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The Public Blogging of Pomosexuality, Homotextuality, Homophobiaphilia, and Drear Theory (aka Career Theory) [aka Gay4Pay]. We also read the Corner and OpJournal so the right buttock will be punished as well.
All comments subject to publication. Or dismissal. Or Both.
The not-exactly-fresh logo painted onto the rear cargo doors of a battered, white commercial van parked on Dickinson Street in South Philadelphia read:
I'm not sure what makes some records of mostly tuneless (but pounding and portentous) electronic clicks, cracks, whisks, bangs, bleeps, thumps, thrums, twerps, burps, drones, wails, clatters and stutters really good and some really not. It's a question I want to spend time thinking about, though. But not right now. Or probably any time soon.
...Researchers have long known that high levels of substances called phthalates have gender-bending effects on male animals, making them more feminine and leading to poor sperm quality and infertility. The new study suggests that even normal levels of phthalates, which are ubiquitous, can disrupt the development of male babies' reproductive organs.
All versions of George Gershwin's story have the same unforgivable flaw. He dies at thirty-eight in every one of them. Gershwin doesn't survive to thirty-nine in this piece from the New Yorker either, but there are so many good things in it I can overlook its acceptance of Gershwin's ridiculous fate:
...Gershwin was never much of a formal student. He quit high school at fifteen to become the youngest "piano pounder" in Tin Pan Alley, and the rest of his education was left to what he called "intensive listening": in the concert halls (he favored Russian composers, like himself)
...Never married, uncertainly attached to a series of women (preferably married), Gershwin lived surrounded by people and was renowned for his love of parties but also for spending all night at these parties alone at the piano. ("It will be different in every way," a hostess in Cole Porter's "Jubilee" brags of her next soire. "Gershwin's promised not to play.")
...The cast consisted largely of conservatory-trained singers who would have had operatic careers if the country's theatres had not been closed to them. "Porgy and Bess" was produced not at the Metropolitan Opera--Marian Anderson was the first African-American soloist to sing there, in 1955--but by the adventurous Theatre Guild. Todd Duncan, the baritone who played Porgy, tells of auditioning for Gershwin with an eighteenth-century Italian aria because he refused to conform to the idea that blacks ought to sing spirituals, and he had nothing but disdain for popular songs. When Gershwin immediately offered him the leading role, Duncan coolly replied that he'd have to hear the music first. In a luminous account of this reverse audition, Duncan describes his conversion from skepticism to tears as Gershwin played and caterwauled at the piano ("My voice is what is known as small," Gershwin liked to say, "but disagreeabl") and summed up his wonder at the results with the inevitable question: "Where did this man get this from?"
..."Porgy and Bess" closed in just over three months, losing its entire investment. The sudden demise of his most beloved work prompted Gershwin to leave for Hollywood in the summer of 1936--he had had a big success there five years earlier--although Hollywood was not particularly eager to have him. The boy genius had fallen down hard. "Porgy" bore the dangerous mark of highbrow miscalculation, and--unlike Berlin, Porter, or Rodgers--he hadn't had a Broadway hit in a long time. ("I had to live for this," Gershwin grumbled, "that Sam Goldwyn should say to me, 'Why don't you write hits like Irving Berlin?' ")
...Small wonder that a history of Gershwin criticism often reads simply like history (that thing which people fail to learn from). More than seventy-five years ago, Gershwin had a better term for what he was. "My people are Americans," he wrote, and, lest we forget, "my time is today." 11:53 PM
Update: I was wondering if I made wafro up. I knew chances were excellent that I hadn't, but hope dies hard. So I asked Google, aka Hope-slayer, and learned that wafro was already out there but was struggling. More importantly my search found this pictorial of boyz in da good hood. The MacMansion Mafia in full effect. Props to their prop values. One love, dudes.
Frank Kameny was eighty years old on Saturday. He can tell you about himself in his own words if you don't know who he is. You sure as hell should. Here's a clue:
Frank Kameny: Oh, yes, the first demonstration was in front of the White House with no notification to anyone, 4/13/65, and that went so well, and then in future ones we created publicity.
Bob Kunst: Was the publicity favorable?
Frank Kameny: More noting the event, and reporting fact. One in front of the State Dept. on August 20, 1965, and there Secretary of State Rusk had a news conference the night before having to do with Vietnam matters, and in the course of the news conference, and a reporter asked him about these gay demonstrations and Rusk did make reference to it.
One scandal magazine of the day had a picture of us picketing and stating that of course these aren't real homosexuals, these are all actors, hired actors, playing the part.
Bob Kunst: Oh, so you were accused of being hired actors and not homosexuals?
Frank Kameny: To some people it was inconceivable that actual, real gay people would do such things publicly. 3:15 PM
