RuPaul's DRAG RACE ALL STARS RECAP: SOCK IT TO ME

All night I was expecting Hurricane
Sandy to send my electricity (and windows) sashaying away. Heck, even a weak
thunderstorm causes my TV to take a raincheck. But I was one of the lucky ones:
The only thing I saw sashaying away was another team of queens on RuPaul’s
All Star Drag Race.

Our girls start off playing a game
called #InDaButtRu.
(Yup, it came complete with its own hashtag). It’s basically The
Newlywed Game, except the questions are about whose tuck is tighter. Team
Latrila struggled to really guess anything correctly, while Team
Rujubee dominated. When asked about the type of boy-underwear her
partner wears, Jujubee got it in one. (Raven hilariously deadpans, “The Devil
wears nada.”)

Rujubee wins the challenge—but their
prize is just a cream pie in the face. I was expecting some type of
main-challenge advantage or maybe a Sequin Queen gift card? Nope, just pies.
But it did provide RuPaul with a segue for the next challenge: The girls had to
impersonate celebrities in the campy RuPauls Gaff-In, which
apparently was taking the place of our belovedSnatch Game. This week’s
guest judge, Vicki Lawrence, appeared in the skit as well in her Mama guise.
(So edgy!)

The challenge itself is a whirlwind
of scene changes. First there’s a swinging cocktail party with Mama and the Pit
Crew. Then they have to feed jokes to RuPaul in a segment called “Howdy Ru.”
And then they’re popping out of the joke wall. A season of Drag Race without Snatch
Game hurts my soul in a deep place, but we did get a Laff-In style
joke wall where the queens popped their heads out like cuckoo clocks and
delivered jokes they wrote themselves.

Most of the puns fell flat, but
watching the girls desperately try to open the barn doors was hysterical. These
girls can work a runway backwards in hells. But opening silly doors? Now that’s
a challenge.

Latrice was largely unsuccessful as
Oprah, shouting “You get an African baby! And you get an
African baby!” Even Manila’s gap-toothed Madonna couldn’t steer them in the
right direction.

Team Yarlexis stuck
to Spanish-speakers—Yara cuchi-cuchied it up as Charo, and Alexis channeled
Shakira. Nina Flowers chose La Lupe, a Cuban singer banished by her country and
the music industry. Why? Because there’s nothing funnier than a pariah most of
the audience has never heard of? Tammy Brown impersonates Tammy Fae Baker, but
the transformation purely cosmetic.

After the comedy chaos, our girls
prepared for a runway delivering Sixties realness: Realizing they still don’t
know much about one another, Latrice and Manila kiki about growing up and
coming out and Manila’s boyfriend, Sahara Davenport (who has sadly since
passed away). It was a quick mention but my heart breaks a
little.

And we move on to talking, once
again, about Tammie Brown’s craziness.

On the catwalk, all the queens give
us an Austin Powers vibe. My nitpick is that there was a lot of matchy-matchy
among team members, which I hope doesn’t become a thing. We’re already getting
cheated out of so much with the forced pairing. Identical outfits make it that
much more blah.

At the judges’ table, Vicki and the
gang are joined by second celebrity judge Busy Phillips. Chad’s Betty Davis
redeems Shannel’s unlovable Lucy Ball. My favorite part was Manila getting read
for her ridiculous white eyeliner, which made her look completely cross-eyed.
Michelle Visage certainly noticed it—how did Latrice not? 

Team Yaralexis took
the home the prize (custom jewelry!). Team Rujubee is also called safe; the
judges didn’t love Raven’s Bea Arthur (I beg to differ), but Jujubee’s
execution of a Fran Drescher laugh keep them safe. That leaves two teams for
the bottom: Teams Brown Flowers and Latrila.

Eeep! Manila and Latrice won last
week—how the fabulous have fallen.

In the end, it’s Tammie versus
Latrice, lip-synching “No Business Like Show Business.” Latrice will always be
my chunky-yet-funky mother hen, but Tammie is just so damn intriguing! It’s
especially true in the lip-synch—her face, which is always twerking, was really
working overtime. The queens weren’t sure. I wasn’t sure.  And part of me
expected Manila to press the emergency siren.

But that didn’t happen, and Latrila
won the challenge—sending Brown Eye, er, Flowers to chantay away. After the
usual good-byes, Nina Flowers packs her bags and Tammie Brown takes her
spaceship back to Planet Eyebrow.

SOURCE: QUEERTY

FOR YOURSELF...

"It's good to keep
wide-open ears and listen to what everybody else has to say, but when you come
to make a decision you have to weigh all of what you've heard on its own, and
place it where it belongs, and then come to a decision for yourself. You'll
never regret it. But if you form the habit of taking what someone else says
about a thing without checking it out for yourself, you'll find that other
people will have you hating your own friends and loving your enemies. This one
of the things that our people are beginning to learn today -- that it is very
important to think out a situation for yourself. If you don't do it...You'll never
fight your enemies, but you will find yourself fight your own self." 
Malcolm X

Malcolm X Talks to Young People

HURRICANE SANDY

Dear East Coast friends,

For those of you that are in the path of Hurricane Sandy, I ask that you please be ready and I wish you all a safe outcome.

iAm(A)ga(Y)te-keeper

IN THE LIFE MEDIA PRESENTS: BEYOND THE RHETORIC

This month, the award-winning lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) newsmagazine, IN THE LIFE, examines the evolution of anti-gay rhetoric, and the reality beyond the spin. 

Then, IN THE LIFE heads to Minnesota for a look at a multi-front attack on equality in a state known as one of the country’s most LGBT friendly places.

The culture wars of the 1980’s and 90’s informed a language of fear
and hostility toward LGBT people, especially among those on the right. But
cultural acceptance of LGBT people is growing across the country, and in the
Republican party. In its lead segment, “Rhetoric and Reality,” IN THE LIFE
looks at how homophobic rhetoric is changing with the times, and meets a new
wave of Republicans who are challenging anti-gay bigotry from within the party.

Next, IN THE LIFE heads to

Minnesota for the most recent installment of its ongoing series covering
battles for LGBT equality at the State level, In The States. In
2011, The Advocate named Minneapolis-St. Paul the “gayest city
in America.” But for all the acceptance some LGBT Minnesotans experience,
opposition to equality is strong here. IN THE LIFE exposes public school
policies that silence the LGBT experience, rampant harassment of LGBT students
and looks at the State’s proposed initiative to limit marriage to heterosexual
couples.

¡THE 3,000TH MILESTONE!

WOW 3,000 BLOG ENTRIES! WHERE DOES THE TIME GO? 

I FEEL LIKE OPRAH {YOU GET A CAR, YOU GET A CAR, EVERYBODY GETS A CAR!}

 I JUST WANT TO SAY THANK YOU TO ALL THAT STUCK WITH US & I HOPE WE CONTINUE TO DO YOU PROUD.

THE DAHL HAUS PRESENTS: OCTOBER STIFF ONES

¡‘STIFF’ ONES THAT MUST BE OBEYED!

THROW BACK VIDEO: WITHOUT YOU

Mariah Carey's version, based
on Harry Nilsson's version rather than the Badfinger original, was released as
the third single of Music Box in the first quarter of 1994, and in the
United States it was released on 24 January 1994,[13] just over a
week after Nilsson had died following a heart attack on 15 January 1994. In the
U.S. it was promoted as a double A-side with "Never Forget You". In the song Carey dips into her lower
register and is accompanied by backup singers (including herself) magnified to
sound like a gospel chorus. Carey said that she decided to cover the song when
she heard it in a restaurant (although when performing the song in Tokyo, she
said she listened to it when she was a little girl). Her version has been
considered very popular on talent shows.[14] "Without
You" was later included on some non-U.S. pressings of her compilation album#1's (1998), and her 2001 compilation, Greatest
Hits.

"Without
You" reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100,
remaining in the top forty for twenty-one weeks and on the chart for
twenty-three. It reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay and number 3 on
the Hot 100 Singles Sales. Both radio airplay and
sales were strong, and it was certified gold by the RIAA. It was ranked 16 on
the Hot 100 1994 year-end charts.

"Without You" remains
Carey's biggest hit outside the U.S., being largely successful across Europe.
It became her first UK number 1 single, and still remains her only number 1
there as a solo artist. It debuted at number 1 on the chart and stayed at
number 1 for four weeks.[15] It
was also her first chart-topper in Italy, but was most successful in
Switzerland (with ten non-consecutive weeks at number 1) and the Netherlands
(twelve weeks). It also topped the singles chart in Germany for four weeks and
Austria for eight weeks, where Carey's success had previously been limited. It
also topped the Swedish Singles Chart for eight weeks, was number 1 in Ireland
for five weeks and in New Zealand for one week. It was able to make the top
three in Canada, France, Norway and Australia. It was certified platinum in
Australia by ARIA and in Germany
and Austria by IFPI. It
was also certified gold in New Zealand by RIANZ and in France bySNEP.

The song is one of only two Carey
singles certified Gold in the UK with sales of 445,000.[16]