#austin and ally reunion

[karihighman]

My Raura / Austin & Ally heart loves this!! 😭😭

[captainrikerr5]

Can't believe my favorite ex cast just reunited!

[wizardofpalmsprings]

I want them to do a like post Fantasy High reunion special where, a la Ally’s real life story, Kristen enters a bar and it is inexplicably Austin Powers themed and there’s Bucky - on the stripper pole, absolutely killing it. Yes that’s a real Ally Beardsley story

[sapphiremccnlight]

austin and ally cast reunion 03.25.23 

[swallowtailed]

palisade 60 / finalisade side b track 4

i love when perennial omits/revises/manipulates information :) it's such a fun weakness for a time-traveling machine god. the one thing she can perfectly control is her own behavior, and her only method of influence is what she tells or doesn't tell her allies... anyway i thought it was very funny that she was just straight up fucking lying to cas'alear about the multiverse.

and also a little heartbreaking that she can only allow herself to taste victory as deception

also, intro jumpscare! was not expecting it at all. lowkey very perennial to make listeners (me anyway) go "hold on have we or have we not heard this before, thought this was a recap but it might be new"

while i'm on the topic, it was expected (genre) but still sweet that perennial was so charmed by the blue channel crew. she thinks leap's funny! she recognizes brnine's depression! excellent argument for exploding the focus on 1:1 pilot-divine relationships

speaking of brnine i am just sitting here watching them. their reunion with routine, leap roasting them with a help roll... still everyone wants them to be captain brnine and still they are simply not!

the successful invention of this doohickey felt like the resolution to the invisibility radio that keeps you cold from the stellar combustor arc

similarly, have been enjoying the splashy house rules approach to this sortie. armor astir is a fun game

"you're getting perennial blasted, which is like being flavor blasted, and not any other type of blasted"

"real recognized real but for depression which is so real"

also austin going "are you ever done??" to ali asking for vibes on perennial was so funny. blue channel polycule true ending

"the patron saint of divorcees"

clem showing up was extremely silly. kind of a fun production-level echo of art's starbucks parking lot adventure in episode 1, also. wondering if jack's gonna cameo / who as.

still feel a bit like i'm waiting for the plot to kick in. reminiscent of the train brain sortie, but with even less danger. there's just not a lot of urgency to this combat

six step clock to end the perfect millennium

[girlysword]

Oh, thought of an idea for an Austin and Ally reunion movie!

It takes place immediately before and after the last flashforward scene in the finale. Austin and Ally are on tour and their kids, Dez, and Trish are with them. Lots of shenanigans happen. Dez and Trish get stranded and need to find transportation back to Miami, the final stop of the tour. Something gets caught in Ally’s hair which leads to the bob she had in the finale. Dez thinks Carrie and their son are at a cooking camp called WHISK, but it turns out they are at WISC, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (aka the IQ test). Austin has a habit of watching horror movies after putting the kids to sleep and assures Ally that the kids can’t hear it, only to find out later their daughter has a “Soothing Playlist” that is just a bunch of horror movie sounds. One of the tour stops is Michigan and they all go to the Pickle Barrel House. The Moon kids accidentally destroy the Helen Show set.

[maxiemumdamage]

So, having watched the finale but not the reunion — I feel like Dee’s storyline was the editors trying and failing to reconstruct Yam Yam’s victory.

Like, on the surface — the tight alliance of original tribe mates who stuck it out a long while before voting each other out, internal idol sharing, close bond with another final 3 member, playing a game based more on personal relationships and love than pure strategy — the pieces were there.

But it falls apart in execution. Yam Yam had the narrative of being a perpetual underdog, scrambling to pull together enough allies for a single vote — Dee went into the merger with an alliance of her entire original tribe, and they pretty much never lost the numbers. We’re never shown enough of her bonds with her allies or the other girls for it to feel meaningful. She’s utterly gung-ho about getting out Drew, despite the fact she should be close with him. She chooses not to make fire to get Katurah out even though she’s most determined to see her gone. Even with her family, supposedly her big motivator, it feels like it completely dropped off as part of her story in the last weeks.

And then there’s Dee just making some flat-out stupid decisions — how easily she sacrificed J. Maya, telling Julie to play her idol but still voting for her closest ally while just hoping Julie wouldn’t retaliate, the showmance with Austin…

(I will never, ever understand the showmances. Seriously, is that proof of me being asexual? I cannot comprehend being that horny that you’d rather risk a million dollars than go a month without getting laid.)

Dee just made so many bad calls that never got properly called out. And it only adds to the bad taste of her winning.

I think the Survivor editors were expecting or hoping this would herald in a new era of social gameplay that’s about genuine, long term, long lasting bonds…but I don’t think Dee’s story did that at all. There’s not enough emphasis on her relationships in the first place for it to feel meaningful.

[rockislandadultreads]

STEM Romances: A reading list

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the lead on a neuroengineering project - a literal dream come true - Marie would accept without hesitation. Duh. But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead with Levi Ward. Sure, Levi is attractive in a tall, dark, and piercing-eyes kind of way. But Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school - archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away. But when her equipment starts to go missing and the staff ignore her, Bee could swear she sees Levi softening into an ally, backing her plays, seconding her ideas... devouring her with those eyes. The possibilities have all her neurons firing. But when it comes time to actually make a move and put her heart on the line, there's only one question that matters: What will Bee Königswasser do?

The Hookup Plan by Farrah Rochon

Successful pediatric surgeon London Kelley just needs to find some balance and de-stress. According to her friends Samiah and Taylor, what London really needs is a casual hookup. A night of fun with no strings. But no one—least of all London—expected it to go down at her high school reunion with Drew Sullivan, millionaire, owner of delicious abs, and oh yes, her archnemesis. Now London is certain the road to hell is paved with good sex. Because she’s found out the real reason Drew’s back in Austin: to decide whether her beloved hospital remains open. Worse, Drew is doing everything he can to show her that he’s a decent guy who actually cares. But London’s not falling for it. Because while sleeping with the enemy is one thing, falling for him is definitely not part of the plan.

My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth

Bel would rather die than think about the future. College apps? You’re funny. Extracurriculars? Not a chance. But when she accidentally reveals a talent for engineering at school, she’s basically forced into joining the robotics club. Even worse? All the boys ignore Bel—and Neelam, the only other girl on the team, doesn't seem to like her either. Enter Mateo Luna, captain of the club, who recognizes Bel as a potential asset—until they start butting heads. Bel doesn’t care about Nationals, while Teo cares too much. But as the nights of after-school work grow longer and longer, Bel and Teo realize they've made more than just a combat-ready robot for the championship: they’ve made each other and the team better. Because girls do belong in STEM.

Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner

When Cassie Klein goes to an off-campus bar to escape her school’s Family Weekend, she isn’t looking for a hookup—it just happens. Buying a drink for a stranger turns into what should be an uncomplicated, amazing one-night stand. But then the next morning rolls around and her friend drags her along to meet her mom—the hot, older woman Cassie slept with. Erin Bennett came to Family Weekend to get closer to her daughter, not have a one-night stand with a college senior. In her defense, she hadn’t known Cassie was a student when they'd met. To make things worse, Erin’s daughter brings Cassie to breakfast the next morning. And despite Erin's better judgement—how could sleeping with your daughter’s friend be anything but bad?—she and Cassie get along in the day just as well as they did last night. What should have been a one-time fling quickly proves impossible to ignore, and soon Cassie and Erin are sneaking around. Worst of all, they start to realize they have something real. But is being honest about the love between them worth the cost?

[whatsonmedia]

Top 10 Events and Festivals Around the World This Week

Get ready to mark your calendars, music lovers! Here's a curated list of the most anticipated music festivals happening around the globe in September 2024. Waterworks Festival 2024: Immerse Yourself in London's Vibrant Bass, House, and Techno Scene On September 14, 2024 The Waterworks Festival returns to Gunnersbury Park in London, UK, with over 70 artists showcasing the best in bass, house, and techno music. This single-day festival promises an electrifying experience for music enthusiasts, with a lineup that includes 4am Kru, Amaliah, Anil, Bakey, Bashkka, Batu, Binh, Blackeye MC, Breaka, CC:DISCO, Cedar:Chez de Milo, Christian AB, Coco Bryce, Conducta, and Craig Richards, among many others.  Official Website Desertfest New York 2024: Celebrating the Best of Heavy Music in the Big Apple From September 12-14, 2024 The Desertfest returns to New York City, taking over the unique arts space of the Knockdown Center. This festival, led by Europe's leading stoner rock collective, promises a mammoth lineup that celebrates the very best of heavy music. Fans can look forward to performances by Truckfighters, Abrams, Acid King, Belzebong, Deathchant, Domkraft, Dozer, Gozu, Green Lung, Guhts, and Hippie Death Cult, among others.  Official Website Ultra Japan 2024: Immerse Yourself in the World's Top EDM Talent On September 14-15, 2024 Famous Ultra Music Festival from Miami makes its way to Tokyo, Japan, with a special park built just for the occasion. This two-day event boasts the world's top EDM DJs, including Steve Aoki, Subtronics, Afrojack, Alesso, Anfisa Letyago, Armin van Buuren, Brennan Heart, Disco Lines, Eli Brown, Hot Since 82, and Iso Knock, among others, all performing on unparalleled stage designs and top-tier production.  Official Website Borderland Festival 2024: Celebrating the Rich History and Renaissance of New York's Knox Farm State Park September 13-15, 2024 The Borderland Music + Arts Festival returns to East Aurora, NY, from September 13-15, 2024, showcasing the rich history and renaissance of the region. This two-day music and cultural festival takes place in the scenic and storied grounds of Knox Farm State Park, with a lineup that includes BeachLife Festival 2023, Caamp, Dark Star Orchestra, The Black Crowes, Caamp, Marcus King, Dark Star Orchestra, Cory Wong, The Wood Brothers, The Wailers, The Sheepdogs, Houndmouth, Sierra Hull, Eggy, Sumbuck, and The Dip.  Official Website Bristol Rhythm and Roots 2024: A Three-Day Music Experience Bursting with Appalachian Soul From September 13-15, 2024 The Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion festival will once again take over the historic downtown of Bristol, TN/VA. This infectious, three-day music experience celebrates the past, present, and future of Appalachian music, with a lineup that includes 49 Winchester, Adam Bolt, AJ Lee & Blue Summit, Alli Epperson, Amanda Fields, Anthony Childress, Ashley McBryde, Austin Barrett, Bella White, and Bristol Lightning, among many others.  Official Website Plissken Festival 2024: Embracing Diverse Genres in the Heart of Athens, Greece September 13-14, 2024 The Plisskën Festival returns to Athens, Greece, from September 13-14, 2024, showcasing a genre-defying lineup of over 450 international and local artists. This festival prides itself on its diverse musical offerings, with acts like Vito Valentinetti, Electric Fields, IDLES, The Blessed Madonna, Alice Glass, Cakes Da Killa, Chloe Caillet, Cumgirl8, Duster Valentine, Forest Swords, Grandmas House, IDLES, Kid Francesco, Lilubomyr Melnyk, Mall Grab, and Marie Montexier.  Official Website Telluride Blues and Brews 2024: A Unique Blend of Music and Craft Beer in the Rocky Mountains From September 13-15, 2024 The Telluride Blues and Brews Festival will once again take place in the classic Colorado mountain town of Telluride. This one-of-a-kind experience combines three days of blues, funk, jam, gospel, rock, and soul music with tastings from over 150 breweries, featuring artists like Gary Clark Jr., Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, Cris Jacobs, Earnest "Guitar" Roy, Eddie Roberts & The Lucky Strokes, Eric Gales, Faith & Harmony, and Grace Bowers.  Official Website Rock in Rio Brasil 2024: Brazil's Signature Mega-Festival Returns to the City of Rock September 13-22, 2024 The biannual Rock in Rio festival will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from September 13-22, 2024. This massive event, known as Brazil's signature music festival, will feature two weekends of performances by some of the biggest artists from around the world, including Travis Scott, 21 Savage, Cat Dealers, Chemical Surf, Deadmau5, Fatboy Slim, Funk Orquestra Convida MC Daniel, Rebecca & MC Soffia, Karan Aujla, Katú Mirim, Kevin O Chris, Ludmilla, and Matuê Part Wiu e Teto.  Official Website London Fashion Week 2024: Celebrating 40 Years of London's Creative Community From September 12-17, 2024 London Fashion Week (LFW) will take place as a digital-physical hybrid event. This year marks the 40th anniversary of LFW, and the festival will celebrate London's position as a world-leading cultural capital and its vibrant creative community. LFW40 will spotlight the city's role in nurturing emerging talent and the next generation of visionary creatives.  Official Website Caprices Festival Gstaad 2024: Blending World-Class Electronic Music with Breathtaking Alpine Views September 20-22, 2024 The Caprices Festival Gstaad returns to the mountain top of Eggli in Gstaad, Switzerland, from September 20-22, 2024. This unique festival promises to blend world-class electronic music with the breathtaking panoramic views of the Swiss Alps, creating a celebration of music, nature, and community. The lineup includes artists like Alex Wann, Âme, Andera, Apache, Bedouin, Blond:ish, Carlita, Daaeeru, DadaDisco, Daughter In Law, Eli Light, Garance, Gianundso, Guy Gerber, and Jimi Jules.  Official Website Don’t forget to subscribe WhatsOn for more news and updates on festivals and events around the world. Waterworks Festival 2024: Immerse Yourself in London's Vibrant Bass, House, and Techno Scene Desertfest New York 2024: Celebrating the Best of Heavy Music in the Big Apple Ultra Japan 2024: Immerse Yourself in the World's Top EDM Talent Borderland Festival 2024: Celebrating the Rich History and Renaissance of New York's Knox Farm State Park Bristol Rhythm and Roots 2024: A Three-Day Music Experience Bursting with Appalachian Soul Plissken Festival 2024: Embracing Diverse Genres in the Heart of Athens, Greece Telluride Blues and Brews 2024: A Unique Blend of Music and Craft Beer in the Rocky Mountains Rock in Rio Brasil 2024: Brazil's Signature Mega-Festival Returns to the City of Rock London Fashion Week 2024: Celebrating 40 Years of London's Creative Community Caprices Festival Gstaad 2024: Blending World-Class Electronic Music with Breathtaking Alpine Views Read the full article

[dankusner]

AUSTIN VOGUING

All a big circus at the Paramount Theatre’s dress-up Majestic Ball

“Theydies” and “gentlethem,” boys and girls, divas of all ages: Welcome to the “Three Ring Spectacle.”

Presented by the Paramount Theatre, “The Majestic Ball” was a night of extravaganza and awe, bringing together the Austin queer community in a big show of looks and glamour.

The nowannual Pride Month event revives the underground “ballroom” culture that inspired artists such as Madonna and Beyoncé to the historic stage on Congress Avenue.

This ball, however, features zero waltzes and major glam, with attendees expected to don circus-related garb worn in a celebration of queer expression.

For those unfamiliar with the competitive ballroom format — or haven’t seen the 1990 movie “Paris Is Burning,” or the TV show “Pose,” which aired from 2018 to 2021 — think of it as the queerest disco-runway-family reunion with a ton of glitter and glam.

Or as Natalie Sanders, House Mother of the House of Lepore and host of the evening’s festivities, put it, the ball was “a safe space created for People of Color individuals who did not have that in their pageantry, so they created a safe space for people like themselves.”

Here are the most entrancing acts you missed.

Step right up

Upon entering the doors of the Paramount, guests were welcomed by a stilt walker who guided guests to the main stage.

Flocked around were guests who dressed “to theme” in red velvet coats amongst rainbow-clad allies and lacy tanks.

Before the event fully kicked off, people danced up the aisles to a mix of queer R& B and pop hits by Austin’s DJ and prime R& B mixer BabiBoi.

As co-producers Ryan Thompson and Sawyer Stoltz welcomed the crowd to the madness, they acknowledged the significance of providing a platform for Black and brown queer people in Austin and Central Texas at large.

On this, Thompson said, “When this theater was built, I don’t think they could have ever imagined this kind of event. I hope they’re rolling over in their graves.”

Diamond-grade performance

If there was an award for masterful lipsyncing, Diamond Dior Davenport might reserve a whole room for her trophies.

The curtains whipped back to reveal a gorgeous set and the diva herself, draped in a salmon gown.

Of that moment, Davenport later said, “Hearing everybody gasp when the curtain opened to see the whole stage: That was breathtaking. They just shut up.”

But the hushed awe didn’t last long.

The crowd cheered as Davenport belted, leaped and twerked her way through a drag performance that honored the iconic R& B songstress Ciara.

After a costume change, Davenport made the venue her runway in a Missy Eliot-inspired, pink rouched tracksuit with leather, accompanied by knit-clad backup dancers.

The crowd lit up with elation.

Davenport made the guests “lose control” with a trail of dancers doing high kicks and dips.

The 20-minutelong number primed the audience for the OTA (”Open to All”) runway walk.

Mother is home

Draped in a crimson gown, hostess Natalie Sanders, who helped usher in ballroom culture to Central Texas with events such as “ATX Vogue Nights,” joined Davenport to take us into the next act.

Mother Lapore set the house rules simply: “Know your category, walk it, win it.”

At an OTA ball, all participants are welcome to walk for a chance at the category’s prize.

For this ball, the four categories included “Face” (looks), “Ringmaster” (dressed to the circus theme), “Bizarre” (two-headed costumes), and “Performance” (voguing with aerial silk).

Each category promised a grand prize of $1,000, backed by the Paramount Theatre, and a $100 runner-up prize, sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign.

‘Face’ Off

In ballroom, we judge a book based on its cover.

And, honey, did they read.

Getting intimate, competitors in the “Face” category gave their kissers a tour around the room so that all could admire what has been gifted to these lucky individuals.

At the biggest ball in Texas, that effort is a little hard, given the house packed to the rafters.

Still, hand fans flared and shouts whooped as competitors walked on the big stage for their final judgement.

Ringmasters in red coats

For the “Ringmaster” category, competitors were required to don a red coat, black gloves and a top hat.

As with the other categories, any folks who missed even the smallest detail in their attire were asked not to walk.

“I love your confidence, y’all,” Lapore remarked after off-theme walkers were quickly escorted off the stage.

In the end, it came down to two competitors, with a slender entrant identified as “Ivan” taking the grand prize in a red distressed coat with a sequined top hat and pants to match.

Definitely a ‘Bizarre’ category

Even the most ambitious category, “Bizarre,” came with stiff competition.

Conjoined mummies battled up against a tubular clown with a Pride skirt and massive gloves.

The winner was the two-headed clown, which was original but messy.

Arguably the most underrated character featured a more refined look with a black-and-white bigtop skirt and a moving psychic mannequin head affixed atop their head.

And for the final act

Due to some misunderstandings about technicalities of the rules, the audience became especially riled up during the “Performance” part of the evening.

In co-producer Ryan Thompson’s favorite moment of the night, there was a misunderstanding about the use of “aerial silk” in this night’s performance.

While the rules did require the use of “aerial silk,” they also said that competitors must “embody either a gymnast or a tightrope walker.”

“I think that was a gag moment for sure,” Thompson said.

From the balcony, spectators shouted “Let them walk! Let them walk!” as the judges pushed aside any competitors who did not take the stage with aerial silk.

Ultimately, the hostess allowed all who embodied gymnasts and acrobats to perform during the most raucous moments of the night.

The divas did their dips, duck-walking across the stage in a grand finale performance.

With many thanks and lots of love, the night was full of magical queer joy, which is just what ballroom culture aims to achieve.

“Cats: The Jellicle Ball” Lands on Its Feet

When I was little, five or six, I was taken to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s long-running juggernaut musical “Cats.”

My parents knew that I was already a big fan of cats (the species), and they had strategically hyped Lloyd Webber’s source material, T. S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.”

What they didn’t know was that I was extremely nearsighted—I had never thought to mention it, but I couldn’t see anything more than three inches from my face.

I remember my blurry toddler life before “Cats” (and glasses) as a mist, out of which books and snacks gently materialized.

But in the night-black New London Theatre, during a bit of “fun,” fourth-wall-breaking crowd work, a spandex-clad dancer in leg warmers with a glowing cat-eye light on her head pounced onto my lap.

Was theatre supposed to be this terrifying?

I immediately started sobbing.

Some forty years later, screaming and, indeed, discreet sobbing are actually the appropriate reactions to the ecstatic, quasi-immersive production of “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” at PAC NYC.

The directors Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch have reënvisioned Lloyd Webber’s cheese-tastic musical as an event on the queer, largely Black and Latinx ballroom circuit, the once underground drag milieu introduced to the mainstream in works such as the 1990 documentary “Paris Is Burning” and the TV show “Pose.”

This type of ballroom features voguing dance battles and catwalk strut-offs, and so the directors have deliberately orchestrated a raucous crowd response.

When André De Shields, a Broadway icon, appears as the kinglike Old Deuteronomy, in a purple suit (designed by Qween Jean) and a white-and-purple ombré lion’s mane, the audience’s din of approval becomes his royal fanfare.

And the longer the contestants sashay the more the room urges them to greatness.

“Deliver! Deliver!” one theatregoer next to me shouted.

Given “Cats” ’s dominance—it ran on Broadway for eighteen years—it’s difficult to remember that, in 1981, Lloyd Webber’s synthesizer-forward musical interpretation of Eliot’s whimsical poems seemed like a sure loser.

Eliot’s verses have no connecting narrative, so Lloyd Webber and his director, Trevor Nunn, corralled them into a junk-yard revue in which various cats jockey for a prize from Old Deuteronomy, who will select one to ascend to “the Heaviside Layer.”

If you overlook the nine-lives-are-a-burden, death-wish aspect—which the musical strongly encourages you to do—“Cats” originally played as a cross between a children’s song cycle and a dance fantasia consisting of eroticized aerobics, which were very much a thing in the eighties.

(Schlock the show may have been, but I wasn’t the only one who fell for it.)

To accommodate this new ballroom incarnation, PAC NYC’s huge, flexible space has been arranged around a runway, designed by Rachel Hauck, with cabaret tables on three sides.

Adam Honoré lights the cavernous environment with rich fuchsias and restless spotlights, which keep catching Jean’s gorgeously glamazon costumes like jewels in the dark.

The choreographers Arturo Lyons and Omari Wiles send the ensemble down that catwalk in a militarily precise flying wedge, then let each performer spin off into extraordinary solos, in which they perform dips and smash splits, often ending up lying down in voguing’s signature attitude: one leg up, head thrown back.

(It’s a charming coincidence that cats spend a lot of time with one paw in the air.)

Levingston and Rauch’s melding of “Cats” and the queer ballroom scene is so effortless that it seems to have required only the slightest alterations.

The synthesizer groove has been juiced up with some new club beats by Trevor Holder, the directors have added a plotlet about the naughty thief Macavity (Antwayn Hopper) getting rumbled by the cops, and the entire number “Growltiger’s Last Stand,” in which the titular tom hates “cats of foreign name and race,” has been tastefully deleted.

The true difference, though, lies in the piece’s shift from commercialized kitsch to camp sincerity.

The performers here—among them the magnificent dancer Robert (Silk) Mason as Mistoffelees, with Cher hair swinging long, and the ultra-charismatic Hopper as Macavity, who can control the room just by dropping his hat—appear to be dancing for the love of it, and for one another.

As the show goes on, a more mysterious literary synchrony emerges: how wonderful that Eliot, in 1939, placed such an emphasis on the power of names known only to those who understand you, and on a thriving community’s reverence for its elders.

In ball culture, competitors are organized by houses, and the show pays homage to these structures of found family, often by casting performers from the scene itself.

At one point in “Jellicle Ball,” we see a slide sequence of famous housemothers going back fifty years, including Crystal LaBeija, the Black trans legend who co-founded the Royal House of LaBeija, in 1972, and Grizabella, “founder of the House of Glamour.”

In “Jellicle Ball,” Grizabella, a.k.a. the Glamour Cat, is played by “Tempress” Chasity Moore; she will win over Old Deuteronomy with her plaintive song “Memory,” the bathetic, earwormy ballad that steamrolls every effort to resist it.

At first, Moore prowls melodramatically at the edges of the action, seeming awkward and at sea.

But her climactic rendition of the song stops the show. “I can dream of the old days, life was beautiful then,” she sings, center stage at last.

She sends her voice low, shaking us somewhere down under our feet, as if a subway were passing.

I felt as though it were my first time at “Cats” all over again.

Something had been blurry, and then there it was, all of a sudden—shockingly real and close.

A day after I saw “Jellicle Ball,” I went to one of the last performances of “Can I Be Frank?,” a bitingly funny tribute to a very different queer forebear, created by the comedian and activist Morgan Bassichis at the recently refurbished Club at La Mama.

In that same venue, during the grittier days of the late nineteen-eighties, the artist and musician Frank Maya began doing talk pieces called rants, which launched him into a brief but important standup career.

(He was one of the few out comedians in the nineties to make it onto network television.)

Maya’s manic style involved long, discursive, sometimes personal speeches about, for example, a parent who wants to “cure” his gay child—“Dad! You know the only cure for being gay is fame!”—and men who don’t maintain their oomph. He also did a lot of material about death.

Bassichis first heard about Maya while attending an artists’ residency—it’s “when you go to have sex with people somewhere else,” they explain, helpfully—and fell into an obsession with the comic, who died from AIDS complications in 1995. Maya had a “selfishness that was political,” Bassichis relays, interrupting their re-creations of Maya’s routines to confess to their own paradoxical feelings of anxiety and grandeur.

Sam Pinkleton, the director of Cole Escola’s hit show “Oh, Mary!,” also worked on “Frank,” and Bassichis makes comic hay out of having a “big Broadway guy” involved. “We’ll fly this in,” Bassichis says confidently, shoving a ratty set of stairs across the floor. Bassichis tries various things to honor Maya, or perhaps, in some odd way, to get his posthumous attention, including a bit in which they receive a letter, supposedly from their dead idol.

Maya didn’t live long enough to become a queer elder; for so many reasons, there are now too few. Yet Bassichis clearly yearns to know what Maya might have thought of their work. It reminded me of André De Shields, seventy-eight years old and glorious, sitting on his throne at the judging table, watching the “Jellicle Ball” ensemble perform. There’s a tether between De Shields and the younger dancers, taut as a wire, and life force runs through it. No wonder so much of ballroom culture is founded on competition: parents who truly see a queer child are sometimes hard to come by, but a judge—and an audience—will watch intently, every time.

[karihighman]

LAURA & ROSS 2023 REUNION 😄🎶 MY AUSTIN AND ALLY HEART IS SO HAPPY RN

[hannah-shipper-banana]

Also there was a part in the Austin and ally live stream where the interviewer asked ross what kind of dad Austin would be. And Laura was smiling like “oh yeah, we had kids!” and Ross was giggling like “yeah we had kids”

LIKE CAN YALL HAVE KIDS IRL PLEASE?!?!

Bonus

Laura “I’m really basic, so I’ve been binging Tiger King.”

Ross “TIGER KING!!!” 🤘

Bonus bonus

Ross (to Laura) “you always share that story of how we first met, where I was playing guitar and acting all cool”

Laura *smiling* “I didn’t say you were acting all cool, I just said that you were all alone playing guitar in the corner”

Ross *blushing* “I was shy.”

[arerue-fiboo]

毎週金曜日 YouTube で生配信しているMTVの音楽番組「金曜ライブストリーム Friday Livestream」。 先週14日はいつものケヴァンに代わってローラ・マラノが司会！で、『仲良しの友人』こと The Driver Era がオンラインインタビューでゲスト出演。

公式の録画は今のところ無いようですが、非公式の録画がいくつかYouTube に上がっています。

懐かしの「アリー」＆「オースティン」再び！というところですが、ここのところ毎月のように新曲を出しているローラ。この日も新しいリミックスをリリースする直前で、話題はもっぱら音楽活動やライデルの赤ちゃんなど今現在の話題。

普通にミュージシャン同士の会話にしか見えません（笑）でも、相変わらずローラの早口でちょっと独特のボキャブラリの話し方はやっぱり『アリーそのまま』（ロスの評）で、やっぱりすこし Austin & Ally を観てるような気が…「オースティン」は不在ですが😂

リクエストを頂いたのでいずれ字幕ビデオをアップしようと思っています。しばらくお待ち下さい。

[thasminsquad]

Finally!!! Loved this show growing up!

https://youtu.be/GUtVNpOtajA

[epicactusauces]

i'm not saying ross lynch just confirmed an upcoming wizards of waverly place reunion but that's exactly what i'm saying

[sspellmen]

Austin and Ally Reunion