There is no shortage of things to talk about in this month’s column.  April was one heck of a busy month, where Steve and I were out covering major Calgary events almost every weekend.

We would have been in Edmonton at the very beginning of April for the Bear Bash, however the heavy snowfall didn’t let up long enough for us to consider going.  Taking a risk that close to a press deadline wasn’t something we were willing to do, so we had to miss our favourite bi-monthly event this time.  Thankfully Dave Jackson provided us with photos so we too can get a taste of what we missed.

It was the Red Deer Taboo show the weekend right after the April edition of GayCalgary & Edmonton Magazine hit the shelves.  With it being a nice, dry, sunny day, we had no problems heading out that Friday, our little hatchback car loaded to the ceiling with luggage, magazines, and electronics.  Unfortunately we started hitting rush hour as we were leaving the city, and despite taking a less busy detour to avoid the backed-up portions of Deerfoot Trail, we arrived in Red Deer nearly an hour late.  It was a slow start to the show, so we were able to get set up quickly with minimal inconvenience.

As I may have explained in past Publisher’s columns, the Taboo shows are not intended to be a money maker for us, as is the hope of most other vendors that attend.  Our main purpose is to get the word out about our magazine to an audience that may be isolated from the LGBT community.  We display a slide show of community photos and video clips to show the variety of things that only GC&E covers, pump out some great music, and of course, hand out copies of our current edition and a small selection of recent past editions – for free, as always.  So it is a purely promotional endeavour.

Only in the past 2-3 years have we started working with non-profit groups to make our booth at the Taboo shows a fundraising opportunity - for the ISCWR at the Edmonton shows, and the ISCCA at the Calgary shows.  The groups are able to fundraise however they like (within the regulations of the venue), but we also operate a photo-booth of sorts, where people can get their photos taken in front of a backdrop that looks like the cover of our magazine.  They can do this with their friends and bring in anyone from the booth that they like, and at the end they get a printed copy that they can take home as a souvenir.

For Red Deer we invited Fake Mustache to join us – a youth group that puts on some very impressive monthly Drag King shows in Calgary.  Starting Saturday they began selling Fake Mustache merchandise (T-shirts and underwear), and reeling attendees in for photos.  I did my part and dressed up as a leather boy so that I could pose for photos too.  I was a nice alternative to the Drag Queens at the Calgary and Edmonton shows, but this time around the Drag Kings were man enough to satisfy most of the people.  So instead, I helped out in other ways.

One of the Kings brought a Furry costume that got some great response.  The mask was the face of a wolf, with a moving jaw and piercing eyes – it was amazing at how compelling it looked, and at times it seemed to have a life of its own.  At one point that day, the wolf was standing in the booth beside me and the person that I thought was in the costume returned from doing some drag numbers on the main stage.  I couldn’t resist having a turn with the mask and paws, which looked interesting on me shirtless and in a harness.  I was able to wear it for about half an hour before it began to get a little uncomfortable, but during that time it was really fun seeing people’s reactions...through the little eye-holes.

The Red Deer crowd was predictably more conservative than Calgary’s or Edmonton’s, but nevertheless Fake Mustache was able to raise around $750 in support of the Miscellaneous Youth Group.  With their help, we were once again able to provide something fun and engaging for the show; and whether Red-Deerians were brave enough to approach our booth or not, at least they got an eyeful to know we exist, and we’re not the stereotypes they may think we are.  It was a win all around.

No sooner was that over, we started into Calgary Coronation Week – an ISCCA event every day of the week, leading up to Coronation 35.  The biggies were the In Town Show on Thursday at Club Sapien, and the Out of Town Show on Friday at Twisted Element.  I have to say, being able to take photos at events at Twisted Element this year made for one less thing to stress about.

The main event was on Saturday.  Steve realized that this was now the 10th year in a row that we have been covering ISCCA Coronations.  Once again he was stationed by the stage taking photos while I was perched off to the side of the room behind the video camera.  I remember past Coronations being a big ordeal for me: my back aching, having to scramble to get something to eat for dinner, the seemingly endless drag numbers...not so any more.  Either my back has gotten used to it or I did a better job of stretching regularly, Steve and I partook in the fantastic dinner that was served to attendees, and the show ended just before midnight for the first time in the history of the ISCCA (though the Coronation ceremony put it just a little past).  Fred and Malibu stepped down and the new Emperor and Empress, Chris Tron and Makayla Quinn, stepped up.

At the Victory Brunch the next morning I had already started plotting.  I discretely wrapped a breakfast sausage in a napkin and put it in my pocket for later.  Steve and I went home and got some rest before heading back out in the evening to the Eagle for the infamous Tough Drag show, in which I have partaken for the past two years.  I had already prepared my music on a CD – a song I had touched up a little bit with my sound editor.

We arrived at 8:30pm and things were already well underway.  The past two years of Tough Drag shows had been pretty quiet, so I was surprised to see how many people were out to see it this year, and also how many others were participating!  Makayla, who has delighted in making me look ridiculous for the past two years, had his hands full getting Brian Forlin into makeup; though he already had a slim-fitting one-piece leather dress picked out for me.  He appointed Ruby Harte to take care of the makeup and wig.  With a hint about my number, she selected a blonde wig that came with a frilly blue ribbon in the hair.

Apparently my working out is having results, as Makayla’s leather dress was so tight on me that I couldn’t zip it up at the front past my bellybutton.  We improvised, putting underneath it a bra with two "coconuts" in the cups, to make it look like it was left open to be sexy.  No attempt was made to hide my chest hair underneath all of this.  Argintina was there for the show, but when she saw me she pulled out some of her makeup and did some last-minute touch ups.  I was shocked when I finally saw myself in the mirror.  Aside from my furry cleavage, I actually looked sort of pretty!   The makeup brought out my eyes so much that one almost didn’t notice my moustache and chops in plain sight.

The show started, and I sat by the stage nervously going over my number in my head.  I looked up long enough to see Joey Hailey doing his favourite trick of mercilessly mocking Bianca’s mannerisms, and lifting his skirt to reveal a curly brown wig stuffed under it.  An out-of-towner did a hilarious number where his breasts sagged increasingly lower until they finally rolled down his pant legs, and Steve Gutentight performed a disturbing song about cross dressing.

Then finally it was my turn.  This year I was really proud of my song selection.  It was something I truly identified with, one where I already knew the lyrics off by heart without having to rehearse, and one I was surprised to have never seen performed before – at least not in Alberta.  The song was "Going through the Motions", from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical, only I cleverly twisted the context of the song to be a trashy metaphor for prostitution.  How could I resist with phrases like "nothing seems to penetrate my...heart"?  There is one part of the number where several male characters sing, and that’s when the breakfast sausage came in handy, in tandem with the biting and spitting sound effects that I had mixed into the song.  "Oh god, what is that?" I heard newly elected Emperor Chris Tron remark as he waited by the stage to offer a tip, and the part of the breakfast sausage I had spat out rolled toward him.

As always, I donated all of my tips back to the ISCCA.  It all went over so smoothly that I didn’t have any regrets or feel foolish, as I did last year.  When the show ended, still in drag I approached a number of people that I know and many of them didn’t recognize me until they heard my voice.  "I didn’t realize that was you on the stage," a few of them said, and even Dyna Myte admitted she was a little freaked out by how unexpectedly pretty I looked.  Pretty or not, it was nice to return to being normal old me (with the help of some dish soap in the back room of the Eagle), and a relief for Steve as well.

We had two days of reprieve before the kick off of Western Cup, marked by the much anticipated Back(lot) to Boyz(town) reunion at Vinyl.  It was a rare opportunity to have the bar completely to the LGBT community again, relive the good times (and rise above the bad times) that many of us had at Boyztown and the Rekroom.  Steve had cracked open our photo archives to assemble a slideshow of over 900 images from Boyztown all the way back to the year 2000, including photographs and event posters.

As the media sponsor and primary advertising outlet for the event, being there for setup and doors opening, we stared in disbelief at the unrelenting stream of people coming in.  A few people said they waited in line for over 10 minutes before getting in, but Richard (Lady B) and David Donald at the door could only process them so fast!  The sheer volume of people that turned up that night – so busy that you could hardly move at only 10:30pm - made the experience that much truer to the Boyztown/Rekroom days.  It certainly knocked the socks off Vinyl, which is not normally open on a Wednesday night.  The event fundraised about 5 grand for Apollo Western Cup and AIDS Calgary, not including shooter sales for the ISCCA.  And no doubt there were a lot of people hurting at work the next day – I know I was, and that was just from staying out so late!  Nevertheless, Club Sapien was packed the very next night for Western Cup registration.

Western Cup went over very well this year.  Despite having to cancel Badminton and Running for lack of participants, organizers reported that the overall attendance had actually increased with higher saturation in the other four sports: Curling, Bowling, Dodgeball, and Volleyball.

The Western Cup dance maintained its reputation as Calgary’s largest LGBT dance event of the year (ARGRA’s dances at the rodeo are larger, but outside of the city limits), packing the expanded ballroom at Hotel Arts.  Organizers told us they pre-sold over 700 tickets – almost unheard of for a gay event in our city – and sales at the door brought their throughput to about 1000 people.  Apparently the venue could have held more (up to 1100 people at a time), but I don’t think anyone was complaining.  We’re told that when the lights went up at 2am, the dance floor was still full and going strong.

Funny enough, one bar owner who didn’t attend the dance personally, tried to argue that the event must have tanked since only 90-ish people on Facebook confirmed that they were attending.  I think that just reinforces that Facebook is not a reliable indication of who is attending an event, especially when your most effective advertising is done elsewhere.  *grin*

Honestly, I don’t know how people were still standing – in particular, how we were still standing – for the after party with DJ Tony Moran that Sunday night at Club Sapien.  It wrapped up another busy week, yet there was still one more week left in April.

All that remained were some smaller-scale community events, nevertheless there were lots of them.  SHARP Foundation’s Taste for Life happened on Wednesday round about the same time as the launch party for kickstART, a fundraiser for Calgary Communities Against Sexual Abuse (CCASA) – look for the article in this edition.  Then on Saturday we had Project Blue Sky, The End of Tawde, and the ARGRA Monthly Dance all one after the other.  Despite the rush I felt unusually calm and happy that day, and even took the time to let loose a bit at the dance.

Finally on Sunday we attended an informal birthday party for Barry (Momma G) at the Calgary Eagle.  Barry has been sick since September of last year, and unfortunately that Sunday he wasn’t in good condition to attend.  Nevertheless people gathered at the Eagle starting around 5 in the afternoon to enjoy food (which I’m told Boy Rusty worked his ass off in the kitchen to prepare) and sing Happy Birthday.

Thank god, this month isn’t looking anywhere near as busy as April.  It will be time for us to give Edmonton some attention, aside from getting caught up on a few things, including building that fence for Snoopy.  It’s not long before the next barrage of major events from June through to September: Edmonton Pride, ARGRA, Calgary Stampede, the WCPF Campout, and Calgary Pride.

Two things to be aware of coming up at the beginning of June are the FAB Anniversary on June 1st, and the Backlot’s first Anniversary party since Mark and Ward took over as owners on June 8th.  Though both are establishments that don’t host as many larger events that would appear in this magazine, GayCalgary & Edmonton Magazine would like to congratulate them both for the great job they are doing making their clientele feel welcome and keeping things interesting.

This month I put a brief effort toward brainstorming how to get more people to vote.  The most entertaining option was a crazy fable that parents ought to start telling to their kids to terrify them into giving a damn.  "If you don’t vote (when you’re old enough), the Vote Fairy might creep into your room one night and stuff you like a ballot box!"

Nevertheless, if every single person in Canada did vote, who knows, it might have produced the same results in the end.  For better or for worse, at least the fear of uncertainty is over and we know what we’re working with now.  Things didn’t turn out the way I had hoped, personally, and yet I’m not angry.  If anything, a few more mongooses have been dropped into the arena, and now that I’m practically beyond caring, I’m just curious to see how things are going to play out.