December 2007 Issue 50 FREE of charge TThehe LivingLiving IIff I Can’tCan’t DDanceance I DDon’ton’t WWantant TToo BBee PPartart OOff CChristmashristmas TTreeree YYourour RRevolutionevolution OOuch…that’such…that’s ggottaotta hurt!hurt! HHomoomo fforor tthehe HHolidaysolidays WWhat’shat’s HHappeningappening forfor CChristmashristmas >> STARTING ON PAGE 16 GLBT RESOURCE • CALGARY & EDMONTON 2 gaycalgary and edmonton magazine #50, December 2007 gaycalgary and edmonton magazine #50, December 2007 3 4 gaycalgary and edmonton magazine #50, December 2007 Established originally in January 1992 as Men For Men BBS by MFM 14 Communications. Named changed to GayCalgary.com in 1998. Stand alone company as of January 2004. First Issue of GayCalgary.com Magazine, November 2003. Name adjusted in November 2006 to GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine. Publisher Steve Polyak & Rob Diaz-Marino, [email protected] Table of Contents Editor Rob Diaz Marino, editor@gaycalgary. com 7 A Chilly Christmas 11 Original Graphic Design Deviant Designs Letter from the Publisher Advertising Steve Polyak [email protected] 11 The Living Christmas Tree Contributors Ouch…that’s gotta hurt! Steve Polyak, Rob Diaz-Marino, Jason Clevett, Jerome Voltero, Kevin Alderson, Allison Brodowski , Mercedes Allen, Stephen Lock, 12 Sweet Charity 16 Benjamin Hawkcliffe , Arthur McComish, Linda Hey Big Spender - Spend a Little Time at Stage Eckess, Romeo San Vicente and the Gay and West! Lesbian Community of Calgary and Edmonton Photographer 13 Philips Arcitec Steve Polyak and Rob Diaz-Marino Conquer the Challenges of Daily Shaving Like Never Videographer Before Steve Polyak and Rob Diaz-Marino Please forward all inquiries to: 14 Oliver Twist GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine Holiday Presentation Dark but Heart Warming Suite 403, 215 14th Avenue S.W. Calgary, Alberta T2R 0M2 15 Chris and John to the Rescue: Provincetown Phone (403) 543-6960 or toll free (888) 543-6960 16 Map & Event Listings Fax (403) 703-0685 Find out what’s happening 13 E-mail [email protected] 23 Conflicts of Democracy Print Run Monthly, 12 times a year Copies Printed Monthly, Over 10,000 copies. 25 Q Scopes “Pull up the drawbridge, Capricorn!” Masthead continued on page 6 26 Letters to the Editor 28 Deep Inside Hollywood 30 Door Policy Discrimination? Continued on page 6 gaycalgary and edmonton magazine #50, December 2007 5 Continued from page 5 31 Fundraising Photos Continued from page 5 Distribution points up to 200 points in 35 A Bitter Girl Calgary, largest number of distribution points for any Gay publication in Calgary. 36 Homo for the Holidays Up to 150 points in Edmonton, largest What’s Happening for Christmas number of distribution points for any Gay publication in Edmonton. Also distributed coast to coast across Canada in select 38 The Secret of Hiding our Holiday Blues locations in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, and other 40 A Twisted Sense of Pride places across Canada and the United Illegal Power Grab Disrupts Pride Calgary AGM States. Please call us if you would like to be a distribution point. 43 Movie Review Distributed by Gallant Distributions Queer Duck (Calgary), Clark’s Distribution (Edmonton), 12 Canada Post (rest of Canada and USA) 44 Music Review and by GayCalgary.com “Don’t Be a Stranger” by Jeffrey Altergott Deadline for Ad Bookings 25th of the month (unless otherwise stated) 45 KICKIN’ IT AROUND Deadline for Ad copy 28th of the month The International Gay and Lesbian Football Association (unless otherwise stated) Legal Council Courtney Sebree Aarbo, 47 If I Can’t Dance… Barristers and Solicitors …I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution Printers North Hill News 50 A Couple of Guys This Issue Cover Model Top Adin Hughes. Photos taken at the Calgary Eagle by Steve 51 The Mystery of Edwin Drood Polyak. Solve-it-yourself Musical Mystery a Masterpiece The opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of GayCalgary.com or 52 Queer Eye - Calgary & Edmonton the contributors of the magazine. Community Events this Month People photographed or interviewed, writers, advertisers, contributors and anyone else involved with this publication 52 59 Press Releases are not necessarily gay, lesbian, bi, bi-curious or trans gendered. They can be 60 Classifieds Ads straight people that are gay friendly. No part of the publication may be reprinted January 2008 without the expressed permission of the editor-in-chief. Press Deadlines Copyright 2007 AAdd SSpacepace BBookingooking - ThursdayThursday DDecemberecember 27th27th 20072007 Member of Canadian Gay & AAdd SSubmissionubmission - Lesbian Chamber MMondayonday DDecemberecember 31st31st 20072007 of Commerce Member of International Gay & IInn CCirculationirculation - FridayFriday JanuaryJanuary Lesbian Travel Association 44thth 20082008 PPleaselease contactcontact usus ifif youyou maymay hhaveave missedmissed thethe BookingBooking oror SSubmissionubmission DeadlinesDeadlines Member of Edmonton Rainbow Member of Tourism Calgary. Business Association. 6 gaycalgary and edmonton magazine #50, December 2007 A Chilly Christmas Letter from the Publisher at any tier of society can apply their creativity to make a By Rob Diaz-Marino difference in the world. It was very enlightening. Now I’m kicking myself for coming back from A lot of people are asking me if Steve is living in Mexico – as if I had a choice. I’m not sure if I’m Edmonton these days. It doesn’t help that for the past ready to deal with this record cold winter after so several months, busy Calgary and Edmonton weekends have coincided, so I’m starting to sound like a broken many years of mild temperatures. On the plus record every time someone asks me where he is. The side, we may actually get snow on the ground on not-so-busy weekends when we are both in town, we Christmas for once. tend to spend the daytime running about town to do our Wow, small-talking about the weather. I have to admit daily errands, and the evenings at home working, or tak- my writing faculties are a little maxed out this month, ing a break to watch our favourite TV programs together. especially after having to hash out a large and thorough On rare occasions we go out to the bars just to hang out, article last minute (mentioned below). This month I’m but keep a much lower profi le than when the camera is going to keep my publisher’s column reasonably brief, in our hand. but direct you to the multitude of other stories that This Month should be read. There is a huge multitude of events happening in Mercedes’ Trans column and the Porn Reviews will Calgary and Edmonton this month during the holiday resume as usual next month. Mercedes was undergo- season, so we have written a special event guide entitled ing her move from Edmonton to High River, and couldn’t “Homo for the Holidays” (page 36). It covers special submit anything, while we just couldn’t fi t the Porn events leading up to Christmas, but not quite as far as Reviews. It’s a packed issue. New Years, which is pretty obvious anyway. Last Month What’s with all the Twisted Bashing? We were invited by the SHARP Foundation to attend Yes, no doubt that’s going to be a term we’ll be hear- a special event outside of the gay community: National ing a lot over the course of this month. I can understand Philanthropy Day. We showed up with Camera in hand, how it looks, but it didn’t happen the way you might not realizing that we were being invited as their guests. expect – born from some grudge or need for revenge. In Ironically Steve and I had heard the word Philanthropy fact, Steve and I had no intention of this issue turning used before, but were not of aware of it’s meaning – the into such a lightning-rod for the issues at hand. closest thing in my head was Lycanthropy, but that’s It all started back in August, prior to our article ex- the technical term for werewolfi sm. As explained at plaining that our magazines had been banned from the the event, Philanthropy refers to the practice of helping premises of Twisted Element. Our writer Allison ap- people without expecting anything in return – in essence, proached us, wanting to do an article about the club’s altruism. Traditionally it has been used to describe door policy after a group of her friends were split down corporate millionaires who donate their money to charity, the centre at the door, some being charged cover, others but the presentations emphasized that people at any age, not. We mulled over the idea for about a month before giving her the go ahead, but making sure she did due diligence to check out how other night clubs (be them straight) in the city handled entry. The article was origi- nally planned for November, but in good taste we didn’t want to publish them the month of their (and our) an- niversary. This turned out well because Allison was able to give the owners many more opportunities to answer her questions, which they refused and ignored. (See page 47) And incidentally, we did send them a large bouquet of fl owers for their anniversary, (to the chagrin of some) as we have done for all of the bar’s anniversaries. In October we received two letters to the publisher (see page 26) complaining about the club’s door policy. In light of the Le Stud incident in Montreal, we wondered what legal recourse people had, and so forwarded the two letters to Darryl Aarbo for a legal advice column. By gaycalgary and edmonton magazine #50, December 2007 7 the new website. It’s in much better condition from how I left it when I went on holidays.