RIP...

My condolences to "Beyond the Closet" bookstore, Seattle's only dedicated gay and lesbian bookstore. After many years in business, it closed it's doors for the last time today.

It's sad to say, but I'm not surprised at this decision. Small independent bookstores (not just gay and lesbian) are closing down everywhere. Everything seems to be upsurped by something bigger these days. I like to call it the "Walmart" effect (like how I include Walmart in the same paragraph as gay and lesbian issues?). Bigger companies are able to buy in bulk, offer products cheaper, and expand into areas that are easier for people to access. Bookstores such as Barnes & Nobel and Borders even carry a sizeable gay and lesbian section. Then there is the internet, where at the click of a button, you can buy nearly anything to your heart's desires that used to be sold at bookstores like this, from literary books by gay and lesbian authors, to porn. People don't need to go to specialty stores anymore just for a certain genre of books (the bookstore next to "Beyond the Closet" called "The Play's the Thing" closed down many years ago in 1997, a few months after I found out about it, which is a pity). It is very much like the closing down of specialty bakeries and butcher shops. Why bother making a special trip to two stores, when you can just hop down the street to a supermarket and get it all. Or go to Amazon.com and get almost anything imaginable, now that they seemed to have partnered with every company that offers anything imaginable (though I can't really throw stones, as I am just as guilty at purchasing their wares).

It's the end of an era in Seattle's gay/lesbian/bi/transgendered (and whatever) history.

As a post script, I also kinda hope they don't move the parade to Seattle Center, and keep things on Capitol Hill, but Broadway is really due for some changes anyway.

Oh, and before I forget, there is the business of Monacogate. For those who have been following, this is the latest installment of my tirade against Kelly Monaco winning "Dancing with the Stars." How I hate her and her "glib" attitude about this whole event. And I see that other people are into this "conspiracy theory" that I suggested a couple of posts ago. It's all here in today's "Seattle Times" article:

"Monaco and the producers of the ABC series were peppered with questions, with some reporters saying they received complaints from viewers who were confused by the voting process that relied on both the audience and judges.
Questions also were raised about possible network favoritism for Monaco. The runner-up was John O'Hurley, who played catalog king J. Peterman on NBC's "Seinfeld."

- By Lynn Elber, The Associated Press (Seattle Times, July 28, 2005)

How I hate her! Read the full article here.

And just so I don't sound like a complete sourpuss today, I finally finished reading Chuck Palahniuk's Survivor. While not as good as his excellent book Invisible Monsters, I liked it's delicious portrayal of how everything can be spun around to be made hip and famous. You could be the dumbest and ugliest guy on the block, but with the right spin by the right people, even you too can be a celebrity if they can find the one thing that is marketable about you. Because in the end, it's all about who can get the most money, even if it is at other people's expense. OOPS! I'm headed into negative territory again. I better stop now.