Saturday 13 December 2014

Beautiful people













From Featureshoot:
For Beautiful by Night, San Francisco-based photographer and film-maker James Hosking chronicles life in Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, the one and only gay bar left standing in the Tenderloin, a neighbourhood that decades ago was renowned for its thriving LGBT community. In tracing the nightly routines of three of its older drag queens - Donna Personna, Collette LeGrande and Olivia Hart - Hosking traces the rich history and uncertain future of drag in the crime-ridden area.

In recent years, the Tenderloin has seen thirty-five times the crime rate of surrounding areas, and its decline has come at the expense of a once-flourishing gay nightlife. Hosking was drawn to those queens who had experienced those early years of drag, those who pushed through their fears of prejudice and societal disapproval to practice what they love. Hosking was endeared to Aunt Charlie’s, in part because of its imperfect performances. The club has no windows and no stage, and the queens must wind in and out of the crowd during their sets, for which they choose their own songs.

More than just a means to making a living, drag is an enduring and lifelong passion. “I think they’d miss it if they stopped,” says Hosking.
And here is the documentary Beautiful by Night, for your delectation:



James Hosking website

12 comments:

  1. I'm delighted Mr. Hosking is so taken by Aunt Charlie's, but the place is a dump. Still, it is one of the few links left to a vanishing world, so maybe I'm too harsh. No, come to think of it, it really is a dump.

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  2. That is lovely! Some days I feel how they look. I'll never forget my first visit to San Francisco. While my friend, who I was visiting, was working, I told her I'd walk up to the Castro from my hotel to meet her once she was off for happy hour, dinner, and then clubbing, and it would give me time to explore on my way to meet her. I went back the same way that night to my hotel The next day when I gave her my route after drinks the night before, she was horrified I went right through the Tenderloin. She said "You so don't want to go through there in the day, let alone night!!!!!" Coming back to the hotel that fateful night I was offered drugs, weed, four blow jobs, some hot handbags and saw at least five people taking a piss out in the open. I just figured it was San Fran. Thinking back, I was probably lucky to have made it through.

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    1. Those drag queens must be tough old birds! Sounds like a horrendous neighbourhood...

      ...mind you, where I grew up (Newport, Wales) was as rough as old boots, and I am sure I took many more risks and ventured into far more dodgy situations back then in my youth than I ever would nowadays! Jx

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    2. "many more risks and ventured into far more dodgy situations back then in my youth than I ever would nowadays"

      I suspect your right.

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    3. Oh! The places I used to go cruising for trade... Those were the days! - the risk gave us such a rush of adrenaline. It's all so sanitised these days. Jx

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  3. And PS- Ohhhhhhhh how I miss Thombeau......

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    1. I miss him terribly! Thombeau (and TJB of Stirred, Straight Up, With a Twist fame) first got me into the whole concept of blogging, and - "Well, Mama look at me now!" Jx

      PS I also miss Felix in Hollywood, Muscato, Princess and Donna Lethal (and many more), but hey ho, life must go on...

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    2. Yes...some good ones! And its hard to find new ones to read and enjoy and have a good ole debauchery.

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    3. A few decades back, it was "Video Killed the Radio Star". Now it's "Social Media Killed the Blog Community". Or at least wounded it. Jx

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