Lady Gaga, Feminism
A person who has been a guest blogger with a pop culture review here before, David Aria, has a piece out in Spindle magazine I found interesting. It’s about feminism, women in publishing, a mix of pop culture reference, and even Lady Gaga and Truman Capote.
Biographically Porter and Gaga also share a striking array of similarities, so much to the point that one would think that Gaga is actually Porter reincarnated. Though they both came from radically different backgrounds, both were nostalgic about their family heritage, Gaga from Italian lineage and Porter of Old Southern legacy (Porter was literally granddaughter of the Confederacy), and often spoke of it with great reverence. Amusingly, both Gaga and Porter infused their social sphere and preferred the company of homosexual men (Porter’s GBFF was actually Vogue photographer George Platt Lynes). And interestingly enough, just as Gaga is public “frenemies” with Perez Hilton, Porter had a similar “frenemy” styled relationship with author Truman Capote. They both often made each other’s guest list but rarely had a kind word for one another, or at least none that didn’t come with a personal dig.
I didn’t know Porter’s best friend was George Platt Lynes, and I’ve posted about him before. I’ve read a great deal about Truman Capote (and posted about) and his socialite women friends, those he referred to as his “swans” (Babe Paley) and didn’t know Porter was his “frenemy.” But I can see now how that could happen.
In any event, it’s an interesting piece and you can read it in full here. I refrain from commenting on things like feminism because I leave that up to the women who author publishing blogs and book review sites. Feminism is their territory. Anything LGBT related is mine, so I save my comments for those topics. I’m going to try to get David Aria to do a few more book reviews here on the blog because I like his criticism. I’d like to see his opinions about mainstream hetero romances, the ones with women in long flowing gowns on the covers.
Ryan Carnes Gay Character GH
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I watched the soap, General Hospital, all through high school and college. I haven’t seen it in about ten years, though. The gist of this story seems to be almost a little cliche. Actor makes good on daytime drama and quits daytime drama to go on to bigger and better things. Bigger and better things don’t happen; Actor returns to daytime drama ten years later to his old role with vim and vigor.
But the interesting thing about this case is that when the storyline with Ryan Carnes’s character started getting more gay back when, he left General Hospital. Now he’s back again. Some have speculated he left because he was playing two other gay roles and he didn’t want to be typecast in only gay roles. Carnes has never commented on this, and I don’t blame him. The fact is that once you are pigeonholed in any of the arts…even publishing…it’s hard to break out of the proverbial box. It can be a wonderful thing, and also sometimes frustrating.
Actor Ryan Carnes had his first day back this week to the Los Angeles set of the ABC soap General Hospital after nine years away. ‘First day back in Port Charles,’ the actor tweeted, mentioning the soap’s fictional city. ‘Twas a good day.’
I think I’ll set the DVR. I haven’t seen GH in years and I wonder if Monica is still carrying on like she used to.
Quidditch Craze
I never saw the Harry Potter films or read the books. It’s just not my thing, so I didn’t even know what Quidditch was until I read this article. Evidently, Quidditch involves flying. But the new real life craze doesn’t do that.
This is not exactly the beginning of a regular sports match, as people weave past each other trying to avoid the smack of a hard ball into their back, or a wooden pole into their chest as they get tackled. This is a real-life quidditch match, straight out of Harry Potter. The teams are not flying, but running around with brooms between their legs, playing what is essentially a combination of rugby, dodgeball and lacrosse.
It’s being promoted as a gender-free sport. You can read more here.