Locals on the Tube

By Gene Hetzel

Peter Bart, editor-in-chief of the Hollywood trade publication Variety, recently previewed his HBO film, Boffo: Tinseltown's Bombs and Blockbusters, on July 22 at Dale's Lost Highway. The film, roughly based on Bart's book, Boffo: How I Learned to Love the Blockbuster and Fear the Bomb, was presented nationally at 9 p.m. on HBO, but Bart chose to have its premiere screening on a wall in the patio of Dale's Lost Highway to the delight of his Hollywood friends and restaurant patrons alike.

A homegrown LGBT-oriented talk show has begun broadcasting on the local CBS affiliate, featuring co-anchors Tiffany Windsor and David Ryan. The attractive duo of cousins will host 922YOU, a sassy and quite charismatic Hollywood-style talk show that targets the LGBT community, but also showcases an “everyman” style that most other similar national shows lack. To get a taste of the action, check out their Web site at www.922YOU.com.

Condolences to Palm Springs Mayor Ron Oden for his razor-thin loss to Steve Clute in the Democratic primary for the 80th District Assembly seat in the June 6 primary. Clute will go on to face Republican Bonnie Garcia in the November general election. The final count hinged on absentee and provisional ballots, with Clute finally besting Oden by a mere 89 votes.

Desert Community Financial, a brokerage firm run by gay life partners Bob Stohr and Troy Dunne, has just celebrated the opening of its second location in spectacular fashion. Basing their business around a focused, humanistic approach that defies a “numbers” outlook most other loan brokers adopt, the couple says their business has been skyrocketing to the point that they have expanded into a Hawaii location. A recent luau held to celebrate this event drew large crowds, raised money for the AIDS Assistance Program through a raffle and was an all-around umbrella-swilling good time.

By most accounts, the National HIV Testing Day testing event held by Desert AIDS Project on June 27 was a resounding success. With free coffee, lunch, T-shirts and even gas cards up for grabs, there couldn’t have been a better opportunity to get such a necessity taken care off. Although testing is a serious and anonymous matter, many at the event could be found laughing and talking, easing the tension of what for many is a nervous time.

The homeless concern in Palm Springs continues, with the Well in the Desert organization set up to assist local street people facing closure of their Sunrise Park base of operations. Many citizens have complained about the location of the shelter, claiming rightly that it borders five important high-traffic youth centers: the Boys Club, the Leisure Center and Public Pool, Palm Springs High School, the Palm Springs Library and Power Baseball Stadium (current home of Greater Palm Springs Pride’s main stage). Squabbling about alternate sites continues and the Palm Springs City Council has offered to extend the current location’s lease for three-six months while a new proposal is agreed upon and enacted. One thing is for certain: None of this seems headed for resolution any time soon.

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