What I have experienced in Fredericton’s gay scene, for the last three years, is nothing less than culture shock, the clinical kind that you can diagnose. I missed that queer culture so badly, I almost cried seeing it embodied in the flesh of Olympia Dukakis’ “Stella.”īut after the film was over, another piece of the qultural puzzle snapped into place. But here in Canada, they don’t seem to have the American flair–or the stomach–for queer militancy. Now of course that can go too far, and in the US, it usually does. Everybody was always on edge, always challenging everything in mainstream heteronormative culture. What’s more, the whole gay community in the US is militant, by comparison, to the quiescent community in Canada. If you met the dykes I knew in Northampton, they were every bit as full of piss and vinegar as Stella was. Finally, a dyke I can identify with.” That outrageous swagger and militant desire to upend every social convention impinging on queer females is what’s missing from the lesbian scene here in Fredericton. It’s a rare species of lesbian that seems to be missing here in Canada, except in Thom Fitzgerald’s imaginative world (Canadian author of the original stage play and film script for Cloudburst.) You see, Stella is from Maine, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s no accident that Stella is an American Bulldagger.* But back where I come from, Northampton, Massachusetts, aka “Lesbianville,” American Bulldaggers are real women, and they look and act an awful lot like Stella.Īs I watched Stella wreak havoc on the big screen, the first thing that hit me was “Oh my god, this feels so good. I haven’t met any bulldaggers in Atlantic Canada since I’ve been here for the last three years. I say we because I’ve been labeled a bulldagger and even labeled myself that for some time–back in the way queer 90s. But then there’s nothing typical about us bulldaggers–we’re an unusual breed to begin with. Where I come from, Stella is not a caricature or an exaggeration: Stella is your typical bulldagger. But Stella’s an exaggeration, of course, a mythical stereotype, an overblown caricature dreamed up for stage and screen. Stella is an “old school” bulldagger who can blast a rapid-fire spray of rage, foul language and sexually explicit remarks with the slightest tug on a hair trigger. Talk about qulture shock, Olympia Dukakis’ incendiary “Stella” exploded on the screen like a roadside bomb. The premise of the film, two old dykes from Maine who go to Lunenberg, NS, to get married, read like a quaint tea rose-covered greeting card touting gay marriage and the Maritime bed & breakfast industry. Send us feedback about these examples.Cloudburst: Queer Film that Challenges the Gay Status Quo.Ĭloudburst surprised me with a clap thunder and downpour of queer and oppositional theatre at Fredericton’s Silver Wave Film Festival. These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cloudburst.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. 2022 Francona said McKenzie also deserved some credit for keeping his defense engaged throughout a game that featured steamy temperatures and a brief cloudburst that did not ultimately delay the game. 2022 Tuesday’s game between Cleveland and Tampa was also delayed for 23 minutes in the third inning when a cloudburst made conditions unplayable. 2012 Trying to decipher jackets’ product specs is almost as annoying as getting soaked by a sudden cloudburst on the trail. Linda Marsa, Discover Magazine, 25 Mar. 2023 Then in mid-January, a cloudburst from a freak storm caused the Brisbane River to overflow its banks. 2021 The region witnessed a devastating cloudburst - an extreme rainfall in a short time - that resulted in the death of hundreds in 2013 as well as severe flooding in 2021. Hayes Gardner, The Courier-Journal, 11 Apr. 2022 Katie Holzknecht and Mandy Goodwin, two fans, endured the cloudburst and then traded in their soaked exterior clothes in favor of new, dry gear from the in-stadium team store. 2021 The full band - rounded out by bassist-vocalist Dolan, guitarist Alex Bouks, and drummer Steve Shalaty - enters in a blast-beat-powered cloudburst, as Dolan roars out a portrait of the arriving apocalypse. Michael Corcoran, San Antonio Express-News, 8 Sep. 10, creating a wall of water downtown that rose almost to the second floor of the Gunter Hotel. Recent Examples on the Web The downpour started with a cloudburst over the Olmos Creek watershed and didn’t let up for 18 hours, from the evening of Friday, Sept.
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