By Forest Riggs It’s hard to imagine, but with the winter holidays having passed, it is time to blow the dust off the beads and get ready for Mardi Gras 2018! Following the liturgical calendar, the highly anticipated festival comes very early this year and, with it, all the fun and festivities that have made

By Forest Riggs “New Year, new blessings, new grace and new opportunities. Never allow the failures of the past year to rob you of the blessings in the New Year.†—Bamigboye Olurotimi At last, 2017 is over! What a year it has been. Between politics and weather events, our world has changed drastically in the

By Forest Riggs There are no reindeer paws up on the rooftop, only sunbeams beating down, driving away any feelings of winter and Christmas. The idea of the “Christmas Spirit†seems to be lost in a world filled with doubt, anger, dismay and distrust. Today, there are more Grinches in the world than ever could

By Forest Riggs As the little sand bar island readies for the holidays, try and make a visit across the causeway to enjoy some real southern hospitality as this year’s celebration promises to be bigger and better. There’s something for everyone! Shine a light With all the dirty dishes from Thanksgiving feasts being washed and

By Forest Riggs Like it or not, Thanksgiving is here and if ever there is a special day to bring out all the dysfunction in a family (a “traditional†family, that is), this is the day! In casting aside the Rockwellian Thanksgivings of our screwed-up childhoods, we queers have been doing this one our way

By Forest Riggs These days it seems as if everyone—and I do mean everyone—is overwhelmed, overworked, frustrated, angry, fed-up, depressed, aggravated and not happy. Aside from politics, scandals, lies, name-calling and juvenile tweets from the White House, folks along the Southeast Texas Gulf have suffered horribly over the last few months. Mother Nature, in all

By Forest Riggs Chances are, if you live on the Island or have visited and attended any of the many venues for drag, illusions and impersonations, you have seen some really great performers. Galveston is rich when it comes to talented entertainers who give their all on the stages of all the clubs, be it

By Forest Riggs The calendar tells us that summer has gone and fall has arrived. For island dwellers and southeast Texans, we beg to differ. Locals jokingly say, “Sure, we have four season, summer, summer, summer and summer!†In truth, we do get a little change, maybe from summer to a “cooler summer†and historically,

By Forest Riggs Lately it seems that everywhere we look there is some cataclysmic event or catastrophic threat that is wreaking havoc upon the earth and we, the inhabitants. To put it bluntly, these are scary times and many people are asking a lot of questions. Some are offering all sorts of answers. Back in

By Forest Riggs One-hundred seventeen years ago, the Great Storm of 1900 rose out of the Gulf of Mexico and wreaked havoc on the small, bar island of Galveston. Thousands died, and the landscape, including stately structures and rows of ornate houses, were stripped barren in places and lined with stacks of rubble, death and