"American Psycho" on Broadway
I think I like his Patrick Bateman better than Christian Bale's! More HERE.
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Going 'Psycho' for Benjamin Walker
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Morning Wood
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Page 1 Roundup (04/08)
Bernie:
"She has been saying lately that she thinks I am quote-unquote not qualified to be president.”What she actually said:
"The core of his campaign has been ‘break up the banks. And it didn’t seem, in reading his answers, that he understood exactly how that would work under Dodd-Frank, exactly who would be responsible, what the criteria were. And so that means you can’t really help people, if you don’t really know how to do what you are campaigning, to say that you want to do….I think he hadn’t done his homework. And he’d been talking for more than a year about doing things that he obviously hadn’t really studied or understood…I think that what he has been saying about the core issue in his whole campaign doesn’t seem to be rooted in an understanding of either the law or the practical ways you get something done.”Either Bernie truly doesn't know what "quote-unquote" means, or he's gone completely off the rails. Kudos to Mrs. Clinton for exposing her opponent's weakness in an articulate and dignified manner.
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Song of the Day: 'Heartbreak to Hate' by Angelfish
Although Shirley Manson certainly has recorded some classic songs with Garbage, I'm not entirely convinced she ever topped her previous band.
Get it HERE.
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Is Andy Cohen Dating 28-Year-Old Clifton Dassuncao, a Harvard Ph.D. Candidate?
The Daily Mail is speculating whether or not Clifton Dassuncao, a 28-year-old Ph.D. candidate at Harvard, is Andy Cohen's new boyfriend, noting that the two have been seen together on Barry Diller's $150 million yact, Eos, on two trips to the Caribbean. The pair were on the yacht at the end of December and again last week with a group of couples including Diller and Diane von Furtstenberg. The first photograph of the May-December duo was posted on Dassuncao's Instagram page in July at a taping of "Watch What Happens Live" and regular updates have followed. I'm not sure how serious they are about each other, but I can add to the speculation that I saw Dassuncao literally hanging off of Cohen at Elmo a couple months ago -- in between make-out sessions -- and they seemed to be enjoying each other's company very much.
The Daily Mail reports that Dassuncao grew up in Queens, attended private school in Manhattan, then went to MIT for undergrad and Harvard for his Master's and now Ph.D.
Fellow in Environmental Science and Engineering
As a Harvard student, Dassuncao has been known to participate in the annual Santa Speedo run -- I see him in a photo I posted from December HERE -- although he might want to keep Andy away from his hot friends ...
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Coming Soon to Chelsea's 8th Avenue: Another Empty Storefront
Good Lord! I've now been blogging so long that I have written about being upset a business closed, irritated by its replacement and now (sort of) annoyed that the replacement is closing up shop. In 2005, I mourned the death of my corner Korean deli (Pine Tree), where my (late) friend Larry and I got turkey sandwiches on Sept. 11, 2001, and literally watched the parade of workers escape Lower Manhattan for their lives. Shortly thereafter, a store I'd never heard of called Brooklyn Industries moved in, which annoyed the shit out of me because I didn't understand why anything in Manhattan would deliberately want to be branded "Brooklyn" anything. (Shows you how hard my finger is on the pulse!) Now I see Brooklyn Industries is calling Chelsea's 8th Avenue a day, which won't bother me in the sense that I ever shopped there -- I literally never did. But it will be yet another vacant business on what was once the most bustling gay neighborhood in the world, and doesn't seem to have a clue what it will be come now.
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East Village Shopping
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On the Rag, Vol. 402
A weekly look at what's making news in the free gay mags:
Next (Central Florida): Brendon Greenwell takes a dip / Online edition HERE.
Next (South Florida): Miami Pride is right around the corner / Read HERE.
Next: Love and Marriage -- John Halbach and Kit Williamson talk about the importance of making sure it fits / Read HERE.
Chelsea Gays: Michael Watts and Kurt Kretzschmar tell Next about their big day / Read HERE.
Get Out!: In bed with Paige Turner / Read HERE.
QX (London): The Hoist is 20 years and still fresh / Online edition HERE.
Metro Weekly (D.C.): With one mega-hit series under her belt, a new one about to launch, and a just-released album, RuPaul has never been more in demand / Read HERE.
Rage (Orange/L.A. Counties): The art issue is online HERE.
Grab (Chicago): Hey, batter-batter! Online edition HERE.
Frontiers (L.A.): Kathy Griffin talks travel HERE.
GT (London): Chris Hemsworth, aka "thunder from Down Under" / Read HERE.
Edge (Boston): On the cover of April's issue of EDGE's digital magazine, we welcome back downtown theater legend Charles Busch, who is returning to his East Village roots to debut his latest comedy "Charles Busch's Cleopatra" / Download HERE.
Flame (Detroit): Meet DVJ Mark HERE.
CyberSocket on sexual role play and more / Online edition HERE.
The Fight: Eliad Cohen on growing up gay in Israel, his modeling breakthrough and parties with masculine vibes and music. Read HERE.
MetroSource catches up with Joe Lazo of "Work Out New York"HERE.
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Bruce Springsteen Cancels North Carolina Concert in Solidarity With LGBT Community
I love it when Bruce gets bossy:
As you, my fans, know I’m scheduled to play in Greensboro, North Carolina this Sunday. As we also know, North Carolina has just passed HB2, which the media are referring to as the “bathroom” law. HB2 — known officially as the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act — dictates which bathrooms transgender people are permitted to use. Just as important, the law also attacks the rights of LGBT citizens to sue when their human rights are violated in the workplace. No other group of North Carolinians faces such a burden. To my mind, it’s an attempt by people who cannot stand the progress our country has made in recognizing the human rights of all of our citizens to overturn that progress. Right now, there are many groups, businesses, and individuals in North Carolina working to oppose and overcome these negative developments. Taking all of this into account, I feel that this is a time for me and the band to show solidarity for those freedom fighters. As a result, and with deepest apologies to our dedicated fans in Greensboro, we have canceled our show scheduled for Sunday, April 10th. Some things are more important than a rock show and this fight against prejudice and bigotry — which is happening as I write — is one of them. It is the strongest means I have for raising my voice in opposition to those who continue to push us backwards instead of forwards.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s Sunday April 10th show is canceled. Tickets will be refunded at point of purchase.
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Catty Protest
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Soccer Star Gets Ejected From Game After Nibbling Opponent
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Going Underground
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Delegating Hate
Read HERE.
This is how the game has always been played. Sorry if you never paid attention until your [racism/xenophobia/homophobia/MISOGYNY] boiled over and you were suddenly a "political junkie."
Furthermore, my pal Jon Reinish notes about Hillary Clinton's front-runner status:
Hillary Clinton's lead has nothing to do with Superdelegates. Again: nothing. To suggest otherwise is misleading -- and though I know that it's a narrative that the Sanders campaign, surrogates and supporters are pushing in order to emphasize the story that something's being manipulated or taken from him unfairly -- it's inaccurate, although it certainly is effective in rallying the Sanders faithful.
Her lead is in pledged delegates and it's by well over 200. To suggest that her massive lead is in any way because of Superdelegates -- who do not weigh in until the convention and have never determined the nominee -- is false.
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Happy Siblings Day!
I could be wrong, but I can't find/remember another picture of just the four of us since this one taken at the rehearsal for my brother Bill's wedding in 2000 -- although we've obviously been together many times since. I hope I'm wrong.
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UPDATE: My mom's best friend reminded me of this one in Carlsbad in 2008!
UPDATE: My mom's best friend reminded me of this one in Carlsbad in 2008!
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Sunday Worship
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Sloane Stephens Cleans Up in Charleston
A big congrats to Sloane Stephens, who swept through the former Family Circle Cup in Charleston, defeating a resurgent Elena Vesnina in the final (7-6, 6-2). If you had told me a year ago the American would start 2016 with three singles titles, I'd have thought she was well on her way to fulfilling the promise she showed beating Serena Williams at the Australian Open three years ago. Instead, I'm cautiously optimistic -- yet still perplexed by her three nice wins juxtaposed against her bombing out at the year's first Grand Slam and both Indian Wells and Miami, the year's two other biggest events. Here's hoping for a grand clay-court season and that her heart stays in it ...
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Page 1 Roundup (04/11)
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Morning Wood
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Song of the Day: 'Everybody's Young' by Sandra Bernhard
It's difficult to explain what it was like when Sandra Bernhard's debut album, "I'm Your Woman," came out in 1985. It had been a couple of years since she had made her splash in "The King of Comedy," but not a lot of movie roles worthy of her talent followed. In the interim, she appeared in a film that barely saw release, had a half-hour comedy special on Cinemax ("Your New American Actress Friend") and returned to David Letterman -- her 1983 debut still ranks as one of the greatest -- for what would become a legendary series of appearances on the late-night talk show, cementing herself as the country's most idiosyncratic comedy voice. I had just graduated from high school in Arizona and immediately headed back to the motherland to spend the summer with my best friend from sixth grade, Mark, and his cadre of friends in Detroit who had also become my own.
On one of our regular visits to the best record store in town -- Off the Record in Royal Oak -- I was browsing the "B" section looking for Blondie imports when I came across a new LP by none other than Bernhard, Sandra. This was pre-Internet, so I was blown away by what I was seeing, having had no idea it was even coming. The cover depicted her in a bra and lacey bottom holding an electruc guitar (huh?) and the titles sounded like actual songs, so none of us were sure what to make of it. Earning $3.35 an hour, as we did in those days -- and having never heard anything off the album -- made gambling on an $8.99 purchase a bit too risky for this level-headed Michizona boy, so I resisted buying it.
Don't get me wrong -- I desperately wanted to. I mean, just look at those jacket photos! But I didn't have a lot of money saved that summer, and there were Howard Jones tickets to be purchased at Pine Knob, clothes to be bought at Value Village and wine coolers to be paid for at 7-Eleven. "I'm Your Woman" just didn't fit into my frugal life at that moment.
I got back to Arizona in late August and quietly resumed my high school job at the AMC Fiesta Village while trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life now that I was an "adult." Then one afternoon I noticed in the Random Notes section of Rolling Stone that Sandra Bernhard had a cameo in the latest Muppet caper, scheduled for release the following week. As fate would have it, "Follow That Bird" was showing at my cinema, so I went to check it out. (To be honest, I'd have probably gone even if she weren't in it: Kermit the Frog was my journalistic hero growing up and I idolized Grover, not realizing I would one day have his physique.) But sure enough, Sandy's scene as a grouch(y) waitress at a roadside cafe stole the show, so I started sneaking into the film at that exact moment she appeared on-screen each day at work, the perfect escape from shoveling popcorn and hawking $12 boxes of Milk Duds.
A few years later while I was attending Arizona State University, I came across "I'm Your Woman" again at Zia Records in Tempe, which gave Off the Record a run for its money because it too had all the latest imports and used records. It was a promotional copy -- complete with press kit -- and by now I was making eight bucks an hour as a circulation rep at The Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette. I quickly snatched it up. The album had come and gone without much notice -- and on first listen, I could kind of figure out why. By then, Sandy had struck comedy gold with her off-Broadway show "Without You I'm Nothing," which my friends Greg, Paul, John and I knew from start to finish. In it, the comedy was the star and the songs were the supporting players. But "I'm Your Woman" was different. The songs were front and center -- original pop songs whose hearfelt lyrics Bernhard co-wrote with the visual artist Rick Maslow -- and the comedy was merely the set up, usually in the form of short, sweet anecdotes about her childhood and family. But unlike her live shows, they were sung in a more conventional -- or should I say, less dramatic -- fashion. I imagine the whole thing completely confused her fans who had grown accustomed to her caustic wit and over-the-top interpretations of pop music's greatest hits. That they just weren't prepared for this gentler, more vulnerable side of Sandy. In retrospect, though, I think anyone would agree it was an ahead-of-its time little gem. There isn't a clunker in this batch of eight tracks. The little monologue before "Near the Top" might be the funniest bit she's ever written -- and the song the most bizarre. And "Boys Come Running" was the song Susanna Hoffs needed to launch her solo career, But the song that always touched me most was "Everybody's Young," about a world of beautiful teenagers that struck me as a response to Jackson Browne's teenage anthem "Somebody's Baby," but from the point of view of the girl he's singing about when she's maybe 10 or 15 years older, and has begun to feel wistful about a youth and innocence that fades all too soon.
You're everybody's baby when you're young ...
Have a listen and tell me what you think. "I'm Your Woman" is long out of print, but I think Sandy sells the CD at her shows. It's definitely worth tracking down.
"Follow That Bird"
I'm not sure this is the correct image for the 7-inch of "Everybody's Young" -- I never had a copy -- but if it is, the photo was discussed when Sandy Linter was a guest on "Sandyland." Linter did the makeup for the shoot, which was done at Tea & Sympathy on Greenwich Avenue.
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Alexander Skarsgård and His Tighty-Whities at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards
I didn't watch last night's MTV Movie Awards, but something tells me this is all you needed to see.
He Tarzan, me HARD
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