Where did you grow up? In New York City. What do you miss about it there? The friendships built over the years. How long have you lived in South Florida? For 15 years. Why did you move here? For the warmer weather. What part of South Florida do you live in? In Fort Lauderdale. What do you like most about living here? That it’s an openly-gay city. Where do you hang out in South Florida? At Ramrod. What South Florida venue do you miss that’s gone? My recent favorite restaurants that are closings. If you had to live somewhere else other than here, where would you live? In California.
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Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850-1950 portrays the history of romantic love between men in hundreds of moving and tender vernacular photographs taken between the years 1850 and 1950.
What’s your claim-to-fame? I’m a self-esteem photographer—I help people be body-positive about themselves. Which one of your old jobs least prepared you for what you do now? Banking—always get it in writing! What’s the hottest shoot that you’ve ever done? When I shot ten guys in a group leather scene.What have you been doing to keep yourself busy during the quarantine? Networking my photography.Will you ever retire? When I can’t take photos anymore I will. What’s the best place thatyou’ve ever visited? Greece. If God were to take you tomorrow, how would you like to be remembered? As someone who made a difference for people with my photography.
WITH MR. RAMROD 2017, SCOT BLUMSTEIN
What are you an expert at? Making people feel comfortable. What do you want to live long enough to see? Solid equality for the gay community. What’s your favorite movie? Private Benjamin. What drives you crazy? Trump and his followers. Would you give a kidney to a relative or close friend? Yes. What’s something that you learned in life only when you got older? To let go of what people think of you. Who’s your favorite performer? Cher. What’s your best characteristic? I’m a great communicator. How do you enjoy spending your time? Watching movies and TV. What celebrity do you have crush on? Ryan Reynolds.
Who do you admire? Michelle Obama. If you could bring one person back from the dead, who would it be? My grandmother. Where would you go in a time machine? To my younger years to encourage myself as a child. What would your last meal be? Creamy pasta. What do you worry about? Today’s politics. Are you more like a sheep or a wolf? A wolf. Who depends on you, and for what? Friends do, for advice and companionship. What would your autobiography be called? Discovering Self-Image Photography. What’s on your bucket list? Writing a book. What’s your greatest regret in life? Not coming out earlier than after college. Where can we see you? Right now…? At home! You can also see me at HowardZucker.net and at SylvesterQ.com.
Country girl Dixie Longate debuts her new show in Fort Lauderdale next month. Get ready for booze, tales of sordid life, and displays of domestic acumen.
Where did you grow up? In Mobile, Alabama. I was born and raised there. It’s a great place to come from, but it’s an even better place to leave. That’s why I like going on the road. I can’t wait ‘till this virus is gone so I can go back to not being here. When you’re not in Mobile, what do you miss about it? When I leave, I do miss the people, the honky-tonks, and the fact that you can drink from your car, as long as you don’t get caught. Oh, and Mardi Gras. It actually started here, you know. What were you arrested in L.A. for? I actually have never been arrested in LA. But I had to leave Alabama as part of the conditions of my parole, so I went to L.A., figuring if Nicole Kidman can get famous and marry Tom Cruise, why can’t I? We’re both red heads. Are you still on parole? Currently, no. I only see my parole officer socially these days. Did you have anything to do with the death of your three ex-husbands? Not according to the court. Just because you’re holding the ax, doesn’t mean you have used it. What are you children doing now? Wynona is looking for a job, because the Hooters where she used to work doesn’t have outdoor seating, since they never got the patio awning fixed after the last hurricane. Dwayne is making llamas. Absorbine, Jr. is lying face down on the floor, and has been for a few hours. He’s three-years-old. That’s what they do.
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Why did you move from L.A.? I’d been on the road for so many years with my show, that it didn’t make sense to keep paying the rent in L.A., when I could just move my life and the kids back to Mobile. Plus, the moving boxes keep my kids thoroughly entertained and busy while I’m gone for months at a time. Which one of your old jobs least prepared you for what you do now? I think that everything sort-of prepared me for it. Cashier at the Piggly Wiggly, collection-plate coin-counter at the He is Risen Baptist church, pole-cleaner at the Snazzy Beaver—I’m using skills from all of those jobs to help me get where I am today. Did you ever go to the Tupperware headquarters in Orlando? Of course I have. Every year I go to the Jubilee. It’s right by Gator World. What theater would you love to bring your show to? I’m hankering to get my show back to New York City, where it all started 13 years ago. What have you been doing to keep yourself busy during the quarantine? I’ve been doing Live Facebook Happy Hours several days a week, where I make myself a cocktail and sit and share stories with people online. It has kept me busy, and has kept people smiling, which is important during this crazy time. Will you ever retire? From entertaining, or from drinking? What’s the weirdest question that a fan’s asked you? Someone asked me to do a shout-out video for the “Corn Dog Association of Houston, Texas.” It was different, but it made me laugh. What other celebrity did you act like a “fan” around? Do you know who I got so excited by in my audience one night? Gedde Watanabe came to see the show. He was “Long Duck Dong” in Sixteen Candles. I just remember always loving him in that movie. He was such a source of joy growing up. I was beside myself that I got to be the one making him laugh this time.
PHOTOGRAPH BY BRADFORD ROGNE
What’s the last thing that you looked at online? The website for ALDO shoes. What’s the best place that you’ve ever visited? I have actually had really good luck finding wonderful things about each place I have traveled to while I’ve been touring. But I have a real love for Texas, Denver and Iowa. And outside the U.S., I loved playing Australia. It was a dream come true. What are you an expert at? Drinking. I’m also pretty good at knitting, and I’ve made a blouse or two on the sewing machine. If God were to take you tomorrow, how would you like to be remembered? Hopefully people will remember me as a funny, inspiring, no-nonsense kind-of generous soul. Or they will all just come to my funeral with flasks and shove them in my coffin. What do you want to live long enough to see? Affordable top shelf gin. And a woman president. Who would you like to be for a day, and why? Jennifer Lopez, but only during a halftime show. Do you believe in an afterlife? I think that we’re lucky enough to be here in the first place. I don’t want to waste any time here, because I don’t rightly know if we’ll get a second spin around the sun. Do you think that this is the most amoral time that’s ever existed? Since I have never lived during any other time, I can’t really judge, because they always leave the good stuff out of history books. Who or what is the greatest love of your life? The greatest love of my life is the time I get to connect with audiences after my shows. I get my yearly fill of hugs every single day. I wish everyone could feel that. It’s good for the soul. What talent would you most like to have? I wish I could sing. Singers have the coolest lives. To be able to serenade someone—and not sound like I was just in a horrible car accident and am screaming in pain—would be a total benefit.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHELE HELBERG
If you were a dictator with unlimited powers, what would you do first? I’d give everyone a Bedazzler. The world instantly gets better when you Bedazzle things. What’s something that you learned in life only when you got older? That booze helps. What did you learn from your parents? Good stories to use to get out of trouble from the police. What’s your best characteristic? My sense of humor, I think. I tend to be able to make people smile even in the toughest of times. How do you enjoy spending your time? With booze. What celebrity do you have a crush on? I don’t know a soul who won’t tell you that Chris Hemsworth doesn’t make their Jesus place all tingly. Who do you admire? Anyone who has stood up for what they believe in, even when it’s unpopular. If you could bring one person back from the dead, who would it be? Cher. Where would you go in a time machine? To the fall of 1976. It just seems like a ridiculously fun and mellow time. What would your last meal be? Mexican food with a giant bowl of chips and guacamole. What do you worry about? My toenails getting tougher as I grow older. What are you afraid of? Lesbians who run out of markers when they have only six hours to make 100 signs for a march. If you were a musical instrument, what would you be? The harp, because there’s a lot more surface area to play with. Are you more like a sheep or a wolf? A sheep, mostly because I’m so cuddly. Ask the FedEx man.
Who depends on you, and for what? My kids for every damn thing. My best friend for laughs. And my momma, because she needs someone to roll her medical bed up the hill when we go for walks, and because she’s a pretty good drinking buddy. Who are you closest with? My best friend, Georgia Jean. She owns the local honky-tonk, so being best friends with her is a win-win. What would your autobiography be called? Well, I’ve seen stories called “Unstoppable,” “Unbreakable” and “Unflappable,” so I guess mine would be called Un-burp-a-bowl. What’s on your bucket list? I want to stay in one of those little bungalows over the ocean that you always see in commercials, but no one really can afford to stay there. What’s your greatest regret in life? That I never got to meet Brownie Wise, who created the Tupperware party. My show is a giant love letter to her. She changed more women’s lives than anyone else on the planet. What’s something secretive about you that people don’t know? That I have to look up damn near every drink recipe online, because I can never remember them. Where can we see you? I’ll be doing a brand new show called Dixie’s Happy Hour at the Imax Theater on September 8th and 9th as a fundraiser for Island City Stage. And you can always catch me on Facebook, Instagram or on Twitter. Or maybe standing on the cinder block that you left outside of your bedroom window.
Cher kicked off the North American portion of her world tour, Here We Go Again, with a stop in Fort Lauderdale this past Saturday
SHADE-O-METER RATING
3 OUTTA 5 WERKS: “NO SHADE, BUT SHE DIDN’T TURN IT OUT”
By Mike Jeknavorian
Who’s Cher? If you don’t know who she is, I give up. What’s the BB&T Center? It’s an indoor sports an entertainment arena in Sunrise, Florida. It’s holds about 20,000 people. How was the venue? State-of-the-art, for the most part. It’s a nice space.
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A new album of all ABBA hits, the Oscar, Emmy and Grammy Award-winning icon was inspired to record the album following her stunning performance in the recently-released mega-hit film, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.
How was the parking? For some reason, our parking was included with the ticket. If parking isn’t included with the ticket, it costs $30. They also have “VIP parking,” which is closer to the venue than the regular parking is. Does the venue serve liquor? Yes. How were the drinks? We didn’t get any (if you can believe that).
Does the venue serve food? Yes. How was the food? We didn’t get any. However, others were eating things around us. What they were eating looked like carnival food. Pretzels, fries, etc. Where were the seats? Directly to stage-right. How much were the tickets? $196.15, which included the Ticketmaster fees, etc. Was the show sold out? It sure looked like it.
Was there an opening act? Yes. Nile Rodgers & Chic—formerly known simply as, Chic—opened the show. We didn’t see all of their set, but for what we did see, they were good. The crowd was certainly into them. And, although they were restricted to the front of the theater, they still managed to considerably jazz the crowd up. Particularly so, with their hits, “Le Freak” and “Good Times.”
How was Cher? Few can claim that at age 72, they’re at the height of their fame. But with a Broadway musical about her life that’s running, a recent Kennedy Center Honor, and a star-turn in the new Momma Mia movie, Cher likely can. But those claims will only go so far with the paying public. To begin, Cher opened the show with her feminist anthem, “Woman’s World,” which was then followed by the disco number, “Strong Enough.” Miss Sarkisian then delivered a semi-jumbled (despite the monitors in front of her that had captions on them) 10-to-15-minute monologue, where she discussed the premise that “youth is wasted on the young” and how her 40s were some of the best, if not the best, years of her life. Given that the tour is supporting her new ABBA covers albums, Dancing Queen, Cher did a mid-set ABBA medley that consisted of “Waterloo,” “SOS” and “Fernando.” But for every couple of numbers that she did, she was almost off-stage for the duration of a number, presumably, getting into another outfit. If one subtracted all these fillers, it brought the running time down to barely an hour and a half. The last two numbers were “I Found Someone” and “If I Could Turn Back Time.” The one encore number was the club-heavy song, “Believe.”
How was the crowd? A mix of the new and the ancient. The ones on the floor stood up the whole time. The others really only stood at the beginning and the end. What could have improved the show? First, has anyone that’s Cher’s age ever done a solo-arena tour with full production values? If not, credit should be given to Cher at least for this assumed title. The closest that I can think of who’s done anything like that in their 70s is Elton John, but he’s not really solo because he has the band behind him, and his shows don’t have the elaborate sets and costumes. Nevertheless, with this tour, Cher brought little to the table that was novel. A possible antidote to this deficit could be an anthological confession-type-show, similar to what Springsteen just did with Springsteen on Broadway. And the second issue with the show was that there were some sound problems, with intermittent buzzing and loud bass sounds.
What was surprising about the show? That whoever was the dresser would dare put one of the outfits on crooked. And it wasn’t just any outfit, but that iconic one from the “I Found Someone” video. The whole back of it was crooked. Shame (enter the one who rang the bell from Game of Thrones’ “walk of shame”)! The way that Cher ended the show was also strange. She merely vanished at the end of the finale number without a gesture or saying a word. And if she even waved goodbye to the crowd, we didn’t see it.
The BB&T Center is located at 1 Panther Pkwy., in Sunrise, Florida. The venue is open when there’s an event.
With his landslide victory in Wilton Manors last month, Justin Flippen is now in the elite category as the mayor of the second city in the country to have an all-gay commission. Hear what’s on Flippen’s mind, in his first interview since his historic win.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL MURPHY
Where did you grow up? I’m a proud Broward County native. I lived in Hollywood, Pembroke Pines, Coconut Creek, and Wilton Manors all at different stages of my youth. If you had to narrow it down, what do you like most about living in Wilton Manors? The people and my neighbors. What’s something that’s special about Wilton Manors that’s not commonly known? We have foxes and bears. One, the four-legged mammal. The other, the two-legged people kind (laughs). What South Florida venue do you miss that’s gone? Six Flags Atlantis. Other than Wilton Manors, where do you hang out in South Florida? I love nature, so I’m often in the Everglades and Big Cypress National Preserve. What’s your claim-to-fame? I’m not sure I have fame to claim, but I’m proud to be local born-and-raised and now the local mayor of the most progressive city around. Which political accomplishment is the most special to you? Besides being elected mayor by the people in one of the most decisive city elections in Wilton Manors’ history, officiating a group/mass-marriage ceremony of couples on Valentine’s Day at city hall when marriage equality was recognized was pretty special.
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What was the most exciting event that you ever attended, and why?The first inauguration of President Barack Obama in January 2009. To attend it was an inspiring and a uniquely-American experience that I’ll never forget. Which one of your old jobs least prepared you for what you do now? My first job as a shipping clerk. If God were to take you tomorrow, how would you like to be remembered? As a man who did all the good he could for all the people he could, in all the ways that he could, and for as long as he could. What do you want to live long enough to see? Humanity no longer dependent upon non-renewable resources and brave enough to live cleaner and greener. Should “straight” conversion therapy be banned? As a survivor of such so-called conversion therapy, and based upon research and medical experts, yes. The practice has been banned on minors in Wilton Manors and all of Broward County. What’s the weirdest question that a constituent’s asked you?“What do you think about the ghost haunting our old city hall?”
What celebrity did you act like a “fan” around?Leonard Nimoy. I got a picture doing the Vulcan salute with him! What’s the last thing that you looked at online? I Googled the ancient pyramids of Caral, Peru. What’s the best place that you’ve visited? Jerusalem. What’s the last thing that you watched on TV?Madame Secretary or Murphy Brown. What’s the craziest thing that you ever did? Night snorkeling in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii with giant manta rays. What’s your favorite book? The Bible, Living History by Hillary Clinton, and Chicken Soup for the Soul. What’s the best concert that you ever went to? Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Cher. Do you still have your childhood blanket or stuffed animal? Yes. What’s something that you learned in life only when you got older? Basic learning alone is not what makes one wise. Rather, wisdom comes with the righteous application of the knowledge that one has gained. And, of course, mom was right on a lot more than I thought.
WITH BARACK OBAMA
What did you learn from your parents?How to be self-reliant and independent. How to take responsibility in life, but also to not take life too seriously. Honorable mentions include how to iron, clean, rotate my own tires, and do laundry. Who’s your favorite performer? Hugh Jackman, Leonard Nimoy, and Zachary Quinto. What’s your best characteristic? I would hope my sincere desire to do right by others. How do you enjoy spending your time? For leisure, I love seeing and experiencing our country and world, especially our National Parks. This year, I completed a bucket-list item. I’ve now visited all 50 states. What celebrity do you have a crush on?Henry Cavill. Who do you admire? Jesus Christ, my grandmother, and Eleanor Roosevelt. If you could bring one person back from the dead, who would it be? My younger brother, Nick. Where would you go in a time machine? Back to 2016 to warn people, to get more folks to vote, and to enjoy Obama as president one last time. What would your last meal be? Something Peruvian or Italian. What do you worry about? Not playing my lotto numbers the week they come in, and having Trump as President.
What are you afraid of?The rise of nationalism and the decline of patriotism. If you were a musical instrument, what would you be? A zampoña, which is a traditional Andean panpipe of Peru. There’s something mystical and spiritual for me whenever I hear it played. It speaks to my soul. Are you more like a sheep or a wolf? Neither. Can I be a bear or an elephant instead? Who depends on you, and for what? The people of my city depend on me to serve them with my best, and nothing less. Who are you closest with? God, and a very select group of family and friends. What would your autobiography be called? Oh, I don’t know. Maybe, Flippen: Beyond the Bear Minimum.What music do you listen to when you’re upset?Inspirational, pop and country, but not just when I’m upset. Latin beats and rhythm usually raises my spirits too. What’s on your bucket list? To visit all of the National Park sites in America. Of the approximately 418 sites, I’ve visited 291 so far. I’m also working on visiting every state capitol building. What’s something that you never told anyone else? Many of the answers in this interview. Where can we see you? At Starbucks or at city hall. People can also follow me on my Facebook and Twitter accounts.
How was the parking? For some reason, our parking was included with the ticket. If parking isn’t included with the ticket, it costs $30. They also have “VIP parking,” which is closer to the venue than the regular parking is. Does the venue serve liquor? Yes. How were the drinks? We didn’t get any (if you can believe that).
