The Best Halloween Costume, EVER!!!

It was Halloween at Pegasus Nightclub in, I believe, 1994. Everyone was dressed up...mostly in Drag, of course.

There were the few crazily overdone costumes of the Art Institute students, who obviously had resources at their disposal that no one else had.

I remember one such student had a great Pinhead from Hellraiser costume on. He was one of the Movie Magic/Makeup students.

Cher was there & Madonna, & one of the funniest was a African American Drag Queen dressed as the "Clinique Counter Bitch." At least, that's what she said her official name was.

Anyway...in walks a couple in military garb. If you all remember the mid-90's, the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was on everyone's lips at that point.

They had purchased Army & Air Force uniforms at a surplus store, taken them home, bleached them of all their color & redyed them Baby Blue & Pepto Bismol Pink, respectively. To accessorize such a lovely palette, they had donned huge, ornate hats...you know, like the kind your grandma used to wear to church. The hats were lavishly decorated with dozens of flowers & ribbons. They both looked Fabulous!

Well...are you all ready for the punchline? They were:

GAYS IN THE MILLINERY

What a wonderfully creative little subculture, we are!

HAPPY, GAYEST HALLOWEEN, EVER!!!

Shortbus...the Film

So...as part of the International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival going on throughout October in Pittsburgh, a couple of friends and I went to see the premiere of "Shortbus" by John Cameron Mitchell, the creator and star of the drag hit "Hedwig and the Angry Inch".

I personally thought the movie was fucking brilliant. My take on the premise was one of a fear of intimacy and its varied manifestations, as personified by the characters.

The controversy underlying the film is that it may be miscontrued as pornography. Granted, there are many blatantly sexual scenes in the film, but never did this sheltered, smalltown queer think of it as such. The story is so poignant and familiar that the sex and real-life orgasms that are occurring before your eyes just blend in with the story.

The movie is captivating, moving and identifiable to pretty much anyone. If you haven't seen this film, you owe it to yourself to go.

One review I read recently talked of the film's potential to redefine audience expectations for films with a similar theme.

So, what are you waiting for ?! GO! Now! Quickly!