(Originally Published On The Huffington Post On 4/24/2013)

Accidental Trailblazer: An Interview With Cult Cinema Icon Mink Stole
Each spring, Portland, Ore., plays host to QDoc: Queer Documentary Film Festival, the only festival in the U.S. devoted exclusively to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) documentaries, and one of only two festivals of its kind in the entire world!

Now in its seventh year, QDoc 2013 begins May 16. The opening-night film is I Am Divine, filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz’s new feature-length documentary about the life and times of John Waters protégé and drag pioneer Divine, aka Glenn Milstead.

Last week I had the chance to view a screening of the film and catch up with one of its stars, queer cult cinema icon, actress/singer and original John Waters muse Mink Stole.

 

Logan Lynn: Thanks so much for chatting with me this morning, Mink. I am a huge fan of your work. I just watched the I Am Divine screener.

Mink Stole: I haven’t seen it yet.

Lynn: What?!

Stole: I have not seen it yet.

Lynn: Oh, wow. That’s surprising. I feel so lucky!

Stole: I’m gonna see it in Boston in a couple of weeks, and then again in Portland.

Lynn: Well, I felt very moved by the film. There was a “dreams really do come true” theme running throughout the film with regard to Divine‘s life. In making the film, how was it to be looking back at that period, and in particular your friendship with him?

Stole: It was nice, actually, because Jeffrey came here to Baltimore, and we spent a really fun couple of hours together. His take on Divine was so friendly, and so loving. I didn’t feel challenged at all to have to defend my friendship — and it was a real friendship. I wouldn’t say that Divine and I were best friends. You know, he had a whole life with his music career that I was not even remotely part of. I mean, I saw him perform and thought he was amazing, but I wasn’t part of that life. I’ll tell you the truth: We had lost touch between Polyester and Hairspray. He was off in Europe doing all this music stuff, but when John proposed Hairspray to us, Divine and I got back together. He had moved into an apartment right around the corner from me in New York, and we started spending time together again. It was really wonderful to reconnect with him. He was happy. He was doing really well. You know, he had money for practically the first time in his life, and it was wonderful to see him. Divine always did better when Read the rest of this entry »

(Originally Published on The Huffington Post on 8/20/2012)

I was recently introduced to Los Angeles-based electropop outfit Father Tiger by my friend/collaborator Jeffrey McHale, who directed both my “Bottom Your Way to the Top” video in 2009 and my “Quickly as We Pass” video in 2011, and who has now directed Father Tiger’s debut video, “Shell,” which just premiered this past week.

The video was made entirely with the photo app Instagram, and it is a real piece of genius. Jeff worked with artist John Parot (from Bravo’s Work of Art: The Search for the Next Great Artist), who also did the illustrations for our 2009 collaboration.

Watch Father Tiger‘s video for “Shell” below and be amazed:

Read the rest of this entry »

(Originally Published on The Huffington Post, 8/7/2012)

Logan Lynn Discusses His Return To Music, His New Single ‘Turn Me Out’ And More
By: Noah Michelson, HuffPost Gay Voices Editor

Gay singer-songwriter Logan Lynn began professionally making music nearly 15 years ago. Since then he has released a slew of albums, has seen his videos featured on LOGO and MTV, and performed around the world.

In 2010 Lynn announced that he would be taking an extended break from the music industry to work full time for LGBTQ equal rights at Portland’s Q Center. He even released an album, “I Killed Tomorrow Yesterday,” with Producer Bryan Cecil and gave the proceeds to Portland’s Q Center, the only LGBT community center in the Pacific Northwest.

Now he’s back with a new single, “Turn Me Out”, and an upcoming album. We caught up with Lynn to find out what he’s been up to since he left the music industry, why he’s coming back, what to expect from the new album and more.

The Huffington Post: You’re just coming off a two-year hiatus from the music industry. Why did you take the break and what have you been up to?

Logan Lynn: In 2010, after five straight years of nonstop working and touring, I just needed some time to step back and not feel so consumed by the industry. At the time I was really lonely and tired and felt overexposed in ways that I wasn’t really able to deal with, so I canceled the second leg of my tour, severed ties with The Dandy Warhols and my label, fired my publicist, fired my manager, freaked out publicly in the press and gave the record I had been working on for over a year away as a fundraiser for Q Center, Portland’s queer community center. I pissed a lot of people off during the process of breaking free and in retrospect I would probably be a little less public about the whole thing… but back then it felt like the only way to take some time off and get rid of the toxic people I had surrounding me was to completely blow everything up, so that’s what I did. Once the career suicide dust settled I started giving all of my time to the queer community and have been helping to build the infrastructure of Q Center ever since. I needed real people in my life again and that’s ultimately what I found in my work with the community. Working with people in need really puts your own need in perspective.

You’ ve landed in a bit of hot water and controversy around some of the activism work you have been doing. What exactly went down between Portland’s queer community and the Mars Hill evangelical church?

At the end of 2011 the Mars Hill church bought a building in Portland and announced they were opening their doors in our community. Its founder has publicly equated homosexuality to cancer on society, amongst other very charming hate speech about the gay community. Part of my mission as an activist and an out queer man is to encourage a dialogue with those who oppose us or would do us harm, so I reached out to their pastor and we began meeting together. From there, we decided to assemble nine people from Portland’s LGBT community and nine members of the traditional Evangelical community and we have been meeting once a month with a conflict resolution expert ever since. Read the rest of this entry »