Angels in America at Round House in Bethesda

Angels in America [click on the banner above] is soon coming to the Round House Theatre in Bethesda, produced jointly with Olney Theater from September 7 through October 30. The epic is performed as two separate but inter-related plays, "Part 1: Millennium Approaches," and "Part II: Perestroika." I got information about a group discount and discovered that other, better discounts are available, allowing all who are interested to select his own convenient date. Among the discounts are: 1) 25% off, when you buy both together on-line or over the phone, and use the code TWOANGELS at checkout; 2) Also, each show has a very limited number of $10 Tuesdays (the seats are blue on the seating charts); 3) If you are a member of any of several professional theater organizations, there are special discounts for you; 4) There are a couple PWYC nights (pay what you can), which look like they may serve as final dress rehearsals. There are a few days during the run when it is possible to catch both plays on the same day, with a break for dinner. For tickets on-line, visit Angels in America or call (240) 644-1100 (only during business hours M-F). I suggest acting right away if you are interested, because desirable dates and discounted tickets are selling fast.

Testa de Cazi

Posted here is as something of a curio. It comes from the Ashmolean where more can be learned about it. My only observation is that if the dicks are supposed to be circumcised (the basis of the maiolica's supposed antisemitism), Francesco hadn't seen many Jewish men naked.

The SCOTUS sausage factory

The June 28 issue of "More Perfect" (a WNYC spin-off of their deservedly popular "Radiolab") tells the story (literally, audio) of Lawrence v. Texas (which we read about in Dale Carpenter's Flagrant Conduct). Go to the "More Perfect" webpage, scroll down to "The Imperfect Plaintiffs" episode and click on the blue "Listen" button. Takes about 30 minutes. It's fun to hear their voices.

"No Important Homo Composers"

I ran across the following which I thought might be great for the blog, considering our reading of Michael Sherry's book. It's from the May 1967 issue of the physique magazine Grecian Guild Pictorial, from its "Newsfront" column under the headline above:

"In the history of music, there's not one important woman composer, let alone a homosexual composer. Music, of all the arts, demands total virility." So says Allan Jay Lerner, America's leading lyricist, musical comedy writer and lyricist of "Brigadoon," "Gigi," "My Fair Lady," "Camelot," and "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever." In an interview for McCall's magazine with Richard Heffner, Lerner went on to say that "the world of serious music, unfortunately, is dominated by homosexuals. Why? I just don't know. It isn't just in America...I don't know what's happened, but something's gone wrong somewhere. It may have nothing to do with anything psychological. It may have to do with fallout, for all I know. There's no question that in the serious theater there is today a tremendous domination by homosexuals, which accounts for this one-sided view of life. In the musical theater, it isn't true." One might question whether Mr. Lerner does not have much to learn himself about music history. What about Peter Tchaikovsky? Or Frederick Chopin, or the closet-queen type composer, such as the most thunderous of the three B's? Could there not have been many more great "lady" composers than Mr. Lerner realizes?

[posted for Philip]

"Always a godfather, never a god..."

Here's the review by Andrew Holleran that I mentioned last night at the discussion of In Bed with Gore Vidal. If the book had had photos, it might have included this one of Gore Vidal with sidekick Wendy Stark and unknown model.

For those interested in visiting his grave at Rock Creek Cemetery, look for this marker that Gore inspected after Austen died.

Our own Philip Clark strikes again! :-)

When I posted the reminder about this weekend's Outwrite Festival this morning, I failed to highlight a Bookmen connection.  Here it is, better late than never I hope:

Muses Fair and Sundry
Poetry Reading, Saturday, August 6th, 12:00 PM
with Philip Clarke, RJ Gibson, Imani Sims and Francisco-Luis White

Outwrite Festival Is This Weekend! (Aug. 5-7)

Don't forget that the DC Center (our third-Wednesday venue) is hosting the OutWrite festival this weekend.I plan to stop by on Friday night and hopefully Saturday afternoon, as well; hope to see many of you there!