Hello and welcome to the first episode of Matt’s So-Cast Pod!
This week, I’m chatting about the pilot episode of My So-Called Life with some very special guests: Writer and podcaster Michael Hobbes (Maintenance Phase, If Books Cou...
2024-03-25 16:00:37 +0000 UTC View Post
My guest on The Sewers of Paris this week is Anthony Oliveira, whose new book Dayspring comes out this Easter, April 2, 2024. That’s a particularly suitable pub date, since the book is an exploration of how Christian ideas can infuse and are infused by queer love. Anthony’s a returning guest to The Sewers of Paris — I las...
2024-03-21 16:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi there!
I hope you’ll join me for a live watch-along of the first episode of My So-Called Life this Thursday, March 21 at 7pm pacific/10pm eastern on Discord!
We’ll be watching & discussing highlights from the "Pilot" episode — and I think this is one of the best TV pilots ever made. Not only does it do a great j...
2024-03-20 20:47:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi there!
My new podcast, Matt’s So-Cast Pod, launches in one week! But we’ve got an “Episode Zero” available for you to listen to right now. It’s a conversation about why My So-Called Life is worth talking about and what to expect from the podcast, with me and my co-conspirator James.
Episode 1 premieres ...
2024-03-18 16:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there!
I've got a real whale of a bonus video for you this week. In my research into the movie Victim, I noticed that a lot of the queer roads kept leading back to -- for some reason -- Disney's Mary Poppins. A lot of the women in this film have astonishingly adventurous lives, from the people they married to the ro...
2024-03-17 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostHello there!
I’m trying something new: A Patron-exclusive Discord server, and you’re invited to join!
You can think of Discord like a forum - a community gathering-place where you can talk about stuff that interests you like movies, tv shows, books, and music, and the topics I cover in my videos, podcasts, livestreams, newsletter...
2024-03-16 07:05:31 +0000 UTC View Post
This week, March 17, marks 54 years since the premiere of the groundbreaking film The Boys in the Band. Set in a New York apartment in the 1960s and based on the play by Mort Crowley, it was one of the first major movies to feature majority-queer characters. And to mark that 54th birthday, for this week’s Sewers of Paris podc...
2024-03-14 18:01:26 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there!
Whew, lots to talk about in this week's bonus video. Thanks to everyone who weighed in on my question last week about Dirk Bogarde not publicly coming out -- I really appreciate all your insights. And big thanks to patron James for the link to Dirk's fascinating interview with Russell Harty, there's a link to the full thing be...
2024-03-10 16:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostHi Patrons!
I’m super excited to share a new upcoming project with you: A podcast about the groundbreaking and still-beloved 1994 TV show My So-Called Life.
The podcast is called Matt’s So-Cast Pod, and I’ll be diving into the TV show with some fantastic guests. We’ll tackle it all: the music & fas...
2024-03-08 17:00:16 +0000 UTC View Post
My guest this week on The Sewers of Paris is my friend and colleague Tyler Albertario, a writer and researcher with a magnetic enthusiasm for queer history and culture. Tyler always had an interest in our vast queer past, but it was a chance viewing of a show ab...
2024-03-07 17:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there!
For this week's bonus video, we're taking a closer look at some of the overwhelming opposition that was faced by Victim, the 1961 film that was the first to say the word "homosexual" out loud. From censors to critics to the film's own cast, there was quite a lot of institutionalized homophobia to overcome -- and overc...
2024-03-03 17:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post
For this week’s episode of the Sewers of Paris podcast, the recent release of Dune Part 2 reminded me of an episode from 2018, where my guest Ryan and I talked about the grip that fear can have on a person’s mind. Ryan grew up in a rough environment, where his parents subjected him to devastating homophobia and dangerous "e...
2024-02-29 17:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello!
Time once again for this month's Recommendations video, where I share recommendations sent along by fellow Patrons. We've got a heaping helping this month, starting with some responses to last month's question: "Was there a British version of Rock Hudson?" Boy howdy, there sure was.
Also! We've got some suuuuuper obsc...
2024-02-27 17:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there!
In this week's bonus video, we're taking a look at the saucy screen tests that James Dean enjoyed with Paul Newman and Richard Davalos, which seem to reveal what we all suspected: Nobody could stand next to Dean without wanting to pounce on him. Also, we're checking out Sal Mineo's artistic nude, which at one point was adverti...
2024-02-25 17:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post
My guest on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast is artist Paul Robinson, who just launched a fantastic new project called Twelve Soldiers. It’s a year-long series of monthly profiles, spotlightin...
2024-02-22 17:00:14 +0000 UTC View Post
There’s a new trailer out for the upcoming Wicked movie, so I thought it was a good time to dive into the Sewers of Paris podcast archives to revisit my chat with Gregory Maguire, author of the Wicked novel, among many othe...
2024-02-15 17:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there!
We have QUITE the smorgasbord of stories for this week's bonus video. First, an update about the supposed James Dean quote "I'm not a homosexual but I'm not going through life with one hand tied behind my back," and the entire SAGA that it took to figure out if he actually really said that. Then we've got some fun details abou...
2024-02-11 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast is a sort of collector of culture. Sam is the co-host of a YouTube series called P and S — be careful not to say it too quickly in pol...
2024-02-08 17:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Oh hello!
For this week's bonus video, we're delving into a question that humanity has grappled with for centuries: James Dean, was he gay or WHAT? (Subquestion: Does it matter?)
This is a notoriously tricky one to answer, because James (and pretty much everyone he knew) loved to obscure the truth for reasons both legitimate and self...
2024-02-04 18:34:29 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast is Mark Daley. Mark’s background is in politics, and included some time as communications director for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. But a few years ago, he stumbled across an opportunity to apply his advocacy skills in a new arena, when he and his partner became parents —...
2024-02-01 17:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there!
Time for a new bonus video, and this week we'll be digging deep into the lives of James Dean, Natalie Wood, and Sal Mineo -- all of whom found themselves in real-life situations that were oddly similar to those of their Rebel Without a Cause characters. One of my favorite similarities is the aspect of infatuation: In Rebel, it...
2024-01-28 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast is David Levy, co-host of the Muppeturgy podcast. David thrives when he’s putting on a show, goofing around with friends, finding ways to make an audience laugh — but finding the best way to do that took some trial and...
2024-01-25 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello!
It's time once again for the monthly feedback video! This is the series of videos that's free to everyone on Patreon -- it started as a Q&A but over the months it's become a fun way for Patrons to recommend stuff that they like to each other. So! If you like my stuff, you might like these other things as recommended by patrons l...
2024-01-23 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there!
In this week's bonus video, we're taking a look at a very unlikely connection between the rom-com Straight Jacket and the sci-fi/horror film Alien. Is one of the crew members trans? Well, that depends on how you look at a very tiny detail in the sequel.
Also, we're taking a sneak peek at my upcoming video about Rebel Wit...
2024-01-21 17:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast is Dean FM, a genderqueer rapper from Massachusetts. Dean was always a colorful kid and loved to escape into music — but never considered that it might become a career until a series of setbacks made him re-evaluate wher...
2024-01-18 17:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostThis month sees the return of the Ryan Murphy series Feud, with its first new season in about five years. The topic this time is Truman Capote and his battles with high society. In honor of Capote’s return to the zeitgeist, for this week’s episode of The Sewers of Paris podcast we’re diving into the sewers archives to revisit my 2...
2024-01-11 17:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there!
For this week's bonus video, I'm recovering from a bit of laryngitis but that can't stop me from chattering away about some intriguing queer films that you almost definitely have never heard of! As I've mentioned before, there are around 100 queer and queer-ish films, produced between 2000 and 2010, that vanished into a black ...
2024-01-07 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostSorry this week's episode of The Sewers of Paris is coming a day late! I’m recovering from laryngitis and can’t talk, so you’ll hear a Very Special Guest in the introduction instead of me.
My guest this week is Jin De Luong, author of the novel Naked Love Berlin. Jin never intended to uproot his life and move across the plan...
2024-01-05 17:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there!
I'm visiting family in Las Vegas this week, but I managed to sneak away for a few minutes to record a bonus video about some local gay history. One of the things that I find fascinating about Las Vegas' 20th-century queer history is how much of it survived, even from times when that sort of thing was so taboo that records of q...
2023-12-31 17:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostI can’t believe this is the case, but we’re just about at the end of 2023 — somehow — and I figured this was a good time to look back at some of my favorite Sewers of Paris episodes of the past year. From a New Orleans ghost-hunter who was inspired by Monty Python, to queer romance novels, to bad gays, to the shocking stories be...
2023-12-28 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post