Foxy-sex gods Brown students caught in partially-clad kissing shocker!

Kudos to members of Brown University’s Queer Alliance for making it on to The O’Reilly Factor on Monday, November 14, by virtue of their annual Sex Power God gala — which Fox News was quick to label: "U-sponsored ‘debauchery’ at Saturday party." The Brown Daily Herald reported, "The Fox News Web site described the segment as an investigation into ‘the party Brown University doesn’t want YOU to know about!’ Well, sex gods P&J are mightily miffed that we didn’t know about it beforehand and weren’t invited, if you must know.

Fox, with its usual standup ethics, sneaked producer Jesse Watters into the party at Sayles Hall on the College Green to film students dancing around in their underwear. Hell, back in the late ’60s and early ’70s that was tame for some Brown blowouts. This filming without permission is against university policy, according to Brown officials. And naturally, the frothing, barking mad O’Reilly got some of the facts wrong, attacking the university for using student government fees (he missed the mark on Brown’s per-pupil fee) when the Queer Alliance actually used its own funds to pay for the event.

The valiant Watters, who never officially identified himself, but had his handheld camera taping away, said he saw "guys kissing guys and girls making out with girls." At a Queer Alliance party called ‘Sex Power God?’ What a shocker!

P&J bet that Watters’s full tape is getting quite a workout on O’Reilly’s home VCR.

YOU SAY ‘POTATO,’ I SAY ‘COMATTA’

Your superior correspondents were not surprised to see Monday’s Political Scene column in the Other Paper delving a little deeper into the correct spelling of "comatta/goumada/cumada." As described last week, we’ve also been trying to figure out the spelling, and we stumbled into a related mystery in doing so: where did this meaning of the word come from in the first place?

We spoke with Marilyn Salvatore, the celebrated Vo Dilun-based costume design and wardrobe genius, who has done brilliant work in Rhode Island theater (not to mention lots of national and international productions) for decades. While not fully fluent in Italian, Marilyn tells us it was her mother and father’s first language, even though they were second generation. Her mom is completely baffled and rather irritated by this "mistress" thing, because the obvious root word here is "comare" (the male counterpart being "compare"). "These words are of great traditional significance and refer to what we commonly consider a maid of honor and best man at a wedding," Marilyn says.

In traditional Italian culture, she explains, the comare and compare not only stand up for a couple when they marry, it is also understood that they will function as godparents when a child is born, and assume responsibility for that child if death or tragedy befalls the family. Needless to say, this is pretty heavy stuff, virtually a sacred trust. How a word representing honor and family continuity got twisted into a slang definition for mistress is hard to know. We consulted a number of Web sites, made a few calls, and were still unable to come up with an answer.

The term has been popularized primarily by the HBO television series The Sopranos, so maybe we should blame the part of the show’s brain trust that has roots here in the Biggest Little.

FORKING THE ENEMY

Don’t think P&J are going to let Comattagate rest until we have beaten this dead nag to the size of a Big Mac. Not that we would ever dare suggest Mickey D. and Mr. Ed have even a passing relationship. (Want fries with that, Wilbur?)

In all seriousness, we must look to the follow-up events of Guy Dufault and Mike Levesque doing swan dives onto the self-destruct button. First, we had the rather surprising State House news conference by Governor Don "The Don" Carcieri to defend his honor and claim that Guy was, to put it nicely, quite full to the brim of it. This led to an apology from Dufault, but the damage had already been done. Then the Urinal, defenders of all things GOP, and which doubtless likes Guy Dufault as much as it would an axe murderer (hey, c’mon, he gives a good quote), ran a huge front-page feature on Susan, The Don’s wife, who certainly felt stung by the remarks and rushed to her hubby’s defense. She also added a few choice words about Guy. The article extolled her deserved reputation in Vo Dilun for being someone her hubby relies upon, and who has a splendid public image among Rhody residents. That was a knockout punch. At this point, as P&J suggested last week, perhaps it was time for Guy to get his application in to caddy at Wannamoisett next year.

Your superior correspondents offer our thanks to all involved for constantly making our writing of this column so much easier. Ah, to live and breathe in Rhode Island.

SEX SELLS

The Phoenix has sometimes been criticized for running adult advertising. But since a special throw-it-away-if-it-offends-you-section was created to include the bulk of those come-ons, we hear fewer and fewer overreactions to this organ’s good name.

A friendly reader informs us how the Urinal, once loath to print anything of a slightly prurient nature (beyond some strip club ads in its sports section), has found the space on projo.com to make occasional and fairly prominent use of adult ads. One recent banner come-hither appeal for patrons at the Cadillac Lounge was rather juicy: "The sultry Penthouse Supermodel ZOE BRITTON, November 10-12 [with a face shot of Britton to the left — straight from the shower?] Less than an hour from Boston!" This ran on a sports page, directly above a tease for High School Athlete of the Week.

P&J have no problems with adult ads, but we are surprised to see the BeloJo making inroads into this profitable niche. However, while we understand how the sports page is the right place for T&A ads — due to its beer-swilling, caps-on-backwards, replica jersey-wearing Mr. Man manque readership — we recommend keeping it away from a promo for something as commendable and youth-oriented as the High School Athlete of the Week feature. Your superior correspondents suggest moving it to the "Kidsbeat" section, to build a future consumer audience for the porn videos whose ads will no doubt be appearing by the time current youngsters have become adults. You’re welcome.

RI GRAMMY NEWS

Al Gomes, good friend and Casa Diablo regular, and the head ramrod of Big Noise Music, has been promoting the local music scene for more than 20 years, producing and distributing music and doing just about everything to push local product, including moving the equipment when necessary. Al has also been instrumental in getting local musical acts onto Grammy Award nomination ballots, and this year is no exception.

Al tells us that these local acts have qualified for the official ballot for the 48th Annual Grammy Awards: Dino Club (with Mark Cutler, Scott Duhamel, Bob Giusti, Emerson Torrey, and Mike Tanaka); Billy Gilman; Dave Howard & the High Rollers; Big Noise (Al Gomes and Cynthia Roberge for Best Long Form Music Video for Billy Gilman: The Making of Everything and More); Classical pianist Cecile Clement Grobe; Mill City Rockers; Best Friend Solitude; Providence producers Tony Ricci, Joe Moody, George Dussault and Christine Lilli; and video director Alec Asten.

Needless to say, winning a Grammy is a whole other ball game. But what Al has done is important, because there is a visibility that comes with making the list. The possibility that a lot more people in the music industry will now take the time to check out these artists is greatly enhanced. Good luck to all of them.

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