If you've been breathlessly following Rupaul's Drag Race in its fourth season, then you already know by now that last night's finale wasn't the finale. It was a non-finale. And kind of frustrating at that, but as Gawker puts it, delaying the announcement of the winner to draw more viewers for the reunion episode is "perfectly characteristic of Drag Race to bait so openly." more ›

Madonna has this new album coming out. Your over-35 gay male friends probably know all about it and have listened to all the "leaked" tracks, so you can ask them about it if you care. But before the album even has dropped, Madge has released two videos, including the one for the first single, "Give Me All Your Luvin'," which she performed at the Super Bowl and in which the savvy old dame brought in youngsters M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj to give her some cred with the kids (the thing now has 28 million view on the 'Tube, so that may have worked). Now, gladly, Los Angeles drag queen Jackie Beat has done this marvelous parody called called "Gimme All Your Blood," where Madge is basically recast as a Satanist. Fun! (Be forewarned: The audio is NSFW.) more ›

Some of you might remember Tammie Brown from RuPaul's Drag Race Season 1, or from this kooky Cinco de Mayo video. She's a little bit twisted! And here's her latest single, "Love Piñata." You'll see in the video how the piñata magically transforms into... Tammie Brown! "I'll be your love piñata/ hit me with your love stick if you can." There's some Valentine's sentiment for you. [via WOW] more ›

On Thursday night, a crowd of more than 500 checked out the second annual Drag Queens on Ice at the ice rink in Union Square. Performances from Mutha Chucka, Anna Conda, and Lil Miss Hot Mess warmed the chilly night. Here are some photos of the ladies working the crisp stage. more ›

L.A.-based drag artist and humorist Drew Droege has created a drag version of actress Chloe Sevigny that is as much performance art as it is drag satire. All of his many YouTube musings as Chloe begin with the phrase, "It's recently come to my attention that I love ___" And in this latest very special episode, Chloe realizes she loves barbequoi. more ›

Beloved local legend Vicki Marlane died this morning at 7 a.m. of an undisclosed illness. She was 76. Nicknamed "The Lady With the Liquid Spine" for her trademark, sultry flexibility while lip syncing, Marlane was profiled in the New York Times two years ago, and was thought to be the oldest, continuously performing, transgender performer in the country. Until recently, she performed twice weekly at Aunt Charlie's Lounge often doing three or four numbers (and costume changes) each night. more ›

Featuring Damiana Garcia and Tammie Brown from Rupaul's Drag Race Season 1. more ›

Drag queen about town Juanita More! is starting up her annual series of Funky Chicken Dinners at Mars Bar, to benefit the Stop AIDS project. The first dinner will take place on Thursday, April 28, with seatings at 6:00, 7:30, and 8:45 p.m. more ›

Who can snatch the wig off a drag queen - a noted drag queen, mind you - and walk away unscathed? Cloris Leachman, that's who. On February 5, Peaches Christ hosted SF Sketchfest's Idol Worship: An Evening With Cloris Leachman. During their Q&A session, the Academy Award-winning actress became fixated on the hostess' massive wig. Peaches explains to SFIst what happened: "She was just staring at it and at this point she'd sat on my lap for a moment or two and I think she was thinking it would be a fun thing to do." more ›

Cocomo's: A Taste of Drag, just opened last week... and friend of Harvey Milk are appalled at the 'A-Gays' trying to take up his mantle lo these many years later and use his former store as their headquarters. more ›

The Miss Trannyshack Pageant is on permanent hiatus, but a new generation of drag queens with a somewhat more alternative bent are presenting the first ever Tiara Sensation Pageant tonight at 8 PM at Temple (540 Howard). It promises to be a swell time for drag fans, with the crew from Some Thing at the Stud (every Friday) and seven queens competing for the first ever title of Tiara Sensation. more ›

The NYT/Bay Citizen notes several transgender candidates running for elected office this election season, including local examples Theresa Sparks (running for District 6 Supervisor) and Victoria Kolakowski (running for Alameda County Superior Court judge). Ms. Sparks would, as you've likely heard, be our first transgendered supervisor if elected, and Ms. Kolakowski would be the nation's first transgendered trial court judge -- she faces a runoff next week after getting the most votes in a June election. more ›

Local drag impresario Juanita MORE! is throwing another of her big fetes this Sunday night, this time to celebrate the arrival of her friends, Scissor Sisters, including S.F. native Ana Matronic. It's the official afterparty for the Sisters' show at the Fox -- which still isn't sold out, btw, but the afterparty almost is -- and it'll be at the old, faithful, swanky Redwood Room. more ›

Film festivals, for all but the unemployed and the truly film-obsessed, can be overwhelming. Who has time to see like a hundred movies in a couple of weeks? We suppose it's never the point to try to see everything, but it also helps to have a curated list of suggestions to help one prioritize. more ›

For those just tuning in, the SF Int'l Film Fest is still happening and runs through this week. One of the centerpiece premieres at the festival, on Saturday at the Castro, was a certain celebration of B-grade horror and gratuitous blood spatter called All About Evil, written and directed by home-grown talent Joshua Grannell, a.k.a. Peaches Christ. It stars Natasha Lyonne, Mink Stole, and Thomas Decker (The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Nightmare on Elm Street), and suffice it to say it was a major event for local horror fans, Peaches fans, and Castro denizens alike. Most of the cast was on hand, as well as Peaches' idol John Waters, and about 1400 assembled others. more ›

Glendon Hyde (who performs under the drag name Anna Conda and won the Miss Trannyshack competition in 2004) filed paperwork today to become a candidate for SF Supervisor in District 6 in 2010 -- the seat currently filled by Chris Daly who will be termed out as of next year. Hyde joins a race against possible candidates Jane Kim, Debra Walker, Jim Meko, and, potentially, Human Rights Commissioner Theresa Sparks. more ›

Here it is people: the Trauma episode we've been waiting for. On Monday night, the Halloween episode of the SF-based helicopter drama will be airing, and all the drag queens in town who responded to the drag queen casting call a couple months back will be watching the show at a viewing party hosted by Heklina at The Lookout (Noe & Market). We gather that Lady Bear had her own trailer and some actual lines, and maybe Heckles did too? The video above leaves a little to the imagination insofar as the drag queen/nightclub scene that was shot at Great American Music Hall, but hopefully that $3 million-per-episode budget is at least going to yield some good gay television. more ›

You may recall L.A.-based drag queen Jackie Beat's corn syrup ad parodies which we aired here on SFist a few months back. Well, the LA-based Ms. Beat is coming to town next weekend with her band Dirty Sanchez to perform aboard the S.S. Trannyshack during Folsom Street Fair weekend (buy tickets for this drunken boat cruise now, we hear they're almost sold out). more ›

The scene outside last night's Midnight Mass screening of . more ›

There is less than a day (t-minus 19 hours as of this posting) to vote for a number of San Francisco-based drag queens in the first round of web casting for the second season of Rupaul's Drag Race on Logo. If you missed the first season this past winter or its subsequent re-running on VH1, you missed some pretty good gay television -- of which there is sorrowfully little, if you don't count America's Next Top Model. The is kind of a cross between Top Model and Project Runway, with some lip sync and wigs thrown in, and Ru even gets filmed in the same soft, glowing light as Tyra at the judges' table. more ›

Today it's the birthday of Trannyshack founder and SF drag queen bee, Heklina. In her honor, here's a sweet video of a vintage T-shack duet she did with Kermit the Frog on "Rainbow Connection." The Gemini diva is currently appearing in some new episodes of the annual drag rendition of The Golden Girls at Mama Calizo's Voice Factory. Seats are going fast, and the show closes on July June 26th. Get tickets by emailing goldengirlssf@earthlink.net. (Hat tip to The semi-NSFW Sword.) more ›

Last Saturday night, the YBCA opened its doors for a large-scale, mixed, queer-friendly, *very* San Franciscan party called "What's the Big Idea?" featuring food from the Mission Street Food "taco" truck, galleries open until 3AM (including the Sisters' archive show, and the amazing collection of "soundsuits" created by Nick Cave, which are basically like enormous, haute couture muppet costumes from another planet -- see video of them here), a Sisters' fashion show called Project Nunway, live tattooing, performances by drag queens Anna Conda and Monistat, and music from DJ Dirty Knees and the DJ collective Honey Soundsystem. SFist was there, and fairly wasted, so all we have are these few lousy pictures (look out for a full video of the event from the SF Appeal). But trust us when we say a good time was had by all, and the food -- particularly this deep fried fennel sausage slathered in aoili and onion jam, and a pork belly "taco" that was pure grease heaven -- was fucking fantastic. The museum also may have found a few new devotees after this event, since they were offering free lifetime memberships to anyone who agreed to get the YBCA logo tattoo'd on themselves.* more ›

The Sword recently did this interview with SF drag queen Juanita MORE!, who's been DJing and hosting at parties (like Booty Call Wednesdays at Qbar in the Castro, Shits & Giggles in L.A., and Susanne Bartsch's Vandam in NYC) more than she's been performing as of late. Juanita talks about her first performance in San Francisco at Lily's (where Martuni's is now), about how she got her drag name, and about her drag idol, Divine. more ›

LA-based drag queen Jackie Beat, who was recently up here for Lip Service at the Castro, just made these three spoof ads of those Corn Refiners Commercials in which one mother gives another mother some 'tude because she's giving her kids fruit punch with high-fructose corn syrup in it, and the response is "it's fine in moderation." Anyway, we enjoy drag queen humorists and hope you do too. (Hat tip to The Sword -- link semi-NSFW.) more ›