Well, we're back on our nonsense with another episode of the Cozy Pants podcast. James has a rogues' gallery of new characters to introduce, and I've been reading up on the history of gay New York. And perhaps we're a bit late to this particular announcement, but that Avatar cartoon is really quite good! Also this week, we are closing in on the ...
2020-06-15 16:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostHello and welcome to the Sewers of Paris. Fifty-one years ago, a riot against police brutality helped kick off the modern Pride movement, and on this episode we’ll hear from someone who remembers it. He earned the nickname Tree thanks to his six-foot-five stature, and he’s been a part of New York’s gay community going back to the fifties, ...
2020-06-04 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostHi friends,
Like all of you, I've been paying close attention to the protests happening all over the U.S., and looking wherever I can for opportunities to contribute to positive change.
In these monthly update messages, I usually go into detail about what you can expect from me in any given month. But right now I think it's bes...
2020-06-03 01:11:22 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest this week is Steven Capsuto, whose book Alternate Channels documents the history of queer images on television across the twentieth century. An updated edition was released last year and it’s absolutely vital reading for anyone interested in LGBTQ culture — which I suspect is you. Steven’s work as a historian began as a personal p...
2020-05-29 00:02:54 +0000 UTC View PostOn this week's Cozy Pants podcast, we actually talk about something we enjoyed for once. (Although that doesn't stop us from complaining about Star Wars some more.) The Avatar: The Last Airbender really is great! We talk about a few highlights, and almost immediately get sidetracked into a discussion about how the next Batman should be played li...
2020-05-25 16:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest this week is comic book author Marc Andreyko, who’s written for Wonder Woman, Batwoman, Dr. Strange, and more. You might know him for his work on Love is Love, an anthology to benefit the victims of the Pulse shooting. Mark got his big break in comics at a young age, almost entirely by accident, and since then he’s been peppering qu...
2020-05-21 16:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThis week on the Cozy Pants podcast... can you believe we're talking about Cats again? This time it's the SCALDING tea that Andrew Lloyd Weber just spilled regarding his feelings about the Cats 2019 movie, compared to the Cats 1998 direct-to-video adaptation. (He's not a fan of the new Bustopher!) Also, James has created what may be his most obs...
2020-05-18 15:52:30 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest this week is Dee Michel, author of the book “Friends of Dorothy: Why Gay Boys and Gay Men Love the Wizard of Oz.” Dee grew up in the 1950s with the threat of the red scare looming over his family — his parents met at a Communist Party meeting, and there was the constant threat that the family would be exposed. Added to the general...
2020-05-15 00:56:41 +0000 UTC View PostOn this week's Cozy Pants podcast we're reviewing some truly terrible science fiction: We've watched Highlander II and oh BOY is that movie jam-packed with terrible choices. And also others that are outstanding. We also watched Disney's John Carter movie, which features some very interesting characters who get to do precisely zero inter...
2020-05-11 16:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest this week is Amos Mac, one of the founders of the magazine Original Plumbing a decade ago, and more recently one of the writers on the reboot of the show Gossip Girl. Amos was working in queer nightlife when he started the magazine as a fun sexy side project, but it was a runaway hit and took on a life of its own, giving him a foot in t...
2020-05-07 16:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostOn this week's Cozy Pants podcast we're talking about two excellent black and white movies that could not be more different: The Lighthouse, starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson (both of whose names I forgot); and Some Light it Hot, starring Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon and Marilyn Monroe and the woman who played Ensign Rand on Star Trek. We...
2020-05-05 16:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostHello friends!
So, that was April, a month that was both 5 minutes and 84 years long. How are you?
I don't think I'd say that we're all settling into a comfortable routine just yet, what with all the upheaval and uncertainty and whatnot. But even with life still kind of hard to predict, I do see folks adapting ...
2020-05-02 17:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest this week is Broadway’s Seth Rudetsky, writer singer actor and radio host among his many many jobs. You may know him from his Sirius XM shows On Broadway and Seth Speaks, or from the show Disaster which he co-wrote with Jack Plotnick, or from his brand new podcast Seth Rudetsky’s Back to School. Seth is a bundle of energy and enthus...
2020-04-30 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThis week on the Cozy Pants podcast, James and I have a bone to pick with Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber about this Love Never Dies musical -- a sequel to Phantom of the Opera that has everyone saying, "why?" We muse about a handful of other musicals, some of which are actually good. Listeners have written in about udders, among other topics, as well as...
2020-04-27 19:43:27 +0000 UTC View PostI’m very excited to bring you this week’s guest — the fabulous actor and playwright Charles Busch, who first rose to prominence in the 1980s with the show Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and followed up with such hits as Die Mommy Die, Psycho Beach Party, and The Allergist’s Wife, for which he earned a Tony nomination. For the first decade of ...
2020-04-23 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostSome of the most groundbreaking queer moments on television happened on a show that if you’re American, you’ve probably never heard of. Number 96 is one of the most popular TV shows in Australia’s history, but it never managed to successfully make the jump to the US — maybe because its content, in the mid 1970s, was way too risqué for A...
2020-04-16 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostWell, James is in a real state on this week's episode of Cozy Pants. We talk about our recent viewing of The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly -- surprisingly enjoyable, for someone who does not especially love westerns! We explore the playful possibilities of bag balm, a potion from the "Northeast Kingdom," and discover a charming new Disney film abo...
2020-04-13 16:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest this week is Trystan Reece, who starred as Yitzhak in the original LA production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. From an early age, Trystan was laser focused on going to Broadway and becoming a famous actor. But the experience of being an actor, it turns out, helped him learn about passions he never knew he had, and shaped him into the ad...
2020-04-09 16:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThis week, we're pondering the strange sexiness of the movie Onward. How did Pixar manage to make a Dreamworks movie? We also have a full-throated recommendation for the show Beastars, but don't leave that throat too exposed because you never know who might want to bite it. And Tyra has some strange culinary practices, can you believe that?
2020-04-06 16:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostHello friends!
Okay. Yes. Things are weird. Everything's weird! This is supposed to be the time of year when we're shedding our thick winter coats and our hearts are turning to fancy, whatever that is. I'm all about trying to make the best of whatever situation you're in, but this situation is ... well let's call it ...
2020-04-05 17:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostLast week I chatted with comic book author Dale Lazarov, and this week we’ll hear from a comic artist — Joe Phillips. Jos images were some of the first glimpses of gay life I ever saw, back in the 90s as a teenager. His art was simultaneously sexy and wholesome, depicting smiling scantily clad young muscle men in tenet romantic scenes. It wa...
2020-04-02 16:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostHello and welcome to the Sewers of Paris. My guest this week is Dale Lazarov, a comic book writer who specializes in sexy character-based stories. Dale grew up in Puerto Rico, amidst a conservative culture of machismo, and as a young adult he was scandalized by anything sexual. His writing helped him overcome the social baggage that kept him in ...
2020-03-27 16:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostWell, Cats (2019) is now available for digital download and we are obsessed anew! If you would like to hear us talk about this movie for ANOTHER hour, you are in luck. Best of all, there's a new director's commentary with all kinds of fabulous insights, primarily that the director is even WEIRDER about everything than we previously thought. Also...
2020-03-23 16:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest this week has a had a lot of jobs and a lot of adventures, from working on Broadway shows to producing the news alongside Dan Rather, singing to Angela Lansbury, earning a nickname from Fidel Castro, and writing the biography of Madeline Kahn. William Madison knew he had a passion for creative artists from an early age, but there’s no...
2020-03-19 22:43:07 +0000 UTC View PostWell here we are, podcasting from our isolated bunker in Seattle to let you know we're doing OK and are conjuring up some entertainments to keep the stir craziness at bay. On this week's Cozy Pants, James and I explain why Frozen II is ... you know, just okay; and we also decide definitively which Pixar movie we would want to keep us company on ...
2020-03-16 16:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostHello friends!
Whewwww, what a long decade the last few weeks have felt like. I hope you're all healthy and well and keeping safe -- between the coronavirus and endless election angst it's an absolutely bonkers time we seem to be living through right now. But (and it's a big but) we have each other to get through it ...
2020-03-13 22:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostHello and welcome to the Sewers of Paris. Have you ever been lucky enough to enjoy the sensation of villainy? For this week’s episode, we’re revisiting my interview from three years ago with Anthony Olivera, who you might also know for his incisive tweeting as Meakoopa. 2020-03-12 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
How have you discovered your hidden talents? My guest this week is a former shy kid who, after trying to hide from the spotlight for years, was shocked to discover that he’s actually really good at acting, journalism, and go-go dancing. Growing up in a rougher environment, Mike learned the hard ay that he’d sometimes be challeng...
2020-03-05 17:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest this week has a lot of stories to share, both in his role as a filmmaker and as person who’s lived a lot of lives. Dan Steadman’s upbringing in a sheltered religious community found him placed in a lot of unusual circumstances, surreptitiously consuming forbidden entertainment and rebooting his entire identity when his family swappe...
2020-02-28 02:48:21 +0000 UTC View PostOn this week's Cozy Pants podcast, we're reflecting on a film that sits halfway between Labyrinth and Mac & Me, which is not something I even knew was possible. James tortures me with a game of What's-Her-Name for Drew Barrymore, or as I like to call her, Blituta. I reveal my craving for DJ Qualls, America's cutest mouse. And oh my GOODNESS,...
2020-02-25 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post