Why are these queens so f*ckin’ fab??? San Fran’s queer no genre boundary duo Double Duchess (Krylon Superstar and David Richardson) turn up and out on new remix collection, from debut album All Eyes On Me, just in time for some serious dance floor destruction. Check out epic reworked tracks by Baltimore club veterans Normaling, JAVASCRIPT, NYC house music duo The Carry Nation, and an OVAHNESS voguing version of Grace Jones cover Bullshit by Ballroom icons MikeQ and Divoli S’vere. Double Duchess should DEFINITELY be on your radar by now. Download All Eyes On Me/Remixes for FREE below!

The post Double Duchess Remixes Debut Album with Help From Other Queer Artists appeared first on World of Wonder.

James McGowan
Simon Morley
Adam Goldberg
Adam Pascal
Barbara Cook
Bat for Lashes
Chad Smith
Chely Wright
Chrissy Amphlett
Ciara
Craig Robinson
David Furnish
Helen Reddy
Josh Henderson
Katy Perry
Marion Ross
Mathieu Amalric
Mehcad Brooks
Michael Boatman
Nancy Cartwright
Tracy Nelson

The post October 25: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on World of Wonder.

Legendary DJ Anita Sarko left us on Friday. There was a Danceteria reunion that same night and I would have expected to see her there. To Anita, life was a party, and from the sound of it, it just wasn’t fun anymore. So she left. Slipped out the back door while no one was looking. If anyone would had known she was about to split, they would have grabbed her arm and said, “Honey, you’re not going anywhere!” But nobody knew. So, rather than give you a rundown of her accomplishments, I’ll quote her dearest pals, loved ones and most ardent admirers here (unedited)…

“I am speechless and heartbroken. Anita Sarko was a giant. I remember, decades ago, a packed party at the jefferson theatre. Anita deejaying, I was high as a kite huddled in behind her in that tiny corner booth. She forever altered my idea of a DJ with her set that night. one instant which consisted of playing an hour long recording of timothy leary speaking psychedelic wisdom overlaid with recordings of birdsong, mixing that with the sounds of steam rattling in pipes. it was amazing and the whole crowd loved it. it truly was another time and another place. I will always love you and will never forget carrying those huge crates of records for you. rest in power dearest anita.” -artist, Chuck Nanney

“Anita was a very special person to me, when I first met her in the 80s she scared me, I thought she was mean LOL and she loved that years later when I admitted it to her. Anita was anything but mean, she was fun, she was kooky and above all she was a very smart person. I wish she had asked for help, I would have helped her. I hope she is at peace and I will always remember all of the funny and great times that we had together. I am happy that the last time I saw her I whispered in her ear ‘I LOVE YOU ANITA.'”… and I do!” -author, PR man, Mao Padhila

“We Love You and will miss you. There was no one more fun, more clever with an interesting sense of the world around then her than Anita Sarko. I am so sad, but choose to remember the laughter with a smile.” -photographer, Patrick McMullen

“She was my friend, my co-worker and often my devils advocate. Fiercely loyal, fiercely independent, and just plain fierce. She was equal parts sensitive and ferocious – and we didn’t always agree on things. Which made her more a sister than just a friend. We all always tried to be there for her but she was also fiercely proud. I think we are all in shock that it’s come to this. RIP Anita. You will be more missed than you realize.” -former doorman, designer,Sally Randall Brunger

“My dearest and closest childhood friend , Anita Sarko, has passed. Although she has lived in NYC for many years, we remained close through phone and Facebook. Although she was a celebrity to many, a brilliant and talented writer and DJ, she was and always will be a wonderful reminder to me of our younger and more carefree days. I am sure they are “rockin” in heaven now that Anita is there. I will always love you.” –Linda Dorfman Feldman

“Unlike many folks who were already adults and working it in the late 70s and 80s in NYC, Anita embraced the younger crop of folks who arrived mid-80s; and, like Michael Musto and other creatives, contributed to DV8 magazine and similar mags that were popping up via desktop publishing. When Stella-Lynne and I threw our NYC party HUSH which moved around and found a home on 9th street, Anita would poke her head in to touch base with our now legendary then young DJs. We chatted recently and she always wanted to know what we were up to and I had absolutely no idea she was in so much pain. I’m quite floored by her passing. We loved her so very dearly.” -astrologist, Quinn Cox

“In a scene with few female role models, she was downtown royalty. As I fledgling DJ and scenester in NYC, I was blessed to have been summoned to her court of cool. I am pissed off that artists and unique individuals like Anita and so many other Creatives have been crowded out of their livelihoods and stripped of their self esteem. To me it seems like the only creativity our current culture values is entrepreneurial. That seems boring and short sighted.” –Jean Caffeine

“The last time I talked to her, I made a point of telling her she was “legit”. She was so much more than that. A brilliant woman, and I loved her more than I can say.” –writer, Michael Musto

“Anita was the very essence of the nightlife I thrived on for decades. The nights with Haoui Montaug and Anita & No Entiendes were my earliest and best memories of her. This is terribly terribly sad. What is happening to so many in my generation is excruciating, and frighteningly real. We have to find our way through this together.”–Jackie Rudin

“In 1980 Anita Sarko, David Azarch, Justin Strauss and I were hired as DJs at the now legendary Mudd Club. I’m not sure about David (he seemed pretty together) but Justin and I were both pretty new at it (Justin was a lot more together than me). I knew nothing about DJing. I was in art school and just saw it as a temporary job. Coming from college radio, Anita was really the one who not only knew what she was doing, had a VERY strong vision of where she wanted to go. She was smart, stubborn and relentless. Butting heads with every club owner who ever hired her, every DJ who ever complained ‘she can’t mix’ and every poor sap who ever made the mistake of asking her for a stupid request, she could be a deadly hurricane. Anita could be incredibly kind. After assessing that I was no threat, she not only explained the concept of DJing to me (remember this was 1980 and DJing was still a pretty new thing) she let me sleep on her couch for weeks until I found a place to live. We stayed up many nights until dawn eating chocolate and talking (me listening) about music. Over the years I took to DJing but I never forgot the kindness that Anita showed to me during those early years. We stayed close friends. She liked to boast that she taught me how to DJ and that Chi Chi’s and my first kiss was in front of her DJ booth. Both are totally true. We will miss you “Auntie Anita”. P.S. I think that I may be the one who named you ‘Auntie Anita’. Sorry.” -DJ, Johnny Dynell

“I’m so sorry to hear about the death of Anita Sarko, a great personality, a bold gal and a woman I have called my friend for 30 years. She will be missed!!!!” -actress, Lisa Edelstein

“In shock. Numb. Devastated. The world feels so much emptier without this amazing, smart, talented, hilarious, insightful, wise, cultured and dazzling New York treasure. Anita Sarko, it was exactly your many years of incredible experience that made you valuable! Now I won’t get to read your memoir and that makes me mad. But I am not mad at you. I love you. Always and forever, whevever that Forever ends up residing. I always looked up to you. You were a soul sister, an inspiration, a fellow LedZep lover (remember that nutty Zeppelin party we hosted?) and always had the right combination of wisdom and wit in that extraordinary brain of yours. Not to mention the best platters to spin and your fabulous hats! Say hi to Edwige and, of course, Haoui and all the other starchildren who went to sparkle in the galaxy ahead of us.” -actress, writer, Ann Magnuson

“Never looked so so head on
Clean cut beautiful then lately
Just stepped out there chic fancy and friendly and funny.
Oh Anita”
–writer, poet, Edit DeAk

“Anita was a great wit. She could be tart when it was called for but was terribly sweet if you passed muster. She suffered no fools, that’s for sure. She loved a loud look for work but was really a glamour girl at heart. And she knew more about music than anybody… One of my favorite moments with Anita, and there are many, was when she agreed to dj at my 22nd birthday on the roof of Danceteria. She was the best dj in the world at a time when dj’s weren’t celebrated the way they are now, a fact even more hard-won as a woman. Inexplicably, Nina Hagen was there and at one point she sidled up to Anita and said ‘ooh I really like this song. What is it?’ Anita just turned to her with that look of droll incredulity she did so well and said, “umm… Stairway To Heaven?” –designer, Michael Schmidt

The post #DowntownLegend: An Appreciation of Anita Sarko, By Her Friends appeared first on World of Wonder.

James and I both posted that the legendary DJ Anita Sarko left us on Friday. Rather than give you a rundown of her accomplishments, I quoted her dearest pals in an appreciation of Anita here. My pal Laurie Wolfe just sent me this video of Anita that was posted yesterday, called Sound & Silence by Svetlana Samoshina. It seems to have been shot very recently and is Anita interviewed on the street and on the High Line about life, today’s culture, art and her views on just about everything. As Laurie said,

“…this is so poignant, spot-on and beautiful… just how I want to remember her.”

Ditto. Even if you didn’t know her, it’s fascinating. Watch. You might learn something from the one we called, “Auntie Anita”.

The post #SoundandSilence: The Late, Great Anita Sarko in Her Own Words appeared first on World of Wonder.

In 1980 Keith Haring adopted a collage style where he manipulated choice phrases from the cover of the New York Post to Dada-ist headlines where his most hated public figures became the butt of the joke. In Keith Haring: The Authorized Biography by John Gruen, Haring wrote:

“The most notorious of my street pieces were the ones that looked like the front page of the New York Post. I’d cut out letters from the Post and rearrange them to make fake headlines, like REAGAN SLAIN BY HERO COP or POPE KILLED FOR FREED HOSTAGE or MOB FLEES AT POPE RALLY. I Xeroxed these in the hundreds and I’d paste them on lampposts and on newsstands. Because they looked so real, people were forced to confront them. They were completely confused—and the posters really made a mark, because they got into people’s consciousness.”

I met Keith in ’80 and I have couple of these xerox collages somewhere. He would often hand them out at clubs or as he was pasting them on the street at night. Gotta look for those…

(via Dangerous Minds)

The post #DowntownLegend: Keith Haring’s Lesser-Known “Post” Collages Pack a Punch appeared first on World of Wonder.

Bobbie and her boys

Last night was another in a series of nights at Howl! Happening Gallery during the exhibit Secrets of the Great Pyramid: The Pyramid Cocktail Lounge as Cultural Laboratory. The opening night celebrated Cafe Iguana and last night was Whispers hosted by Hapi Phace (Marc Phred) and Hattie Hathaway (Brian Butterick). From their own description back in the day Whispers was conceived as a response to the gentrification and pasteurization of New York in 1984, and billed as;

“The Complete Suburban Gay Experience as a party for hairdressers, display queens, theatre folk, fashionistas, florists, and sensitive straight people.”

Fran Lebowitz in the Pyramid dressing room. Photo, Lynn Grabowski

Trey Speegle on the cover of STH, design by editor/ art director Victor Weaver

Whispers was tongue firmly-in-cheek and last night brought it all the chickens home to roost. Back in the day I hosted a Sunday night series called Straight To Hell and as I explained to the crowd last night, STH was the Manhattan Review of Unnatural Acts, which was true homosexual exploits in ‘zine form. (The exhibit includes the issue of STH with a 19 year-old me on the cover.) I put together a lineup which I cannot believe in retrospect. The first dozen or so Sundays featured John Waters, Cookie Mueller, Fran Lebowitz, Jackie Curtis, Taylor Mead, Quentin Crisp, Kenneth Anger, and on and on. We also had wet underwear contests and sexy guys dancing on the bar. I enlisted party promoter pal, Daniel Nardicio to find me a guy and he sent me the very cute Alex Killborn, who danced on the bar along with David Caskie as “The Painted Man”.

Hapi and Hattie bantered along and introduced the performers when they weren’t cracking us (and each other) up with corny jokes. The night began with pioneering experimental theater guru Agosto Machado who told a story of dancing on the bar with the late drag legend Ethyl Eichelberger. Drag icon Charles Ludlam appeared in the crowd and when they saw her, they hopped off to head to the dressing room where Charles asked Ethyl…

“WHY, oh WHY are you dancing on the bar! You’re a legend!”

To which Ethyl replied,

“For the view.”

So Ethyl, and so true. It was THE view from up there. (You could see all the cute boys you wanted to flirt with when your set was over.)

Poet Kennon B. Raines was up next and –not to toot my own horn– but she gave me a surprise shout-out from the stage, saying I was one of the first to encourage her to read her poetry. Well, she mesmerized the crowd and it all came back why I thought she was SO good. Electrifying. Probably why I didn’t get a better picture. Sorry, Kennon. (I’m also sorry I stepped outside for a minute and I missed Edgar Oliver but I heard he was fantastic.)

In from Montreal, our resident chanteuse Marleen Menard wowed us as all with an original composition and in a tribute to the late trans superstar, International Chrysis, Bobbie and her own hot guys gave a updated taste of glam and sexy bar moves. And to top it all off Whispers & Pyramid co-founder Sister Dimension pulled off a last-minute performance that left us all wanting more. Butch icon Dee Finley finished off the night with her own brand of bar dancing.

It really was a fun night night marred only by our missing comrades and the very recent passing of Edwidge & Anita Sarko. They along with Ann Craig, John Sex, Wendy Wild, Bobby Bradley, and unfortunately scores of others were toasted and adored. As I said to DJ Johnny Dynell as we were leaving;

“This is what happens when you don’t die.”

My STH shirt photographed by Andy Warhol in the Pyramid dressing room

Angelyne, Nina Hagen & Cassandra Peterson (Elvira) wearing an STH shirt

Straight To Hell posters, designed by Trey Speegle

My Hapi Phace t-shirt postcard/Whisper promo postcard. (Note the performers include The Pop Tarts, aka Wow’s Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato!)

Hapi & Aleta Wolfe were SO happy that you’re gay…

Hattie & Agosto

Cutie Alex was our lone STH bar dancer

David Caskie as “The Painted Man” with Alex Killborn. Photo by Aleta Wolfe

Agosto Machado regaled us from on high

Kennon B. Raines was razor sharp despite my blurry pic

The incomparable Marlene Menard

Bobbie’s tribute to the late trans icon, International Chrysis was spot on

Sister Dimension came from another dimension

Ta-da! Whispers’ finalé

Bar dancing’ Dee Finley closed out the night…

The post #DowntownLegend: “Whispers” Night at Howl! Happening Gallery Brought Back the Gay Old Pyramid appeared first on World of Wonder.

Feminist author Germaine Greer has accused Caitlyn Jenner of stealing the limelight from other female members of the Kardashian family, in comments that have further alienated those who object to the writer views about transgender people. The Australian-born writer said in a BBC2’s Newsnight interview that “misogyny played a big part” in the rumoured decision by Glamour magazine to give Jenner its woman of the year award. She has refused to back down from her position that transgender women, who have begun life as men before undergoing surgery and hormone treatment to become women, are “not women”, saying they do not,

“look like, sound like or behave like women”.

Asked about Caitlyn Jenner being made Glamour‘s Woman of the Year, as reported earlier this week, Greer said:

“I think misogyny plays a really big part in all of this, that a man who goes to these lengths to become a woman will be a better woman than someone who is just born a woman.

It seems to me that what was going on there was that he/she wanted the limelight that the other, female, members of the family were enjoying and has conquered it, just like that.”

A petition on Change.org, which was started by Rachael Melhuish, women’s officer at Cardiff University students union, alleged that Greer has

“demonstrated misogynistic views towards trans women, including continually misgendering trans women and denying the existence of transphobia altogether”.

While debate in a University should be encouraged, hosting a speaker with such problematic and hateful views towards marginalised and vulnerable groups is dangerous. Allowing Greer a platform endorses her views, and by extension, the transmisogyny, which she continues to perpetuate.”

Greer has maintained her position on transgender women,saying:

“I’m not saying that people should not be allowed to go through that [sex change] procedure. What I’m saying is that it doesn’t make them a woman. It happens to be an opinion. It’s not a prohibition.”

Addressing claims that she had been hurtful towards transgender women, Greer added:

“People are being hurtful to me all the time. Try being an old woman. For goodness sake, people get hurt all the time. I’m not about to walk on eggshells.”

The organisers claimed her views were “problematic” for transgender people. Greer had been due to give a lecture next month called Women & Power: The Lessons of the 20th Century. She has now said she will not make the speech if the university cannot guarantee she “will not have things thrown” at her.

Greer was speaking after it emerged that an online petition had been launched seeking to prevent her giving a lecture at Cardiff University. Asked about the petition, she told The Guardian on Friday:

“I don’t really know what I think of it. It strikes me as a bit of a put-up job really because I am not even going to talk about the issue that they are on about.

What they are saying is that because I don’t think surgery will turn a man into a woman I should not be allowed to speak anywhere.”

What do you think? Should she be allowed to speak or are her views dangerous? Sound off on our Facebook.

(via The Guardian)

The post #LGBT: Feminist Germaine Greer Says Caitlyn Jenner Is “Not a Woman” appeared first on World of Wonder.

After posting Season 2 of lady reporter Damiana Garcia‘s sketch show “Pretty Things” on The WOW Report over the Summer, here’s the first of the 8-episode Season 1 of the series. This season of “Pretty Things” includes the sketch videos that Damiana made with her cohort Amanda Barrett from 1999 to 2002, spanning the time they lived in New York City to when they moved back to their hometown LA. This episode features the sketches “Bellacini,” “Popcorn,” “Car Jams,” “Mulberry Commons” (shot in an NYU classroom), “Opal,” “Erica and Tamara in: Community Service,” “What If,” “Chance Meetings,” “Times Square Reverie” and “Fingernail Girl.” Another episode will be posted on The WOW Report every Sunday night – be sure to subscribe to the “Pretty Things” YouTube channel to not miss an episode!

The post Watch Now: “Pretty Things” Season 1 Episode 1 appeared first on World of Wonder.

Holly Woodlawn
Shannon Kelly
Jackie Glover
Anthony Rapp
Bob Hoskins
Bootsy Collins
Cary Elwes
Dylan McDermott
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Jaclyn Smith
Jon Heder
Julian Schnabel
Keith Urban
Natalie Merchant
Pat Sajak
Rita Wilson
Rosemarie DeWitt
Sasha Cohen
Seth MacFarlane
Shelley Morrison
Tom Cavanagh

The post October 26: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on World of Wonder.

October 26, 1953– Keith Strickland:

“In 1992, I came out in a New York publication. We just had just released Good Stuff & I remember thinking that I had wanted to come out publicly. I knew at that point it was inevitable; it was going to happen anyways because it was really on the radar then. Madonna was being very outspoken & supportive of Gay Rights & things were just opening up. More people were coming out publicly & I wanted to do that for myself more than anything. & so I did and it was a complete non-event. It was good for me. It was nice to have it out there but it didn’t make headlines. I don’t think anyone was really surprised.”

I had the pleasure of meeting him on the 2012 summer solstice, invited backstage after a concert by his bandmate Kate. He looked really well put together for a gentleman of a certain age. I suppose doing 200 shows a year kept him looking young. Strickland was always “the cute one” in that “tacky little party band from Athens Georgia”.

Their seminal sound still brings back those sensations of the early 1980s, when I was still a kid. The B-52s’s brand of dance music was edgy, fresh, & difficult to resist. I actually wore out the grooves on my copy of their original self-titled album. My friends & I knew all the lyrics to Planet Claire, Dance This Mess Around, & Rock Lobster, & we would sing along as we would shake our thing & shimmy on the dance floor at the local disco.

Strickland, the band’s original drummer, probably really saved the act after the heartbreaking loss of the band’s original guitarist Ricky Wilson was taken by AIDS in 1985. Wilson was not only band vocalist Cindy Wilson‘s big brother in the band but his songwriting & original open-tuned guitar style gave the band its punky, surfy, funky sound.

For the next 4 years, the remaining B-52s somehow pushed past their grief while Strickland taught himself Wilson’s distinctive percussive guitar parts, while creating new riffs that honored Wilson’s sound while pushing the act forward creatively. Strickland, Cindy Wilson, Kate Pierson & Fred Schneider found a way to keep the band together & carry on Ricky Wilson’s musical legacy. What they created became the biggest album of their career, Cosmic Thing (1989).

Strickland also played keyboards on many of the quirky, cutting, dance-a-riffic B-52’s recordings & he sang backup vocals on many of their songs.

About their most famous track, Strickland says:

 “We didn’t know we had really written Love Shack after we had written it! We had kinda shelved it. When we started looking for producers, we had lined up Nile Rodgers & Don Was. When we met with Don we played him the demos of our songs & he said: ‘These are great but do you have anything else?’ We said we had this one track, but it was not finished. We had several versions on the unfinished demo & he goes: ‘Are you kidding me? This is great!’ But we had not really found the chorus to the song. He immediately wanted to start working on that, so he just said ‘Repeat this one part,’ which was “The love shack is a little old place where…’. We played it only once on the demo but as soon as we repeated it, it all fell into place. After we recorded though, I knew, I think we all knew that we had hit upon something. It just had a vibe to it. & you know when there’s a vibe but you can’t really put your finger on what it is? You don’t know why it’s working but it really is. Like, ‘My goodness, there’s something here’.”

Like both the other male members of the B-52’s: lead singer Schneider & the late Ricky Wilson, plus Pierson, Strickland is openly gay. He lives with his partner Mark in Woodstock NY, Athens GA, & Key West.

I feel fortunate to have seen the band in their incarnation that summer of 2012. Just a few months later, Strickland announced that he would no longer be touring with The B-52s.On his page on The Facebook he posted:

“Dear friends, I wanted to let you know that I will no longer be touring with the band. This has not been an easy decision for me to make, but it is the path I know in my heart I must follow. I will continue to be in The B-52’s, I will just not tour. My barnstorming days have come to an end, but I wholeheartedly support Cindy, Fred & Kate’s decision to continue. I’m grateful for the music Ricky, Cindy, Fred, Kate & myself created together. I’m thankful for the many opportunities I’ve had to perform, & I’m filled with gratitude for your continued presence, love & support. Together we made something wonderful happen… Follow your bliss, Keith.”

The post #BornThisDay: Musician, Keith Strickland appeared first on World of Wonder.

After publicly coming out to the world, 2014 Olympic slopestyle silver medalist Gus Kenworthy is now explaining why he waited. He told the Chicago Tribune about his difficult decision to stay in the closet while competing in Russia. When Kenworthy would let his mind wander into how his perfect Olympics might play out, he imagined a fantasy scene. He’d land his best tricks on his final run, win a medal and then jump into the stands to kiss his bf.

“The idea of kissing my boyfriend at the bottom of my run would’ve been, in addition to me coming out, a silent (screw) you to the anti-gay legislature in place in Russia. That would’ve been an amazing way to come out.”

Because he wasn’t ready, the journey to Sochi was far less perfect.

“I felt like I was already being so courageous with my body and my actions and the things I was doing in order to try to win and be the best. Then, I was being such a coward in this other way, where I wouldn’t let anyone know. So they were battling each other. I’m excited where those two things can go hand in hand.”

Winning athletes always go on their post-Olympic interview tours and Gus faced all sorts of personal questions. He was asked about his celebrity crush and he lied. Miley Cyrus. But the truth was, at the time he was nothing more than a casual fan of hers. (They are now friends.)

If you remember, he was the “Dog Guy” who saved a bunch of dogs that were abandoned in Russia? Well, he couldn’t tell the real story there either but the person who did most of the hard work with the dogs was his boyfriend at the time. He stayed behind in Russia for more than a month to get them back to the States.

“He got zero credit and I was getting asked about it on every show and in every interview.”

Gus said he likes the idea of coming out while he’s at the top of his game, while people in his sport — especially kids — are paying attention. Tiger Shaw, the CEO of U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association says.

“We admire Gus for having the strength to tell the world who he is as a person, and paving the way for others to do the same.”

So, how will a gay skier be received among his fellow daredevils?

“I don’t know what the future has in store, but I’m kind of looking forward to it.”

(Photos, Instagram; via Chicago Tribune)

The post #LGBT: Olympian Gus Kenworthy Explains Why He Waited ‘Til Now To Come Out appeared first on World of Wonder.

We know you’ve been busy getting your entire holiday life with RuPaul‘s new Christmas album Slay Bells, but you’re about to have another masterpiece to add to the season! A slew of fabulous RuPaul’s Drag Race queens including Violet Chachki, Manila Luzon, Jinkx Monsoon, Alaska Thunderfuck, Miss Fame, Katya, Ginger Minj, and Detox are releasing a holiday collection, Christmas Queens, dropping November 13! Its track list (below) features classic covers and original songs (via People Magazine).

1. “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” Christmas Queens
2. “Everyday Is Christmas,” Alaska
3. “Christma-Hannu-Kwanzaa-Ka,” Ginger Minj
4. “Toyland,” Miss Fame
5. “Jingle Bells,” Sharon Needles
6. “12 Days of Christmas,” Katya
7. “From Head to Mistletoe,” Courtney Act
8. “Ratchet Christmas,” Jiggly Caliente
9. “This Is How We Jew It,” Detox
10. “Christmas Sweater,” Alaska, Courtney Act & Willam
11. “A Very Cozby Christmas,” Willam
12. “Christmas Is Coming,” Darienne Lake, Ivy Winters & Pandora Boxx
13. “The Night Before Christmas,” Violet Chachki
14. “Naughty or Nice,” Phi Phi O’Hara
15. “Red & Green,” Jinkx Monsoon
16. “Slay Bells,” Manila Luzon

The album will be available for pre-order this Friday!

The post RuPaul’s Drag Race Queens To Release A Christmas Album! appeared first on World of Wonder.

Actors doing accents. Oy. The potential for ham-fisted over-acting is all too prevalent – and often just an excuse for an A-lister to trot out some silly voice that has nothing to do with ANYTHING. And really: Why not? Why go all Meryl Streep and nail down the subtle intricacies of a regional dialect 99% of the audience has no knowledge of?

In this recent video by Cracked, host Tom Reinman speaks very plainly about the audience’s tacit acceptance of the some of the most horrible and exaggerated accents employed by actors in certain roles who don’t normally speak that way.

The realism of the accent is nothing to do with how much you enjoy it . An actor’s job is not to get it right, their job is to get a thing that we think sounds rate or that’s just entertaining.

Examples include Tom Hardy as Bane, Hannible Lecter, GoT‘s Cersei Lannister (who sounds like an English governess), Jeff Bridges (who has lately descended into incoherence), and Renee Zellweger (who was doing a weird Foghorn Leghorn accent in Cold Mountain). (via The Laughing Squid)

The post The 16 Worst Accents in Movie History appeared first on World of Wonder.

Superfab throw pillows from Horror Decor with printed images from classic horror films like  Night of the Living Dead, Nosferatu, and The Exorcist – and many others – on them. The square ones come in small and large and cost $14 and $20, respectively – and not all pillows come in both sizes. The rectangular ones cost $16. Check them out afte the jump. 

(via Dangerous Minds)

Horror Decor also carries other great horror knickknacks like candles, placemats, and pot holders,

The post Must-Have Home Decor: Horror Movie Pillows appeared first on World of Wonder.

Real life nymph goddess Claire Boucher AKA Grimes released the first single/new video “Flesh Without Blood/Life In The Vivid Dream” for her long awaited new album “Art Angels” – the follow up to the critically acclaimed “Visions” (Even GOOPer Gwenyth Paltrow‘s a fan) – which comes out NEXT week (November 6th). And we are GAGGING.

We live for Grimes at WOW, and her many (and often bloody) fashion looks in this seven minute masterpiece remind us a lot of some of our favorite RDR Queens’ looks from the main stage runway challenges.

Check them out (and maybe get a last-minute-DIY-Halloween-costume idea in the process!):

LOOK 1:

THIS:

PLUS:

EQUALS:

Add a little of THIS:

And you get THIS:

LOOK 2

THIS:

PLUS:

EQUALS:

Add a little of this:

And you get:

LOOK 3:

THIS:

Just equals THIS:

LOOK 4:

And THIS:

Equals THIS:

Grab the nearest bottle of fake blood, white contacts, and peep the video for yourself:

The post #NewMusic: Grimes Recreates RDR Queen’s Runway Looks In “Flesh Without Blood/Life In The Vivid Dream appeared first on World of Wonder.

I just let out a blood-curdling scream and scared everybody in the office, omg. THIS ONE IS TERRIFYING. The setup: A woman is taking selfies for her boyfriend. But every picture she takes has the terrifying silhouette of a man in the background, getting closer… closer… closer… BOO!

Selfie from Hell is a spine-tingling short film by actress and producer Meelah Adams and director Erdal Ceylan of Fuck you Zombie. Watch it below… IF YOU DARE

Also from Fuck You Zombie: “Dreamy” about a young lady who sees a horrifying man and the end of a dimly lit hallway. She wishes very much that she was dreaming. (via The Laughing Squid)

The post “Selfie From Hell” – Your Bone-Chilling Short Horror Film of the Day appeared first on World of Wonder.

Kelly Osbourne
Andrea Riseborough
Fran Lebowitz
Ivan Reitman
Jayne Kennedy
John Cleese
Lee Greenwood
Marla Maples
Matt Drudge
Nanette Fabray
Patrick Fugit
Robert Picardo
Roberto Benigni
Ruby Dee
Scott Weiland
Simon Le Bon
Vanessa Mae

The post October 27: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on World of Wonder.

October 27, 1950– Fran Lebowitz:

“All God’s children are not beautiful. Most of God’s children are, in fact, barely presentable.”

She is one of my idols. If you don’t know her, you really should, & you can start with the terrific HBO documentary film Public Speaking (2010) directed by Martin Scorsese, a 90-minute talkfest with essayist & humorist Lebowitz explaining almost everything.

The Scorsese flick is a sophisticated affair, a series of interviews, seamlessly cut, with Lebowitz at the clubby Waverly Inn in NYC’s Greenwich Village. The film is the world view of this very witty & very cynical New Yorker. She is not all that happy with most of the changes she’s seen in her adopted city since she arrived 45 years ago.

Conversation provided at Lebowitz’s skill level used to be celebrated in another era. Scorsese provides the proof with vintage clips that show figures like James Baldwin, Gore Vidal, & William F. Buckley on talk shows from the 1960s. Lebowitz talks about how she was thrilled & inspired when she was a  young person by one of Baldwin’s appearances on the David Susskind Show, pointing out how today’s talk show are no comparison, with guests that are pre-interviewed & plug their product for 5 minutes.

“The opposite of talking isn’t listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.”

In Public Speaking, Lebowitz sort of comes out of the closet, to the shock of no one. She seems perplexed that gay people are fighting for Marriage Equality & the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. She says that these issues are the antithesis of freedom & that those are not rights she wants for herself, but she’d vote for them because other gays want them so badly.

Lebowitz is famously paralyzed with what she calls “writer’s blockade” but she has few peers as a public pontificator. Her particular gift has made it possible for her to afford to continue to live in NYC & to hang out with her famous friends.

“Polite conversation is rarely either.”

Born in NJ, her parents owned a furniture store while she was growing up. She was expelled from high school for “non-specific surliness”. Her trademark remains her specialized sneer. Lebowitz decided against college & instead moved to Manhattan. She took jobs driving a taxi & cleaning apartments (“with a small specialty in Venetian blinds”).

When she was just 21 years old she began her column I Cover The Waterfront for Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine, hired by Warhol himself, before moving over to Mademoiselle a few years later.

“Andy Warhol made fame more famous.”

Lebowitz has long promised a novel, Exterior Signs Of Wealth, named for the French conspicuous-consumption tax figured on the basis of displays of wealth. The novel is supposedly about rich people who want to be artists, & artists who want to be rich people. When asked why the long delay for her first major work of fiction, Lebowitz offers the excuse that she only works on it on the side because “full-time I’m watching daytime TV.”

“Very few people possess true artistic ability. It is therefore both unseemly & unproductive to irritate the situation by making an effort. If you have a burning, restless urge to write or paint, simply eat something sweet & the feeling will pass”

Leibowitz disapproves of pretty much everything except sleep, cigarettes, & fine furniture. Her essays about the difficulty of finding an acceptable apartment to the art of freeloading are classics of social observation. I still re-read her first books Social Studies & Metropolitan Life, both published more than 35 years ago.

Cranky, sardonic, witty, & dry; her essays make me think & make me laugh. She was named one most stylish women in Vanity Fair Magazine’s International Best-Dressed List, & is known to wear bespoke suits from Savile Row’s Anderson & Sheppard. On Hillary Rodham Clinton’s sartorial style, Lebowitz states:

“I don’t think she cares. I don’t think she is interested in how her house looks, where her furniture is from, I don’t think she has any visual interests. & there’s nothing wrong in not caring. A man who doesn’t care about what he looks like, he’s applauded. We say, ‘Oh, he’s not superficial!’ I, myself, am deeply superficial.”

Lebowitz had a reoccurring role on the long-running TV series Law & Order (1990-2010) as a judge & a cameo in Scorsese’s The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013). She had the best ever Proust Questionaire on the back page of Vanity Fair.

I am mad jealous of the idea of having a Manhattan career out of a slim pair of volumes of essays & then chatting away for the next 4 decades. Progress, her first new book in more than 20 years, is scheduled to be published before the end of the year. We will see about that. I think her quips are on a par with Dorothy Parker:

“Ask your child what he wants for dinner only if he’s buying.”

“If you are a dog & your owner suggests that you wear a sweater suggest that he wear a tail.”

“If you are of the opinion that the contemplation of suicide is sufficient evidence of a poetic nature, do not forget that actions speak louder than words.”

“In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra.”

“Romantic love is mental illness. But it’s a pleasurable one. It’s a drug. It distorts reality, & that’s the point of it. It would be impossible to fall in love with someone that you really saw.”

The post #BornThisDay: Writer, Fran Lebowitz appeared first on World of Wonder.

Adam Scott, who goes by the name Mahurma on Imgur, shared the picture below of a BONE-CHILLING phantom that he took inside his Connecticut hotel room. In it, the wraith-like face appears to be watching them from the corner of the room! BOO!

‘Didn’t believe my girlfriend when she said she saw a face on the wall,’ he wrote. ‘Then I took a picture of it.’

Adam and his GF were staying at hotel just outside of New Haven – which he describes as ‘extremely ghost-y with a rich colonial history’ – when the saw the demonic apparition which can be made out against the beige wall.

From the Daily Mail:

The face is partially in line with a ray of light that is shining through a window behind them, though the outline of the face moves well beyond the illuminated sliver peeking through the drapes.

‘I want to show hotel management but I’m worried it will scare staff away!’ Adam commented.

So far over 2 million people have weighed in on the pic of eerie specter, with many commenters noting that the face looks like that of Albert Einstein or George Washington, with a few throwing in some more guesses like Mark Twain or Ben Franklin.

The post G-G-Ghost Appears Lurking in Connecticut Hotel Room! See the TERRIFYING Picture! appeared first on World of Wonder.

Kim Kardashian West threw a Troop Beverly Hills themed baby shower over the weekend that will literally pitch a tent in your heart strings (and make you want to buy all the cookies) for the classic late eighties film about a woman on a mission in the wilderness.

Can you even handle North West? (I can’t.)

332’s Troop Leader Shelley Long AKA Phyllis Neffler’s fashion game was so strong,
did you EVER see any flaws in her fierceness?

Cool. Just checking.

Without further adieu, let’s take a one-way ticket to Rodeo Drive as we countdown the top ten fashion moments from Troop 332 that still slay today!

10) 

Phyllis KNEW how to enter a room and even in this uniform…she made a point to stand out. This look left such an impact on the cultural zeitgeist that thousands of fans worldwide have impressively recreated it’s fashion iconography for Halloween (or just for fun).

Myself included.

9) 

Neffler AKA real-life Strawberry Shortcake could create shapes out of any silhouette. Carry an assortment of designer shopping bags and you too can shop til you’re drop dead gorgeous.

8) 

That’s SO raven. Who’s never met a Raven they didn’t like…

7)

Be the girl with the most cake, and let them eat it!

6)

Literally the ONLY way to count sheep at night.

5) 

This. Is. Everything.

4)

What’s more chic than a carton of Lucky’s and a floor length white fur coat? NOTHING.

3) 

I live for a monochromatic moment and what better than metallic gold?!

2)

Nothing transitions from day to night better than a tuxedo dress. You’ve got business on the top, and party on the pants. This priceless pastel frock makes me go like:

And will make all the other partygoers go:

1)

This floral cupcake (or two hard-shell tacos, depending on how you see it) dress will adorn your lawn FAR better than any pink flamingo.

There you have it!!!

She’s just SO:

The post #CookieTime: Top Ten Troop Beverly Hills Fashion Moments That Still Slay Today appeared first on World of Wonder.