From the ‘Palindrome’ file The NY Times (9/15) reviews Dog Sees God, a stage parody of the Peanuts gang, not only grown up, not only facing the death of a certain dog and a certain yellow bird but the onset of romantic homosexual love between two of the characters: ‘… [S]uffice it to say that the affair begins with what may prove the most surprising, and hot, stage kiss of the season.’ Clever script, clever cast says the Times—may it travel well.
In that couples vein, The NY Times (9/21) sports section reports that the latest bastion gay couples are climbing over is country club membership. No problem in Massachusetts where gay marriage is legal—the law has been interpreted to cover this situation—but court cases are pending in San Diego and Atlanta. Frothing at the mouth (but who knows whether negatively, positively or both) to take on the San Diego case, the entire California Supreme Court agreed to adjudicate it.
The New Yorker (9/27) has several gay couple stories: fashion photographers Mert and Marcus (Mert Alas and Marcus Piggot) live on the Spanish island Ibiza and are not only a gay couple but collaborators in their high-end photography. Their trademark seems to be post-production manipulation of their pix, sort of Photoshop fake glamour. They do a fair amount of campy drag in private and their entourage members have their own entourages. They inform us they are no longer party boys.
Same magazine issue notes the back-in-print book of lesbian Elsie de Wolfe, The House in Good Taste. De Wolfe, who invented modern interior design as a profession, still has valid things to say today re decor 90 years later. (It must be said that while she spent 40 years with actress companion Bessy Marbury, she also married at age 60 Sir Charles Mendl because she wanted a title.)
The House & Home section of The NY Times (9/16) showcases couple Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd and their garden in Vermont. Both former teachers, they have since become famous as garden designers and writers. Together: A Year at North Hill, Living Seasonally; separately: Annuals and Tender Plants for North American Gardens by Winterrowd and Elements of Garden Design by Eck and many other books. Plant people in the know say the couples’ books tend to transmogrify into instant classics.
The Chicago Sun-Times (9/21) tells us of another transmogrification: the musical revue Naked Boys Singing which cheerfully acknowledged its gay male audience has become a favorite of bachelorette parties and girls’ nights out. The only audiences they don’t have now are lesbians and straight men who’re probably all off at a Cub’s game.