sundance

Now playing on Sundance Channel: Get ready for Valentine’s Day with some Yakuza murders

It’s hard to believe we’re less than a week away from everybody’s least favorite Hallmark holiday, Valentine’s Day. If the mere thought of heart shaped boxes of chocolates and overpriced roses makes you want to gouge someone’s eyes out, then let the movies take you away! You are far less likely to end up with jail time. And if violence isn’t your thing, we’ve also got some indie stalwarts, and even a bit of rom com lined up to get you through the next week.

Bring on the Oscar movies! And the Oscar fatigue!

The season of grossout comedies and screechy animated romps is spewing to an end as we brace ourselves for the period when actual quality films might come out of the darkness. And these films know they’re quality.

In fact, the releases from now till December 31 have been aggressively devised to win Oscars and will be prestigiously rammed down our throats until someone votes for them!

The top choices:

* Ages ago, George Clooney went from TV star to Oscar bait, and his new one will hardly stop his pedigree parade from marching on. It’s The Ides of March, directed by Clooney (who costars with Ryan Gosling), and seeing as it examines dirty politics from the inside, it couldn’t be any more tawdrily topical. Opens October 7

* Leonardo DiCaprio gets a star role—and hopefully some nice gowns—as FBI head J. Edgar Hoover in Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar. It doesn’t take an investigator to smell Oscar potential here. October 21

Woody Allen’s SHADOWS AND FOG turns 20

2011 marks the 20th anniversary of Woody Allen’s SHADOWS AND FOG, meaning, among other things, that the prolific filmmaker has made 20 films since (actually, he’s made 21, but who’s counting?). In 1989 Allen made the much-loved CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, followed by the slightly less loved ALICE, and then SHADOWS AND FOG, which was, unfortunately, even less of a hit amongst audiences. The early 90s New York Times film critic Vincent Canby actually ended his review with a ridiculous “note of caution: SHADOWS AND FOG operates on its own wavelength. It is different. It should not be anticipated in the manner of other Allen films.”

Come on, Vogue

ME AT NINE, PERFORMING TO MADONNA IN SUMMER ’91! from Robert Jeffrey on Vimeo. I don’t know who Robert Jeffrey is, but God I need to! He’s uploaded this amazingly gay video on Vimeo of himself, age nine, proving Gaga’s not the only formidable challenger to Madge’s gay icon status. This made my day! Week! [...]

Just be a queen

The editors of Out Magazine asked me to pen an essay in defense of Lady Gaga, as many within our community are vocally criticizing her new anthem “Born This Way.” That can be read here. But I also thought I’d share it with the SUNfiltered community too. See below.

Little Monsters

Lady Gaga just Tweeted this slideshow she put together of many a monster who dressed in her likeness for Halloween. It’s pretty cool to watch see the diversity of her fans: age, shape, sex, sexuality, race. They’re like a rainbow coalition of freak flag flyers! Another remarkable thing after watching it is just how many [...]

Madonna pens a letter

Popnography found the above gem of a letter written by Madonna to Steven Miesel when she was filming A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN in Chicago. It’s shocking for a few reasons. The first being how old it made me feel because, OMG, I remember the olden days of handwritten notes! Now, she texts I am [...]

Girls Just Wanna Sing the Blues

Cyndi Lauper‘s an icon known for reinvention. Not in that chameleon-like way Madonna’s done it over the years. She’s reinvented herself musically: downtown punk pop turned into adult contemporary into disco diva into standard interpreter to her current incarnation, full-throated blues singer. The squeaky-voiced woman with many octaves went to Memphis and caught up with [...]

La Isla Alejandro

I appreciate Lady Gaga. Really I do. The pop culture/art/downtown performers/drag references in her work often make me giggle, sometime make me wince, but also make me think that’s she’s pretty bright for someone her age. What I don’t like about Gaga, and what I think Madonna did effortlessly, is that she seems incapable of [...]

The Empire Diner to close

I wouldn’t normally write obituaries around here for diners, but the news that NYC’s iconic Empire Diner is shuttering its doors on May 15th has my panties in a bunch. I mean, really? Yet another institution destroyed in NYC’s grand scheme to put bank branch in every single retail storefront in every single city neighborhood [...]

Glee Vogues

Gays across the country freaked out over two of the gayest pop culture icons, Madonna and Glee, coming together. Yes, Glee did Madonna. The folks over at Defamer ran this hilarious side-by-side of Glee’s Vogue and the original. Glee’s is spot-on. And Jane Lynch does Madge better than Madge has in recent years. A real [...]

Designing Madonna’s Malawi

New schools, even really nice ones in developing countries, don’t necessarily make headlines without endorsement from celebrities and Academy for Girls in Lilongwe is no exception. While Madonna and her organization, Raising Malawi, haven’t always received praise (her 2006 adoption was infamously criticized as “akin to slavery“), hiring New York-based architectural group Studio MDA to design Academy for Girls is definitely a step in the right direction.

50 Cent featuring Susan Boyle, not Lil’ Kim

Hip-hop stars rush at the chance to collaborate. You pick up a rap album and it seems almost always to be a duet disc with guest vocalists appearing on multiple tracks. Pop stars caught on to this craze too. Trying to gain street cred and a younger audience, performers as diverse as Madonna, Beyonce, and Maroon 5 have enlisted the guest hip-hop performer to appear on their discs. Hell, I even think Wyclef Jean and Kanye West have been on more records for others than on their own songs.

Bad Romance, amazing video

I wrote an essay a few weeks back about Lady GaGa’s taking over from Madonna and becoming the numero uno gay pop icon. And any gay with a Facebook account can attest to this with a simple look at their status update bar from this week. The gays are going gaga over Bad Romance, the new [...]

FULL FRONTAL FASHION roundup

Think of this as your FULL FRONTAL FASHION cliff notes. Our pick this week in Who_What_Where: Molly, who’s street style is painfully sweet. Tim Burton and Tim Walker team up and give you exactly what you think they would: eerie, beautiful fantasy photos. Lynn Yaeger becomes the ultimate party hopper in a tutu.  But when [...]

Blonde heir – Madonna and Lady Gaga

Unless you have been living under a rock then assuredly you have witnessed the pop culture tipping point and subsequent freaky-deaky takeover of the world by one Miss Lady Gaga. It should be noted that she’s not your typical Madonna-wannabe. She’s the heir apparent.

Madonna’s new album – Like a daughter?

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Gays across the globe are anxiously awaiting (yet another) Madonna greatest hits package. The album, Celebration, also features two new songs, one of which, the title track, finds Madge back in the 90s amid a pulsing electro beat created by Paul Oakenfold. Madonna’s an artist who usually collaborates with cutting edge producers so it seems a little odd she’s embracing this sound now. But I guess the 90s are back and I just don’t know about it.

Equinox wants you to pump up the jams

When you pay $180 a month to work out a gym you expect more than just some clean towels and a working sauna. Thankfully, Equinox knows this and is doing some pretty interesting things to keep their patrons pumped up and energized. This Fall Equinox has partnered with an eclectic mix of musical artists-Dave Navarro, Michael Buble, [...]

Madonna as a Warholian prototype

Madonna was friends with Andy Warhol. He and Keith Haring gave her a collaborative painting for her wedding to Sean Penn in 1985. But, due most likely to Warhol’s untimely death, the pop princess was never one of his portrait subjects. Until now. In an homage to Warhol, Marilyn Monroe, and her own iconic status [...]

Without you she’s nothing

Tonight lesbian icon Sandra Bernhard will perform her classic show Without You I’m Nothing at New York City’s Town Hall. The one woman show played off-Broadway as the 80s died down and it was her creative, critical and commercial peak. She’s not danced with mainstream crossover possibilities since. Roseanne doesn’t count.