Chris Azzopardi
Metra Picnic promotes freedom of affection
Around 1,000 people mingled, held hands and kissed at the 27th Annual Metra Magazine Picnic, held July 9 at Salt River Park in Lenox, Mich. And the affection didn't feel awkward, organizers said. "We first started it because people can go out on a [...]
Maria Cebreco: Differently-abled, open-minded and proud
After Maria Cebreco received the crown for "Ms. Wheelchair Michigan 2006," two young girls scurried to the stage and gazed into her eyes. "I saw how they looked at my crown, my hair, my face and let's not forget that fab satin off-the-shoulder blue [...]
Candy' is dandy
Amy Sedaris is a lot like her "Strangers with Candy" character Jerri Blank – a 47-year-old ex-prostitute and junkie returning to, gasp, high school. She's innocent. She's forgetful. She's a survivor. "But I'm not a junky whore," Sedaris tells BTL. [...]
Gay Games promise a funny Cho
Margaret Cho didn't need to know the number of strikes in an out or how to score a touchdown to perform at the Gay Games. It's a good thing, too. "I don't know anything about sports at all," Cho says, laughing. Even if sex, which she seems to know a [...]
Gay Games: More than club-hopping in Windy City
If the thought of divers clad in teeny weenie Speedos and bikinis during next week's Gay Games in Chicago puts your hormones into drive, then you're in luck. That's if you're a literature buff. "The cruising can be so much so that people have to get [...]
Soul sisters
When the Indigo Girls first hit the folk scene in the late '80s, people were hushed about homosexuality. "They were scared to talk about it, record companies were scared to have people write about it," says Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls during a phone [...]
Ikea business still booming
CANTON – After scoring one of Michigan's largest grand openings – 5,000 people rushed into the department store before 11 a.m. on opening day – Canton Ikea store manager Mark McCaslin didn't know what to expect. "It's a nice, steady business," said [...]
New year, new artists
ANN ARBOR – When you already hold one of the largest outdoor art fairs in the country, there's not much else you can add, except new artists. "There's always a sense of change every year," said Max Clayton, executive director for The Guild of [...]
One pedal at a time
Evidence legal pads. Check. Black, thick pens. Check. Clear, green plaid Scotch tape. Check. "When I'm writing I have very much a ritual that I follow," says John Waters as he takes a break from settling into his summer home in Provincetown, [...]
Spreading God's love for all
Gospel singer-songwriter Shawn Thomas used to believe a correlation existed between a gay person and a child molester. "I knew that wasn't me," Thomas says from his home in West Palm Beach, Fla. "So I thought I wasn't gay." But his small town, where [...]
Elite Detail Masters
Elite Detail co-owner Rachelle Townsend wasn't comfortable sending her three children to a school in an affordable but leery area of Colorado. So, she and her husband decided to rent and renovate a place in a nicer area. "I don't think they [the [...]
Devil' is heavenly comedy
It usually won't fly when an interviewee seeking a job in the realm of fashion – where models prance around in baby-sized clothing and nibble on celery sticks – dresses like an older Pippi Longstocking. But like any journalism major fresh from [...]