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#FlashBack89: “Surrender Donald” Act Up Protest at Trump Tower

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Photographs by Lee Snider, NYC Library LGBTQ Archive.

On Halloween 1989, more than 100 Gay Activists from ACT UP showed up at Trump Tower at 5th Avenue and 56th Street in Manhattan protesting NYC’s tax breaks for luxury real estate developers while thousands of people with HIV/AIDS went homeless.

One protester, dressed as Dorothy from The Wizard Of Oz, held a sign that read: “Surrender Donald”. ACT UP was fighting the good fight against government indifference and corporate greed. They saw Trump for what he was: a monster making money off of other’s misery. He had received a $6.2 million tax abatement to construct his golden tower.

ACT UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power), had been formed two-and-a-half years before, out of anger over the inadequate local, state, and federal government responses to the rising numbers of HIV/AIDS cases and deaths. The group was noted for their disruptive, theatrical, humorous, bold demonstrations, demanding expanded and faster drug research, affordable medications, and greater AIDS education. The Trump Tower protest was organized by ACT UP’s Housing Committee, which hoped to draw attention to the lack of housing for people with HIV/AIDS.

In the pouring rain, protesters carried handmade signs: “Silence = Death”, “In NYC 10,000 Homeless PWAs, 64 Beds”, “Money For AIDS Not For Malls”. They hung a banner across 56th street from Trump Tower saying: “10,000 Homeless With AIDS”.

 

ACT UP activists passed out fliers that said: “New York Tricked Out Of AIDS Care, Trump Treated To Tax Abatements!”. One wore a vampire costume and held a sign depicting Trump as Nightmare On Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger, with the words: “Nightmare On Trump Street”. Many wore masks featuring Trump with his lips pursed. Eventually some protesters went inside Trump Tower where they threw fliers from the escalators, eluding the security guards. Before it was over, the NYPD had arrested six people for illegal trespass, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest.

Trump Tower remains a focal point for The Resistance, with almost daily protests in front of the building.

 

 

The post #FlashBack89: “Surrender Donald” Act Up Protest at Trump Tower appeared first on The WOW Report.


#TransLivesMatter: “Lorraine,” Fly Young Red’s Hip Hop Song Raising Awareness About the Dangers Facing the Trans Community

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“Lorraine” is the powerful must-see music video from LGBTQ hip hop artist Fly Young Red about the dangers facing the trans community. He writes:

There is a need for a story like this to be told in our community.

Lorraine essentially is all transgender women. I wrote this song a few years ago and I just recorded the video this year because my friend Chyna Gibson was murdered this year in February. She was the dancing doll that was shot 10 times in New Orleams. She along with other trans women have been violently and senselessly taken from us and it seems like after the hash tags and a few news clips they are forgotten.

I wrote a story about a trans woman I called her Lorraine based New Orleans French quarter. How she went from a feminine boy doing drag, into a trans women, got into escorting and her eventual demise. I wanted it to be cautionary tale for the younger generation of trans women coming of age. How easy it can be to get thrown off track in this life style. I shot the video and between 3 Facebook users it has over a million views. Please watch.

I urge to take a moment to watch and share the video, below.

Interesting comment threads here and here

 

The post #TransLivesMatter: “Lorraine,” Fly Young Red’s Hip Hop Song Raising Awareness About the Dangers Facing the Trans Community appeared first on The WOW Report.

Here We Go: Trump Threatens North Korea with “Fire & Fury the Likes of Which the World Has Never Seen” (UPDATED)

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Welp. That’s it, folks. It was nice knowing you.

Today, President Trump threatened to rain down holy hell upon North Korea, promising “fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen,” he said in a short statement to reporters before a meeting on the opioid crisis at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

“He has been very threatening, beyond a normal statement,” Trump said of the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un. “And as I said, they will be met with fire, fury and frankly, power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.”

Lets see: A man with no impulse control who has the nuclear codes at the tip of his tiny fingers. A Russian investigation that is begging for a major distraction. A Republican base who gets off on sabre rattling. And a psychotic dictator who will refuse to back down.

We’re doomed.

Watch Trump mouth off, below:

Via HuffPo:

Trump’s ultimatum, which mirrors North Korea’s rhetoric toward the United States, came as U.S. intelligence officials reportedly learned that North Korea has produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead that could be placed on a missile, a significant step in advancing its nuclear program.

A few hours after Trump’s news conference, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency carried a series of statements from military spokesmen responding to the president’s rhetoric. Using bombastic language typical to KCNA statements, a spokesman claimed that Pyonyang was “carefully examining” plans to launch missiles at the U.S. island territory of Guam.

In a separate post, another North Korean military spokesman warned that “war is by no means a game” and claimed that “U.S. war-thirsty forces are engrossed in war hysteria without discretion.” KCNA also published a post titled “U.S. Reckless War Frenzy Slammed,” in which the propaganda arm blamed Washington for making plans to carry out a pre-emptive strike against North Korea.

In recent weeks, the country has also claimed that it successfully tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles, which may be capable of reaching Alaska.

U.S. intelligence officials do not know whether North Korea has tested the miniaturized warhead yet, according to NBC News and The Washington Post.

On Monday, North Korea issued a similarly strong threat to the U.S.

“Should the U.S. pounce upon the DPRK with military force at last, the DPRK is ready to teach the U.S. a severe lesson with its strategic nuclear force,” foreign minister Ri Yong Ho said in a statement, referring to North Korea.

(Fiery pics via Pixebay)

UPDATE: North Korea reacts by threatening to bomb Guam.

The post Here We Go: Trump Threatens North Korea with “Fire & Fury the Likes of Which the World Has Never Seen” (UPDATED) appeared first on The WOW Report.

#TransformationTuesday: QWERRRKOUT feat. Cookie Kunty

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Transformation Tuesday just got a whole lot QTer…New queers featured every week! Tag us, take a pic of us and follow us on Instagram at QWERRRKOUT, and you too could be the next QT! YOU BETTA QWERRRK!

Cookie Kunty


Age
: 23

Location: Paris, France

About:

“As far as I remember, I always loved the show… and I used to draw drag queens before becoming one myself. My real life sister (who’s a transgender woman) used to be a drag queen too. It’s in our blood! I get my inspiration from the club kid scene, Japanese culture, fashion and art in general!
This year, my upcoming project is to boost drag scene in Paris…let the world know that we have some amazing stuff going on…photoshoots, videoclips, YouTube videos and multiplying exchanges between European drags…starting with the Milkshake Festival.”

Instagram: cookie_kunty

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August 9th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch!

#BornThisDay: Make-Up Artist, Way Bandy

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August 9, 1941– Way Bandy made up some of the planet’s most beautiful and accomplished women on our pretty, spinning blue orb, and by “made up” I don’t mean “imagined”, although he did do that too in a way. He called it: “Faces Designed By”. His clients included Elizabeth TaylorRaquel WelchCatherine DeneuveLauren HuttonFarrah FawcettBarbra StreisandGloria VanderbiltLee RadziwillCherSigourney Weaver and Cheryl Tiegs.

The Advocate: October 14, 1986

On the night he left this world, a photograph of Bandy with another of his special ladies, Nancy Reagan, was sent to his hospital room from the White House.

Elizabeth Taylor wrote:

“Bandy was like an artist using a palette.”

Famed photographer Francesco Scavullo claimed:

“Way Bandy was not only one of the greatest makeup artists of our time, but also one of the most beautiful men in mind and spirit.”

Bandy worked with all the greatest fashion photographers: Richard AvedonIrving PennHelmut NewtonHort P.Horst, and Hiro. His book, Designing Your Face (1977), was a bodacious, big bestseller.

When Bandy was taken by HIV in 1986, the NY Times obituary stated that he died of “unknown causes”, that he was a bachelor, and that it was his wish that any survivors not be identified. He was cremated. He had always guarded his private life, but he died during an era when it was too risky to identify AIDS as the disease that took him. Yet, more than 200 friends, fans and associates showed up for his memorial service. When he passed, not even his closest friends knew his real age and they didn’t even know his real name.

Bandy had taken the media by storm when he transformed middle-aged Watergate whistle-blower Martha Mitchell into a magazine cover girl shot by Scavullo in 1974.  Scavullo, Bandy, and his BFF hair stylist, Maury Hobson, all collaborated for nearly 20 years, producing covers shots of everyone from Tatum O’Neal to Ali MacGraw to Jerry Hall.

With Rosie Vela, Photograph from Random House

The Fashion Industry was shocked when Bandy became ill. He was a health nut who lived on juices, took vitamins daily, and he was a vegetarian and Buddhist. When he went on book tours, Bandy required that bottled water be placed in his hotel rooms because he was afraid of the impurities in tap water. He had not been sick in two decades. But when the editor of Vogue MagazineGrace Mirabella, confronted him about his coughing and sudden weight loss, she and Bandy’s agent had him admitted to Cornell Medical Center on August 6, 1986, just days before his 45th birthday. He was gone within a week. That’s what the plague was like in the mid-1980s. People died miserably, but fast. If he had been diagnosed with cancer or heart disease, it would have been considered the territory of medical science and he might have received help earlier. Unfortunately, AIDS involved politics.

Bandy was not an AIDS activist before he got sick. It was commonly assumed that anyone crusading against AIDS probably had the disease, and he thought it would be bad for business.

After his passing, Bandy’s friends and collaborators learned that had been born Ronald Duane Wright in Birmingham, Alabama. He had once taught college English Literature, he had been married, and that he had fallen in love with NYC while on vacation in 1965. He stayed in the city and the wife went back down South. He rechristened himself as Way Bandy, a name he came up with on a whim. He started a new career and got his nose done.

In 1969, Bandy became the director of the makeup department at Charles Of The Ritz. He left in 1971 to become a freelance makeup artist, proved himself a genius and became very, very wealthy. Ironically, he said:

“Real beauty is inner. By the experiences and opportunities of our lifetimes, we enrich our souls and earn our natural beauty.”

Bandy’s obituaries failed to mention it, but he had been in a relationship with Michael Gardine, a writer and antiques dealer, for 15 years. The couple shared an apartment in NYC and they owned homes in Nantucket and Key West.

I feel that this may seem like a sad story, but more so when I tell you that I had long planned for Scavullo to shoot the cover for my first album Vicodin & Jockstraps with Bandy doing my make-up. Now I realize, that is never going to happen.

The post #BornThisDay: Make-Up Artist, Way Bandy appeared first on The WOW Report.

#Trump2020: This Man Paddles Around Manhattan & Drives New Yorkers CRAZY!

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Dion Cini, a former Marine from the Upper West Side of Manhattan climbs into his 18-foot rowing boat and paddles the Hudson River with a flag that says

Trump 2020

He does it a lot. And he does it to get a reaction and, boy does he ever.

Sometimes you hear ‘I hope you get hit by a boat! I hope you drown From the top of their lungs as loud as they can. I get it all the time.

There’s so much fear of Trump in New York.“

He started this routine this spring after seeing a swell of protests against Trump in the city.

“Donald Trump is a piece of shit!”

“Fuck Trump!”

Cini taunts and provokes them more and argues back. In his months of rowing he finds that support for Trump increases in areas with visiting tourists. But he gets a lot of thumbs down, and many extend a different finger.

He has no plans to stop.

I’m out of goals. I have nowhere else to go in the world. I don’t really want to climb Mt. Everest. I almost see this as climbing Mt. Everest. It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve ever done in my life –knowing how many people do not like me in a small space and continue to survive.

The definition of an asshole, if you ask me.

(Photos, Screengrab; via CNN)

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#ItsAllDrag: Artist Cindy Sherman’s Instagram Account Is Now Public –& It’s Amazing!

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Artist Cindy Sherman is still the art world’s reigning queen of selfie-reinvention. She uses her camera to morph into character, although her works are technically not self-portraits.

The photographer has recently taken to Instagram to share images of herself and as Artnet wondered,

Is Cindy Sherman using Instagram to make new work?

Her account just mysteriously switched from private to public and it reveals a mix of personal pics along with manipulated images of Sherman herself. Most Instagram pics are about looking good and/or showing off, but in the hands of an artist, it goes deep. If there was ever any doubt as to why she’s one of the most successful artists (male or female) in the world, just have a look at what she does with something we all have access to…

Public or private, for galleries or just us, it’s a treat.

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On the mend!

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Am I cured doctor?

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High on life

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(Photos, Instagram; via Artnet)

The post #ItsAllDrag: Artist Cindy Sherman’s Instagram Account Is Now Public –& It’s Amazing! appeared first on The WOW Report.


Drag Queen Knocks Out Man Who Snatches Her Wig! Watch

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Not too much detail on this video I’m sorry to say. I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Ireland, so I can tell you by the accent and the the city mentioned, Galway, this is in the west of Ireland. Mid-sentence a man comes up behind the queen and snatches her wig. Boom!

(That punch happens pretty fast. Does it kinda look like it might have been faked…?)

Watch.

The post Drag Queen Knocks Out Man Who Snatches Her Wig! Watch appeared first on The WOW Report.

Trump Tweets More Threats Saying Our Nukes Are “More Powerful Than Ever Before” (They’re Not)

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Trump continued to forcefully threaten North Korea today, saying that the U.S. nuclear arsenal is

far stronger and more powerful than ever before.

Yesterday he warned that North Korea’s nuclear provocations would be

met with fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.

He continued with the bombast in a pair of tweets he just issued saying that his administration was working to

renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal…

It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before. Hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!”

The suggestion that the nuclear arsenal has been modernized ALREADY under his presidency is a bold lie. The process will take years.

According the the Washington Post, one week after he took office,

Trump issued an executive order directing the Defense Department to launch a Nuclear Posture Review, a major undertaking that will set his administration’s nuclear policy. The Pentagon has said the review, which officially began in April, is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Full modernization of the arsenal could then take many years.

The last such review was conducted in 2010 under the Obama administration. The new review is expected to guide the Defense Department as it builds new nuclear-capable submarines, bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles in coming years.

White House adviser (and evil Bond villain) Sebastian Gorka said this morning television on Fox & Friends that the word battle with North Korea

is analogous to the Cuban missile crisis. Don’t test this White House.”

He’s saying, ‘Don’t test America, and don’t test Donald J. Trump,’

We are not just a superpower. We were a superpower. We are not a hyperpower. Nobody in the world, especially not North Korea, comes close to challenging our military capabilities, whether they’re conventional, whether they’re nuclear, or whether they’re special forces. So this message is very clear: Don’t test this White House.”

Got it. Don’t test this White House or Donald Trump.

Earlier today, Trump retweeted links to two segments from the show recounting his pledge to respond to continuing North Korea threats as well as another about the U.S. moving two Air Force B-1B bombers to Guam, which North Korea threatened yesterday.

If this doesn’t make you nervous, you aren’t paying attention.

(Photo, YouTube; via Washington Post)

The post Trump Tweets More Threats Saying Our Nukes Are “More Powerful Than Ever Before” (They’re Not) appeared first on The WOW Report.

#CoverGirl: Jennifer Lawrence Stars on Vogue’s 125th Anniversary Issue

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Photo, Annie Leibovitz

John Currin. Untitled, 2017. Oil on canvas, 40” x 30”. Photo, Rob McKeever. Courtesy of Gagosian

Vogue‘s cover story is a bigger deal than usual this month. First it’s the September Issue, second it’s their 125th Anniversary Collector’s Edition and last but certainly not least, it’s fucking JLaw!

Lawrence is photographed by not one or two but THREE top photographers; Annie Leibovitz, Inez and Vinoodh and Bruce Weber as well as painted by John Currin. She tells Jason Gay about her new movie, Mother!—directed by Darren Aronofsky who happens to be her boyfriend.

Plus, how DOES SHE stay so relatable despite her super-stardom? Well, she takes issue with the notion that she’s ever described herself as a ‘regular person.’

That’s what other people have said. If I’d said, ‘I’m a regular person,’ I’d want to kill myself.

You can read all about it here. And see a behind the scenes video below.

Photo, Bruce Weber

Photo, Inez and Vinoodh

Painting, John Currin

(Photos, Annie Leibovitz, Inez and Vinoodh & Bruce Weber; via #CoverGirl: Jennifer Lawrence Stars on Vogue’s 125th Anniversary Issue appeared first on The WOW Report.

One Month Left! Jiggly Caliente Talks RuPaul’s DragCon NYC 2017 & MORE!

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One month left until DragCon 2017!

Can you even believe we’ve made it this far? Today marks exactly one month until RuPaul’s DragCon NYC 2017! Are you ready to have the best weekend of life?!? We sure as hell are!

In order to prepare for the first ever DragCon in New York City, we got alllllllll the T from the queens who reside or are from the tri-state area! So, DUH we had to talk to the amazing and fierce Jiggly Caliente to talk all her favorite spots around NYC.

So, while you have one month left, get your outfits in order, grab all your friends or get ready to #FindYourTribe, and start planning your adventures around New York City during DragCon NYC 2017!

Check out Jiggly Caliente’s answers to our NYC centric questions below!

What’s your favorite place to catch a Drag Show in NYC?

“My favorite places for drag shows are anywhere my favorite nyc queens are. QUEENS like Shequida, Monet Xchange, Tina Burner, Brenda Darling , Aquaria, Sugga pie coco, Sherry Vine , Jasmine rice, and pixie aventura. So places like Hardware bar, The Ritz , Industry Bar, Rise Bar, Theraphy , The Monster are all good bets.”

Where do YOU go for the best boy-watching in NYC?

“Best boy watching in the city is everywhere there’s alot of hotties all over for every type. Think of nyc as a all you can eat buffet of yummy men. My favorite is times square or near Madison Square Garden or Yankee stadium after a game.”

Do you have any hidden gem/secret NYC food spots?

“My favorite hidden food gem in the city is Hop Kee in chinatown the best authentic Chinese food in the city. Also check out BarKogi okn 51st n 2nd ave for the best korean chicken wings EVER!. If all else fails checkout grub hub cux this city will hook you up with everything.”

What’s your favorite place to go drag shopping (or regular shopping!) in NYC?

“My drag consist of alot of custom items. So I usually go with my designers to the garment district for fabric shopping. But the best for jewelry and accessories are all between 32st and Broadway til like 26th st.”

No matter how tourist-y (or NOT!) what’s the number one thing that you must-do whenever you’re in NYC?

“The one thing you def must do if you visit nyc is take on a show there’s so many to choose from. Then grab a hotdog from one of many carts n enjoy times square. Can’t get any more nyc than that.”

RuPaul’s DragCon NYC is happening at the Javits Center on September 9 & 10th. Head over to RuPaulsDragCon.com for FAQ, tickets, & MORE!

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The Roseanne Reboot Will Feature the First Non-Binary Person on Network TV

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With all the reboots coming down the pike – Roseanne, The Office, 30 Rock, ER, West Wing, more Gilmore Girls, more Full House… – it’s starting to feel like we’re slipping backwards in time. (I blame Trump). It’s hard not to be a bit cynical and wonder how on earth any of them can do anything fresh.

Roseanne, at least, plans to get with the changing times. Pink Star News reports that her new show will include a “gender creative” child in its reboot – the first in network TV history!

Key word: network.

Showtime drama Billions was the first program to do so, introducing super-intelligent hedge fund intern Taylor – played by Asia Kate Dillon, who is also non-binary – on the cable show earlier this year.

The talented Dillon’s rise to prominence led the Emmy Awards to allow Dillon to choose which gendered award category they would prefer to be considered for. Organizers took the step after the Dillon wrote to them with the concern that as it stood, there seemed to be, as she put it, “no room for my identity”.

When Roseanne comes back (in early 2018), Darlene and David – still played by Sara Gilbert and Johnny Galecki, thank God – have had a son and a daughter. Their nine-year-old son Mark is non-binary.

The showrunners’ casting call is requesting children who can play a “sensitive and effeminate” part which “displays qualities of both young female and male traits.”

Roseanne, of course, has always been about pushing societal boundaries, featuring multiple gay and lesbian storylines throughout its original run in the ’80s and ’90s.

This is one reboot I’m actually excited for.

The post The Roseanne Reboot Will Feature the First Non-Binary Person on Network TV appeared first on The WOW Report.

CONDRAGULATIONS! RuPaul’s Dramedy “Queen” – About His Early Days in NYC – to Air on HULU

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Mama Ru‘s much-ballyhoo’d upcoming TV series – a fictionalized version of his rise from club kid to drag queen, gay icon and global star – has been picked up by the streaming service Hulu.  The half-hour dramedy is tentatively titled Queen and will be produced by JJ Abrams‘ Bad Robot (Alias, Lost, Westworld, the Stephen King anthology series Castle Rock  etc etc) and World of Wonder (yay!). The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Gary Lennon will pen the script and exec produce alongside RuPaul, Abrams and his Bad Robot topper Ben Stephenson as well as World of Wonder’s Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato.

RuPaul (aka RuPaul Andre Charles) was born in San Diego in 1960 and studied performing arts in Atlanta before moving to New York, where he became a staple on the nightclub scene. He rocketed to fame after the release of his first single, “Supermodel (You Better Work).” That led to a VH1 talk show, The RuPaul Show. He’s been the host of RuPaul’s Drag Race and multiple spinoffs since 2009.

More news on this as it develops.

(Photos: Ru and JJ Abrams via Pacific Coast News)

The post CONDRAGULATIONS! RuPaul’s Dramedy “Queen” – About His Early Days in NYC – to Air on HULU appeared first on The WOW Report.

#OMGYAS: Todd Haynes Is Working On A Velvet Underground Documentary!

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Let’s celebrate on this hump day! Todd Haynes, one of WOW’s favorite directors, is currently working on a Velvet Underground documentary. The acclaimed director of Carol, Far From Heaven and The Velvet Goldmine is pairing up Killer Films and the Universal Music Group to bring us diehard fans a documentary on one of the greatest bands of all time! I am dying of excitement!

Speaking to Variety all the way from Switzerland (where is he receiving the Pardo d’onore Manor award for career achievement), Haynes said that the documentary film will:

“Rely certainly on [Andy] Warhol films but also a rich culture of experimental film, a vernacular we have lost and we don’t have, [and that] we increasingly get further removed from.”

Haynes was also quoted as saying that the “challenging” part will be the subject matter as there is very little documentation on the group. However, there will be interviews with the surviving members and others from the contemporary 1960’s artistic movement.

Haynes continued by saying:

“They’re the most influential of bands – as Brian Eno said, everybody who bought [‘Velvet Underground & Nico’] started a band. Their influence has nothing to do with sales or visibility or the ways we portion ideas of success.”

Yes, we could not agree more. The Velvet Underground’s reach and influence continues to this day with many rock stars noting them as complete inspiration. A film would absolutely shed more light on Lou, Nico and the movement their music was a part of. With Todd Haynes at the helm of this, we have no doubt that this documentary will be completely incredible.

For VU newcomers, the Velvet Underground was formed in 1964 and was a mixture of avant-garde and rock n roll. The band was briefly managed by Andy Warhol himself. The VU’s debut album (which featured German model and icon, Nico) was released in 1967. The band (although commercially unsuccessful at the time) has since been considered an iconic band for generations since the 1960’s.

This all but begs the question: wouldn’t a Velvet Underground biopic be amazing? Sound off in the comments below!

 

 

[Header Images by AO Images/Pacific Coast News and VelvetUndergroundMusic.com]

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To Do, Tomorrow Night: Aaron Carter Plays Hamburger Mary’s in Brandon, FL! Let’s All Go!

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Newly out-proud bisexual Aaron Carter is testing the waters with the LGBTQ crowd, playing a gig at the Hamburger Mary‘s in his hometown of Brandon, Fl. Tickets are $10, and according to Aaron, the event is almost sold out. How fun! I think we all should plan to meet up beforehand, get a big table, and really cheer him on. Pineapple daiquiris are on me!

Here’s the flyer:

See you Thursday at this almost sold out pop up show in my hometown! Love y’all! 💙

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And here are a few of his latest Instagram pics to show that he’s really turning his life around and looking like the absolute snack he’s always been.

So fresh and clean. About to finish my final songs for the album the studio. #staytuned #løvë

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I’m Ready 📸@alexcrush_nation

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Flight boredom

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He also recently tweeted out his interest in a Will & Grace cameo (JACK’S LATEST BF, PLEEEEEEEEASE!), and says there’s a new single on the way. GO AARON!

(via Queerty)

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#OnThisGayDay: Betty Boop Makes Her Debut 87 Years Ago!

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From YouTube

August 9, 1930Betty Boop Makes Her Debut

On this very day, August 9th, 1930, little Betty Boop was born, fully formed and fully sexual, a Jazz Age Flapper, the creation of producer Max Fleischer and Grim Natwick, a veteran animator of Walt Disney Studios. She made a series of short films, including a cameo in a Popeye film, but found real fame in the 1932 short, Minnie The Moocher with Cab Calloway and His Orchestra.

Betty Boop was a single girl, with big boobs, who enjoyed the night life and her antics were just too much for the National Legion Of Decency and the Hay’s Production Code of 1934. Forced to tone down her act, Boop lost some of her popularity, but she continued to attract fans through the decades. Boop has no political or religious affiliation, except when she is associated with the Party party. She has moved easily between Black and White and Color.

Boop made a cameo appearance Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988), appearing in glorious black and white.

Throughout her long career, Boop has been a proponent of Sexual Freedom, Women’s Rights, Gay Liberation and the health benefits of drinking, smoking and doing cocaine. She has been romantically linked to Popeye, Felix T. Cat, Sluggo, Boris Badenov, Woody Woodpecker, Daddy Warbucks, Top Cat, Gumby, Mr. Magoo, and Betty Rubble.

I knew Betty Boop somewhat. We were cast in a production of Lil’ Abner at the Chateau d’ Ville Dinner Theatre in 1977, but Boop was dismissed from the role of Mammy Yokum before rehearsals even began because she was a cartoon. At the first read through, she told me that her dream role was Fosca in Stephen Sondheim’s difficult musical, Passion.

She has had some work done, but looks pretty swell as she celebrates her 87th birthday today, surrounded by friends and fans, at her lovely home in Holmby Hills.

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August 10th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch!

#BornThisDay: Forgotten Film Star, Norma Shearer

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The Divorcee, costume by Adrian, 1930, MGM Archives

 

August 10, 1902Norma Shearer

In Film History class when I was a youth, all that I could muster for the work of Norma Shearer were cynical comments about her crossed-eyes and unusually mannered performances. But, I would later come to appreciate her special talents.

Shearer is now mostly forgotten, unlike the other women of MGM’s Golden Era. She had a career that lasted less than 20 years, yet she made 100+ films (in 1927 alone, she made 13 movies), almost all of them were hits and well-reviewed. She was Academy Award nominated six times, winning for The Divorcee (1930).

Shearer was the perfect personality for her era. She made a series of highly successful “Pre-Code” adult-oriented films, with apt titles like: Let Us Be Gay (1930), Strangers May Kiss (1931), A Free Soul (1931), Private Lives (1931) and Riptide (1934). All were big box-office hits, placing Shearer in competition with Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo as MGM’s Top Female Star of the 1930s. If she is remembered at all, it is for her portrayals of rich and worldly women in films that, though not very challenging, were enlivened by being provocative, or what seemed provocative in those days.

Last spring, I caught a day of Pre-Hayes Code films on TCM including her Smilin’ Through (1932), where she is naked in a bath scene. This winter, I caught the film version of one of my favorite plays, Noel Coward’s Private Lives, which I had never seen. Shearer is just terrific in it; so eccentric and sexy opposite Robert Montgomery.

In her early Hollywood days, Shearer played innocent, girlish roles in silent movies. Her best-known early films then were He Who Gets Slapped (1924) starring Lon Chaney, and The Student Prince (1927) with gay actor Ramon Novarro in the title role. She made the transition to sound films with uncommon ease, lucky to have possessed a silken voice.

Even after Shearer had long been a major star for MGM, Louis B. Mayer liked to say that she did the most magnificent acting of her career in his office one day in 1923.

She was new to Hollywood, but she had had much experience at the fringes of showbiz. Her family in Montreal had sold everything to get her to NYC, where she worked as a model while trying to get acting work.

In 1923, an MGM scout liked her cultured demeanor and brought her to Hollywood where she was cast as a socialite in Pleasure Mad. When filming began, she could not seem to get along with the director, Reginald Barker, who wanted to fire her.

Mayer, hoping to keep the production going, called Shearer to his office and heard her side of the story. Then he shouted at her:

”You’re yellow! Here you are given the chance of your life, and what do you do? You throw it away because maybe you don’t like the director or something! I’m through with you!”

Shearer turned on the charm and answered:

‘”I am not yellow! I’ll show you I can do it! Give me another chance.”

Returning to the set, she plunged right into an emotional scene. Shearer:

“I took that scene lock, stock, and barrel, fur, fins and feathers…”

Her work won her the respect of her director and her studio. Irving Thalberg, MGM’s very young Head of Production was impressed and he cast her in six films in eight months. They all achieved success, and then smartly, Shearer began a romance with Thalberg.

They were married in 1927, and he did everything he could to make her a great star.

Thalberg and Shearer, MGM Archives

Shearer was dubbed “The Queen of MGM”, and indeed she was. Shearer’s marriage to Thalberg gave her the sort of power in Hollywood that was resented by the other stars.

Joan Crawford:

“How can I compete with Norma when she’s sleeping with the boss?!?”

Shearer’s fame was so great, and her fans were so fervent, that she helped bring attention to one young actor named Clark Gable just by having an on-screen affair with him even though he was playing a gangster. The film was A Free Soul (1931), and in it, Gable gave her such a vicious slapping in one scene that it jolted audiences and outraged critics.

At her apex, Shearer was lavishly gowned for her film roles, and her hair was styled in a fashion that was the essence of sophistication. It was rumored that skilled camera work hid a flaw in her beauty: her eyes were not perfectly aligned. Her eyes became a delicate subject at the studio.

She excelled in costume dramas like The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), about the real-life romance between poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, played by Fredric March. It was an enormous critical and commercial hit.

Shearer was even successful at Shakespeare, playing the lead in MGM’s 1936 version of Romeo And Juliet opposite Leslie Howard, even if they were little old to play the teenaged star-crossed lovers.

Shearer was in so many hits that many of MGM’s plum roles were hers for the picking, and approved by her powerful husband. She wanted to do more adaptations of Broadway plays and was given the Lynn Fontanne role in anti-war comedy Idiot’s Delight (1939), opposite Gable in the Alfred Lunt part. She received rave reviews for other Broadway transitions Strange Interlude (1932), again with Gable, based on a play by Eugene O’Neill and, of course, The Women (1939).

She was even better in the lavish Marie Antoinette (1938), well-matched opposite Tyrone Power. It had its posh premiere at the legendary Carthay Circle Theatre with special Versailles inspired landscaping just for the event. The film was the last project of Thalberg who passed away suddenly when he was just 37-years-old while it was in pre-production. He was taken by pneumonia, but basically, he had worked himself to death. Shearer remained committed to making Marie Antoinette even if her enthusiasm for her career was waning following his death. It’s budget of two million dollars made it the most expensive film of the 1930s, and one of the biggest money makers.

Thalberg had passed on buying the rights to Gone With The Wind, but Shearer was still considered for the role of Scarlett O’Hara. She wasn’t interested, and told the press:

 “Scarlett is a thankless role. The one I’d really like to play is Rhett!”

Although she was devastated by the early death of Thalberg, she still managed to enjoy liaisons with the then married actors: George Raft and Mickey Rooney, and the unmarried James Stewart.

She made Escape (1940) a strong, emotional anti-Nazi drama co-starring Robert Taylor, and then Shearer retired after making We Were Dancing and Her Cardboard Lover (1942) for gay director George Cukor. They were her first big flops.

After Thalberg’s unexpected exit in 1936, Shearer brought in a lawyer to ensure that his percentages of profits from films he had worked on were still being paid to his estate. MGM contested his contract arrangement. Shearer took the story to gossip columnist Louella Parsons, and MGM was forced to grant Thalberg’s widow a share of all the profits from the studio’s films made and released from 1924 to 1938. Nevertheless, Shearer’s contract was renewed by MGM for more six films at $150,000 each.

Leslie Howard and Shearer in A Free Soul (1931), MGM Archives

 

Shearer retired from films in 1942 and she married ski instructor Martin Arrougé, a decade younger than the star. She withdrew from the glamour and glare of Hollywood. The couple was still married when Shearer’s final credits rolled in 1983, gone from Alzheimer’s at 80-years-old. In her declining years, she reportedly called Arrougé “Irving” instead of Martin. She spent her last three years at the Motion Picture Country Home.

She is entombed at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in a crypt marked “Norma Shearer Arrouge”, but next to Thalberg. Her best friend, Jean Harlow, is next door. Thalberg’s vault is engraved My Sweetheart Forever” at the request of Shearer. I used to visit them there. You can too.

Her brother Douglas Shearer was an MGM sound designer and recording engineer who was a pioneer in the advancement of sound technology for motion pictures. He was nominated for 21 Academy Awards and won seven.

 

 

 

 

The post #BornThisDay: Forgotten Film Star, Norma Shearer appeared first on The WOW Report.

RuPaul on Emmy Noms, Trans Drag Race Contestants & His Superhuman Drag Powers

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Ru’s Emmy on display at Drag Con ’17, in L.A.

You know this year RuPaul’s Drag Race was showered with seven nominations (plus an eighth for its aftershow, Untucked, in the unstructured reality category). Not the least of which are RuPaul‘s hosting duties and a shot at the big prize up against perennial winners like The Amazing Race and The Voice. The Hollywood Reporter chatted with Mama Ru whose life story is being developed as a J.J. Abrams-produced dramedy at Hulu. So, how does Ru feel about the odds of winning this year?

Oh, I really don’t know. I just love doing the show and always have. We don’t do it for trophies. We do it because we love drag so much. We love what it means in this current political climate. Drag Race has become a touchstone for young people who are really the future leaders — forward-thinking people who are going to lead our humankind into the next level of consciousness. I know that sounds “California woo-woo,” but I really believe that.

How does the game change with so many competitors now coming out as transgender?

It doesn’t change it at all. That has always been an element of my drag experience and of working at clubs. There were always transgender drag queens in the drag world. Always.

The criteria for our show are charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent. However you can bring that, you’re in.

Our mission was to celebrate all aspects and genres of drag. At the beginning, we needed an ensemble that could represent all the basic archetypes — so the audience who may not be familiar with it could get on board. There was the comedy queen, the body queen, the pageant queen, different races, different body types, all of that. As we’ve grown and educated our audience, we’ve added more esoteric forms of drag into the mix.

What is your relationship to drag these days? Do you no longer crave it?

I never craved it. It was always a tool for me. My whole philosophy has always been born naked, and the rest is drag. I use clothes and I use identity as tools to navigate this life, and to get what I want, and to entertain myself. But it’s never been something I crave. I realized that I could control the air in the room based on how I chose to shape my body. It was like Superman to my Clark Kent — I thought, ‘Hmm. I can use this. I could use some superhuman powers from time to time.‘”

Check out Ru at last year’s Emmy presenting with the legendary, Gloria Steinem and his big win and speech.

Watch..

(Photo, YouTube/Oz; via THR)

The post RuPaul on Emmy Noms, Trans Drag Race Contestants & His Superhuman Drag Powers appeared first on The WOW Report.

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