Edward Albee in Metro Weekly

Metro Weekly has a great feature interview with playwright Edward Albee this week (well, last week, since they're out with a new issue today). Albee's response to the question "how do you feel about the flops" is a good one:

"One of the things you have to learn very quickly if you're going to survive in the theater...is that the way people respond to you, to what you do, doesn't necessarily have very much to do with the quality of what you've done. Some of your best stuff can be condemned and some of your less ambitious things will sail right through. You can't worry about that stuff. As long as you do your job as honestly and well as you possibly can, you can't be responsible for the minds of critics or the taste of an audience. You can't be responsible for those things because you're not a servant."

I think that's great advice, not just for creative work, but for life. Or, as another playwright put it: "To thine own self be true."

I admit I've only seen one Albee play, "The Play About the Baby." And I'm still confused. But I'm going to add "Virginia Woolf" in my queue.

The MW interview ended on a playful note. Asked "what is the best thing for you, personally, about being a gay man," Albee responds: "You get to go to bed with guys."

DC City Paper Panties in a Wad

The poor folks over at DC's City Paper just can't understand why Mayor Fenty gives scoops to the WaPo. Uh, maybe because the Post is a newspaper. And the City Paper is...what?

I mean, an eight-page or so feature story on cat-calls?

City Paper: If you want an example of an excellent weekly rag that covers the community, politics, arts, culture and the DC social scene, check out Metro Weekly.

And stop whining.

A Journalistic Cat Fight

A bit of a slug-fest has emerged between former Washington Blade editor Chris Crain and the editor of Metro Weekly, Sean Bugg.

First Crain, then Bugg.

It would be interesting if this bitch fight would evolve into a more constructive discussion of gay media, its quality and direction. The role of gay media seems to have evolved from cheerleading coverage to more critical analysis -- and that's a good thing. But it also seems to be dominated -- like everything else in our culture, by the entertainment industry. Not so good -- as who's really more important...Lance Bass? Or Michael Shackleford?

At any rate, it would be fascinating to see Bugg and Crain debate the direction of gay journalism, balancing local community coverage vs. national, the role of gay newspapers in promoting the community vs. holding it accountable, the trend toward national chains, etc, and get past the personalities. How about it, boys?

Gays Can't Get Married, Straights Can't Divorce

If the Family Foundation of Virginia gets their way.

Let's see:

1) Two people who love each other can't have their releationship legally recognized if they are of the same sex; and,

2) If you're straight and married and hate each other you can't be legally separated.

Yep, makes sense to me.

As Will stated on Metro Weekly's Mincing Words blog:

I hope that majority of Virginia voters who were willing to trample on the rights of same-sex commonwealth couples will be as eager to rein in their own personal freedoms. Here’s to the Family Foundation of Virginia getting everything it wants in 2007!