Andrea James

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GLAAD Media Awards wrapup

Andrea James

Above: Calpernia and I whore ourselves out and sign a giant Absolut bottle they were auctioning off.

Calpernia and I were at the GLAAD Media Awards Saturday as guests of Logo. Got to see lots of folks doing great work in LGBT media, and plenty of trans folk there, too: Eden Lane and her charming husband, Donna Rose, Ashley Love, Foxxjazell, Candis Cayne, and several folks I’d never met before. As we were walking in, we were in line in front of three lovely women who had traveled to the event. I had a chance to speak with Garry Marshall, who is one of the most consistently funny people EVAR. I said hi to Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry and a whole slew of other people involved in work I love.

The highlight for me though was going over to the Comedy Central table and talking with a few of the writers on The Sarah Silverman Program. I even got to meet Eric, who played Gerome in 2 Girls 1 Cup: The Show. I got over there too late to say hi to Steve Agee, who has been cracking me up since the early days of Channel 101 (Yacht Rock, Kicked in the Nuts). His summary of the evening includes this hilariously captioned photo of the cocktail party:

Andrea James

Afterwards, we made the driver take us to West Hollywood, where we were mobbed by drunk gays and lesbians. I’m sure some unflattering photos will appear in short order on blogs and what-not. Quite an evening.

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By Andrea James | April 27, 2008 | Events and Appearances |

The Sensei, May 4 @ 4pm, Directors Guild in LA

Andrea James

I’m scheduled to attend the premiere of The Sensei on May 4 at 4pm at the Directors Guild of America.

Set in the 1980’s it’s about a female martial artist who comes out of retirement to teach a gay teen how to defend himself from small-town bullies. In the process she becomes a target as well.

http://www.thesenseimovie.com/

Tickets:

http://vconline.org/festival/program.cfm?program_id=36

By Andrea James | April 26, 2008 | Uncategorized |

Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles

Tonight I went to the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles to see the premiere of a friend’s film (which kicked bootay). It’s called Sari (W)rap (see trailer) and premiered Thursday as part of the narrative shorts program. The program plays again on Saturday 26 April at 2pm at the Arclight. Several standouts for me in the program included Love Story (beautifully shot), Midnight Lost and Found (clean storytelling), and Rewind (one of the best shorts I have seen this year).

The festival continues through the 27th.

http://www.indianfilmfestival.org/

It’s at the Arclight Hollywood, which is one of the best film venues in North America (not just the Cinerama Dome in the background below, but the whole theater).

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By Andrea James | April 25, 2008 | Events and Appearances, Movies I've seen, Stuff to check out |

GLAAD gives TLS a shout-out in Variety

Speaking of the GLAAD Media Awards, President Neil Giuliano has a nice piece in Variety today outlining achievement in the last year, giving a shout-out to Transamerican Love Story. Excerpt of “From Oprah to the Oscars”:

Transgender firsts: Last year, primetime series “Ugly Betty” and “Dirty Sexy Money” plus daytime drama “All My Children” introduced transgender characters. Logo’s new dating show “Transamerican Love Story” just concluded its premiere season.

With luck, TLS will be up for a GLAAD nom next year.

David Mermelstein has another Variety piece on LGBT media issues in advance of the media awards. Excerpt of “2007 shows steady progress for gay cause”:

If there was big news in TV this past year, it was that GLAAD had finally relented and embraced the work of gay nets like Here and Logo, which the org had previously resisted honoring, arguing that fare from mainstream sources could better use the encouragement.

I certainly agree with this! Onward and upward, I say!

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By Andrea James | April 24, 2008 | Film and media news, Transamerican Love Story |

GLAAD Media Awards, Saturday 26 April

Andrea James

I’ll be at the GLAAD Media Awards on Saturday as a guest of Logo. Transamerican Love Story did not air in time to be considered for this year’s awards, so we’ll see what happens next year.

Online ticketing has ended. Tickets are still available. Please contact STAMP Event Management at (646) 519-7904 or
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for availability.

If you plan to go, be sure to come up and say hi! For those who can’t attend, the show will air on Bravo later this year.

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By Andrea James | April 24, 2008 | Events and Appearances |

Kenneth in the 323 & Viva Hollywood

Transamerican Love Story has borne a lot of fruit for me in terms of meeting lovely and interesting people. Back when it was first announced, I sent a note to Kenneth over at Kenneth in the 212 after he blogged about it. I ended up checking his blog regularly, which has a piquant mix of sass and erudition. Last week he was in town with his honey Michael, so I stopped by The Abbey to meet him in person. Since I can’t walk into The Abbey and do a lap without seeing about 50 people I know, especially on a Sunday, it took me a while to find them. He was as charming in person as I’d hoped, and it was an added treat to meet Michael. I got to meet an LA-based blogger named Greg and ran into my old pal Micah McCain to boot. I even posed for a couple of piccies.

• Hollywood and Pine (kenneth in the 212)

Then I zipped over to the Viva Hollywood premiere party at El Cid, thrown by our World of Wonder pals. I love to watch Spanish-language television like Sabado Gigante, A la Cama con Porcel, Xuxa, and Walter Mercado. It’s just a lot of fun to watch, even though my Spanish is terrible. If you haven’t seen it, Viva Hollywood is an elimination show where contestants compete for a spot on a telenovela. That means lots of hotties and lots of scene-chewing and backstage drama. My kind of trash television!

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By Andrea James | April 23, 2008 | Events and Appearances |

Kenneth in the 323 & Viva Hollywood

Transamerican Love Story has borne a lot of fruit for me in terms of meeting lovely and interesting people. Back when it was first announced, I sent a note to Kenneth over at Kenneth in the 212 after he blogged about it. I ended up checking his blog regularly, which has a piquant mix of sass and erudition. Last week he was in town with his honey Michael, so I stopped by The Abbey to meet him in person. Since I can’t walk into The Abbey and do a lap without seeing about 50 people I know, especially on a Sunday, it took me a while to find them. He was as charming in person as I’d hoped, and it was an added treat to meet Michael. I got to meet an LA-based blogger named Greg and ran into my old pal Micah McCain to boot. I even posed for a couple of piccies.

• Hollywood and Pine (kenneth in the 212)

Then I zipped over to the Viva Hollywood premiere party at El Cid, thrown by our World of Wonder pals. I love to watch Spanish-language television like Sabado Gigante, A la Cama con Porcel, Xuxa, and Walter Mercado. It’s just a lot of fun to watch, even though my Spanish is terrible. If you haven’t seen it, Viva Hollywood is an elimination show where contestants compete for a spot on a telenovela. That means lots of hotties and lots of scene-chewing and backstage drama. My kind of trash television!

—

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By Andrea James | April 23, 2008 | Events and Appearances |

Transamerican Love Story news/blog roundup, 23 April

No sooner do I say things are winding down on Transamerican Love Story coverage than I find this very good interview by Bianca James (no relation) with Calpernia’s new boyfriend Shawn!

• Meet Shawn, Winner of Transamerican Love Story! (bianca @ school for scandal)

Shawn makes a lot of insightful comments about how someone gets shaped by editing on shows like these, and what it’s like for a straight guy to be on a show that definitely had a gay male undercurrent to its aesthetic (I said as much during deliberations a couple of times, but that never made it in the show):

That said, the editing is what it is. If you met me in person, you’d have a totally different impression. Even if you go on my myspace page, you’ll see there’s a lot more to me than is portrayed on TV, and there’s a lot more to the show than is portrayed on TV. There were times when I cringed, there were times I felt uncomfortable on the show like in the beginning, when I didn’t participate in the whole harem worship thing. That was real- I was not having that, never in my life would I throw myself down in front of any person like that, whether they were my idol or not. That kind of behavior is reserved for my mother on her deathbed. A lot of the activities were very flamboyant and not something I’m into at all. One of the things that came out on the show was people would say “oh you’re homophobic, or you’re not comfortable with this,” well, you know what? I’m straight. I never wanted to act gay, I wasn’t there to act gay. But it was a show for a gay network, so they had a lot of “gay friendly activities,” in other words, strip all the clothes off the dudes.

Thanks to Bianca for the great interview!

Below: Shawn just before the final elimination.

From Transamerican…

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By Andrea James | April 23, 2008 | Film and media news, Transamerican Love Story |

Transamerican Love Story news/blog roundup, 22 April

We are nearing the end of frequent Transamerican Love Story updates. I know, I know. Be brave and smile through those tears…

Rachel, a latecomer to watching the show, has weighed in on the final episode:

• Transamerican Love Story Finale – Spoiler Alert (rachel @ perfect girl)

And none other than Calpernia herself has summarized the last episode and explained some of her decisions:

• Transamerican Love Story – Episode 08 Thoughts (Season Finale!) (calpernia @ calpernia.com)

Now, I literally did a spit take on her Sleestak reference (look it up, youngsters):

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But my analogy was a much more modern one, with another child of the 80’s and daughter of Tennessee:

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Lisa Marie has been slowly appropriating the Calpernia Addams Look ™ over the last year or so, but she’s not fooling anyone! Don’t settle for imitations!

All kidding aside, I am very glad that Calpernia found a new boyfriend on the show, and I am certain Shawn will continue to bask in the emotional intimacy and deep level of commitment that is the hallmark of a relationship with Calpernia.

OK, maybe that wasn’t all kidding aside. But this is. I do want to take a second to thank all the guys who participated (yes, all of them). This genre is silly and may seem to be a departure from the usual activist stuff I do, but I actually believe this opened a few eyes about what it’s like to date trans people, and I believe it helped take away some of the mystery and stigma surrounding our love lives. These guys took a risk most guys with an interest in trans women don’t take, and they were open and honest about their feelings. To me, they were the stars as much as Calpernia, and I am grateful to each of them for appearing on the show.

And as much as I have made fun of Calpernia throughout the process, I think she was a class act in a genre known for a dearth of classiness. It’s the first time I think audiences at home got a glimpse of the Calpernia I know, who is smart, funny, bizarre, and an all-around entertaining and talented lady. Y’know, the real Calpernia. I hope y’all get to see more of that side of her in the future!

You can always get an iTunes season pass to Transamerican Love Story and watch the whole 8-episode series commercial-free. That’s six hours of entertainment for the whole family!

Thanks to everyone who checked in here, and be sure to check back for a daily blog post about something or another!

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Andrea James

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By Andrea James | April 22, 2008 | Film and media news, Transamerican Love Story |

Pic of the Day: Full moon

From 2008 miscellany

I was driving home from dinner with friends last night and the full moon was coming up. I tried to take a few shots as I drove up and down hills. I’m sure I am going to crash one of these days doing this. Part of my series taken only from my car.

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Andrea James

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By Andrea James | April 21, 2008 | Photography |