Issue 274: Daniel Shoneye, Drag Race, Todrick Hall, Cosby, Kanye, R. Kelly, Mapplethorpe, Westworld, and more...



Left &
Found

Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears asks people to "keep their queer values" as society becomes more accepting of gay people. (Image)

Afrofuturism: Why black science fiction can't be ignored.

How white women use strategic tears to avoid accountability. "The legitimate grievances of brown and black women are no match for the accusations of a white damsel in distress."

Jussie Smollett on America's racial divide. "The out gay star of Empire speaks on his show about race, Confederate monuments, and the whitewashing of US history."

How overhyped media narratives about America’s fading white majority fuel anxiety.

Long read
Why does Roger Ailes hate America? "An exclusive, fair-and-balanced investigation into the very relentless chairman of Fox News." (January 2011)

All-American Nazis. "How a senseless double murder in Florida exposed the rise of an organized fascist youth movement in the United States."

How colourism impacts the response to dark-skinned black women victims of violence.


Get your hands off my double entendres! Is the smutty pun now under attack? "It is Britain’s favourite type of humour, the go-to gag for everyone from Carry On stars to Bake Off hosts. But are fnarr fnarr jokes just another example of male sexual entitlement?"

Eight people on why they chose to not have kids. "Non-parents are pushing back against harmful, outdated stereotypes that they're selfish or immature just because they are choosing to remain childfree."


The coverage of Avicii’s death shows the wrong way to report on suicide. "How the media chooses to report celebrity suicides can have life-or-death consequences."

How to speak in front of large groups of people when you’re an introvert and it terrifies you.

Long read
Bikes vs. cars: the deadly war nobody's winning. "Liability lawyer and former professional bike racer Megan Hottman spends her working hours representing cyclists who've been injured by reckless drivers. She spends her leisure time riding and telling people what they don't always want to hear: in the perpetual, complicated conflict between two wheels and four, bike riders are part of the problem, and they have to be a big part of the solution." (February 2015)


News
America


Gay veteran Bruno “Ralphy” Lozano - who wears high heels - elected mayor in Texas in landslide victory.

"Ex-gay" activists tried to hold a rally but hardly anyone turned up.

Pulse survivor Luis Javier Ruiz a victim twice over after he's ensnared by the "ex-gay" movement.

Pulse survivor Brandon Wolf faced with online threats after being mocked on the air by Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson.

Shane Sleeper, who vowed “Orlando will come to Chicago” (a reference to the Pulse massacre) accidentally released from jail.

Anthony Shelton and Cameron Ajiduah convicted of federal hate-crimes charges for assaulting gay men they contacted on Grindr.

Drag Race’s Willam Belli was paid for sex by eight Republicans when he was seventeen.

The New York Times says sorry. "A Mea Culpa from the paper for its inattention to AIDS in the 1980s is welcome, but may be too little too late."

Amazon blocks anti-LGBT hate group from charity Smile program.

San Francisco designates gay, leather district.

Aaron Traywick, the biohacker who claimed he could cure AIDS, found dead.

Oregon schools ban kids from competition because of trans book.


Another week of lies and still Trump, the huckster, keeps his tawdry show going. "Even as scandal succeeds scandal, this ‘ignorant, undignified and uncouth’ president escapes the consequences of legitimate criticism."

Dr. Harold Bornstein admits Trump dictated entire letter touting his "extraordinary" good health.

Trump’s fitness for office isn’t a medical question.

Stormy Daniels schools wingnut Roseanne on consent following naughty "anal" tweet.

White evangelicals’ continued support of Trump feels surprising. It shouldn’t. "The affinity between the two goes well beyond their mutual interest in Roe v. Wade. In fact, they’d be aligned even without that."

Anti-gay Republican Scott Lively squirms as interviewer asks about the time he assaulted a woman.

Trump offers yet another "license to discriminate" order.

The worthless Washington media. "Comedian Michelle Wolf did what political comedians are supposed to do — use jokes to cut through the comfortable hypocrisy and expose some unpleasant truths, namely that the Trump administration is full of disgustingly amoral cretins. Much of the assembled crowd of bigshot reporters then played their part, performing scandalized outrage in defense of the corrupt regime."

Watch
Seth Meyers rips the WHCA for throwing Michelle Wolf under the bus.

Watch
Donald Trump's questions for Robert Mueller: how do you president?

Behind the Trump n' Rudy show. "If the Giuliani circus continues unabated — with him taking media calls day and night and freelancing on legal and policy matters — White House staff will likely quit."

John Oliver on Giuliani and Trump: "They’re basically two versions of the same person... and they both want to f**k Ivanka — which is weird for Trump because Ivanka is in his family, and is weird for Giuliani because she isn’t.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates on Kanye West and white freedom: "What Kanye West seeks is what Michael Jackson sought—liberation from the dictates of that we. In his visit with West, the rapper T.I. was stunned to find that West, despite his endorsement of Trump, had never heard of the travel ban. 'He don’t know the things that we know because he’s removed himself from society to a point where it don’t reach him,' T.I. said. West calls his struggle the right to be a 'free thinker,' and he is, indeed, championing a kind of freedom—a white freedom, freedom without consequence, freedom without criticism, freedom to be proud and ignorant; freedom to profit off a people in one moment and abandon them in the next; a Stand Your Ground freedom, freedom without responsibility, without hard memory; a Monticello without slavery, a Confederate freedom, the freedom of John C. Calhoun, not the freedom of Harriet Tubman, which calls you to risk your own; not the freedom of Nat Turner, which calls you to give even more, but a conqueror’s freedom, freedom of the strong built on antipathy or indifference to the weak, the freedom of rape buttons, pussy grabbers, and fuck you anyway, bitch; freedom of oil and invisible wars, the freedom of suburbs drawn with red lines, the white freedom of Calabasas."

Camille Cosby slams husband's accusers and prosecutors. “In the case of Bill Cosby, unproven accusations evolved into lynch mobs.”

The hypocritical moralising of Bill Cosby.

What life is really like at Martin Shkreli's new prison home.

More than eight hundred West Hollywood buildings could collapse in a big quake.

Long read
California burning: life among the wildfires. "People used to roll their eyes at my gloomy talk of climate change. Then the big blaze came."

Are LA hospitals really dumping homeless patients on the streets?

He bought a $1.19 pack of Mentos. An off-duty police officer pulled a gun on him.

Long read
The great high school impostor. "What Artur Samarin pulled off at a school in small-town Pennsylvania is one of the boldest hoaxes of our time."

Long read
The baby-formula crime ring. "It’s pricey, it’s portable, its users need it constantly, and retailers love to buy it at a discount. All of which makes it a perfect product to steal."

Long read
Murder at the Alcatraz of the Rockies. "The inside story of the first homicide in America’s most secure prison."

Canada
Conservative candidate Granic Allen sacked after saying gay marriage makes her vomit.


News
UK

Teenagers charged in connection with homophobic attack on London tube.

Darryl Rowe admits to four more charges of trying to infect men with HIV.

The housing crisis is so bad that men are having to sleep in gay saunas. "There are people who come with their suitcase." Gay sauna workers reveal how they're dealing with the homelessness epidemic.

All the porn has been banned in the UK, explained.

London lesbian and gay centre refused grant (May 1985).

London youth crime: Two boys shot in separate incidents.

London youth crime: Man shot dead outside Queensbury tube station.

London youth crime: Mother pays tribute to 17-year-old son Rhyhiem Ainsworth Barton, shot dead in London.

London youth crime: The shootings and other attacks in London reveal a problem that should preoccupy the Home Office.

Trump claims London hospital is like a "war zone" because of knife crime....

...But London surgeon Martin Griffiths labels the comments ridiculous.

Northern Ireland
Gay marriage cake row reaches UK's supreme court in Belfast.


News
World

Ireland
Practitioners of gay conversion therapy will face jail.


Venezuela

Costa Rica
Enrique Sánchez takes office as first openly gay member of Costa Rica’s legislative assembly.

Mexico has more gay rights than the US.

Kenya
Censorship chief claims Western charities pay kids £22,000 each to become gay.

South Africa
How Cape Town was saved from running out of water. "Reusing shower water, limiting toilet flushing and night-time irrigation were among measures that saved South Africa’s second city from running dry."

Australia
"A race to the bottom": how Australia imported its asylum seeker policies from the US.


Planet
Earth

Why Atlantic fish are invading the Arctic.

This is how terrible your pet is for the world.

Making cities more dense always sparks resistance. Here’s how to overcome it.

Dense urbanism is great for downtowns. But what about suburbs?


Zoo

How to kill a fish. "Most of the fish we eat die by asphyxiation. But there’s a better way, both for the fish and those who eat them."

The week in wildlife, in pictures.


Medicine
Ball


New cutting-edge technology identifies HIV hot spots.


The self-care industry is peddling exhausting, dangerous drivel. "Many of us will deal with anxiety, depression and cancer in our lives, and it’s not because we don’t love the trees enough or don’t perform endless mini-declutters."

The shock and sadness of losing a friend in your twenties. "Coping with death is never easy, but becoming more open about our bereavements definitely wouldn't do any harm."

People are starving. Living with an eating disorder.


Ghetto
Romance

Mexico City's underground sex scene is HIV friendly. (Image)

Two conundrums when dating with HIV. On issues facing serodiscordant couples.

Is a man who wears the same thing every day more likely to be monogamous? "Fidelity is not the only benefit of being with a man who is loyal to navy T-shirts. According to our fashion fixer, he can use the time saved to bring you tea in bed."


Art +
Design

Queer Habibi illustrations reveal beautiful LGBT love in Arabia.

The men of Perth, Western Australia, in pictures.

Deana Lawson’s kingdom of restored glory. "Outside a Lawson portrait you might be working three jobs, struggling. But inside her frame you are beautiful, imperious, unbroken, unfallen."

The 1960s American dream, in pictures.

Art Shay: acclaimed photographer, in pictures.

Killed Negatives: censored 1930s America, in pictures.

Britain’s lost post-war gems, illustrated by Roxana Antistescu.

Review
Temperate House, Kew Gardens. "The spruced-up Decimus Burton masterpiece at Kew Gardens doesn’t just have new glass and paint – 10,000 plants have been replaced so specimens can grow for generations to come."

Kew Gardens' Temperate House restored, in pictures.

Watch
Grant Davis’s time-lapse showing him putting together an incredibly detailed Lego Star Destroyer interior.


Word!

How the early ’80s changed gay writing forever. "Dancer From the Dance, Angels in America — and the decade that brought queer literature to the fore."

"Under the gaydar" YA novels are meant for teens who can't be open about their sexuality — and they're just as necessary as ever.

Tennessee Williams lacked confidence, letters to friends reveal. "Book of previously unpublished correspondence shows writer’s constant need for reassurance."

Review
My Ex-Life, by Stephen McCauley. "McCauley’s gifts as a storyteller and a keen observer of human nature take hold of the reader. You fall in love with these two unique characters."

Read
An excerpt from Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color.

Read
An excerpt from the coming-of-age graphic novel Bloom.

Swedish edition of Fantomen stirs anger as comic book hero beats up homophobes with a Pride flag.

What if black folks could fight back against police brutality? This graphic novel explores just that.

Meet the black women upending the romance novel industry. "A trio of black women at Kensington Publishing is challenging the old, predominantly white narratives of who gets to fall in love."

Stunning illustrations for new editions of Fahrenheit 451 and I Am Legend.

New
I Want Your Love, by Richard Renaldi. A visual autobiography.

On the rag: your guide to the gay weeklies.


Shouting
At Night

How 2018 reshaped Angels in America. "The ghost of Trump is always next to Roy Cohn in the new production of Angels in America."

Mean Girls on Broadway is like a second draft of the movie — for better and worse.

Review
217 Boxes of Dr. Henry Anonymous. "The man responsible for the removal of homosexuality from the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual of mental illness is the subject of a intimate and fascinating play by Ain Gordon."

Review
The Fall. Millennial angst supplies short, sharp shock. "The mood grows ever darker in James Fritz’s play about a young generation increasingly burdened by their wealthy elders."

Review
Building the Wall. "Trump imposes martial law and the roundups begin."


Film
Forever

Nigerian activists, filmmakers join forces for We Don’t Live Here Anymore, a new film directed by Tope Oshin.

Interview
Talking to Matt Smith about the compelling beauty in fisting. "The star of the Robert Mapplethorpe biopic talks sex, politics, and leather culture."

Watch
Here's trailer for We Don't Live Here Anymore; and McQueen, the documentary about tragic designer Alexander McQueen.

Love, Simon’s director Greg Berlanti might be adapting another classic LGBT book, The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue.

Watch
The history of LGBT comics explored in new new documentary No Straight Lines.

Here's the programme for the Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film Festival, from 24 May to 3 June.


Roman Polanski and Bill Cosby expelled from the film Academy.

Johnny Depp: how Hollywood's biggest star fell from grace. "As another lawsuit hits the actor, accusing him of creating a ‘toxic’ work environment, his status as the industry’s most wanted leading man shows no sign of returning."

Watch
Here's how they did Michael B. Jordan's makeup for Black Panther.

The insane true story of how Titanic got made. "James Cameron’s epic “$190 million chick flick” spawned “Leomania” and presented us with a new kind of wish fulfillment." (December 2017)


The
Box

Starz’s Vida is the rare TV show that centers on a queer Latinx community. It’s wonderful. "The new show lays bare the cost of gentrification and homophobia with grace and wit."

Watch
Netflix’s best and hottest queer sex scenes; and the trailer for Ryan Murphy's new FX series Pose.

Roseanne on Trump backlash: "I don’t give a fuck."

On violence against women on stage and screen. "The tragic woman, killed for the audience’s gratification, is a powerful artistic trope. Is it time to vary the script?"

No, Germaine Greer: women don’t want to watch gratuitous rapes on TV. "Women might have fantasies about being tied up or spanked. But as a rule, we don’t fantasise about being buried alive or shot."

RuPaul’s Drag Race: Snatch Game recap.

Blair St. Clair: Femmephobia is silencing gay #MeToo victims.

Interview
Talking to Monique Heart.

Meet the season ten Drag Race queens - out of drag.

Interview
Talking to Dear White People's black gay prophet Justin Simien.

Watch
Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw as lovers in A Very English Scandal.

Box set blockbusters: when movies make better TV shows. "The second season of Dear White People belongs in a small crop of shows that have managed to improve on their big screen source material."

Westworld renewed for a third season.

Westworld recap: season 2, episode 3 – Tyger, Tyger burning bright. "We take a trip to ‘Rajworld’, where the tigers are hunting the guests, Dolores has her own personal Alamo and Maeve meets an old tormenter..."

...Westworld’s Virtù e Fortuna takes a thrilling detour and lets women reign. "A glimpse of a new park opens up new possibilities in season two’s most intriguing episode yet."

The moral dilemmas in Westworld offer a scary glimpse of our future.

Michaela Coel to star in Netflix drama Black Earth Rising, about the Rwandan genocide.

Arrested Development: the remix – can Netflix's rehash gamble work? "Mitch Hurwitz and Netflix’s decision to revisit Arrested Development’s difficult fourth season is a bold one and could revolutionise TV … if they can pull it off."

No laughing matter: how can The Simpsons solve its problem with Apu? "It is now the longest-running scripted US TV show. But celebrations are tainted by a race row over its Indian storekeeper."

Superstore’s third season proved it’s one of TV’s best comedies. "Funny and meaningful and beautifully constructed — sitcoms don’t get much better than this."


Beats, Rhymes
& Life

Kanye West says slavery was a choice...

...and his infantile views on slavery have worrying echoes of the alt-right.



Making Donald Glover the "anti-Kanye" is gross and wrong and will backfire, so please don’t.

"I miss the old Kanye": what has happened to rap’s most complex star? "His suggestion that black people have been complicit in their own slavery has prompted widespread outrage. What lies behind Kanye West’s recent provocations?"


How should white people talk about Kanye West? "There are good reasons to be concerned about the very harmful comments that Kanye has been making. But, you, a concerned non-black person may be wondering how to join the discussion."

The journalist who’s been covering R. Kelly for seventeen years: “This is rape culture.”

Detroit music station "mutes" Kanye West but doesn’t know if it’ll mute Chris Brown and R. Kelly.

Time’s Up takes aim at R. Kelly over sex misconduct claims.


If you blame “the white man” for R. Kelly’s demise, either you’re delusional or you hate black women.

Even “conscious” rappers have problematic lyrics about women: it’s time we addressed this pervasive misogynoir.

Wale thinks being dark-skinned and African held him back in hip-hop, but he’s a successful rapper. What gives?

Ne-Yo says he wishes those gay rumours about him would die.

Interview
Talking to choreographer JaQuel Knight about creating the Single Ladies video.

Long read
It’s like this and like that and like what? "When the nineties’ heart of whiteness met g-funk, it was the illest — and wackest — of times."

Ten R&B slow jams that bang in the whip.

George Michael fans asked to take down tributes by family.

Watch
Todrick Hall - Wanted; and Blair St. Clair - Now or Never.


Arena

Dozens of male Brazilian gymnasts, including Petrix Barbosa (above), say coach sexually abused them.

NBA’s Reggie Bullock will highlight trans inclusion at GLAAD Awards.


Interview
John Fashanu on his brother Justin. "Justin Fashanu, the first openly gay footballer, killed himself with his life mired in chaos and injury. As documentary Forbidden Games casts light on his tragic story, his sibling talks about their troubled relationship."

The look of love in a football threesome.

Brad Marchand licked an opponent. Again. He needs to be suspended.


Meat
Market

Performer Justin Stone accuses BoyCrush studio owner Bryan Schwandt of rape: “Why me, Bryan?”

Performer Cole Claire accuses Schwandt of sexual assault: “Bryan is a disgusting pervert."

After being accused of raping multiple models, Schwandt says that he’s “retiring” from BoyCrush.

Gay porn stars Carlo Masi and Gustavo Leguizamon got married!

Daniel Shoneye (this week's cover star) wants us to see it at all, at OnlyFans.

Sean Zevran and Taylor Reign do it.

Corbin Colby and Angel Rivera do it.

Diego Lauzen, Brock Magnus and Jackson Radiz do it.

Rhys Jagger, Andrei Karenin, Roald Ekberg, Marcel Gassion and Torsten Ullman do it.

Adam Archuleta and Alan Mosca do it.

Unbelievable scenes from the SketchySex house as orgy participants snap, breaking down doors and licking cum from the carpet.

Behind the scenes with Max Konnor, Ken Ott, Beaux Banks, and more.

Behind the scenes with Collin Simpson, Pheonix Fellington, and more.

Behind the scenes with DeAngelo Jackson, Max Konnor, Timarrie Baker, and more.

Watch
BelAmi's Ken Lundgren; and Denis Vega.


The White Heat
of This Revolution

The digital revolution is leaving black people behind. "A new report says Silicon Valley’s lack of diversity is hurting black America."

Why Silicon Valley can’t fix itself. "Tech insiders have finally started admitting their mistakes – but the solutions they are offering could just help the big players get even more powerful."

Searching for a future beyond Facebook. "If we want to liberate ourselves from the tech monopolies, we have to figure out what to do with our data."

How white power music continues to thrive on YouTube.

Facebook is getting into the dating business.

How your web browser affects your online reality, explained in one image.

The cities welcoming self-driving delivery droids.


Planes, Trains
& Automobiles

Glasgow Queen Street is UK's least popular railway station.

Long read
"Like being in prison with a salary": the secret world of the shipping industry. "They despair that shipping draws attention only with drama and disaster: a cruise ship sinking, or an oil spill and blackened birds." (August 2013)

Worse things still happen at sea: the shipping disasters we never hear about. "Eight missing from a cargo ship that sank in the Pentland Firth, another grounded near Southampton – these local accidents remind us that the ocean is the most dangerous workplace on the planet. So why do 2,000 seafarers die each year, and what can be done to make them safer?" (January 2015)

Long read
A sea story. "One of the worst maritime disasters in European history took place a decade ago. It remains very much in the public eye. On a stormy night on the Baltic Sea, more than 850 people lost their lives when a luxurious ferry sank below the waves. From a mass of material, including official and unofficial reports and survivor testimony, our correspondent has distilled an account of the Estonia's last moments—part of his continuing coverage for the magazine of anarchy on the high seas." (May 2004)

Zeebrugge ferry disaster, thirty years on: Deadly failings behind one of UK's worst peacetime maritime tragedies. "Thirty years ago, shortly after setting out to Dover from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, the ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsized with the loss of 193 lives – Britain’s worst peacetime maritime disaster since 1919. Godfrey Holmes examines the catastrophic failings both on the day an in the aftermath, and finds numerous lessons still to be learnt." (March 2017)

The extraordinary story of the White Star liner Titanic. "The great steamship sank 100 years ago, but its legendary drama, heroes and villains remain as unforgettable as ever." (April 2012)

Long read
Why the Titanic still fascinates us. "One hundred years after the ocean liner struck an iceberg and sank, the tragedy still looms large in the popular psyche." (March 2012)


Hell's
Kitchen

Link suggested between highly processed foods and cancer.

Three cups of coffee a day may have health benefits.

Calorie counts on menus in the US are now mandatory.


And
This:

18-year-old high school senior Kevin Kodra easily wins Valedictorian of GLAMOUR in his yearbook photo.

Vloglife

Finally, the latest from Walter, Andrew, Tre Melvin, and Cedric.

That's all for this week - please like, follow and share!
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Issue 274: 01-07 May 2018
On the cover: Daniel Shoneye, lensed by Kofi Paintsil.

Read the last edition

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Postcript
"You know, we might just as well not have
bothered to come. The whole thing's been ridiculous."

© 2018

1 comments:

John G said...

Full of interest as always. Your mention of the White Star Liner made me think you might enjoy the show about ocean liners on at the V&A, which I went to by chance & found fascinating & in an odd way moving.

 
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