A few Spanish-language films to discover (or re-discover) during the holidays

www.glaad.org/blog/few-spanish-language-films-discover-or-re-discover-during-holidays

8 gay podcasters pick the best entertainment of 2016

Are you ready for a recap of 2016 that actually puts you in a good mood? As difficult as this year was — and it was very difficult! — there was a ton of amazing art and culture. And the way things are heading, we might have even more fascinating movies, music, books, and shows to look forward to in 2017.

The podcast The Sewers of Paris rounded up some recommendations for the best queer culture of 2016. Normally each episode features a chat with just one gay man about his favorite entertainment, but this week’s is a parade of gay podcasting stars: Dan Savage, Marc Felion of Feast of Fun, Kevin Allison of RISK!, and many more. Here are a few of their favorite bright spots of the year.

1. Dan Savage from Savage Lovecast

Dan Savage, host of Savage Lovecast, explains that he loved Moonlight because it challenged his assumptions about how gayness improves a person’s life. “I sat there watching … expecting that character’s homosexuality to be what propels him out of poverty and drugs and crime,” he said. “That’s not quite how it plays out.” But, he says, that won’t change the advice he gives queer youth who are facing adverse circumstances: even though life can throw some terrible challenges your way, it still gets better when you “make choices that facilitate the up-and-up.”

2. Kevin Allison from RISK!

You might remember Kevin from The State on MTV, or perhaps you know him from RISK!, his storytelling podcast. With his background with talented ensembles and his fascinating with plot-twisting tales, it’s no wonder that he’s become obsessed with Game of Thrones — particularly after this year’s season. “I’ve been transported,” he said. “This show just lavishes and loves and relishes atmosphere.”

But, he reveals on the Sewers of Paris, the show’s also made him aware of some disturbing things about himself.

3. Cody Melcher from Tomefoolery

Cody hosts Tomefoolery, a podcast about comedians and weird/funny books. He’s needed some reasons to laugh this year — he had a tough breakup and was feeling very sad. So he turned to Reba, which is his recommendation for 2016. To be fair, it didn’t come out this year. But a little sugar-coated, uncomplicated, sweet-hearted sitcom fun is exactly what this difficult year called for. He also loved that Reba’s character starts with a divorce, and then “the rest of the show has nothing to do with her getting back into dating … it’s about her taking care of her own life.”

4. Ryan O’Connor from LadyWatch

Fresh of his time working diligently on the Hillary Clinton campaign, Ryan’s back behind the LadyWatch microphone with co-host Jason Powell at Ladywatch. Ryan’s had a lot of highlights this year: Lemonade, Jackie, and then the lovely My Name is Doris. The conversation soon turns to what might lie ahead for lady actresses: “we’re just one Easy Rider away from our generation’s Nine to Five,” he says — but who would you cast in a Nine to Five remake? Ryan has some ideas.

5. Dave White and Alonso Duralde from Linoleum Knife

The magnificent hosts of Linoleum Knife have seen hundreds of pieces of media this year, and their picks are about as expert as any you could hope for: Dave loved Cemetery of Splendor, a challenging film about war; and Alonso loved Take me to the River, a chilling take on family reunions. Dave was also energized by the song Panda by Desiigner, particularly as performed on Wendy Williams’ show. “It’s an obscure-sounding song,” he said. “I love hip-hop, but I really love hip-hop that comes out of far left field and catches you completely by surprise.”

6. Bil Antoniou and Daniel Krolik from BGM: Bad Gay Movies/Bitchy Gay Men

As two of the co-hosts of BGM: Bad Gay Movies/Bitchy Gay Men, Bil and Daniel have seen lots of terrible films this year. But Daniel loved Billy Eichner in Difficult People. And Bil was delighted by Isabelle Huppert in Elle, a Paul Verhoeven film about assault (shall we compare to the shocking scene in Showgirls?). As a huge Huppert fan, he couldn’t be more pleased. “I feel like a lot of the films she’s been in have been films where directors hire her for the things they already like about her,” he said. “It’s very exciting that this is the year of Isabelle Huppert.”

7. Marc Felion from Feast of Fun

Marc’s show Feast of Fun, which he co-hosts with his husband, is about to enter its 13th year, and in that time he’s seen a lot of queer stories. This year he was awestruck by Moonlight, as were so many others. And he also had a blast working on a show called Cooking with Drag Queens. They brought Cynthia Lee Fontaine on to make a traditional Puerto Rican dish and followed her at the Puerto Rican Day parade, where communities came together to commemorate the lives lost at the Pulse shooting.

8. Matt Baume of Sewers of Paris and Defining Marriage

Matt’s the host of The Sewers of Paris (as well as the LGBT news-chat show Defining Marriage) and did the legwork of rounding up the recommendations for this episode. His favorite thing this year was a life show: BenDeLaCreme’s Inferno A-Go-Go, an incredible cabaret/burlesque/drag show that’s a retelling of Dante’s Inferno. The mashup is strangely timely, as it reflects on why humans find themselves plunged into suffering at each others’ hands — and sometimes their own.

Check out The Sewers of Paris for even more recommendations and clips.

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Debra Messing, Harvey Fierstein, others remember Debbie Reynolds

It’s been a rough week—hell, it’s been a rough year—for entertainment royalty. Just one day after the death of her daughter, actress and writer Carrie Fisher, Hollywood icon Debbie Reynolds passed away at the age of 84.

Over the past 24 hours, the celebrity tributes and tweets have been steadily pouring out, with everyone from Bette Midler and Sean Hayes to Miley Cyrus and Sarah Paulson expressing their shock at the double loss and sending their condolences.

“This is beyond heartbreaking. Debbie was an idol,” Cher tweeted. “I have seen Singing in The Rain a million times. Loved all her films…Words are inadequate.”

William Shatner also expressed his heartbreak at the loss of “the last of Hollywood Royalty” in a tweet yesterday, summing up how most of us probably feel about this punishing year: “I’d hoped that my grieving was done for 2016.”

Reynolds was a recurring guest star on Will & Grace, playing Grace Adler’s mother in the 1990. Debra Messing posted a particularly moving tribute to the late actress via Instagram:

A photo posted by Debra Messing (@therealdebramessing) on Dec 28, 2016 at 6:52pm PST

“Debbie went to be with Carrie. She always worried about her. Carrie left too soon and now they are together again. My heart is literally broken. For 8 years she was my mom. She was pure energy & light when she came on stage. She was loving, and bawdy, and playful- a consummate pro- old school and yet had the work ethic and investment in her craft of a new fiery up and comer. She was always running off to Vegas or somewhere else “on the road” to be a hoofer, to sing and dance and make people laugh. She performed 340 days out of the year. An inspiration on every level. A Legend of course, the epitome of clean cut American optimism, dancing with Gene Kelly as an equal, a warrior woman who never stopped working. A devoted mother and grandmother, and aunt and great aunt, and friend. I lost my mom a few years ago. She loved that Debbie was my TV mom. I hope they find each other and hug and kiss and my mom says, “I got you, Debbie. Carrie’s waiting for you.” RIP Bobbie Adler.”

Meanwhile, the editors at Vulture reposted Harvey Fierstein’s anecdote about hanging out in the Theater District with Reynolds after hours during the Broadway run of Torch Song Trilogy:

“One night, we were out, Debbie Reynolds had replaced Lauren Bacall in Woman of the Year, so she was performing and we went out after the show. I think Lee Roy Reams was there, sort of egging her on — not that you had to push Debbie very hard to get her to perform. But somebody was egging her on. And she got up on the piano, and began doing Dietrich. She does all these amazing imitations. And she was singing and carrying on, and we were there until at least 4:30 in the morning.

I took a cab home to Brooklyn. I went to bed. I woke up in the morning, and I was lying in the bed and turned the TV on, and there was this announcement on the television that Debbie Reynolds had been taken to the hospital. That they feared she’d had a heart attack. And she would not be performing that day, that she would not be doing the matinee of Woman of the Year, because she had been taken to the hospital. And so I jumped up, and I looked through my phone book, and found Carrie Fisher’s phone number. I called her immediately. I said, “Don’t worry, Mom’s fine, it’s just a hangover!” Because we’d been drinking four hours before that! I called Carrie so she wouldn’t worry. But we had a lot of fun.”

Feel free to share your own tales of getting saucy with Debbie and Carrie—while watching their iconic performances or in real life—in the comments.

h/t: Variety

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The Unsinkable Debbie Reynolds

In this archival interview, the legend gabs with Greg Archer about her return to the stage, her loyal gay fans, and how Hollywood has changed since her heyday.

www.advocate.com/news/2007/12/05/unsinkable-debbie-reynolds

Donald Trump books the most antigay of antigay clergy for his doomsday inauguration

Donald Trump can’t find any musicians to perform at his inauguration next month (sad!), but he’s having no trouble booking antigay pastors to stand by his side as he’s sworn in as the 45th president of the United States of America.

Related: Donald Trump erupts on Twitter after scathing review of namesake restaurant

It was just announced that Rev. Franklin Graham will be one of several antigay religious figures who will speak at the doomsday event. Graham, of course, has been an outspoken advocate against LGBTQ people for years.

Not only did he once refer to gay people as “the enemy” and gay rights as “evil,” but he supported a constitutional amendment in North Carolina banning same-sex marriage, claimed pro-gay businesses enable predators, praised Russia’s gay propaganda law, accused Marvel’s X-Men franchise of turning kids homosexual, and once refused to buy cookies from a group of Girl Scouts because he said they supported LGBTQ equality.

Related: Franklin Graham And His Followers Have Epic Meltdowns Over Facebook Rainbow Filter

Graham will be joined by a slew of other antigay bigots on inauguration day. Dr. Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference will also be speaking at the event.

Rodriguez, who once called marriage equality the “legal catalyst for the marginalization of Americans who embrace a biblical worldview,” will deliver the opening prayer. Alongside him will be Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who once warned that gay marriage will turn everyone Asian, and Pastor Paula White, who once accused the Supreme Court of trying to radically transform marriage “via the conduit of judicial and executive fiat.”

Related: NY Archbishop Fears Gay Marriage Will Make Us Asian

So far, no Imam or representative of the Islamic faith is expected to speak at the event. (No surprise there.) In fact, the only non-Christian speaker will be Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre who, thankfully, doesn’t appear to have a record of homophobia and, in fact, runs the Los Angeles’ Museum of Tolerance, which recognizes LGBTQ persecution.

www.queerty.com/donald-trump-books-antigay-antigay-clergy-doomsday-inauguration-20161229?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

The Top Ten Articles of 2016

These were the top single page stories you looked at this year.

www.advocate.com/world/2016/12/30/top-ten-articles-2016

PHOTOS: Bad boys talk with their bodies in Orlando
Body//Talk is a social enterprise devoted to using events to build a thriving new community in Orlando.

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