Pre-Summer Reading Gist

 

Hey, page slaves! 

So I finished "In Cold Blood" over the weekend and then immediately dove into "Tales of the City," a book that somehow wasn't on my suburban Phoenix childhood radar. I remember feeling so left out when the television adaptation premiered in January 1994 -- everyone was buzzing about it at Trumpets on 17th Street -- but then ate up the series and all its sequels. 

To read it more than 30 years later was still a pleasure, although I must say whoever wrote the teleplays for those miniseries deserves a huge round of applause because they are nearly identical in style and tone as Armistead Maupin's classic works. 

Yesterday I started Erik Larson's much-acclaimed "The Devil in the White City," which I had received as a gift from a reader-turned-close friend. (We actually met up with him on our recent trip to the Coachella Valley.) 

I'd attempted the book once or twice before, only to get distracted. But in the words of the great Donna Summer, this time I know it's for real because A) I'm back in a reading groove and B) I finally realized that although it's written like a novel -- which regular readers know isn't my favorite genre when you get past the 20th century -- it's actually a novel in the way that "In Cold Blood" is, so I'm loving learning about the World's Columbian Exposition (aka Chicago's World Fair) celebrating the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's discovery as well as the B plot about of H. H. Holmes, who is widely considered the first serial killer in the U.S. 

This one's going to take a while so until then, follow me on Goodreads HERE and tell me what you're reading in the comments.

Scarred for Life

I don't think I even noticed I had one of these until my decade-younger boyfriend-cum-husband noticed mine when we were in bed early in our relationship -- it's on the back of my left arm -- but it's a small price to pay to have helped eradicate smallpox ... assuming it's not making a comeback in Brooklyn, etc. 

Remains of the Day (05/20)

People: Carol Burnett and Vicki Lawrence proved their decades-long friendship is still going strong with a nostalgic dinner reunion full of “lotsa laughs and lotsa memories” 

PinkNews: Kylie Minogue reveals second cancer diagnosis in 2021: "I got through it"

Boy Culture: Ryan O'Connell on his "flop body" and how he un-flopped it 

Variety: Marcia Gay Harden had blunt words for parents who reject their LGBTQ children, calling it “a great big mistake” while accepting honors at the Los Angeles LGBT Center gala

Wrestle Wednesday: Central Oklahoma or Stevens Institute of Technology?

Just Jared: Miles Teller says a viral 2015 interview where he was called a "dick" felt like a "violation," but I can only think about what he said about HIS OWN

Grunge: Three of my favorite songs are on this list of unforgettable ’80s one hit wonders

Instinct: Clavicular went to court and the internet only talked about the (hot) judge

UCLA Williams: A new report looks at how LGBTQ liaison officers can help gay people feel safer and more supported when dealing with police

Mug Shot Wednesday: Another week, another pervy school teacher (with good hair)

Out: The legendary Frameline festival is turning 50, proving LGBTQ cinema has survived censorship, culture wars and Hollywood indifference

Page Six: Phil Collins makes rare public appearance after revealing cascading health issues 

CBS News: German tourists accused of drawing swastika, writing "Adolf was here" on LGBTQ bench in Miami Beach

Fierce: A new report warns LGBTQ teens are struggling to access desperately needed mental health care as affirming providers become harder to find

NYT: Barney Frank, the liberal stalwart often voted the House’s “brainiest,” “funniest” and “most eloquent” member, who became the first member of Congress to come out voluntarily and helped normalize being openly gay in public office, has died at 86

Hot Cat of the Day: What if your baby could live an extra 10 years?

Listen: I might need to become a podcast person so I can hear about the history of London Records, starting with Siobhan Fahey's interview.

Tennis Tuesday

 

This somehow manages to get even racier BELOW.

Remains of the Day (05/18)

NYT: Following the surprise success of “Heated Rivalry,” “Off Campus” is bringing even more hockey, more sex and a fresh crop of TV boyfriends to the ice 

Instinct: Russell Tovey to play the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen in new film short

Queerty: Jake Gyllenhaal and Henry Cavill are more than friends in homoerotic action flick but you’d never know it from the promo

SCMP: Hong Kong's LGBTQ carnival axed for second year in a row after failing to secure venue, licenses

Stolen Holiday: Before Hollywood figured out what to do with a muscular leading man, Nat Pendleton -- Olympic wrestler, Columbia grad and improbably sexy lug -- spent the 1930s playing lovable dopes, gangsters and musclebound oafs while quietly smuggling real charm and vulnerability onto the screen

Mug Shot Monday: Some students have all the luck

POZ: As ICE raids intensify and LGBTQ people living with HIV are once again turned into political scapegoats, gay survival increasingly depends on telling our own stories before someone else rewrites them for us

RFI: Botswana eases anti-LGBTQ laws as repression grows elsewhere in Africa

Quartz: iHeartMedia and P&G launch Elton John Impact Awards podcast 

The Advocate: Meet the Gardening Gays, a couple planting the seeds of LGBTQ acceptance

The Caftan Chronicles: Before OnlyFans stars were a dime a dozen, Matthew Rush was Falcon Studios' hulking golden boy -- and this look back revisits the rise, excess and enduring mystique of one of gay porn’s defining 2000s stars

NYP: Holy headlines, Batman! Then I guess all 8.3 billion of us “narrowly escaped” that ill-fated Maldives scuba outing

MetroWeekly: Marcel Walz's “Brute 1976” mixes grindhouse gore, leather-bar energy and a knowing wink into one very bloody throwback

NBC News: Lucky Californians have been spared from Kars4Kids

Out: Benson Boone flexes his rock-hard abs in shirtless new selfie

Hot Cat of the Day: Harvey's cousin Patches is now the king of his domain 

RIP: Brenda Reid, the velvet-voiced lead singer of the Exciters and the woman behind the immortal “Tell Him,” has died at 80 -- taking with her one of the great unsung voices of the girl-group era

Ann Robinson of "The War of the Worlds" dead at 96

Mark Furhman, piece of ass witness in the O.J. Simpson trial, dies of throat cancer at 74

Weekend Tennis Roundup

Jannik Sinner and Elina Svitolina took home the pies in Rome. Full report plus my painful separation from Quentin Halys and all the ATP beef that's fit to post BELOW.