Tag: interviews

An interview with actress Charlotte Rae There is an entire generation of queer and straight people that grew up watching actress Charlotte Rae on television. First as Molly the Mail Lady on “Sesame Street” and later as Mrs. Edna Garrett, the beloved housemother on the popular 80s primetime sitcom “The Facts of Life.” But there is so much more to Rae, including the many years she spent as a stage actress and singer, as well as all the TV commercials she did in the early days of her career. Rae’s aptly-titled memoir The Facts of My Life (Bearmanor Media, 2016) […]

An Interview With Gay Filmmaker Ira Sachs When all is said and done, 2016 may be remembered as a year of some of the best independent films in recent memory. Movies such as Indignation, Captain Fantastic, The Lobster and Love & Friendship are garnering rave reviews from audiences and critics alike. The same holds true for Little Men (Magnolia), the latest from gay filmmaker Ira Sachs (Love Is Strange, Keep the Lights On). The third installment in Sachs’ New York trilogy, the titular Little Men are Jake (Theo Taplitz) and Tony (Michael Barbieri), a pair of pre-high-schoolers who become close […]

An interview with James T.W. Wise beyond his 18 years, with talent to boot, James T.W.’s aptly titled debut EP First Impressions (Island) make a good first impression indeed. From his respectful cover of the Natalie Imbruglia hit “Torn” (released the year T.W. was born), to empowering originals such as “Different” and “When You Love Someone,” he is an artist who definitely knows how to reach his audience and uplift them when necessary. Discovered, if you will, by label-mate Shawn Mendes (of “Stitches” and “Something Big” fame) with whom he is currently on tour, James T.W. is off to a […]

An interview with Cheyenne Jackson There’s no denying that Cheyenne Jackson has it all. He can sing, he can write songs, he can dance, he can act (comedy and drama), and he’s a fine specimen of male beauty. He’s also an exceptionally nice and funny and smart guy. On his new album, Renaissance (PS Classics), some of which is drawn from his one-man show “Music of the Mad Men Era,” Jackson performs stellar renditions of classic tunes such as “I (Who Have Nothing),” “A Change is Gonna Come,” “Feeling Good,” and “Besame Mucho,” as well as the original “Red Wine […]

An interview with Howard Jones What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the longstanding British new wave musical influences of the 1980s? The holy trinity of The Cure, Depeche Mode, and The Smiths? Of course, you’d be remiss if you left out Howard Jones. A vocal presence since the early 1980s when his first hit single “New Song” was in rotation on the radio and on MTV, Jones lived up to the promise of that track with a series of unforgettable singles. Songs such as “What is Love?,” “Things Can Only Get Better,” “Life in […]

An interview with Lorrie Morgan It’s been five years since country diva Lorrie Morgan released a new studio album. If you’ve been waiting patiently, your persistence is about to be rewarded with not one, but two new albums from Morgan. The first, Letting You Go… Slow (Shanachie), is a fabulous mix of covers of classic tunes (“Ode To Billie Joe,” “Lay Lady Lay,” “Is it Raining at Your House?”) with newer selections (“Slow,” “Something About Trains,” the Morgan original “How Does it Feel”), that is a most welcome return. The second album, A Picture of Me (Goldenlane) takes an unusual […]

An interview with writer James Magruder James Magruder is a busy man. In addition to teaching at Swarthmore College, Magruder’s 21st century output has included his 2009 debut novel Sugarless and the 2014 linked short story collection Let Me See It. His sexy and funny new novel, Love Slaves of Helen Hadley Hall (Queen’s Ferry Press, 2016), takes readers back to 1983 on the campus of Yale University. The Helen Hadley Hall of the title is the dormitory that is site of a series of escapades, sexual and social, hilarious and heartbreaking, and all observed and reported by none other […]