Some sad news

Author and Tranifesto blogger, Matt Kailey, died over the weekend. From TransGriot:

The Denver, CO based Kailey was the author of Just Add Hormones: An Insider's Guide to The Transsexual Experience (Beacon Press), a Lambda Literary Award finalist and Rocky Mountain News local bestseller, and Teeny Weenies and Other Short Subjects , a collection of humorous and heartfelt essays about his life before and after transition. In addition, his work has appeared in numerous publications, from anthologies to professional journals. Matt was also a media personality who appeared on local and national radio and television, in local and national print publications, and in five documentary films.

Rest in peace.

Sahara Davenport, R.I.P.

Drag artist and Season 2 star of Rupaul's Drag Race, Antoine Ashley, who performed under the name Sahara Davenport, died earlier this week at age 27.

The cause of death hasn't been released, but, and at risk of sounding cliche, it's always shocking and sad when someone dies so young.

Rupaul's tweeted this shortly after Saraha's death was made known. (Via World of Wonder )

Other cast members left their own tributes on their twitter and facebook pages, which you can read here.

For some reason this seems so much more devastating that other celebrity deaths, maybe because I've been a fan of the show since its inception, but also because drag deals in fantasy and recreating oneself that we often don't see the mortality behind the performer. I think of how nearly the entire cast of Paris Is Burning, the twenty-year-old documentary about the drag scene and where Drag Race draws a lot of its inspiration, is dead, and it's desperately sad. R.I.P. Sahara.

Nora Ephron and "chick flicks"

Writer and filmaker Nora Ephron died earlier this week at the age of 71 from complications from leukemia.



She's most known for movies like When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, and most recently, Julie and Julia, single-handedly popularizing the mocked, and reductively titled,"chick flick" genre. The Atlantic's Eleanor Barkhorn says :

"Though Ephron was a prolific essayist and wrote several best-selling books, she's best known for making films that appealed to women. And they did: Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, Julie & Julia, and, most especially, When Harry Met Sally are romantic-comedy classics, movies women watch over and over, either alone or together, because they say something familiar and true: The Empire State Building is romantic; long email chains about books and music are thrilling; tackling—and conquering—a new recipe is satisfying; and, yes, it is very, very difficult for men and women to be just friends."

What Ephron really had the gall to do was create three-dimensional, and often flawed, female characters on for a mainstream audience. She was a master at putting women's narratives front and center. Not that her films were completely free from problematic elements: her characters were more often than not white, middle-class, educated, and attractive (though a lot of that can be attributed to the Hollywood machine itself). Because of that, I hate to use words like universal, but in an industry where female characters are hyper-sexualized, lacking agency, or just plain non-existent, I'm glad Nora Ephron's films existed. R.I.P.

Adam Yauch, R.I.P.

Last.fm

I had planned on writing a post about liking problematic things, but when I got word of the Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch's death from cancer.  Maybe I should write about how to mourn problematic things instead.

Yes, the Beastie Boys have done a lot of good. At the MTV Video Awards in the wake of the US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, Yauch denounced stereotypes of Muslims as terrorists, and  his fellow band member, Adam Horowitz addressed the rapes and assaults that occurred at Woodstock 99. A few years earlier, he had organized the first Tibetan Freedom concert. But their early work was grossly misogynistic -- something Yauch later regretted. (source ) And I don't think it's unfair to mention it while still mourning his passing, and praising the good work he and his band has done.

Despite that, the Beastie Boys were part of the soundtrack to my junior high school years, and I'm glad I got to see a band evolve from macho posturing to actually working for change. Yauch was 47-years-old.