Put on your rhinestone covered headphones, we’ve got a dazzling show for you today! Is it possible to put a million rhinestones into this podcast?

From Las Vegas, we salute one of the great ones, Liberace- the flamboyant musician who’s showbiz style and ornate sensibilities influence Las Vegas and pop music to this very day.

As a young gay kid I was always fascinated by this extravagant piano player I saw on TV, and even once made rings out of aluminum foil to pretend I was Liberace. My piano teacher Carol Ortiz had dozens of piano shaped knick-knacks in her home, and even a clock on the wall shaped like a piano. My dad even helped me make a grand piano shaped chocolate cake to celebrate graduating book 2 in the Suzuki Method.

Join us as we talk to the President of the Liberace Foundation Darin Hollingsworth from inside the Liberace Museum about the man behind all the glitz and glamor.

What a place! In what can be best described as an ALL-Liberace themed strip mall, just minutes away from the main drive in Las Vegas you can see in person all of Liberace’s over the top costumes, cars and pianos and learn more about this complex man who made such an impact on showbusiness today.

Click here for photos taken from the Liberace Museum.

Liberace earned the nickname “Mr. Showman” in part because of his outrageous, shiny and beautiful costumes. They were a show into themselves. He worked with many fabulous designers and furriers to achieve that over-the-top, rococo gilded lily style. Today the museum lovingly cares for many of these expensive and very heavy costumes which they hope to maintain for future generations to enjoy.

Did you know that Liberace influenced Elvis’ sense of showmanship? Well, you didn’t think Elvis came up with the gold suit and rhinestone studded cape all on his own did you? Liberace showed him how it was done and what it took to dazzle an audience.

Liberace was often the butt of jokes but he really was in on the humor. He use to joke that he “laughed all the way to the bank.” And then well into his career he changed it to “you remember that bank I use to laugh all the way too? Well, I bought it.” The man had some serious coin.

He also had quite a taste for food and was known to put out quite a spread. Food was important for him and he says he kept three different sizes of clothing- thin, fat and impossible. The Liberace Foundation has put a cookbook, Joy of Liberace: Retro Recipes from America’s Kitchiest Kitchen, which contains some of his favorite recipes. It’s worth getting just for the kitsch appeal. Do we see a Liberace themed dinner party in your future?

Liberace never disclosed his sexuality but he lived and died in a different era. Darrin, President of the Liberace Foundation, points out that when he died in 1986 from AIDS, Elton John was married to a woman. How’s that for putting it in perspective?

Through all the sparkles of the rhinestones and the jewels, the legacy of Liberace that shines the brightest is the Liberace Scholarship for the creative and performing arts. Liberace felt he owed his success to the scholarships he received as a youth. To express his appreciation and to further the arts, the foundation has provided over $5 million in scholarship grants to more than 2200 students at 110 colleges and universities.

Remember kids, as Liberace once said- “nobody will believe in you unless you believe in yourself.”

[Originally posted on 09.23.2008]

Featured DVD:
The World of Liberace
Directed by Tony Palmer
Get it on: Amazon | Site

Featured Book:
Joy of Liberace: Retro Recipes from America’s Kitchiest Kitchen: Amazon

Featured Music:
Liberace – 16 Biggest Hits: iTunes | Amazon
Liberace – Best of Liberace: iTunes | Amazon

RSS FEED | SUBSCRIBE ON iTUNES
SUBSCRIBE ON: GOOGLE

Audiences were horrified when the movie Showgirls came out in 1995. Critics hated director Paul Verhoven’s misguided attempt to capture the seedy show business world of Las Vegas, and it bombed in theaters.

Today Showgirls is a celebrated cult classic and one of MGM’s top selling DVD’s of all time. In fact, the film’s fan base is larger than ever and even the characters from the film enjoy a second life in the virtual world of Facebook as if the movie never ended.

You think you can do my nails for me now sugar?

The film centers on a sexy blond drifter Nomi Malone who hustles her way from pole dancing at a strip club to becoming the top showgirl at a casino in Las Vegas.

Although, many of the actors regret doing the film and will seldom speak of it, one actress, Rena Riffel, like all the fans has embraced the film’s campy plot, freaky sexual encounters and outlandish scenes.

Today Rena Riffel, who plays the tragic stripper Penny Hope, joins us over the phone from California to dish the dirt on Showgirls and talk about her upcoming projects which includes a musical version of Showgirls!

Rena’s working on her own soon to be released film “Trasharella: Ultra Vixen” about a starlet who becomes a super vixen to kill the evil Vampire of Hollywood.

Listen as Rena talks about working on Showgirls, watching it in the theater with Demi Moore and the cast of Striptease, how it was reborn as camp classic and what was the plot of the show within the show “Goddess” supposed to be?

We could have had anyone on this show: Janet Jackson, Paula Abdul. Rena Riffel is what Feast of Fun is all about! She’s dazzling, she’s exciting, and she’s very, very sexy!

[Originally posted in January 2010]

Check out today’s sponsors:

Steamworks Gym, Sauna and Baths.
Visit Steamwork’s website and register to get a discount
on your next visit. Enter “Feast of Fun” on the promo
code field to get the special discount.

Featured Music:
Rena Riffel – Trasharella (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack): iTunes

Featured Movie:
Paul Verhoven – Showgirls: Amazon

RSS FEED | SUBSCRIBE ON iTUNES
SUBSCRIBE ON: GOOGLE

When I arrived I took part in an LGBT pre-conference summit, where bloggers got the chance to grill the national organizations, and discuss some of the most pressing issues in our movement. After lunch we broke into four sessions addressing immigration equality, employment discrimination, relationship recognition / marriage equality, and AIDS/HIV issues.

Nation-wide we have a confusing and incomplete patchwork of employment protections that cover LGBT folks to various degrees from employment discrimination, ranging from full gender identity and sexual orientation protection like our sweeping law in Illinois, to absolutely no protection or rights for either sexual orientation or gender identity (like, you know, almost half of America). ENDA needs to get passed now, and we discussed ways to get real stories of discrimination out to the public to help create a sense of urgency on this issue.

However, one thing we don’t have in Illinois is relationship recognition. Two bills–Civil Unions (SB 1716 HB 2234) and Marriage Equality (SB 2468 HB 0178)–have gone basically ignored by the Illinois Democratically controlled legislature. If you want to have an impact on the future of Illinois, call Equality Illinois at 773-477-7173 and call your lawmakers–especially if they are Democrat–and tell them the Civil Unions or Marriage Equality bills need to be law before the November election. 217-782-3944.

God forbid, but if we lose Governor Quinn and get Bill Brady instead, we’ll be waiting a long time for any relationship recognition in this state. I hope that the Chicago gay and progressive print media starts putting the pressure on too. The editor of the Windy City Times can be gotten at editor@windycitymediagroup.com. The editor of ChicagoPride.com can be contacted at http://chicago.gopride.com/contact/contact.cfm?t=M&i=14. Time is running out. If they don’t move soon OUR last resort might soon be to start stopping traffic around the state as well.

Dan Choi and others from GetEQUAL were arrested in Las Vegas after blocking traffic on the Strip.

–More photos of the protest

Audiences were horrified when the movie Showgirls came out in 1995. Critics hated director Paul Verhoven’s misguided attempt to capture the seedy show business world of Las Vegas, and it bombed in theaters.

Today Showgirls is a celebrated cult classic and one of MGM’s top selling DVD’s of all time. In fact, the film’s fan base is larger than ever and even the characters from the film enjoy a second life in the virtual world of Facebook as if the movie never ended.

You think you can do my nails for me now sugar?

The film centers on a sexy blond drifter Nomi Malone who hustles her way from pole dancing at a strip club to becoming the top showgirl at a casino in Las Vegas.

Although, many of the actors regret doing the film and will seldom speak of it, one actress, Rena Riffel, like all the fans has embraced the film’s campy plot, freaky sexual encounters and outlandish scenes.

Today Rena Riffel, who plays the tragic stripper Penny Hope, joins us over the phone from California to dish the dirt on Showgirls and talk about her upcoming projects which includes a musical version of Showgirls!

Rena’s working on her own soon to be released film “Trasharella: Ultra Vixen” about a starlet who becomes a super vixen to kill the evil Vampire of Hollywood.

Listen as Rena talks about working on Showgirls, watching it in the theater with Demi Moore and the cast of Striptease, how it was reborn as camp classic and what was the plot of the show within the show “Goddess” supposed to be?

We could have had anyone on this show: Janet Jackson, Paula Abdul. Rena Riffel is what Feast of Fun is all about! She’s dazzling, she’s exciting, and she’s very, very sexy!

Check out today’s sponsors:

Steamworks Gym, Sauna and Baths.
Visit Steamwork’s website and register to get a discount
on your next visit. Enter “Feast of Fun” on the promo
code field to get the special discount.

Featured Music:
Rena Riffel – Trasharella (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack): iTunes

Featured Movie:
Paul Verhoven – Showgirls: Amazon

RSS FEED | SUBSCRIBE ON iTUNES
SUBSCRIBE ON: GOOGLE

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE SHOW | SUBSCRIBE ON iTUNES

Put on your rhinestone covered headphones, we’ve got a dazzling show for you today! Is it possible to put a million rhinestones into this podcast?

From Las Vegas, we salute one of the great ones, Liberace- the flamboyant musician who’s showbiz style and ornate sensibilities influence Las Vegas and pop music to this very day.

As a young gay kid I was always fascinated by this extravagant piano player I saw on TV, and even once made rings out of aluminum foil to pretend I was Liberace. My piano teacher Carol Ortiz had dozens of piano shaped knick-knacks in her home, and even a clock on the wall shaped like a piano. My dad even helped me make a grand piano shaped chocolate cake to celebrate graduating book 2 in the Suzuki Method.

Join us as we talk to the President of the Liberace Foundation Darin Hollingsworth from inside the Liberace Museum about the man behind all the glitz and glamor.

What a place! In what can be best described as an ALL-Liberace themed strip mall, just minutes away from the main drive in Las Vegas you can see in person all of Liberace’s over the top costumes, cars and pianos and learn more about this complex man who made such an impact on showbusiness today.

Click here for photos taken from the Liberace Museum.

Liberace earned the nickname “Mr. Showman” in part because of his outrageous, shiny and beautiful costumes. They were a show into themselves. He worked with many fabulous designers and furriers to achieve that over-the-top, rococo gilded lily style. Today the museum lovingly cares for many of these expensive and very heavy costumes which they hope to maintain for future generations to enjoy.

Did you know that Liberace influenced Elvis’ sense of showmanship? Well, you didn’t think Elvis came up with the gold suit and rhinestone studded cape all on his own did you? Liberace showed him how it was done and what it took to dazzle an audience.

Liberace was often the butt of jokes but he really was in on the humor. He use to joke that he “laughed all the way to the bank.” And then well into his career he changed it to “you remember that bank I use to laugh all the way too? Well, I bought it.” The man had some serious coin.

He also had quite a taste for food and was known to put out quite a spread. Food was important for him and he says he kept three different sizes of clothing- thin, fat and impossible. The Liberace Foundation has put a cookbook, Joy of Liberace: Retro Recipes from America’s Kitchiest Kitchen, which contains some of his favorite recipes. It’s worth getting just for the kitsch appeal. Do we see a Liberace themed dinner party in your future?

Liberace never disclosed his sexuality but he lived and died in a different era. Darrin, President of the Liberace Foundation, points out that when he died in 1986 from AIDS, Elton John was married to a woman. How’s that for putting it in perspective?

Through all the sparkles of the rhinestones and the jewels, the legacy of Liberace that shines the brightest is the Liberace Scholarship for the creative and performing arts. Liberace felt he owed his success to the scholarships he received as a youth. To express his appreciation and to further the arts, the foundation has provided over $5 million in scholarship grants to more than 2200 students at 110 colleges and universities.

Remember kids, as Liberace once said- “nobody will believe in you unless you believe in yourself.”

Featured DVD:
The World of Liberace
Directed by Tony Palmer
Get it on: Amazon | Site

Featured Book:
Joy of Liberace: Retro Recipes from America’s Kitchiest Kitchen: Amazon

Featured Music:
Liberace – 16 Biggest Hits: iTunes | Amazon
Liberace – Best of Liberace: iTunes | Amazon

RSS FEED | SUBSCRIBE ON iTUNES
SUBSCRIBE ON: GOOGLE

Christmas in July comes but once a year or does it? Robyn shares with us her tale of her recovery from sex, drugs and booze. OK, it seems she never recovered from the sex part and we like that! But she’s been sober for a number of years now.

Things for her got out of control when she stayed up one night and decorated her apartment for Christmas. Christmas in July may seem like a good idea when your fueled by booze and drugs but when you sober up and see your house decorated in expectation of the arrival of Old St. Nick you began to reconsider your life.

You can check out the Shaker Sisters at Fitzgerald’s in Berwyn on Wednesday August 13.

The Indian Bible draws controversy from everybody, imagine that! the new Bible depicts Jesus, Mary and Joseph as poor Indian villagers. Mary wears a sari and has a bindi on her forehead and Joseph sports a turban and loincloth. Sadly, Jesus does not have eight arms or an elephant trunk for a nose. The Catholic Churchissued the new Bible to make it more accessible to Indians. Some Christians criticize the new Bible because they feel it doesn’t truly reflect Biblical truths.

Flying dog poop sculpture draws controversy from everybody, imagine that! The creation of American artist Paul McCarthy flew off in a gust of wind and ran into a greenhouse and a power line. The unusual art piece had a safety mechanism that would deflate it in case of bad weather but it somehow failed.

We’re in Vegas everybody! Vegas Vegas Vegas! We chat with Jen and Robyn about favorite places, people and things to do in the City of Sin, which we’ve now renamed the City of Hope.

Remember people, whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, except those STD’s you picked up, so please, use a condom.

Viva Feast of Fools!

Don’t miss our Meet & Greets! Click here to donate to our travel fund.

• GLBT Podcaster & Listener Meet & Greet, Las Vegas!
Meet many of the well known GLBT podcasters all in one place
Thursday, August 14, 2008 • 7-10pm
SpaceQuest Bar, Hilton Hotel
3000 Paradise Road, Las Vegas, NV

• Meet & Greet in San Francisco
Meet Fausto Fernós, Marc Felion and Peaches Christ unmasked!
Thursday, August 21, 2008 • 7-10pm
Pilsner Inn
225 Church Street, San Francisco, CA

See you there!

Featured Music:
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings – Dap-Dippin’ With: iTunes | Amazon

RSS FEED | SUBSCRIBE ON iTUNES
SUBSCRIBE ON: GOOGLE