“Our new album “Not Deserted” has just been released worldwide!

To hear our online CD release and interview with the lovely Len Rogers in Virginia, USA, go to http://www.rainbowworldradio.com (till Sept 15)

Get yourself a cuppa (Aussie for a cup of tea) and settle in. You’ll hear the first half of the CD, then a nice long interview, then the second half of the CD.

“Not Deserted” can also be heard at:

www.sugarbeachmusic.com & www.myspace.com/sugarbeach

You can also see videos and photos and other info on these 2 sites.

To purchase “Not Deserted” either in disc form or digital, go to: www.cdbaby.com/sugarbeach1 You’ll be able to download the individual songs from iTunes in a few weeks.

Thanks

Marlee & Tully

OXOX”

Sugarbeach's new album cover

The “Golden Age” of bicycles came in the 1890s and they were particularly fashionable in cosmopolitan cities such as New York, London, and Paris.”

“During this Golden Age campaigns were waged to encourage women to ride and, as a result, the bicycle became both a symbol and a means of women’s liberation.

With the new transportation came a “rational dress” movement for women, who could not reasonably be expected to ride in full skirts, wearing the average of thirty-seven pounds of clothing that was common before the advent of the cycle. As a result of the cycling craze bloomers in the 1880s at last became a viable fashion option for women, although feminists had pushed for years for their acceptance.

Another direct result of cycling’s popularity was a rise in female athletes–cycle riding had proved that exercise was not detrimental to women as was commonly believed. However, women cyclists were criticized for abandoning their femininity and becoming “mannish” or “manly women.”

In the United States, an image of singer Katie Lawrence appeared in men’s clothing on the sheet music for the 1892 popular song Daisy Bell, a love song to a cycling woman about a bicycle built for two. ”

“In France, Art Nouveau advertisements for bicycles often included nude or otherwise liberated women; one ad from around 1899 for Liberator Cycles depicted a bare-breasted helmeted Amazonian warrior alongside her wheels, while another from around 1895 for Cottereau Cycles showed a woman astride her cycle while breast-feeding.

In Staten Island, New York, lesbian photographer Alice Austen often pictured her bloomer-wearing women friends astride their bikes. In what would be some of her only commercial work, Austen made the illustrations for Violet Ward’s book Bicycling for Ladies (1896).”

Rainbows for Beginners

Pride season is in the air. Last year I wrote a post-pride advice guide for straight people hosting floats in the parade. It seems like time to bring it to the surface again, in the hopes that companies wishing to market to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people by having a float in the ‘gay pride parade’ will have a successful time of it.

Yay for cultural sensitivity.

Here’s the link to that article: Pride Parade Entry Basics for Straight People

I was intrigued by our lesbian heroine, Maggy Gale, and her qualifications. At the age of 37 she has acquired and accomplished so much. She has an arts degree and then rose to the rank of leiutenant in the police department. She owns her own apartment building and had the expertise to do the renovations in that building herself. She earned a black belt in Karate.”

“This”, I said to myself “is a single woman. And she’s been single for a long time.” Who else would have time for all that? On some levels I can relate to our heroine. After all, isn’t that what we are trying to do when we read these books? But then it starts to sink in that she achieves so much more that me and seems devoid of any faults so I stop relating to her. I become confused as to why I haven’t been able to accomplish half of this stuff myself, after all I have something in common with the our heroine: I like root beer too.

Then I realize, “Oh, I’m busy reading about this and she’s busy living this”. Even so, Maggy’s ability to jump over a piano and do handstand push ups is a bit over the top. Despite her perfection, the character and story are engaging, making for a fun read.

Needless to say, our heroine is well qualified for her job as a private detective. She’s a retired (by choice) police lieutenant with all the contacts a private detective needs to ply her trade. In Angel Food and Devil Dog, she investigates the death of a professor at the local college, and finds herself attempting to find the killer before she herself or her lover is the next target. Will she solve this case before another life and her love are taken from her?

This mystery can be ordered from Amazon

Hey Sophia!
Hope you gals are doing well!

We thought we’d send you this as it might interesting to you.
We have just written and recorded this years’ theme song for Vancouver Pride 2008, “Living Out Proud”. Vancouver will be using it for the kick off of events and media liaisons as well as in the parade. So far 7 other major cities around the world have also decided to use it…some have put it on their website already. The cities include, Seattle, Ottawa, Charlotte, North Carolina (where we will be performing at their pride in July), Toronto (it looks like Proud FM may be playing it as well) , Kentucky and Cornwall, UK. We are totally jazzed by the great response we have gotten.

We have given it to them for free to use however they need it and it is also downloadable for free on our myspace page.

“Living Out Proud” is a celebration of Pride as well as an encouragement for LGBT people to come out in every aspect of their lives and we’re hoping it also reaches the ears and the hearts of those in prominent positions whose coming out, we feel, could make such a positive impact on the lives and rights of LGBT people everywhere.

So there you go!
Chat soon…thanks,

Marlee and Tully
from SUGARBEACH

Canada:

Ellen Woodsworth – Municipal, Vancouver City Council www.ellenwoodsworth.com
Libby Davies – Federal Member of Parliament www.libbydavies.ca 

Japan:

Kanako Otsuji – Elected Osaka Assembly member, National Diet candidate. http://gayjapannews.com/news_english/news3.htm

US:

Barbara Jordan: Texas Senator. First African American to preside over a legislative body in the United States, Congresswoman.  Closeted for her entire life, her female partner of 20 years was acknowledged in her obituary as her ‘long time companion’. http://lesbianlife.about.com/cs/woc/p/barbarajordan.htm

Australia:

Penelope Ying-yen “Penny” Wong – Member of the Australian Senate – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Wong

More lesbian politicians: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lesbian_politicians

Well, here I’ve done that filtering for you. The list below is derived from a RSS feed provided by the Xtra website, which shows you only stories that have the word ’she’, lesbian, woman or women in them. Xtra west is responsible for the content below, not Lesbian Quarterly. (PS, if the space below is blank this week, it means there weren’t any ‘qualified’ stories in their feed. )

To read the Dykes to Watch Out For, I suggest going directly to Allison Bechdel’s site.

Here’s a direct link to the ‘feed’ to view the full list of storieshttp://www.feedrinse.com/services/channel/?chanurl=573850cf40c40f54203509cc38e50c49

Young lesbian and queer women artists are quoted as saying they don’t want to be ‘pidgeonholed’ as queer by representing themselves in the media as lesbian or writing about lesbian experience. While not exactly closeted, if the majority of their fans have no reason to know they’re not straight, they will be assumed to be straight. 

Musicians and other public figures passing for straight is nothing new. Queer artists like KD Lang, the Nylons, George Michaels and Elton John also passed for straight in their early careers.  While not needing the deep closet of gay actor Rock Hudson or US Congresswomen Barbara Jordan, who were outed only after their deaths, many young lesbian and queer artists are choosing to represent themselves as straight by not declaring otherwise. Would kd or the Nylons have been as successful as they have been if they had come out early in their careers? We’ll know that gay and lesbian people have reached full equality when creating art about our own experiences no longer reduces our career success.

But why are musicians looking for less mainstream audiences not out and proud? Lesbian musical matriarch Cris Williamson is quoted as saying that it’s all just a part of an artistic pendulum, and that much younger women, currently 12 or 13 have swung back towards being more political, and that gives her hope.  I think she’s got a point here. Cris’ words put me in mind of an 80’s TV show starring Michael J Fox as the Republican teenage son of progressive activist parents. His parents were so political, there was no way to differentiate himself from them without embracing the conservative values they’d fought. Perhaps the current generation of lesbian and queer women artists are reacting to their musical foremothers in a similar way, choosing to be apolitical or pass for straight in order to be nothing like the lesbian musicians who preceeded them. One can only hope that their musical daughters will feel an equal need to do something different.

In the early nineteen eighties if you were a lesbian woman and wanted to meet other lesbian women your option was limited to the few gay bars or clubs that were operating at that time. They were dirty, dark establishments in rough areas of the city; the bathrooms had stalls where doors where non-existent. These were hardly places where lesbian women could have a quiet drink, pleasant conversation and feel good about themselves. These were also “Anita Bryant” times, where some women were fearful of being outed and worried about the ramifications of being labeled a lesbian in their workplace. It was for many of these reasons that Marsha Trew believed that there was a great need for a lesbian organization as an alternative to the club scene. As Marsha was new to the city, and knew very few other lesbians, she related her ideas to Paulette Thomson. Paulette, like Marsha, felt a place was needed where gay women could meet, socialize, and feel good about their surroundings. Paulette asked some of her friends to a meeting with Marsha. The group, consisting of Marsha and Paulette, Sharyn Collis, Judith Shaver, and Val Fortey, spent the next few months organizing a first event. More at: http://www.gazeboconnection.com/history.html

SATURDAY MARCH 8 CELEBRATE !!! ‘INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY’ with the fabulous … KIM KUZMA and guests …

SUGARBEACH (The band) special installment … featuring 3 dusted off and better than ever!! former  MISTRESS members … the outstanding/powerhouse vocals of  Marlee Walchuk the beautiful harmonies and keyboard stylings of Tully Callender the serious rocker chick guitar licks of Rona Goodman rounded off by the always stellar drumming of Lisa Lambert and a very special…  

MELISSA ETHERIDGE TRIBUTE  by yet another former ‘MISTRESS’ member … JANIS MULLAN opening set with … BONNIE STE-CROIX an incomprable evening of outstanding women’s music and merriment!!! The Fairview Pub … 898 West Broadway Doors: 8:30pm  Show: 9:30pm advance tix $15 available @ Little Sisters 1238 Davie St. *get tix early!! always a sell out! http://www.kimkuzma.com/ http://www.sugarbeachmusic.com/   

(Girlgigs productions – girlgigs@yahoo.com)