The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 94

2EB THE HERALD, THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1999 Gay Grapevine aims for radio, but lands on the Net HOPEFUL: Alby Bestini, host of the Gay Grapevine set up a studio in her home to broadcast the show on the Web. Printed media assistance Occasionally, she is joined on the program by Dale Madison, who writes for Scoop magazine, and Ms. of She magazine, and Diane Wild of Unique magazine. I gathered a team of representatives from local magazines to bring to the show different perspectives, Bestini said. Madison, a 15-year-resident of South Florida who also owns a business in Wilton Manors, has high expectations for the Gay Grapevine and misses the daily broadcasts.

With the very large gay population in the tri-county area, it will be a source of news and information about what is going on in our community, he said. We talked about movies, concerts that were coming up, play reviews. Not just the cheapest bar in town for the cheapest cocktail. Madison said action to the show when it aired on WSRF was positive. We were getting a lot of the carry-over of ihe we replaced.

They loved the iormat. We had a let ot people who called who were not gay, but Just enjoyed listening io the rapport we had with each othei. Bestini seid the Gay Grapevine will be back on the radio if she is able to find sponsors. Air time costs $300 an hour. Madison, who owns a gift-basket company, said he is lobbying other Wilton Manors businesses to support the show financially.

Ive had a couple of people ask me whats going on with the radio show. I said, were on the Internet. They said, Let us know when youre back on the radio. Its kind openly gay, we are able to talk to the gay community directly, in terms they understand, Bestini said. The show is just a very clean entertainment format.

Its definitely geared to the gay, lesbian, bisexual communities and transgendered. Bestini came to South Florida from Havana in 1962 and has been here ever since. Im a Hialeah, North Miami-kind of gal, she says. During the 1980s, she owned a record store in Hialeah. Since then, she has had her own video production business and once spun salsa records at WSRF.

She and her life partner, Denise C. Sharf, who also is associate producer of the Gay Grapevine are aggressively seeking out another station on which to air the program. In the meantime, the show goes on, on-line, in a half-hour format. At the top of each show, Bestini announces gay-related events in South Florida. Earlier this month, she interviewed comedian Lea Delaria.

T.J. FRANKS Special to The Herald Actor Mitchell Anderson, second from left, parties at a Gay Lesbian Victory FundSAVE Dade fund-raiser in Miami Beach. With Anderson, star of TVs Party of Five and the 1998 film, Relax. It's Just Sex, are, from left, Raul Perea-Henze, Victory Fund Board member; Stanley Matz, event host; Lark Bennett, development director of CARE Resource; Alain Berrebi, event cochair. Proceeds from the June 26 party went to the Washington, D.C.-based Victory Fund, which raises money for gay and lesbian candidates nationwide, and SAVE Dade, the local gay-rights group that lobbied for Miami-Dade Countys Human Rights Ordinance.

of sad, Madison said. Outlooks, a column about gay and lesbian life in South Florida, runs the second and fourth Thursday of the month. contact Steve Rothaus, call 305-376-3770, or send him faxes at 305-376-5287. Notices can be mailed to: Outlooks co Steve Rothaus, 1 Herald Plaza, Fifth Floor, Miami, FL 33132. You can also find the column on-line at www.floridaoutlooks.com e-mail: srothausherald.com Communitys voices seek answers to AIDS decimation at town meet Welcome to the "Gay Grapevine," the alternative voice of South Florida.

Fabulously fun radio for your colorful South Florida lifestyle. Not exactly Edger Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. The regions first all-gay, atl-the-time radio show has hit the airwaves. Sort of. Because of technical and financial difficulties, you wont now find the Gay Grapevine on AM radio its on the Internet.

Its been a nightmarish roller-coaster ride, said Alby Bestini, the shows host, known professionally as Alby Best. The one-hour program, heard weekly at first and for a short time daily, began airing Jan. 16 from WSRF-1580 AM in Fort Lauderdale. Then, the station was temporarily knocked off the air by lightning and the show lost its sponsor. Bestini, 42, has since set up a studio in her Coconut Creek home.

There, she cuts new shows Tuesdays and Fridays, which can be heard anytime via the Web, in Real Audio format, at grapevine.webjump.com weujump.com i Public service feature 1 The Gay Grapevine is a combi-( nation of news, entertainment and i public service. Because we are an out show. Edge juts out, skips usual i gay themes By PHOEBE FLOWERS Herald Staff Writer I In 1984, an era caught between the extremes of political conserva- tism and an androgynous new I wave music scene, Eric, a gangly I teen in Sandusky, Ohio, with only I a summer between him and his final year of high school, is discov-i ering that perhaps his love of Annie Lennox and lack of sexual interest in his girlfriend might i mean something. A quick study of the plot makes Edge of Seventeen, the arresting debut of director David Moreton and screenwriter Todd Stephens, seem like just another exercise in i gay teen angst, like recent Brit I import Get Real. Its not.

This one rises above modest production values to become something greater than a coming-out tract, much more than a condemnation 1 of small minds or a celebration of self-acceptance. As it begins, Eric, played with elegant warmth by newcomer Chris Stafford, is setting off for a summer job along with best friendgirlfriend Maggie (Tina 1 Holmes, also in her first film role). Perhaps if this were another movie hed be a lifeguard, and the ineluctable Summer of Self-Discovery would occur in a haze of coconut oil and bright blue skies. But Edge is determinedly plausible, so Eric is instead a food server (one step above toilets) at the local amusement park. In this dreary, brown polyester-clad setting, he meets Angie (jaunty lesbian comic Lea DeLaria), who eventually serves i as confidante, and the conven- iently named Rod (Andersen Gabrych), who eventually serves 1 as seducer.

Early on, Eric haltingly I asks Rod, a Nordic, strapping i Ohio State student, if he has a girl-i friend. Yeah, Rod glibly replies, his names Danny. Formative events launched, and 1 palpable sexual tension estab-t fished, the summer draws to a i close and the movie imperceptibly shifts tones from light-hearted teen romp to Eric closeted, so to speak, in his room with his Moog synthesizer, dreaming about escaping to OSU to rediscover Rod and study music in that order. His mother, a seasoned performance in a well-developed role by Stephanie McVay, just watches quietly. Edge easily skips all the archetypes it seems poised to dip into; this is not an AIDS movie, not a 1 family-rejection movie, and not a i beat-down-in-a-parking-lot movie.

Its a fine debut script by Stephens, and Moreton is able to get startling performances out of his neophyte actors especially Holmes, who recalls a brunet Chloe Sevigny (The Last Days oj Disco), and gives a lovely, tentative performance as the girl Eric and other expenses. The money has come from pharmaceutical companies as well as federal agencies. Lewis, who is also dean of the College of Phar-, macy at Florida A University, says he hopes the town hall meeting yields these results: A better-coordinated response to the AIDS epidemic in South Florida. Improved sharing of information about services. Enhanced sensitivity to the plight of people living with the virus.

Community makes difference The ultimate challenge, though, will be whether the promises Saturday can be translated into lasting action. The potential is to build community involvement that hopefully can be sustained and can become self-sustaining, says Sam Dooley, a top executive in the HIVAIDS prevention branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From here in Atlanta and from the health department at the state level, theres a lot that we can do. But I think the real key to how this is going to turn out is in the hands of the community.

And its only if folks are informed and involved that we will see a positive outcome. e-mail: sfsmithherald.com TOWN MEETING, FROM IE Bush, four members of Congress, two state senators, powerful clergy members and an aijay of health experts have all been invited to participate. We are making history, the mere fact were bringing together all these various agencies and policymakers, says Evelyn Ullah, director of the Office of HIVAIDS Services at the state health departments Miami-Dade branch. Its come late, but I think the community is now ready to receive this information and to become involved. Grim statistics The town hall meeting is an outgrowth of last years declaration of a state of emergency by the Congressional Black Caucus, alarmed by the continuing devastation wrought by AIDS in black communities across the nation.

In Florida, the destruction and the disparity is especially stark. Last year, blacks in Florida accounted for nearly half of all the AIDS cases among men and three-quarters of the women even though only one in seven Floridians is black. The South Florida session will be the prototype for 1 1 more slated from one edge of the country to the other. Next up: Atlanta in September, then New York in November. Roughly $100,000 is being spent on the meeting, to pay for the space, travel, lunch for participants COMING-OF-AGE TALE: Chris Stafford, left, and Lea DeLaria go bowling in Edge of Seventeen.

alternately rejects and leads on. Edge of Seventeen is the rare kind of film that seems much smaller than it actually is. e-mail: pflowersherald.com Space-age artwork to tour U.S. by train Andersen Gabrych, Stephanie McVay, Lea DeLaria. Director: David More-ton.

Producers: David Moreton, Todd Stephens. Screenwriter: Todd Stephens. Running time: 99 minutes. Vulgar language, sexual situations, nudity, adult themes. Plays at 9:30 tonight at the Colony Theater, 1040 Lincoln as part of the Gay Lesbian Film Festival.

Tickets for the screening, with Moreton in attendance, are $8. MOVIE REVIEW EDGE OF SEVENTEEN (unrated) Cast: Chris Stafford, Tina Holmes, The train will stop for four days at a dozen stations in the Northeast this fall Mbwim By CARL HARTMAN Associated Press A bevy of artists tributes to space exploration blasts off by railroad train this week on a three-year, nationwide tour that began Monday at Union Station in Washington, D.C. Space and how humans get there has been illustrated by millions of photos. But Debra Polich, president of Artrain USA, wants to explore beyond them. The camera sees everything and understands nothing, she said, quoting French artist Honore Daumier.

Polich has collected 2,300 pieces, including 78 works by Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol and others, complete with museum shop, and loaded them into five railroad cars. They will stop for four days at a dozen stations in the Northeast this fall. Artrain doesn't own a locomo- history of space flights. An Warhols Moonwalk shows scene of Buzz Aldrin and American flag on the moon. U.

astronauts first walked on moon 30 years ago this wee James Wyeths watercolor 1-2-refers to the big numbers paint' on armored personnel carrie near the launching pad. The car ers were there to protect rest-crews in case of an explosion. They didnt get much publici because that was a kind of neg tive thing, explained Jam Dean, an artist and former dire tor of NASAs art program, wl has a work in the exhibit. The artworks on the train we collected by NASA and tl National Air and Space Museui Artrain, founded by the Michig: Council for the Arts, has been se by 2.6 million visitors since i first tour in 1971. ing 305-534-9924 or at the Colony box office during the hours above.

Tickets for regular screenings cost $8. For more Information, ticket purchases and complete schedules, call the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival at 305-534-9924, e-mail or visit The Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival runs today through Sunday. Tickets for screenings at the Colony Theater, 1040 Lincoln Miami Beach, are available through Ticketmaster at 305-358-5885 or 954-523-3309; or for cash only, at the Colony box office, Tues-day-Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. For screenings at the Alliance Cinema, 927 Lincoln Miami Beach, purchase tickets by call tive. U.S.

railroads donate equipment and crews, but eight staff members travel with the train, including a security guard in the caboose. The idea is to hit places that lack big museums. Artrain has so far scheduled stops in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont and Maine. Later it plans to cross the country. The show offers some well-known scenes and brings out some little-known oddities about the Shh! Pass it on; historical films on black culture are wholly American AT LARGE, FROM IE Shady motive Me, I find it telling that my correspondent cites Ryan as an example of American universality.

Were talking, after all, about a movie in which America was reduced to a single shade: white. In this, of course, the movie simply reflects historical reality. Meaning that this military drama was set in 1944, a time when the military was still rigidly segregated. Its even more interesting that the writer cites Schindler as being more AMERICAN. Apparently, he or she has overlooked one little fact there aren't any American characters in the movie! Its the story of the ordeal suffered by European Jews at the hands of Nazi Germans! Its cast was led by an Irish actor and two Britons! More American? Give me a flipping break! I know, 1 know.

I promised not to yell. But its hard to keep that promise in the face of such creative logic. More to the point, its hard to hear that a movie with white characters that transpires half a world away might be considered more AMERICAN than one with black characters that transpires in Ohio or Florida. Perceived ignorance But then, thats the sort of thinking that frequently lurks in the shadows of subtext where the country's perception of black citizens is concerned. The foolishness of such reasoning is as plain to see as a klieg light in a coal mine, yet some of us miss it every time.

And so it remains possible for citizens of a nation ennobled by black struggle, enriched by black art and defended by black soldiers, to say with a straight face and evident sincerity that black is not American. Some of us can see the humanity, the transcendent lesson, in every story but a black one. If youre a regular of this column, you've doubtless heard me make this point before. Maybe youre tired of reading it. Trust me.

I'm more tired of writing it. Then I read that smug, oblivious letter, and I know I wont have the luxury of not writing it anytime soon. I read that blithe, blind missive, and I don't know whether to laugh or cry. A movie about European Jews is AMERICAN, but a movie about American blacks is heavily slanted toward one ethnic group? A-freaking-mazing! I swear, Im trying not to yell. But sometimes, yelling is the only thing that makes any sense.

Leonard Pitts Jr. column runs in Living Arts every Thursday and Saturday. To call Pitts, dial 1-800-457-3881. Please dial 1-800 even if you live in South Florida. -mail: elpjayaol.com anonymous correspondent, I saw Beloved and Amistad and found that neither held a candle to the broader-based appeal of the AMERICAN movies which were resounding successes at the box office.

Lord have mercy. I barely know where to begin answering that. I suppose I should establish at the outset that I yield to no one in my admiration for Schindler and Ryan. Not only are they superior to the other three movies I referenced, theyre also superior to the vast majority of movies ever made. But more American? That depends, I suppose, on how youre defining the word.

Evidently, some of us still cling to the narrowest, most chauvinistic definition raxrmom.