With the change in season and warmer days upon us, Haligonians are finding themselves struck by spring fever. 

Kirk Furlotte is one of them. The lead organizer of RHOMBUS, or Rainbow Halifax Off-Road Mountain Bike Users Society, is gearing up for another season of cycling.  

"RHOMBUS is really a core group of friends at this point, but we are always welcoming of newcomers," Furlotte says. "Our usual format is that we meet up, go over the plan for the day, ride our selected course (usually with a water break at the mid-way point) and then head to a local café for conversation and coffee (or whatever it is you drink)."

"After our first year, RHOMBUS has a better idea of what worked and what didn't," Furlotte says. "We will again be doing Saturday-morning rides but have given up the mid-week ride due to low turnout. Many of these decisions will be made after our first ride, of course. We want riders to have a say but also want to keep it manageable. Our first few rides will probably be shorter, falling into the 'spring training' concept."

Furlotte and RHOMBUS have some new ideas for 2012, including a rotating schedule of varying types and lengths of rides. The first ride of the season is happening on Saturday, April 21, meeting at Sullivan's Pond in Dartmouth at 9:30am. For more information, check out the Facebook Event page. 

Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles want to make a movie, and they need your help.

Santini and Sickles are working on a documentary called Mala Mala, which tells the story of a group of young drag performers and transsexual and transgender individuals living in Puerto Rico. To help fund the making of this project, the duo have turned to Kickstarter, a crowd-sourcing webpage that allows people to donate funds to the making of their project. The film was recently featured on The Huffington Post and has less than a day to finish gathering the required funds to make this project a reality. Check it out.

No, really he does.

On last night's segment of The Ridiculist on Anderson Cooper 360, Cooper decides to deride Dyngus Day.

Apparently Dyngus Day is a real thing, a day celebrated mostly by people of Polish origin, to celebrate the end of Lent. Cooper keeps it together rather well during his segment, but upon the mention of pussy willows, he loses his shit and starts to giggle. For over a minute. Though "titter" really is the better word, don't you think?

It reminds me of a scene in John Waters' Serial Mom. 

I can never look at pussy willows seriously since I saw that movie. And now, since I have seen that moment, perhaps, even Anderson Cooper. Because he titters like a girl. But then again, when I can't stop laughing, I sound like Muttley from Wacky Races.

Personally, I hope Anderson has a really good sense of humour and puts himself on The Ridiculist for his laugh. I'll gladly join him.

 The Reading List strikes again at Down East.

Check out this first-person account posted in The New York Times by Abdellah Taïa about his life as a young gay man living in Morocco.

An excerpt:

I knew what happened to boys like me in our impoverished society; they were designated victims, to be used, with everyone’s blessing, as easy sexual objects by frustrated men. And I knew that no one would save me — not even my parents, who surely loved me. For them too, I was shame, filth. A “zamel.”

Remember all those guys in high school who taunted you, calling you a fag? Or all those girls who called you a dyke? Turns out there may be some truth to the expression "Methinks my lady doth protest too much": a study shows that individuals who espouse strong homophobic attitudes may be hiding their own unacknowledged same-sex attraction. Kind of reminds you of Kurt and Karofsky.

Last week, a group of men who have sex with men were caught in a sting operation at a Manhattan Beach bathroom in California. The media were given photos of the men found inside. Well, some activists are taking umbrage at those actions, especially after one of the individuals arrested attempted to commit suicide.

And on the lighter side, RuPaul has released a new video for "Glamazon," that song you keep hearing during the runway sequences on RuPaul's Drag Race.

And for something completely different: remember Goatse? Yeah, you do. Well, it looks like Gawker may have found the man behind the ass that started it all.

I have to admit, I dig Gavin McInnes.

One of the originators of Vice magazine, McInnes has always been a bit of a pissant. His infamous DOs and DON'Ts column was sartorial satire at its finest. However, it's nice to see that McInnes is not below (or above) his own contempt, as seen in this video. 

"I look like an apple that's been left in a van all July," he says, mocking his crow's feet. But McInnes doesn't reserve his best judgment for himself; it is directed toward a lone woman, whom he describes as a "jazz singer at a ski slope who lost her job," then berates her for her choice of sweater wear.

McInnes is like a straight, butch version of Dorian Corey in Paris Is Burning.

"I think fashion and style is a fun game, and people who take it seriously miss the point, and people who don't participate miss the point," he says at the end of the video. I would much rather take fashion advice from McInnes than a certain gay stylist we all know. 

Last week The Gossip dropped their new single, "Perfect World," with a video detailing the lyrics.

Now, the actual video has been released and it's a visual love poem to Beth Ditto and her powers as a vocalist.

It seems like everyone is releasing "lyrics" videos for their singles. Cee-Lo Green used it to full effect a while back with "Fuck You." Now the Scissor Sisters have used this format to release their new single, produced by Calvin Harris and Alex Ridha, aka Boys Noize. It's a mix of glam, filter disco and synth silliness. Not a bad way to whet appetites for new Scissor Sisters material.

Twenty years ago today, a young man with a pockmarked face and a self-effacing manner passed away.

Today, that man is name-dropped among music lovers of genres from hip hop to house to disco to new wave to experimental. His name is Arthur Russell.

Russell was a New York fixture, adored and ignored. He worked with everyone from Philip Glass to Larry Levan to Allen Ginsberg. He played the cello, but he also made some of the funkiest and craziest disco records you've ever heard. He is one of the legions of composers and artists who are constantly being rediscovered by crate diggers and music historians and aficionados. There are even documentaries and books devoted to Russell's life. His record "Is It All Over My Face," recorded under the Loose Joints moniker on West End records, is arguably his most famous. To write it out and describe it doesn't pay the record justice. It starts with a simple four-on-the-floor beat, nothing too fast. A jangly guitar comes in, grooving alongside jazzy keys. It's a sustained intro, when all of a sudden, a woman starts to sing. But when you listen to it, your head starts to bop, you get stuck in the groove. It's dirty, it's sexy but it's polished. It's disco for intellectual sex pigs.

Russell was one of those people who was never fully satisfied with his compositions, at least, not until he was able to tweak it in as many ways as he could. He re-recorded many of his compositions, including "All Over My Face," this time with a male vocal. Another of his big hits, "Go Bang" was tweaked and reworked. At first listen, you wouldn't think that dean of disco Nicky Siano had his paws all over this record. It sounds like it should be played at a punk bar made for gay disco queens. But again, it's the idiosyncracies that make it work.

But Russell wasn't just a lover of dance music. He is also known for his cello compositions, such as this one, "Keeping Up," which features Russell himself on vocals. Quiet, earnest and reserved. His work has been cited as an influence for such contemporary composers such as Jens Lekman and The Hidden Cameras' Joel Gibb.

It's hard to decide which Russell I prefer: the soft, sensitive man who played his cello or the gregarious guy who made us all bang. In the end, it doesn't matter. He is no longer with us, so we pay our respects in the best way we can: by listening intently.

Like I needed another reason to dislike Donald Trump.

Besides the fact that he's a megalomaniacal blowhard who wouldn't know good taste and decorum if it smacked him upside the head, Trump has taken to talking about the size of his dick.

No, I am not kidding.

In the recent case of Jenna Talackova, the woman who was originally disqualified from entering the Miss Universe Canada pageant for being transgender, Trump — who owns the Miss Universe pageant and its international subsidiaries — backed down somewhat and has decided to allow Talackova to enter the competition. However, Talackova has yet to announce if she will join the competition. This doesn't mean that she's not pursuing her options, namely hiring uber-attorney Gloria Allred to represent her in legal matters and possibly planning a suit against Miss Universe and Trump. Allred spoke on behalf of her client, stating:

"Jenna entered this competition and gave the pageant her time, her best efforts and her money. She did not think for one moment that what she might have looked like at birth would be relevant. She did not ask Mr Trump to prove that he is a naturally born man or to see the photos of his birth, to view his anatomy, to prove that he was male. It made no difference to her. Why should it have made a difference to him?"

So what does Trump do at this comment? Opens his big mouth and starts talking about his own junk, saying that Allred would be impressed. 

So here is a quick, simple and direct letter to Mr Trump:

Dear Donald, 

Shut the fuck up.

Sincerely,

S.

Last week, a transgender woman was disqualified from entering the Miss Universe contest. The reason: she wasn't viewed as being a "natural woman."

Thankfully, beauty queen Jenna Talackova has finally been allowed to enter the competition.

This story has been all over the country (and the world), with people pitching in their two cents on everything from blogs to radio shows.

It is in that last category that we enter a wonderful exhibit of idiocy.

Live 105 is a Halifax radio station that is home to a morning show hosted by Jeff and Floyd. Recently, Floyd posted this lovely audio snippet on her Tumblr blog. It is an exchange between her and Jeff reaming out a caller for some rather idiotic statments. Kudos to you two.

After Friday's first Reading List, I found myself this morning with a few more interesting links to share.

I've always been a fan of history.

When I came out to myself in the mid-'90s, I spent as much time as I could digging through every possible trove of queerness: you read certain books, you watched certain movies, you talked to certain people. I wanted to feel a sense of continuity, both forward and back. 

Recently, two separate collections of images on two separate coasts are doing just that.

In New York City, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art is holding an exhibition called The Piers: Art and Sex Along the New York Waterfront. The show is about the people, the art and the sex that was found along "the piers" in New York. David Wojnarowicz and Peter Hujar were two artists who were known to frequent the piers. The exhibition also collects candid images of the artists, as well as other men who were part of the scene.

Sunners, by Frank Hallam (part of The Piers exhibition).

Over on the other side of the US, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation has curated a collection of images about the beginning of AIDS in San Francisco: how it changed the lives and the character of the gay community. From images of a small office where the Kaposi's Sarcoma Foundation (later to become the SFAF) to posters to images of early AIDS walks, it's a strong collection to remind people of their own history.

***

On a more local tip, there are a couple of interesting events happening this week in Halifax.

NSRAP is hosting a Trans Health and Policy Symposium planning committee meeting at Just Us Coffee House on Spring Garden Rd this Tuesday. According to a message posted on GayHalifax: 

NSRAP has been presented with the opportunity of some direct funding from the department of justice to put on a trans positive agenda themeed conference. This will be aimed at influential public servants/community members/academics and politicians regarding trans positive/negative policies including those in health. We need lots of help from the groud up to organize this even in its entirety! Come one come all if you're keen to pitchin with ideas and participation, tentatively the conference will be planed for the fall or winter of 2012.

To RSVP or for more information, contact lucas@dal.ca.

Also coming up this week, the Youth Project and Dalhousie are hosting an information/training session on how to become an ally to the queer community. The event is this Thursday, in Room 224 at the Dalhousie Student Union building, 6136 University Ave. The session is for individuals interested in reaching out to and supporting others in the queer community. Contact the Youth Project for more information.