Mark Simpson's Blog, page 3

1989: The year the C20th – & gay bohemianism – ended

On the 55th anniversary of the NYC bar riot at which everyone over 75 now claims they threw the first bottle, I thought I would post this piece about the expiration of gay bohemianism in the 1980s. More a series of not terribly well-integrated notes than essay, it was originally published in Arena Hommes Plus,… Read More »1989: The year the C20th – & gay bohemianism – ended

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‘The J.K. Rowling of Pop’

I was contacted recently by Xavi Sancho of the Spanish national newspaper El Pais, who commissioned the recent profile of me, for some quotes for a major feature he was writing analysing the Taylor Swift phenomenon. Published last Sunday, here’s the Google Translate version of the standfirst: On May 29 and 30, the American will perform in Madrid… Read More »‘The J.K. Rowling of Pop’

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Thorson’s Liberace

The Toy Boy’s Tale – Part II of my Liberace post. Published in 1988, Behind the Candelabra, a kiss and tell expose, credits Liberace’s much younger lover Scott Thorson on the cover of my 2013 edition, along ‘with’ (in smaller font) Alex Thorleifson – a celebrity biographer whose previous best-known work was My Life with the Duke, a memoir by… Read More »Thorson’s Liberace

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Even Liberace’s Smile

On trying to love the flashy, gnashy, piano basher This will shock you, but Liberace was not my cup of peculiar. Frankly, I found his persona slightly repellent as a kid in the 1970s. Maybe it was just rejection of my inner fabulousness, but he reminded me of a sexless, American version of 1970s TV… Read More »Even Liberace’s Smile

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El Pais Profile of Mark Simpson

Last month, a profile of yours truly was published in the Spanish national El Pais, (words: Rafa de Miguel; photos: Manuel Vazquez). You can see my full ‘spread’ here. I think they’ve been very kind to an ageing Metrodaddy. I was asked to suggest a suitable location in Manchester. I nominated Salford Quays, the shiny,… Read More »El Pais Profile of Mark Simpson

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Between Laughter & Shudder

The ticklish, sexy wickedness of ‘Saltburn’ Not many films manage to reinvent sex, or even just find fresh, powerful ways of representing it, especially in our jaded, online, perma-gaped age. (Or is that just me?) And if you’d told me last year that it would be a British film – one set moreover in a Downton-esque country… Read More »Between Laughter & Shudder

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The Butchness of Bitchness

Genetics, same-sexing and the macho appeal of risk-taking Is male bisexuality related to a taste for risk-taking? A recent genetic study suggests that it may be, in part. Using the UK’s Biobank DNA database of half a million people, a research team published a paper which claimed genes that are implicated in bisexual behaviour in men may… Read More »The Butchness of Bitchness

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Jeremy Allen Tighty-Whities

A forensic examination of the current state of male objectification I’ve not watched The Bear. Or the US version of Shameless.  Hence, I’ve been semi-bemused for some time by social media pushing semi-naked photos of the Brooklyn born actor Jeremy Allen White, 32, down my throat. I don’t know anything about his actoring chops, and should find… Read More »Jeremy Allen Tighty-Whities

A Well-Rounded Future

Admiring the dystopian screwball romcom ‘Upload’ The future is always about the present, but the present can also be about the future.  If it’s darkly funny enough. I recently finished three seasons of Upload, on Amazon Prime Video. Created, directed and lead-written by Greg Daniels, former The Simpsons writer and adapter of the US version of The Office, the first… Read More »A Well-Rounded Future

Home Stallone

The thwarted daddy-love – and missing mommy – behind the pump-action hero I’m not a Sylvester Stallone fan. In fact, I couldn’t bear him back in the day. I spent much of the eighties sniffily ignoring his smash-hit movies and hence missed him single-handedly re-fighting the Vietnam War, with big hair, baby oil and unfeasibly… Read More »Home Stallone