Arts & Entertainment

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Book Review: ‘The Unpunished Vice’ by Edmund White

As the consummate memoirist, you would think Edmund White (My Lives, City Boy, Inside a Pearl) had left no page unturned, but then this diamond surfaces: The Unpunished Vice: A Life of Reading. Here is a multi-faceted account of superlative literary reflection, borne from the earthquake (life-quake?) of a heart attack. Here we have memories and discourse on a lifetime of books read, the texts that have influenced White’s art and thinking–books savored, books turned over again and again as new aspects reveal themselves, and most important: the people, the friends and colleagues who delivered these books into his life. […]

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Music Review: “Palo Santo” by Years & Years

Years and Years Before Years & Years appeared on the scene, seemingly from nowhere, with their chart-topping debut Communion, most of us had no idea that their brand of infectious, surprisingly cerebral, and subtly but unmistakably queer synthpop was exactly what we all needed in our lives. Palo Santo () finds the British band more heavily preoccupied than ever with matters of spirituality, sexuality, and the many points of overlap between the two. This time, however, they ditch the subtlety. The direction taken on Palo Santo is inseparable from frontman Olly Alexander’s rapid rise as an outspokenly gay pop superstar. […]

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Book Review: ‘Paper is White’ by Hilary Zaid

Set in the late 1990s in the Bay Area, Hilary Zaid’s debut novel, Paper Is White, follows Ellen Margolis, assistant curator at the Foundation for the Preservation of Memory, as she navigates the choppy waters of history, kicked up by two very intense and very important personal involvements. The novel opens with an Indian tale in the place of an epigraph,  about a woman who knows a story and a song, but refuses to give voice to either. The story and song tire of never being let out, and so betray the woman by shifting shape into men’s shoes and […]

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Book Review: ‘Portraits’ by N.A. Diaman

Diaman is an experienced gay writer with seven novels and three memoirs under his belt.  This newest novel is a quiet, charming story of long loving relationships in San Francisco and Europe (Germany, then mostly in Paris) and finally, briefly, in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.  There are three chapters, the first named for Theo, the son of Greek emigrants from Istanbul, who opened a Greek bakery, which became a landmark in the Bay Area.  Theo works in a book store and becomes a manager.  He falls in love with Sebastian, an American son of Ethiopian parents.  Sebastian is a […]

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Janet Mock Makes History as First Trans Woman of Color Directing a TV Show

Activist and writer Janet Mock made history on Sunday, when the episode of Pose she wrote and directed aired on FX to virtually unanimous acclaim. Mock became the first transgender person of colour to direct a TV show. “Love is the Message” was the sixth episode of the show’s inaugural season, for which Mock also worked as a writer—the first trans woman of colour to write for television—and producer. Set in the late 1980s, Pose focuses on life and society in New York City, from its iconic ball culture to the rise of the Donald Trump-like billionaires, against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis. The musical […]

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Tab Hunter, ‘Damn Yankees’ Star and Gay Icon, Dies at 86

Tab Hunter, a former on-screen heartthrob and gay icon, has died. He was 86. Hunter died Sunday night in Santa Barbara after a blood clot in his leg caused cardiac arrest, Allan Glaser, Hunter’s partner for more than three decades, confirmed to Variety. With his All-American good looks, wavy blonde hair, piercing blue eyes, and toothy smile, Hunter rose to the top ranks of Hollywood leading men in the 1950’s and early ’60’s. He appeared in the likes of “Damn Yankees” and “Battle Cry,” and had chart-topping records such as “Young Love.” But at the height of his popularity, he was […]

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Book Review: ‘The Affliction’ by C. Dale Young

C. Dale Young’s fictional debut is a novel in stories that explores seemingly ordinary lives as they intersect with the truly extraordinary. Our guide to these non-linear, interlinked stories, Diego, is a somewhat unreliable narrator who has collected an oral history of the characters that spans several generations. In “Inside the Old House,” we meet Old Cassie. Once a nun, she is now the subject of rumors: Some say she’s seen the face of the devil, while others believe she has the power to heal. Neighbors warn one another not to look up toward her estate high up in the […]

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Frameline42 Awards Announced

Frameline is pleased to announce the winners of the Frameline42 Jury and AT&T Audience Awards, including the new AT&T Audience Award for Best Episodic. In case you want to see this in video form, check out our Facebook livestream here or at the bottom of this post. Frameline42 Jury Awards RETABLO Frameline42 First Feature Award, proudly underwritten by Wells Fargo Directed by: Alvaro Delgado Aparicio L.  A renowned artisan of intricate altarpieces known as retablos, Noé prepares his teenage son Segundo to carry on the family craft. But Noé’s clandestine homosexual life fractures their father-son bond within a conservative patriarchal culture where […]

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Book Review: ‘The Evolution of Love’ by Lucy Jane Bledsoe

Lucy Jane Bledsoe’s new novel, The Evolution of Love, brims with energy. In the opening scene, our protagonist, Lily Jones, walks west toward the San Francisco Bay Area, after flying in to Sacramento from Nebraska, in search of her older sister, Vicky. There’s been a devastating earthquake, and the region has been evacuated, but not everyone has left, and Lily, sweet, stable, dependable Lily, is hellbent on rescuing her sister, even if she has no idea if she’s still alive, even against her husband’s wishes. As she navigates the broken freeway, she comes across two abandoned pit bulls eating the […]

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Book Review: ‘When Katie Met Cassidy’ by Camille Perri

Block an afternoon out of your schedule, grab a copy of Camille Perri’s new novel, When Katie Met Cassidy, and get ready to laugh, cry, and rediscover your faith in romance. This romantic comedy follows twenty-something Katie—a born and bred Kentuckian now living in New York City whose hipster fiancé has just left her for her closest friend—and Cassidy, a suave native New Yorker—as they meet, resist each other, and eventually, succumb to love’s spell. Here’s the catch: Katie is straight (or is she?) Katie and Cassidy are both attorneys, and they meet as opposing counsel during a closing, but […]

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