L.A. PRIDE 2011

Cali & the WEHO Cheerleaders

I've been going to L.A. PRIDE for 25 years (since I was 16) but this was the first time I ever walked in the parade. A friend who works for NBCUniversal invited me and my doggy Cali to walk with the OUT@NBCUniveral group. It was very exhilarating and fun and the adrenaline pumped me up for the whole day! - Lydia Marcus

Here are my favorite photos from PRIDE:


Cali & Lucille Ball impersonator


Cali is full of PRIDE. Posing in front of an old MTA bus


Me & Cali


Me & Cali walking in the parade




With all the noise, people, moving vehicles, and general mania, Cali kept looking back and checking that I was still behind her.


Olympian Johnny Weir strikes a pose. He was the parade's Grand Marshal

Madame Tussaud's had a float with wax figures of Lady Gaga and Jane Lynch. From a distance I saw Jane and thought she was actually in the parade. The likeness is uncanny.






Heaven is missing two gay angels. :-)


Love these t-shirts! Take that Fred Phelps!

The WEHO Cheerleaders show their spirit!







The focus isn't perfect, but I like the moment - WEHO Sheriffs in front of the Pride festival entrance.



Tons of attendance at the Parade. A view of the crowd


The BRAVO TV contingent: Jenni Pulos, Andy Cohen, Zoila, and Jeff Lewis.





Madison Hildebrand from Million Dollar Listing



OUT@NBCU workers dancing on the route. It was so much fun walking alongside these guys and gals because they really got the crowd pumped up.



L.A. Pride
June 12, 2011, West Hollywood CA
© Lydia Marcus Photography
Nikon D5100 / Nikon 35mm f/1.8 G

HAPPY PRIDE WEEKEND!

The comedians of Chelsea Lately did a bunch of funny PSAs to celebrate 40 years of Pride in Los Angeles. All the videos can be found the CSWLAPRIDE You Tube channel.

Here are a few of my favorites:









To get more info about L.A. Pride events go to lapride.org and facebook.

CHRIS & DON. A LOVE STORY

This weekend I went to the Nuart to see Chris & Don. A Love Story. Chris was acclaimed writer Christopher Isherwood ("Cabaret") and Don is famed portrait artist Don Bachardy. They got involved in Los Angeles in the early 1950's when Chris was 52 and Don was just 18. Their relationship lasted more than 30 years until Chris' death in 1986. When they met, Chris was famous and Don was just arm candy. Eventually Don became as famous and prolific an artist as Chris. They were out as gay men and as a couple at a time when that was pretty much unheard of. Don (still painting in his 70's) is interviewed throughout, and there's lots of great archival stills and home movies. If you want to see a great love story go see this! The fact that the film is also about two great artists is just icing on the cake.

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN FEVER

Saturday I watched the documentary version of "When I Knew" part of Cinemax's Reel Life series. If you have video on demand through your cable provider, you can find "When I Knew" on Cinemax's VOD channel plus an extra clip "When I Knew: Miami" shot in a sort of filmic photo booth (I'm guessing at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival). Unlike the book, the documentary (by those fabulous World of Wonder filmmakers) was incredibly balanced between gay and lesbian recollections. Also different from the book, it featured a lot of younger people (plenty of 20 somethings) telling their stories. And for even more "When I Knew" stories, World of Wonder has a bunch of video booth interviews posted on their site. I noticed that actor/comic Jason Stuart has posted one there.

Sunday eve I went to the Pride Festival in WEHO.

Even the Pacific Design Center got into Pride by lighting up their building in the colors of the Rainbow Flag.


The first person I ran into was Jason Stuart, right after he had just won free round trip air fair at the Orbitz booth - lucky guy! Here's a shot of me and Jason.

Even though I'm still getting over a nasty virus, I just had to go to Pride on Sunday to see Olivia Newton-John perform on the WAMU main stage. Pride has gotten some big acts in the past (I've seen Deborah Harry and The Motels perform), but getting Olivia was pretty huge. I think she must have been there primarily to support the launch of the new LOGO TV series "Sordid Lives" where she has a recurring part. LOGO had a pretty cool "booth" in the form of a mock trailer park complete with Airstream trailer and pink flamingos!


Considering my energy was really low, I wasn't very into the Pride festival, but it was so worth going to see Olivia who sounded awesome and played all her big hits including Xanadu, Magic, Hopelessly Devoted To You, I Honestly Love You, You're The One That I Want, and Physical. Hopelessly Devoted To You was the most connected moment between performer and audience. The audience sang along with as much passion and pain as Olivia - I guess it's just one of those songs that everyone who's ever experienced a broken heart or unrequited love can relate to. Everyone was jumping up and down when You're the One That I Want Came On, but the most fun had to by Physical as many people in the audience started doing very eighties-esque aerobics as dance moves! It was hilarious. Even Olivia did some of her signature moves we all know so well from the Physical video. Olivia is turning 60 later this year, so it's amazing how great she looked and moved onstage. I was standing pretty far back in the crowd so my photos from my little point and shoot weren't so great.


Thankfully, photographer Brian Putnam is letting me show off some his great shots taken from in front of the stage.

photo credit www.putnamphoto.com

photo credit www.putnamphoto.com

photo credit www.putnamphoto.com

photo credit www.putnamphoto.com

I shot some videos too - and the sound is great - but I was too far back for any good details, so I'm sharing a few better videos taken from You Tube. Enjoy!

Hopelessly Devoted To You

Xanadu

Physical

...And going back in time, here's Olivia performing Physical on Solid Gold!

HAPPY PRIDE!

This weekend is the 38th annual L.A. Pride. I was actually at the first one in 1970! I was just a baby, my parents and Uncle went somewhere to eat on Hollywood Blvd and L.A.'s first ever gay parade (dubbed Christopher Street West) was in full swing. The first pride I have memories of is 1986. My best friend Robert Pavlick (R.I.P.) drove us down to West Hollywood in his Peugeot (I think a 505). On Sunset, he was driving pretty wild as usual and going way too fast on the way to a red light when the car next to us crossed into our lane and cut us off and Robert slammed on the brakes and threw us into a complete 360 spin! We survived the drive and walked up and down Santa Monica Blvd watching the parade. Afterwards we went to the festival, then an open, free event. I remember they even had carnival rides (like the Scrambler). While everyone was dressed casual summer, I recall being way overdressed in my new wave finery - a nice dress shirt (brown and black - some sort of animal print) buttoned up to the chin, black culottes, and my funky mod styled black and white clubbing shoes.

A couple of days ago I received a copy of the book "When I Knew" by Robert Trachtenberg - a compilation of coming out (to others and to oneself) anecdotes. HBO sent me a copy and a screener of the documentary directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (from World of Wonder) based on the Trachtenberg's book. They're screening it in honor of Pride Month (actually I think their affiliate Cinemax is the one screening it). I haven't watched the film yet, but I did read the entire book on Thursday. I love the concept and it shows that most people's memories of their queerness goes back to early childhood with plenty of stories recalling ages 5-8. Many of the stories are funny, a few are sad, and some are downright poignant like this one:

1971, Abilene, Texas by Stephen Orr:
"My father was tossing a football with my brothers in the front yard. Seeing me sitting alone on the steps, my mother took my dad aside, "Dub," she said, calling my dad by his nickname, "I think Steve is feeling a little left out. Why don't you ask him if he'd like to play too?" So my dad walked over. "Wanna throw the football some?" he asked. "I'd really rather go pick flowes," I replied. And we did. My father, a former football coach, spent the rest of the afternoon picking flowers with me in a nearby field.

My only issue with the book is that within 120 pages, only about 10 stories are from women. Hopefully the documentary is a bit more balanced.

In honor of L.A. PRIDE weekend, here are some of my shots from a few of the last Pride events.






Everybody's favorite "Momma"

The grand dame - "Madame"






My Aunt Lisa always took me to this library when I was a kid.

West Hollywood "The Creative City"


Now that's one gay Pinto ;-)