When is bubble not at the gay 90s
“They all have moustaches, wear 501s and are called Clones.”
Those were my words to my best partner, Neville, upon my first visit to Earl’s Court, London, back in the mid-1980s.
I was like a kid in a nice shop. Just about every man in the place had a moustache, and I was big into facial hair.
Back then, there were five gay bars in Earl’s Court. It was the centre of the universe for any gay man visiting London.
It was easy to acquire to Earl’s Court, via public transport, and I always felt safe there. It was as if the district had a safety bubble around it.
No surprise then that I moved into a two-bedroom flat in Earl’s Court shortly after arriving to live in London in 1986.
The most famous same-sex attracted bar in Earl’s Court was called ‘The Coleherne.’ These days, it’s a trendy restaurant come wine bar which I trust serves some smashing food.
I spent lots of period in ‘The Coleherne.’ At the time, pubs had to close their doors between 3 and 5:30pm (2 and 7pm on a Sunday). ‘The Coleherne’ was always packed out during the final hour of drinking time.
It had a jukebox in the corner that played all the
It’s 3 am and I can’t sleep so I’m binge-watching Jarvis Cocker interviews.
In a Guardian interview from 2011, a slightly jaded Jarvis admits that he only started the whole song-writing thing because no one seemed to be making music about sexual “awkwardness and disappointment” that he could relate to. I think about how I wish someone had written a song about insomnia I could relate to right now.
My friends call Jarvis a perv. ‘All of his songs are about sexually-frustrated curtain twitchers and someone else’s girlfriend, but because he has floppy hair, is 6’2 and wears oversized glasses it makes it okay’.
I think of the line in Babies where an inexperienced Jarvis hides inside a mates older sister’s wardrobe because he wants to ‘see as well as hear’ unfamiliar sexual experiences. In I Spy (the title a case in point) a voyeuristic Jarvis drawls, ‘I’ve got your numbers, taken notes / I realize the ways your minds work’. Pencil Skirt opens with an image of Jarvis looking up between a woman’s legs. Perhaps they’ve got a point.
But then again, I really don’t think it’s because he’s got floppy hair or is imbued with a kind of mid-90s-soft-boy-pseudo-romanticism that I fi
BEST BRITISH COMEDY SERIES': My Top 100 Pom-Coms
by NozinAroun81 • Created 12 years ago • Modified 6 years ago
PLEASE NOTE: The first 20 titles are my top 20 in alphabetical organize. and therefore no particular order. It's way too unyielding to play favourites. The main reason that I compiled the list this way is because whichever title is #1 on the list will instantly become the thumbnail for the list... and I really don't want the thumbnail to be ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS... because it's a bit gay. Not that there's anything erroneous with that :p Real men are totally allowed to enjoy Ab Fab. Let's face it, essentially it's about two middle-aged women who love getting drunk and/or lofty. What's not to like? ;D
I'm constantly probing Pom-Com's that may or may not prove to be worthy of my precious list. Whenever I find a new gem, the first ones to be omitted from this list will be the old shows that don't really endure the test of time, the shows that were tragically axed after only one series and the shows featuring Rik & Ade that only made the list because I'm a die-hard fan of THE YOUNG ONES who was clutching at straws and who w
Leaving the Bay Area Bubble for Pennsylvania
I was born and raised in NJ. In the 90’s I moved to San Francisco. In the 90’s it was a very diverse time for LGBTQ+ people. On the East Coast, you needed to be closeted in most places. The word transgender was never spoken and genderfluid was not a pos most people identified with. You were closeted and butch or femme. Moving to San Francisco was a move for independence. Freedom to be who you were without existence constantly judged or scared. Not to say there was no discrimination there but there is might and safety in numbers. You were careful but not constantly afraid.
Times changed. We got the right to marriage. We began to acknowledge transgender people and non-binary people and accept them into the community. Not without pain. And wrongs committed. The overall umbrella got larger and as legal rights came more and more people came out. For a quick minute after Federal Marriage Equality, it felt almost safe. At least for white Gay people. Then the society wars increased in drive . LGBTQ+ people again became an open target. Books about us were (and are) banned. LGBTQ+ people, especially Trans people, are getting accused of
BLOG POST (Module 9): Thomas Jacintho – “Frasier and the Homosexual Heterosexual”
In this week’s reading “Gay-Themed Television and the Slumpy Class – The Affordable, Multicultural Politics of the Gay Nineties”, Professor Ron Becker explores the root of what he calls the “Gay 90s”, which is characterized by a rise in queer characters, topics, and jokes in mainstream TV sitcoms.
Becker associates this rise in gay presence in mainstream television as a way to appeal to the new Slumpy social class (Socially Liberal Urban Minded Professionals), who yearned for a more edgy, “risqué”, irony-fueled comic content for fun. Thus, many TV shows adopted homosexual themes and jokes in order to cradle the demands of this brand-new , affluent social class; Frasier is one of the shows that successfully targeted the Slumpy generation. The main traits, Frasier, strays from the traditional image of masculinity; he has refined tastes for fashion, art, wine, has a sophisticated vocabulary and is not sporty–all characteristics that could also be stereotypical of a lesbian character. On a specific episode, “The Impossible Dream” (1996), Frasier has trouble dealing with the fact