January 2007 Issue 39 FREE of charge OOnene YYellowellow WWeddingedding AAnniennie SSprinkleprinkle CComesomes ttoo TTown!own! PPrismrism BBarar aandnd GrillGrill EEdmonton’sdmonton’s LLesbianesbian LLairair RReader’seader’s ChoiceChoice SSurveyurvey 20062006 >> STARTING ON PAGE 16 GLBT RESOURCE • CALGARY & EDMONTON 2 gaycalgary and edmonton magazine #39, January 2007 Established originally in January 1992 as Men For Men BBS by MFM Communications. Named changed to 10 GayCalgary.com in 1998. Stand alone company as of January 2004. First Issue of GayCalgary.com Magazine, November 26 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, [email protected] 5 Holiday Hijinx Original Graphic Design Deviant Designs Letter from the Publisher Advertising Steve Polyak [email protected], David 10 One Yellow Wedding Bonin [email protected] Vancouver and BC area Annie Sprinkle Comes to Town! Contributors Steve Polyak, Rob Diaz-Marino, Jason Clevett, 16 Jerome Voltero, Kevin Alderson, Kaitlyn S. 12 A Most Successful C. Hatch, Benjamin Hawkcliffe, Stephen Lock, and the Gay and Lesbian Community Reign of Calgary The Imperial Sovereign Court of the Chinook Arch Photographer Steve Polyak and Rob Diaz-Marino 16 Map & Event Listings Videographer Find out what’s happening Steve Polyak and Rob Diaz-Marino Please forward all inquiries to: 23 Bitter Girl GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine Suite 100, 215 14th Avenue S.W. 24 Music Review Calgary, Alberta T2R 0M2 Mighty REAL: Showstoppers Phone (403) 543-6960 or toll free (888) 543-6960 25 Q Scopes 24 Fax (403) 703-0685 “Watch your wallet, Scorpio!” E-mail [email protected] 26 Adult Film Review Print Run Monthly, 12 times a year Humping Iron, School for Lovers, Daddy’s Boys, Cow Poke Masthead continued on page 4 28 Q Puzzle “Ball Handlers,” 29 Reader’s Choice Survey 2006 34 OutRights A Celebration of Our Freedoms 35 Prism Bar and Grill Edmonton’s Lesbian Lair Continued on page 4 gaycalgary and edmonton magazine #39, January 2007 3 Continued from page 3 36 A Creative Contest… Conceived by a Straight Chick 37 International Festival of Animated Objects Continued from page 3 Queer Artists bring Puppetry to Life Copies Printed Monthly, up to 10,000 47 copies. 38 Does Hate Speech Affect Us? Distribution points up to 200 points in Calgary, largest number of distribution points for any Gay publication in Calgary. 40 Chicago up to150 points in Edmonton, largest Roxie, Velma and all that Jazz! number of distribution points for any Gay publication in Edmonton. Also distributed 41 Letters to the Publisher coast to coast across Canada in select locations in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, and other 42 Musings for the Coming Year places across Canada and the United States. Please call us if you would like to 44 Press Releases be a distribution point. Distributed by DLRJ Distributions 47 Fundraising Photos (Calgary), Clark’s Distribution (Edmonton), Canada Post(rest of Canada and USA) and 51 A Couple of Guys by GayCalgary.com Deadline for Ad Bookings 25th of the month 52 Queer Eye - Calgary & Edmonton (unless otherwise stated) Community Events this Month 52 Deadline for Ad copy 28th of the month 60 Classifieds Ads (unless otherwise stated) Legal Council Courtney Sebree Aarbo, Barristers and Solicitors Printers North Hill News This Issue Cover Model Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens, photographed by Trish Tunney. The opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of GayCalgary.com or the contributors of the magazine. People photographed or interviewed, writers, advertisers, contributors and anyone else involved with this publication are not necessarily gay, lesbian, bi, bi-curious or trans gendered. They can be straight people that are gay friendly. No part of the publication may be reprinted without the expressed permission of the February 2007 editor-in-chief. Copyright 2007 Press Deadlines Member of Canadian Gay & Lesbian Chamber AAdd SSpacepace BookingBooking - WednesdayWednesday of Commerce JJanuaryanuary 224th4th 22007007 Member of International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association AAdd SSubmissionubmission - FFridayriday JanuaryJanuary 26th26th 20072007 IInn CirculationCirculation - ThursdayThursday FFebruaryebruary 1st1st 20072007 Member of Edmonton Rainbow Member of Tourism Calgary. Business Association. 4 gaycalgary and edmonton magazine #39, January 2007 Holiday Hijinx Letter from the Publisher the other people who attended, and feeling depressed already, By Rob Diaz-Marino wasn’t his usual talkative and outgoing self. He took photo- graphs, chatted with the few Edmontonians that he does know Christmas is an especially fun time of year for so far, and even bumped into a few Calgarians along the way. our cats. With our artifi cial Christmas tree and Steve and I realized this year that we do make a great deal of all the fl ashy decorations, the holidays become a personal sacrifi ces to honour our commitment to the maga- glorifi ed salad bar for them. Last year they got zine. This is something that we ourselves choose to do, and a little carried away plucking the needles from we certainly would not ask those around us to follow suit. We realize that many have lives outside of the gay community, and the tree, and ended up pulling it over. This year that being a part of it is something done purely for recreation. we took pre-emptive action by sprinkling pepper In our case, and indeed the case of many gay businesses, the across the tree skirt, which is supposed to dis- community is a part of our livelihood and thus we do have to take it quite seriously. This can often make us appear over- courage them from hanging around underneath. zealous workaholics to those just out to have a good time, and Snoopy still managed to snatch a number of I’m beginning to wonder if maybe they have a point despite my decorations from the tree and ran off with them… weak justifi cations. luckily they’re plastic, not glass, so we weren’t too Since the magazine started, Steve and I haven’t been able to concerned. Child-safe tinsel was also a godsend, pull ourselves away long enough for a proper holiday getaway as not surprisingly we found a great deal of it together. I don’t think many people can appreciate how dif- fi cult it is to put a magazine like ours on hold. Even if we step in their litter box – the aftermaths of midnight out for just an hour to run an errand – to grab lunch, or make snacks. Eventually they fi gured out how to push a bank deposit – it worries us that we might, and often do the tree skirt out of the way so that the pepper miss important phone calls. People often phone just as we are was no longer effective, and Snoopy tried climbing leaving, which often makes us late for other commitments. My parents have dragged me off for the occasional break between up the center column. They are smart but mis- press deadlines, but Steve has to stay behind to man the fort. chievous little buggers, and luckily Santa brought I believe our New Year’s resolution this year is pretty clear – to them some real toys to play with so that the tree set more time aside for ourselves. Regrettably, resolutions are often all too easy to break. faded to only a secondary distraction. Bullshit! I had a relaxing stay at my parent’s place on Christmas Eve, and then joined Steve for dinner with his family on Christmas Over the past several months, Steve and I have taken to Day. Once again, Christmas with the Polyaks was a pleasant watching a series on MenTV called “Penn and Teller’s Bullshit!” but baffl ing experience. To give you an idea of what I mean, It’s a show where the magician duo examine a number of noto- last year after dinner the conversation went something like this: riously slippery topics and dissect them with tongue-in-cheek yet surprisingly informative commentaries. In their profession Steve’s Mom: “Rob, do you want to take home a drumstick?” they create illusions to fool people for fun, but everyday people Rob: “No thanks, our fridge is pretty full.” are being fooled – or fooling themselves – in a way that is physi- cally, mentally, or even fi nancially harmful. Penn and Teller Steve’s Mom: “Does Steven want a drumstick?” set out to expose these illusions for what they really are – total BULLSHIT! Rob: “No, I’m sure he’s fi ne too.” A few months ago, conservative and religious groups were [A few minutes later, as I sit in the car waiting to go home…] objecting to gay marriage on the grounds that they believed Steve’s Mom: “Here, have a drumstick!” that it would be harmful to children – that a family structure other than one man and one woman would somehow stunt the On New Years Eve I did the usual running around to all of proper development of a child. Although our own Kevin Alder- the bars and the GirlsGo dance. Thanks to our writer Jason, I son did a great job of digging up psychological evidence proving didn’t have to bus and walk everywhere as I did on Halloween. that this was not the case, Penn and Teller’s episode on Family Meanwhile, Steve was in Edmonton doing the same running Values would have probably shut up all the nay-sayers just as around, making it was our fi rst New Years Eve away from one quickly…if only we had known about it earlier, we might have another. In Calgary, although I was surrounded by friends and sent them a copy.