BlackBook Magazine

"So... did you get a pen in the gift bag?" we ask, wondering if we missed out on serious swag at Sunday night's Montblanc-sponsored after-party for Julian Schnabel's latest documentary, Berlin. "No, but the girl at the door checked my name off her list with one." Relief.

Blake Mycoskie is standing outside of a movie theater on the corner of East 19th and Broadway in Manhattan. He looks scruffy in a manicured way, and he's wearing a pair of Toms shoes inspired by traditional Argentinian footwear—a combination of Tod's and tatami slippers. He's here at the Tribeca Film Festival promoting For Tomorrow: The First Step of the Revolution, the new short film he produced about his entrepeneurial upstart. It's part of the preciously titled "All Truisms" collection of films centered on world travel and benevolence. For Tomorrow, directed by Ken Kokin, chronicles Mycoskie's experience with Toms, and his first major "drop" in Argentina. You see, for every pair of shoes he sells at places like Nordstrom, Toms gives away a pair of shoes to a child in need.

Much to my family's chagrin, I've always been sort of obsessed with incest. I read JT Leroy's The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things with great excitement! What an exciting coming-of-age odyssey! I watched Spanking the Monkey and The House of Yes, reveling in family ties bound too tightly. I even flipped through the Dollanganger melodramas churned out by V.C. Andrews, surreptitiously of course, because twincest was of a different breed altogether. When, in university, I was forced to decide on a topic for my undergraduate thesis, my choice was obvious. Over the course of many months, I examined the ways in which incest was used in popular culture to explore notions of sameness and difference. Sylvia Plath and Jacques Lacan held it all together. It was also interesting that mom-on-son action and its variants often came about as reactions to a fear of difference in the outside world: homosexuality, miscegenation. Aspirations of academia aside, people were really creeped out. Still, I persevered with my research—until Julianne Moore came along and ruined everything.

Once upon a time, in the mid-'90s, chicks with dicks, leather-clad fairy princesses, and never-been-kissed Drew Barrymore headed over to Manhattan's Don Hill's for its weekly SqueezeBox! party. It was a haven for outsiders who defied the stereotypes associated with sexuality. For better or worse, feather boas and Celine Dion covers were replaced by drag queen rockers. Everyone and everything was welcome. Debbie Harry (pictured left, with Roger Harry) performed there. It was there that John Cameron Mitchell gave birth to Hedwig's angry inch. Then, during Rudy Giuliani's determined effort to sanitize the city, the big, bad mayor blew this house of sin down. Now, seven years after its final bow, directors Zach Shaffer and Steve Saporito return to the debauched underground with their new documentary, SqueezeBox!, which premiered on Friday at the Tribeca Film Festival.

(From left) Diego Luna in Harmony Korine's Mister Lonely; an impersonator at last night's Tribeca Film Festival celebration of the 25th anniversary of Thriller; impersonator Adrian Parasram.

Who wore the Picasso nose and Peter Pan complex better?

On the eve of the Tribeca Film Festival, with all the buzzed-about premieres and glitzy after-parties, it's easy to see it as the Mother of all Film Festivals. But today, with the announcement of the lineup of the 61st Cannes Film Festival, Tribeca is reminded that it's more like a first cousin. They premiere the blockbuster Speed Racer, and Cannes casually drops Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls. Tribeca premiers auteur David Mamet's martial arts think-piece Redbelt, while Cannes will serve up Clint Eastwood's drama The Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie. But a comparison isn't really fair. This is Cannes's 61st outing, while Tribeca is only in its 7th incarnation. In 50 years, perhaps Robert De Niro's brainchild will also have the pleasure of debuting the latest installment of Indiana Jones (because we all know Harrison Ford will still be up for it). Other big premieres at Cannes include Synecdoche, New York, Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut, and both Che and The Argentine, Steven Soderbergh's twin Che Guevara biopics. Woody Allen has also chosen the sun-soaked Croisette over the city that made him, to premiere his latest, Vicky Christina Barcelona. For a complete Festival line up, head here.