Gay, gayer, gayest

Goodness, it’s almost too hot to talk about art, write about art or read about art. But art happens anyway; so here’s a potpourri of things to consider for the coming week, sorted into the categories of gay, gayer and gayest.

Gay: I think we can all agree that City Heights is home to quite a few LGBT folks. After all, the Azalea Park neighborhood association won best float for a million Pride parades in a row, once upon a time. Therefore, if City Heights is where you call home then you might be interested in a show that just went up at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s downtown location. The exhibition is called Margaret Noble: 44th and Landis. It is a psycho-geographical sound installation by sound artist Margaret Noble that charts a path through City Heights, where the artist grew up. The show combines visual traces of the neighborhood’s early Victorian years and motifs drawn from 1980s urban pop culture all in the form of an ephemeral sculptural environment comprising hundreds of cut paper forms. Sounds fab to me!

Gayer: TwainFest 2012 will be happening Saturday, Aug. 18. TwainFest is a free, one-day festival that celebrates the writing of Mark Twain and his contemporaries. Musicians will perform popular tunes from the mid-19th century and professional actors taking on the roles of Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville and gay icon Walt Whitman will perform scenes throughout the Old Town San Diego State Historic Park – on the grassy central plaza and in the historic buildings of the park. Everyone from the age of 4 to 94 can participate in a variety of unique “hands-on” games such as Overland Express Office (write a letter that will be picked up by horse and rider and receive a written reply in less than an hour!) or Frog Launch which of course means to propel a bean-bag frog with a wooden catapult.

At its heart, TwainFest is about the allure of literature and reading as a source of insight, empathy and joy and a project of Write Out Loud, a unique theater company in San Diego that performs literature aloud, all year, throughout the county.

Gayest: Leather Pride is looking for items for their upcoming silent auction. The goal of the auction is to garner some exposure for local artists and raise money for Leather Pride’s general fund. Over the years Leather Pride has supported individuals and organizations ranging from Being Alive and the Tom of Finland Foundation to the Stonewall Citizens Patrol and Special Delivery. Leather Pride takes place the weekend of Aug. 24-26. Contact info@ROMPSD.com for more details about drop off.