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LISTEN: Sylvester's "Mighty Real" Remixed by Ralphi Rosario

The late disco legend Sylvester James—better known as Sylvester—died 25 years ago in 1988. Sylvester was one of the earliest disco stars that was openly gay. Sylvester's music and legacy will be reintroduced to a new generation this summer with the release of Mighty Real: Greatest Dance Hits.

The collection will be released on June 25th and features "original album tracks, rare extended mixes and a new remix" of the iconic "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" by the Grammy Award-winning, Chicago-based "house music" legend, DJ producer Ralphi Rosario, who has worked with Rihanna, Mariah Carey, Beyonce and Madonna.

Listen AFTER THE JUMP ...

Shortly before his 1988 death due to AIDS-related causes,  the late disco legend bequeathed future royalties to two San Francusco HIV/AIDS groups. Sylvester died deeply in debt—but disco never died. The introduction of iTunes has "helped introduce Sylvester's music to a new generation and the online sales of his songs brought in cash to the estate."  By 2010. AIDS Emergency Fund and Project Open Hand began sharing more than $140,000 in music royalties from his estate.

The liner notes for Mighty Real: Greatest Dance Hits will be written by Joshua Gamson, the University of San Francisco professor who won the 2006 Lambda Literary Award/Stonewall Book Award for The Fabulous Sylvester: the Legend, the Music, the Seventies in San Francisco.

More music from the collection in weeks to come. Break out the disco ball with your morning cup of coffee and listen to the ferosh "Ralphi Rosario Dub Mix" of "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" AFTER THE JUMP ...

San Francisco AIDS Groups Get $140K from Estate of Sylvester

Shortly before his 1988 death due to AIDS,  the late disco legend Sylvester bequeathed future royalties to local AIDS groups but died deeply in debt so there was no money to distribute. But now, some 21 years after the death of Sylvester James, two San Francisco-based AIDS service organizations are sharing $140,000 in music royalties from his estate.

The Bay Area Reporter:

It turned out that disco, had in fact, never really died and the use of Sylvester's songs, either on the radio, in movies, or on television, had produced a steady stream of revenues. Beginning in the late 1990s Sylvester's royalty checks had paid off what the singer owed and the rest of the earnings had been placed in an account. ... The advent of iTunes helped introduce Sylvester's music to a new generation and the online sales of his songs brought in cash to the estate. Hollywood also continued to option his songs, most famously for a scene in the Oscar-winning Milk that depicted Sylvester performing at a birthday party for openly gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk. The two were friends and Sylvester was a regular performer at Milk's annual Castro Street fairs."

The royalties benefit AIDS Emergency Fund and Project Open Hand. "The amounts per song can vary from a few cents when a person downloads a track to $10,000 for it to be used in a movie", BAR reports. Project Open Hand says the money will be designated for the 1,000 HIV positive clients it feeds everyday. The $34,000 it received last week will pay for 13,000 meals. 

Now this is mighty real. Something tells me that Sylvester is smiling under that big disco ball in the sky.

Thanks JOE!

NEWS: Sylvester, DNC

The 2006 Stonewall Book Award winners are announced. The envelope please ... Joshua Gamson, the author of The Fabulous Sylvester: the Legend, the Music, the 70s in San Francisco, wins for non-fiction. Abha Dawesar, author of Babyji, is the winner in the literature category.

· First, Howard Dean fires the DNC's gay liaison. Now, the Democratic Party chairman contradicts his party's same-sex marriage platform while appearing on Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network.

· Aqua, a new 82-story residential project for Chicago's lakefront. Architect Jeanne Gang has a "reputation for projects that are bold yet pragmatic."

· Does ExxonMobil have a problem with gay people? Fortune reports much of corporate America has embraced gay rights but the world's largest oil company has steadfastly resisted pressures to become more gay-friendly.

· Meanwhile, Ford shareholders overwhelmingly vote pro-gay.

· Report: Gay ad market tops $212 million.

Lambda Literary Awards

The finalists are announced for the 18th Annual Lambda Literary Awards, which celebrate achievements in LGBT literature for books published in 2005. Complete list here. Some of the nominees should be familiar to Rod 2.0 readers, and, there are a few others that we'd like to mention that were quite enjoyable.

Anthology: Freedom in the Village: 25 Years of Black, Gay Men’s Writing, ed. E. Lynn Harris and Bullets and Butterflies: Queer Spoken Word Poetry, ed. Emanuel Xavier. The Harris anthology was one of the best collections of black gay men's writing since Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men.

Belles Lettres: When I Knew, edited by Robert Trachtenberg and Tab Hunter Confidential by Tab Hunter. Oprah adapted a GLAAD-nominated segment around Trachtenberg's book.