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celluloidrainbow · 7 months
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THE CELLULOID CLOSET (1995) dir. Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman This documentary highlights the historical contexts that gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders have occupied in cinema history, and shows the evolution of the entertainment industry's role in shaping perceptions of LGBT figures. The issues addressed include secrecy - which initially defined homosexuality - as well as the demonization of the community with the advent of AIDS, and finally the shift toward acceptance and positivity in the modern era. (link in title)
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yourdailyqueer · 1 year
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Rob Epstein
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Gay
DOB: 6 April 1955  
Ethnicity: White - American
Occupation: Director, producer, screenwriter
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theoscarsproject · 7 months
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The Times of Harvey Milk (1984). A documentary of the successful career and assassination of San Francisco's first elected gay city supervisor.
A powerful testament to empathy, representation and community, while also being a powerful indictment of individualism and the US justice system. Just a really excellent, affecting documentary. 8/10.
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haverwood · 2 years
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Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman USA, 1989 ★★★★ Imagine all that could've been done if conservatives weren't running the US back then..
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letterboxd-loggd · 2 years
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The Celluloid Closet (1995) Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman
April 10th 2022
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On January 14, 1988 The Times of Harvey Milk debuted in Portugal.
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marcogiovenale · 2 years
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oggi, alle 14, per "tutta scena teatro", di radio onda rossa: "urlo", di allen ginsberg
oggi, alle 14, per “tutta scena teatro”, di radio onda rossa: “urlo”, di allen ginsberg
Tutta Scena Teatro ★ Radio Onda Rossa 87.9 fm martedì 27 settembre 2022 – ore 14 ● URLO di Allen Ginsberg dal film ‘Urlo’ di Rob Epstein e Jeffrey Friedman interpretata da Alessandro Tiberi musiche di Carter Burwell «Ho visto le menti migliori della mia generazione distrutte da pazzia». Con questi versi, letti da Ginsberg stesso il 13 ottobre 1955 alla Six Gallery di San Francisco, si apre…
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joen-lenawley · 3 months
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Which Talligan is Which Beatle
Joe Hawley is obviously John Lennon, no debate there. My username was chosen because of this.
Ross Federman is Ringo Starr because they were drummers, not the first drummer in their band, and also I saw somewhere that Ringo had a small streak of gray/white hair back in his mop-top days? Idk for sure though, but Ross obviously has the gray hair so…
Rob Cantor is Paul McCartney because they are both the “twinkiest” (is that a word) members of their respective bands. Also they are both “silly love song” guys.
Andrew Horowitz is George Harrison because they are both quiet and often underappreciated in terms of songwriting. Also idk I’m running out of options
Zubin Sedghi is Stuart Sutcliffe because…bassist. Also when you say their names they both kinda stay towards the front of the mouth, and…idk man.
Bora Karaca is Mal Evans because they are both cool roadies who sometimes play on their songs.
Idk who would be Brian or Yoko (if you want to include her)
Also I was very unsure about most of this, so if you have a different opinion, please tell me!
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biglisbonnews · 1 year
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More Epstein "associates" to be named in court docs, including UK financier who texted with him about "Disney princesses" The names of more associates of billionaire sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein will be unsealed by a New York court presently, reports the The Daily Mail, including "salacious" allegations. Prince Andrew, who is accused of having sex with Epstein victim Virginia Roberts when she was 17, and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, are understood to be among the individuals mentioned in the papers.  — Read the rest https://boingboing.net/2023/02/16/more-epstein-associates-to-be-named-in-court-docs-including-uk-financier-who-texted-with-him-about-disney-princesses.html
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reality-detective · 3 months
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Here are just a few of the visitors to Jeffrey Epstein's island who were confirmed: 👇
▪️Adam Perry Lang
▪️Akon
▪️Al Gore
▪️Alan Dershowitz
▪️Albert Pinto
▪️Alee Baldwin
▪️Allison Mack
▪️Alyssa Rogers
▪️Anderson Cooper
▪️Andrea Mitrovich
▪️Andres Pastrana
▪️Angelina Jolie
▪️Anthony Kiedis
▪️Anthony Weiner
▪️Barack Obama
▪️Ben Affleck
▪️Bernie Sanders
▪️Beyonce
▪️Bill Clinton
▪️Bill Gates
▪️Bob Saget (deceased)
▪️Bruce Willis
▪️Casey Wasserman
▪️Callum Hudson-Odoi
▪️Celine Dion
▪️Charles Barkley
▪️Charlie Sheen
▪️Charlize Theron
▪️Chelsea Handler
▪️Cher
▪️Chris Tucker
▪️Chris Wagner
▪️Chrissy Teigen
▪️Cyndi Lauper
▪️Claire Hazel
▪️Courteney Cox
▪️Courtney Love
▪️Demi Moore
▪️Dan Schneider
▪️David Koch
▪️David Spade
▪️David Yarovesky
▪️Dolores Zorreguieta
▪️Donovan Mitchell
▪️Doug Band
▪️Drew Barrymore
▪️Ed Buck
▪️Ed Tuttle
▪️Ehud Barak
▪️Ellen DeGeneres
▪️Ellen Spencer
▪️Eminem
▪️Emmy Tayler
▪️Fleur Perry Lang
▪️Francis X. Suarez
▪️Freya Wissing
▪️Gary Roxburgh (pilot)
▪️George Clooney
▪️Ghislaine Maxwell
▪️Glenn Dubin
▪️Greg Holbert (deceased)
▪️Gwen Stefani
▪️Gwendolyn Beck
▪️Hank Coller (pilot)
▪️Heather Mann
▪️Heidi Klum
▪️Henry Rosovsky
▪️Hillary Clinton
▪️James Franco
▪️James Gunn
▪️Jay-Z
▪️Jean-Luc Brunel (deceased)
▪️Jean-Michel Gathy
▪️Jeffrey Jones (deceased)
▪️Jim Carrey
▪️Jimmy Kimmel
▪️Joe Biden
▪️Joe Pagano
▪️John Cusack
▪️John Legend
▪️John Podesta
▪️John Travolta
▪️Joy Behar
▪️Juan Pablo Molyneux
▪️Juliette Bryant
▪️Justin Roiland
▪️Justin Trudeau
▪️Kathy Griffin
▪️Katy Perry
▪️Kelly Spam
▪️Kevin Spacey
▪️Kirsten Gillibrand
▪️Kristy Rogers (deceased)
▪️Lady Gaga
▪️Larry Summers
▪️Larry Visoski (pilot)
▪️Laura Z. Wasserman
▪️Lawrence M. Krauss
▪️Linda Pinto
▪️Lisa Summers
▪️Lynn Forester de Rothchild
▪️Madonna
▪️Mandy Ellison (assistant)
▪️Mare Collins-Rector
▪️Marina Abramovic
▪️Mark Epstein
▪️Mark Lloyd
▪️Melinda Luntz
▪️Meryl Streep
▪️Michelle Obama
▪️Michelle Wolf
▪️Mikel Arteta
▪️Miley Cyrus
▪️Nadine Dorries
▪️Naomi Campbell
▪️Naomi Watts
▪️Natalie Blachon de Perrier
▪️Nicole Junkermann
▪️Olga Kurylenko
▪️Oliver Sacks
▪️Oprah
▪️Orlando Bloom
▪️Paris Hilton
▪️Patton Oswatt
▪️Paul Mellon
▪️Paula Epstein (deceased)
▪️Paula Hala
▪️Peter P. Marino
▪️Pharrell Williams
▪️Prince Andrew
▪️Prince Charles
▪️Quentin Tarantino
▪️Rachel Maddow
▪️Rainn Wilson
▪️Ralph Ellison
▪️Ray Barzana (pilot)
▪️Ricardo Legorreta Vilchis
▪️Rihanna
▪️Rita Wilson
▪️Rob Reiner
▪️Robert DeNiro
▪️Robert Downey Jr.
▪️Rodney E. Slater
▪️Ronald Burkle
▪️Rudy Gobert
▪️Sander Burger
▪️Sarah Kellen (assistant)
▪️Sarah Silverman
▪️Seth Green
▪️Shelley Harrison
▪️Shelley Lewis
▪️Sophie Biddle-Hakim
▪️Sophie Trudeau
▪️Stephen Collins
▪️Stephen Colbert
▪️Steven Spielberg
▪️Steven Tyler
▪️Svetlana Glazunova
▪️Teala Davies
▪️Tiffany Gramza
▪️Tom Hanks
▪️Tom Pritzker
▪️Tyler Grasham (deceased)
▪️Victor Salva
▪️Wanda Sykes
▪️Whoopi Goldberg
Of course we knew some of these already. 🤔
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ncwhereman · 7 months
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spanish holiday: a collection
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Let me ask you about something else that was in the Hunter Davies book. At one point you and Brian went off to Spain. Yes. Did you… you must have... We didn’t have an affair. You never had an affair with Brian? No, not an affair. Yoko: [laughs] What were the pressures from Brian? Cyn was having a baby and the holiday was planned, but I wasn’t going to break the holiday for a baby and that’s what a bastard I was. And I just went on holiday. I watched Brian picking up the boys. I like playing a bit faggy, all that. Yoko: [laughs] It was enjoyable, but there were big rumours in Liverpool, it was terrible. Very embarrassing. Rumors about you and Brian? Oh, fuck knows—yes, yes. I was pretty close to Brian because if somebody's going to manage me, I want to know them inside out. And there was a period when he told me he was a fag and all that. I introduced him to pills, which gives me a guilt association for his death. I mean they go that way anyway. And to make him talk—to find out what he’s like. And I remember him saying, “Don’t ever throw it back in me face, that I’m a fag.” Which | didn’t. But his mother’s still hiding that. But what I hate is the way they’re all attacking Allen. And Brian was a nice guy, but he knew what he was doing, he robbed us. He fucking took all the money and looked after himself and his family, and all that. And it’s just a myth. I hate the way that Allen is attacked and Brian is made like an angel, just cause he’s dead. He wasn't, he was just a guy. Allen will go berserk when he hears all this.
John Lennon, Jann S. Wenner, Lennon Remembers, 1970
Bob had insinuated that me and Brian had had an affair in Spain. And I must have been frightened of the fag in me to get so angry.
John Lennon, 1972, Peter McCabe and Robert D Schonfeld, John Lennon—For The Record, 1984
Brian was in love with me. It's irrelevant. I mean, it's interesting and it will make a nice Hollywood Babylon someday about Brian Epstein’s sex life, but it's irrelevant, absolutely irrelevant.
John Lennon, Playboy, 1980
I was on holiday with Brian Epstein in Spain, where the rumours went around that he and I were having a love affair. Well, it was almost a love affair, but not quite. It was never consummated. But it was a pretty intense relationship. It was my first experience with a homosexual that I was conscious was homosexual. He had admitted it to me. We had this holiday together because Cyn was pregnant, and I went to Spain and there were lots of funny stories. We used to sit in a cafe in Torremolinos looking at all the boys and I’d say, ‘Do you like that one, do you like this one?’ I was rather enjoying the experience, thinking like a writer all the time: I am experiencing this, you know. And while he was out on the tiles one night, or lying asleep with a hangover one afternoon, I remember playing him the song Bad To Me. That was a commissioned song, done for Billy J Kramer, who was another of Brian’s singers.
John Lennon, Rolling Stone, 1980
Very quickly John became jumpy and on edge. He was beginning to feel trapped and it was time for him to escape but before he left he told me that Brian had asked him to go on holiday to Spain with him and he wanted to know if I objected. I must admit the request hit me like a bolt out of the blue and I really didn’t take it in properly at first but when it sank in I suppressed my true feelings and acquiesced. I was well aware that John deserved a holiday. He had just completed a tour and recording sessions. In actual fact he had never really had a holiday as such. They had all been working very hard and under great pressure since the success of Please Please Me, so I concealed my hurt and envy and gave him my blessings. He was delighted and left me a happy man. I on the other hand was left holding the baby, and what a baby. As soon as John returned from his break in Spain, fully relaxed and raring to get going again, we went together to register our son’s birth.
Cynthia Lennon, A Twist Of Lennon, 1978
Some accounts of that time claim that Brian was in love with John, which was why he wanted to manage the Beatles. I don't believe this for a second. They had a good relationship, but Brian cared for all the boys and he wanted success for the group because he thought they had something unique. Claims have been made since that Brian and John had a gay relationship. Nothing could be further from the truth. John was a hundred per cent heterosexual and, like most lads at that time, horrified by the idea of homosexuality. The bond between John and Brian was one of mutual respect and friendship. They liked and admired each other. Brian could see John's intelligence and distinctive talent. John appreciated Brian's business ability and his ambition for the group. They talked for hours and planned the group's future together. They both wanted the Beatles to be the biggest thing since Elvis, and were hell bent on making it happen.
When Julian was three weeks old, Brian invited John to go to Spain with him. John asked if I'd mind and I said, truthfully, that I wouldn't. I was preoccupied with Julian and nowhere near ready to travel, but I knew how much John needed a break where he wouldn't be recognised and could really relax. I gave them my blessing and they went off together for twelve days. It was a holiday John came to regret because it sparked off a string of rumours about his relationship with Brian. He had to put up with sly digs, winks and innuendo that he was secretly gay. It infuriated him: all he'd wanted was a break with a friend, but it was turned into so much more.
Cynthia Lennon, John, 2005
Brian and John spent so much time together, scheming and dreaming about the Beatles' future, that they seemed almost inseparable. In April 1963, John went so far as to accompany Brian on a holiday in Spain, leaving Cyn behind with their newborn son. In the absence of this decidedly odd couple, tongues began wagging all over town. I visited John at Aunt Mimi's a few days after his return to England. And when he started in about how much he had enjoyed Spain, I could hardly resist taking the piss out of him. "So you had a good time with Brian, then?" I smirked. Nudge nudge, wink wink. I was somewhat taken aback when John didn't so much as crack a smile. "Oh, fuckin' hell," he groaned. "Not you as well, Pete!" "What do you mean, not me as well?" "They're all fucking going on about it." "It's O.K., John. Don't take it so serious. I'm just joking, for Christ's sake." "Actually Pete," he said softly, "Something did happen with him one night." Now that wiped the grin right off my face. Had I even dreamed there might be any truth what soever to the rumors, I would never have made light of the subject in the first place. Still— as John surely knew— I would have stood by him, and let the rest of the world handle the business of passing moral judgment, even if he had just told me he'd committed murder. And John would surely have done the same for me. Which, after all, is what true friendship is all about. "What happened," John explained, "is that Eppy just kept on and on at me. Until one night I finally just pulled me trousers down and said to him: 'Oh, for Christ's sake, Brian, just stick it up me fucking arse then.' "And he said to me, 'Actually, John, I don't do that kind of thing. That's not what I like to do.' "'Well,' I said, 'what is it you want to do, then?' "And he said, 'I'd really just like to touch you, John.' "And so I let him toss me off." And that was that. End of story. "That's all, John?" I said. "Well, so what? What's the big fucking deal, then?" "Yeah, so fucking what! The poor bastard. He's having a fucking hard enough time anyway." This was in reference to the "butch" dockers who, on several recent occasions, had rewarded Brian's advances by beating him to a bloody pulp. "So what harm did it do, then, Pete, for fuck's sake?" John asked rhetorically. "No harm at all. The poor fucking bastard, he can't help the way he is." "No need to get so worked up," I said. "You know I don't give a shit. What's a fucking wank between friends anyway?" We then moved on to other topics, and neither of us ever mentioned the incident again. (And as far as I was concerned, the real revelation that night was not that John had "had it off" with Brian, but that he had demonstrated— albeit in his own brusque way—such genuine compassion for that most hopelessly besotted of all his many admirers.) Unfortunately, certain Liverpool acquaintances (who had no way of knowing that there was a kernel of truth to their allegations) wouldn't let John hear the end of it. All in good fun, no doubt, but John was still too enamored of his macho self-image to take lightly any inference that he was anything less than 100 percent heterosexual.
Pete Shotton, Nicholas Schaffner, John Lennon: In My Life, 1983
John told me he had had a one-night stand with Brian, on a holiday with him in Spain, when Brian had invited him out, a few days after the birth of Julian in 1963, leaving Cyn alone. I mentioned this brief holiday in the book, but not what John had alleged had taken place. Partly, I didn't really believe it, though John was daft enough to try almost anything once. John was certainly not homosexual, and this boast, or lie, would have given the wrong impression. It was also not fair on Cynthia, his then wife.
Hunter Davies, The Beatles: The Authorised Biography (updated edition, 2010)
Almost three weeks after the birth of his son—whom he had seen only a couple of times by then—he agreed to go to Spain with Brian on a private holiday, while the other three Beatles flew to the Canaries for their spring break. I don’t think John told Cynthia what he was doing—he rarely told her anything—and he certainly wouldn’t have asked her permission. When she found out, she dissolved in tears, but she was scared of John and said nothing. To say we were astonished is an understatement. Much has been made of this trip. It was sun, sand and sea—but was it also sex? John himself said he finally allowed Brian to make love to him “to get it out of the way.” Those who knew John well, who had known him for years, don’t believe it for a moment. John was aggressively heterosexual and had never given a hint that he was anything but. If it had been George, we might have believed it. George could act camp and had many homosexual friends, but John loved to say things to shock, and his sly statement was probably just another in a long line of such provocative statements. In fact, it was more in character for John to taunt Brian with promises during those long hot nights in Barcelona than to succumb. Equally, it was in Brian’s masochistic nature to enjoy being tormented, then perhaps to rush off in search of a young bullfighter. Brian adored bullfighters so much, he ended up sponsoring one. (And I think Brian would have confided in somebody if it had happened.)
Tony Bramwell, Magical Mystery Tours: My Life With The Beatles, 2014
First, he wanted to make Brian the baby’s godfather. Second, he was leaving on holiday as soon as this tour was over. He was going away with Brian—just the two of them. The other Beatles were going to the Canary Islands. This meant John wouldn’t see Cynthia for several weeks, long after she had returned home from the hospital. Cynthia lay back in the hospital bed, her head spinning. How could John go off and leave her and Julian like that, she demanded, and with Brian Epstein no less? John flared up at her. “Being selfish again, aren’t you?” he said. “I’ve been workin’ my bloody ass off on one-night stands for months now. Those people starin’ from the other side of the glass are bloody everywhere, hauntin’ me. I deserve a vacation. And anyway, Brian wants me to go, and I owe it to the poor guy. Who else does he have to go away with?” Brian and John went to Barcelona at the end of April 1963. It was a city that Brian had explored on his 1959 solo trip to Spain. He had since become a great fan of the bullfights and considered himself something of an aficionado. He took great pleasure in introducing John to the pageantry and excitement. They spent the days shopping and taking side trips. At night they toured the nightclubs. Later in the week they rented a car and drove down the coast to the glistening white town of Sitges on the Costa Brava. Each night they would sit in the candlelit cafés and watch the couples stroll by in the moonlight. Over many bottles of wine they talked candidly about Brian’s personal life. It was a great relief for Brian to finally be able to talk honestly with John. He told John that for a man who valued honesty as dearly as he did, it was a terrible burden for him to live his life a lie. “If you had a choice, Eppy,” John said, “if you could press a button and be hetero, would you do it?” Brian thought for a moment. “Strangely, no,” he said. A little later a peculiar game developed. John would point out some passing man to Brian, and Brian would explain to him what it was about the fellow that he found attractive or unattractive. “I was rather enjoying the experience,” John said, “thinking like a writer all the time: I am experiencing this.” And still later, back in their hotel suite, drunk and sleepy from the sweet Spanish wine, Brian and John undressed in silence. “It’s okay, Eppy,” John said, and lay down on his bed. Brian would have liked to have hugged him, but he was afraid. Instead, John lay there, tentative and still, and Brian fulfilled the fantasies he was so sure would bring him contentment, only to awake the next morning as hollow as before.
Peter Brown, The Love You Make, 1983 can't wait for the full fic on ao3 peter!
One story the Press certainly didn’t get at the time was that in April, in the middle of the euphoria that followed all the early success and acclaim, Brian and John went off to Spain for a holiday. So much invention and rubbish has been made of this trip by so many people since, that the truth deserves at least a brief mention. The most sensational version, of course, is that the holiday was a chance for Brian to consummate his overwhelming passion for John, which inspired him to sign the group in the first place. I’m afraid it wasn’t like that. John roared with laughter at the rumours that began afterwards. Typically, he encouraged the stories that he and Brian were gay lovers because he thought it was funny and John was one of the world’s great wind-up merchants. He told me afterwards in one of our frankest heart-to-hearts that Brian never seriously did proposition him. He had teased Brian about the young men he kept gazing at and the odd ones who had found their way to his room. Brian had joked to John about the women who hurled themselves at him. ‘If he’d asked me, I probably would have done anything he wanted. I was so much in awe of Brian then I’d have tried a night of vice-versa. But he never wanted me like that. Sure, I took the mickey a bit and pretended to lead him on. But we both knew we were joking. He wanted a pal he could have a laugh with and someone he could teach about life. I thought his bum boys were creeps and Brian knew that. Even completely out of my head, I couldn’t shag a bloke. And I certainly couldn’t lie there and let one shag me. Even a nice guy like Brian. To be honest, the thought of it turns me over.’ All the same, John was very selfish to have gone off on holiday with Brian then because it was just after Cynthia had given birth to his son Julian. John’s whole romance and marriage to Cynthia was kept a secret at the time because Brian feared the effect of publicity about one of the Beatles having a wife, let alone a family.
Alistair Taylor, With The Beatles, 2003
While Brian thought a Beatle’s image could be affected by marriage and fatherhood, his next move proved wildly indiscreet and potentially dangerous. On April 8, 1963, Cynthia gave birth to Julian, and Brian was named his godfather. Shortly afterward, Brian invited John to join him alone on a holiday in Spain. Lennon had been working hard, writing songs and touring Britain. He needed a rest, and Cynthia relished some time alone to adapt to life with a baby. John accepted and flew to Barcelona on April 28 for the twelve-day break. John made it clear to everyone that he was a woman-chaser, a hundred percent heterosexual. But it was inept of Epstein to risk the whispering that was bound to ensue from such an expedition by a manager and a solitary Beatle. It was one of the few times when Brian’s perception of public opinion faltered, for the Spanish trip fueled rumors in Liverpool of an Epstein-Lennon relationship. Paul McCartney’s theory is that “John, not being stupid, saw his opportunity to impress upon Mr. Epstein who was the boss of this group … he wanted Brian to know who he should listen to.” Lennon knew that Brian held him in awe, regarding him as a genius. On their return to Liverpool, Brian and John decided to deal with the gossip decisively. At McCartney’s twenty-first birthday party on June 18, Bob Wooler and Lennon were seen chatting together and within minutes the Beatle had pummeled the Cavern compere to the ground. “He called me a bloody queer, so I bashed his ribs in,” John later told Cynthia. Epstein, no less angry but sensing the need for repairing all wounds, physical and oral, drove Wooler to hospital for treatment of torn knuckles and for shock. Next, Epstein moved swiftly to prevent the friction from escalating. Through his solicitor friend Rex Makin he paid Wooler £200 in damages and insisted that Lennon sent him a telegram of apology. The rumors were quelled. But nothing could prevent the attack on Wooler from reaching the Daily Mirror, whose pop reporter Don Short, in a first recognition of the group’s burgeoning importance, published a back-page story headlined: “Beatle in Brawl Says: Sorry I Socked You.” Since the deaths of Epstein and Lennon, many with no access to, or observation of, both men in their lifetime have peddled the assumption that Brian and John had a sexual liaison. This is despite the lack of any evidence, despite firm declarations of John’s heterosexuality from Cynthia and many other women, and despite the statement by McCartney that he “slept in a million hotel rooms, as we all did, with John and there was never any hint that he was gay.” Brian possibly had a homosexual fascination for Lennon but it could never be reciprocated. And since Epstein was not a predator, that eliminated the likelihood of such a link. More than anyone, Epstein saw the Beatles as an indivisible unit. He would never have risked so profoundly changing his relationship with them, individually or collectively. Nothing mattered more to Brian, after his devotion to his family, than the entity of the Beatles.
Ray Coleman, The Man Who Made The Beatles, 1989
Years later, John finally came clean about what had happened: not to anyone who’d been around at the time, but to the unshockable woman with whom he shared the last decade of his life. He said that one night during the trip, Brian had cast aside shyness and scruples and finally come on to him, but that he’d replied, “If you feel like that, go out and find a hustler.” Afterward, he had deliberately fed Pete Shotton the myth of his brief surrender, so that everyone would believe his power over Brian to be absolute.
Norman Philip, John Lennon: The Life, 2008
I don’t actually know the truth of the John rumour. I suspected that the John trip to Barcelona was a power play on John’s part because John was a very political animal. I think John went away on that Spanish holiday because nobody went on holiday. I would have gone, anyone would have gone. A free holiday? You’re kidding. I’m there. Number two, I’m sure John took Brian aside and said, ‘Hey, you want to deal with this group, I’m the guy you deal with, OK.’ John was that kind of guy. He was a very sensible, very pragmatic guy. So I’m sure that was the main reason John went there. As to whether there was any sort of gay dalliance or whatever, I don’t know. All I can ever say about it is that I slept with John a lot because you had to, you didn’t have more than one bed – and to my knowledge John was never gay.
Paul McCartney, Debbie Geller, In My Life: The Brian Epstein Story, 2000
Brian Epstein was going on holiday to Spain at the same time and he invited John along. John was a smart cookie. Brian was gay, and John saw his opportunity to impress upon Mr Epstein who was the boss of this group. | think that's why he went on holiday with Brian. And good luck to him, too — he was that kind of guy; he wanted Brian to know whom he should listen to. That was the relationship. John was very much the leader in that way, although it was never actually said. So there was the homosexual thing — I'm not sure John did anything but we certainly gave him a lot of grief when he got back.
Paul McCartney, The Beatles Anthology, 2000
My sense of the trip to Barcelona is that it was an intriguing situation because John left his wife to go on this holiday, who was still in hospital having given birth to her first child. So it was an extraordinary thing, but John wanted to go on holiday with Brian and there was a great bond between them. John knew that Brian was going and he also knew that Brian was very attracted to him and I think this intrigued John. My understanding only comes from Brian. I never discussed this with John but I heard that there were lots of discussions about the business of homosexuality and Brian’s homosexuality. But I think it’s wrong to discuss something which is really rather significant when I only know one side of the picture.
Peter Brown, Debbie Geller, In My Life: The Brian Epstein Story, 2000
It had nothing to do with advancement of career. John knew that he already had Brian as an ally; he knew that Brian liked him, was attracted to him and stimulated by his intellect. Anyway, I don’t believe John was that manipulative. And the idea of going along with it, and trying to take advantage of it, just wouldn’t have been Brian’s way.
Peter Brown, Norman Philip, John Lennon: The Life, 2008
It was during the same discussion that he told me that he and John Lennon had been lovers. Now that’s too much for me to take on. We’d never talked about his personal life before, so I left the room.
Lonnie Trimble, Debbie Geller, In My Life: The Brian Epstein Story, 2000
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gatheringbones · 1 year
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[“I began to read deeply, pulling on the threads, getting more and more furious at a system that allowed people to leverage money directly into influence and power—to basically manipulate the population into making a decision. The more I read, the more radical I became. I found Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. I wanted more. I burrowed deeply into queer history, into protest. (I hid the books in my locker.) I read Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution, by David Carter; articles about Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson; websites on the Compton’s Cafeteria uprising; Transgender History, by Susan Stryker. I watched The Times of Harvey Milk, Rob Epstein’s documentary about the life of the assassinated San Francisco supervisor, and the subsequent White Night uprisings following the acquittal of his confessed assassin. I learned the mantra “Queers, don’t be quiet, Stonewall was a riot.” There was all this history that no one had ever taught me, that didn’t fit neatly into the liberal-establishment version of gay rights.
Meanwhile, the financial crisis deepened. It gripped everyone I knew. I watched my family’s retirement accounts evaporate. The small mutual fund where I had deposited my twenty-thousand-dollar enlistment bonus—my literal investment in the system—plummeted in value. I was looking for explanations.
On a rainy afternoon, days after the election, I took a Trailways bus to Syracuse for my first-ever protest. (It’s legal for soldiers to attend protests out of uniform.) Join the Impact had planned events in four hundred cities that day, with an estimated million people in worldwide attendance. I’d read about the protest on Facebook and reached out to the local organizers—a lesbian student and an older gay man—to see what I could do to help. Even with the nasty weather, nearly two hundred people showed up at city hall—mostly younger queers, but a few older couples too. We had rainbow flags and posters that read no h8 and married with pride. I carried a sign that said, in rainbow lettering, equality @ the house, @ the workplace, @ the battlefield. Seeing other people feeling just as hurt as I did restored my sense of being recognized as fully human. But as I counted the crowd, I suddenly thought of the insurgency and counterinsurgency tactics I spent all day studying. Peaceful protest got the Iraqis nowhere. Our soldiers would more or less laugh at the Iraqis who tried civil disobedience. The people with the signs could just be mowed down; they were docile. It was the people who fought back, who refused to move, who even pushed the crowd out of the way as a way of taking a stand and showing political agency—those were the ones who concerned the military. As one major (who worked in operations, not intelligence) had succinctly explained at the base: “We don’t negotiate with protesters—but we sure as hell negotiate with mobs.”]
chelsea manning, from readme.txt
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sourceblog · 9 months
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AMANDA SEYFRIED as Linda Lovelace in LOVELACE (2013) dir. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman
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The wrathful glare of Kali and the callous gaze of Medusa – the emergence of the femme fatale in the female psyche.
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Legend of Kali
In Hindu legend, goddess Durka and her helpers, the Matri goddesses, slay the demon Raktabīja, only to find out that the stains of Raktabīja’s blood act like seed on soil as every drop manifests another duplicate of him. Durka becomes enraged and summons Kali, whom then proceeds to slay and devour Raktabīja and his legion of duplicates. She dances on their corpses and parades around with Raktabīja slain head in her hand, securing the droplets of blood through holding a plate underneath it, so as to prevent further bleeding on the soil. Motivated by her insatiable fury, Kali proceeds with the destruction of all else that crosses her path, but after stepping on the corpse of Lord Shiva, Kali is struck by embarrassment and remorse as her supressed superego is released from her shadow and brings her back to her senses. Lord Shiva’s has the power to liberate Kali from her fury as he is the transcendent Self. He is the benevolent patriarch, yogi supreme, yet also husband and father, suggesting the achievement of harmonious balance between wordily duties and that of holy men. His anima, being integrated, is neither possessing him nor is it plaguing him as a result of repression. He neither falls prey to the manipulative trickery of deceitful women nor does he view women as disdainfully inferior sexual objects.  Only he can liberate Kali from her all-consuming misandry and soothe her sorrows.
Shiva’s non-threatening benevolence makes itself known through the act of laying underneath Kali’s feet. Possessed by wrath, Kali has lost sight of that which is holy. Without recognition of the benevolent aspects of Shiva, Kali’s fury is bound to drown the universe in her flames, however, Durka’s initial intention behind the summoning of Kali was to defeat Raktabīja and his legion of duplicates, rather than bring about the destruction of the universe.
Durka and the Matri goddesses are at loss at Raktabīja’s lack of chivalry in combat and the injustice of his supernatural power. They are the modern-day women whom get harassed by demonic and demeaning men despite enforcing their boundaries. Such men seek to dominate through ridicule rather than reason. The lack of decorum in both combat and dialogue makes the summoning of Kali inevitable for a woman as all else has failed to shield her vulnerability from the malevolence of a demonic beast.
In recent memory, Raktabīja and Poseidon manifested themselves as Harvey Weistein and Jeffrey Epstein, powerful demonic beasts, seeking to preserve their authority whilst uninterested in the discontinuation of their predatory behaviour. The faith in the punitive power of the rule of law arrests Kali from flooding the consciousness of their victims, making Durka and the Matri goddesses persevere in a civilized manner, unlike the instance in which 200 Indian women, armed with vegetable knifes, stones and chilli powder stormed the court hearing of gang-leader and rapist Akku Yadav, dismembering his genitals with a vegetable knife, robbing him of his phallus through a vengeful barbaric act of literal castration, dead in a matter of 15 minutes, leaving his lifeless corpse daggered by kitchen knives on the white marble floor of the court, in an exhibition of gore galore, resembling the sublime beauty of a transcendent piece of art in the eyes of Kali.
Legend of Medusa (Ovid´s version)
In Greek legend, Medusa is the sole mortal among three gorgon sisters, depicted as a beautiful maid with plentiful of potential suitors, longing for the reciprocation of her attention. She is brutally raped in the temple of Athena by God Poseidon as a result of the rejection of his advances. Enraged by the desacralization of her temple, Athena curses Medusa, turning her hair turned into snakes, metamorphosing her into a monstrous form armed with a glare that petrified anyone who dared to meet her eyes.
As if Medusa hadn’t suffered enough, she was later beheaded by demigod Perseus. Many men had tried to behead her prior to Perseus, but all had been turned into stone at the sight of her petrifying glare. Perseus however, was clever enough to stare into the mirror moments before the beheading, instead of in her eyes. As he flew over Libya with Medusa’s decapitated in his hands, blood dripped on the soil and snakes sprout from the droplets. Medusa’s head is later gifted to Athena, whom attaches it to her shield, supplying her with the power of Medusa’s deadly glare in combat.
The legend of Medusa is one of horrific injustice and betrayal. After the violation of her person through the act of rape, her boss, Athena, does the unimaginable: curse her. The ancient equivalent to the modern-day slut shame of a genuine victim of rape. The horrors of rape alone didn’t metamorphize her hair into serpents, it was that the aftermath of her rape was followed by the ultimate betrayal by a deity she had bestowed with trust.
If Kali’s fury has lit her heart on fire, then Athena’s betrayal has frozen Medusa’s heart into ice. In Kali, the Nietzschean will to power is alive and striving, but in Medusa it is nowhere to be found. Medusa, as a beautiful maiden was pure, pure in the sense that she couldn’t conceive of the unfathomable betrayal of Athena, thus when it dawned upon her   hope in both humanity and divinity was lost. Anyone who’s superego isn’t as disturbed as that of Athena and Poseidon will be overwhelmed by their conscience upon meeting Medusa’s gaze. The burden of her victimization is a collective bearing for all to carry, reminding us of the consequences of vicious cruelty.
Every young boy has looked into the eyes of Medusa as their, otherwise loving, mother coolly hit them with the “I’m not mad, I’m disappointed,” remark. Such disappointment, from women, causes a man to cringe in an instinctive act of clenching the gut muscles.
In yogic philosophy, masculine consciousness is associated with fire and believed to reside in the solar plexus. One believes to be speaking figuratively when alluding to bravery as “having guts” but embodied bravery, is quite literally impossible without having a strong presence in the gut area.
The act of cringing is the act of shame as a biological reaction rather than an emotion. Medusa’s ice-cold gaze, cursing one to cringe in shame, is the true extinguisher of a man’s masculine consciousness, making him think twice before he acts next time, however since Medusa has lost hope in the redeeming qualities of man, there will be no next time, whomever meeting her gaze is doomed to freeze for all eternity. The many men whom attempted to behead her prior to Perseus couldn’t bear the collective burden of a restless conscience and thus instinctively attempt to rescue their phallus from the prospect of psychic castration through beheading the source of their restlessness. Such an act of profanity, is nothing short from foolish desperation, a last resort for restoring balance in one’s psyche, bound to fail from the get go, which is why all men prior to Perseus freeze to stone upon their attempted murder.
Perseus only finds success through looking in the mirror at the moment of execution, sparing his phallus from castration as his conscience remains unaffected, but his heinous crime is not without consequence as Medusa’s spilled blood sprout to life venomous serpents on Libyan soil. Medusa is Mahsa Amini, as the Iranian morality police seem to mistake the beauty of a woman’s hair for poisonous serpents. The serpents sprung to life by Medusa’s blood are the many Iranian women unleashing the terror of their liberated hair upon the morality police. Nothing terrifies fundamentalist Islamists more than the emergence of their own anima, as it becomes projected upon an enchanting woman. 
Raktabīja’s blood stains produce duplicates as a reaction to fair female resistance, Medusa’s blood stains produce serpents as a reaction to horrific injustice and a cowardice murder. The moral of the story is that injustice and disrespect of self-assertion lay the groundworks in which mayhem may flourish.
Lastly, Athena attaching Medusa’s head to her shield is a ploy to harness the power of a victim’s hopeless disappointment and masquerade it as her own. Athena, despite being a deity, could impossibly freeze her opponents with her own gaze, as she created Medusa’s through initiating the destruction of her reputation. It is solely through a masquerade in which Athena cosplays victimhood that she can harness the powers of it.
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muzaktomyears · 1 month
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I know there's a lot of answers out there for this question, but personally like what do you think are the best beatle books to read? Like what's the best for you?
hello anon! I'm hyperfixated so I'll read pretty much anything on them tbh. I do like to read the more anecdotal stuff because I love gossip lol - and some of them can be so revealing (both of the Beatles themselves and the authors). But I'll read and have enjoyed lots of stuff: the big biogs, memoirs, fan accounts, academic studies, that novel by Paul's ex publicist.
anyway, here's the list of Beatles books I've read all the way through and what rating out of 5 I'd give them. The books I've rated highest have generally been the big biographies just because I think they tend to say more and tell a fuller story, since obvs that's their purpose, so they're a more satisfying read. My ratings are based on a random combo of what they can tell us about the Beatles, how interesting I find them historiographically/as Beatles reception, and how much I enjoyed reading them.
★★★★★
One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time (Craig Brown)
The Beatles: The Authorised Biography (Hunter Davies)
Shout!: The True Story of the Beatles (Philip Norman)
Love Me Do!: The Beatles' Progress (Michael Braun)
Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America (Jonathan Gould)
The Man Who Gave the Beatles Away: The Amazing True Story of the Beatles' Early Years (Allan Williams & William Marshall)
★★★★☆
The Love you Make: An Insider's Story of the Beatles (Peter Brown & Steven Gaines)
Backbeat: Stuart Sutcliffe - The Lost Beatle (Alan Clayson & Pauline Sutcliffe)
The Gospel According to the Beatles (Steve Turner)
Lennon vs. McCartney: The Beatles, Inter-band Relationships and the Hidden Messages to Each Other in Their Song Lyrics (Adam Thomas)
Beatle! The Pete Best Story (Pete Best & Patrick Doncaster)
Dreaming the Beatles: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole World (Rob Sheffield)
A Cellarful of Noise (Brian Epstein)
Waiting for the Beatles: An Apple Scruff's Story (Carol Bedford)
John (Cynthia Lennon)
John Lennon: In My Life (Pete Shotton & Nicholas Schaffner)
Summer of Love: The Making of Sgt. Pepper (George Martin with William Pearson)
★★★☆☆
John, Paul & Me Before the Beatles: The True Story of the Very Early Days (Len Garry)
The Beatles and Me on Tour (Ivor Davis)
A Twist of Lennon (Cynthia Lennon)
At the Apple's Core: The Beatles from the Inside (Denis O'Dell with Bob Neaverson)
The Guitar's All Right as a Hobby, John (Kathy Burns)
With the Beatles (Alistair Taylor)
The Day John Met Paul: An Hour-By-Hour Account of How the Beatles Began (Jim O'Donnell)
The Beatles: I Was There (Richard Houghton)
All Our Loving: A Beatle Fan's Memoir (Carolyn Lee Mitchell & Michael Munn)
Rock Bottom (Geoff Baker)
Once There Was a Way: What if the Beatles Stayed Together? (Bryce Zabel)
Like Some Forgotten Dream: What if the Beatles Hadn't Split Up? (Daniel Rachel)
Dylan, Lennon, Marx and God (Jon Stewart)
Paul is Undead: The British Zombie Invasion (Alan Goldsher)
★★☆☆☆
Paperback Writer (Mark Shipper)
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