|
WINDY CITY TIMES
|
|
|
Media Watch
by JIM EDMINSTER 2007-08-15
|
|
This article shared 2572 times since Wed Aug 15, 2007
|
|
From the 'Revisionist-History' file, Newsweek ( Aug. 13 ) reports that the original manuscript of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, which is called 'The Scroll' ( because the Beat author, for his own peculiar reasons, taped the typed sheets together into a 120-foot roll ) , is being published. The first editors censored it heavily. Kerouac came out with a devilish slightly bisexual aura, but in The Scroll he and friends Neal Cassady and poet Allen Ginsberg spend the famous cross-country trip 'hook [ ing ] up' with one another, not to mention picking up male hitchhikers for more of the same. It's much gayer than all those '50s readers could have dreamed of.
Is Newsweek channeling The Advocate? The same issue as the one above talks about the new gay superhero Thom Creed, who in a young adult fantasy published by Disney ( whodah thunk? ) , falls for another gay superhero and, incidentally, saves the world. Is this all the culmination of the thoughts of psychiatrist Frederic Wertham, who ( in 1954 ) said that Robin and all those other characters in tights promoted homosexuality?
Also in the same issue, Newsweek tells us of Sen. Hillary Clinton's relationship with queer folk. She seems, they say, '...eager to bask in gay love.' She's going to a forum or two to talk about gay topics but may run into a problem: Activists are 'tired of happy talk about equality and want to see results.'
Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg once again takes on the Westburo Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., in the newspaper's Aug. 6 issue. The church ( with all of 12 members ) believes that all problems in modern America stem from the coddling of homosexuals. They picket military funerals, you know? They're going to picket the funerals of the victims of the Minnesota bridge collapse. ( The only, really obscure connection between bridges falling and homosexuality is that the book The Bridge of San Luis Rey was by gay author Thornton Wilder. ) Steinberg points out that '...Westboro is also the logical end of where a thousand [ anti-gay ] lawmakers across the country would nudge us, all in the name of a more moral society.'
One hates to be another P.R. agent for gay blogger Mario Armando Lavandeira, Jr., a.k.a. Perez Hilton a.k.a. 'The Queen of All Media,' but if The New York Times ( July 29 ) can do it, so can we. Hilton says anything he wants about celebrities and many people ( fans? detractors? ) listen to him. He's big on pointing out 'excessive drinking, promiscuity or denying homosexuality.' He hosts two TV shows, is doing a book and has hired his family to help him. His quick rise, he says, is to take advantage of the fact that he may be '... yesterday's news next year.'
R.I.P., Zaza. The New York Times ( Aug. 1 ) reports the death of actor Michel Serrault, who became known worldwide as the tempermental drag queen Zaza ( Albin by day ) in the original film version of La Cage aux Folles. He may have been straight in real life but he scored big points for gay tolerance.
|
|
|
|
This article shared 2572 times since Wed Aug 15, 2007
|
ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE |
---|
|
| | Media Watch 2009-09-09 - The New York Times Book Review (6/28 ) in its look at the new bio, Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love ...
|
| | Media Watch 2009-03-18 Special to the Online Edition of Windy City Times - From the "Top-of-the-25" file, Mental Floss magazine (March-April ) has picked gay author Randy Shilts' book And the Band Played On as the most influential of the 25 most important books of the past 25 years. ...
|
| | Media Watch 2009-02-25 Special to the online edition of Windy City Times - From the "History-Not-Mystery" file, Roger Ebert, movie critic extraordinaire, was a bit astonished in his question-and-answer column in the Chicago Sun-Times (Dec. 5) when a writer criticized him for spoiling the plot of Milk, which he ...
|
| | Media Watch 2009-02-25 Special to the online edition of Windy City Times - From the "Subculture-Merges-Into-the-Uberculture" file, a cartoon strip, "Sally Forth," from the Chicago Sun-Times (2/11) has this exchange between an office manager & his subordinate. Subordinate: "Just because Aria and I ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-11-26 - From the 'Hooray-for-Bollywood' file, the Los Angeles Times (Nov. 19) reports that two of the biggest straight male hunks (and, yes, they are) in Indian cinema, Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-11-12 - From the 'MYOB' file, the Chicago Tribune (Oct. 9) quotes Queen Latifah: 'I don't have a problem discussing the topic of somebody being gay, but I do have a problem discussing my personal life. I don't ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-10-29 - From the 'Transgender-Is-the-New-Normal' file, The Atlantic (Nov. 2008 ) , in an article called 'A Boy's Life,' tells us of the new attitude of parents, teachers and doctors toward small children who clearly exhibit the belief ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-10-15 - From the 'MYOB' file, the Chicago Tribune (Oct. 9) quotes Queen Latifah: 'I don't have a problem discussing the topic of somebody being gay, but I do have a problem discussing my personal life. I don't ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-10-08 Special to the Online Edition of Windy City Times - From the 'Media-Idol-as-Trojan-Horse' file, The New York Times (Sept. 19) , in a big ol' article, tells us that Oprah (by way of subtitles) has become the biggest thing for women on Saudi TV since ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-10-01 Special to the Online Edition of Windy City Times - From the "Old-Dead-White-Man-But-He-Was-Gay" file, the Chicago Sun-Times (Sept. 24) says a revival of the play adapted from Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray is "enthralling" and "crystal-clear." The theme and plot of Dorian seem ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-09-24 Special to the Online Edition of Windy City Times - From the 'Of-Course-I-Can-Tell-You-What-Read' file: While Snopes has told us that the list of books circulating on the Internet that Sarah Palin ostensibly wants to ban is spurious, The New York Times (Sept. 14) did find that ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-09-17 Special to the Online Edition of Windy City Times - From the 'Yay-Gay' file, The New Yorker (Sept. 15) has a cartoon of some clothing store clerks, one of whom is saying, 'It's gotten so customers won't take my advice unless they think I'm gay.' From ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-09-10 - From the 'Rum, Sodomy and the Lash' file, the Chicago Reader's (Sept. 4) 'Straight Dope' column talks about 'rampant buggery' in the Royal Navy in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. In brief, it was there, ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-09-03 Special to the Online Edition of Windy City Times - From the 'Which-Madonna?' file, one really, really tried not to comment on Ricky Martin (as reported in the Chicago Tribune, Aug. 21) and his twins 'via a surrogate mother.' This is all very confusing. Were the ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-08-27 Special to the Online Edition of Windy City Times - From the 'Lest-You-Forget' file, the Chicago Tribune (Aug. 20 ) reports that in India one can get a cell-phone ringtone in which a professional singer chants, a cappella, the word 'condom' more than 50 times. Would ...
| |
|
|
|
|