Important Fiction with Wieners (Ep. 16 - E.M. Forster)

Photo by Adrian Sotomayor

Photo by Adrian Sotomayor

For as long as there has been sex, men have been having it with men. Homosexuality is nothing new. So why does it seem like gay men have been completely invisible in entertainment until relatively recently? Well, probably because for hundreds of years, we were considered forbidden and taboo, too dangerous to discuss or even acknowledge. 

But as it turns out, we HAVE been there. You just had to know where to look. My guest this week is Zan Christensen, founder of the LGBT-focused comic book publisher Northwest Press. The first book Zan ever published was a graphic novel adaptation of a same-sex love story written in the 1800s.

The original work was written anonymously, since association with homosexuality was a punishable offense in repressed Victorian England. Back then, gay men were forced to hide. Zan grew up in a somewhat repressed environment himself, but hiding his homosexuality was wasn't an option for long.

Here's a little forbidden British lust for you:

And the gay romance of Maurice, which will always leave me fanning myself:

Madonna throwing caution to the wind in Truth or Dare:

Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

 

I'm Not Gay, I'm Just a Dance Major (Ep. 15 - The Boys in the Band)

raymond.jpg

What does it mean to let your gayness define you -- and is that necessarily a bad thing?

My guest this week is actor Raymond Miller. If you were a teenager in Toronto in 2002, you saw him every afternoon hosting a local after-school TV show. He's also appeared on stage in Mamma Mia, blink and you'll miss him in an episode of Queer as Folk, and you might've caught him performing with the Canadian Opera Company.

When Raymond was newly out, he fell in with a circle of friends who told each other that even though they were all men attracted to men, they shouldn't define themselves as gay. That attitude was echoed by an acting teacher who told him to tone down his proclivities during auditions. At the TV show that he hosted, management told him to get rid of his lisp. And if he couldn't on his own, they told him, they had a solution to straighten him out: hockey.

Here's Mamma Mia in Toronto:

And a little Harvey Milk:

The beginning of The Boys in the Band:

And our friend Kevin Yee, who was coached on acting straighter by his management. It didn't work!

Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

It's OK to Like Everything (Ep. 14 - My So Called Life)

There's a certain pleasure in changing your skin, being a chameleon and reinventing who you are. My guest this week is J.P., whose only constant is that he's constantly changing. I met Jay years ago, when he was something of an internet celebrity for, among other things, running elections for a Russian blogging company and posting frequent pictures of his cats. These days he's doing his best to keep a low profile, though you might be able to spot him at the Applebee's in Queen Anne. Then again, you might not -- J's changed his persona so many times his own friends might have trouble recognizing him.

We talked about so many different things in this episode! Let's start with poor Ricky on My So-Called Life:

And then there's Ab Fab, from around the same time:

And Queer as Folk. Sure is a lot of '90s going on here.

Musically, J.P. listened to Skinny Puppy:

And Infected Mushroom:

And, improbably, Kenny Chesney:

Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The Key Change is Everything (Ep. 13 - Little Shop of Horrors)

We've all felt it -- that call to adventure, to become something great, to escape monotony, go out into the world, and find out who we really are. For some, that call originates in our work, for others with family. And for my guest this week, it came while riding a wheat truck on a tiny farm in eastern Washington.

From an early age, Brad Cerenzia knew he wasn't destined to be farm boy the rest of his life. His inspiration came from theater, musicals, drama. Creating a colorful world on the stage, while the world around him remained featureless and bleak. It was clear that he needed a ticket off of the farm, but for a long time it was unclear what form that ticket would take. It was hard to picture how his adventure would start, since life on the farm was so stable and monotone.

What he needed was a key change, and when it finally happened, he didn't realize that it was to be the first of many.

Here are some highlights from Little Shop of Horrors, the show that helped Brad dream of escaping the farm. Note how the singers are able to walk through the rain without getting wet. Magic!

And of course, our favorite number from The Drowsy Chaperone:

Here are a few highlights from Disenchanted!, the show Brad helped finance: 

And of course, the TV version of Tales of the City. But do read the book.

And here's Brad in his various theatrical endeavors:

Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

A Werecreature Who Makes out with Dudes (Ep. 11 - Frasier and Frankenstein)

Is there any super power you could have that is not also monstrous? Clark Kent has super strength, Buffy came back from the dead, and Spiderman can shoot webbing from his wrists. But these are powers that monsters have -- a guy who can beat up anyone on Earth? A woman who drives stakes through hearts? A man who does whatever a spider can? It's great that they use their abilities for good, but these powers are as scary as they are super.

There's a line in Bride of Frankenstein in which one mad scientist toasts, "to a new world of gods and monsters!" They can be hard to tell apart, gods and monsters. Neither fits in among humans, no matter how hard they try. And both wield power that might sometimes extend beyond their control. If you're a God or a monster -- you can look in the mirror and know that you're different, but there might be no telling which side of that divide you're on. And if you can't tell, how can anyone else?

My guest this week is Chicago comedian Cody Melcher. If Cody was a superhero, his powers would likely involve fancy bowties, obscure trivia, and an invincible debate team. As a kid, he was a delicate nerd, obsessed with classic literature while some of his classmates could barely read. He was an unathletic child who shunned the out-of-doors, and whose diversions of choice involved rhetoric and fastidiousness.

But as he became an adult, he grew taller.

We talked about a ton of great stuff in this episode, including Cody's favorite books: The Great Gatsby, Frankenstein, and Moby Dick. We also talked about Louie Anderson. 

Ah, simpler times. From Louie we moved on to Eddie Izzard's Dress to Kill, the entirety of which is available on YouTube, delightfully.

Episodes of Frasier are a bit harder to come by, unless you subscribe to the Hulu Advertising Service, but here are some highlights. 

Now then, let's talk about Madeline Kahn. Or better yet, let's just watch her.  

Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

All of a Sudden I had a Gay Icon (Ep. 10: Star Trek)

When you think about the science fiction, what comes to mind? Maybe some silvery uniforms, blue guys with antennas, blinking lights. You know, the future. What's great about imaginary futures is that they're places of potential, an escape to a place where where everything's better, or sometimes worse. And whatever problems we have today have all been solved. Or maybe exacerbated.

My guest today is Charlie Logan, founder of the Pink Parties, a regular series of huge queer nerd gatherings that are timed to Seattle's biggest comic and videogame conventions. Charlie started throwing Pink Parties as a way to find other gays who shared his love of anything geeky, and his hope for a better future, and his need to escape.

Because after all, as we'll hear, for a time there was a lot that he needed to escape from

I'm delighted, by the way, to have finally had a reason to talk about Star Trek on the show. Here are those tribbles: 

Here's the song from Bye Bye Birdie that Charlie had to sing about being sincere... while pretending to be heterosexual.

Once Charlie came out, he was introduced to Erasure:

And Wham! Can you believe anyone ever thought that George Michael was straight?

And of course, Charlie's Pink Parties now feature guests like Jennifer Hale, who voiced Dragon Age: Inquisition's Krem, possibly the greatest trans character in video games:

As well as the delightful Ellen McLain character GLaDOS:

Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

 

Making Your Outsides Match Your Insides (Ep. 9 - Cabaret Culture)

Photo: Rachel Robinson, Nark Magazine

What happens when you grow up so fast you become an adult while you're still a kid? My guest this week is Zak, who was wise beyond his years by the time he was 14, thanks in part to a young love triangle and also being raised by a house full of strippers.

Zak had barely entered high school when he felt ready to set out on his own, and start his own life. But he found that while you can grow up fast, you can't rush adulthood. That's how he wound up spending several teenage years drifting across the state, a runaway, in every sense of the word.

We talked about some exceptional music in this week's episode, starting with the Dresden Dolls: 

And also Beats Antique:

And Gogol Bordello's delighteful "Start Wearing Purple":

We also covered the music he grew up hearing, including White Zombie:

And Pantera:

And oh gee whiz you guys, remember No Doubt?

Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Jewels and Gold and Butts (Ep. 8: Pink Narcissus)

Photo: Evans Vestal Ward 

When my guest Ian was growing up in the midwest, he couldn't even picture what life as a gay man even looked like. And he certainly couldn't have pictured what his life would become: parading up on stages as a performance artist, covered in brightly-colored phallic objects, to shout triumphantly in one-man shows about the pride he takes in being a sexual gay being.

When he came out of the closet in college, Ian felt like he'd just been dropped off alone at a gay bar, left to find his own way all by himself. Coming out was just the first step to becoming whatever a gay man is. His next step: exploring homosexuality in full view of the public, on stage.

We talked a lot about Pink Narcissus in this episode, and it's hard to find clips of it online. Here's a little bit: 

A reflection on the work of Peter Berlin:

The mortifying Doing Time on Maple Drive:

There's a brief clip of "Make it Gay" in this week's show:

And here's my recommendation: In Their Room.

Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Jodie Foster Made me a Gay Atheist Polygamist (Ep. 7: Contact)

ben

Okay, to be fair, Jodie Foster isn't singlehandedly to blame for turning Ben from a quiet church boy into a tattooed pierced atheist with a husband and a boyfriend. But her influence didn't hurt.

Ben's family moved a lot, and after a childhood of making and then losing friends, he was starting to feel lonely and sad. At the same time, school were becoming oppressive. When Jodie Foster appeared in Contact, playing an aggressive scientist who challenges the assumptions of everyone around her, he realized that he didn't have to just sit back and keep going to the classes and church services that were slowly eating him away.

These days, his tastes verge toward the decidedly more unusual: music like Loreena McKennitt, which he describes as "hippie folk," or the kind of music you play to set the mood in a Dungeons and Dragons game. He likes weird movies like Titus, The Fifth Element, and Run Lola Run. And he has a soft spot for She-Ra.

His favorite musicians and movies and characters all have a strangeness, an outcast quality, and a willingness to try something new (even She-Ra, a rare female action character who managed to go mainstream). Trying something new is risky, but it can also be just the dizzying nudge you need to break out of a bad routine.

Looking for something different yourself? Look no further than Michel Gondry, whose incredibly bizarre videos you can watch over and over and over and over, never realizing you have become trapped in a recursive loop with Kylie Minogue.

Some of Ben's favorite movies are extremely weird. How about that Titus?

And just try explaining The Fifth Element to someone who's not familiar with it. They'll never believe you.

Even Run Lola Run, which takes place in a familiar universe (well, okay, Europe, but that's not as exotic as whatever The Fifth Element is) is a little hard to wrap your head around.

And although Contact was made for a mass market, it's pretty amazing how daring and unusual the film treats the subject matter.

We also talked about some pretty distinctive music, including Loreena McKennitt:

And the difference between Björk and Joanna Newsom grows difficult to discern:

I asked ben for some musical suggestions, and he provided some excellent pointers:

And finally, here's She-Ra. I couldn't write this post without including She-Ra.

Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/