So you’ve been on POF for a couple months and you’ve had some successes and misses. But are you really maximizing your overall experience? You’ve thought about getting a paid membership, but haven’t done so yet because you’re not entirely sure what to expect! Here are all the features you will receive with an upgraded […]
The GLAAD Wrap: ‘Queer Eye’ trailer, ‘Euphoria’ renewed, ‘AHS: 1984’ cast and more!
Photo Credit: Netflix
Every week, The GLAAD Wrap brings you LGBTQ-related entertainment news highlights, fresh stuff to watch out for, and fun diversions to help you kick off the weekend.
2) Netflix released the trailer for season four of GLAAD Media Award recipient Queer Eye. The fourth season continues to follow the Fab Five in Kansas City, and includes a visit to Jonathan Van Ness’ school. The season will air on July 19. Watch the trailer below.
4) Stranger Things 3 breakout star Maya Hawke gives life to the series’ first canon LGBTQ character. Robin comes out during the seventh episode in an intimate scene with fan-favorite character Steve (Joe Keery), who is quick to accept her. Watch the trailer for season three below.
7)“It’s Strange” and “Promise” singer K.Flay‘s new album Solutions is out today. Her third studio album will also feature a with Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds. K. Flay will showcase the album live during a North American this fall. Listen to the Tommy English-produced single ‘Bad Vibes’ below.
8) Out lesbian duo Tegan and Sara have announced their new album and its release date; Hey, I’m Just Like You is expected to drop on September 27. The album is inspired by songs Tegan and Sara recorded as teenagers on cassette tapes 20 years ago. The tapes were only recently rediscovered while the duo was writing their memoir, High School. View the album announcement below.
Congratulations to Nicole and Ahmed from California!
Some people are worth melting for. For Nicole, it was Ahmed. She writes: “Ahmed sent me a message on Zoosk and and we hit it off instantly. We met for coffee the following week. When I first saw his smile, my heart melted and it felt like magic. By the end of the date, we both knew we
The reason the Concorde was unprofitable was, in fact, a side effect of its speed. When the plane sped up past the speed of sound – about 760 mph – it created shock waves in the air that would hit the ground with a loud and sudden thud: a sonic “boom.” It is so alarming for people on the ground that U.S. federal regulations ban all commercial aircraft from flying faster than the speed of sound over land.
Those rules, and the amount of fuel the plane could carry, effectively limited the Concorde to trans-Atlantic flights. Operating the plane was still so expensive that a one-way ticket between London and New York could cost over US$5,000. And the Concorde often flew with half its seats empty.
The main benefit of supersonic travel is the reduction in flight time. A three-hour flight across the Atlantic could make a day trip possible from the U.S. to London or Paris, essentially saving one whole work day. As an aerospace engineer studying high-speed air vehicles, I believe that recent advances in technology and new trends in commercial air travel could make supersonic flight economically viable. But regulations will have to change before civilians can zip through the skies faster than sound.
As a plane accelerates, it builds up a front of air pressure by pushing air in front of it. When it passes the speed of sound, the pressure trails behind like a boat’s wake, forming a sonic shockwave. Chabacano/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
Beating the boom
As an aircraft flies through the air, it creates pressure disturbance waves that travel at the speed of sound. When the aircraft itself is flying faster than sound, the disturbances are compressed together into a stronger disturbance called a shock wave. Shock wave patterns around supersonic aircraft were recently imaged in NASA experiments. When a supersonic aircraft flies overhead, some of the shock waves may reach the ground. This is the sonic boom, which is experienced as a startling thud.
Sonic booms can be quite loud.
Commercial flights are regulated in the U.S. by the Federal Aviation Administration. To protect the public from sonic booms, the current FAA regulations ban the flight over land of any commercial aircraft at supersonic speed.
However, NASA is working to significantly reduce the sonic boom in its X-59 program. By careful shaping of the aircraft, the goal is to weaken the shock waves or to prevent them from reaching the ground.
With flight demonstrations scheduled to begin in 2021, success in NASA’s project could remove one important barrier to supersonic flight.
A promotional NASA video shows early views of a supersonic aircraft that makes a much quieter sonic boom than the Concorde did.
Noisy on the ground, too
My father took me to see the Concorde take off in the early 1970s, and what I remember after all these years is the noise. Nowadays, I recognize that landing and takeoff noise at airports is a second barrier to supersonic aircraft. Airport noise is also regulated in the U.S. by the FAA, and the current rules require that supersonic aircraft meet the same airport noise standards as subsonic aircraft. The Concorde was so loud, however, that it had to be given an exception from those rules.
The latest subsonic aircraft use very large jet engines that deliver high fuel efficiency. These engines also greatly reduce airport noise by accelerating a larger volume of air to a lower velocity than smaller engines. The new engines are so quiet that regulators have twice been able to decrease the amount of noise airplanes are allowed to make since Concorde stopped flying.
Those standards are now much harder for supersonic aircraft to meet. That’s because supersonic aircraft can’t use the big new engines, which greatly increase the drag at high speed. That, in turn, requires more fuel to be carried aboard the plane and burned in flight, which is both heavy and expensive. Essentially, in the design of supersonic planes, a compromise has to be found between noise and efficiency.
However, some recent innovations for airport noise reduction on subsonic aircraft will also yield reductions for supersonic vehicles in comparison to the Concorde’s 1960s design. These advances include the use of chevrons on jet engine nozzles to reduce jet noise by more effectively mixing the gas from the engine with the external airflow.
Also, with the improved speed and accuracy of computer simulations, it’s now easier to explore new noise-reducing airframe designs.
In addition to technology advances since the Concorde retired, there have also been important changes in commercial air travel patterns. Specifically, there has been a significant increase in the use of commercial business jets and their ownership by wealthy individuals. So, one promising approach to the reintroduction of supersonic commercial aircraft is to develop small business jets. This is the approach being taken by Aerion.
Aerion is developing a supersonic business jet in collaboration with Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Updating the rules
Technology and market forces are making supersonic aircraft more acceptable and more affordable – but the relevant aviation rules haven’t changed since the Concorde era. In its Reauthorization Act of 2018, the FAA is required to review the regulations for supersonic aircraft on sonic boom and airport noise.
Recently, the current U.S. administration signaled that it wants to amend the rules to facilitate supersonic commercial flight. An important first step involves the FAA simplifying the process for testing supersonic aircraft.
In my view, the current total ban on any flight over land at supersonic speed is far too restrictive. Aircraft flying at low supersonic speeds do not generate a significant boom. And, the NASA X-59 project may result in supersonic aircraft with much weaker booms. Rather than banning booms entirely, it would be better to set maximum boom levels, to balance the benefits of supersonic flight with the noisy detriments.
In addition, I believe the current airport-noise rules, requiring supersonic aircraft be no louder than subsonic airplanes, impose an unreasonable burden on supersonic aircraft developers. First, as mentioned earlier, the Concorde provides a precedent for making a special case for supersonic aircraft. Second, for many years after their initial reintroduction, the total number of supersonic aircraft departing any airport will be a small fraction of all traffic. For example, a study conducted for Aerion indicated potential sales of 30 supersonic aircraft a year for 20 years in the small business market. Regulations should accommodate both what supersonic aircraft technology can reasonably deliver and what airport communities will tolerate.
Momentum is building through changes in technology and market that may bring back supersonic commercial flight, if regulations keep up. While at first it may be affordable to only a select few, the experience gained in developing and operating these aircraft will inevitably lead to new innovations that drive down ticket prices and open the opportunity to fly faster than the speed of sound to a broader section of society.
Are You A Good Kisser? THIS is The Formula for The Perfect Kiss
Kissing – when it’s good it can leave you speechless, but when it’s bad…it’s real bad. Let’s dissect the good and the bad of kissing styles and later on, we will give you the four steps to achieving the perfect kiss. The first type of kiss that is left to be desired by many, is […]
The tides are high, babies. If you’ve been feeling particularly edgy, angered or just downright depressed, there may be an Astrological explanation for that. Cancer Season, as the first water sign of the Zodiac, stirs the emotional soup. But that’s just the start of it, because Cancer Season is always an emotional one. That doesn’t explain the especially high stakes anxiety in and around our collective experience. That we can blame on Eclipse Season.
Eclipse Season happens twice a year with six months respite between them. Sometimes we get three eclipses in a season, this go round we have only two… but they are powerful AF. I like to think of eclipses as cosmic course correctors. They help us get where our soul wants to go. Eclipses like to take things away. Literally. They take away the light of the sun or the moon. First the Sun, which happened last Tuesday July 2nd; then the moon, occurring next Tuesday on July 16th.
Energetically, eclipses help us release the things we’ve been clinging to for so long. Sometimes they also bring in miracles we’ve been too afraid to pray for. Above all, eclipses bring clarity. They turn out the lights so that they can be turned back on. It’s like coming back into your own home after a long vacation, you see it with fresh eyes– sometimes you smell it fresh, too. And that can be horrifying but also, ultimately, healing.
These eclipses are here to help us evolve, individually and globally. But they will not do it for us. Like all Astrology, you must partner with the cosmic energies if you are wanting to make change. It’s like buying all the ingredients for a cake and then setting them down on your kitchen counter, hoping the cake will bake itself. Gurl, it wont. So we must measure and mix, fold, stir and pulse these astrological energies so as to bake the lives we’ve been waiting for.
Tuesday’s Lunar Eclipse in Capricorn invites us into a profound letting go. It’s a doozy. You’ve probably already started feeling it. We are being challenged to release our toxic masculine energies and the internal structures that continue to imprison us. You see, Capricorn can represent the Patriarchy and this Eclipse will help us release our own inner patriarchal voices. I don’t care how woke you think you are, all of us need to continue to root out the deeply entrenched patterns that keep us feeling small, separate and unvalued. We all have voices in our heads that tear us down, that belittle us, that talk us out of pursuing our dreams. But the truth is: YOU would never talk to yourself that way. Those voices aren’t you. Those are the voices of the Patriarchy, disguised as our own inner monologue. And if you are vigilant, you can root them out.
Capricorn is also the ruler of large buildings and institutions, governments and organizations with longstanding. So this Eclipse wants to tear down those old tired structures too– but let’s focus on the ones that have been built up inside of yourself. I’m not trying to get too psychological with you here but, honey child, you’ve got mental structures from childhood still running you. You may even have some of the mental structures of your parents or your grandparents still calling the shots from the inside. The good news is that we have the power. If you can see it, you can free it. Observe the old stories, the mental patterns that play out in your head. These mental jungle gyms waste our time and our energy. They are how we thwart ourselves from the inside. If your mind feels like a prison then make a jailbreak! You can and you will be able to liberate yourself from the corporate, religious and technological brainwashing that so many of us are finally starting to notice.
If this all feels serious, that’s because it is. But here’s some good news and goddess knows we need it. Currently, in Capricorn, real close to where Tuesday’s Eclipse is happening, sit Pluto and Saturn. And they are hanging out right by the South Node. Think of the South Node as the cosmic toilet, flushing away the old, stale, broken shit in our collective hearts and minds. Saturn (the planet of hard werk and responsibility) and Pluto (the planet of deep transformation) are here to help us really get rid of this shit once and for all. If you are willing to do the work to see where you’ve been blocking yourself, and if you’re really willing to kiss your old self goodbye and become someone new… well babies, there’s no telling just how far you can go. But we must be willing to change. The willingness is everything. And if you’re not ready right now, that’s ok. There are always cosmic opportunities for release– but lemme get all the way real– this is the biggest portal we’re gonna have for some time. So if you’re ready, take my hand, and let’s jump.
The last piece of astrology that needs mentioning is the Mercury Retrograde that began on the 7th of July. Remember that retrogrades are not a punishment or a curse. They are a pause. They give us a chance to slow down, to sift through our lives and make new connections. If we are always moving forwards we struggle to see the patterns in our lives. Eclipse Season plus a Mercury Retrograde is a brilliant recipe for clarity. This could be the month where you really see how you have been getting in your way for so long. And you finally make those changes you’ve been resisting– and guess what? It can be easy. It can be fun. It could be easier than ever to put down the pipe, the bottle, to pick up the pen, the paintbrush. Give yourself that permission. Watch miracles happen in your own life. Above all, the message is to slow all the way down. Be gentle with yourself but don’t go to sleep. Stay present. Keep observing the shifts trying to happen. WE need you. We need all of you!
Speaking of miracles, on July 27th, in Los Angeles, I’ll be starting my three week Tarot class which I playfully call Tarot + Vino. But you don’t have to drink to enjoy the offering. It’s happening on three consecutive Saturdays in July and August, so maybe I should’ve called it Tarot + Brunch-O but… let’s be real, that doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. Each class comes with delicious food, nourishing teachings, my personal notes on the Tarot and wine/coffee/tea/juice. You also get your own deck to keep (The Wild Unknown Deck, to be exact) and two mini-readings from yours truly throughout the course of the class. If you have been wanting a safe space to explore your own psychic potential (and let’s be real, everyone is psychic) then THIS is the class for you! The first four Queerty readers who sign up before July 7th with the code QUEERAF can save $50.
Lastly, if you’re not listening to The Spiritual Gayz yet, what’s the hold up? Do you not like podcasts? Do you not like me? My husband and I started this offering over a year ago now and it just keeps growing and expanding. Our latest episode was a deep dive into Jupiter and how it’s placement in your birth chart is a gateway to abundance and expansion. We keep it fun, we keep it fresh, we keep it one-hundred, okur? And if Astrology isn’t your thing, you should go back and listen to our episode all about the Major Arcana– or how about our interview with LGBTQ icon Lena Waithe? And if you love it, why not share the love?
Please find your individual Tarotscopes below.
Taking into consideration the impending Mercury retrograde, I kept things short and to the point.
Consider these your cosmic marching orders. Read for your SUN and your MOON.
(Also, don’t panic, 10 out of the 12 signs had cards that came in upside down. We can chalk that up to the fact that Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Pluto are currently retrograde and Mercury is about to join that party. A reversed card is like a retrograde planet. It is neither good nor bad, it just adds a needed layer of complexity to the message.)
CANCER
Eight of Swords (Rx)
This butterfly is ready to expand and yet these swords seem to prevent its metamorphosis. Remember that swords are the stories we tell ourselves. This card speaks to a mental expansion that is wanting to occur, if only we could transcend our self-imposed limitations. You are limitless, you are boundless– but until you believe that, no further transformations can occur. At the end of the day, you are the person standing in your own way. Pay attention to where and how you are blocking your own growth. You have enough time, you have enough resources and you have enough talent to make it all happen. When you can believe in this with your whole heart, you will be ready to fly. Let these eclipses take your mental blocks from you. It can be easy to let that shit go.
Your community is calling to you this moonth. The Ten of Cups comes when we are ready to take our heart out into the world but not the whole world– our immediate village. Remember that once we lived in villages. We knew our neighbors intimately, we relied on them. We not only knew how to be vulnerable to them, our well-being depended on it. Share your heart, your whole heart with your immediate village. And if you don’t know who or where your village is, that would be your first step. Isolation is a plight of this modern world. Don’t retreat inwards. Don’t try to do this all by yourself. There is so much support, so much sweetness right outside your front door. But you must enter into it open-hearted. Let these eclipses take away your resistance to showing your vulnerability. It can be easy to let that shit go.
If there is one card in the Tarot that embodies eclipse energy, it’s this one. The Tower is the hand of the goddess, coming in to remove our comfortable but false prisons. Sometimes it feels like an existential crisis, sometimes it feels like being lost in the woods of your own life. But the key is to surrender. Stop fighting the direction your life is trying to take you in. Resistance is futile. The Tower always wins. Generally, a reversal tends to soften the energy of this card. So imagine that the Tower is a stretch limo, trying to generously usher you from one chapter of your life to the next. Let these eclipses take away every false belief you have, your inner critic and your heavy judgment (of yourself and others). It can be easy to let that shit go.
Something transformative is about to happen to you. Perhaps you already the feel the great storm of your own power brewing. The Father of Wands is arguably one of the most forceful cards in the deck. He is fire of fire, meaning that he is electric, transcendent and wholly magical. He is the sorcerer of the deck and he can empower others with his words, his deeds and his presence. This card is a reminder that you can do the most good for others when you stand fully in your own power, first and foremost. Step all the way into your power. If it makes other people uncomfortable, fuck ‘em. You cannot afford to stay small any longer. Step all the way into your gifts. Pack up all your doubt and set it on fire. If you let them, these eclipses will relieve you of your passivity. They will shred your laundry list of excuses for hiding from your magic. It can be easy to let that shit go.
The Ace of Pentacles signifies a new beginning in the physical realm. This can mean a new job, a new home, a new car, diet or hairstyle. But no matter the outer manifestation, the inner message is the same: You are ready for a completely different method of engaging with the world. Of all the Aces this card really gives you a clean slate, a white canvas. Perhaps you don’t want this fresh start, perhaps you were happy with the way things were (even though you knew they weren’t all that great). Well too bad. Spirit does for us what we can’t seem to do for ourselves. Stop resisting the fresh opportunities cropping up all around. You, above every other sign in the Zodiac, thrive on transformations. So here is your opportunity to thrive as a new version of yourself. Let these eclipses take away your resistance to starting over. It can be easy to let that shit go.
You lucky little truth seeker. While everyone else is struggling with upside down cards and deep existential crises, this Eclipse Season has a different agenda for you. The Nine of Pentacles is a moment in time where we fully step into our true value. We receive a felt sense of our worth in the world– and if we are smart, we monetize that shit. These next four weeks are prime time for you to be recognizing your skills and selling them. You have tremendous gifts and you deserve to be compensated for them. But that doesn’t always mean money. We live and breathe capitalism so that seems like the easiest way to make sure our efforts are rewarded. But there are other ways exchange can occur. Your job this moonth is to make sure you are being seen, heard and above all valued for everything you contribute. Let these eclipses take away your resistance to receiving your full worth. It can be easy to let that shit go.
The Full Moon Eclipse is in your sign on July 16th and here’s the Moon card just for you. The Moon invites us into our shadow, our unconscious. It brings light to our dark places. The appearance of this card in your sign is a strong message, use these energies to transform your shadow. Or else be the victim of them. Start now. Have the courage to face yourself fully. What are you deepest fears? Where are your childhood or adolescent traumas still running your whole life? These eclipses may surprise you. You may not be as healed or as whole as you like to present in the world. Remember, you have to feel it to heal it. And I’m gonna go out on a limb and say you haven’t felt the full weight of your own wounds. Let it out, all the way out and you’ll never be back here again. Generally, a reversal tends to soften the energy of this card. So imagine that the Moon is your fairy godmother, coming in to transform your inner demons into warriors of light. Let these eclipses take away your anxiety. Let them dispell your fear. I know the world has hurt you but you need to release your firmly rooted need to overcompensate for that deep pain. It can be easy to let that shit go.
Welcome the season of your heart, wacky Aquarius. Let’s be real, as Air signs, we love big ideas, sweeping theories and flying 20,000 feet above sea level. We like to point out the patterns and tell other people where their problems are. But as far as our own hearts are concerned, we tend to avoid them like the plague. Our hearts are not necessarily the most comfortable place for us to sit, emotions don’t come easy to us. If you’re anything like me, you may not even know where the path to your heart is. Well get ready for a redux because all of that is about to change. Strength is connected to Leo, your polar opposite, and Leo rules the heart. We need this next month of transformation to bring us into the depths of our heart-centered yearnings. The heart holds the secrets. The heart knows why we are here and what we are here to do. You can’t think your way into the heart. You must feel your way. Let these eclipses take away your resistance to feeling your way in the world (as opposed to over-thinking). It can be easy to let that shit go.
The suit of cups rule over the things in our life which flow: your relationships, your creativity, your intuition and your deep well of feels. The Ace of this suit signifies finding a new flow particularly around issues of the heart. I know you’re a Pisces and emotions come easily to you. I know your heart is not a stranger to you. But perhaps you resent it. Perhaps you are tired of being so easily moved and feeling the slings and arrows of this broken world. Well honey child, get over it. That’s your gift. You are here to feel, sometimes you have to feel extra to make up for those who can’t feel at all. But that doesn’t mean you have to be a victim of it. The Ace of Cups is here to help you find a new way of living in your heart. I’ve never met a Pisces who wasn’t at least a little bit of an empath and empaths need boundaries or else they just puddle through their lives. Let these eclipses teach you how to work with your deep sensitivities but release the onus that you have to be the feeler for the world at all times. It can be easy to let that shit go.
The Son of Cups is a mirror that spirit wants you to see yourself in. This is an aspect of ourselves that holds the dual awareness of the head and the heart– meaning that you can recognize your triggers without being triggered by them. When we allow ourselves to fly off the handle, to rage and regret, to let someone have it, what we are actually doing is gripping more tightly to our triggers. If we can cooly observe ourselves and allow these unpleasant feelings to move through us like the flu, we can actually begin to evolve beyond them. That is exactly your invitation this next moonth. Which might mean you are looking at four weeks of serious emotional challenges. Give yourself permission to notice everything you are feeling throughout the course of the day and try to name it. Don’t judge it. Don’t act from it. Interrogate it. Investigate it. Dance with it. Pour it some tea and ask it where it came from. Let these eclipses take away your resistance to marinating in your feelings. Don’t put your feels on somebody else, sit with them and before you know it, they’ll be gone.
If the Death card is an invitation into transformation then Judgement is when that transformation has been achieved. You are not the same. You have been on a journey that has taken you into the darkest woods and the brightest vistas. You have met with monsters and magicians. You have been wounded, betrayed, abandoned, but now you are healed. At its essence this card asserts that you have been profoundly rearranged. Now, before your journey comes to its thrilling conclusion, you must take a moment a fully receive how changed you are. The hero can only return home as an upgraded version of themselves or else the hero’s journey was for naught. Can you take this next moonth and be awed at your own metamorphosis? Only by accepting that you are a completely different version of yourself will you be able to make new choices and live a new life going forwards. Let these eclipses take away your past and each of your previous incarnations. It can be easy to let that shit go.
The Five of Swords is a mental contraction, like writer’s block or a migraine. It’s not a pleasant card but it’s big medicine if you take it. Essentially, this card signifies the moment where we start to realize how hard we’ve been making our lives based on the inner turnings of the wheel of our mind. Once we realize how many hoops we make ourselves jump through we can simplify our process. You leak so much energy through your worrying, your doubting, your competition (with yourself and others). Each and every one of us will eventually have to slay our mind, so stop giving yourself a hard time about it– that just elongates your process. But this Eclipse Season is all about an opportunity to clear out your head so you actually enjoy your time spent in there. Your mind doesn’t call the shots, you do! Let these eclipses take away your negative mental chatter. It can be easy to let that shit go.
BRANDON ALTER is a queer healer, Tarot reader, teacher, mystic and writer living in Los Angeles. He is passionate about sharing spiritual tools that have helped him reconnect to the wisdom of his heart. He is the Tarot reader in residence for The Numinous and he co-hosts The Spiritual Gayz with his husband, a twice-monthly podcast dedicated to exploring the wide reaches of spirituality, without pretending that it all makes sense. Brandon’s mom took him to his very first psychic when he was seven and gave him his first Tarot deck when he was eleven. Since then he has devoted himself to the study of Tarot, Yoga, Pilates, Reiki, Astrology and Shamanic Skills.
Sometimes we all need a little break to focus on ourselves! Taking intentional breaks from dating can help redirect priorities and provide clarity on what you really want in a partner. It’s important to check-in with yourself and make sure you’re dating for the right reasons. If it’s time for a break, then you may […]
Congratulations to Naomi and Michael from South Carolina!
Be fearless in your quest for love. Naomi was wooed by Michael’s bold and confident dating approach. She writes: “Although our Zoosk profiles said we lived 222 miles apart, Michael sent me a message boldly introducing himself. He said, ‘Sorry not sorry for being so bold, but you’ve been on my mind ever since I first saw you!
John Waters on Kevin Spacey, Provincetown, petty theft, and his own biopic
“You’re about the furthest you can come. Maybe the top of Maine might be further.”
John Waters chides us for our long-distance journey from Los Angeles to Provincetown, Massachusets, located on the tip of Cape Cod. We meet one another on a sunny afternoon in the garden of a local mansion, celebrity-studded party in full swing, courtesy of the Provincetown Film Festival.
Waters, of course, transcended his rebellious beginnings as the guerilla filmmaker of scandalous movies like Pink Flamingoes, Female Trouble and Polyester to become a mainstream success with films like Hairsprayand Cry-Baby–as well as a reliable queer wit on the political stage. In Provincetown, the citizens treat him like royalty, particularly for his support of the Provincetown Film Festival over the years.
This year, he also released a self-help book, Mr. Know-It-All: Wisdom of a Filth Elder at the local bookstore over Festival weekend.
Waters’ blue eyes peek out over the rims of his dark sunglasses, his pencil mustache curling upward in a grin as I sit down across from him. Queerty managed to score a few minutes with the Pope of Trash just after his book signing.
I wrote a film school term paper on higher level criticism on your films.
Did you graduate?
I got an A.
Must have been a good teacher.
So how long have you been coming to the festival, to Ptown?
I’ve been coming here for 55 years. And I’ve been at all 21 festivals.
What’s the appeal?
I came here when I was 16, 17. Somebody was like It’s a weird place, you’ll like it. So I hitchhiked here. It was. And I did. I worked for Molly Malone and Mary Oliver, who became a giant poet. Then I ran the Provincetown bookshop for many years as a young man. Turned the windows into this place. My first movie premiered at the church up on Shank Painter Road. I hate hot weather. I can’t do Baltimore; it’s too hot. So I just come here. I write here. I have a chapter in my book about it: it’s called “No Vacation.” I’m not really on vacation. I work every day like I’m at home. But, you know, I can pretend I’m in Spain and go to the beach.
Spain has the best beaches in the world.
They don’t have that thing anymore that they used to take off three hours in the middle of the day.
No.
They had it, but it’s like everywhere. Everyone works in the city but they don’t live there, so the workers can’t get home to go to sleep.
Globalization.
Yeah.
Tell me about for favorite spots here in town. Do you have a favorite restaurant?
Yeah. Strangers & Saints. When I was young here, the hippest, coolest restaurant was called Front Street. Now it’s still here, and I’m not saying it isn’t [cool anymore], but it’s not the hip scene that it was. It was all coked up. So Strangers & Saints is like Front Street without the cocaine.
Ok.
That’s the old Front Street. It’s not like that now, and I’m not insulting the one that’s there. It’s still a good restaurant. But it used to be a real scene there. And everyone used cocaine.
Cocaine and eating don’t go together in my mind.
I know. So I would say Strangers & Saints is the cool, hipster place. I like very much Jimmy’s Hideaway. It reminds me of Boys in the Band. I like The Muse. But I’m on the road so much I don’t get to go there much.
I’m sure you put the miles on.
But at the festival, I go see lots of movies. I ride my bike everywhere. I have the same old beat up bike I’ve had forever.
That’s good.
I always think someone is going to steal it. When I was young I always stole a bike.
[Laughter]
That was the first thing you did. The first night you got here…
You’re admitting to this!?
The statute of limitations is up. The first night you got here, you’d steal a bike and go paint it. Everyone did that!
[Laughter]
You’d take it home and paint it? And you’d get away with it?
Yeah. I got away with it every time. I did it every year for 10 years at least.
Wow, ok. Do you have a favorite dive bar?
I haven’t been this year, but I like The Underground. I like straight bars because that’s where the minority goes. I used to go to the Bradford Basement, which was a townie bar. But this year I haven’t scoped them out to see, because it changes every year. If I’m going to go to a bar…Colony, I used to go to. I haven’t been out long enough this year.
What about Atlantic House?
The A-house used to always be disco. I hated disco. And now everybody dances looking at their phones. I hate that.
I know. I have a soft spot for the A-house. I always walk by. That’s where Tennessee Williams met his boyfriend. I saw Judy Garland there sitting in there drunk. Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday played there. So the little bar in the A-house is really where I bow my head as I walk by.
That’s where I was last night. I had no idea, everybody’s been there.
That’s where I saw Judy Garland dead drunk. She wouldn’t mind that I’m telling you this…
[Laughter]
The leather bar, did you go to that one?
I did.
That to me…men look silly at the beach in leather.
[Laughter]
Leather pants if you’re over 21—not easy to pull off. But I like going in there. Once a summer I always go in there just because there’s a lot of action in there. So I’m for that. I can be for things I don’t go to. But it’s extreme in there. So if I had to pick a gay bar that’s the one I’d go to. Then this other bar, The Monkey Bar…but I can’t go in there. I have bonding on my teeth. What are those lights called?
Waters with director Paul Colaizzo and actress Jillian Bell of ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’
What, the blacklight?
Yes. Oh my God, I’d light up. So I can never go in there. I said I would never go in there. It’s nothing against the place. But until they change the lighting up…
You could wear a veil.
[Laughter]
You know, Edith Sitwell’s mother veiled her for school because she didn’t want other children to hassle her. That’s really mean.
Sounds like something my mother would have done.
Veiled you?
Well yeah. There were moments. Might have helped me get a date. But speaking of biographical material, queer biopics are all the rage.
I really liked Rocketman. I really enjoyed the Queen one too.
Bohemian Rhapsody? I liked them both. People were really gunning for Bohemian Rhapsody, and I’m not sure why.
I voted for it for the Oscar.
Did you?
Oh yeah. And the guy that came in to finish that did Rocketman.
Dexter Fletcher, yes. Do you ever think about doing one of yourself?
Oh yes, they’ve been optioned. A couple times. I really hope they do it after I’m dead because I’ll just hate it.
[Laughter]
Like in the Elton movie, he didn’t sing that song at the Troubadour.
It was written years later.
And I know they’ll do that. I don’t want to hear it from all my friends who are alive: Why did you?! Although I’ve said it in other interviews, Steve Buscemi should play me at this age, and Matthew Gray Gubler could play me young. Though he’s much better looking than I was.
They both would be great. I was thinking of Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Yeah, I like him. But I don’t know if it will happen or not.
We need it. We need to know about Dreamland.
But it’s a long story. Spanning where to where? I don’t know. I hope it ends…I don’t know.
The night Hairspray opens?
That’s 25 years. There’s a lot there.
It could be done.
Well, I don’t want to write it, direct it, or maybe even see it.
Well watching a biopic of yourself has to be weird anyway.
I don’t know. I live my life in public so much. I have a private life too. I always say you can tell I have a real private life because half my restaurant receipts I can’t deduct. That’s how you can tell if you have a really good personal life.
So you’ve just authored a self-help book. What inspires you to write a self-help book, of all things?
Bishop Fulton Sheen. He wrote one.
[Laugher]
Look him up. The ridiculous ones from the 50s, it’s sort of a parody on that, just to have a way to tell all my stories. I think my advice is good. I’ve been doing what I want. I never had to get a real job. I didn’t really change. I’m still doing the same thing. I think that’s negotiation, planning, and organization. So I try to explain how to do that: how to fail upwards.
It worked for George W. Bush and Donald Trump.
Yep.
So here we are. What one piece of advice would you give to young, queer filmmakers?
Gay is not enough anymore. It’s a good start, but it’s not enough.
Where does that put us?
A young gay filmmaker should just be a filmmaker, not a gay filmmaker. In other words, don’t be a separatist. Everyone should hang…gay, straight. I think gay people should be able to go in [like coming out] too. People should be able to change and sometimes when they do, they get grief. There are real bisexual people. They are real. So I’m just thinking for a young filmmaker, don’t limit yourself. I don’t want my book in the gay section with true crime back by the bathroom, next to humor. That’s the only thing worse than the gay section: the humor section.
You mean you don’t want to be back with Art Linson back in the humor?
Or next to a Peanuts cartoon book. Which I like! And it’s ok to be in the gay section, but in a way, I’m against separatism because everybody should be inside. Get right in there if you’re a good filmmaker. And straight people can make gay movies. It doesn’t matter. Look at the guy who did Rocketman. He’s straight as far as I know.
He is.
Or how about when gay actors play straight people? Nobody ever says “Oh, how brave!”
No, and Billy Porter’s been railing against this, saying “I’m sick of straight actors getting applauded for playing gay characters.”
I don’t mind when straight people play gay people. It’s just who’s right for the role. When gay actors play straight people, they never say, “Weren’t they brave to take that role?”
With John Cameron Mitchell at the Provincetown Film Festival
And that’s the problem. Cast gay actors as straight characters. Or better yet, how about we just don’t concentrate on who anybody f*cks in real life?
But then if you’re a gay person playing a straight person they say, “You’re a closet queen.” Look at Kevin Spacey.
Well, he didn’t help us on that point…or much of anything else.
And what happened to him wasn’t about his roles.
No. And everybody in Hollywood knew he was gay. We all knew that. But he wouldn’t come out until we found out he was scamming a 14-year-old. So what have you seen at the festival that you’ve really liked?
I liked Circus of Books about the porn shop in LA. I think I’ve had sex in that bookstore, but that was 40 years ago.
I’ve gone popper shopping with friends there.
I liked the Pauline Kael one a lot [the documentary What She Said]
Really?
And I’m still seeing more. I’m seeing the Montgomery Clift one next [Making Montgomery Clift].
I didn’t like the Kael one. They toned her down and glossed over every controversy. They cut all the homophobic stuff.
She liked me. She reviewed Hairspray, gave Divine a great review. He died a week later. So he was really thrilled about that. I loved her. She was a huge influence on me. And they show her smoking and drinking.
She looked like a buzzard. Something avian.
That kind of a power of a critic will never happen again.
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