Social Satire after 9/11 Book Review
SINCE HIS 1987 DEBUT, The Object of My Affection, Stephen McCauley has staked his claim to the modern gay comedy of manners. In a series of novels-The Easy Way Out, The Man of the House, True Enough-he has turned a gently satirical eye to the vagaries of love, both gay and straight, demonstrating that neitherMore
America’s Gore Vidal Book Review
... In Gore Vidal’s America, Australian scholar Dennis Altman takes on Vidal’s critics, both past and present, and offers a useful and timely re-evaluation of his work. ...
A Sober Look at a Drug Epidemic Book Review
PNP BB Bttm Boy Needing PNP HUNG Top to host this morning-24 (castro / upper market) I have been partying the last 4 days and I am looking for 1 more hot FUCK to pound my hole and keep me getting higher and higher. I have some supplies left, but if you have some toMore
Stardust Memories Book Review
THE NARRATIVE VOICEOVER for Velvet Goldmine (1998), Todd Haynes’ film exploration of the 1970’s glam rock phenomenon, opens with the accurate words, “Histories, like ancient ruins, are the fictions of empires.” In his formidable new study, Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music, Philip Auslander mines the complexly layered history of the “glitterMore
Bridge to the Avant-Garde Book Review
THE PROJECT of Brian M. Reed’s study of Hart Crane is two-fold: he seeks not only to examine and illuminate the poetry of Hart Crane, but to endorse and revive the practice of literary criticism focused on a single author.
Coming Out in Lilac (IL) Book Review
ARE THE LAWS OF NATURE different for beautiful girls? Robin Simonsen, the heroine of Judy Doenges’ wry and poignant Bildungsroman, The Most Beautiful Girl in the World, comes to think so.
Paris Confidential Book Review
ACCURATELY TITLED, Notes on André Gide is a fragmentary memoir about Gide by a close friend who offers new insights into the great French novelist and essayist whose nonfiction book Corydon was the first defense of homosexuality in modern times.
The Toklas Factor Book Review
... The True Story, which was written in 2004 as Anna Linzie’s doctoral thesis in the Department of English at Uppsala University in Sweden, thoroughly explores Toklas’ role in Stein’s works, along with other issues related to their literary collaboration, which Linzie believes was an integral and ongoing one. ...
One Gay Youth Book Review, Memoir
PERSONAL MEMOIRS, despite recent scandals concerning their veracity, have been increasing in popularity over the past decade or more. ... And it seems everyone has a story to tell-including Kevin Jennings, founder of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (glsen), an organization dedicated to the elimination of antigay bias in schools.
Hepburn Imagined Book Review
THE BARE BONES of Katharine Hepburn’s life are well known: born in Connecticut into a well-connected family, brilliant career in the movies, had a long-term affair with Spencer Tracy, reclusive dotage before dying in 2003 at the age of 96. What we don’t know much about, except as rumor and speculation, are the details ofMore
Short Reviews Book Review, Briefs, Politics: GLBT Rights
Short reviews of God Hates Fags, Now It’s My Turn, Kingdom Coming, Sex and the Eighteenth-Century Man, and A Separate Reality.
Integrate, Don’t Assimilate Book Review
IN HIS SOLID ANALYSIS of the contradictory status of “the gay person” in the United States at this moment, and the strategies that might advance the cause of social and legal equality, Shannon Gilreath shows himself to be well-armed with both knowledge and political passion, and with a gift for finding the right word.
SIMEON SOLOMON, a gay, Jewish Pre-Raphaelite painter of the 19th century, has figured prominently in most studies of gay male painting, and there has been an upsurge in scholarly interest of late.
Once a Dancer, You’re a Dancer for Life Art Memo, Dance
... Rick performed with the American Ballet Theatre, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, and Cleveland Ballet, where he met his wife. After retiring from dance, he got an MBA from Harvard, moved to San Francisco, and started marketing financial services for Charles Schwab. ...
Duncan Grant’s ‘Private Collection’ Artist's Profile, Interview
By all rights, British artist Duncan Grant (1885-1978) should need no introduction. At the height of his career in the 1930’s, he was known worldwide, and his art was collected by the major museums within, as well as by many of those outside, the British Empire. Following World War II, however, his work fell intoMore
The Untold Story of Jacob’s Pillow Dance, Essays
THE DANCE FESTIVAL known as Jacob’s Pillow began as the summer home of Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers in 1933. With that as its lineage, Shawn’s enterprise would seem to be entitled to a gay back-story. Surprisingly, that story has yet to be fully told, and many of the Pillow’s 70,000 annual visitors toMore
Competitive ballroom dancing is back! Dance, Essays
WHEN I TELL those outside the dance world about my interest in same-sex ballroom, their first question is always the same: “but who leads?” This query never ceases to amaze me-how and why has ballroom become primarily about leading and following, about dominance and submission?
Men Dancing Athletically Dance, Essays
CHOREOGRAPHERS in the U.S. have repeatedly drawn men and metaphors from the world of sports to give their work a sense of authenticity on the concert dance stage. What’s more, the presence of male athletes and athleticism has worked to counter long-held anxieties about the supposed effeminacy of male dancers. To illustrate what I thinkMore
Choreography and the Social Contract Dance, Essays, Excerpt
Following is an excerpt from the author’s keynote address at the annual meeting of the Tides Foundation in San Francisco on April 28, 2006.
The Marriage Fight Is Setting Us Back Essays, Marriage
EVEN BEFORE the morning paper was delivered to my door, I had a long string of e-mails from news groups and organizations announcing the decision in the New York same-sex marriage case. Once again, a major defeat. Over the next weeks, a few more piled up. In the last dozen years, in almost every oneMore
MOST PEOPLE today don’t know the name of Bruz Fletcher. In the 1930’s, however, all the right people knew his name. Humphrey Bogart, Louise Brooks, Howard Hughes, and Ronald Reagan are just some of the luminaries who laughed, drank, and blushed over the outrageous entertainment Fletcher delivered in his Sunset Strip nightclub. A modern saloonMore
ESTABLISHMENT HISTORIANS like to construct closets around certain chapters of American history, and they reserve a special closet for any “founding father” who wasn’t a Bible-quoting Protestant heterosexual. They snarl when revisionist historians point out that many of the founders were Freemasons who didn’t subscribe to their idea of traditional Christian beliefs. One can onlyMore
The GLBT community has lost its most effective advocate from outside the gay world. Sexologist, activist, nurse, and historian, Vern Bullough died from cancer on June 21st at 77. With his passing, we have one less witness to what it was like to be on the front lines of our struggle for liberation when itMore
Apathy Is the Enemy in Wisconsin Ballot Battle Marriage, Politics: GLBT Rights
Like most Americans, especially those of the gay persuasion, my husband David and I were debilitated by the shock and awfulness of the 2004 presidential election.