The Best Smut You'll Ever Read (Ep. 43 - Anais Nin)

Steven Reigns by Jenny Walters

On any average day, how many people are you? There's morning-you, when your eyes are just barely open and your mood is grumpy. There's work-you, proficient and capable. There's going-out-you, relaxed and maybe a little reckless. There might be family-you, and artist-you, and shy-you and brave-you. So many yous in just one body!

My guest this week is Steven Reigns. Among his many yous is the first city poet of West Hollywood. There's one writer who's had a profound impact on Steven's artistic identity, his personal identity, and even his sexual identity. He discovered Anais Nin work at a pivotal time in his life, when he felt pulled in multiple directions and was unsure what direction his life could take. It was thanks to a lucky loan of a book that Anais appeared to point the way.

And hey -- I'd love it if you would join me for a live online videochat this weekend. I know there are a bunch of folks listening, and I'd really like to get to know you. It's going to be this Saturday, January 16, at noon Pacific Time on my YouTube channel. You can follow me on Twitter @mattbaume to get the link. Hope to see you there!

And if you'd like to see my guest Steven Reigns, he's performing with four other artists at the show "The Allure of Anais Nin" on January 29 at 7pm, at Antioch Community Hall in Santa Barbara.

By the way, you might've noticed that unlike most episodes of Sewers Of Paris, this episode is flagged as "explicit." Just a heads up that our conversation starts off tasteful, but we really earn that rating by the end.

And here are some delightful photos of Anais, courtesy of Steven:

Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

I'm not an Expert, Except that I Have a Heart (Ep. 42 - Captain Kirk)

What's the biggest chance you ever took? In a perfect world, risk would be unnecessary, and we'd know the outcome of every action before we took it. But as the saying goes, nothing ventured, nothing gained -- and sometimes we find ourselves leaping before we look.

My guest this week is Michael Schneider, a Portland writer and artist whose work you can find at Blcksmth.com -- that's spelled with no vowels -- and whose photos you should absolutely be following on Instagram. 

Michael's always been drawn to the security of sure things, known quantities, and predictable patterns. But lately he's been experimenting with the idea that when life gets chaotic, sometimes you can respond with a little chaos of your own.

A few clips from this week's episode:

Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

My Mom Had to Look up "Homosexual" at the Library (Ep. 41 - Carol Burnett)

If you could pick any era to live in, which would it be? For my guest Jack Plotnick, the answer's easy: the 1970s, when he was a happy gay kid growing up in Ohio and startling the neighbors by belting out showtunes. He thought he was destined for Broadway, but his life took an unexpected turn thanks to a little luck and a lot of talent. You might know Jack from his many TV appearances, ranging from Murphy Brown to Glee to Reno 911. He played the gay elf Xandir on Drawn Together, the deputy mayor on Buffy, and he was openly gay on Ellen before Ellen. He's created countless characters, but stepping behind the camera has allowed him to create entire worlds, and take audiences back to the era that meant to much to him. And it's prepared him for his next challenge: creating his very own Broadway show.

Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The Sewers of Paris Holiday-Special Special

Oh dear, I'm spending Christmas all alone in the sewers with no one to keep me company -- but wait! What's this? Santa seems to have delivered me a sack full of guests to talk all about their favorite holiday specials! How special.

Watch video clips from this episode and support the show on Patreon here: http://patreon.com/sewersofparis

Huge thanks to John Coons for arranging this episode's music, to everyone who rates and reviews in the iTunes store, and to everyone who pledges on Patreon! Check out Cody Melcher's podcast Tomefoolery, Dave and Alonso's Linoleum Knife and Linoleum Knife TV, Bil and Daniel and their friend Dan on Bad Gay Movies Bitchy Gay Men; and Bill and Judy on the marvelous Judycast. Look for Brady in the documentary Coming Out; check out Alonso Duralde's books Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas and 101 Must See Movies for Gay Men; and get Dave White's book Exile in Guyville. You can find Zach Stafford's writing in The Guardian. Phil Dawkins' show Le Switch runs from January 15 to February 21 in Chicago. Jonathan Blalock is in Turandot with the Pacific Symphony in Costa Mesa this February. And if you're in the Toronto area look for Bil Antoniou in the Confidential Musical Theater Project on January 29th. 

Opening Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Just be Gay, It's Fine (Ep. 39 - The Cosby Show)

This week's guest is Terrence Moss, who learned to dream big when he saw characters achieving great things on The Jeffersons and The Cosby Show. Obviously, looking to the Cosby Show for inspiration these days can feel problematic, given what we've been learning about its creator. But is it possible to separate the man from his work? After all, for folks like Terrence, Cosby was about more than just one man. It was about envisioning a better world. And then envisioning your place in it.

You can catch Terrence most Monday nights at Rage in West Hollywood, performing and just hanging out as part of Musical Mondays, a musical theater-themed bar night. At Musical Mondays, they don't just show a bunch of clips on the monitors. Oh no. Instead, when certain numbers come on, a loosely-organized troupe of devotees lip-syncs and dances along with them, turning the bar into a sort of Broadway flashmob. It is both the strangest and the most wonderful thing you'll ever see. And it's where Terrence and I met, years ago -- in an environment where so many people are acting strangely with such dedication and regularity that it almost seems normal. Almost.

For my recommendation this week, check out Will and Grace -- yes, I know, you've already seen it. Many times. But I hope you can take a look at it from a slightly different perspective. One of the things that made The Cosby Show so amazing was that it presented an idealized world, where racial strife and barriers were dismantled, where equality was the most ordinary, unremarkable, achievable thing in the world. 

And that's what I want you to keep in mind when you watch Will and Grace -- and if you need a place to dive back in, I suggest season 4, episodes 9 and 10, "Moveable Feast," in which the characters have to race from one disastrous family function to another over Thanksgiving. Throughout the episode, they all have to deal with various silly sitcommy problem that need resolving, but being gay isn't one of them.

When Will and Grace premiered, I remember queers complaining that the show made us seem so ordinary and unremarkable. There were no radical fairies, the sex was sanitized to the point that it was nonexistent, and everyone's homosexuality seemed to exist in a world where it had ceased to be shocking.

But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Back in 1998, it took a real stretch of the imagination think that being queer could ever be so safe, so tolerated, so celebrated. But of course, once the show was beamed into millions of homes across the country, you didn't have to imagine anymore. You could see it every week, a half hour at a time, no matter where or who you were. And the more we saw it on TV, the more we saw it in real life.

Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

When You Don’t Have Words to Say, You Sing (Ep. 38 - Angels in America)

What is it about our brains that makes us like music? It’s so weird that a series of repeating vibrations produced by hitting or rubbing or blowing through various objects could trigger such intense emotions.

My guest this week is actor and singer Jonathan Blalock, who’s appearing this weekend with the Dallas Opera in the show Becoming Santa Claus. Texans, I expect you to be there. Jonathan was swept up in the power of music at an early age, experiencing deep spiritual raptures triggered by the religious music of his church. For years, he assumed that the feeling originated with some divine force — a belief that grew increasingly painful as he realized his homophobic surroundings were turning on him. But as an adult, he finally gave himself permission to explore music without the religious accompaniment. He discovered that the intense emotion he’d always felt when surrounded by music didn’t have to come from a church. It could come from him.

Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Flamboyant Before I was Ready (Ep. 37 - Moulin Rouge & Big Brother)

How do you tell the difference between good attention and bad attention? Or is ALL attention good, as long as they spell your name right? Some of us prefer a life of quiet dignity, but others are addicted to the spotlight and being noticed.

My guest this week is Brad Gilligan, who's spent time on both sides of that divide. As a member of the Air Force before the repeal of DADT, he had to go to great lengths to keep anyone from finding out too much about his past. Flying under the radar was his top priority, and the pressure was overwhelming. So when the ban on open service was lifted, it's no wonder he didn't just burst out of the closet. He exploded onto the stage in heels and a wig. He was military by day, drag queen by night. He even got his fellow officers to attend a show and cheer him on.

But like most addictions, getting hooked on attention had its risks. And as good as it felt to be the star of a show, Brad started realizing there's a difference between being noticed and being liked.

A few select clips from this episode:

This may be the first time Roger and Me has ever been programmed next to a Madonna performance.

Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Not a Fan of Hanging Around in Reality (Ep. 36 - Steve Kmetko)

This episode comes out on Thanksgiving, and this year I hope you'll remember to offer your thanks to the brave pioneers who came out of the closet at a time when doing so meant putting yourself at great personal and professional risk. We're able to enjoy the freedom we have today because of the people who were openly gay in decades past, who demanded acceptance, and paved a path for future generations. 

My guest this week is Steve Kmetko, best known as the face of the E! cable network from 1994 to 2002. He hosted countless Oscar and Emmy broadcasts, reported from film festivals, and interviewed everyone who was anyone in Hollywood. It was his dream job, but privately, he was being weighed down by a lifetime of baggage: a career that demanded he stay closeted, and a religious upbringing that burdened him with guilt.

Although his career was going great, the pressure of keeping a secret just kept building as the years went on. Until finally, after years of putting tough questions to everyone around him, it was time for Steve to tell the truth about himself.

It was a gutsy move. Risky. And there were times that he paid a price for being honest about who he was. But the acceptance that LGBTs enjoy today simply wouldn't be possible if not for the high-profile figures who stepped forward in years past, people whom we give particular thanks.

Here's Steve's Advocate interview, and some great clips of Steve at work:

Music:
ParisianKevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia (Ep. 35 - Designing Women)

A quick note this week. It's hard to talk say the word "Paris" right now without thinking about what the city's been through in the last few days. Not just the pain, but in the aftermath, the unity, the strength, the resilience, the solidarity. Paris is known as the city of light not only for its beauty, but because it was a cornerstone of the age of enlightenment, a period that celebrated tolerance, liberty, equality, progress. Values that illuminate the human spirit. Values we still cherish to this day, values that survive in our resolve to stand together against violence and fear. That fellowship is what has made Paris a beacon of enlightenment for hundreds of years, and it's what I hope to capture just a fragment of on this show: the uncovering our connections to each other, the discovery of our shared bonds, the sense of solidarity with people who might have seemed a moment earlier like strangers. That's why I invite you to The Sewers of Paris every week, on a podcast adventure to discover the entertainment that changed the lives of gay men.

What does it take to get you to speak out? For some people, speaking your mind comes naturally, but others feel overwhelming barriers to saying what they feel. 

My guest this week is Brian Matthews. He grew up surrounded by strong female figures who inspired him with eloquent words. He himself had quite a lot to say, but for years kept those words confined to his mind, or at most, to the page. It wasn't until he started speaking the truth about himself that he began to feel comfortable speaking the truth about the world.

Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Channel Madonna While Playing Jesus (Ep. 34 - Madonna & Emma Thompson)

Is it better to judge or be judged? My guest this week is Bil Antoniou, co-host of the podcast Bad Gay Movies/Bitchy Gay Men, in which three gays choose a terrible film and mock it mercilessly. Of course, it's easy to poke fun at someone else's creative work -- it's a lot harder to put something of your own in front of the world and invite everyone's judgment. And for years, Bil shrank from the spotlight, keeping his own art bottled up, even though a creative spark burned secretly inside.

He worked a boring job, engaged in some unhealthy habits, and kept his artistic passions stifled. Until one day he decided something had to change.

Now he's a successful actor and playwright, with his show "Heart of the Storm" opening this week in Toronto -- but getting there took years of work and the help of some friends.

Here's a whole freaking playlist of Madonna videos, you're welcome:

Ooh and the trailer for Jeffrey! I haven't seen this in years so it's probably time to revisit:

And of course Emma Thompson being delightful:

Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/