A Peek at a ‘Mad Men’ Home Decor Shop

NEW ORLEANS – The future is unclear for his character on the hit TV show Mad Men, but actor Bryan Batt is taking advantage of the down time here in his hometown since the recent season finale.

Batt – who plays closeted gay art director Sal Romano – is preparing for the holiday shopping season at the home decor and gift shop he runs in New Orleans with his life and business partner, Tom Cianfichi.

They opened their store, Hazelnut, on trendy Magazine Street in 2003. Offering home decorations such as pottery, stemware, fabrics and frames, the store sits in a neighbourhood where homes are scattered among antique shops, clothing boutiques, restaurants and bars.

“It’s something we always wanted to do,” said Batt, as he opened a box of glittery red holiday candles that had just arrived at the store. “I’ve always loved gifts and shopping and

More at: yourhome.ca!

Obama Fires Back At Critics In New Orleans

President Barack Obama fired back on Thursday at critics who say he has few accomplishments of note in his nine months in office and declared he was just getting started.

In recent weeks, Obama has faced criticism both from liberals who want him to do more to advance causes such as gay rights, and conservatives who accuse him of taking too long to decide whether to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

A comedy skit on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” programme a couple of weeks ago drew attention to the issue. An actor playing the president said, “When you look at my record, it’s very clear what I’ve done so far, and that is: Nothing. Nada. Almost one year, and nothing to show for it.”

Read more at: NY Times!

Southern Decadence Returns This Weekend

Almost forty years ago, Southern Decadence started with a small group of New Orleans residents as a birthday party pub crawl. The celebration party made their way through the French Quarter.

Today, the party has evolved into a traditional Labor Day weekend event attracting around 100,000 people.

Over the past four years however, two of the events were cut short as hurricanes thrashed the city.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina took a toll and last year Gustav, under evacuation orders, brought the festivities to an abrupt end.

This year, the weather may be raining, but there are no hurricanes in site which is a very welcome weather report as the event is a huge economic boost for French Quarter merchants as they are usually recovering economically from the slower summer months.

For more information, click here to visit the official website!

The Sons of Tennessee Williams

This trailer below is from a new film called THE SONS OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS. It should fill everyone in on the historical elements missing from the other clips I have been posting. A reminder, this is a trailer for an unfinished movie. Editing will be complete by April 2009. Contact timwolffhouse@yahoo.com

Please consider being a financial sponsor of this history project. All donations qualify for a federal tax exemption. This production has been conceived and produced entirely in the city of New Orleans, by people who love this place and the culture of the gay krewes. Please help our loud voices for this city be heard and uplift an entire community in the process.

THE SONS OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS trailer from Tim Wolff on Vimeo.

Tim received his education in the CalArts Directing for Theatre and Film program. In 1999, he began the first of four productions at HBO as producer. He produced two segments for the adult magazine show Real Sex, working closely with “Wigstock” filmmaker Barry Shils. This is his first feature documentary.

THIS IS AN AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS STORY.

THE SONS OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS tells the story of the gay men of New Orleans who created a vast and fantastic culture of state chartered public
“drag balls” in the early 1960s. They staged a flamboyant revolution without politics and won freedoms during a time, as now, when laws and people fought against them.

Widely believed to be the catalyst that brought gay people out of hiding, the Stonewall riots of June, 1969 were the result of an ill-timed raid on the Stonewall Tavern in New York’s Greenwich Village. That story is well-known.

In February 1959, a group of gay men in New Orleans decided to have a Mardi Gras ball of their own. Mardi Gras organizations in New Orleans, called Krewes, are social clubs comprised of members who celebrate the season together. Each Krewe has their own festivities, including parties and parades, usually ending with a formal ball and the coronation of a King and Queen. Everyone seems to have a Krewe of some kind to belong to. A full decade before Stonewall, a gay Carnival krewe was founded. They called it the Krewe of YUGA.

In 1962, the Krewe rented a school cafeteria in the notoriously conservative suburb of Jefferson Parish. Securing such a venue for an all male Krewe to hold a Mardi Gras ball would not likely raise suspicion. Most Krewes were, in fact, made up of an anonymous all male membership. Various personnel from the venue were present at functions like these, however. This would no longer be a private event. “It was a kindergarten, is what it was.”

Familiar with police raids, the men knew that the 1962 ball would break a few laws. They made absolutely sure to be in full drag anyway. “It was a ball, after all, not bowling night.” The police roared in precisely at coronation time, alerted by private citizens of cross-dressing men entering the building at night. Krewe members attempted to escape by running into the swamplands adjacent to the school, chased by officers with dogs and flashlights. Many were betrayed by their glittering costumes while hiding in the dark night and tall grasses of Jefferson Parish. They were taken to jail, identified by name in the newspaper and eventually prosecuted with the charge of “disturbing the peace”.

The significance is this. The following year the ball was not raided nor was any subsequent ball in the history of these annual events. By 1969, there were four gay Krewes legally chartered by the state of Louisiana as official Mardi Gras organizations, holding yearly extravaganzas at public venues across the city. “Society matrons begged for ball tickets from their hairdressers.” New Orleans was the first place in America where gay and straight people came together to publicly recognize gay culture.

These men are the embodiment of the archetypal “southern bachelor gentleman”, complete with the cast-iron fortitude. Their story will reveal the pathos of the early persecutions and arrests to the uncommon freedoms in the decades that followed. We will hear of AIDS emptying Krewe rosters in the 1980s and eventually, the experiences during and after Katrina. They have more than a few stories to tell.

To read the complete treatment for the movie, go to www.exposureroom.com/sonstreatment

New Orleans Looses GLBT Destination Attraction

Despite it’s very accepting attitude and diverse population, according to an annual survey released by the gay market research firm, Community Marketing Inc., New Orleans isn’t even in the top 20 most-popular leisure destinations for LGBT vacationers.

Among the 4,000 surveyed, New York, Las Vegas and San Francisco remain the most popular U.S. travel destinations for the LGBT community. Atlanta came in at number 18, Key West at 19, Arizona’s Phoenix-Tempe-Scottsdale region at 20 and New Orleans at 21.

The results of the survey show a sharp decline in the popularity of New Orleans among GLTB vacationers as in a 2004 survey the same company ranked New Orleans 12th.

Researchers point to tougher economic times, stiffer competition amongst vacation destinations and the post-Katrina affect to the downward turn of New Orleans as a gay travel destination.

Want to know the top 20 Gay travel destinations? Click here!