Review: Courtney Act live at the Beresford Hotel.

On  20 July, the Beresford Hotel and its highly popular Sunday night was delightfully dazzled by internationally home-grown drag queen Courtney Act for a welcome home party.

Courtney Act has been an iconic figure in the Sydney gay community and scene. Although I only reached the ripe age of 18 two years ago, she has been lingering in the backdrop, seeping her way into seemingly hetero Australian culture, appearing on Australian Idol for its first season (which I do shockingly remember!). She's been legendary in her efforts at promoting Mardi Gras Sydney and promoting gay events such as at the numerous gay clubs in Sydney over the years.

Her big shot came when she was in the sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race, achieving success by finishing in the top 3 alongside Adore Delano and Bianca Del Rio.

Sunday would be the first time I would see Courtney Act live even though I had been "in the scene" for two years. The audience was delighted with other drag queen performances to prep us up for the big one. The music was a mixture of tribal house, electrified classics and modern favourites, which got me extremely anxious to see the queen in action.

Courtney came out, for what was classified as a promotion of the globalisation of Sydney Mardi Gras. She generously sang 3 songs - All the Lovers by Kylie Minogue, Mean Gays by herself, and A Little Party Never Killed Nobody by Fergie (which Courtney's version at Mardi Gras Party 2014 absolutely slayed).

I was so amazed and shocked by how great her performances were and how unique she is as a drag queen, her singing ability is top-notch. Everyone in the audience was greatly proud of her, especially how she never lets go of her roots, even going on so far to tell us how her song Mean Gays was actually somewhat inspired by the people she knew in Potts Point.

 

After the show, Courtney greeted her fans, taking photos and doing signatures, which my friend and I (left) were luckily enough to get a quick photo and have a mini conversation with her. She exuberated nothing but utter kindness and she was certainly not a bitch. I know a lot of people that feel that Courtney came off a bit bitchy in the show, but I feel this is certainly misrepresentation as she was so nice to us after the show calling us cute and engaging in conversation with us.

Thank you Courtney for meeting us, an amazing show, and doing Australia proud not only on RuPaul's Drag Race but for all your numerous efforts of support for the Australian gay community over the years.

Why Ian Thorpe's coming out is his own personal medal.

Evaluating the extent of how newsworthy and relevant Ian Thorpe's sexuality is on a blog is in itself ironic and paradoxical. However, I am somewhat irked by the immense exposure and publicity which will, but not limited to, amount to greater culpability to bigoted, outdated opinions that will only detriment the main thing we should be emphasising about Thorpe - his struggles with addiction and depression.

I do applaud Thorpe on his ability to, after unnecessarily arduous years of speculation (which in my opinion should never have been public, it was merely something adding pressure to him), to be able to accept and come to terms with his sexuality. Especially being able to do so in the context of sport, something which in my opinion has been starkly hetero-normative in nature. This situation resonates mildly to the case of diver of the United Kingdom, Tom Daley. Daley as well was highly thunk to be non-heterosexual and after considering his sexuality on a personal basis, decided to do so public via a Youtube video where he "comes out", although not limited to, him having sexual feelings towards males.

It takes bravery, courage and these only come after someone truly grows to accept themselves and be comfortable in their own skin. The struggles we get along the way whilst growing to terms with this can make people more stronger or even make someone continue to live in denial. The road of self-acceptance we walk on isn't the same for everyone. Thorpe said during his interview that he was publicly questioned in the media since he was 16, lived day to day with homophobic insults such as "faggot" and "poof" something which he himself could not be proud of because at such a young age and still hadn't figured out who he really was.

If we continue to live in a day and age where public announcements of an aspect of someone's personal and private life, being their sexuality,  is a news headline or topic then we have a long way to go. 'We' not being solely the gay community, but worldly morals, values and opinions. Today I scrolled along my Facebook newsfeed reading comments, surprisingly by a lot of gay people, degrading him for something "well known". I believe this is not only a very negative representation of the gay community but also something which we ourselves should not be proud of. Yes, something non-sexually attributed which we can acclaim ourselves our pride to. We spend our efforts telling people and creating ad campaigns with things such as "It Gets Better" yet when someone (just because they're a public figure) does so, It Gets Insulted.

It's not that important, he's made it , and I quote, a bigger issue than needs to be. But there are pretty much two ways to interpret this. Yes, okay, it doesn't matter in the sense that this does not downplay his extraordinary sporting achievements, his longstanding commitment and philanthropic contributions or even affect how some people or Australians view him (seemingly because they have thought so for a long time). Yet, in contrast, it DOES matter because we cannot continue to live in a society which degrades or ostracises beings for something so minimal to someone's personality. If you continue to think that this is such a major component of someone's personality and makeup, I implore you to go to the biggest gay club in your city and find people of different shapes, sizes, colours and that's just with you focusing externally.

Oh and I'm not even going to address the ridiculous argument about his accused "fraudulence" especially surrounding the amount he was paid for the interview. I'm pretty sure getting paid for interviews is something very common for people that are famous regardless of the content they decide to talk about. What about celebrities that sell their wedding or baby photos for magazine? It's pretty much the same thing.

I decided to make the feature photo to be one of Thorpe smiling to emphasise the greater concern here - his struggle with depression acting microcosmic to many individuals . Thorpe himself said it's not the real cause of his depression but contributed to the lie he was living by conforming to other people's standards, ambitions, goals and his inherent need to satisfy people. Depression, something which is somewhat intrinsic to the nature of being a public figure or celebrity, does not discriminate. Saying that though, it definitely does happen to regular people. Of course, I am stating the obvious. I believe this interview, after nearly 20 years of being in the public realm, is Thorpe's outcry or exaggeration of how we as humans need to possess a quality which is mindful, compassionate and vigilant of people's feelings and emotions.

If you know anyone who is dealing with depression or if you yourself are, don't hesistate to contact Lifeline or any other services in your local area or country. Sometimes just letting things out to a neutral party can be such a relieving option.

Lifeline 24 Hour Crisis Support - 13 11 14

Film Review: The Fault In Our Stars (2014)

"Good friends are hard to find and impossible to forget."

Incredibly bored and emotional one day, I decided it was about time to watch a film that would make me cry all the pain out. Oh boy, was this it.

These macabre, cancer novels and films have been done so much before that it can be characterised as a genre in itself. This is embellished when during the beginning of the film, the initiation of the characterisation of Hazel, I was bored to say the least. The film then evolves into something of greater contemplation and Hazel's character becomes somewhat obselete in the backdrop.

Based on John Green's bestseller novel of the same title, The Fault In Our Stars, is a story about two cancer sufferers that meet in a support group that, not so unexpectedly, fall in love with each other. Gus (Elgert) and Hazel (Woodley) connect via their profound admiration for their respective favourite novels. Hazel's is one titled 'An Imperial Infliction' with a story of its own bearing strikingly close resemblence to Hazel's life as a cancer sufferer who will eventually one day leave all her loved ones behind. It is to this fact that Hazel questions the ending of the novel which ends mid-sentence, yet inextricably is in search for the answers regarding herself when she dies.

Hazel is unaware of the fact that in this journey of finding the answer to the novel, involving her briefly enjoying a trip in Amsterdam with Gus to meet the author, that the answers are all in front of her.

The film is one of tragic, teenage-like love and drama. It is destined to leave you in tears and sobbing, surprisingly, in tears that are of a niche sadness. The film is placed on a road of subtlety and you are overcome with emotion because you are immersed so greatly in the position of Hazel that her enlightenment will shock you too.

It would be desirable to ensure that you approach the film with little-to-none cynicism and allow yourself to be immersed in the positions of the characters involved, even minute ones. What one would perceive to be a minor character, Hazel's mother, you will grow to realise her character development and what she has to say about Hazel's status which I like to characterise as evolutionary is pinnacle to the subtext of the narrative which you will only be enlightened about at the ending. The contemptuous nature of Van Houten that is portrayed so effectively by Dafoe is an answer in itself, their meeting foreshadowing the future of the loved ones that Hazel will leave behind, yet paradoxically that she herself unknowingly is prone to as well. Becoming agitated at having received no answers from Van Houten, Gus and Hazel spend the rest of their trip in Amsterdam together, and at the second encounter with Van Houten, he says in Latin "life comes from life", which Hazel shrugs off and scolds him for returning. Only when she realises what Gus has done that she realises that Van Houten is a caricature of all the answers she'd been searching for and that he is (in a hard-to-swallow nature) correct.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film, I guess it's because I am a late-teen, young adolescent that approaches films that I know are heavily poached with drama with great sensitivity to my emotional boundaries.

Oh another thing I really loved about the film is the soundtrack. Featuring vocals from Ed Sheeran, Birdy and Charli XCX, everything worked cohesively to create emotion and allow yourself to be in the shoes of the characters.