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Check
out C1TV on local cable-access Channel 99 every Wednesday
at 10 pm. Or head to Boxxes (1035 SW Stark St.) at 10 pm
every Wednesday starting Aug. 16 for the WW-sponsored
Queer As Folk party.
www.c1tv.com
Feed
QW: Send savory bits of information to Byron
Beck at bbeck@
wweek.com at least 10 days prior to publication.
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Queers pride themselves on being up on all things courant.
We're always looking for a shiny, new "thing" to play with,
especially if the thing in question is foreign.
The latest plaything is an exclusive import from the Brits--and
no, it isn't an extended B-side from the Pet Shop Boys.
Queer As Folk, a teledrama for the tighty-whitey
set, will vie with Ab Fab as the best thing to cross
the Atlantic since Rupert Everett got his green card.
This audacious (even by European standards) Channel 4 miniseries
chronicles the lives of three young, gay men named Stuart,
Vince and Nathan who reside on Canal Street, the gay ghetto
of Manchester. This swell trio of homo-rific manmeat like
to dance and loves to have sex. Lots of sex. The show's
name comes from a twist on the Yorkshire saying "Now't so
queer as folk," meaning "there is nothing so odd as people."
The show features promiscuity, drug use, filthy language,
infidelity and none-too-subtle relations with minors--and
that's just in the first episode! QAF is a huge
hit in Britain, and Hollywood has already sunk its fangs
in: Showtime is producing a more tepid, Americanized version
for the upcoming cable season. But Yankees haven't been
able to watch the show stateside.
Until now.
In a classic Davey and Gay-liath story, a little network
called C1TV, based in Miami's South Beach, secured the exclusive
broadcasting (as well as VHS and DVD) rights to the original
QAF.
And for those of us who've had to turn Lifetime's constant
reruns of The Golden Girls into our own limp-wristed
stab at queer TV, this news comes as a godsend.
Never heard of C1TV? No wonder. A long, hard flip through
the channels and you'd still have a difficult time finding
what is being marketed as a "gay network." The station broadcasts
one-hour blocks of gay-themed programming (at regularly
scheduled times on cable-access channels all across the
country); on Portland's east side you can find it on the
unlisted Channel 99 every Wednesday at 10 pm.
The station sees itself as a gay MTV, offering a gay dating
show, music videos and a half-hour magazine program called
Wow that covers the flitty worlds of fashion, travel
and flicks. For the next several weeks QAF will inhabit
the first half-hour of each night's programming.
Forget Bea Arthur. TV's got a set of golden boys now.
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