On occasion there are events going on in Alberta’s LGBT community that manage to completely elude us. Surprising, I know, when we are informed about virtually everything happening in our community – even the stuff that may not be eligible for publication in this magazine.
Usually it takes one or two cycles of such an event to transpire before word makes its way to us. In most cases this is because event organizers come from isolated pockets of the LGBT community, and it isn’t until they poke their heads out into the public sphere for the first time that they discover us and other LGBT organizations (or vice versa). This was the case with Lethbridge Pride several years ago, and also Peace River Pride just recently.
However, the Ghost Town LGBT Campout in Wayne, Alberta (15 minutes southeast of Drumheller) was a case that baffles us a little. It has been running annually for the past 32 years and yet we only crossed paths with information of its existence last year. It is a small event of about 50 people, most of whom are regulars that come back year after year, sometimes inviting friends and slowly growing the group’s numbers by word of mouth. In fact, we almost missed this year’s event because we didn’t see any information about it through the usual channels we monitor. It came as just a side mention in an incidental conversation, and so we planned to make our way out to take pictures.
The area is quite scenic – nestled in a small river valley in the badlands. The campground is adjacent to the Last Chance Saloon, what I’d describe as a diner / biker bar - although this label makes it seem more intimidating than it actually is.
Everyone out for the campout seemed very relaxed and laid back, just having a great time sitting around socializing (and drinking) while taking shelter from the intermittent rain. Some made their way over to the bar to compete in shuffleboard and horseshoe matches, and other games. We got photos of some of the campers, and fought with mosquitoes as we played around with an app for our phones to make 3D 360° panoramas.
On our way back to Calgary we stopped in Drumheller to eat our packed dinner, at which point Steve got the idea that he’d like to get some driving practice. As I’ve mentioned in previous columns, Steve has never gone for his driver’s license, although last year he surprised me by finally getting his learner’s. We weren’t prepared for this, but luckily the helpful lady in the Drumheller tourism information centre was able to give us a piece of paper, a felt marker, and even some tape so that I could make a "Student Driver" sign for the car.
The sparse traffic on the streets and highway were ideal for Steve to practice – in fact, it was his first experience with highway driving and subsequently the fastest he’s ever driven in the vehicle. He seemed to enjoy the liberties of being in the driver’s seat, namely the ability to pull over at will to check out some of the sights around Drumheller. Although highway driving was a little scary for him at times, he persevered and got us all the way back to the QE2 before I took over to get us the rest of the way home through the busier traffic. I was certainly happy being able to take a break during the long drive, and proud of him for doing so well. In fact, I’m going to put him to use for the drive between Calgary and Edmonton from now on. Mwahahahaaa.
May 2013
May was our month to get caught up on work, and in some respects we did. I made some headway on our website (see below) as well as getting caught up on a great deal of yard work before the rain started: painting our front fence, cleaning up all the leaves and branches that were slowly composting behind the retaining wall at the back of our property, and then hauling it off to the dump while the city was still taking yard waste for free.
Later in the month, Cowboys Nightclub held a congratulatory event for the newly elected Empress, Argintina, where they offered to donate cover to the ISCCA. Granted the show time of 8:30pm was a little too early for a drag show, but nevertheless they were able to raise a good chunk of change.
A tournament was held in Calgary last month as part of the North American Gay Volleyball Association circuit. The turnout wasn’t quite what organizers had expected, thanks to complications with American participants crossing the border into Canada. Nevertheless, the show went on, and Steve and I stopped by the Olympic Oval at the University of Calgary a number of times over the course of the weekend to snap photos of the ongoing matches. Steve and I remained professional, but on the inside we were woofing over several of the participants. This is one of the joys of taking photos.
Meanwhile, in the midst of the incessant rainfall, the Fairy Tales Film Festival was kicking off their week. Steve and I went to the opening gala where we saw two very entertaining films: Margarita and Go Doc Project.
Steve often makes fun of me for my lack of pop culture knowledge, especially when it comes to classical gay culture. If it were possible to take away my "gay card", as the saying goes, it would have been revoked several times over. Most of what I do know, he has been there as I have been exposed to it. This is why, when we went to the retro film night to see The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, he was shocked to learn I had already seen it once before – prior to even being out of the closet, to boot.
When I was a kid, one of my friends who I would regularly hang out with, belonged to a family that was a bit more open minded and receptive to arts and culture, perhaps, than my own. I would sometimes join them for movie night, and one such night the movie was Priscilla. I suppose they had rented it on recommendation of it being a "classic". Of course, as I kid I didn’t understand most of what was going on, and the cross dressing weirded me out a little bit. So it was good for me to watch it again and put things right in my mind.
Unfortunately, Fairy Tales overlapped our press deadline as it does every year and so Steve and I had to miss a number of movies and events. We particularly regret missing the party at Goliaths after the movie Interior. Leather. Bar. - a rare opportunity for the whole community to explore the otherwise men-only space.
However, we did manage to squeeze in the IBM and Telus VIP Reception held at Pulcinella in Kensington. We had a great time socializing with Fairy Tales board members and other business professionals while enjoying the food – although I had the oddest mishap while here. One of the appetizers being served was tiger prawns in a slightly spicy red sauce. As I tried to get the remainder of meat out of the tail section by pinching it, my fingers slipped and the tail got launched around my index finger, hitting me square in the right eye before falling to the floor. I recoiled in shock and covered my eye, noticing the hot sauce burning progressively worse. Steve’s hands were full so someone else had to grab me a napkin to dab the sauce away, but I still had to run to the bathroom to thoroughly rinse it out. Good grief, you can’t take me anywhere.
It has been a while since we last covered a Hot Mess dance, so we planned to stop by Local 510 this past month to check it out. However, as we drove by and saw the line-up going down the block, we decided against fighting the crowds. It’s good to see the event doing so well though, and perhaps next time we will need to show up earlier.
On the final night of May, we made our way up to Edmonton to check out and photograph the grand opening of, UpStares Ultralounge - an "everyone welcome" concept that is not exclusively a gay bar, but still explicitly LGBT friendly. A familiar face from the early days of FLASH Nightclub, Jeannine Bjornson, is heading up this new project. The space is quite nice, with lots of lounge seating, an awesome disco-style dance floor that does changing light patterns, a few mirror-ball style walls, and several different areas to choose from in which to hang out. The only drawback to the space might be the numerous flights of stairs to climb to get to their floor near the top of the multi-level building. It’s good exercise, and certainly nothing that will sap your strength if you’re going there to dance anyway.
This Month
Ahh June: my birth month, and probably one of the craziest months for events in the LGBT community. Immediately after this edition hits the stands, Edmonton will be celebrating their Pride week which will be jam-packed with events. The night of Saturday, June 8th will be particularly hectic with the Pride Dance, the Bearbash, and the PURE Pride dance all happening at the same time. For more information, look for the 2 page spread in this edition with the Edmonton Pride events listing, as well as ads for Bearbash and PURE Pride.
We’re looking forward to Lethbridge Pride again this year, as the event keeps growing and growing. In previous years we have only made a day trip down to Lethbridge, but this year we plan to stay a few nights to witness and enjoy a bit more of the festivities. Look for their ad in this edition of the magazine for an itinerary of events.
As much as we’re curious to attend Peace River Pride, the 8 hour drive from Calgary (or 5 hours from Edmonton) is a little daunting, especially having to do it again to get back. However, any readers in Grande Prairie would have a much easier time getting there.
Website Updates
A newer version of the software that we use for playing streaming videos on our website was released last month. The update boasted much wider compatibility than previous versions, using HTML5 to plug many of the compatibility gaps between internet browsers that we’ve experienced with previous versions - and indeed it works as advertised.
Unfortunately when we installed it onto our website, we discovered it was failing in some browsers because our website itself was not HTML5 compliant. Fixing this was a simple matter, however it had unacceptable side-effects on the layout of some parts of our site.
Rather than rebuilding our existing design to look correct with HTML5, we decided it was high time to refresh our website with a brand new look. The design we formulated is inspired by the layout used in Windows 8 and on our Windows phones – high contrast, large fonts, square corners, tiled items, tablet and mobile device friendly – along with the color scheme and some familiar elements from the layout of our own magazine.
First we updated the templates that are common across the many pages of our site – the header and footer, if you will. This fixed the most severe layout problems, leaving just the contents of each page to be transitioned one by one from the old design to the new one.
So far we have transitioned the Magazine area of our website, as it is the most commonly used area and core to what we do. The process of updating this page wasn’t just a matter of fixing the appearance of the existing elements – it was a full reinvention of those elements too, with user-friendliness in mind. In the process we added some useful new features, such as the ability to easily flip to the next/previous edition of the magazine, next/previous article, and even a button to jump to a random article (for fun). Another nice change is to the listing of articles and editions, which are now laid out so that each item is a tile that can wrap on the page to be 2 or more columns. This means a more efficient use of space no matter what resolution of monitor you are viewing the website on, making for less scrolling and easier browsing.
The only remaining eyesore is the comments box at the end of the Magazine page, which will be taken care of as part of the upgrade to the Forum area when that time comes.
All in all, the Magazine page looks a lot cleaner, and seems to operate much smoother than before - take a look for yourself at: www.gaycalgary.com/magazine.
For the next little while, other pages of the website will have some strange clashing between the old and new style but, we look forward to similarly reinventing them over the next several months, as time permits.