LookOut

by Tim Brookover

ORGAN POWER

In The Stops, at Theatre New West through December 20, three church ladies tour the provinces on behalf of good Christian heterosexual values in this new musical revue from Eric Lane Barnes, whose Fruit Cocktail and Fairy Tales have been Bayou City theater highpoints. When they discover their arranger and mentor is one of the boys, well, their “Bossa Nova for Jehovah” takes on a new spin. Michael Harren, Chris Pool, and Robert Leeds portray the musical ladies (photo by Joe Watts). —D.L. Groover

GOOD WORKS

On November 7, the improvisational comedy troupe ComedySportz will mark its anniversary with a performance to benefit Gilda’s Club, the support resource for people with cancer and their family and friends. The event at Lambert Hall in the Heights will include a silent auction. Dianah Dulany founded ComedySportz Houston in 1990. Gilda’s Club is named, of course, for Gilda Radner, the late great comic and actress.

From the Nice Work If You Can Get It file: On November 14, photographer Evin Thayer will host an evening with the built-and-ready public servants he snapped for the 2004 Houston Fire Fighters Calendar. The event will sizzle at Thayer’s studio at 405 Avondale. Proceeds from calendar sales support the firefighter’s fund for burned and crippled children.

Just hear those sleigh bells jingling. Music man Jerry Atwood and his chums are tuning up for A Christmas Songfest on December 7. Every year his event is one of the first, and most joyful, benefit bashes of the holiday season. The evening at the Edwin Hornberger Conference Center will begin at 5:30 with cocktails and buffet, followed by a concert by a Gay Men’s Chorus of Houston contingent, then music from Atwood and other local talents. The highlight is always the rousing sing-along. “There will be great voices and timid voices and hams up there just to have fun, with the audience often egging them on,” Atwood promises. Proceeds benefit The Assistance Fund and Houston Buyer’s Club.

On September 19, Sheer Intimates president/owner Joy Ekhator hosted a lingerie show at M Bar benefiting AIDS Foundation Houston. Participants included Leola Anifowoshe, Seeta Badel, Cherell Bennett, Sara Montes, Franceska Nicholson, Veronika Nicholson, Kimberly Webb, and the Ndira Nar Dance Company.

ISLAND LIFE

The avian artwork of Larry Knapp will star in a November 8 exhibition and reception at Moody Gardens in Galveston, which will preview the annual FeatherFest celebration on the Island in April. The co-hosting Houston Audubon Society will receive a percentage of sales.

IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD

On November 26, Pansy Division, the first all-gay rock band, will blow into Fitzgerald’s. The guys are touring in support of their new release, Total Entertainment.

Barry Mandel is president of the new Houston Downtown Alliance, born when the Theater District Association and Downtown Houston Association wed in September. Mandel (OutSmart, September 2001) had served as executive director of the former group.

The Texas Gay Rodeo Association inducted Michael Gaitz, former association president and member of the Houston chapter, into the TGRA Hall of Fame in September.

Stellar astrologer and OutSmart’s own Lilly Roddy performed on guitar with singer/musician Selia Qynn at Latte in the Woods, a charming coffee-and-tea spot in Spring Branch, on August 29.

Houston Grand Opera will host Night Out at the Opera on November 11, beginning with a mixer at Meteor with transportation to Wortham Center for performance of Julius Caesar starring hot counter-tenor David Daniels (click here for profile).

Our town’s Roy Henrick and boy patrick chees figure in the new book Woof! Perspectives into the Erotic Care & Training of the Human Dog. Penned by Michael Daniels, this surprisingly sweet how-to guide (Nazca Plains Corporation) offers detailed advice, which has nothing to do with American Kennel Club rules, for a very specialized segment of the leather community. You’re welcome.

If you have any comments about this article, please email them to letters@outsmartmagazine.com.