A Letter to My Future Children

I’m sorry.

Although I do not know the future, I can only hope it is better. I grew up in an age of deca-dence, incredulity, and general apathy. How can it possibly get any worse? I suppose it always can; we could always plummet further into the nihilistic abyss – but God, I hope not. Perhaps it is not my generation that is at fault. Maybe we are just symptoms of the times.

My generation is unique.

When we were born in the late 1980s, the West was at the pinnacle of its power: the So-viet Union was collapsing, the United States was entering the largest economic boom in its his-tory, and technological advances were poised to change our lives forever.

We lived in this new age, gilded epoch and we become its embodiment. The word “want” was replaced with “need” and life slowly became a selfish march to the finish. No longer did we share a common goal; no longer did we exert our will onto another. Instead it was exerted outwards to the world in general, saying – no, shouting – “I want more! More! MORE!”

That changed briefly in 2001 when, half-way through our youth, the West and the world changed. Words like “jihad,” “Shariah,” and “insurgent” that were once unfamiliar became frightening. Once again, we become united through the virtues of liberty and justice.

But our wars grew tiresome, and in general we lost our appetite for existentialism. The year 2008 was perhaps the first time we came to un-derstand destitution. When the economy plum-meted, our world changed and – for the first time – what we wanted conflicted with what we needed. It was a crisis, that cannot be doubted, but consumerism still continued its march – al-beit at a much slower pace.

The Arab Spring of 2011 saw democracy draw its first breath in many Middle Eastern coun-tries. And some intrepid Americans attempted to model its spirit in the Occupy movements. At first, they seemed to gain attention. But then again, the public’s memory is fragile and they soon faded into the background of life.

Now it is the year 2012. Where are we as a people?

My generation heard stories of Europe torn asunder by political ideology and now sees ra-cial riots in the capitals of Europe. In the United States, religion is used to persecute minorities. Indeed, my generation is at a crossroad: Do we succumb to the temptation of extremism or do we live up to the promise of Western liberty and values?

In honesty, there is no crossroad because the masses do not care about anything but the indi-vidual. We lack the political vigor of the 1960s and the courage of the 1940s. As I said, perhaps it is a symptom of the times that we are so selfish and egotistical.

Recently, mass action brought a law known as the Stop Online Piracy Act to the public. People paraded into the streets and contacted their legislators. Even popular websites blocked out their content to raise awareness of this attack on freedom of speech and expression.

At the same time, the National Defense Au-thorization Act which effectively revokes the time-honored right of habeas corpus to Ameri-cans on suspicion of terrorism went largely un-noticed.

It is ironic that a law with the potential to destroy the Constitution and all Western values is passed without so much as a whimper but the indifferent masses protest over the slightest hint of censorship. The only explanation I can offer is the personal nature of SOPA as opposed to the more distant, foreign nature of NDAA.

I sincerely hope this is a symptom of my gen-eration and not of modernity. I fear for the fu-ture if indifference and nihilism are the marks of my generation and I sincerely apologize for the shape of things to come.

It has been quite the month for the music industry! The results are in: Electronic Dance Music is THE sound of Young America! It’s happening everywhere; the United States is definitely catching on to what the rest of the world already knows - Electronic Music is the future. Artists like Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, LMFAO, and remixers like Dave Aude, DJ Kue, Joe Bermudez, Afrojack, and Skrillex have definitely made an impact with their dance floor-filling productions. I got to sit down with Guinevere, an upcoming dance pop musician, who’s climbing the Dance Club Play and Rhythm Airplay charts faster than anyone would imagine. Guinevere is a dark pop diva with the soul of an admitted Star Trek fan and an expert Call of Duty Player. Named after the legendary Lady of the Round Table, who stepped out on King Arthur for his best friend, Sir Lancelot, the Toronto Native also plays ice hockey and counts some of the NHL’s best as the biggest fans of her music. She is 20 years old, and her debut solo album, on her own label, Nuke Town Records—a nod to Call of Duty, of course—shows off the ability to take the stage and make it her own.Guinevere and I got to sit down and chat for a bit.

So, your biography says that you’re a huge fan of Call of Duty. That’s a pretty manly game. Tell me about all of that! I wouldn’t really call it a manly game considering I beat all of the guys I’ve played. I like to keep quiet while playing. I find it more amusing hearing them react after I’ve kicked their asses and they’ve found out that they just lost to a girl. (laughs)Your name. King Ar-thur? Please explain. My father got a coin from an old man when he was walk-ing downtown (Toronto) one day. It has now become a part of our family and we all have the coin of King Arthur slaying the dragon. The Arthurian Legend is appreciated in my family since there is already a well-established

artist, Gwen Stefani, who I look up to. Guinevere was said to be a strong, independent rebel—someone I could connect to.Lets talk about your music for a minute. Your song, Crazy Crazy, was pro-duced by Cirkut, who has also produced for the likes of Ke$ha, Britney Spears, Taio Cruz, and Jessie J. My manager and I have written the songs on the record. I usually come to him with an idea of a song, and from there, we play around with the melodies. Amir has been crowned the “chorus king” and has truly figured out the art of songwriting. Most lyr-

ics are written on our way to the studio, stuck in rush hour traffic. Cirkut happened to be the first producer I worked with. Every studio experience has been in-credible. I got to shoot guns and write songs with Ari Levine of the Smeezingtons (Bruno Mars, Cee-Lo Green). I’ve been lucky to work with a good friend of mine, Arthur McArthur, who’s done tracks for Rick Ross, Drake, and Big Sean.Remixing music is pretty huge in the pop world to-day. What’s your favor-ite remix of Crazy, Crazy? What’s it like to hear a song you recorded completely rewritten and reproduced—sometimes by someone you’ve never met before? Crazy Crazy has been remixed by Dave Aude, DJ Es-cape, DJ Kue, and DJ No Big

Deal. I have to say, honestly, I love them all. I don’t think I could choose a favorite—it would be like asking a mother to pick her favorite child… except… if you asked my mom. She would DEFINITELY pick me. (laughs)I know you’re from Toronto, which is just a few hours from us here in Detroit. Where do you live now? I am still based out of Toronto. I travel back and forth from LA for gigs, shoots, and other fun stuff, including hanging out with my other management team who has played such a big role in my career.

Toronto has always been a very LGBT friendly city. How has that shaped you? I grew up in Toronto and it is really an amazing city. Canada in general is a very welcoming country to all people from all over the world. We are lucky to have one of the largest gay communi-ties in the world. Being a singer in pop music, I am obviously immersed in the gay culture. I’ve seen the painful reality that some-how, in today’s day and age, some people are still closed minded about an individual’s sexual orien-tation. My best friend is gay and I have seen him go through many hardships because of something so trivial. Experiencing his pain has had a strong impact on me, not only as an artist, but as a human being.I always ask everyone this: Being in pop music means being a little gay, whether it means kissing other girls or promoting your records to star-struck twinks. Is interfacing with “the gays” difficult for you, and how has it helped your career? Of course it’s not difficult. The gay community has such a strong influence in music, film, and the arts in general. It would be pretty strange if an artist like me wasn’t influenced by gay culture in one way or another.Where do you see yourself in 5 years? On a boat. Fishing for crab and jumbo shrimp. Five years is a long way away in music years. I’m focusing on this year. To start, I would LOVE to be able to put my mic out to the crowd and hear them sing back my lyrics.

Guinevere will perform at Necto on Friday, February 10th. Check necto.com or facebook.com/nectopride for more details.

So the first month of the year has passed and the gym flow is already starting to calm down. Hopefully, if you started a new fitness regimen, then you have been consistent and continued working out for the duration of the month.

Almost everyone who begins a new fitness program wants to lose weight and slim down. That’s when you resort to running.

Running can help you achieve these goals. However, there are two types of running: cardio-vascular and anaerobic. Cardiovascular running utilizes the oxygen that the person draws into the lungs, while anaerobic running utilizes stored energy, such as fat.

The two types of cardio are nothing new – in fact, they’re overlooked. I see it all the time: Someone gets on a treadmill and starts running as if they’re being chased by a pitbull. The result is a lot of unsightly flopping and jiggling.

Instead, save the embarrassment and hurt by slowing down your pace to about three to 3 1/2 mph. This keeps your heart rate at a steady pace and your stride won’t vary as much as it would while sprinting.

Okay, so you’re briskly walking. Now let’s add some resistance by introducing another vari-able: incline. Set your incline at about three or

four. (A treadmill set at the twelfth incline with a person leaning back and grasping looks ridicu-lous.)

Two things to remember: If you’re hold-ing onto the treadmill, then your center of grav-ity isn’t centered and you will be unable to en-gage your core properly. Secondly, your center of gravity will be too high and you will waste energy that could be used to add another mile to your total distance.

If your goal is to improve your speed, try sprint-sets. Start by having a mileage goal in mind and set a normal pace, such as six to seven mph. Every minute or 30 seconds, bring up your speed to eight or nine mph before returning to your normal pace.

This will really work your lungs by making the alveoli – the little sacs in your lungs that soak up oxygen – more susceptible to being active and absorbing the oxygen you are bringing into the lungs.

Finally, never compensate the form of any-thing to make your workout harder. Work your way up to that weight or speed. Focus on quality, not quantity.

In good health and long strides, Victor

I got a chance to meet up with this month’s cover model, Izaya Cole, 22, at his apartment in Westland. I’ve had the distinct pleasure of knowing Izaya through various mutual friends throughout the community, and we’ve even done a couple shows together.

J: So, obviously your face is going to be on the cover of FLAME, but where might readers recognize you from?

IC: I’ve been going to the bars since I was 18. My first gay bar was Stilettos in Inkster, and then Bretz in Ohio, and then the local bars in Detroit. … I started performing at the bars when I was 18, and when I first started I was us-ing my “government name.”

J: What got you into per-forming at the bars?

IC: I went to North Carolina with my drag mother, Natalie Cole, when she won Miss Gay USA, as one of her backup dancers. After that, I was really driven to start performing. Be-fore, I was always going out – I was a club kid. I think people started recognizing me more after seeing me on stage. I was your first ever Mr. Menjo’s, Mr. Stilettos, and I’ve held nine titles in the past three years. I was the first male national titleholder out of Michigan.

J: You said Natalie Cole is your “drag mother.” What does that mean?

IC: To me, that means a men-tor, or someone you can look up to, in the gay world. Of course, most people have their real mother they can go to for just about anything, but there’s just so much about the gay lifestyle that a lot of people really don’t understand, and there are a lot of things your real mom just may not under-stand or be able to help you with. Calling Natalie my drag mother is basically saying she’s a mother-figure to me in the gay world. She’s taught me almost everything: perform-ing, lingo, lifestyle, what to

look for, what to watch out for… Someone who’s been there for me along the way, and done things my real mother maybe couldn’t do.

J: How did Natalie help you get your start in performing?

IC: Before I met Natalie, I was just singing karaoke at the local gay bars. Then, I went with her

to North Carolina and she won, and when we got back she saw me performing at the Rainbow Room on Wednesdays. She said she was going to make me her son, that she saw potential in me, and took me under her wing. Natalie got me my first booking at Stilettos as Izaya.

J: What was your first title?

IC: Mr. Menjo’s 2009-2010. It was my first pageant, and it was the first Mr. Menjo’s pageant. There were seven contestants, and I won every category ex-cept question-and-answer. I performed for five months as Izaya before doing the pageant.

J: Do you go to school?

IC: I did go to school, I have two years left. I’m not going right now because I’m working.

J: What was the degree you were working on?

IC: I was majoring in musical theater and minoring in dance.

J: Where at?

IC: Henry Ford, and I took

a dance class at [the Uni-versity of Michigan].

J: You said you were work-ing in addition to entertain-ing. What else do you do?

IC: I do have a day job. I work at National Car Rental at the air-port. I’m a rental agent, so if you need a rental car, come see me!

J: Hahaha, right on! Are you seeing anybody?

IC: Yes, I have an amazing hus-band named Carlos. I actually met him at the Rainbow Room when I was performing for the Christmas show. We’ve been together ever since, and it’s been two beauti-ful years. We live together, and it was both of our first times moving out on our own, and I’m glad to be here, sharing it with him. He’s been so supportive of me, coming to all my shows and pageants.

J: That’s amazing to hear! Are you getting ready for any big shows or pageants right now?

IC: I’m very interested in my next national, which may be Mr. Gay United States, which is held in Washington D.C. in September. I’ve been contemplating entering since I handed down my Un-limited title in August. I’m also looking into doing more musical theater and plays; I’ve been doing musicals since I was five. A lot of people don’t realize I work on two different kinds of stages, but I do have friends in the community that come to support me on both.

J: When was the last time you were involved in a theater project?

IC: Last August, I was Joseph in “Joseph and the Amazing Tech-nicolor Dreamcoat” with the Southgate Community Players. I haven’t gotten to do much the-ater lately because I work all the time, but it’s definitely something I’m looking to get back into.

“It’s clear to me that thisnext year must be aboutthe residents of Michiganfinding the answers to these challenges ourselves.”

A man in a dress is a time-honored co-medic tradition, but lately one met with great controversy. This TV season, ABC introduced the sitcom “Work It” about two unemployed autoworkers who actually do find employ-ment – but the catch is that the only available jobs require women. So the only way they can get work is by masquerading as women.

Simple right? Should be hilarious right?

Well, by the time you read this “Work It” will have been canceled for a few weeks – and after only two episodes. The show was met with mixed reviews, but the general consensus has been negative.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and the Human Rights Cam-paign launched an ad that accused the cross-dressing comedy of reinforcing “false and damaging stereotypes about transgen-der people” and urged ABC not to air it.

My thinking is that maybe if the show had stayed on the air long enough, this might have been something that the writers could have taken on as a platform to spread un-derstanding. It has to start somewhere!

Paul Lee, president of the ABC Enter-tainment Group, has been an advocate for the show from the start and says he doesn’t understand the backlash. He loves the show,

possibly because he hails from Britain, where cross-dressing in comedies is quite common.

“I’m a Brit,” Lee told reporters, “I have to do a cross-dressing show every year. I grew up with Monty Python. What can I do?”

I don’t see what all the hub-bub is about either. Dressing in drag and be-ing transgender are two different things, but I guess the average American is igno-rant of the distinction – or just doesn’t care enough to know the difference.

This is probably why GLAAD and HRC tried to nip “Work It” in the bud. One tweet criticizing the show brought up an interesting point. @iamwesley said, “You know, as a Black comedy, I think #workit would actually be a good show.”

I think @iamwesley is right. The only man in a dress that mainstream America has no problems with is Tyler Perry.

Madea can be as loud and sassy as “she” wants to be and the black commu-nity keeps throwing money at her. Maybe because the character is accepted from the get-go as a woman and there is no tak-ing off and putting on the persona. Stereo-types abound on Perry’s shows, but no one seems to have a problem there either.

The only time the “man in a dress”

formula seemed to work is back in the ‘80s with the sitcom “Bosom Buddies.” I enjoyed that show. It was very funny sitcom based on the premise of the classic Billy Wilder film “Some Like It Hot” starring Marilyn Monroe.

It seems that in the ‘80s the Ameri-can public was more open to something fun and different and, to me, it is grati-fying to know that two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks started his ca-reer in a dress. He had nice legs too!

I guess the only network that’s allowed to do offensive humor and stereotypical jokes is Comedy Central or Fox – actually, this might have done well on Fox ... Well, maybe not. I forgot Fox’s brush with cross-dressing in the late ‘90s. “Ask Harriet,” another “I gotta dress in drag to get a job” show didn’t really last that long either (five episodes).

Here’s a thought, what if Logo took over the show? Would the LGBT commu-nity be as upset if they were controlling the situation instead of those “clueless heteros” that continuously stereotype and mislabel?

I think “Work It” would be exactly the same and not miss a beat, but it would do well in the ratings and there would be no mainstream media backlash. Most likely, it would become a point of PRIDE. You would probably see headlines like “Logo sitcom breaks misconceptions” or “Cross dressing comedy bridges understanding.”

Maybe the key to success with touchy subject matter is to keep it within the se-lected groups, but I think that just promotes more isolation – which is never a solution.

My main gripe is why don’t they get guys that can pass as women a little bet-ter? I guess the underlying joke is that we, the audience, see that they aren’t women – but everyone else seems not to so the bur-den (comic relief?) is on them to convince us. That’s where the stereotypes come in.

Because of the situation, of course the humor is based on stereotypes. What else could it be but a tried-and-true bat-tle of the sexes? But reading through some of the negative tweets (#workit), it seems that women were just as offended by the show as the LGBT community, saying that the show portrayed women in the workplace very unfavorably.

Speaking as a woman who has worked in countless offices and busi-ness environments, they were right on the money and didn’t miss a trick.

Aside from just having a good laugh, I think the point of shows like “Work It” is for the character (and the viewer) to walk a mile in someone else’s pumps. It re-ally wouldn’t hurt for the average hetero male to really learn how hard it is to be a woman today living in a man’s world. (Oh, and it still is a man’s world. Trust!)

It’s just a shame that we all just can’t “accept,” you know? Live and learn from each other without being so PC or easily offended. Not all of us are that small-minded. Maybe by the next time – and there probably will be a next time – another cross-dressing TV sitcom comes along we can all just sit back, have a cocktail, and enjoy it like I do. Maybe it’s just me. Some of my best male friends wear dresses. And those bitches are sickening!

I leave you with a thought expressed in one of the positive tweets I read. @itsallabouttheg writes, “Never thought I’d see a man on prime-time network television experience the trials of try-ing to figure out how to tuck. #workit.”

Joan Stevenson is an entertainer in the met-ro Detroit area. Find her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @Lady_J_8 #theworlda-ccordingtojoan. Joan also has a podcast at http://vidgirl8.podbean.com/ and on Tumblr.