LookOut

GOOD WORKS
by Tim Brookover

On October 5, the Krewe of Olympus will host Fa Do Do-a name on the short list of best-event monikers. Krewe activities director Adam Adamski is organizing the annual Cajun buffet dinner and dance, held at the Alliance Français. Casa de Esperanza, Houston Buyers Club, the Montrose Clinic endowment fund, and the PFLAG/HATCH Youth Scholarship Foundation benefit.

Channel 2 anchor Dominique Sachse and Decorative Center Houston owner Charles S. Cohen will co-chair the October 9 launch party for the Wreath Collection event. This annual fundraiser for DIFFA (Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS), which will take place this year on November 16, features artist-created wreaths just in time for the holidays. Contempo Designs Suite at the Decorative Center will host the launch party.

The young crowd at H.A.T.C.H. will hold an October 19-20 rummage sale fundraiser at the Houston GLBT Community Center. Justin Frazier, Tara-Marie Martinez, and Brian Carlson are putting together the sale with the help of H.A.T.C.H. staffer Deb Murphy.

Stewart Zuckerbrod is producing Tell Me a Story, two evenings of songs and tales for grownups benefiting the Gay Men's Chorus of Houston. Cabaret artist Deborah Boily will direct and perform in the October 25 and 26 shows at Stages, joined by other local talents Deborah Hope, Robert Leeds, and Jim Benton. The Chronicle has dubbed Boily-an audience favorite in Paris and London as well as Houston-"a first-rate chanteuse with a heart-catching flair." The evening will also mark the debut of the new Gay Men's Chorus small ensemble.

On October 26, the Transgender Houston Cover Girls and the Unity Committee will present a Halloween party and costume contest at the Wagon Wheel, a tavern out on Hempstead Highway. Melanie Rudd, Wendy Russell, Brenda Thomas, and Brandi Williams are four of the glamorous hosts. They will encourage donations for the Community Awareness for Transgender Support shelter in Galveston.

ON THE ROAD

Down Galveston way, the East End Theatre Company, also known as Etc, bows on October 16 with a fundraiser-underwritten by Danny Hart, Johnny Smecca, and Joey Smecca of Saltwater Grill-at its under-construction home on Postoffice, across from the Opera House. Kim Mytelka is the founding director and board president of the new venture. Company members include Kevin Daugherty, Lisa Daugherty, Deb Lewis, Robin Lusby, Debra Maceo, Mytelka, and Kirk Weston. The first Etc. production is The Laramie Project, the dramatic account of the Matthew Shepard murder in 1998, which opens November 1.
Up north, Manny Gutierrez and Angela Lorio are just two of the many GLBT folk performing and working the Texas Renaissance Festival near Magnolia, through November 17.

STILL SO PROUD

Reports continue to come in from the action-packed Pride week:
John Nechman and the Gulf Coast GLBT Immigration Project hosted a community forum, "Love Knows No Borders," on June 27 at Bering Memorial United Methodist Church. Joining him were Lesbian & Gay Immigration Rights Task Force chairs Chris Rigdon and Shelby Robinson and board members Sergio Sarmiento and Norma Villareal.

Madalyn Sklar and GoGirlsRock!, the Houston-based online community of independent women musicians, took over the Rhythm Room for a June 28 Pride concert. Chelsea Beauchamp, Nancy Ford, Sklar, and Carol Wyatt hosted. Performers included Houston's own Liviya Compean.

IDOL-IZED

Admit it. Tacky cover songs and all, American Idol mesmerized. Check out the winner, Texas girl Kelly Clarkson, and the other nine finalists-including runner-up Justin Guarini, dead ringer for wild-haired Sideshow Bob on The Simpsons-at the October 14 Houston stop of the their national tour. You know you want to. Wagering is permitted on the first finalist or host to come out of the closet.

GO, BOYS!

On October 19, filmmaker and artist Kyle Fu will host "Meet the Go-Go Boys," an event at the Houston GLBT Community Center featuring his short film Confession of a Go Go Boy, starring Eduardo Costa. Costa will appear at the 7 p.m. party, accompanied by fellow entertainers Mark Goebel and Jason Edington. The guys will sign copies of 7 vs. 7, Fu's new photo book, of their pictures. $5 donation at the door will benefit the center.

ENGLISH/SPANISH

On October 1, Peter Angel García hosted a tapas and sherry tasting benefit for Stages, which received a coveted National Endowment for the Arts grant to produce the current bilingual production of Blood Wedding/Bodas de Sangre. On different nights, the cast, which includes García, performs gay writer Federico Garcia Lorca's 1935 drama in both the original Spanish or in the translation by the sexually ambiguous Langston Hughes. Outside the theatrical world, García is the restaurateur and owner of El Mesón.