#Andrew Feinberg

[wherepond]

Trump caught lying

Trump's lie corrected by Macron

Trump humiliated on world stage by France's President Macron

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell details how French President Macron humiliated Donald Trump after the United States, for the first time in history, “voted with the dictator against freedom” when it stood with Vladimir Putin in opposing a UN resolution condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Trump's lie corrected by Starmer

Trump humiliated again on world stage by British PM Starmer

During Donald Trump’s meeting and press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell says that Trump was “humiliated by his own ignorance.” Lawrence dissects both events and shares why he hopes the White House press corps took “performance notes” after The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg and British journalist Robert Peston pressed Trump on his lies.

Back to Contents

[cynicalclassicist]

I'm not sure that I agree with this. Keir Starmer is really unpopular at home and widely perceived as a lickspittle to Trump, like most of our MPs are. He didn't come across as playing Trump, but just fawning to him, even giving him another state visit, as if one isn't already enough, and which will be unpopular here.

Lawrence: Trump humiliated again on the world stage by British PM Starmer after France’s Macron

During Donald Trump’s meeting and press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell says that Trump was “humiliated by his own ignorance.” Lawrence dissects both events and shares why he hopes the White House press corps took “performance notes” after The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg and British journalist Robert Peston pressed Trump on his lies.

[leapingmonkeys]

Step Away From CNBC

[adams-r1b]

Been thinking about men who like their tits. God bless. You don't need surgery you're already perfect. Can I worship you?

(Quote from our beloved Leslie Feinberg) (detail from 'Omen' c. 1997 by Andrew Wyeth)

[whatcha-reading-today]

Great reads of 2024

Bye 2024, while you were a long and grueling year but at least there were some great reads to pass the time. In total, I read 333 books according to goodreads. I read a ton of horror, sci-fi, romance, and horror romances and will list some of my favorites and surprises by genre.

Favorite horror stories:

For being creeped and disgusted. Most of these stories deal with some real world nastiness like homophobia, transphobia, and racism.

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle: Misha is a screenwriter being forced to kill his popular gay characters but what's that? His monsters are coming to life? Such a fucking blast.

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due: our MC is sent to a 'reformatory' where boys behaviors are 'corrected'. This is pretty horrific and forces the reader to confront the horrors of racism.

Compound Fracture & The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White: I recommend all three of AJW's books, CF is more thriller while TSBIT is full on body horror and violence.

Fluids by May Leitz: The most disgusting book I've read this year! Want to read about lesbians doing absolutely awful things to themselves and others due to desperation? This is for you!

The Library on Mount Char by Scott Hawkins: God has a bunch of children stuck in a library and bad shit is happening. Think a speedrun of Gideon and Harrow. Wild and fun.

The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo: This novella focuses on our nurse MC forced to help an Appalachian town in the 1920's. There's racism, transphobia, and some horrific transformation sequences. This has one of the most memorable sex scenes I've read this year.

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters: A classic haunted house story. The creeping and building dread is so wonderful.

Favorite Romances:

These are sweet and fun romances. I enjoyed the audiobooks for each of these stories.

The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch: this is such a cute story that involves the princes of Christmas and Halloween. I'm not over that every time our Halloween prince curses silly plastic decorations appear.

Swift and Swaddled by Lyla Sage: Super sweet western romance with our golden retriever MMC and black cat FMC. Cute!

Favorite Horror Romances:

Come for the gorgeous covers, stay for the body horror, the rot, and violence that may end in romance.

Tenderly, I am Devoured by Lyndall Clipstone (ARC-TBR July 2025): gothic romance that I found so engrossingly written. Highly recommend if you're looking for an incredible gothic romance.

My Throat an Open Grave by Tori Bovalino: Leah wishes her brother away, at which point he's kidnapped by the Lord of the Wood and has to reclaim her brother. Beautiful and sad, more horror than romance.

Together We Rot by Skyla Arndt: This is cult horror, our MMC is a sacrifice slated for his father's cult and our FMC just wants to help.

Favorite Romantasies:

More fantasy than romance, these fantastical stories are both book 1 in a series and do a great job of setting the stage for some elaborate fantasy and eventual romances.

Spark of the Everflame by Penn Cole: super fun, our FMC is a healer and the MMC is the prince and also a sort of demigod.

Nightstrider by Sophia Slade: This is a great start to a fantasy with two worlds--ours and a dream world. Little romance here but a really fantastical set up.

Favorite General Fiction:

Foster by Claire Keegan: this book is like 80 pages and is so good. We follow a girl sent to live with some older foster parents because her family are about to have another kid (I believe they already have like 9?). This was just so beautiful.

Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg: An exploration of queerness, gender, and power in the 1990s. This is a tough read but such an important part of queer history.

Blackouts by Justin Torres: A conversation between an old and a young man who explore and examine what it means to be queer interspersed with blackout poetry.

Horse by Geraldine Brooks: This explores the life of a horse through multiple perspectives. I'm not a horse girlie and I can't stop thinking about this freaking horse.

Favorite Nonfiction:

Truman by David McCullough: this behemoth covers ALL of Truman's life from birth to death and between. I found it enlightening especially before visiting Hiroshima.

Who Would Believe a Prisoner?: Indiana's Women's Carceral Institutions, 1848-1920 by The Indiana Women's Prison History Project: This is a collection of published articles by inmates at Indiana Women's Prison on the history of Indiana's Women Prison. The abuse and the ugliness surrounding the history of the prison is well explored.

Who's Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler: I loved that Butler isn't fucking around this book. They postulate and describe where hatred and fear of gender come from and smashes every logical fallacy you can think of.

American Predator by Maureen Callahan: A detailed account of the murders and manhunt of Israel Keyes. Fast paced and quick true crime read.

Favorite Surprises:

These are all new authors for me. For all of these, I picked these up on a whim and was blown away.

The Theseus Duology by Mary Renault: a lovingly memoir-esque story of Theseus.

Death in the Spires by KJ Charles: this is a dark academia murder mystery. Think 'I know what you did last summer' but in old timely London. I've only read Charles' romances and oh boy was this a delight!

The Borrowed Hills by Scott Preston: this is about sheep farmers who plan a heist and things just go horribly wrong. So artfully written, such wonderful creeping dread.

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim: this is a courtroom thriller told from the perspective of several characters. Sort of slow moving in parts but I found this to be a breathtaking read.

[thebutcher-5]

WALL-E

Benvenuti o bentornati sul nostro blog. Nello scorso articolo siamo tornati a parlare di film in live-action e questa volta abbiamo deciso di concentrarci su una commedia horror degli anni ’90 che in poco tempo è diventato un vero e proprio cult ossia Aracnofobia. Durante una spedizione in Venezuela, un ricercatore scopre una nuova specie di ragno molto velenosa e aggressiva. Uno di questi ragni…

[spacelazarwolf]

in honor of that anon who said jews have done nothing for the world, here’s a non exhaustive list of things we’ve done for the world:

arts, fashion, and lifestyle:

jeans - levi strauss

modern bras - ida rosenthal

sewing machines - isaac merritt singer

modern film industry - carl laemmle (universal pictures), adolph zukor (paramount pictures), william fox (fox film forporation), louis b. mayer (mgm - metro-goldwyn-mayer), harry, sam, albert, and jack warners (warner bros.), steven spielberg, mel brooks, marx brothers

operetta - jacques offenbach

comic books - stan lee

graphic novels - will eisner

teddy bears - morris and rose michtom

influential musicians - irving berlin, stephen sondheim, benny goodman, george gershwin, paul simon, itzhak perlman, leonard bernstein, bob dylan, leonard cohen

artists - mark rothko

actors - elizabeth taylor, jerry lewis, barbara streisand

comedians - lenny bruce, joan rivers, jerry seinfeld

authors - judy blume, tony kushner, allen ginsberg, walter mosley

culture:

esperanto - ludwik lazar zamenhof

feminism - betty friedan, gloria steinem, ruth bader ginsberg

queer and trans rights - larry kramer, harvey milk, leslie feinberg, abby stein, kate bornstein, frank kameny, judith butler

international women's day - clara zetkin

principles of journalizm, statue of liberty, and pulitzer prize - joseph pulitzer

"the new colossus" - emma lazarus

universal declaration of human rights - rene samuel cassin

holocaust remembrance and human rights activism - elie wiesel

workers rights - louis brandeis, rose schneiderman

public health care, women's rights, and children's rights - lillian wald

racial equity - rabbi abraham joshua heschel, julius rosenwald, andrew goodman, michael schwerner

political theory - hannah arendt

disability rights - judith heumann

black lives matter slogan and movement - alicia garza

#metoo movement - jodi kantor

institute of sexology - magnus hirschfeld

technology:

word processing computers - evelyn berezin

facebook - mark zuckerberg

console video game system - ralph henry baer

cell phones - amos edward joel jr., martin cooper

3d - leonard lipton

telephone - philipp reis

fax machines - arthur korn

microphone - emile berliner

gramophone - emile berliner

television - boris rosing

barcodes - norman joseph woodland and bernard silver

secret communication system, which is the foundation of the technology used for wifi - hedy lamarr

three laws of robotics - isaac asimov

cybernetics - norbert wiener

helicopters - emile berliner

BASIC (programming language) - john george kemeny

google - sergey mikhaylovich brin and larry page

VCR - jerome lemelson

fax machine - jerome lemelson

telegraph - samuel finley breese morse

morse code - samuel finley breese morse

bulletproof glass - edouard benedictus

electric motor and electroplating - boris semyonovich jacobi

nuclear powered submarine - hyman george rickover

the internet - paul baran

icq instant messenger - arik vardi, yair goldfinger,, sefi vigiser, amnon amir

color photography - leopold godowsky and leopold mannes

world's first computer - herman goldstine

modern computer architecture - john von neumann

bittorrent - bram cohen

voip internet telephony - alon cohen

data archiving - phil katz, eugene roshal, abraham lempel, jacob ziv

nemeth code - abraham nemeth

holography - dennis gabor

laser - theodor maiman

instant photo sharing online - philippe kahn

first automobile - siegfried samuel marcus

electrical maglev road - boris petrovich weinberg

drip irrigation - simcha blass

ballpoint pen and automatic gearbox - laszlo biro

photo booth - anatol marco josepho

medicine:

pacemakers and defibrillators - louise robinovitch

defibrillators - bernard lown

anti-plague and anti-cholera vaccines - vladimir aronovich khavkin

polio vaccine - jonas salk

test for diagnosis of syphilis - august paul von wasserman

test for typhoid fever - ferdinand widal

penicillin - ernst boris chain

pregnancy test - barnhard zondek

antiretroviral drug to treat aids and fight rejection in organ transplants - gertrude elion

discovery of hepatitis c virus - harvey alter

chemotherapy - paul ehrlich

discovery of prions - stanley prusiner

psychoanalysis - sigmund freud

rubber condoms - julius fromm

birth control pill - gregory goodwin pincus

asorbic acid (vitamin c) - tadeusz reichstein

blood groups and rh blood factor - karl landsteiner

acyclovir (treatment for infections caused by herpes virus) - gertrude elion

vitamins - caismir funk

technique for measuring blood insulin levils - rosalyn sussman yalow

antigen for hepatitus - baruch samuel blumberg

a bone fusion technique - gavriil abramovich ilizarov

homeopathy - christian friedrich samuel hahnemann

aspirin - arthur ernst eichengrun

science:

theory of relativity - albert einstein

theory of the electromagnetic field - james maxwell

quantum mechanics - max born, gustav ludwig hertz

quantum theory of gravity - matvei bronstein

microbiology - ferdinand julius cohn

neuropsychology - alexander romanovich luria

counters for x-rays and gamma rays - robert hofstadter

genetic engineering - paul berg

discovery of the antiproton - emilio gino segre

discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation - arno allan penzias

discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe - adam riess and saul merlmutter

discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity - roger penrose

discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of the milky way - andrea ghez

modern cosmology and the big bang theory - alexander alexandrovich friedmann

stainless steel - hans goldschmidt

gas powered vehicles

interferometer - albert abraham michelson

discovery of the source of energy production in stars - hans albrecht bethe

proved poincare conjecture - grigori yakovlevich perelman

biochemistry - otto fritz meyerhof

electron-positron collider - bruno touschek

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Erin Reed at Erin In The Morning:

On Sunday, President Biden announced he will not seek a second term and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, as his pick to become the Democratic Party’s nominee. In the immediate aftermath, Harris' donations surged, and major Democratic officials rallied behind her. Republican influencers, however, seemed unprepared for a primary line of attack, initially conflating Harris’ potential presidency with the Biden administration’s policies. By evening, they appeared to have settled on a familiar but often unsuccessful tactic: focusing on pronouns and accessibility.

Within moments, several right-wing accounts posted the same video from 2022: a video of Vice President Harris sitting at a table and addressing a group of people, where she introduces herself by listing her pronouns and describing her clothing. She says, “Good afternoon, I want to welcome these leaders for coming in and having this very important discussion about some of the most pressing issues of our time. I am Kamala Harris, my pronouns are she and her, and I am a woman sitting at the table wearing a blue suit.”

The event was attended by a room full of disability rights leaders. According to White House Correspondent Andrew Feinberg, who stated that he was the print pooler at the event, “she was talking to a room of disability activists, including people who are/were blind.” Using descriptive terms to indicate who you are, your appearance, and what you are doing is a common technique to improve accessibility for audience members who may be blind. The Disability Visibility Project says of the practice, “A self-description provides information about a person that non-blind people passively glean. This includes identity characteristics such as skin color, gender identity, hair length and texture, wardrobe, and more.” Within hours, however, conservative accounts began pushing the video as their first major line of attack on the likely nominee. Anti-LGBTQ+ influencer Chaya Raichik posted it on her Libs of TikTok account, highlighting the footage. RNC Research, a collaborative social media account for the Republican National Committee and Team Trump, also spotlighted the video. Elon Musk quoted it, stating, “imagine 4 years of this…” Conservative influencer Wall Street Silver added, “Do we really want more of this woke junk?”

[...] The criticism to the line of attack is well-founded. Conservatives have attempted to target Democratic politicians over accessibility, transgender people, and other issues they deem to be “woke issues” for nearly four years, with little success to show for it.

The right-wing faux outrage machine’s attacks on Kamala Harris for using pronouns to address participants during a July 2022 meeting is a bit wack and a tool to push anti-trans and anti-”woke” fodder.

[juniorstargazergoke1991]

Brave (2012)

Directors: Brenda Chapman (and Mark Andrews)

Cinematographers: Robert Anderson and Danielle Feinberg

[eddie-redmayne-italian-blog]

New Article Interview!!

Tonys Roundtable: Rachel McAdams, Kelli O’Hara, Leslie Odom Jr., Sarah Paulson, Daniel Radcliffe and Eddie Redmayne on Broadway Paths, Parts and Pet Peeves

The talented sextet — nominated for 'Mary Jane,' 'Days of Wine and Roses,' 'Purlie Victorious,' 'Appropriate,' 'Merrily We Roll Along' and 'Cabaret,' respectively — sat down with THR ahead of the 77th Tony Awards.

BY SCOTT FEINBERG

Ph. JESSE ILAN KORNBLUTH

Eddie, you grew up in England but made it to New York when you were still very young… EDDIE REDMAYNE I was a kid of the ’80s in London, which meant the mega-musicals were a massive deal — the [Andrew] Lloyd Webbers and the [Alain] Boubil and [Claude-Michel] Schonbergs. The first theater I saw — I was aged about 7 — was Cats, and I remember the sets, these gigantic tomato ketchup things, and then it would turn in the round, and then suddenly cats appeared at my feet and scared the living daylights out of me. And I was completely seduced. PAULSON That’ll do it. REDMAYNE Exactly, some ’80s leotards and some cracking songs — talking of which, Cats: The Jellicle Ball is about to start here! PAULSON Sign me up — to watch it! [Laughs.] REDMAYNE But I remember, I instinctively just loved it so much. My parents, for my birthday, would take me to see one of these shows, and — this is slightly embarrassing to admit — I remember I would weep at the interval because I knew I only had half of it left. As far as New York was concerned? We were brought up on American culture, so seeing this city, it was the zenith of aspiration. When I came in my early teens or whatever, I remember coming to Broadway, and to this day, as we walk on the way to work from the subway, you walk past Times Square, and it just has this thing, doesn’t it? It’s electric, and it’s vibrant, and it never loses that “Come on in!” Its pulse is pulling you in. And so yeah, it was always something that I aspired to.

Eddie, in Cabaret you play The Emcee at the Kit Kat Club in Berlin as the Nazis come to power. The show has been around since 1966, and the film version came out in 1972, but your version is, from what I’ve gathered, very deliberately different than prior incarnations with Joel Grey, Alan Cumming and others. And you have your own long history with it… REDMAYNE I played The Emcee when I was about 15 years old at school — which feels a bit inappropriate now, I think. I didn’t know Cabaret when I first did it, so I watched the film and listened to all the recordings and was just stunned by it. It seduced me. It moved me. It made me laugh, and it made me think, “That’s what I dream of when I go to the theater.” And even though I didn’t necessarily understand all those things when I was a kid, it really stuck with me. Then, I did it again at the Edinburgh Festival when I was about 19 in a production in this grimy venue; we were out flyering every day trying to persuade people to come to the festival dressed in latex and PVC, and then at night we would do the show at 8:00 in the evening, and it would finish at 11:00, and then we’d have half an hour and do another show. And then the people who created that venue at the Edinburgh Festival — they’re called The Underbelly, and it became their business, these site-specific comedy shows — became really successful in London. About nine years ago, they asked me, “Would you ever consider doing this again?” And since then I’d seen every production of Cabaret that I could touch. I saw the Sam Mendes production in Barcelona, in Spanish; I’d seen Alan do it with Emma Stone so stunningly here; I’ve seen the Rufus Norris production; and I just love it. So, when they approached me about doing it, I thought, “I would love to, but only if we’re going to do something that hasn’t been seen or a new take on it.” And I’d just seen this production of Summer and Smoke in London, directed by Rebecca Frecknall, that had blown my mind — it was so poised, and it was stunningly designed by a guy called Tom Scott — so I went and spoke to Frecks and she said, “I’d love to do it.” But at this point, we didn’t have the rights. It’s impossible to get the rights to Cabaret — everyone dreams of doing it! So it became one of those pipe dreams that was never going to happen. But, even at that stage, we wanted to do it site-specific, so we’d found this old music hall in London underneath a train station in Angel, which basically now looked like a concrete car park in the shape of the Globe Theatre, and we thought, “If we could take people down fire escapes, and then the show could turn into Bergheim afterward and into a club, could that be interesting?” Then COVID happened. Afterward, the producers, ATG, who had jumped on board, said, “Look, we’ve got all these theaters that have been sitting empty. Could we ever take the experiential idea of taking an audience to an evening where, once they step over the threshold, they pass dancers and musicians and get discombobulated into a world where, by the time they reach the show proper, they’ve left all their troubles behind?” And I’ve always loved the backstage of theaters and seeing the grime and the grot behind the presentation. So that’s what we dug into.

And on Broadway, you guys basically invite people to arrive at 6:45 p.m. for what you call a prologue, and for over an hour before you ever show up onstage, bars are open and dancers are dancing and a whole vibe is created — it’s really its own show. REDMAYNE The dancers are extraordinary. Our choreographer, Julia Cheng, comes from a clubbing background, so one of the things we’re trying to do with the show is, although it’s very specifically set in its period, the echoes are so tangible now, and so the dance vocabulary is from waacking, from voguing, from contemporary club culture in the same way as the costumes. We’re not going, “This happened then; it can never happen again.” The costumes refer to contemporary fashions. There aren’t lots of Nazis in Nazi uniforms. It’s all trying to go, “Wait. There are regressions, things that we’ve talked about now, powers and rights being taken away and pulled back, and the loss of individuality.” Hopefully, the evening makes you think.

REDMAYNE I certainly agree with you about the physical costs. What I find interesting about doing Cabaret in the musical theater world is it demands a different set of skills that I’ve not necessarily harbored all my life and trained all my life. And whilst I look forward to serving this extraordinary piece every night, I’m filled with fear of whether technically I’m going to be capable to serve that. My wife, as I was having a complete meltdown in the lead-up to doing this, was back in London and reading Andre Agassi’s memoir [Open] — O’HARA Oh, it’s the best memoir! REDMAYNE And there’s a passage in it in which he talks about going to a musical on Broadway and how he relates to musical theater people because it’s that monastic, athletic living of having to eat, sleep and breathe something. My wife was sending it to me basically going, “Come on, you’re like Agassi!” But I’ve found that nothing upsets me more than when I have to go onstage to serve this stunning score in this extraordinary part in a beautiful — or I hope it’s a beautiful — production, and you are worried that you don’t have the facility to serve it to its full potential.

Does your ability to handle the demands of these parts vary depending on specific days of the week?

PAULSON Can I ask a question? Does anybody else loathe when people come on a Tuesday?

MCADAMS Yes!

PAULSON I hate the Tuesday show! When you come to see me on a Tuesday, I am so upset. People are like, “Lady, this was the time I could come…”

I would have assumed that on Tuesday, having had Monday off, you’re at your freshest…

O’HARA No. You’re not warm.

PAULSON A Tuesday, to me, I just feel like I’m finding my sea legs for the first 20 minutes of the play.

MCADAMS Yeah, you only had one day off, but it feels like a month.

O’HARA Tuesday’s not a good day. Don’t come on Tuesday.

REDMAYNE Guys! We need people to come on Tuesdays! [laughs and then jokingly continues] It’s my favorite night of the week!

RADCLIFFE It could go either way. It either feels like, “Oh, I’m back and I feel fresh,” or “I feel like I’ve never done the show before.”

Right. When I saw that, and ever since, I have said, “This is the greatest voice I’ve ever heard.” It was a great show. But it didn’t last very long. You never know what goes into these things — I read something where Leslie said that if Hamilton had come along five years earlier, who knows if even it would’ve clicked. It may be about just catching the zeitgeist. So I just wonder the degree to which you guys think about these things…

ODOM I’d love to hear you [O’Hara] talk about it because I —

O’HARA Why? Because this one closed too? [Laughs]

ODOM When I came to see you guys, man, did I love it so much.

O’HARA Listen, this musical was about alcoholism. Deep, dark alcoholism. And a love story, but riddled with this third player, right? So it wasn’t for everybody. I knew that it wasn’t the most commercial thing. It was an art piece, and I was so proud of that, actually. And we’re lucky that it had a space on Broadway for even a minute. But what killed me is that I felt like the population that needed it — us all being the daughter or having had that mother or knowing that father or whatever it was — I was worried that we hadn’t reached them. I sometimes worry that the business can be very formulaic, especially in how we sell things. And I was concerned that we weren’t reaching the audience, the whole new generation of sober-curious people, and people that don’t usually come to theater, or whole organizations that thrive and survive on sobriety or that need to have the conversation constantly or to see themselves in a story.

We were being told to sell it as a love story. We were deceiving people as they walked in the door, and I’m saying this out loud because it was one of the most painful parts of the process for me — to be doing that much, to be giving that much of my heart, and being so satisfied by the performance, and then I would literally have someone every single night come and see it and say, “Oh, I had no idea it was about alcoholism.” I jumped back on social media when we got the closing notice and started trying to promote the show, sweating, just to get more people in front of this beautiful piece of work. And I felt sad and angry because there was a time when that wasn’t your job as much; your job was to do eight shows a week with all your heart. But it felt like, “Gosh, I should have been more of an influencer. I should have been having things on the sidewalk [like Hamilton did].” And I started to get desperate because when you work on something for 20 years, and you know how special it is… But then you have to check yourself and say, “It’s special to me, and that doesn’t always translate to special to the larger community.” But it’s painful. When you’re in something that means the world to you, and it’s closing, it’s heartbreaking because it feels like a death.

REDMAYNE There’s something interesting that I’ve noticed, and that’s the extraordinary difference between doing a commercial play in the West End and on Broadway. The idea of grosses being announced and your makeup artist knowing them every Tuesday and telling you? In London, I had no idea. But here, as a producer on Cabaret as well, I had to say, in the producer meetings, “I’ll sit on all the calls, but I don’t want to know.”

With our remaining time, I’m going to give a few prompts and ask you to say the first thing that comes to your mind. To begin with: Excluding family, whose attendance at one of the performances of your show has meant the most to you?

PAULSON Laurie Metcalf.

RADCLIFFE Martin Short.

REDMAYNE Joel Grey.

MCADAMS Linda Maskell, my high school drama teacher — the reason I’m here.

ODOM Kathleen Battle came to our last performance, and I fell on the floor.

What’s the most unusual thing in your dressing room?

RADCLIFFE A small plastic basketball hoop that was left by Alex Edelman, who was in the show before ours. He said, “Do you want to keep it?” I was like, “Yeah, obviously!”

PAULSON I had a fan send me what looks like a taxidermy dog that is an identical replica of my dog. Everyone walks in the room, and they’re like, “Your dog is so calm!” I was like, “This is not a real dog.”

REDMAYNE Mine is something that looks like a loaf of really soft white bread, but it’s a stress ball. It was given to me by Jamie, who does my wigs. One day I was so in tears that she was like, “Eddie, you need some anger bread.”

What’s the most annoying thing that audiences, or at least some members thereof, are doing these days?

ODOM The cell phone thing. We had one crazy show where we had three or four cell phones going off. When you hear the first one, you should think, “Oh, shoot, let me actually turn mine off.” But there was a second one. And a third one. And it was in the first 20 minutes of the show. And so I did have to stop the show and say, “There’s grace in this moment. There’s amnesty. Let’s really do it [turn off all phones].”

PAULSON Good for you. God, I love that you did that. There is this thing of, “Let’s just be here together, all of us. You do your part. I’ll do mine.” I do feel like there is an alchemy every night, depending on what the audience is bringing and what we’re bringing.

O’HARA Oh, sure. They’re the final collaborator.

PAULSON Yes, they are the final collaborator.

MCADAMS I think people don’t realize that. I think they think you can’t even see them. I thought I wouldn’t be able to see them, but I can see everything. I can see when you’re sleeping. I can see you when you open your phone to see what time it is.

PAULSON I think the most annoying new thing that’s happening is everyone seems to have their cell phone in their lap, and so there’s all the phones dropping on the floor. And at the Helen Hayes, where we started, there’s no carpet, and so it would just be like [makes clanking noise]. Now, at the Belasco, you just hear this dull thud onto a carpet.

Eddie, there’s a lot of people that are getting smashed at your show, right? Is that an issue?

REDMAYNE “Come to Cabaret and get smashed!”

O’HARA “Especially on Tuesdays!”

REDMAYNE We do have a few vocal people. There was a moment last night when Gayle [Rankin, Redmayne’s Tony-nominated co-star], who is extraordinary in the show, was singing “Mein Herr,” and she got to that bit, “And I do, what I do, and I’m through, toodle-oo” — and literally there was a woman like, “Oh, my gosh, I love the ‘toodle-oo’!” [Laughs.] So occasionally, you get a good vocal Cabaret support.

MCADAMS Just a question. I remember someone — was it Jack White? — was asking people at concerts to put their phones in lockers or something. Has that happened on Broadway?

PAULSON They did it during Take Me Out because of the nudity. They did that. So, I know it can be done, and I would love to know why we don’t just do it. Just put your phone in a cubbyhole —

MCADAMS We’ll charge it for you.

PAULSON Would that be some cost-prohibitive thing to implement?

RADCLIFFE At Merrily, it’s been OK. I think being in a musical covers a lot — I’m sure stuff’s happening during those songs, but I can’t hear it. But since we’re here, my two favorites: On Equus, there was seating onstage, and I was onstage the whole time, and if I wasn’t in the scene I would just go back to sit on one of these four blocks — it was supposed to be my room at the hospital. And there was one night when I got to my block in the first scene that I wasn’t in, and two girls in the seats just started talking to me, just full voice, while Richard Griffiths and Kate Mulgrew were doing a scene behind me, just going, “Dan! Dan! Look up here!” It carried on through the whole first act. And then I was like, “I don’t need them to leave. But can they just go into the main auditorium so that they’re not just trying to speak to me through the show?” And then my other favorite audience member? I was doing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in London, and this dude came in, sat down, and, through Josh McGuire’s first monologue as Guildenstern, which is incredibly complicated, took out a footlong sandwich, wrapped in tin foil, unwrapped the whole thing, ate it in its entirety and fell asleep for the rest of the first act. But then in the second act, he was the most attentive audience member — jumped up at the end and clapped. I wanted to be like, “Wait, did you have a good time?” “Yeah. I had a dinner, had a sleep and saw half of a great show.”

If you could snap your fingers and make it so, what would be the ideal number of performances your show would offer per week?

RADCLIFFE I don’t want to make myself unpopular, but I like the grind.

ODOM I mean, listen, the ideal would be six, right? Six or seven.

PAULSON I think the Wednesday matinee is the one I would chuck. Because when you start the Tuesday week, and then you’ve got that matinee right away? I would like to do seven with no Wednesday mat.

O’HARA I would do anything to have two days in a row off.

REDMAYNE When you get two days off, your voice can really recover.

MCADAMS Oh, fuck that Tuesday show. [Laughs.] To get the Sunday or the Sunday night-Monday-Tuesday stretch off — I mean, I might actually leave the city and go somewhere where there’s nature.

Last one. If you could play any role on the stage that you have not played before — somebody’s listening — what would it be?

PAULSON I would like to do The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?

REDMAYNE Oh! Which I would love to see you in. That was the first play I ever did in London, and you would be magnificent in that part.

RADCLIFFE I’ll know it when I see it.

REDMAYNE I’m exactly the same. I’m much better when people tell me which part I should play.

ODOM Someday — and it ain’t soon — I want to do Lear.

And the Purlie musical maybe still?

ODOM It could happen.

Rachel? Are you going to come back for more after this?

MCADAMS Not next year! [Laughs.] I would love to star in any musical, but that will never happen. So this is just all pipe dreams. But yeah, anywhere I could sing. I started out doing Disney musicals at theater camp, and I was so bad that the teacher said to me, “You know, you might be really good in the Shakespeare camp,” and sent me on my way, and it was devastating. But it was the right thing in the end.

full interview here!!

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/arts/tony-nominations-roundtable-rachel-mcadams-daniel-radcliffe-eddie-redmayne-1235918192/

[sunriseseance]

Post OF QUEER LITERATURE I'VE CURATED

1. The City and The Pillar by Gore Vidal

-finished reading

-absolutely beautiful book about historical queer identity, queer community, queer isolation, and life

2. Johnny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead

-finished reading

-a meditation on indigenous queerness, Canada, and love.

3. Fullmetal Indigiqueer by Joshua Whitehead

-finished reading

-same as above but ALSO thinks about humanity, and technology.

-I love Joshua Whitehead.

4. City of Night by John Rechy

-finished reading

- meditation on queer identity, loneliness, and urbanism. My fave Book.

5. Buddah of Suburbia by Hanef Kureshi

- finished reading

-man. Funny, historical, interesting, and queer as fuck.

6. Zami: A New Spelling of my Name by Audre Lorde

-to read!

-about queer black identity. I'm excited.

7. Giovanni's room by James Baldwin

-to read!

-I love Baldwin.

8. Faggots by Larry Kramer

-to read!

-about gay community in the 70s. Kramer founded Act Up! I am so excited for this.

9. Ruby Fruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown

- a book about lesbianism! Woo.

10. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

- to read!

-considered by many to be THE modern novel

11. Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

-to read!

-collection of short stories about queerness in San Francisco.

12. Loving in the War Years by Cherrie L Moraga

-to read!

-a book about latine identity and queerness and war and colonialism. Nonfiction collection of short stories

13. The Price of Salt

-to read!

-carol is based on this

13. Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

-to read!

-lesbian!

14. Dancer from the Dance by Andrew Holleran

-to read!

-a truely high literature gay romance

15. Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

-to read!

-a seminal text.

15. Black Jesus and Other Superheroes by Venita Blackburn

-Read and loved

-my favorite short story collection of all time. About blackness and modern life and has many queer elements

AND LAST BUT NO LEAST

16. Angels in America

-The Best Play I Have Ever Seen

-about life and joy and AIDS and love

[saywhat-politics]

Trump has not yet spoken with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer since taking office on Monday

Andrew Feinberg

in Washington, D.C.

Friday 24 January 2025 11:24 EST

President Donald Trump’s phone conversations with the two British prime ministers who served during his first term were apparently so madcap that they left staff at Number 10 Downing Street in tears.

According to a report in Politico, any conversation between the then-president and the two occupants of Number 10 from 2017 to 2021 — Theresa May and Boris Johnson — were appointment listening for civil servants and other aides in the PM’s orbit, with staff making a point to gather in a secure room or the prime minister’s private study to hear them speak with the American leader.

[denimbex1986]

'To quote Erika Jayne, it sounds like filmmaker Andrew Haigh is about to give the gays everything they want with the upcoming release of his queer romance All of Us Strangers starring Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal.

The film follows Adam (Scott) as a lonely writer who falls for his mysterious neighbor, Harry (Mescal). The steamy relationship that ensues causes Adam to reexamine his past and visit his childhood home, where he encounters his deceased parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy), living as they had decades prior.

In a post-screening conversation with Haigh at the American Film Institute, Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter asked the director to discuss the process of developing the chemistry between his leading men.

“We went to a concert together in London,” Haigh shared. “And I could tell that they were really into each other because they completely ignored me for most of the day and they were just talking to each other and putting their arms around each other.”

The bond that developed between the pair was palpable, and Haigh shared that the two are still good friends now: “Andrew had a birthday recently and Paul was there,” he said.

Haigh seems to be referencing the same celebration in which a photo of Scott and Mescal went viral last week. The photo, which shows Scott and Mescal appearing to do shots at a gay bar, had fans going feral online.

But fans aren’t the only ones showing their enthusiasm. Critics are raving over Haigh’s fourth feature film, calling it a “haunting lullaby “ as well as “tender and heartbreaking.” Others have singled out Scott as “at the height of his talents” for his leading performance.

“I really think if you can get actors that want to work with each other, that care about working with each other, then there’s chemistry already there,” Haigh said in the AFI Fest Q&A. “Because they want it to be the best it can be.”'

[greaseonmymouth]

Sooo, regarding your tags on that last post, do you have recs for old gay books, by any chance?

yes and no - as a teenager I read what I could get my hands on in the library and it was all in Danish and some of those books I don't know if were translated or not, and by that I mean translated from another language into Danish, or vice versa. One of those books I'm pretty sure was actually translated from Swedish because I remember the author name sounding Swedish and the characters were Swedish and Danish... lots of formative old gay books that had been sitting on the shelves since the 70s, 80s, 90s, that I can't find again.

anyway, one of the books I read as a teenager that was very formative for me was an Irish novel, When Love Comes to Town by Tom Lennon. the main character is a teenager, gay and struggling to come to terms with it, gets a boyfriend (bisexual, he fucks off to Belfast and cheats on him with a girl, classy - there's a fair amount of biphobia in the book, which I remember because I remember thinking it was weird how so many of the characters were warning him off bi guys when it was just this one guy being an asshole) but he also has a girlfriend because he's trying to keep up appearances and it's all a huge mess. he makes other queer friends. some of those queer friends he makes are transvestites, and there was a HIV positive guy who passed away. this book was formative for me for many many reason but the stand out elements were the found family and queer community, how they stood together and supported each other in the face of a lot of hate and discrimination and rocky family relationships and friendships. they found joy together. also I might be misremembering but the main character was like, really good in English class and was friends with his teacher and I could relate, lmao.

I read these two a bit later, in my early twenties, but Faggots by Larry Kramer and Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg. I actually need to read Stone Butch Blues again because I remember very little about it, but Faggots made a huge impact on me, it was written in the late 70s or early 80s and takes place in new york and while much of it is satire, satire is built on truth, you know? and it showcases such a range of queer experiences and characters, exaggerated and over the top, but with a very real core of human emotion and struggles. it is also a criticism and I've since read that this book was very controversial within the queer community at the time

Dream Boy by Jim Grimsley also comes to mind, it's a 90s novel but fuck me if I can remember the plot

I also want to briefly mention the Astreiant series by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett - written in the 90s by queer couple Melissa and Lisa, this is a fantasy series where the world-building has queerness built in and while I love it just for what it is, I also think it's fascinating from a sociological point of view because you can infer a lot about their priorities but also what (American) society was like at the time. for instance this is a matriarchal society and it has queer relationships nobody bats an eye at, but yet there isn't marriage equality?

for recent books (er, say published in the last ten years ish? or let's just say in this century) written by people older than me, I want to recommend:

Less by Andrew Sean Greer - this is a love letter

Mr. Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo - this is a beautiful book and love story but it will also show you what it's like to be somebody who's been a closeted gay and black man since his early teen years in Antigua and move to the UK and now as an old man in London still in a relationship with the same man

Closet Case by Robert Rodi - this is one of those general fiction novels where the main character gets themselves into absurd situations and if it were heterosexual, it would've been a comedy, a romcom even, and adapted for screen. but it's gay. this author has written many more gay novels (and also! a very gay graphic novel about Loki for marvel, illustrated by Esad Ribic) but this is the only novel I've read by him

A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif I also read in my early twenties and it's one of those books I Think About A Lot because it's kind of an absurd book but the plot entirely falls apart without the gay relationship at the core. I didn't know it was gay when I picked this up (in a secondhand bookstore in Edinburgh, in 2011), I just read it and the plot unfolded and unfolded and then the revelation? I Think About It Often.

[kylo-wrecked]

The 25 Most Influential Works of Postwar Queer Literature (according to the new york times)

"Stone Butch Blues” by Leslie Feinberg, 1993

“Sister Outsider” by Audre Lorde, 1984

“In a Strange Room” by Damon Galgut, 2010

“Giovanni’s Room” by James Baldwin, 1956

“Nevada” by Imogen Binnie, 2013

 “Manhunt” by Gretchen Felker-Martin, 2022

“Detransition, Baby” by Torrey Peters, 2021

“Dykes to Watch Out For” by Alison Bechdel, 1986

“The Swimming-Pool Library” by Alan Hollinghurst, 1988

“Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl,” by Andrea Lawlor, 2017

“Angels in America” by Tony Kushner, 1991

“I Want a President” by Zoe Leonard, 1992

“The Man With Night Sweats” by Thom Gunn, 1992

“Ceremonies” by Essex Hemphill, 1992

“A Scattering of Salts” by James Merrill, 1995

“The Tradition” by Jericho Brown, 2019

“Feeld” by Jos Charles, 2018

“Homie” by Danez Smith, 2020

“The Story of Harold” by Terry Andrews, 1974

“The Prophets” by Robert Jones Jr., 2021

“Memorial” by Bryan Washington, 2020

 “Hir” by Taylor Mac, 2015

“Diving Into the Wreck” by Adrienne Rich, 1973

“Written on the Body” by Jeanette Winterson, 1992

"The Price of Salt” by Patricia Highsmith, 1952

[longwindedbore]

Has anybody asked the congressional GOP members why they don’t have a notarized affidavit as well as whatever evidence the ‘whistleblower’ Gal Luft claimed to possess about “ the Biden crime family”?

Or why the GOP majority have not voted to impanel a special committee to review the affidavit and evidence? To present the evidence to the USAmerican public?

Or is this evidence just more dick pics?

Why not just by-pass evidence altogether and call for an impeachment vote…what?!…