The Bilerico Project

Dragon Age: Origins and Buttsex

jason@bilerico.com (Jason Tseng) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:00:00 -0500

I have always loved fantasy. Be it high fantasy a la Tolkien or Lewis, or B-list magic pony fantasy of the Tamora Pierce variety. I also love gaming... so, naturally wherever the two shall meet I'm so there. I was even a fledgling 10 year old D&D dungeon master... before my mother accused me of witchcraft and watched as I burned the manual.

So naturally I have been chomping at the bit, awaiting the release of Bioware's new dark-fantasy RPG, Dragon Age: Origins. The publisher has a long history of extremely successful RPGs, including Mass Effect and the D&D-inspired Baldur's Gate series (which consumed roughly the entirety of my eighth grade existence).

Demian Linn of bitmod recently posted his spoiler-y run down of the steamy action your character can engage in. Evidently in addition to the standard hetero pairings with NPCs, there's also possibilities for gay, lesbian, and even trans relationships with NPCs.

Demian makes some great observations on the game design and Bioware's approach to sexual inclusivity:

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Chuck Bass Outed, A Million Teenage Girls Weep, while Slash Fangirls Squee!

jason@bilerico.com (Jason Tseng) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:30:00 -0500

I admit it. I watch Gossip Girl. It's a terribly cheesy, melodramatic, poorly written soap opera. But it's so pretty! That, and the show's tone is so borderline camp it's hard to look away. It's my guilty pleasure, but I draw the line at the CW's new 90210 or Melrose Place remakes. I may be a trashy TV viewer, but that's plain skankerific.

Chuck Bass, Gossip Girl's resident lothario, has been heating up the tv screens of America with his unbridled sexual appetite and smoldering stares into the camera. Speculation around Chuck's sexuality has been circulating the interwebs for quite a while. The source material casts Chuck as very decisively bisexual, with his closest romantic relationship with another boy, Greg (who also evidently dated Dan for a while too... /dirty thoughts). While Chuck's endless fan base of tween girl might be opposed to this, the dangling carrot of a Gossip Boy three way has been one of the reasons I keep coming back.

Last night's episode of Gossip Girl featured Chuck and Blaire up to their usual antics. The couple play a game where Chuck hits on an unsuspecting girl and Blaire plays the scorned girlfriend. This episode we saw Blaire set Chuck up with NYU administrator, Joe Ellis. Blaire wants to deliver the highly coveted freshman dinner speech and Joe wants to go all smackaroo with Chuck Bass for some kind of bizarre New York scavenger hunt. While I expected Chuck to be all flirty to play Blaire's game, I didn't expect the big reveal afterward!

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Theatre Review: MilkMilkLemonade

jason@bilerico.com (Jason Tseng) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 13:00:00 -0500

A new play has made its home, nestled in New York's Lower East Side. Joshua Conkel's MilkMilkLemonade performing at Under St. Marks through September 26th, is an absurdist jaunt through the lives of Emory (Andy Phelan), a helplessly effeminate boy, his best friend Linda the Chicken (Jennifer Harder), and their indelible dreams of escaping Nanna's chicken farm to Mall Town, USA. in order to audition for Reach for the Stars, a reality talent competition and break free from the mundane normative existence of rural life.

The only thing that stands in their way is Nanna (Michael Cyril Creighton), a cancer-ridden, bible-beating, chain-smoking, grandmother, and her determination to process all the chickens on her farm on "Processing day." In an effort to stymie Emory's increasingly problematic effeminacy, Nanna employs the aid of Elliot (Jess Barbagallo), the rough and tumble anarchist-bent trouble child from next door with an evil parasitic twin living in his thigh, which compels him to behave badly.

All of this is narrated by the ever uncomfortable "Lady in the Leotard" (Nikole Beckwith) who conveniently translates Linda's unintelligable clucks and voices Elliot's demonic Jiminy cricket of a fetus-in-fetu.

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CDC says AIDS 50 Times Higher in Gays, Bi Men

jason@bilerico.com (Jason Tseng) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:00:00 -0500

The CDC announced findings stating that Gay/Bi men and MSMs contract HIV/AIDS at a rate 50 times higher than the general populace. Allow me to repeat that statistic: Gay men get HIV/AIDS fifty times more often than straight folk. Previously, the CDC has not made comparisons like this in the past, but would rather use raw numbers of new infections to illustrate the spread of the disease.

CDC official Dr. Amy Lansky announced today at a plenary session of the National HIV Prevention Conference the CDC's finding that, in the United States, gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) have AIDS at a rate more than 50 times (that's right, FIFTY TIMES) greater than women and non-gay/bi men. This confirms in emphatic terms that of all the disparities and disproportionate impacts in the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States, the greatest one is the extraordinarily disproportionate impact on gay and bisexual men -- of all races and ethnicities-- though the most disproportionate impact is on African American gay, bi and other MSM. As incidence estimates released by CDC last year revealed, MSM constitute more than half of all new cases of HIV and are the group in which the number of new cases each continues to slowly increase. What's new today is that the CDC has calculated *rates* of HIV/AIDS prevalence among MSM, not just raw numbers. Lansky says the CDC estimates that there were 692.2 new HIV cases in 2007 per 100,000 MSM. Having a rate as well as the raw numbers allows comparisons for the first time to other population groups at risk, such as women and heterosexual men.

This is sobering news for all us queer folk. After everything our community has been through, with the initial spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic during the 80s, and the gargantuan PR and safe sex education efforts these past twenty years have left us with this number. Gay/Bi men and MSMs still make up more than half of all new HIV infections. That's over 50% of new HIV infections coming from roughly 5% of the population.

Use a damn condom, people. Or, god forbid... have less sex.

Vogue Evolution Takes ABDC By Storm

jason@bilerico.com (Jason Tseng) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:00:00 -0500

America's Best Dance Crew, which is broadcast Sunday nights at 9pm on MTV, is in its fourth season. Many of these dance shows that are popping up all over the tube (Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, etc.) espouse very clear gender schemas in their dancers.

Niles Lithgow of So You Think You Can Dance has been criticized by many in the queer camps for kicking off dancers because he likes "men to dance like men and women to dance like women." Other shows like America's Best Dance Crew has been dominated by male b-boy groups. These dance shows tend to be skewed in the favor of male dancers because the physicality, acrobatic tricks, and male physique translates well on television and scales well with the female target audience (exceptions perhaps being Dancing with the Stars, as the Follow is often the focus of ballroom dance). Just look at the numbers: 4/6 of SYTYCD winners have been male and all of ABDC winners have been male groups.

However, this season of ABDC is very visibly about diversity in dance. The producers of the show have only brought on a handful of break-dancing groups, throwing in an eclectic mix of Latin/Hip hop, "Hick-Hop," and most intriguingly... Voguing.

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Judge Rules that Gay Accusations are not Libel: Gays and Lesbians "Not Contemptible"

jason@bilerico.com (Jason Tseng) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:00:00 -0500

Reuters reports that US Circuit Judge Denny Chin has ruled that Howard Stern can sue Anna Nicole Smith biographer Rita Crosby for defamation, but not over claims that Stern was gay or engaged in gay sex acts because homosexuality is no longer viewed as "contemptible."

Stern is suing Crosby, who wrote Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith's Death, and publisher the Hatchette Book Group for 19 libelous statements in the book, including claims that Howard Stern, Smith's boyfriend at the time, had engaged in oral sex with Larry Birkhead, Anna Nicole Smith's baby daddy.

However, Judge Denny Chin told Stern's lawyers that 11 of the alleged 19 libelous statements were legally actionable, and that while he acknowledged widespread prejudice against gays and lesbians, he did not view them as defamatory statements:

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Gay Generation Gap: Two Sides of the Same Coin

jason@bilerico.com (Jason Tseng) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:30:00 -0500

With the passing of the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, many in the gay community have taken the opportunity to reflect upon the historic moment in our collective queer history and how the community and movement has changed. The days of police bar raids and mass funerals of AIDS victims are quickly becoming a distant memory, replaced by the new gay identity of DINC consumerism (Dual Income No Children), HIV/AIDS as a manageable condition, Absolut Vodka-sponsored Pride parades, and gay marriage. And for an increasing number of gay men, these memories aren't even memories. It's history.

Mark Harris writes about this "Gay Generation Gap" in New York Magazine, commenting on the inevitable generational tension between the gay men in their 40s and 50s and those in their 20s. A tension particularly conspicuous as queers of all ages assembled over the past few months for Pride celebrations.

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Iconic Gay Choreographer Merce Cunningham, dies at age of 90

jason@bilerico.com (Jason Tseng) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:30:00 -0500

Merce Cunningham. Only his name need be uttered in dance circles and a sense of reverence follows. Cunningham was one of the most influential, radically inventive, and avant-garde choreographers in dance in a century. His career in dance spanned an unimaginable 70 years, from dancing as a soloist for Martha Graham, to starting his own dance company, which he choreographed for virtually until the time of his death, which was reported earlier today by the New York Times. In fact, he appeared in every single performance his company put up until 1989, at the age of 80.

He was one of the major forces which allowed the Western world to rethink dance and propelled it into a true art form and theatrical form. In addition, he not only was a prime shaper of the early modern dance movement, but a key founder of post-modern dance as well. Implementing ideas like chance, technology, and collaboration with artists of different art forms, Cunningham continually reinvented the field of dance, pushing the boundary of what we considered dance.

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Fried Rice: A Failed Attempt at Subverting Sexual Racism, pt. 2

jason@bilerico.com (Jason Tseng) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:00:00 -0500

Editors' note: Part 1 in Jason Tseng's series on racism and dating was posted in April.

It is New Year's Eve in New York City, and "new" is definitely the word du jour. It's a night of many firsts: My first New Year's in the City; my first New Year's with friends and not family; my first New Year's drunk. My roommate has dragged me to a party being thrown by his rich boyfriend and his equal parts loud, drunk, and obnoxious friends. The Bridge and Tunnel crowd pack the SoHo brownstone to the brim as they clamor for more alcohol at the open bar. Not even the disdainfully privileged surroundings of Yuppie excess could quell this feeling of anticipation and excitement at the prospect of a new year, a page turned, a fresh slate. As I said my farewells to 2008, I bade adieu to the Bush Administration, to my life as a student, to unemployment, and... to the last link in my long chain of relationships with Rice Queens.

2009 promised to be a year full of opportunity, driven by my personal mandate to initiate the Sticky Revolution: an act of radical anti-racism by rejecting colonialism and supporting my community of fellow Gay Asian men through deliberate valorization of a de-valued and disenfranchised group. Asians dating Asians - the quintessential "f- you" to Euro-centric beauty standards and fetishists. We don't need your validation, mainstream gay culture. We are a self-sustaining nation of queer Asian fierceness! And we don't need nor want your approval.

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Lawrence King's Memory Shat Upon By CA Judge

jason@bilerico.com (Jason Tseng) — Thu, 14 May 2009 09:30:00 -0500

News comes out of California that a Ventura County Judge ruled that the parents of Lawrence King, the young boy who was shot twice in the head by his homophobic classmate early last year, can sue his foster home, Casa Pacifica, for negligence. His parents and the judge believe that there is just cause that the foster home counseling and allowing King to express his sexuality and gender identity via make-up and high heel shoes endangered the child and led to his death.

I am so utterly stunned that I am too shocked to be outraged. Yes... Lawrence King was shot multiple times because of something he did. That is essentially what the judge has ruled.

Bull. Shit.

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Theatre Review: "Caitlin and the Swan"

jason@bilerico.com (Jason Tseng) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:00:00 -0500

The story of Zeus, in the guise of a swan, seducing the young and beautiful Aetolian princess, Leda, is a relatively familiar story for any classicist buff. The myth sets the stage for some of the most earth-shattering and epic events in the Greek mythos. The union of Leda and Swan Zeus birthed two important female characters: Helen (of Troy) and Clytemnestra (wife of Agamemnon; both key movers in the famous epic tale immortalized in Homer's Illiad.

This myth in a similar way, served as the genesis to the play Caitlin and the Swan which is in its final week at UNDER St. Marks in New York City. The play attempts to wrestle with and reconcile the rape of Leda, and contextualize for our contemporary notions of feminism, sexuality, and gender.

Nestled in a subterranean performance space, I felt excited as I dipped into this cavern of mystery that was Caitlin and the Swan, written by Dorothy Fortenberry and directed by Joshua Conkel. I was prepared for a theatrical mindfuck, which is the only thing one can reasonably expect from a play about a woman having sex with a swan. But, instead, I found a surprisingly intimate and touching play.

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Groundbreaking Anthology on Asian-Americans in Comic Books Needs Our Help!

jason@bilerico.com (Jason Tseng) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:30:00 -0500

I was introduced to Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology at New York ComicCon, where editor-in-chief Jeff Yang led a spirited discussion on diversity in comic books. As a self-professed comic book geek and an Asian American, Secret Identities really excited me as a dynamic group of Asian American actors, writers, and artists sought to bring the stories of our community into a world with a pronounced lack of diversity. I stopped over at the Secret Identities Blog and was really distressed to hear that the anthology is receiving a lot of push back, nationally, from bookstores and booksellers who refuse to offer them shelf space:

Dear Friends,

During the first leg of our college book tour last week for "Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology", the editors and I made a very disturbing discovery when we made impromptu stops at major bookstores in between appearances:

Bookstores were NOT carrying "Secret Identities" nor had any plans to do so.

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Fried Rice: A Failed Attempt at Subverting Sexual Racism; pt. I

jason@bilerico.com (Jason Tseng) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:30:00 -0500

I've been called a lot of things in my life. The standard pejoratives come to mind: faggot, Cocksucker, Chink... Commie chink. Although I took that last one more of a compliment, than anything else. But easily the most painful name came not from the homophobic jock or the drunken frat boy... It came from a lover.

It came tangled between bed sheets; heads buzzing with the freedom afforded by alcohol, he whispered softly in my ear, "You're perfect. My perfect little geisha boy." To this day, those words, which I'm sure were intended to make me feel treasured and beautiful, continue to haunt me.

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Ted Haggard Attends "This Beautiful City," Watches Own Demise On Stage

jason@bilerico.com (Jason Tseng) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:00:00 -0500

Tedd Haggard, the now infamous fallen pastor from New Life Church in
Colorado Springs, CO, evidently built up the courage to go see This Beautiful City playing at the Vineyard Theatre in New York City (read my recent review of the show!). Haggard going to the theatre usually wouldn't be much of a news story, but when the play heavily features the most painful series of events in your life where you're exposed as a crack-smoking, tina-loving, dick-sucking fraud... now that's some news.

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Theatre Review: This Beautiful City

jason@bilerico.com (Jason Tseng) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 10:30:00 -0500

This Beautiful City created by The Civilians is a docu-musical
cataloguing the story of Colorado Springs: the unequivocal epicenter of the Evangelical Christian movement, it's diverse inhabitants on both sides of the religious/secular divide, and the now infamous rise and fall of Tedd Haggart. The play, which is in its last week at the Vineyard Theatre in New York City, offers up a fascinating slice of cultural anthropology, illustrating the convergence of geography, faith, politics, and humanity.

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