This week marks the fourteenth blogiversary of this here website thingy. Counting this one, we’re at 75,285 posts over 14 years, the last ten of which have been without a day off. Whether I am insanely committed or am insane and should be committed – that is your call. The actual launch date anniversary comes this weekend, but since more …
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Our pal Matt Baume looks at The Simpsons and homophobia: The 1997 episode of The Simpsons entitled “Homer’s Phobia” doesn’t just mark a turning point for queer characters on television — it’s a turning point for homophobia on television as well. With an unlikely appearance by cult filmmaker John Waters, the episode features a groundbreaking depiction of intolerance, a crash …
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Some Broadway news to start you off: Harry Potter has come to Broadway. But The Boy Who Lived is a boy no longer: He’s 37 years old and going through a magical midlife crisis in J.K. Rowling and Jack Thorne’s outstanding play, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” which opened Sunday night. And Broadway’s never seen anything quite like it. …
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Today in air travel news: Crystal Tadlock told KDVR-TV she wasn’t hungry when the flight attendant gave out apples to passengers at the end of her trip from Paris this month. She put the apple in her bag so she could eat it later. But when she went through customs, an agent pulled out the apple wrapped in a plastic …
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Some Michael Cohen news from yesterday: A federal judge on Friday told President Donald Trump’s personal attorney that he must declare in writing that his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination will be compromised unless there’s a delay in a lawsuit filed by adult film star Stormy Daniels. U.S. District Judge S. James Otero said at a hearing in Los Angeles …
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NPR reports: The lead-in to Ariana Grande’s comeback single, as per most pop diva returns, was ecstatic. Memes abounded online — of her cryptic, upside-down tweets, her low-slung ponytail. She rolled out a preview of her voice in an echo chamber of melisma. It’s a traditional pop roll-out, except with the gravity of loss and tragedy still hanging in the …
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Gentle readers: As you surely have seen, news sites are increasingly transitioning away from display and banner ads, which now pay a fraction of what they used to, in favor of page takeovers, in-post videos, pop-up videos, sidebar videos, and other more intrusive means of collecting eyeballs. In an effort to keep the lights on here at JMG, please consider …
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Oral sex news to start you off: Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has said “outsiders” are trying to corrupt his people by convincing them to have oral sex. During a public speech on Sunday, Museveni said that oral sex is “wrong” because mouths are “meant for eating.” “Let me take this opportunity to warn our people publicly about the wrong practices …
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The name of a 68-year Broadway tradition will change: Actors’ Equity Association has announced that the organization’s National Council has voted to retire the name “Gypsy Robe” — the name of the ritual that occurs on the stage of every Broadway musical with a chorus on opening night before the audience is admitted — at the end of the current …
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Some gay show biz news to start you off: One of Baltimore’s finest has gone international. Filmmaker, artist and author John Waters has been named an officer of the French Order of Arts and Letters (Ordre des Arts et des Lettres). The honor, announced Monday, is awarded to artists “who have contributed significantly to furthering the arts in France and …
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There’s a new children’s book about the rainbow flag: In this deeply moving and empowering true story, young readers will trace the life of the Gay Pride Flag, from its beginnings in 1978 with social activist Harvey Milk and designer Gilbert Baker to its spanning of the globe and its role in today’s world. Award-winning author Rob Sanders’s stirring text, …
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Destiny’s Child reunited at Coachella last night: “Thank you for letting me be the first black woman to headline Coachella,” said Beyoncé on Saturday night. “Ain’t that ’bout a bitch?” An unprecedented move in the luxe festival’s 19-year history, one-third of this year’s lineup is comprised of female artists – and at the helm of this progress is none other …
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Clips from this year’s Broadway Backwards have been posted. The 13th annual edition of Broadway Backwards, which allows performers a chance to defy gender norms by singing a number they traditionally would not have the opportunity to, reached another fundraising milestone. The April 2 event at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre raised a total of $680,273 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS …
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News on this summer’s hottest show from Broadway Cares: Broadway Bares: Game Night, the annual striptease spectacular benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, will take place June 17 at 9:30 PM and midnight at the Hammerstein Ballroom. The performances will feature more than 150 of the most talented dancers in New York City. The show will be directed by Nick Kenkel, …
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Playbill reports: Howard, a documentary that examines the life and work of Oscar-winning lyricist, book writer, and director Howard Ashman, debuts at Tribeca Film Festival April 22. Before then, watch this clip above, capturing Broadway stars Angela Lansbury and Jerry Orbach performing “Be Our Guest” during a recording session for Beauty and the Beast. Lansbury voices the role of the …
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Well, this video is really something: Janelle Monáe has dropped a new song and its video celebrates vaginas in every possible way. The singer, who has already created a bisexual anthem in the shape of Make Me Feel, makes lesbian sex front and centre in PYNK. The video features women touching tongues and Monáe dressed in pussy pants, which Thor: …
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Theater news out of San Francisco to start you off: Head Over Heels, the new musical comedy featuring the songs of the Go-Go’s, begins performances tonight for its pre-Broadway run at the Curran. Based on Sir Philip Sidney’s The Arcadia, Head Over Heels is described as “an unpredictable, Elizabethan romp about a royal family that must prevent an oracle’s prophecy …
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Some theater news to start you off: The Broadway production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at Lyric Theatre has made Broadway history. Grossing $2,138,859 for the week ending April 8, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has become the highest-grossing play ever on Broadway, shattering a record of $1,623,495 set by All the Way in June 2014. Based …
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Tonight’s starter topic is retail blight: If you want to see the future of storefront retailing, walk nine blocks along Broadway from 57th to 48th Street and count the stores. The total number comes to precisely one — a tiny shop to buy drones. That’s right: On a nine-block stretch of what’s arguably the world’s most famous avenue, steps south …
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For some light evening reading, this Spectator profile of Milo Yiannopoulos absolutely brutal. Here’s a taste: Meanwhile, he says, he has outgrown Breitbart: “It is not a star factory. I was outgrowing the masthead.” He is in denial about why he is hated. “Sarah Silverman has said worse stuff about Jews,” he says. “Joan Rivers said worse stuff about everyone. …
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