Random Musings

I love a good book, and I love a little bit of history, and I love some Hollywood drama and gossip.

So, I was thrilled to start reading William J. Mann’s new book, Tinseltown, about Hollywood in the 1920s, and the scandals, and the religious right trying to control the movies, and the murder — long unsolved until, maybe, now — of William Desmond Taylor.

If you like those kinds of stories, this is a great book, and really takes you into Hollywood and how it started and what it was like.

Sidenote: Mann is the author of one of my all-time favorite books, Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines, Hollywood’s First Openly Gay Star.

Great reads.

Last Sunday we finally had some decent weather — no rain, and not numbingly cold — so Carlos and I attacked the front yard.

Leaf duty. The driveway was blown free of leaves and then we started in on the front yard. Four hours later, and seventeen, yes, seventeen, 55-gallon leaf bags later … we’d finished about a quarter of the yard.

Why oh why did we buy a house with so many trees!

This could be good …

It seems that CBS has cast transgender actress, and LGBT icon, Laverne Cox in its new legal drama pilot Doubt. The Orange is the New Black actress will play a transgender Ivy League-educated attorney, described as “competitive as she is compassionate. She’s fierce, funny and the fact that she’s experienced injustice first hand makes her fight all the harder for her clients.”

The really great news is that even before the casting of Cox in the part, the role was written for a transgender character.

Times do change.

So, a while back we had a free HBO weekend, and I noticed that the first season of The Knick was on. So, the DVR was set and recently Carlos and I have started watching. It’s really pretty good—a hospital drama set at the turn of the last century in New York—but some of the surgery scenes are a little graphic.

So, naturally I focus on the man candy: like, clockwise from the top, André Holland as Dr. Algernon Edwards, Michael Angarano as Dr Bertie Chickering Jr., and Eric Johnson as Dr Everett Gallinger. All hotties, all the times.

Interesting side note: Michael Angarano is perhaps best known for playing Elliot, Jack McFarland’s son on Will & Grace. He grew up hot — though he wears a full beard on The Knick.

Well well well, it seems Beck has had the last laugh after Kanye’s lunacy at the Grammys.

Beck’s album ‘Morning Phase’ — the surprise winner at the show when West rudely declared Beck “should have given his award to Beyoncé” — has become a huge seller this week, shooting to Number 1 on iTunes ahead of Sam Smith and Taylor Swift; plus, Spotify said the number of streams for “Morning Phase” was up a whopping 2,169% by Monday evening.

Beck a true artist and a gentleman, took Kanye’s comments in stride saying, “I still love him and think he’s genius.”

Not so thrilled with West was Garbage singer Shirley Manson who told West online: “You are making yourself look like a complete tw - t.”

Winning!

Oh you Southerners. You all pretend to be good Christians, and conservative Republicans, and arbiters of all that is holy and scared, and then you turn around and scoop up all the tickets to the upcoming 50 Shades of Grey.

According to Fandango Grey has accounted for nearly 60% of its ticket sales this week, and will the fastest selling R-rated film to date, in Southern states.

That’s right; Mississippi, Arkansas, and West Virginia saw the sharpest uptick of pre-release ticket sales followed closely by Kentucky, Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee.

Funny; those conservatives in all those states really wanna see Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson get their freak on!

I loves me some NPH and I loves me some Oscars, so I am really looking forward to the show.

But … but … NPH is on the cover of this week’s Entertainment Weekly looking like a gold statue … or, as I thought, kind of a creepy mash-up of C3PO and The Wiz.

Just sayin’