Glamorous but Homicidal (Ep. 147 - The Cure)

This week's Guest: George Alley

My guest this week is George Alley, a musician and choreographer who paid his does on the mean streets of suburban Cleveland, where he was the secretary for a local street gang. The son of a Detroit blues singer and a demolition derby driver, George often felt anger at the world and at people who tormented him. That anger, it turned out, would be a crucial element that shaped his creative work today.

This week's Recommendation: The Doom Generation

Big thanks to George for joining me. And check out his latest single, "Just Leave me Dreaming." I'll have an excerpt of that at the end of the episode.

Let's talk about the 90s, since it did come up quite a bit this week. Particularly that uniquely 90s feeling of nihilism and ennui that nothing matters, everything's ironic, and there's life is lonely, boring, and dumb.

That's the thesis of my recommendation this week, which I'm recommending with a caveat. Greg Araki's film The Doom Generation came out in 1995 and is you might call "peak 90s." It's the story of three disaffected youths sneering their way through a grotesquely violent America guided only by their hunger, their libido, and brief cameos from folks like Parker Posey and Margaret Cho.

It's not heavy on story, and even lighter on any sort of resolution. So you could read a lot into this story depending on what sort of personal baggage you bring. To me, it's a film about early-90s queer HIV anxiety -- there's a line early on about AIDS, and throughout the film the characters are surrounded by images of death as well as a fascination and wariness about the consequences of their own sexual urges.

Your milage with the film may vary of course, up to and including the choice not to watch. It is an aggressive bummer, and though you'll likely walk away with lots to think about you'll also probably have plenty of dark rain clouds over your head. But if you've got the stomach for some deep dark 90s nihilism, The Doom Generation is a rewarding watch -- and not just because of the sexy flashes of male skin and the perfect portrait of men's gazes lingering on each other's bodies.

The film is a perfect capsule of a period of aimlessness, disillusionment, despair, and fear ... and at this point I'm not sure if I'm referring to the 90s or just being a teenager.

Stuff we Talked About

On Top of Mount Sodom (Ep. 146 - The Dead Poets Society)

This Week's Guest: Jay Michaelson

This show is supported by listeners who pledge a dollar or more per episode on Patreon. Huge thanks to everyone who makes the show possible!

We're coming up on a new year -- what are you going to change in 2018? My guest this week is Jay Michaelson, who several years ago found himself unhappy, unfulfilled, and disconnected from meaningful relationships, both with other people and with a higher power. So he decided to stop waiting for the life he wanted, and to start pursuing it -- through spiritual journeys in the Middle East and pagan dances in the woods.

This Week's Recommendation: Here Comes a Thought from Steven Universe

Big thanks to Jay for joining me. As we head into 2018, it's a good time for some mindful reflection about how our choices make us feel and what our feelings make us choose. And that means listening to yourself -- really listening, not just spending time with your inner monologue but asking yourself what you mean by the things you think. That's not always easy to do, but my recommendation this week is basically a 3-minute lesson: the song "Here Comes a Thought" from the show Steven Universe.

I won't spoil anything about the show, and you don't need to know anything about it to follow the song. You can find the video on YouTube, in which two character sing about being plagued by negative thoughts and how they can accept those thoughts, experience them, and then let them go. In the video, the thoughts that alarm them are represented by a swarm of butterflies that overwhelms them. And I think that's certainly a metaphor that's familiar to anyone who dwells on memories that hurt or who feel harassed by their own inner voice.

It's not easy to get those butterflies to disperse, but that's what mindfulness -- starting with this short song -- can teach. And that's not all... though the song focuses on dealing with negative thoughts, when you really listen to yourself you'll also hear positive ones. Memories about people you love, plans for making today a good day, pride in the things you've accomplished -- those butterflies are fluttering around inside you too, just waiting to be heard.

Stuff We Talked About

The 2017 Sewers of Paris Holiday Special Special

Hello and welcome to the Sewers of Paris Holiday Special Special! In the spirit of the season, I've invited some guests, past and future, to share with us their favorite seasonal entertainment. We'll have an appreciation of Batman Returns from Anthony Oliveira, aka @meakoopa. There's a tribute to Snow Miser from Glen Weldon of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour. Performance artist Johnnie Jungleguts will explain why Eyes Wide Shut is his favorite Christmas movie. Carlos Maza from Vox.com will bring us tidings of Ariana Grande and gay men's choruses. There's lots more guests and lots more special -- we've got everything to fills your hearts with festive cheer at this, the darkest time of year. 

And listeners, I'd like to hear from you -- what's YOUR favorite holiday entertainment? Tell me what books and movies and songs and shows are keeping you occupied right now. Head over to @SewersOfParis on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation we're having about our favorite culture. Or write to sewerspodcast@gmail.com -- I love hearing from you.
 
And a big thanks to everyone supporting the Sewers of Paris on Patreon. I could not make the show without all of you. If you're enjoying the show, please help keep it independent and ad-free with your pledge of support. 

Stuff We Talked About

Nothing Went Fine (Ep. 144 - Les Miserables)

This Week's Guest: Michael Blutrich

According to the FBI, my guest this week was involved in one of the largest fraud schemes in history -- the nearly half-billion dollar failure of the National Heritage Life Insurance Company, which had 26,000 elderly policyholders. While Michael Blutrich was involved in the insurance scheme, he was also running a strip club called Scores that had mafia ties, and he secretly recorded conversations that helped the government convict numerous organized crime figures. Before his life took a turn towards crime, he was closeted, choosing to avoid the gay community during the AIDS crisis. Now after more than a decade behind bars, he's out of prison, out of the closet, and wondering if he has a place in society and in gay culture.

We'll have that conversation in just a moment. But first, a quick note: this show is supported by listeners who pledge a dollar or more per episode on Patreon. You might've heard that Patreon was planning to make some changes to the way that they process fees. But they've just announced that for now, those changes won't be happening. So, if you're a supporter, thanks for sticking with the show. Your pledge will continue to be exactly what it was before. The show is only possible because of that listener support -- huge thanks to this week's new and increasing donors, David, Michael, and Darren. If you'd like to join the folks who make The Sewers of Paris possible, head over to SewersOfParis.com and click Support the Show on Patreon.

This Week's Recommendation: Master of the House and Beggars at the Feast

For this week's recommendation, I asked friends on Facebook to suggest Broadway shows about crime and injustice. Thanks to everyone who suggested Sweeney Todd, Urinetown, Wicked, Assassins, Chicago, Parade, Ragtime, Batboy, and many more. And I'm going to recommend that you take a look at the beautifully produced 25th anniversary concert of Les Mis -- there's a link in the shownotes -- particularly two songs: Master of the House, and Beggars at the Feast.

In those songs, Matt Lucas -- you may know him as the only gay in the village from Little Britain -- plays Monsieur Thénardier, who calls himself "the best innkeeper in town," while running every moneymaking scheme he can think of. It's a very fun number, heightened by the comedic relish with which Lucas explains his dealmaking: "Glad to do a friend a favor," he sings, "doesn't cost me to be nice. But nothing gets you nothing; everything has got a little price."

At one point, the pure-hearted hero of the show, Jean Valjean, is captured by the Thénardiers. They discover his identity and inform on him to the law. Valjean narrowly escapes, as does Thénardier, who is able to survive by hiding himself in the sewers of Paris.

Our last glimpse of the character comes at the end of the play. Valjean has retreated from public eye, knowing that his criminal past threatens those he cares for; and Thénardier takes advantage of his absense to reappear under a new name.

In disguise, he tries once more to wring money from the heroes, but inadvertently reveals himself, reveals his deceit, and, crucially, reveals acts of kindness by Valjean that until then had gone unknown. At the last possible moment, our heroes learn of Valjean's great personal sacrifices, and are able to thank him before he dies.

The Thénardiers are ceaseless schemers. But ultimately they do illuminate a moral compass, providing clues as to what's right by showing what's wrong. Their voices may not be trustworthy -- but that doesn't mean there isn't be a benefit to thinking about what they choose to say.
 

Stuff we Talked About

Les Miserables - The Musical Event of a Lifetime
Starring Alfie Boe, Norm Lewis, Katie Hall, Nick Jonas, Lea Salonga
Buy on Amazon

Surrounded by Death and Drugs (Ep. 143 - Sina Grace & Iceman)

This Week's Guest: Sina Grace

My guest this week set out to answer a simple question: how do you live a content life? Sina Grace is the comic author and illustrator behind autobiographical books like Self-Obsessed, and Marvel's current Iceman series. A few years ago, he reached a point of disillusionment with the American dream, discovering getting all the money and possessions you wanted isn't as fulfilling as family, health, and love. Isolated and literally wasting away,  Sina set in motion some changes that would eventually bring him happiness in ways he never even knew he wanted.

Big thanks to everyone supporting the Sewers of Paris on Patreon, including new patrons Ryan, Michael, Chris, John, Jeremy, Tyler, Gareth, Brian, Jayblay, and the Indie Opera Podcast. I could not make the show without all of you. If you're enjoying the show, please help keep it independent and ad-free with your pledge of support. Just click support the show on Patreon.

If you have a moment, please leave a review of the show on your podcast platform of choice. 

You can follow the show on Twitter and Facebook -- just search for The Sewers of Paris. I post clips of the stuff we talked about each week, and also chat with listeners about the entertainment that changed THEIR lives. You can also write to sewerspodcast@gmail.com -- I love hearing from listeners.

This Week's Recommendation: All-New X-Men Issue #40

Big thanks to Sina for joining me. You can pick up his issues of Iceman at comic shops and online, though whenever possible please do support your local comics retailer. For my recommendation this week, step back a few years to All-New X-Men Issue #40, when Iceman first came out.

I've seen a million coming-out stories, and it's rare to find a new angle -- but this one's really nicely handled. The story involves a bit of time travel and young Bobby talking to an older version of himself. No spoilers, but there's a confrontation and a dialogue between them that reads like an echo of the dialogue between generations -- younger gay men expressing themselves authentically in a way that older gay men simply couldn't.

For that conflict to exist within a single character is a particularly brilliant approach, and lends a very special depth to Bobby's relationship with himself -- both the himself that is him and the himself that is someone else. Ugh, time travel stories.

Anyway it's a really lovely approach, and very meaningful that Marvel was willing to permit this story for Iceman -- one of the original characters dating back to the 1960s. And I think it echoes something that Sina said in our conversation -- "the person you become can be just as valuable as the person you were."

Stuff We Talked About

Nothing Lasts Forever
By Sina Grace
Not My Bag GN
By Sina Grace
Self-Obsessed
By Sina Grace
All New X-Men #40
Marvel Comics

Everything is Queer (Ep 142 - Matt Rogers)

This Week's Guest: Matt Rogers

Where do you learn where you belong? My guest this week is Matt Rogers, half of the comedy team behind the Las Culturistas podcast. Matt's upbringing taught him that there was only one acceptable way to be masculine, while deep down inside he longed to belt showtunes. So how did he get from sporty athlete to an arbiter of the queerest of New York homosexual culture? All it took were a few panic attacks, Neil Patrick Harris, and a crab shack.

Check out Matt's Christmas show here.

Big thanks to everyone supporting the Sewers of Paris on Patreon. I could not make the show without you. If you're enjoying the show, please help keep it independent and ad-free with your pledge of support. Just go to SewersOfParis.com and click support the show on Patreon.

If you have a moment, please leave a review of the show on your podcast platform of choice. 

You can follow the show on Twitter and Facebook -- just search for The Sewers of Paris. I post clips of the stuff we talked about each week, and also chat with listeners about the entertainment that changed THEIR lives. You can also write to sewerspodcast@gmail.com -- thanks to Dave who wrote that he found me through my YouTube videos and said "You're on my list of favorite podcasts on Stitcher." 

This Week's Recommendation: Las Culturistas

Big thanks to Matt for joining me. I have a link to his show, Have You Heard of Christmas, in the shownotes. And for my recommendation this week, check out the podcast that he co-hosts with Bowen Yang, Las Culturistas.

Each week on the show, the pair have a guest on to talk about the culture that means the most to them -- a format that may be of interest to listeners of this show. But instead of diving deep into personal histories, Las Culturistas zooms far and wide from one touchstone to another, and by the end of each episode you'll have your arms full of new recommendations to explore. 

Of particular interest is recent episode 58 with past Sewers guest Guy Branum. The three of them manage to get into a pop cultural rhythm in their conversation that's so syncopated in its references it's more of a song than a casual chat. 

Matt and Bowen's enthusiasm for culture is infectious, and not entirely a surprise, knowing how Matt deprived himself when he was younger. Like Matt, my own media diet was fairly controlled as a kid, which is probably what led to to me having such an appetite I had to start a whole podcast. Like denying your sexuality, denying your culture leads to can lead to an explosion of interest when you finally do give yourself permissions to indulge. And that's not always a bad thing, as long as you over-indulge safely, and joyfully, and remember to share.

Stuff We Talked About

A Britney-Whitney Gay (Ep. 141 - Best Little Whorehouse in Texas)

This Week's Guest: Emerson Collins

When it's hard to find the words you know you need to say, can you use someone else's? This week's guest is actor and producer Emerson Collins, whose new film A Very Sordid Wedding is a sequel to the classic Sordid Lives. Growing up around the big hair and church bells of Texas, Emerson struggled to speak openly about who he really was. Until he got up on stage.

Big thanks to everyone supporting the Sewers of Paris on Patreon. I could not make the show without you. If you're enjoying the show, please help keep it independent and ad-free with your pledge of support. It just takes a few clicks to support the show on Patreon.

This Week's Recommendation: Better Get to Livin'

Big thanks to Emerson for joining me, and for giving me a reason to recommend some Dolly Parton this week. Look up her music video for the song Better Get to Livin' -- and yes, that is Amy Sedaris playing various roles throughout the video, including a carnival barker, a fortune teller, and a sideshow attraction.

The song itself is sweet, and positive, an upbeat encouragement to keep your chin up and ignore the self-sabotage within. 

Dolly's advice in the song is to stop whining, to not sweat the small stuff, and to hang tough, whatever that means. And to be fair it's not harmful advice, it's just that it's easy to say all that from the outside. It takes very little effort to note when someone else is caught up in their head, and to encourage them to just buck up. It's a lot harder to diagnose yourself.

As much as I like this video and love Amy's weird cameos, I think there's one piece of advice missing from the song -- and that's to ask for help sometimes. Taking a long hard look at your life is scary and hard, but butting in to someone else's is fun. 

So when you're feeling stressed or down, just telling yourself "keep your chin up" may not be terribly effective. But when you're telling someone else, and they're telling you, and you've got a bunch of folks all supporting each other, suddenly it's a lot more helpful. It's not the words of the encouragement that've changed, it's just that they work a lot better as a chorus than a solo.

Stuff We Talked About

A Sandbox of Weirdness (Ep. 140 - Jamie Pierce)

It takes about ten hours to produce each episode of The Sewers of Paris, so if you're enjoying the show please help support it with a pledge of a dollar or more per episode.

This Week's Guest: Jamie Pierce

How do you balance a need for solitude with a need to collaborate? This week's guest is Jamie Pierce, an actor, comedian, and dancer who's no stranger to career changes. Several years ago, he decided to transform his work and his  life after an experience onstage. And just last year, he reached another turning point in part because of this show.

I originally interviewed Jamie back in 2016, but then his episode kept moving around in the schedule and a few months went by before it was going to appear. But then Jamie contacted me to let me know that our conversation started him thinking, and eventually led to him making a pretty drastic decision about his career. So I interviewed him again about that experience. This episode starts with a chat we recorded last year, then you'll hear a new interview that we recorded more recently about how one of the pieces of entertainment that changed his life wound up being this podcast.

This Week's Recommendation: Pee Wee's Big Adventure

Big thanks to Jamie for joining me. You can follow him at JamiePierceNYC on Twitter to jeep up with his adventures, whether venturing out onstage as part of an ensemble or going it alone in a solo show. 

For this week's recommendation, take a look at another notorious loner with the movie Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Like every Pee Wee project, it is utterly delightful, ridiculous, and queer. The plot concerns a stolen bicycle and a fever dream of a quest to recover it. Early in the movie, Pee Wee declares himself a loner and a rebel, a line that's funny enough on its own but is absolutely ludicrous given how many friends he has. At every step of his journey, Pee Wee wins over everyone, even the most hostile gang of bikers, by being completely bizarre, because that's just who he is. He is guileless, weird, not always polite but always honest about what he likes and what he doesn't. 

Back on episode 117, I recommended Pee Wee's Big Holiday and noted that he is, to be sure, a very strange boy: giddy, curious, playful, and sincere. And so is everyone else he encounters: they're all strange in their own way, from a phony psychic to a spooky truck driver to a sweet-hearted waitress. And in Pee Wee's company, they all seem completely comfortable to be strange, happy with whatever makes them weird. 

Everyone is uniquely bizarre, each a loner and rebel in their own particular oddness. But this movie has them all rebelling together -- they're loners but they're never alone.

Stuff We Talked About

Everybody Should Have Secrets (Ep. 139 - Imitation of Life)

This Week's Guest: Tim Kirkman

What are the secrets you're carrying around, and what would happen if you dropped them? This week's guest is Tim Kirkman, a storyteller with a knack for exploring the things people don't say. His film Lazy Eye is about confronting secret loves, and his documentary Dear Jesse is about his unexpected connection with America's most notorious homophobe. What Tim's found, in his work and in his life, is that the information people withhold about themselves is often the key to understanding them -- provided you can open up about yourself.

Big thanks to everyone supporting the Sewers of Paris on Patreon. I could not make the show without you. If you're enjoying the show, please help keep it independent and ad-free with your pledge of support. Just go to SewersOfParis.com and click support the show on Patreon.

And you can also leave a review of the show -- thanks to DroidCX who wrote "My listenings leave me empowered" with a headling of "yasss queen" plus an emoji of a dancing red dress lady, which is a coincidence, because right now I'm wearing a red dress and dancing the flamenco.

You can also follow the show on Twitter and Facebook -- just search for The Sewers of Paris. I post clips of the stuff we talked about each week, and also chat with listeners about the entertainment that changed THEIR lives. And I love to hear from you -- you can write to sewerspodcast@gmail.com.

This Week's Recommendation: Keith Haring

Big thanks to Tim for joining me. And check out his film, Lazy Eye, on all the major streaming and video services and at LazyEye.com.

My recommendation this week is as simple as doing a google search. Type in Keith Haring, click over to the images tab, and then just keep scrolling. You'll probably recognize Haring's more famous pieces -- two figures holding up a heart, a dog-headed DJ, that sculpture outside the Moscone Center. Early in his career, Haring would ride the subways in New York and draw chalk doodles in advertising space, which brought him a sort of cult following of commuters.

But you might not be as familiar with his later political art. That takes a bit more digging to find, since it's not quite so commercial: a man with a cross confronting a television, an anti-apartheid image of a large figure crushing a smaller oppressor, two men jerking each other off with the caption "safe sex."

Haring's work looks simple, but his causes weren't -- such as the time he painted unified figures on the Berlin wall in the colors of the German flag. His later paintings link capitalism to abuse. And then there's his collage work, accusing Ronald Reagan of being a killer -- made in 1980, a decade before Haring passed away in an epidemic fueled by Reagan's inhumanity.

If not for his political work, we might still remember Haring for his bright colors, his democratic approach to exhibiting art, and his whimsical figures. That stuff's all fun -- and, importantly, marketable. But it isn't urgent, and I have a feeling it might've gotten lost among imitators if he hadn't been willing to risk alienating casual observers with statements on HIV, racism, and economic exploitation.

The Haring we know from t-shirts and tote bags is simple, appealing, and pleasant. But Haring's best work is none of those things -- it's complex, challenging, aggressive. It's sophisticated -- despite being little more than a few outlines scratched in chalk.

Stuff We Talked About

Bonus Episode! The Lost Treasure of the Neverglades

Welcome to a special bonus episode of the Sewers of Paris! Last weekend some familiar friends and I hosted a fundraiser for Seattle Children's Hospital, bringing together a group of gays to play a custom made Dungeons and Dragons adventure for a livestream audience. Joining me were comedian Bryan Safi, Carlos Maza from Vox.com, Anthony Oliveira, and LGBT film scholar Bryan Wuest, all-role playing a D&D quest together.

I thought you might enjoy hearing these past Sewers of Paris guests improv their way through an adventure while joking around and making deep references to queer culture. 

I know this is a little different from the usual Sewers of Paris fare, so let me know if you like having these occasional bonus episodes or if you'd rather not have them in the feed. You can get in touch @sewersofparis on twitter or sewerspodcast@gmail.com.

And patreon supporters, don't worry -- you're not getting charged for this episode. 

During this recording you'll hear occasional sound effects whenever a viewer donates. And I hope you'll join them. We're currently ninety percent of our way to our fundraising stretch fundraising goal for Seattle Children's Hospital, and there's still time to donate -- just go to bit.ly/extralifeseattle . As of recording, we're about 90% of the way to our fundraising goal of $3,456.78. 

You can also check out our live show, Dungeons and Drag Queens, where we get a bunch of drag queens up on stage to role play a D&D adventure for a live audience. Go to dungeondrag.com to watch past shows and sign up for the mailing list to find out when we're doing more.

If you'd like to hear more from these adventurers, Bryan Safi's episode of Sewers of Paris is number 64, Anthony's is 114, Carlos is 130, and I hope to bring you Bryan Wuest's in the near future.

Huge thanks to our adventurers, to James Morris who wrote the adventure with me, and to everyone who donated during the stream. 

Prefer to watch a video version? Well here you go: