Hello there! I hope you had a nice holiday time and New Year season. We’re doing something a bit different this week — a kick-back chat with me and my partner James about why I started The Sewers of Paris, how it became what it is today, and the entertainment that changed my life (Star Wars, and also a roast). We’ll be back to the regular format next week, but let me know what you think of this slight departure from the normal Sewers style!
Taking Back Queer Femme Sexuality (Ep. 208 - Sylvia Plath)
The guests on this bonus episode are Erica Rose and Chelsea Moore, who talk about Sylvia Plath, The L Word, and the Well of Loneliness. Erica and Chelsea are a New York filmmaking team who push the boundaries of queer sex and sexuality on screen.
Stuff We Talked About:
The Sewers of Paris Holiday Special Special!
This holiday season, I hope you're surrounded with good cheer, fabulous family and friends, and comforts aplenty to keep you warm in the dark winter nights.
And when it comes to feeling cozy, I can think of no greater experts than Dave White and Alonso Duralde of the Linoleum Knife family of podcasts. Whether it's cooking glorious feasts, binging on cheesy specials, or unearthing obscure wintery films, this husband-and-husband team are the pinnacle of holiday warmth. Dave and Alonso were my guests on the very first Sewers of Paris holiday special back in 2015, sharing their advice for enjoying a jolly holiday, so we're going to start this episode by listening back to that conversation.
Then we'll hear a more recent chat from earlier this month, when Dave and Alonso popped by one of my regular livestreams to talk about how they're celebrating in 2018.
Next, I'll bring you a quick dive into my favorite holiday special -- Christmas at Pee-wee's Playhouse. Every month, I produce a video for my Culture Cruise series where I talk about LGBTQ themes on TV, in movies, in book, games, and more. And for December I took a look at Pee-wee's 1988 special, and it's connection to Judy Garland Christmas specials of the past, Glee episodes of the future, and believe it or not 18th century French theater. Then we'll wrap things up with a traditional Christmas carol sung by some past Sewers of Paris guests!
A Little Space Alien (Ep. 207 - Superman)
This Week’s Guest: Glenn Kiser
You might not recognize the name Glenn Kiser, but he's had a hand in countless films over the last three decades -- helping to craft films in editing rooms alongside directors like David Fincher, Spike Jonze, and Jane Campion, before moving on to run Skywalker Sound for George Lucas and now the Dolby Institute. As a kid, Glenn would obsess over movies and dream of the day he could make his own. And just like gathering elements of a story in an editing room, he crafted the steps in his career that would take him from living on an isolated ranch in Texas to working at Skywalker Ranch.
And I hope you'll join us for the next Sewers of Paris live chat, with Scott Flanary, winner of The Amazing Race Season 29. It's on Saturday December 29 at 2pm pacific.
The Sewers of Paris is listener supported -- click "support the show on Patreon" join the folks who make the show possible.
And for more queer podcasting, check out Queens Of Adventure to hear drag queens on an epic Dungeons & Dragons quest. And we'll be doing our next Queens of Adventure livestream on Saturday December 22, so head over to QueensOfAdventure.com for details.
This Week’s Recommendation: Auntie Mame
Thanks again to Glenn for joining me. We talked a bit about Auntie Mame, and now is indeed the perfect time of year for that film. Or for the book on which it's based. Or if you're really devoted, the musical adaptation Mame starring, for various reasons, none of them good, Lucille Ball.
None of these works is entirely perfect -- their handling of racial stereotypes is particularly unpleasant -- but they also manage to achieve moments of sheer delight.
Auntie Mame, in whatever form you consume it, is a delightful work of mid-century art. The film is a 1950s romp with bright phony soundstages and bellowing performances that overflow with camp, centered around a wacky aging aunt who lives a life entirely on her own terms, much to the horror of everyone around her.
At times, the movie manages to accidentally anticipate the freedom of the 60s, but gaily depicts it as originating not in youth culture but from a powerful grande dame.
It's no wonder queer folks are drawn to the character -- created by Patrick Tanner, a bisexual man. As Mame, Rosalind Russell emits a perfect form of manic free-spirited energy to demolish what today we would call "the patriarchy" but back then would simply be "life." And although the two movies lean heavily on the uptight heterosexual nephew as a framing device, Mame has no time for the stodgy times in which she lives, and flies from one madcap caper to another.
Whether her story is contained within the context of the Depression, the pre-feminist 50s, or who knows maybe someday a contemporary remake, Mame's refusal to even consider that she might be beaten down by her circumstances is inspiring. Insane, sure. But the inspiring kind of insane.
Stuff We Talked About
What Do You Do When You're An Over The Hill Baton Twirler? (Ep. 206 - The Sound of Music)
This Week’s Guest: Henry Goldring
How do you share your story when your story defies belief? My guest this week is Henry Goldring, whose upcoming memoir is entitled Unbelievable and recounts tales of audaciously bluffing his way into getting hired as Joan Rivers' opening act, despite never having performed before; and also getting committed by his siblings. Henry grew up in a generation that didn't have the internet, didn't have public role models, and was decimated by an epidemic. Considering all he's endured, it's no wonder he's got some particularly wild stories to share.
We'll have that conversation in a minute. And I hope you'll join us for the next Sewers of Paris live chat, with the delightful Dave and Alonso of the Linoleum Knife family of podcasts. It's next weekend, and it's a little earlier than usual: Saturday December 8 at 8am pacific, 11am eastern.
Head over to SewersOfParis.com to see clips of the stuff we talk about on each episode of the show.
The Sewers of Paris is listener supported -- click "support the show on Patreon" join the folks who make the show possible.
And for more queer podcasting, check out Queens Of Adventure to hear drag queens on an epic Dungeons & Dragons quest. And we'll be doing our next Queens of Adventure livestream on Saturday December 22, so head over to QueensOfAdventure.com for details.
This Week’s Recommendation: Maude
Thanks again to Henry for joining me. After we recorded our conversation, I went back and looked for a clip of him on that episode of Maude, and found him in the background of a scene. There's a screengrab posted at SewersofParis.com.
And that episode is this week's recommendation -- it's entitled "The Gay Bar," and it aired in 1977, season 6 episode 9. Maude episodes are available to buy on Amazon, and for free from illicit sources. But if you'd like a condensed version, I have a video on YouTube where I show some highlights and talk about the historical context at the time when it aired.
In the episode, there's a gay bar coming to town and Maude's homophobic neighbor Arthur isn't having it. He plans to protest and get politicians involved and shut the place down. The episode is remarkable for a couple of reasons -- it was a particularly compassionate depiction of gay people and the persecution they face; it may be the first time the inside of a gay bar appeared on television; and there's one extra who wears a pink three-piece suit that has to be seen to be believed.
But what really stands out to me when I watch the episode now is that in the end, Maude and Arthur are able to reach a point of mutual respect for each other, despite also having mutual disdain for each others' values. This was a time at which it was considered a virtue to overlook the moral failings of bigots like Arthur in the name of collegiality and compromise. There are a lot of reasons that changed, but by today's standards I'm not impressed by either Maude or Arthur. He ends the episode backing down from his plans to picket but still believing that gay people are a blight; she ends the episode telling him that the consistency of his principles is worthy of respect.
But lets not forget what those principles are: that queer people should be hounded and persecuted to the point that they can no longer leave the house. That might've been a mainstream opinion at the time, but the fact that a supposedly liberal character would tolerate it as recently as 1977 reminds us just how backwards that time was.