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Last night I hosted a small get-together for the Shaun Proulx Media team, including bloggers from GayGuideToronto.com, The Shaun Proulx Show peeps, associates, and a few mandatory BFFs. Just to appreciate, to take a breath, and chillax as the Toronto Pride wind up winds up. My friend Buck Angel was in town, so he was guest of honour, and we played the premiere episode of my show in which he was featured.
Thanks to Lola’s Commissary for their wonderful space, and for whipping up deliciousness for us the likes of which you can’t find anywhere else. Thanks also to Flatrock Cellars and Premium Peeler Light Cider for the hangover this morning!
And suddenly there was a magician, screwing with our heads.
P.S. On a side note, thanks to Shinan Govani for the mention in his scene column in today’s National Post!
Here are some pics from the nite! Read the rest of this entry »
As I mentioned on Facebook and Twitter this morning, attending Moses Znaimer’s ideaCity10 yesterday was like a spa day for the mind. From hearing former University Toronto Dean of Women Elizabeth Abbott speak on the history of marriage, to writer Cristina Nehring asking what happened to our right to be tempestuous and over the top about romance, it was a stimulating day. Local luminary Nina Arsenault gave a challenging and theatrical presentation in the evening about her body and being as an on-going art project, and my pal Buck Angel, in Toronto now through to the end of Pride, stole the audience’s hearts with his emotional talk on why he’s a man even though he doesn’t have a penis.
Somewhere in there we were also on our feet for a little sexy Kama yoga, and crooner Matt Dusk sang some classics.
I know. Stimulating.
But for me it was Natalie McLennan who was the highlight. In her book, The Price: My Rise and Fall as Natalia, and in her presentation yesterday, the native Montrealer shared her story of heading to New York to become an actor, instead scaling the city’s heights to become its top escort, earning $2000/hour from politicos, athletes, and Wall Street horny boys. Drug addiction, time in Riker’s Island, and a friendship with Eliot Spitzer’s girl Ashely Dupre; can you say: “Life lived hard”?
After, Natalie and I sat down for a one-on-one interview which will air on an upcoming episode of The Shaun Proulx Show on OUTtv. She was warm, candid, funny, spoke from the heart, and I was totally charmed. She explained why being called an ‘escort’ or ‘hooker’ is no longer the title of choice, please and thanks (she refused to comment to media as an ‘expert’ during the Tiger Woods scandal), how she had to detox herself solo from heroin and free-basing cocaine to get well enough to be there her mother back in Canada who had been diagnosed with cancer, and why she refused to name names of Johns (‘Why break up families?’).
Authentic, charming, and lovely. I wish her all the best.
Watch for our conversation soon, on OUTtv.
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A Big Win. For All.
You must be thinking what I’m thinking as I begin this post – Child, HIMBO! has gone to the trannies!
Yes it has, and it’s about to even more. Besides the fact my previous post promotes my Los Angeles interview with Buck Angel, a one-hour special episode which kicks off Season Two of The Shaun Proulx Show on OUTtv (hey have I showed you THIS promo?) …
… we need to discuss this past weekend’s International Mr. Leatherman Competition in Chicago. In case you haven’t heard, a trans man won the title, a historical first for the IML contest that is an integral part of an integral segment of the GLBT community.
But it’s more than that, so let’s call it what it really is – a first in global history.
Not just where such international competitions like IML are concerned, but where humanity is concerned, where identity, authenticity and where the tenacity we all have to be nothing less than Who We Really Are is concerned.
I’ve spoken often about my deep respect for trans people – it’s why my friend Buck is also my personal hero – but I will never tire of repeating myself on this subject. Because I cannot think of anything greater than a person’s willingness and need to alter their gender – therefore taking on myriad obstacles (societal, familial, internal), and therefore summoning strengths of personality they didn’t know they had – as greater proof that for each of us there is a version we have of ourselves that is greater than what we are living now.
The call to that “greater than” is the mantra of life: more, more, more; better, better, better. And the expansion of the Universe is based on this.
The incredible inspiration that trans people offer us all in this regard is often overwhelming to me. I appreciate trans people deeply for this. Buck Angel for trusting me to have the leading edge conversation you will see us have on The Shaun Proulx Show premieres Friday night. The lovely Tyresias for sharing his trans perspective regularly in my other online publication, GayGuideToronto.com. Chaz Bono for transitioning in the face of fame and celebrity most people will never understand (not to mention dealing with Mother!), and through that bringing mainstream attention to trans issues. And now Tyler McCormick, International Mr. Leatherman 2010, a fierce proponent of authenticity if ever there was one, winning over an entire subculture of our queer community (in a wheelchair, no less) a win for all of us. His visibility over the next year will make it even more so.
You feel the change, right? This is good, this is the Universe evolving, this is exciting to witness and be part of.
Okay, I’m pumped and excited about the special one-hour episode of The Shaun Proulx Show this Friday night on OUTtv, so you’ll have to bear with me this week. Have I mentioned it’s my intimate conversation from Los Angeles with my friend and hero, Buck Angel? Here’s a clip:
