Rocker Melissa Etheridge has found a new stage: The Grammy- and Oscar-winner will unveil a solo show mixing her music and stories off-Broadway.
“Melissa Etheridge: My Window – A Journey Through Life” is set for 12 performances starting Oct. 13. https://t.co/PuLyo0V7OB
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 15, 2022
(Doubt it’ll happen, but I’d pay money for a video of one of these performances, or even a livestream… )
What do @kimkardashian, @gloriasteinem, @theestallion, and @janegoodallinst all have in common? They're gutsy.
Join us for intimate conversations with some of the world's boldest and bravest women.#Gutsy premieres September 9 on Apple TV+. pic.twitter.com/1XZzXyQvBt
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 23, 2022
Cyndi Lauper talks about the return of “Kinky Boots” to New York, so-called cancel culture and the role of artists now that some rights are being rolled back. https://t.co/L0XLk5qYhD
— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) July 26, 2022
… The Cyndi Lauper- and Harvey Fierstein-created musical landed on Broadway in 2013 in the middle of the Obama administration, a big hug of acceptance, tolerance and love. It reappears off-Broadway now at Stage 42 as same-sex gains and privacy rights seem under threat.
The Tony- and Olivier-winning musical is about a staid British shoe factory on the brink of ruin that retrofits itself into a maker of footwear for drag queens and embraces its queerness.
Lauper, whose hits include “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and “Time After Time,” has long been an advocate for the LGBTQ community, starting the nonprofit advocacy organization that would become True Colors United in 2008. She also backs abortion rights and just reworked her 1993 song “Sally’s Pigeons,” which she wrote about a friend who died from a botched abortion.…
AP: “Kinky Boots” is all about acceptance and reaching out. Do you worry about the tone of the country now that many seem to be opposed to that sentiment?
LAUPER: Who died and left them in charge of everything? Well, I’ll tell you: If you didn’t vote, you left them in charge. As soon as you didn’t vote, they’re in charge. They’re changing the laws.
AP: Why did you release a new version of “Sally’s Pigeons”?
LAUPER: Because I think that we have forgotten what it was like when “Sally’s Pigeons” was a common story. Not a lot of people remember that because they didn’t live that.
AP: Do you think the right represents the wishes of most Americans?
LAUPER: In my mind and in my heart, and in the people I have sung to all around this country, Americans are mostly fair-minded people. We have been put to the test with this COVID thing. We had been put to the test with finances. But do you really want to lose your democracy?…
Cyndi Lauper & Laura Dern ?? pic.twitter.com/jsy5Bpmwv7
— THOMAS???????? (@ThomasRichmond) May 16, 2022
It's the Summer of Joni!
Beloved singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell’s renaissance picked up even more speed when Berklee College of Music awarded her an honorary doctorate. https://t.co/A5ZHKU4be5
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) August 25, 2022
Sister Golden Bear
First!
Danielx
@Sister Golden Bear:
well deserved.
Elizabelle
Kim Kardashian? Seriously? One of these women is … not like the others.
Wyatt Salamanca
I can’t think of anyone else more deserving than the iconic Joni Mitchell!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfcIzBQ0Zrk
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
Thank you.
HumboldtBlue
Madam CJ Walker and Ida B Wells are now dolls who will inspire and who will be celebrated by kids everywhere.
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
I absolutely adored Cyndi Lauper when I was a little girl (I remember begging my mom to let me do that waffle thing to my hair) and still love her now. I’d like to agree with her that Americans are mostly fair-minded, but…
Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)
@Elizabelle: Or they’re just casting a wide net for viewers. I’m indifferent to her, but she has a lot of people following her. Why not get their attention?
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
@Wyatt Salamanca: Agreed! I’m glad to see her getting lauded and receiving so much love. I was pleased when a nasty troll left a mean comment about her appearance on some news FB post, there was a torrent of angry pushback against him. After everything she’s been through, some bros are still angry that a woman has the audacity to age and/or not look hot for them.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA): that name brought me up short, but if the Clintons (and the Dems) can bring her even some fraction of her followers toward the light (and the voting booths)…? We’re playing a game on inches for as far as I can see, when every election is the most important one of our lives
HumboldtBlue
Moms put on the pads and take on their sons at football practice.
Redshift
Kinky Boots is such an awesome show! (And the original movie, with Chiwetel Ejiofor as Lola is great, too.)
HumboldtBlue
Olivia Julianna is having fun on Twitter.
If you’re wondering what led to the sudden shift in the official White House Twitter account’s posting strategy: Megan Coyne, the voice of New Jersey, is headed to the White House
Miki
Best. Thread. Evah.
Steeplejack
@Miki:
“This content isn’t available right now.
“When this happens, it’s usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it or it’s been deleted.“
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
@Miki: Looks like it’s not a public post.
Geminid
Yesterday I was a little surprised to hear that Johnny Mathis will be singing next month at tbe Paramount Theatre in Charlottesville. Mathis is 86 years old and has been a wealthy man for decades, so he must really love to sing.
Mathis’s life story is interesting. He was born in Gilmer, Texas, in 1935 and his family moved to San Fransisco not long after. He started playing piano and singing at a young age. Later, a voice teacher gave Mathis lessons in exchange for houshold chores.
His other love was sports, and Mathis won a track scholarship to San Francisco State University. He was a hurdler, and the second best college high jumper in the state (Bill Russell was better).
Johnny Mathis was invited to try out for the 1956 US Olympic team. The trials were scheduled the same time as Mathis’ first recording sessions, in New York City, and he chose to sing.
Miki
It’s a FB share – is this working? https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0U6kpMsGypc4DMK7FMj4nDg4np3ndjwRDVZQf2AXiFC9G9wE5KJnVVwRhNaTb9ojXl&id=1521196228&sfnsn=mo
Steeplejack
@Miki:
That seems to work—25-plus photos of a dog, “hangover cure.”
Honus
@Geminid: Johnny Mathis and Bill Withers (Slab Fork, WV) became good friends when they served together in the Navy, and Withers wrote “I Am My Father’s Son” for Mathis to sing for Bill Russell in 2013.
Geminid
@Honus: Hey, Honus! I think I lost your number. Please shoot me a text when you get a chance.
I hope all is well with you and yours.
prostratedragon
@HumboldtBlue: Watching a documentary about Ida B. Wells on Chicago PBS right now. Among her many projects, she helped a local gambler kick off a theater as a class entertainment venue.
HumboldtBlue
@prostratedragon:
I know what rabbit hole I’m going down tonight.
@Geminid:
That’s a note to add to the I learned today file.
Jackie
@Geminid: Love Johnny Mathis. I grew up listening to him. He always looked like he was chewing gum while singing.
Old School
I guess I’d be surprised if it didn’t end up on a streaming service or get filmed for a physical release.
HumboldtBlue
It’s a women-focused thread, OK, here’s a woman youse know about:
There’s also Karen Carpenter.
Mnemosyne
Slightly younger demographic, but Meghan Markle has a podcast now and her first guest was her good friend Serena Williams talking about what it’s been like to be a top athlete who’s also a Black woman.
Mai Naem mobile
If you want to talk about a woman that made a significant difference to the world, I give you Dr Frances Kelsey the woman who figured out that there was a problem with thalidomide.. I am kind of surprised Hollywood has never done a movie about this woman. I guess showing kids with no limbs is not the easiest thing to show in a movie.
https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_182.html
HumboldtBlue
@Mnemosyne:
Beto is working the campaign trail. Gotta be some hope.
Another Scott
More NFLTG from POTUS.
(Via a comment at Wonkette)
Cheers,
Scott.
sab
Sad state of affairs. Mnem with no trolls.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@HumboldtBlue: She also invented frequency-hopping radio which could have made a huge difference in communication security (it would be decades before it was reinvented) but the military leadership weren’t interested in a woman doing science, and told her to just go off, be pretty and sell war bonds.
I got this from the documentary called Bombshell The Hedy Lamarr Story. Check it out if you can.
eclare
@sab: Hahaha! How are you and husband/patient doing?
sab
@eclare: Iffy butokay.1
opiejeanne
@Another Scott: That made me laugh.
sab
Healing is harder becaise it is all under duress so not real. I am deeply angry right now. I will take care of him but I am angry
ETA And he lashes out because he is crippled by the surgery and he hates that.
We are not in a good place mentally right now..
So he calls his sister in, and she is a trouble maker.
eclare
@sab: Ugh. One day at a time, I guess.
prostratedragon
The “Chicago Stories” documentary about Ida B. Wells is on youtube.
An essay on her substantial relationship with the Pekin Theater, an early Black-owned and operated venue.
Jager
@Jackie:
When I was a high school kid, here’s how it worked: if your girlfriend got out the Johnny Mathis records, you were in for some heavy “necking” on the sofa. A few years later the Righteous Brothers took over Johnny’s job.
prostratedragon
Some period theme song music for the Pekin Theater:
Harry Martin’s “Pekin Rag,” digitally scored by Dorian Henry
Joe Jordan’s “Pekin Rag” with “J.J.J. Rag,” performed by Reginald R. Robinson
JWR
@HumboldtBlue:
Yes! She was incredible, especially on their slow stuff, where her jazz experience really shines.
lowtechcyclist
@Another Scott:
I was expecting this one:
Telling it like it is.
ETA: I assume “American” was a typo on Rupar’s part.
WereBear
@lowtechcyclist: I like it. Cleave off the MAGAts, and deal with a house divided.
There go two miscreants
@HumboldtBlue: Good article. I like the jab at Chris Christie at the end too!
Soprano2
@Geminid: It’s definitely not about the money. When you’re a musician, it’s not something you do, it’s part of who you are. I always thought my previous conductor would die on the podium; he only retired at the age of 83 because he got an infection that became septic and almost died (he was a Christian Scientist, his wife called 911 when he passed out and fell down the stairs. She probably saved his life. He died from Covid at the age of 89.) You can’t not do it.
lowtechcyclist
@WereBear:
It was good to hear a major Democrat – and you don’t get any more major than POTUS – say that the MAGAts are trying to destroy this country.
Too often Democrats have been reluctant to say just how bad the Rethugs really have gotten and what they’re really about, afraid it might rattle the teacups of people like Maggie Haberman, and I think that’s at least a small part of the reason why things have gotten to this point in the first place.
But now that we’re here, we’re in an existential fight for this country (and really the world, given climate change), and it’s important that our leaders not pussyfoot around that reality.
So major props to Biden for spelling it out. And yeah, framing it to put the MAGAts on one side, and Dems, independents, and sane Republicans on the other, was perfect. There may not be that many sane Republicans left, but if they’re even just 2% of the electorate and we get their votes this year, we should be able to do what we need to do this November.
raven
@lowtechcyclist: Small sample but a good friend told me last night that the attacks on the FBI turned his Trumper Pennsyltucky brother!
JWR
@There go two miscreants:
Heh, indeed!
David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@lowtechcyclist:
Well, except for Major Biden
Baud
@raven:
Whoa.
germy shoemangler
Patricia Kayden
@Elizabelle: She’s fairly popular so if she can use her popularity for good, I’m cool with that. I’m not a fan and have never watched her show(s) but I recall that she talked Orange Bigot into freeing at least one Black woman from prison, which was good.
oatler
My mother liked my “Forever Changes” album because it was “pretty” and the singer sounded like Johnny Mathis.
zhena gogolia
@sab: Your husband sounds like me.
Josie
@zhena gogolia:
Is your convalescence not going as well as you had hoped? I find that, as I get older, even minor injuries take longer to heal. Patience is required and that is hard.
David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
2 weeks ago today the usual suspects in the media were gleefully predicting the FBI search would lead to a rpublican backlash at the ballot box and then they lost a R+3 district on Tuesday.
David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@germy shoemangler:
It’s almost as if Devin Nunez left his congressional seat for nothing. Who could have known.
Patricia Kayden
@David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: The media is rooting for a party which put them in pens during political rallies and called them “fake news”. Go figure.
zhena gogolia
@Josie: it’s been really slow and I have to start teaching on Labor Day, probably still on a cane
Miss Bianca
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Yeah, I found out about Hedy LaMarr’s career inventing IT security from a biography I read about ten years ago.
A friend of mine does a one-woman show about her called Stand Still and Look Stupid, based on this episode in her career.