Queerics Giveaway Questions

So earlier this month, I learned about Queerics from one of my LJ friends and I was very impressed. I don't think people realize that queer music and queer people in the music industry runs much deeper than just 'It's Raining Men' or songs that seem gay, but are really just encouraging the Girls Gone Wild stereotype (Katy Perry, I'm looking at you). Keep it up guys!

Anyway, they're having a giveaway, but today is the last day to enter, so do it quick! I couldn't pick just one to answer though! Instead, you get four!

What band or musician do you most wish was queer?

I cannot tell a lie... I sometimes wish that Butch Walker was queer, but he's extremely close for a straight man. He gets lovey dovey with his band members and there are some days he looks like he could pass as a lesbian. Still, he's straight! I guess I wish he was queer because his music helped me when I was facing off with my own sexuality and it would just be the ultimate icing on the cake if a song like 'Mixtape' was really about a boy. Hell, I'd even take gay from the waist up or the "sexuality is only skin deep" thing he wrote in the liner notes of Math and Other Problems!

Still, even if he isn't queer, I'd love to have him as an ally. 'Paid To Get Excited' has the best commentary I've ever heard on Christians who condemn gay people and in one of the earliest Marvelous 3 songs titled 'Katrina', he sings as a homophobic guy named Randy who's being stalked by a lesbian and at the very end, he pipes in as himself and goes "I hope she beat the shit out of you, you homophobic fuck." And this was in 1997! I love him so fucking much.

If you were to create the ultimate queer 4-piece band, which musicians would you choose? Why?

Okay, this was kind of hard, but I think I got it...

Jake Shears - Vox: I'll admit, I have a girl crushing on a gay boy crush on Jake Shears. He just so adorable and I love the shit he writes.

Amanda Palmer - Piano, Vox: Amanda is just awesome. I forgot about her for awhile and just recently rediscovered her awesomeness. She kicks ass at everything she does and I think her chaotic piano would be a great compliment to Jake's lyrics. (And on a slightly unrelated note, her boyfriend Neil Gaiman created pretty much my favorite transgendered character ever. ilu Wanda Mann)

Kaki King - Guitar, Vox: When I first heard 'Bari Improv' in August Rush, I was in love with Kaki King and her style of guitar playing. It's chaotic, rhythmic and amazing. Plus the fact she's cute, has a soft and pretty voice and a lesbian doesn't hurt either. I don't know how it would compliment Amanda and Jake. It would either be a clusterfuck or EXTREMELY AWESOME!

Peaches - Everything else: Peaches is Peaches, man. I don't think I need to explain WHY she needs to finish this clusterfuck off. And no, that wasn't a double entendre (unless you want it to be).

What's the most awesome thing you've ever heard a musician say about his or her sexuality?

That award goes to Billie Joe Armstrong. He said this to The Advocate in 1995 when he was asked about his bisexuality.

"I think I've always been bisexual. I mean, it's something that I've always been interested in. I think people are born bisexual, and it's just that our parents and society kind of veer us off into this feeling of 'Oh, I can't.' They say it's taboo. It's ingrained in our heads that it's bad, when it's not bad at all. It's a very beautiful thing."

I remember seeing that quote when I was really starting to question and it made so much sense to me. Even if I did identify as straight, I'd still agree with him. We all have our queer tendencies and it's nothing to be ashamed of.

What would be on YOUR Pride month mixtape?

It's not so much a mixtape, but a mix cd. Or a playlist. Whatever.

1.) 'Paid To Get Excited' by Butch Walker and the Let's-Go-Out-Tonites!

I actually used "Be free to love the ones you love" on my Prop 8 protest sign.

2.) 'Coming Clean' by Green Day

For every kid stuck in the closet or struggling with their families.

3.) 'My Generation' by The Who

Not necessarily a queer song, but definitely fits our generation.

4.) 'Boys Wanna Be Her' by Peaches

Again...Peaches...I don't have to explain it.

5.) 'Kiss' by Prince

Prince is sort of an anomaly. He's probably the only straight man who can wear the clothes he does AND heels and be considered sexy. Then there's the misconstrued comments on his beliefs versus homosexuality, but I kind of toss that out the window when I realize NO ONE WRITES A SONG ABOUT SEX IN GENERAL BETTER THAN PRINCE! And 'Kiss' is a perfectly great example of that. Gay, straight, black or white, we all just want your extra time and your kiss.

6.) 'Magic Dance' by David Bowie

Mmm...David Bowie. Mmmm...David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King. Flamboyant, yet the desire of every young girl in the late 1980s.

7.) 'I'm Gay' by Bowling For Soup

The title can be easily misconstrued. It's actually a very happy song about being...well...happy! But as Jared says in the song, it's perfectly fine to be a happy individual and this is the perfect time to be happy with who you are.

8.) 'Centerfold' by Pink

I also want Pink to be my straight ally. She's such a fucking badass.

9.) 'Shores Of California' by The Dresden Dolls

'Sex Changes' probably would have been a better song, but it wouldn't have flowed right. But I think what's in this song can apply to anyone. Plus, the video has Amanda making out with Kelly. You can't beat that.

10.) 'Did Ya' by BoA

Okay, this is mostly for the fact that BoA played San Francisco Pride this year, but she's still an amazing performer and 'Did Ya' is a very danceable number.

11.) 'Androgyny' by Garbage

Shirley Manson was one of the many factors that made me realize I was bi.

12.) 'Girl' by Robots In Disguise

This song always makes me feel empowered. I love Dee and Sue.

13.) 'Fall Out Gloria' by Mighty Mike

It's 'This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race' set to 'I Will Survive'. You can't get much gayer than that.

14.) 'I Need A Girl Who Knows A Map' by Kaki King

It's actually an instrumental song, but it's gorgeous and the mix wouldn't feel right without Kaki on it.

15.) 'Caught A Lite Sneeze' by Voltaire

This is actually a cover of a Tori Amos song, but Voltaire doesn't change the lyrics. He still goes "Boys on my left side, boys on my right side, boys in the middle..." Plus, Voltaire himself is queer! Okay, I've never actually confirmed this outside of his facebook (he lists being interested in both men and women), but even if he's not explicitly open about it, it's still kind of obvious.

16.) 'Everybody Wants The Same Thing' by Scissor Sisters

Sing us out, Sisters!

The Buffy Reboot and Why Stephanie Meyer Is To Blame

Whether you’re a Joss Whedon fan or not, you’ve probably heard about the Buffy The Vampire Slayer reboot that has been proposed by Fran Rubel Kuzui, her husband Kaz, and Roy Lee and Doug Davison of Vertigo Entertainment. If you are a Joss fan, you’ve probably already had a moment of rage upon learning that Joss would not be involved and would essentially be a reboot of the movie. Meaning that everything that made Buffy a great series would be disregarded and tossed out the window. And if you’re not a Joss fan, you probably know one anyway.

Why though? Why reboot a franchise that’s barely seventeen years old (twelve if you completely discount the movie) and still has a continuing canon? Especially when you consider the fact you can’t use the time travel excuse like Star Trek did.

To put it simply, it’s Stephanie Meyer’s fault.

Now, it’s probably not a good idea to lay blame on one author who’s not directly involved in this trainwreck waiting to happen, but let’s think about it. Before the 1990s, vampires were almost exclusive to the horror genre, with the most notable being Count Orlock from Nosferatu and Dracula from almost everything ever. There were exceptions of course with the soap opera Dark Shadows being one of the first examples of having a vampire not be portrayed as an outright monster. This was followed up by the publication of Interview With A Vampire in 1976 and the movie version in 1994. Around the same time of the movie, the first of the ongoing Anita Blake series was published and only three years later, Buffy The Vampire Slayer began its first season on The WB. While the 90s did have a vampire craze, at least you could still consider them vampires. They had fangs, they sucked blood and a lot of the time, they were assholes who loved to fuck around with humans. Say what you want about the ensouled Angel from the Buffy franchise, but you have to admit that when he was Angelus, he was frightening. Even The X-Files had their own vampire episode around this time titled “Bad Blood” and it actually stuck to a lot of original vampire mythos, including a lack of fangs and an OCD tendency to count and collect objects that are thrown at them (The Count on Sesame Street suddenly makes more sense, huh?). After Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel ended though, it seemed like that craze was over. And if that didn’t kill it, Queen of the Damned surely did.

Not to say that Vampires were completely gone from media, they just weren’t in the spotlight as much. There was still books and a few series floating around in the anime world such as Hellsing, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (one of my personal favorite anime movies) and Blood: The Last Vampire. There was also Van Helsing, but why mention it anyway?

But then, it went bad.

In 2005, Twilight was published. I admit that I read it in 2007 after I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Watchmen, but at the time, I had only come across two people who had read it: one of my cousins (who had suggested it to me) and a girl who was in a production of The Music Man that I was on tech crew for. I guess it was growing in popularity, but it wasn’t everywhere.

I’m not sure when it exploded, but suddenly in the beginning of 2008, it was creeping up everywhere. I don’t know if it was because of the movie or the publishing industry looking for a new franchise to boast after the end of Harry Potter. Possibly both. Either way, vampires were becoming a big deal again. Well, if you want to call the vampires in Twilight actual vampires. Last time I checked, no previous folklore had vampires that sparkled when they stepped out into the sunlight and had various special abilities that made the Cullen family a brooding, extremely lame version of the X-Men.

The series isn’t about these Vampires In Name Only though. It’s about the “ordinary” girl named Bella Swan (what about that description doesn’t scream Mary Sue?) and how she falls “in love” with Edward Cullen, who is constantly described as perfect, but seems to lack an actual personality. There’s also stuff about werewolves and vampires who want to eat Bella, but any attempt at a halfway decent story is lost because Meyer pretty much wrote out her wet dream.

That’s right...this whole damn franchise that has an army of batshit insane teenage girls who think a man who sparkles, has no personality, and has many traits that point to being an abusive spouse is the perfect man based this all on a dream she had about a “girl” (read: herself) who was in a meadow with a man who sparkles. Everything else was just pulled out of her ass.

So with one popular franchise that people seem to be buying, here comes other people trying to cash in. Every trip to the bookstore includes a stand of supernatural books that are trying to appeal to those who love Twilight, The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris was turned into True Blood, and The CW will be premiering The Vampire Diaries in the fall.

Which brings us back to our possible Buffy The Vampire Slayer reboot. Why be so cynical about it and call it an attempt to cash in on this new vampire craze that started because of those damn sparkly vampires?

Well, first off, Joss isn’t involved. Considering the fact he’s still involved in the series in the case of the Season 8 comics, leaving Joss and his crew out on something Buffy related seems kind of farfetched.

Secondly, it’s a franchise where a reboot would seem kind of illogical. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a fairly young franchise with a creator who’s still alive and still involved in the creative process when it comes to the comics and the franchise itself hasn’t suffered some terrible fate that would be cause for a reboot. Say what you will about Chris Nolan’s Batman movies, but they certainly make up for the pain and suffering that was Joel Schumacher. And whether you liked it or not, the new Star Trek film has certainly breathed new life into a long running franchise that has been suffering for many years now. The equation doesn’t really add up with Buffy though and it really doesn’t add up when you take into account that none of the characters from the TV series would be in it. C’mon people! It was the supporting cast who made that show! I honestly can’t name one person I know who says that Buffy Summers is their favorite character!

Finally, they’ve basically admitted that they’re trying to cash in! Just read these two quote and tell me that it’s not an admittance of “Hey! People like vampires again! Let’s get some of that money!”

"Everything has its moment. Every movie takes on a life at some point, and this seems like the moment to do this." -Fran Rubel Kuzui

"Now seems like the right time. Studios are looking for a franchise and vampires are relevant again." -Roy Lee

The reaction has been less than stellar. Most Whedon fans (including myself) are pissed off at the concept and has met some curious stares from people involved with the series. Tony Head said that a reboot would be like “watching a car wreck”, Tim Minear responded to the original Whedonesque post with “Unthinkable” and while Joss has been rather kind about this proposal, he says that he feels “a great sense of amusement at the concept.”

So yes. Thank you, Stephanie Meyer. Thank you for creating a godawful series that gets teenaged girls riled up and execs seeing more ways they can line their pockets. Because of you, we now have to suffer a possible new franchise that will probably lose the whole understanding of the original. Because of you, Whedon fans have more studio bullshit to rage at. As if we didn’t have enough. Seriously, it’s getting kind of ridiculous now.

Knowing Whedon fans though, selective amnesia is already in place. Much like the original Buffy movie, season five of Buffy, Alien: Resurrection, and, in select cases, Wash’s death at the end of Serenity, the reboot will be nothing but a bad dream to the Whedonverse and they will take comfort in remembering the fact that if they have power in numbers. If they can crash the server for the Dr. Horrible website and the Fox phone lines, they can sure as Hell make sure that none of their money goes towards the reboot.

Miss Kitty's Musical Blathering - How I'm constantly reminded of my wild weekend with Voltaire...

I have a tendency to compare my most influential bands to relationships.

Green Day is that first love I'll never forget, no matter how far we drift apart.
Fall Out Boy is the one I had a hot and heavy fling with, but we're still good friends after the break up.
Garbage is the amazing kid from school that I had a crush on, but graduated before I could even say hi.
Kenotia is the one I could never have a crush on, but the one I watched out for whenever some skank came along.
And Butch Walker, of course, is my true love. The one you meet by chance and the way things happen, you end up falling head over heels in love.

But even with my musical steady, there are still the weekends where I forget about him, make up a fake persona and get crazy with the nearest guy.

The last weekend like that? Labor Day Weekend 2008.

The weekend fling?

Voltaire.

If you don't know, Voltaire is the modern Goth king. Everyone at Dragon*Con loves him. Team Linsner even more so. He has hosted the Dawn contest 3 of the past 4 years despite being spanked and felt up by various Dawns. But I digress...

So out of any musical fling I could have had that weekend at Dragon*Con, why the fuck did I choose him?

It actually started the year before after the last Dragon*Con. I had downloaded some of his stuff and had gotten interested. So by the time the next Dragon*Con rolled around, I had made it a point to see him. At least one time. Then I could go on with the rest of my weekend...

By the end of the weekend, I had seen both of his official concerts (three if you count the Dawn performance), owned two of his CDs and had a tombstone that said 'Oh My Goth!' drawn on the back of my purse along with his signature.

But how?! How did one show turn into a weekend long obsession?

Well, there was a various number of reasons. If we want to speak go back to relationship terms, I was feeling a bit ignored by my steady. Butch had been quiet for a little bit and at the time, I was unsure if I'd ever hear Sycamore Meadows before the end of the year (more on that next entry). I do my Dragon*Con thing and all of a sudden, here comes this sarcastic singer with an acoustic guitar who has been proclaimed a fire hazard two years running and threatens to learn how to play 'Freebird' just to piss everyone off. Plus, he pronounced my last name right at the Dawn contest. What can I say? It's hard not to get swept off my feet.

Musically? He's just awesome. He has such a repertoire with the audience that is pretty much like joking around with an old friend. And if his opening song 'Death Death (Devil, Devil, Devil, Devil, Evil, Evil, Evil, Evil Song)' doesn't make you laugh while shouting 'Amen, my goth brother!', then it'll be hard for you to enjoy the rest of the set... Especially when 'Ex-Lover's Lover' rolls around.

So what of the two CDs I bought? One of them was his 2004 album Then And Again and while it is an excellent album, I don't think it fully encapsulates who Voltaire is music-wise. Then And Again is the serious and beautiful side that is safe to play around your conservative parents. No where are the morbidly hilarious songs like 'Cantina' and 'The Vampire Club'.

However, the second album I purchased, the VERY recently pressed To The Bottom of the Sea perfectly covers both sides of Voltaire's back catalogue. There is the serious and beautiful that will make you cry and the morbidly hilarious that will make you cry of laughter.

To The Bottom Of The Sea plays out like a concept album split in two parts (much like Forgive Durden's Razia's Shadow, except not as explicitly structured). The first half of the album tells the tale of the citizens of the fictional nation of Vorutania rising up and overthrowing the corrupt Robber Baron. At first, there is celebration, but the nation is soon torn apart by war. The second half follows a tinker who goes out to sea to find his fortune during this time. If you don't believe me, just buy the album. This is all spelled out in the liner notes.

And honestly, this is the only concept album I know of that features an instrumental belly dancing track, a parody of 'Coin Operated Boy' by The Dresden Dolls, a tragic song about a couple separated by the sea, and a very morbid take on celebrating birthdays.

Yet? It all works perfectly. The story is never lost or muddled on a single song and it does everything that Voltaire's work has been known to. It makes you laugh hysterically, it makes you cry and it makes you think from an alternative perspective.

As for my musical fling? Well, I still think about him obviously. I listen to the music, I follow him on his various networking sites, and I can't deny it with that tombstone on my purse (now with added Graverobber thanks to Terrance Zdunich), but my heart is still with Butch.

However, I am not going to say no whenever Voltaire rolls back into Atlanta. Who says I'm only allowed to love one sarcastic songwriter boy?

An Open Letter to Stephanie Meyer...

Dear Stephanie Meyer,

I am not here today to ask you to stop writing or to sit you down and smack some sense into you about your characters and what they portray. I'll save that for other fans who can put it in better words.

Instead, I have a humble request that I think would make many people happy...

Please let Muse go.

I know this sounds like a tough request for you seeing as how you dedicated Breaking Dawn to them, but please, hear me out.

I have been a Muse fan since about 2006. Even before then, I have known Muse fans for about as long as I've been into them, if not longer. We are people who enjoy good music. We love the guitar work, the intricacies of the music, the amazing lyrics and Matt's falsetto only dogs can hear. Well, this is at least me and I'm sure there are other fans that can describe this better.

What seems to be a collective opinion however is that Muse fans do NOT appreciate how you've associated your badly written series with one of the best bands of our generation.

They did not write their songs just for your characters. 'Starlight' is not Bella and Edward's anthem. If there's any series that should stake claim in Muse, it should be Doctor Who (Which they already somewhat have since 'Assassin' was in an episode of Torchwood and it worked better there). And for the love of God, WHY is 'Supermassive Black Hole' on the movie soundtrack?!(*)

So please, on behalf of all the Muse fans who want them to keep their good name, let them go. You still have Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance and there will be other bands(**) to *ahem* "inspire".

Sincerely,
Miss Kitty Fantastico

*This is the main reason I'm making this plea. This is my favorite song by them (as well as my unofficial stripper anthem) and I hate seeing it being mucked up by Paramore...

**Though, I kindly ask that you stay the fuck away from Butch Walker.

Repo! The Genetic Opera - "We started this opera shit!"

For the past few months, my life has been taken over by a film. A film that isn't even out yet and will only be on ten screens if Lionsgate Films has its way.

This film is called Repo! The Genetic Opera. It's a rock opera set in the not too distant future where organ failure has swept the planet and one company called GeneCo has the replacement organs to fix your body and the drugs to numb the pain of surgery. Problem is, if you're late on your payments, GeneCo will repossess your organs. And they have the perfect men for the job: masked assassins only known as Repo Men.

The plot of the film focuses around two families, the Largos and the Wallaces. The Largo family is headed by Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino), the owner of GeneCo. However, he is dying and his three children are fighting over who will receive his company when he does kick the bucket. Luigi (Bill Moseley), a violent and arrogant masochist, believes he has the brains to run the company, Pavi (Ogre from Skinny Puppy), an extremely vain rapist, believes he has the charm, and Amber Sweet (Paris Hilton), a surgery and zydrate addict, believes she has the looks and the voice. Rotti is continuously disappointed with his children though and takes interest in someone different entirely.

The Wallaces have their own problems, however. Shilo Wallace (Alexa Vega) is kept inside the house by her father Nathan (Anthony Stewart Head) due to a rare blood disorder she inherited from her long dead mother Marni. She wants nothing more than to go outside and see the real world, but Nathan won't allow it. Nathan has his own secrets he's keeping from his daughter though. To her, he is a doctor, but the actual truth is that he's one of the Repo Men who works for GeneCo.

The one character who connects these two families is Blind Mag (Sarah Brightman), GeneCo's premiere opera singer who is *gasp* Shilo's godmother and is marked for repossession herself.

Outside of the action, there is Graverobber (Terrence Zdunich, co-creator of Repo!), a Zydrate peddler who is constantly on the run from the law and becomes Shilo's guide to the real world.

So, why did I become so invested in this film? Well, I'm a huge Joss Whedon fan and Anthony Head from Buffy is one of my favorite actors. I started looking into the film because of him, but for a while, I was repelled by Paris Hilton. But then...a little video called 'Zydrate Anatomy' hit the net...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otdH3SLNx-s

I almost couldn't comprehend what I was watching. It was sexy, it was catchy, it was intriguing, it was everything and a bag of chips...

Plus, I almost forgot that Paris Hilton was Paris Hilton! For this film, she completely transformed herself.

From that moment on, I was fully engrossed. I wanted more of this world of organ repossessions and little glass vials of Zydrate.

In the Repo! world, there are some big dates coming up. On September 30th, the soundtrack will be released digitally on Amazon.com. You can preorder it right now at notyourparentsopera.com as well as preview seven songs on the Pre-Surgery sampler. If you like what you hear, you should definitely get the soundtrack when it comes out!

On November 7th, the film will be released in New York and Los Angeles and Lionsgate currently doesn't have any intentions of expanding the release. HOWEVER! There are two major factors coming up that could change this. One is how the film performs in those ten theaters on the first week.

Second is the Repo! Road Tour.

The Repo! Road Tour is a seven day, seven city tour that director Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II-IV) and Terrence Zdunich will be making to show Repo! in cities that wouldn't be getting it. I don't remember all the cities, but Atlanta is on that list! Once I have more information, I'll post it, but theater owners will be calling Lionsgate and telling them about the turnout!

But right now, I urge you to visit repo-opera.com and take a look around. Take a look at the forums, read character biographies, listen to songs, watch clips, whatever. It will NOT disappoint! And if you like what you see, TESTIFY! Spread the word of The Genetic Opera!

I'll continue to post more information when I get it, but this is what I have for now. Visit repo-opera.com, buy the soundtrack when it comes out and show Lionsgate that this film is worth their time.

TESTIFY!!!

Bwah?

How long has it been since I've used this thing?!

I started a post about Joss Whedon once, but I never finished it.

...I'll find A use. Eventually.

-MKF

'There's a light on in Chicago and I know I should be home...'

I'm just so ready for school to be over.

I have to admit, it's a little weird when some of your favorite musicians get into your dreams, but it's even weirder when one of them is trying to feel you up and it actually feels like their hand is running down your back...ewww...

I really shouldn't care that he's leaving or that the glasses are gone, but I do. What the fuck is wrong with me? Well, it's better than worrying about real life sometimes.

I've had a bunch of songs from Take This To Your Grave by Fall Out Boy running through my head for the past two weeks...hence the title...I don't know but it puts me in a good mindset...to not be so...depressed...or apathetic. I don't know what it is I've been feeling as of late.

Proper intro later, promise...

...I really want to pop in an episode of Firefly...