Can We Talk About Drag?

Reel Charlie gets Op Ed on you for a post.

Miss Shirley speaks to a young listener at one of her ‘Drag Queen Story Time’ events. Photo by Christopher Cleary/Denver Gazette

Drag queens and drag shows have been under attack throughout the country (and the world). Ron DeSantis, the disgusting governor of Florida filed a second complaint against an establishment for allowing minors into drag shows. Let me say one thing first. This has nothing to do with keeping kids safe. Drag is like any other form of entertainment. There are g-rated drag queens and r-rated drag queens. And there are g-rated drag shows and r-rated drag shows. Think of your favorite comedians. Some are squeaky clean. Others are potty mouthed. When they do family events they clean up their act. When they perform an evening show in an auditorium, they are freer to speak on adult topics. Adult topics might include sex, but also include all sorts of topics either inappropriate or boring to kids (like politics, history, aging, etc.). That said, this witch hunt on drag and the broader “Don’t Say Gay” movement is part of a fascist attempt by the final gasp of some men to hold on to their antiquated patriarchal power. They don’t want to keep sex out of K-3 grades which it obviously should be. They want to keep all things love out. They want to keep anyone not like them out of the school system. They are afraid of same gender love. They are afraid of gender non-conformity. They are afraid they will lose their pathetic power in this culture if they allow others a seat at the table. We’ve been here before. We are not going away. And if they actually want no mention of anything to do with LGBTQ relationships or gender inclusion in schools, then here’s my list of things to get rid of to make this an even swap:

1. 1. Teachers and staff at all schools must hide wedding rings and pictures of their spouses and/or pictures of their children.
   2. Teachers and staff at all schools must never talk during school time of celebrations such as bridal showers, baby showers, engagement showers, weddings, anniversary celebrations. There must be no mention of anything to do with a person’s family or personal life. All teachers and staff must pretend they are single people with no romantic or family life. Because all of this is sexuality.

No one talks about sexuality more in our culture than heterosexuals. No one. Trust me. I’ve been an observer of this for over five decades.

LGBTQ folk are not “grooming” children. If “grooming” worked, I would be heterosexual. The broader and scarier truths are that these people are trying to destroy the public school system in this country. That’s their real goal. By doing that, they can better control us.

Drag is fun, drag is ridiculous. Drag is celebratory. Drag is love. Even the bitchy drag queens are full of fun and mischief = love. These people full of fear and hate need to take a chill pill and stop using LGBTQ people as scape goats. I am personally done with it.  I lived through this with Reagan, both Bushes, Clinton, and Trump. I’m done.

Listen to drag queens talk about how they view their inventions and performances in reaction to the protests and legislation. GLAAD interviewed RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 queens to get their reaction. Out of the mouths of babes,

Follow GLAAD.
Read more about the fight for public school education from The NEA, and The New Republic.
Discover Reel Charlie reviews of drag.

Actors on Actors

Variety and Amazon Prime continue to team up for a series of conversations between actors who have eligible films out this year. I’ve watched two so far:

Nicole Kidman and Kristen Stewart
Jake Gyllenhaal and Lady Gaga

I already had House of Gucci on my to-watch list. I’ve now added The Guilty and Spencer to that list. Even though these interviews are contrived to give the actors and films more exposure to the folks who potentially nominate them, the content comes off as genuine. I felt like I learned something about each of the actors.

 

The Day New Queer Cinema Said: Let’s Do This (New York Times)

From the New York Times,

Thirty years after a panel at Sundance, some of the artists and journalists who helped ignite an L.G.B.T.Q. film movement take stock…

On Jan. 25, 1992, the Sundance Film Festival convened a panel on contemporary lesbian and gay cinema and “the significance of this movement,” according to the program…

What happened that day was a flash point in the genesis of New Queer Cinema, a call to arms of angry and unapologetic independent films that were made during the ’90s by, and arguably for, a community in crisis…

The legacy of that Saturday afternoon is being revisited this year as New Queer Cinema turns 30, and it’s going to be a rowdy look back. New Queer Cinema threw punches, and no wonder — the mostly white gay men who made the early wave of films were terrorized and exhausted by the first deadly decade of AIDS, and they’d had it with what they saw as the crushing conservative politics of the Reagan-Bush era…

“Sundance Class of ’92: The Year Indie Exploded,” a new collection on the Criterion Channel, includes several New Queer Cinema titles that screened at Sundance that year, including “The Living End” and “Swoon.” There are excerpts from the Barbed-Wire Kisses panel in a short documentary made as an introduction to the series.

Reel Charlie’s favorite films from the New Queer Cinema movement:
Edward II
The Incredibly True Adventure of 2 Girls in Love
Poison
The Watermelon Woman (my favorite)
Young Soul Rebels

Read the complete article at The New York Times.
Thanks to my friend Neil for alerting me to this article.

Article: Here’s Why Movie Dialogue Has Gotten More Difficult To Understand (And Three Ways To Fix It) (SlashFilm)

My lack of an actual word for our relationship and movie watching buddy, Dennis forwarded me two articles on sound mixing and why it’s become increasingly more difficult over the past ten years to hear dialogue in a film. Fascinating article from Slash Film,

I used to be able to understand 99% of the dialogue in Hollywood films. But over the past 10 years or so, I’ve noticed that percentage has dropped significantly — and it’s not due to hearing loss on my end. It’s gotten to the point where I find myself occasionally not being able to parse entire lines of dialogue when I see a movie in a theater, and when I watch things at home, I’ve defaulted to turning the subtitles on to make sure I don’t miss anything crucial to the plot.

Read on for all the details and what can be done about this. I’m going to look for 7.1 on my Blu-ray disks from now on.
Also find another shorter article, Why Can’t I Hear The Movie? from Kottke.

Reel Charlie Celebrates 12 Years!

I have loved creating Reel Charlie for a dozen years today. It has been a constant source of focus and creativity, chronicling the film and television I watch and honing my writing skills. I have shown up, first every day, then three years ago moving to every other day. Reel Charlie continues to be a source of pride and satisfaction. And an assistant to my memory. This year in 2021, I stopped marketing to social media. I know that throws me into potential obscurity, but I feel better without any of the major social media distractions. I have projects I want to focus on and hopefully see to fruition without worrying about who’s saying what on Twitter. I’m not criticizing anyone for using social media. For me, for now, I’m happy to let it go and focus on other ways to communicate and create.

Reel Charlie stats:
Total Posts: 3,800
Comments: 1,000

Check out the fuss over the 10 Year Anniversary from 2019.
Check out must-see media so far in 2021.

Here’s to beginning year thirteen. Thank you dear readers and followers for your continued support.

Social Media #delete

As many of you know, I left Facebook several years ago – when things started heating up in 2015. I’ve never been on Instagram, other than a minute or two. The only social media I kept going has been Twitter. I have tried to focus on film-related Twitter threads, but there’s been two problems related to that.

1. no matter what I do, political tweets seep through. I get angry and want to respond and forward.
2. even though I follow a lot of Twitter film people, I have yet to find my tribe. I just keep seeing polls on “the best ____” (fill in the name of the crappiest American straight white male actor). I try to participate and balance, but it just depresses me.

I also don’t really understand the point to social media any longer. Is it to connect? Because everyone seems to be either lobbing one-time comments to each other or just sending information to maintain their brand.

This post wasn’t meant to complain. I simply want to say I’m off social media other than Goodreads which I use to post all my book reviews and my reading challenge. Everything else is done.

Many thanks to those of you who subscribe to Reel Charlie posts via your email. I love email and will continue to enthusiastically use email as my primary source for communication.

Pose: Season 3 – How to Watch

Pose dropped the first episode of their swan song this week. If you want to watch Pose: Season 3 – The Final Season, The Cinemaholic offers you some choices,

To watch ‘Pose’ season 3, you can turn to live TV streaming services such as Xfinity, DirecTV, Fubo TV, Youtube TV, and Apple TV. You may also choose to purchase the new episodes (and old ones) on VOD platforms such as Google Play, YouTube, iTunes, Microsoft Store, Spectrum, and Vudu. Additionally, you can watch the series on the FX Now website or the mobile app by logging in through your active cable subscription.

I opted to purchase the entire season – 7 episodes from Amazon Prime for $14.99 ($2/episode). It’s rare I want to see a cable series as soon as it drops, but Pose is that kind of series. I crave this story which takes place in NYC the same years I lived there.

Mother Electra demands your attention below. Live. Work. Stream.

Media Shelving: My Collection’s New Home

I finally, finally splurged on actual media shelving for my DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K collection. I am so happy I took the plunge. I love the accessibility of the shelving, having all those disks at my fingertips. Special thanks to Boutique Blu-rays with Elliot Cohen for pointing me in the right, affordable direction.

GLAAD: Where We Are on TV Report – 2020

GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) publishes an incredible annual report, Where We Are on TV surveying the landscape of LGBTQ characters in television. 2020’s report has just been released. From GLAAD,

Below are some of the most remarkable points GLAAD found in its research this year, download the full report now to read more.

• Of the 773 series regular characters scheduled to appear on broadcast scripted primetime television this season, 70 (9.1 percent) are LGBTQ. This is a decrease from the previous year’s record high percentage of 10.2 percent, and the first season to see a decrease since the 2013-14 report. This number was expected to drop due to the COVID-19 pandemic halting production on several shows and impacting the green-lighting of new series. There are an additional 31 LGBTQ recurring characters on broadcast, for a total of 101 LGBTQ characters.
• On scripted primetime cable series, the number of series regulars has decreased to 81 characters, with 37 recurring characters, bringing the total number of LGBTQ characters to 118.
• On the streaming services Amazon, Hulu and Netflix, there are 95 regular LGBTQ characters on original scripted series, a decrease from last year, as well as 46 LGBTQ recurring characters. This brings the total to 141 LGBTQ characters.
• In the 2020-21 season, bisexual+ characters make up 28 percent of all LGBTQ characters on all three platforms, a two-percentage increase from last year. These numbers still lean toward women, with 65 women and 33 men, and one character who is non-binary.
• Across all three platforms, there are 29 regular and recurring transgender characters. These characters include 15 trans women, 12 trans men, and two trans characters who are non-binary. Twenty-six of the 29 characters are played or voiced by transgender actors.
• This is the fourth year where GLAAD has counted asexual characters in our report. Last year there was a single asexual character on Netflix’s BoJack Horseman. That show has since been cancelled. There will be one asexual character on a cable series airing in spring of 2021, but the character’s identity is under embargo at time of printing.
• On all primetime broadcast scripted series, 46 percent of series regulars are women, consistent with last year’s record high.
• Of the 773 series regulars counted on broadcast television, 46 percent (354) of characters are people of color, a one percentage-point decrease from the previous year’s record high of 47 percent. The racial diversity of LGBTQ characters on all platforms increased.
• The number of series regular characters with a disability has once again had a slight increase, slightly up to 3.5 percent from last year’s 3.1 percent. This number continues to severely underrepresent the actual U.S. population living with disabilities.  The number of characters with HIV and AIDS has significantly decreased from nine to three, all characters counted appear on FX’s Pose.

Many thanks to GLAAD for putting this together each year. Great detail and statistics organized for the lay person, journalist, or researcher. View the full report here.

Vote 2020

Make sure whatever else you do today, you get out and vote. Biden/Harris 2020 for a better future.