Titles for Tommy Paul, Rafael Jodar, Mariano Navone and Jessica Pegula. Full report plus all the ATP beef that's fit to post BELOW.
Showing posts sorted by date for query "music box". Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query "music box". Sort by relevance Show all posts
Monday, April 06, 2026
Friday, July 18, 2025
Remains of the Day (07/18)
Greg in Hollywood: ABC News star James Longman wonders why he posed for pic with hunky star Chris Hemsworth: “I look like a child”
The Signorile Report: CBS cancels "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" weeks after the most-watched late-night host accused parent company Paramount of paying a "big fat bribe" to settle a lawsuit over "60 Minutes" interview
Speedo Sunday: Tom Daley dives into fashion with new swimwear collection
Hot Cat of the Day: 100% yes.
Anchors a-gay! I started watching "Amy Bradley Is Missing" about the young woman who "vanished" off a family cruise and immediately remembered what I thought when it happened in 1998: "She's gay and jumped because her family didn’t exactly approve." Seems I may have been at least half right, although the article I linked to matter-of-factly calls her a lesbian in the headline but then doesn't mention it again. (There’s zero mention of her sexuality in the first episode, but I’m intrigued that my 27-year-old gaydar was apparently spot-on.) UPDATE: I finished the other two episodes and we do end up hearing from two women she dated, including one she’d hit a rough patch with. While the family truly believes Amy is out there somewhere the victim of human trafficking, it seems far more likely that she fell overboard. (Eyewitness accounts are notoriously inaccurate, no matter how convinced the sighter is.) My heart, of course, goes out to her loved ones.
X Offenders: Voters are so ill-informed that I truly believe they will lean right -- aka vote against their own interests -- over trivial stuff like THIS. See also: Denying biological sexes. What makes this so infuriating -- textbook unforced errors -- is that NOBODY WAS ASKING FOR EITHER. It's like two cisgender non-Hispanic white academics were sitting in a classroom one day and said: What would be ideal in our narrow erudite view -- completely clueless of the fact that it is very likely to annoy the general public and not even please a fraction of the principals. (My Latino husband thinks Latinx is completely moronic.) Keep it up and I guarantee we won't see another Democrat in the White House in my lifetime -- the Electoral College alone has all but guaranteed that. P.S. For those who think my reasoning is the along the lines of "maybe if we didn't have drag queens and half-naked men in Pride parades people would like us better" you are dead wrong. Yes, people who hate LGBTQ people are going to hate us no matter what. But when you start trying to tell the general public how to live THEIR OWN LIVES -- say, a Mexican American with a wife and three kids who is being told not to call himself Latino, or hectoring 99.1% of people that they're not men or women, they're cisgender men and cisgender woman -- it really rubs a lot of them the wrong way. (I've witnessed it with my own generally Democratic parents.) I couldn't care less about cis and Latinx. But the polling data doesn't lie, and the right has brilliantly (sickeningly) turned these non-ballot-box concepts into top priorities for the electorate. PLEASE STOP before it's too late, which it may already be.
Tuesday, September 17, 2024
Remains of the Day (09/17)
Boy Culture: How to promote your book when you're obsessed with Madonna, Tori Amos and Lana Del Rey -- and BFFs with Busy Philipps
Homomacabre: Let's hear it for the Mr. Tush Contest
Hot Cat of the Day: "Kick my fucking seat again, I dare you."
Doms and Substacks:
The Caftan Chronicles: Author, therapist and "Sacred Intimate" bodyworker Don Shewey is having a ton of sex at 70
Ask a Sober Oldster: Go-Go's bassist and memoirist Kathy Valentine on the best parts of her post-drinking life
To a Green Thought: Why publishing a book always feels a little humiliating, even when things go well
Inbox: Friend received this with the caption “Mom in a community theater production of Grease.”
I want my MTV: The Video Music Awards debuted 40 years ago -- and the show had nowhere to go but down!
Thursday, August 15, 2024
Greg Kihn, ‘Jeopardy’ and ‘Breakup Song’ Hitmaker, Dies at 75
There's nothing like music to jar your memory. So it's perhaps not that surprising that hearing about the death of Greg Kihn would stir up more emotions than you might expect.
My brother Bill absolutely loved "The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)" when it came out in '81 so of course I did too -- and always think of him whenever it comes on. (I still have his 45 in a box in my closet.)
I'm also transported to a few years later when the Greg Kihn Band came to play at my university, which my friend John immediately posted about upon hearing the news of the rocker's death:
While in college, Greg Kihn played at Arizona State University and I was SO there. At concert time Greg came out on stage alone and announced that he and his band arrived the night before but the equipment and instruments were lost somewhere in flight. He offered refunds but asked if we would like an acoustic concert since we were all here. The crowd said yes and Greg sat on the edge of the stage with his old wooden guitar and did the show unplugged and solo. And it was fantastic! RIP Greg…thanks for the memories.
Debora Iyall (of Romeo Void fame) also had nice things to say about the "Jeopardy" man:
Greg was a great guy, really enthusiastic music lover and so fun-loving. He took up radio DJ’ing for 17+ years in the South Bay after his recording career slowed. I always loved the insight of this verse: “Then the band slowed the tempo and the music gets me down, it was the same old song but they never got a sound.” You got the sound, Greg. Thanks for the music. #gregkihnband #bayareamusic He passed Tuesday at age 75 after suffering with Alzheimer’s. I hope you and Benjamin Bossi of #romeovoid are “out in the atmosphere” somewhere remembering the good times. #greatliveband #allrespect
Hearing that Greg was suffering from Alzheimer's makes me sad. (Condolences to his two children and everyone who loved him.)
What makes me happy is that although "Jeopardy" was a much bigger hit for Greg and the boys, I see that the far superior "Breakup Song" is their most-played song on all the streaming services, which I know would tickle Bill as well.
May he and his guitar rest in peace. 🙏
Thursday, February 02, 2023
Gay Bar Fly
I'm excited that Damian bought me Jeremy Atherton Lin's "Gay Bar: Why We Went Out," although I haven't started it yet. (Coincidentally, I see it's also Dr. Eric Cervini's current Book Club selection.)
As gay bars continue to close at an alarming rate, "Gay Bar" looks back to find out what’s being lost in this indispensable, intimate, and stylish celebration of queer history.Strobing lights and dark rooms; throbbing house [music] and drag queens on counters; first kisses, last call: the gay bar has long been a place of solidarity and sexual expression—whatever your scene, whoever you’re seeking. But in urban centers around the world, they are closing, a cultural demolition that has Jeremy Atherton Lin wondering: What was the gay bar? How have they shaped him? And could this spell the end of gay identity as we know it?
I rarely go out these days -- I'm 55 and married -- but cannot imagine what my younger days would have been like without bars, where I lived to watch videos, dance and hear new music, and met several of my closest friends.
They say you never forget your first -- I sort of have three because I first "accidentally" went to the London Hippodrome (above) in Leicester Square on gay night in 1987 while on vacation with a high-school gal pal (she immediately turned around to go back to the hotel but I opted to stay since I'd "already paid cover") and then accompanied my out Michigan best friend Mark to Backstreet when I was bicurious(!) before finally going to one in my actual hometown of Phoenix, The Connection, with the first openly gay friend I ever made (Kurt) and his boyfriend (RIP, Tim).
Curious to see how many of my old haunts (some open, some long closed) got a mention, including but not limited to:
Backstreet (Detroit)
The Connection (Phoenix)
Al E. Gator's (Phoenix)
Brazil: (Scottsdale; East 4th Street east of Scottsdale Road, I believe)
My last two years at Arizona State are kind of a blur. Once I came out I was out -- every chance I could get. While I don't remember all that much about my classes, friends or work from that period, the one thing I do vividly recall is Black Box's "Ride on Time," which seemed to be playing on a loop wherever I went. With its take-no-prisoners vocals and heavy sampling of Loleatta Holloway's "Love Sensation," all the partying in the world couldn't erase the memory of dancing at Brazil to this one! (If someone has pictures, please send.)
Preston's (Phoenix)
Cute doorman alert
4102 E. Thomas Road
Bartenders at the patio bar
Beach party
Wink's Cabaret (Phoenix)
Nu Towne Saloon (Phoenix)
Fosters in the Melrose District (Phoenix)
Hotbod's Desert Dance Palace (Phoenix)
Label this a near-miss. When I was a junior in high school I briefly worked at the Salad Bar location in Mesa, where much to my sheltered surprise the staff all did drugs and invited me to go dancing at Hotbod's Desert Dance Palace (aka Hotbods, no one really knows the correct way to spell it), which I later learned was the Valley's answer to Studio 54! (I stupidly declined, in horror, but in my defense I was 16 or 17.)
The Spike (West Hollywood)
Arena (Los Angeles)
Boom Boom Room (Laguna Beach)
L.A./LONG BEACH/ORANGE COUNTY: Rage, Revolver, Micky's, The Abbey, Studio One, Arena, Motherlode, Numbers, Fubar, the Spike, Gold Coast, Ripples, the Silver Fox, Mineshaft, Oz, the Boom Boom Room, Lion's Den, Frat House, Newport Station.
JR's (Washington, D.C.)
WASHINGTON, D.C.: JR's, Trumpets, Badlands, Cobalt, Lost and Found, Tracks.
The Works (Upper West Side)
Uncle Charlie's (West Village)
XL (Chelsea)
Champs (Chelsea)
NEW YORK CITY: Splash, G, Roxy, Hell, Uncle Charlie's, the Works, XL, Champs, XES, King, Pyramid Club, the Lure, Eagle, Rawhide, Julius's, Beige, Boiler Room, the Break, Popstarz, et al.
What were your earliest and go-to bars when you were coming out?
Wednesday, September 21, 2022
Song of the Day: 'The Maximum Damage' by Mari Wilson
My devotion to the Queen of the Beehives is well-documented. ("Just What I Always Wanted" was without question the most delightful single of the 1980s!) But as was the case with the recent Blondie box set, I can only be so excited about the upcoming Mari Wilson collection, which feels at least 20 years late. Set for release on Nov. 25, Cherry Red's "Mari Wilson: The Neasden Queen of Soul, 3CD Box Set" brings together Mari's best-loved material from her time signed to the Compact Organization spanning her classic debut, "Showpeople," and 10 single releases over the period of 1980-85.
According to the label, the set features a 24-page booklet with sleeve notes written by Mari and a U.K. discography, together with previously unseen photos. The newly designed front cover uses an iconic photograph taken by Adrian Boot.
CD 1 is centered around the 12-track debut album "Showpeople," originally released in 1983 plus four bonus tracks: the 12” mixes of the singles "Just What I Always Wanted" her 1982 top 10 hit, "Cry Me a River" a top 30 hit in 1983, "Baby It’s True" and the soul classic "Ain’t That Peculiar," the latter two of which for the first time on CD.CD 2 features the single versions of eight A-sides, nine B-sides and five rarities, including seven non-album singles, "Love Man," "Dance Card," "Beat the Beat," "Baby It’s True," "Ain’t That Peculiar," "Let’s Make This Last" and the theme tune to the 1985 film "Dance With a Stranger": "Would You Dance With a Stranger?"CD 3 includes eight new remixes by the original writer/producer Tot Taylor, ably assisted by Joe Dworniak using the original multi-track tapes. Tracks remixed include the A-sides "Beat the Beat" and "Baby It’s True" plus the B-sides "Glamourpuss," "Ecstasy," "Rave," "She’s Had Enough of You" and "You Look So Good."
I already own nearly everything here, save for a remix or two I'm not particularly keen to acquire. But as with Blondie's "Against the Odds," the release may add the classic Mari catalog to streaming services, which will be handy for me, and perhaps, perhaps, perhaps help expose new people to her wonderful brand of music.
Today's SOTD was the B-side to her cover of "Ain't That Peculiar," which I purchased in high school at the original Zia Records in Tempe when it was on Mill Avenue, a stone's throw from Roads to Moscow. Although Mari's cover of the classic Marvin Gaye song was a winner, I always thought the less-obvious "The Maximum Damage" had hit potential of its own. Enjoy!
UPDATE: Video was removed, so replacing with the other b-side called "Use Him," which was also a delight!
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