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Hot Sheet: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Weekend

Hot Sheet: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Weekend

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The top 10 entertainment and events highlights on our gaydar this week: Don't get into cars with strangers, and look out! The Gaga's got a gun!

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10. THEATER: God Hates This Show: Shirley Phelps-Roper in Concert, Live From Hell
The infamously homophobic Westboro Baptist Church gets deservedly raked over the coals in this new musical written and directed by Progressive Theatre Workshop founder John J. Caswell Jr. The show imagines church matriarch Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of the Rev. Fred Phelps, in hell performing a concert for an audience of "fag-enablers." Selections include "Death in Your Window" (a parody of Melissa Etheridge's "Come to My Window"), "Stinky Freak" (based on "Super Freak"), and "Satan's Lair" (spoofing "Scarborough Fair"). Certain to offer a hellaciously hilarious time, the production opens Wednesday and runs through October 20 at New York City's Here gallery and performance space (no relation to Here Media, The Advocate's parent company). Find tickets and info at ProgressiveTheaterWorkshop.org.-- Trudy Ring


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9. EVENTS: ONE Archives Fourth Annual Queer Film Fest
Los Angeles's beloved LGBT archive, the ONE Archives, will play host for a day of shorts, documentaries, and animated pieces Sunday to celebrate LGBT History Month. Pictured above: featured documentary 24 Hitchhikers.-- Michelle Garcia


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8. THEATER: Randy Roberts Live! and Randy Roberts With Tammy L. Hall
Gender illusionist Randy Roberts brings two shows to San Francisco this fall. Roberts pays tribute to such divas as Cher and Bette Midler in his own voice (no lip-synching), and he promises shows that are both visually and vocally dazzling. He features his signature impersonations in Randy Roberts Live! now through November 2 at the Alcove Theatre, with performances Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. And each of the remaining Mondays this month, he'll join jazz pianist Tammy L. Hall for an evening of music and comedy at Martuni's. Order tickets for Randy Roberts Live! here and for the Martuni's engagement here.-- Trudy Ring

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7. MUSIC: Bonnie McKee, "American Girl"
Bonnie McKee had already penned hit songs for an array of A-list pop stars including Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Ke$ha, Carly Rae Jepsen, Christina Aguilera, and Kelly Clarkson, before her high-energy track "American Girl" became a staple of our summer playlists. Now the talented singer-songwriter is embarking on her first U.S. tour, with the Jonas Brothers. It kicks off today in Philadelphia at the Tower Theater, and she's wasting no opportunity to court an LGBT fan base along way. Take a look at McKee's recent live performance of "American Girl" at West Hollywood's gay club Tiger Heat for and see why we think her star has only begun to rise. -- Jase Peeples


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6. BOOKS: Jesse Bering, Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us
After reading gay author Jesse Bering's sociocultural and scientific volume Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That? I promised not to miss a single book of his. I'm thankful I did, since his latest, Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us, is even better. It's a reclamation of the word that makes kids snicker and adults hurl as an insult (and which many queers have reclaimed), but less for political gain than for a chance to argue that as a society we need to stop asking what is "normal" and "natural," and instead ask what is harmful. The author argues that it's easy to condemn something we find disgusting or don't understand, but we have a moral obligation, in the absence of demonstrable harm, to recognize that the "inherent subjectivity of sex makes it a matter of private governance." The book is also chock-a-block with stats (most paraphilias -- arousal involving unusual or socially unacceptable types of sex -- begin between the ages of 4 and 9; which paraphilias show up in animals), and it makes a particularly strong argument about the concept of "personal distress," a factor by which the American Psychiatric Association determines if the paraphillia is intrinsically harmful. Bering reminds us that lesbians and gay men who had "personal distress" over being gay were once diagnosed with a mental illness labeled "ego-dystonic homosexuality." -- Diane Anderson-Minshall


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5. EVENTS: StartOut Hackathon
Nerds with tricked-out laptops building apps, writing code, and launching startups? Yes, please. StartOut in Austin will host the first-ever LGBT-specific hackathon October 19-20, and participants will compete for $24,000 in cloud computing services from Rackspace and other products and services essential for any new venture. -- Michelle Garcia



4. DVD/BLU-RAY: The Exorcist, 40th Anniversary
I saw The Exorcist when I was 5 years old -- a classmate's clueless mom took us to the drive-in theater and then had to deal with the horrendous sleepover aftermath when I couldn't stop worrying about Satan. It was 1973, and The Exorcist -- the now-famous story in which Linda Blair plays a demonically possessed young girl -- scared the wits out of mny viewers who were over 18 as well. Thanks to feminist academics, I now understand that Blair's possession was an allegory for female puberty and so much more, which makes it all the better to get this new Blu-ray special edition that includes the extended director's cut, the theatrical version, a 40-page book in which director William Friedki, talks about his on-set experiences, a featurette on the author of the book that inspired the film, and vintage tapes of a priest documenting a supposedly real case of possession (which of course inspired the author who wrote the book that inspired the film that scared the pants off me). A collector's must. -- Diane Anderson-Minshall


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3. EVENTS: New York Comic Con
New York Comic Con, the East Coast's largest convention dedicated to comic books, entertainment, gaming, and all the popular arts, kicked off yesterday and continues through Sunday. In addition to film and TV stars, comic creators, and cosplayers, the LGBT organization Geeks Out is in attendance. While there, Geeks Out will be hosting SNIKT 2, a queer geek dance party at Bartini, Saturday night. For a full list of the convention's events, visit NewYorkComicCon.com, and for more on Geeks Out, check out GeeksOut.org. -- Jase Peeples


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2. MUSIC: TLC, "Meant to Be"
TLC is back! T-Boz and Chilli, the surviving members of the quintessential '90s girl group, have a new single, "Meant to Be." The somber song is part of the group's new greatest-hits compilation, 20, out Tuesday, with the title referring to the years that have passed since TLC's initial success. Even more TLC is on the way with the VHI movie CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story, airing October 21. It's great to have the girls back in the spotlight, even if it's bittersweet without dearly departed Left Eye. -- Neal Broverman


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1. FILM: Machete Kills
In Machete Kills, the latest installment of the grindhouse-inspired film franchise directed by Robert Rodriguez, Danny Trejo reprises his role as the Mexican spy and revenge-fueled killer Machete, who is commissioned by the U.S. president (Charlie Sheen) to thwart the plans of criminal mastermind and arms dealer Luther Voz (Mel Gibson) in his quest for world domination. If the male casting isn't wild enough to tickle your fancy, look forward to six other great reasons to see Machete Kills -- Michelle Rodriguez, Amber Heard, Sofia Vergara, Jessica Alba, Alexa Vega, and Lady Gaga. The film marks the theatrical debut for Gaga, whose recent lyric video for the single "Aura" features action-packed scenes from the movie and showcases the ladies packing more heat than the gentlemen. Machete Kills opens in theaters today. -- Daniel Reynolds

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