What exactly do you call the lifestyle so flamboyantly trumpeted by Baltimore-based Star & Garter magazine? Is it queer? Well, yeah, but not completely. Is it liberal? Absolutely. Is it deviant? That goes without saying!
Kara Mae, founder of S&G, writes that since childhood she has been "fascinated with fashion, glamour and of course sex," and the "zine that is her passion is a pretty heady tonic of all three. But such a statement could come from publisher of any magazine, from Vogue to GQ. The difference is that Mae's "fashion" is more leather than it is lace; her idea of "glamour" can be found on the runways at strip clubs just as often as at Ralph Lauren's studios; and as for "sex" -- well, let's just say that Ann Coulter need not apply.
The pages of this month's S&G are packed with tributes to the stars and shows of burlesque theater's past and present. Tura Satana, b-movie hero and star of Russ Meyer's 1965 cult flick, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, talks with an interviewer about the subtle, yet infinitely important differences between burlesque stripping and mainstream stripping. We also get to chat with plus-size, be-pearled burlesque diva Dirty Martini, famous for her "naughty nurse act" and tassle-twirling. When one article starts talking about the legitimate "first wave of shemale porn stars," you start to get the idea -- things that Kara Mae and her friends find beautiful, which most people find either disgusting, bizarre, or obscene, are the things that find their way into the magazine. The publishers of this magazine are indeed aesthetes, but of an order much wackier than your average fashion mogul. They are conossieurs of all things lowlife, and proud of it.
Star & Garter is a -- forgive me -- beautiful example of the punk-revivalist culture that has been on the rise now for quite a few years. It's a scene that's incredibly hard to nominalize (and sometimes even to lay a finger on) because of how broad and underground it is at the same time. It is entirely based out of cities and usually has close ties to their queer communities, activist groups and of course, artists and musicians. Radical community centers like Baltimore's Charm City Space are popping up all over the country, and bands like San Francisco's Gravy Train and the Lovemakers are toeing the line between experimentalism and kitsch, while at the same time heralding messages of peace, crazy sex and almost confrontational self-expression. It's as if the DIY-ers of the world have become almost violently open-minded, but their biggest mistake is not knowing when to stop. Because in modern art and music, and in S&G's case, burlesque, who isn't a genius and an innovator?
For example, S&G has a feature on a three-man/woman/whatever drag queen act the B-Girlz, who just finished a three-month stint in the gay mecca that is Provincetown. Sure, they're beautiful, in a way, and an example of an interesting subcultural phenomenon (drag queen cabaret troupes), but I'll bet dollars to dimes that there aren't more than a thousand people in this country who are familiar with their work. But then again, nobody said counterculture was supposed to be popular.
What is remarkable about S&G is that some of the writing is just outstanding. The article "When Things Get Stormy," by a staff writer known only as "Carlita" describes with a neurotic, eloquent narrative her interactions with her inner burlesque persona, a bawdy stage actress named Stormy Lee and how she drove the author to great lengths of sexy and glamorous self-expression. The content isn't the kind of thing that's going to make it into middle school curriculum any time soon, but the artistry is unabashed and impressive. The same goes for the elegant clothing that hangs off of the magazine's pierced and heavily eyeshadowed models and the campy cartoons that adorn most pages. Being able to stomach Star and Garter takes a certain degree of unfailing love and acceptance of all types of people, which admittedly is not for everyone.
But Kara Mae's message, when you get down to it, seems to be that maybe it should be. And that's pretty damn beautiful.
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