Category Archives: LGBTQ Alphabet Soup

Special focus on Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer Issues

QUEER NARRATIVES at the MOVIES

Posted on November 2, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

NewFest 2017 Feature Length Dramas: After Louie – God’s Own Country – Against the Law – My Son is Gay – Discreet – The City of the Future – Professor Marston and the Wonder Women Last year I saw only … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup | Tagged 2017, After Louie, Against the Law, Alan Cumming, Alec Secareanu, Angela Robinson, Anthony Johnston, Bella Heathcote, Best International Narrative, bisexual, Brazil, Cinema, Claudio Marques, Daniel Mays, David Drake, Discreet, Everett Quinton, Francis Lee, God's Own Country, India, Johnny Mars, Josh O'Connor, Jury Award, Justin Vivian Bond, LGBT, LGBTQ, Luke Evans, Marilia Highes Guerreiro, movies, My Son is Gay, NewFest, Peter Wildblood, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, Rebecca Hall, Richard Gadd, Tamil, The City of the Future, threesome, Travis Mathews, Vincent Gagliostro, Zachary Booth | Leave a comment

QUEER SHORTS – The Fab and the Furious

Posted on October 28, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

Highlights from “Boys Shorts”, “Beyond the Binary”, “Drawn This Way – Animated” & “Faith and Fury” film shorts programs at Newfest – New York’s LGBT Film Festival It probably plays to the stereotype of the typical NewFest attendee that … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup | Tagged Ama, Animation, Audience Award, Ballroom Scene, Beard, Ben Baur, Boys, Bryan Powers, Catherine Curtin, Dinner with Jeffrey, Dressed as Girl, Earthly Delights, Elegance Bratton, Eli Mak, Evan Dale Karg, Faith, festival, film, Fish Curry, Fishy, Gema, Half a Life, HBO, Hi It's Your Mother, Indonesia, John Hughes, Kendrick Prince, LGBT, LGBTQ, Manivald, Mrs. McCutcheon, NewFest, Noora, Paul Rudnick, Pria, Pussy, Queer, Reed Birney, Route 66, shorts, Something New, The Night Cleaner, Time is the Longest Distance, transgender, Walk For Me | 4 Comments

QUEER SHORTS – The Young and the Resistance

Posted on October 23, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

Highlights from “Young, Queer and Woke” and “The Queer Resistance” film shorts programs at Newfest – New York’s LGBT Film Festival Another fall in New York City. Another NewFest festival of LGBTQ films. Last year I stuffed a dozen festival films … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup | Tagged Antiman, Cinema, Coppola, D'Onofrio, festival, film, Gavan Ramountar, Guyana, Him, Intersection, LGBT, LGBTQ, LGBTQIA, Margo & May, Morgan Kahn Nichols, My Gay Sister, NewFest, Queer, Sariwala, short films, Thomas Rivera Montes, Truth and Dare, We Forgot to Break Up, Who I Am | Leave a comment

INVISIBLE BISEXUAL PRIVILEGE

Posted on October 14, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

I reposted links to my blog piece on “The Nearly Invisible Bisexual Male” on Facebook (and Twitter) for National Coming Out Day. Which led to the following exchange in the Facebook comment section which I think may serve as … Continue reading →

Posted in LGBTQ Alphabet Soup | Tagged Anna Paquin, being othered, biphobia, bisexual, bisexual privilege, bisexuality, gay community, invisi-BI-lity, LGBT, LGBTQ, male, monosexual, National Coming Out Day, Steven Moyer | Leave a comment

Seeing BATTLE OF THE SEXES with the Next Generation

Posted on September 26, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

Ed’s and my thorough enjoyment of the movie “Battle of the Sexes” was both enhanced and tempered by the group of preteen girls the theater’s reserved seating placed to my right. Tempered because of the above average distractions I have … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup | Tagged 1970's, Alan Cumming, Apollo 100, Battle of the Sexes, Bill Pullman, Billie Jean King, bisexual, Bobby Riggs, Cabaret, children, Crimson and Clover, homosexual, Joan Jett, Jonathan Dayton, Joy, lesbian, Lewis Pullman, LGBT, Linus Sandgren, Manohla Dargis, Margaret Court, movie code of conduct, Nicholas Britell, Tommy James and the Shondells, Valerie Fais | Leave a comment

AIDS Memorial, Greenwich Village, NYC

Posted on September 7, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

Breaths – The Flirtations Jesus to a Child – George Michael Smalltown Boy – Bronski Beat Boy Blue – Cyndi Lauper

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Melodies Linger On, Two-fisted Touristing | Tagged Aids, Being Boring, Boy Bue, Breaths, Bronksi Beat, Bruce Springsteen, Chains of Love, Cyndi Lauper, Elton John, Erasure, George Michael, GMHC, Greenwich Village, Jenny Holzer, Jesus to a Child, John Grant, Joseph Sonnabend, LGBT, LGBTQ, memorial, Neil Young, New York City, Pet Shop Boys, Philadelphia, Return to Oz, Scissor Sisters, Smalltown Boy, Song of Myself, Streets of Philadelphia, TC and Honeybear, The Flirtations, The Last Song, Walt Whitman | Leave a comment

The Young Lovers’ Path to Speak Easy

Posted on June 25, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

Two Fawns in the Wood Dance into the Light Maybe it’s just a dream. Maybe it’s real. Maybe it doesn’t matter either way. For the shame and the betrayal are felt just as acutely. In the musical Speakeasy, an … Continue reading →

Posted in LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Literary Lyricism, The Speakeasy Chronicles | Tagged 1920s, 1930s, adultery, Alice in Wonderland, Dance into the Light, Dream, Fawn, Fawn in the Wood, Gershwin, Jane Allison, John Allison, Lewis Carroll, magical realism, musical, Prohibition, Queer, same-sex, sexual identity, Speakeasy, Through the Looking Glass, Trial of the Tarts | Leave a comment

SPEAKEASY – The Irony of the Young Lovers’ Duets

Posted on June 22, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

Curious Colorful Night – It’s a Dream – Momentary Bliss Three lovers’ duets that are not what they seem to the ear Ah, young lovers’ duets. A hallmark of musicals, especially those of the 1920s and 1930s, and so of … Continue reading →

Posted in LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Literary Lyricism, The Speakeasy Chronicles | Tagged 1920s, 1930s, Curious Colorful Night, curiouser, drag ball, duet, ingenue, irony, It's a Dream, Jane Allison, John Allison, Lewis Carroll, lovers, magical realism, Momentary Bliss, musical, Queer, Roaring Twenties, Speakeasy, Subculture, Wonderland | Leave a comment

SPEAKEASY – Advice from a (Lesbian) Caterpillar

Posted on June 19, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

Two songs from “Speakeasy” explore two sides of a closeted 1920’s lesbian For many years I hoped to write a musical about the queer subculture of Roaring Twenties New York, but didn’t find my “in” until I came upon the … Continue reading →

Posted in LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Literary Lyricism, Notes in the News, The Speakeasy Chronicles | Tagged 1800s, 19th Century, Alice in Wonderland, Caroline Chrysalides, Caterpillar, Female Friendships, flappers, Jane Allison, Jazz Age, lesbian, Lewis Carroll, LGBTQ, magical realism, musical, My Passion, operetta, Roaring Twenties, sexual revolution, Speakeasy | Leave a comment

PRIDE MONTH at Notes from a Composer

Posted on June 16, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

The White House in Rainbow Colors. That happened. Specifically that happened in June 2015, after the Supreme Court affirmed Marriage Equality for the United States. But that was the previous administration. This administration won’t even make mention of June being … Continue reading →

Posted in LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Notes in the News | Tagged 1920s, 1930s, Big Apple Corps, bisexual, Cabaret, drag ball, June, LGBT, LGBTQ, logo, March, marriage equality, Pride, Quakers, Queer, Sex addiction, sex on screen, slang, Snow White, Speakeasy, The Handmaiden | Leave a comment

The Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps Plays The Soundtrack to Our Story

Posted on April 10, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

Saturday night we attended the Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps Symphonic Band performing a concert at Symphony Space titled “Once Upon A Time … The Soundtrack to Our Story”, with music referencing and inspired by the history of the Gay … Continue reading →

Posted in LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Live! On Stage, Melodies Linger On, Notes in the News | Tagged Alicia Hall Moran, Band, Big Apple, Bohemian Rhapsody, Brian Belovitch, Celtic Folk Songs, Colleen Meenan, Gay, Gay Rights, Hair, Henco Espag, Holst, It's Raining Men, Kinky Boots, Kyle Post, lesbian, Let the Sunshine In, LGBTQ, March, Mars, Paul Schaeffer, Pride, queen, Reginald Brown, RuPaul, Symphonic, Symphony Space, The Generations Project | 2 Comments

MOONLIGHT – the triple least “Oscar Baity” Oscar Winner

Posted on March 5, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

“I just hope the weird pandemonium doesn’t overshadow the fact that a $1.5 million independent film by a black director about black, gay, poor people was named Best Picture. The process to get there was very weird, but it’s an … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Notes in the News | Tagged Academy Awards, Argo, Ava DuVarnay, Barry Jenkins, Best Picture, Birdman, black, Brokeback Mountain, Carol, Gay, indie, La La Land, LGBTQ, low--budget, Mahershala Ali, Moonlight, Oscar Bait, Oscars, Selma, Tarell Alvin McCraney, The Artist | Leave a comment

#OscarsSoCrazy – The Worst Best Thing that could have happened to La La Land and Moonlight.

Posted on February 27, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

In a moment that will be hard to beat as the strangest, most gasp-inducing thing to have ever and might ever again happen at the Oscars, “Moonlight” was revealed to have been the actual Best Picture winner after “La La … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Notes in the News | Tagged Awards Daily, Barry Jenkins, Best Picture, Brokeback Mountain, Crash, Damien Chazelle, director, Gay Movie, Justin Hurwitz, La La Land, Linus Sandgren, Moonlight, PricewaterhouseCooper, Sasha Stone, Spotlight, The Revenant | Leave a comment

Speakeasy Highlight Reel

Posted on February 19, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

It’s the one year anniversary of the workshop performances of “Speakeasy – John and Jane’s Adventures in the Wonderland“. To mark the occasion, here are some screen shots of the Speakeasy Highlight Reel, a 13 minute edit of selections from … Continue reading →

Posted in LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, The Speakeasy Chronicles | Tagged 1920s, Alice in Wonderland, ball, Cheshire, Danny Ashkenasi, drag, highlight, history, LGBTQ, musical, Prohibition, Queer, reel, Speakeasy, White Rabbit | Leave a comment

COMPLETE OSCAR NOMINATIONS LIST – with plenty personal notes, comments and trivia – updated with winners

Posted on February 4, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

This year’s Oscar nominations have been announced, and for once the media pundits and social media consensus are much happier with the overall outcome, with few gripes and much to celebrate. Which doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty sighs about … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Notes in the News | Tagged 2017, Academy Awards, Amy Adams, animated, Arrival, August Wilson, Debzel Washington, Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures, Hugh Grant, Kevin O'Connell, La La Land, Lion, Lord of the Rings, Loving, Mahershala Ali, Manchester by the Sea, Meryl Streep, Moonlight, Nominations, O.J.: Made in America, OcarsSoWhite, Oscars, short film, sound, The Red Turtle, Viola Davis, Zootopia | Leave a comment

New Categories for Movies, Theater and LGBTQ Themed Articles

Posted on January 15, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

Three new categories have been added to the Notes from a Composer archives: Cinema Scope – For the love of movies, and not just the musicals Live! On Stage – Live performances / a life in the theater … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Live! On Stage, Notes in the News | Tagged archive, category, Cinema, Danny Ashkenasi, LGBTQ, music, Notes from a Composer, theater | Leave a comment

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