy the audience otherwise abandoned by the music industry. Harvey Fierstcin and his "Torch Song Trilogy" won Tonys for best play The man who defined the disco sound, Patrick Cowley, got and best actor. Robert Epstein, a young San Franciscan, won an Oscar for his start by working lights for singer Sylvester, who, unlike the Village his documentary, "The Times of Harvey Milk." Rainer Werner Fassbinder People, always made a point of his gayncss. Sylvester asked the reluctant Green River Trading Co. joined the ranks of celebrated filmmakers with The Marriage of Maria musician to play on "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" and Braun." And Frank Ripploh, another gay German director, challenged the "Dance (Disco Heat)," and the results paid off with a gold album. Quality Cutlery by Sabatier. divisions between comedy and pornography with his critically acclaimed Hand ground & honed, When Sylvester moved to an R&B approach, Cowley went solo, and in "Taxi zum Kto." expertly tempered & balanced '81 released the most influential gay club record for the next few years, for each cutting task. AIDS challenged artists to overcome divisions in the community, "Mcncrgy." Cowley’s style, dubbed hi-NRG, was thought of inAmcrica as gay club music. But in , hi-NRG was pop. As with disco the first Cont'd on Page 11

Love and Skill A Cekbratioti in ( D i n i n g and Gentle hands... "Such stuff as dreams are A (¿reat tyighboriood made of..." !Deserves Utensils ¡A (jreat (R$staurant Contemporary & Custom designed by Andersson A Ferm. Jeivelry with Character by Great for nonstick surlqpes Laincy Papagcorge 8l microwave cooking. accent on (Hene anir (Habe’s !Piedmont at Monroe ‘Reservations 874-6145 Moonlight on Water Band 18KT iLLI IMiNA ?9s”füiüm£mi avtnu*Tn7t. • at Uinta, fa w/Amethyst Cabochon 1529-D Piedmont Clear Creek Center 875-7617______M-W 11-6 TH-Sat 11-8 (Acro» from Ansley Mall) %/Southern Voice • August 31,1989