Jamaican me lesbian: A Review of Greetings from Jamaica, Wish You Were Queer… by Mari SanGiovanni

The protagonist of Mari SanGiovanni’s beach and booze themed comedy is a failed screenplay writer turned stalker who isn’t above faking car accidents and staking out the studio back door with binoculars while she hunts down her “subject”. Marie Santora wants the star of TV’s Razor Falls Lorn Elaine to take the lead role in her script Unguarded Love… “Kind of a Brokeback Mountain thing only with girls in a prison setting, without the western theme, and no horses, of course.” Marie also wants to do all manner of creatively naughty things with Lorn, but with script lines like “Let’s pretend we are in a playground together and not in a prison…these are just monkey bars between us…” and with a hugely insane Italian family gate crashing each gay encounter with announcements like “Attention, attention, Marie Santora is a lesbian! Marie Santora is a lesbian! This has been a public service announcement!” our protagonist has a steep sand dune to climb.
Greetings from Jamaica, Wish You Were Queer follows a chaotic family vacation with more vices than virtues as Marie learns how to thwart ever present paparazzi while pursuing her closeted affair with Lorn, but the well-shaped conflicts lose some edge as the reader is taken in and out of hotel bedrooms with Marie leading a lusty Lorn down a path that has no apparent destination. The rule of the Homesick-Italian-Lesbian-Stalker or H.I.L.S. is finger first and ask questions of love later.
The narrative is somewhat heavy in the front. SanGiovanni chooses to open with more back story than the narrative truly merits. For instance the reader is given a number of hints at sub themes which are never fully explored. These range from the marijuana growing father to the lesbian-girl-next-door-to-our-summerhouse-in-Maine montage. Perhaps, these could be explained if other pieces fell into the narrative more naturally, but when Lorn Elaine appears without reason at the same resort in Jamaica as our protagonist, the reader and Marie are left a little dizzy.
The action picks up sometime around cocktail hour at an undisclosed all inclusive resort, and the story does offer plenty of humorous dialogues on everything from what a lesbian should pack while stalking her favorite TV actress to why Italians love meatballs and funerals so much. The cast of characters transcend their stereotypes as they hit the beach, and SanGiovanni gives the reader some very believable and heartfelt comedy between the story’s digressions.

Fingerloose: A Review of Dance in the Key of Love by Marianne K. Martin

The lesbian community of Ann Arbor needs Redemption: Capital R, learn to walk after being hit by a heterosexual drunk driver, eat pizza and watch Footloose with a gay dance chorographer, have dinner at Applebee’s with former lover Redemption. The crimes of a lost and wandering young bar dyke return to haunt her as she struggles to elevate her passion for dancing above the faux wood of the dance club floor. Finding herself forced to face the fall-out of a five minute fling in a bathroom stall; our heroine realizes the importance of cross-word puzzles and an alcoholic mother’s love.
In Marianne Martin’s sequel to Dawn of the Dance, we find a cast of lovably lesbian characters confronting life’s problems while attempting to assist a debilitated dyke with an interpretive dance production of Dirty Dancing. In parallel with this quirky romance, a somewhat two-dimensional detective spends a lot of time with his grandson while telling his daughter all the confidential stuff he is investigating.
Martin doesn’t exactly give any real substance to her straight characters. It is fair to say that in the world of Dance in the Key of Love all straight guys, with one exception, are violently abusive cops and all straight women are either battered recovering alcoholics or battered emerging alcoholics. While in the parallel story, real depth is given to the Ann Arbor crowd. This narrative dichotomy is perplexing in so far as at times it seems to unfairly represent a lesbian worldview.
Without divulging too much of the plot, this dichotomy comes to a highly symbolic boiling point in which we find our heroine handcuffed in the back of a cruiser eavesdropping on the detective as he is told that his daughter is in the hospital due to a mild to severe case of heterosexual battering.
Martin’s narrative lends itself to very revealing and beautiful moments in which friends relate painfully true feelings like “The families we make often offer us more love than the ones we are born into.” With skilled writing and attention to detail Martin opens the reader to the harsh difficulties of the lesbian world while seemingly undermining her character’s struggles by limiting the reader’s view of the world at large.

Bluesday.net

The Bluesday Podcasts are up and running. Check out bluesday.net

Blues Day Playlist 2-28-2006

Remember you can tune in online; go to www.weber.edu/kwcr 9 to whenever (Mountain Time) Tuesdays. We are in the process of documenting what goes on off air and we should have the first vlog posted soon along with a podcast of our playlist. So, stay tuned.

“Turn on the Panther” – Immortal Lee County Killers
“Preach the Blues” – The Gun Club
“Dead Leaves and Dirty Ground” – The White Stripes
“Count Down” – Black Keys
“Main Offender” – The Hives
“Winn Com” – Boss Hog
“Loose” – The Stooges
“Sympathy for the Devil” – The Rolling Stones
“Nine Dollars Worth of Mumble” – The Porch Ghouls
“Novacaine” – Beck
“Bedstuy, Parade, and Funeral March” – Mos Def
“Bone Machine” – The Pixies
“Cardiac Suture” – The Neckbones
“I got Messed Up” – RL Burnside
“Cocaine Bill” – Kenny Brown
“I got my Mojo Working” – Muddy Waters
“Mother-in-Law Blues” – Son Seals
“Nite Train” – The Von Bondies
“All your Love’n” – John Mayall
“Truth be Told” – Niel Young
“Making Time” – The Creation
“Open Heart Surgery” – The Brian Jonestown Massacre
“Detroit Breakdown” – The Gories
“When You Touch Me” – The Reigning Sounds
“Shake Your Money Maker” – Elmore James
“Annie May” – John Lee Hooker
“Black Maria” – Tom Waits
“Willie” – Cat Powers
“Harvest Moon” – Niel Young
“Tuesday Night” – The Beta Band
“I wanna be your dog” – The Stooges
“Twenty Century Boy” – T-Rex
“Denial Twist” – The White Stipes
“Like Calling up Thunder” – The Gun Club
“Folsum Prison Blues” – Johnny Cash
“Jackass” – Beck
“Thinking Tonight of my Blue Eyes” – Blue Mountain
“When the Levee Breaks” – Led Zeplin
Hendrix
“The Length” – Black Keys
“Tulsa part I” – The Onlys
“Airliner” – Immortal Lee County Killers
“Goo” – Sonic Youth
“Ticket Man” – The Kills
“Green Shirt” – Boss Hog
“Stretcher Case Baby” – The Damned
“Outta Here” – The Gories
“Ain’t that Hate’n you Baby” – The Revelators
“The Elucidator” – Soledad Brothers
“Politician” – Cream
“Wicked World” – Black Sabbath
“Passionate Woman” – The Rolling Stones
“I’m Through with White Girls” – The Dirtbombs
“Long Hair’d Donny” – RL Burnside
Alan Lomax Recordings
African Blues

Playlist 2-21-2006

“Sam” – Boss Hog
“For the Love of Ivy” – The Gun Club
“Revolution Summer” – The Immortal Lee County Killers
“Sick Twist” – The Neckbones
“Priming the Well” – The Porch Ghouls
“The Sun is Shining” – The Dirt Bombs
“It Came from Japan” – The Von Bondies
“Exedrine Headache #265” – The Reigning Sounds
“Lay Down this World” – The Soledad Brothers
“Hypnotize” – The White Stripes
“You’ll be Mine” – The Gories
“Dirt” – The Stooges
“Nude as the News” – Cat Power
“Cool it Down” – The Velvet Underground
“The Wizard” – Black Sabbath
“Hurt Like Mine” – Black Keys
“Vincent Come on Down” – Brainiac
“The Back of the Shell” – The Kills
“Murder in the Red Barn” – Tom Waits
“Back Door Man” – Howl’n Wolf
“Alligator Wine” – Screaming Jay Hawkins
“Bad Man” – T-Model
“Long Distance Call” – Muddy Waters
“Momma says I’m Crazy” – Fred McDowell
“Junkyard” – 20 Miles
“I Fell in Love Today” – Ween
“By the Light of the Magical Moon” – T-Rex
“Pink Moon” – Nick Drake
“Subterranean Homesick Blues” – Bob Dylan
“The Contenders” – The Owls
“Sick” – Boss Hog
“Touch Me I’m Sick” – Mudhoney
“Plethysmograph” – Jello Biafra and the Melvins
“The Damned Don’t Cry” – Immortal Lee County Killers
“Come Back Baby” – The Revelators
“We Repel Each Other” – The Reigning Sounds
“Super Star Chevrolette” – The Neckbones
“Aeroplane Blues” – The Black Keys
Jimi Hendrix
“Hey Joe” – Roy Buchanan
“Rolling Stone” – The Immortal Lee County Killers

Playlist 2-14-2006

Blues Day Valentines 2006:
“Feral” – The Gories
“Supply and Demand” – The Hives
“The Fire of Love” – The Gun Club
“Tragic Ground” – Porch Ghouls
“Boob Scotch” – Bob Log III
“I’ve got my own Hell to Raise” – Bettye LaVette
“The Back of My Hand” – The Rolling Stones
“Blue Black Jack” – Mos Def
“Shine” – The Onlys
“Arms as Traps” – Taught Me
“Shoot” – Sonic Youth
“Right of Way” – The Von Bondies
“Ain’t that hating you baby” – The Revelators
“STOP” – The Dirtbombs
“When you Touch Me” – The Reigning Sounds
“When the Lights go Out” – The Black Keys
“Chained” – The Pixies
“Campaign of Hate” – The Libertines
“When the Levee Breaks” – Led Zepplin
“Paranoid” – Black Sabbath
“No Fun” – The Stooges
“Piece of Clay” – 20 Miles
“Wild about you Baby” – Elmore James
“Mannish Boy” – Muddy Waters
“Moan’n at Midnight” – Howlin Wolf
“Spoonful” – Cream
“20th Century Boy” – T-Rex
“Goin out West” – Tom Waits
“Feast of the Mau Mau” – Screamn Jay Hawkins
“Who do you love” – John Hammond
“Voodoo Child” – Jimi Hendrix
“My Love” – Lenny Kravitz
“The Pretender” – Dr. Dog
“ Hate to say I told you so” – The Hives
“Sweet Young thing ain’t Sweet no more” – Mud Honey
“100%” – Sonic Youth
“Preach Blues” – The Gun Club
“Firebird ESQ” – The Gories
“Please Please Man” – The Von Bondies
“Thickfreakness” – The Black Keys
“Ball and a Biscuit” – The White Stripes
“Neat Neat Neat” – The Damned
“Waste of Time” – The Black Lips
“Payback” – James Brown
“Concrete Jungle” – James Brown
“Bomb’n the L” – The Fun Loving Criminals
“After it All” – Cat Power
“Black Pall” – Loggia
“Left out now” – The Gossip
“Here” – Pavement
“Frequencies in the Dial” – The Onlys
“The Late Greatest” – Wilco
“Exedrine Headache #265” – The Reigning Sounds
“A Knife to cut the Cornbread” – The Porch Ghouls
“Sister Ann” – The Gories

A Rough Estimate of the Playlist for 2-7-6

Bluesday was unable to air 1-31-6. KWCR has moved out of the Student Union Building and into the basement of the Stewart Library. The 2-7-6 show was broadcast in spite of tremendous odds and the play list was lost in the mix. Here is a rough estimate of the playlist:

“Beyond the 7th Sky” – Lenny Kravitz
“Tunnel Vision” – Lenny Kravitz
“Baby, Please Don’t Go” – ACDC
“Sun is Shining” – The Dirtbombs
“The Elucidator” – The Soledad Brothers
“Please Please Man” – The Von Bondies
“Grown So Ugly” – The Black Keys
“Straightface” – Son Volt
“Sleepers” – Gossip
“Black Math” – The White Stripes
“(When You Wake) You’re Still in a Dream”
“Let Yourself Go” – The Reigning Sounds
“Medication” – The Reigning Sounds
“So Messed Up” – The Damned
“I wanna be your dog” – The Stooges
“Babe, I’m gonna leave you” – Led Zepplin
Something from Woodstock by Jimi Hendrix
“Born under a bad sign” – Cream
“Hoochie Coochie Man” – Muddy Water
“Spoonful” – Howl’n Wolf
“Back Door Man” – John Hammond
“Constipation Blues” – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
Something by Tom Waits
“Downhome Sophisticate” – Corey Harris
“Goin Away Baby” – RL Burnside
“Cool Drink of Water” – Gun Club
“Evolution” – Pearl Jam
“Hole in the Roof” – Meat Puppets
“Bang a Gong” – T Rex
“Get Together” – Lizz Wright

Thank you for your support in these difficult times.

Blues Day 1-24-2006 Playlist

“20th Century Boy” – T Rex
“Making Time” – Creation
“STOP” – Dirtbombs
“Preach the Blues” – Gun Club
“Politician” – Cream
“1969” – The Stooges
“Nite Train” – Von Bondies
“My Baby got Drunk” – Paul Jones
“Spoonful” – Howlin Wolf
“I just want to make love to you” – Muddy Waters
“If you see me coming” – Black Keys
“Let out now” – Gossip
“Bleeding Heart” – Jimi Hendrix
“MPLS” – Grandpaboy
“Ball and Biscuit” – White Stripes
“At the back of the shell” – The Kills
“I love you” – Asie Patton
“Shake your money maker” – Elmore James
“Do the rump” – Black Keys
“Whole lotta Love” – Led Zepplin
“Well Well Well” – 20 Miles
“Slow Nerve Action” – Flaming Lips
“Bottles of Blues” – Beck
“Dukes Place” – Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington
“Warm Beer and Cold Women” – Tom Waits
“what I’d say to you” – Etta James
“The 219” – John Hammond
“Let’s Spend the Night together” – Rolling Stones
“Cherry Cherry” – Niel Diamond
“Touch me I’m sick” – Mudhoney
“Thunder in the sky” – Dirtbombs
“Girl, you have no use for medicine” – White Stripes
“Get it on” – T Rex
“Born under a bad sign” – Cream
“No Fun” – Stooges
“For Love of Ivy” – Gun Club
“Pawne Shop Heart” – Von Bondies
“Dirty Boots” – Sonic Youth
“Saga” - Libertines

You can listen in online at www.weber.edu/kwcr 9-Midnight (Mountain) Tuesdays. Feel free to post requests here. At 3 hours long, Blues Day is officially the longest radio blues show in the state!

TEHUACAN

Roberto: Escucha por favor. El diablo no es en el blog. Nada es en blog para los linguas de la luna u la sol. Tengo mirar mas en el blog es bueno. No habla por el diablo aqui. Gracias.

Todd: email to my full first and last name at mail.weber.edu

fransj93vmandres: Thanks for the hot stock tip! It actually worked.

Scott: I don't have any need for a pregnancy lazer hair removal system, but thank's for the offer.

nehl cleote: You're right there are people stealing content off my blog. I guess that's what happens.

Anonymous: Thanks for the plasma tv offer, but I am offended by your repeated referencing of Elvis' songs as something he would actually say after death... Elvis never wrote his own music.