Charles Pierce, The Great “Male Actress,” Continues To Influence Drag Performers Everywhere

The blazing career of self-proclaimed “male actress” Charles Pierce was launched in the clubs of San Francisco around the time the struggle for gay rights was kicked into full gear with the Stonewall riots on the opposite coast. With his dead-on satirical send-ups of screen immortals such as Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Tallulah Bankhead, Pierce quickly earned a devoted fan following and it was common to see celebrities of the day (ranging from Lucille Ball to Anthony Hopkins) in his audience. One celebrity admirer, Bea Arthur, became a very close friend and paid tribute to him in her one-woman show. Before his death in 1999, Pierce had also racked up an impressive acting resume with guest spots on popular TV series Laverne & Shirley and Designing Women and in Harvey Fierstein’s seminal queer film Torch Song Trilogy. The late performer is the subject of a fantastic new book, Write That Down!  The Comedy of Male Actress Charles Pierce, written by Kirk Frederick. Queerty chatted with the author about how Pierce rose to prominence, how the AIDS epidemic had an impact on his career and his continued influence on drag performers everywhere.

Queerty: When you first met Charles Pierce, did you know who he was?

Kirk Frederick: Yes. I had just moved to San Francisco, and some of my friends told me about this great performer at The Gilded Cage. It was a small, exclusive space. Sold out. I couldn’t get in. I knew he was a comedian who did drag, but I didn’t see that show. Soon after that, I was cast in a new gay play Geese in June of 1969, the summer of Stonewall. We knew what was happening in New York, and we thought doing a positive gay play would be timely. It was a sweet show; its heart was in the right place. Hair was playing across the street, and The Boys in the Band was going to open in North Beach in San Francisco soon enough.

How did you get to know him?

Our producers were fans of Charles Pierce, and they took some of the cast members of Geese to see his show on one of our dark nights. After the show, which was great, we went backstage. Charles was out of drag already. He was attractive and charming. The next night, our producers announced that Charles was coming into the play as my boyfriend’s mother. So I worked with Charles in that show for a year — I saw what a wonderful actor he was. And my then-partner Peter (in the play and in my life) and I became part of Charles’s show on Mondays, doing song and dance, that kind of thing.

How did Charles take his success in San Francisco and parlay it into a larger career?

He played SF’s The Gilded Cage for six years. He got a chance to take the show to Los Angeles. The legendary Sunset Strip club Ciro’s (now the Comedy Store), was getting ready to close, and they offered Charles the opportunity to be their final act. The venue was great for him. A four-week engagement turned into three months. Lots of celebrities came to see us. I tell some of those stories in the book.

Was most of the act scripted?

The beginning, some of the middle, and the end were scripted, but he improvised a lot in between, based on audience, current events, and that kind of thing. He had to make quick costume and prop changes, so we all teamed together to make it work. Very quickly, we decided to video tape the shows so that we wouldn’t miss his off-the-cuff lines. That’s where my book’s title comes from: Charles would get a great laugh and then stage-whisper to us in the wings, “Write that down!”

Did you work with him continuously during these years?

No, I went back to San Francisco, and Charles stayed in Los Angeles. I got involved in the now legendary show Beach Blanket Babylon. That took a lot of my time, so he got a new dresser. For about three years, we did not see much of each other. But then I started working with him again, more as a producer, and that collaboration lasted the rest of his career. And I still stage managed many of his San Francisco shows.

What are some of your favorite memories of Charles performing?

Bette Davis was his best role. He was a comic impressionist; his “Bette” was not an homage, which of course would have been her preference. But he made Bette his own. At Ciro’s we realized that his Bette needed a bigger entrance, so we decided to set it up by showing the famous staircase scene from All About Eve, with the “Fasten your seatbelts” line. We made the screen of Ace bandages, so we could show the short clip and then Charles would step through the screen, in the same pose and costume. His first line, after the raucous applause, would be “Thaaan-kew!” It brought the house down every night. But he also needed a closer, so again we turned to All About Eve and the car speech—“Funny thing, a woman’s career.” Charles did it as a serious moment in the show: you could hear a pin drop. His range was astonishing.

Would you say that his career really took off in the ’80s?

Absolutely. He did a lot of talk shows — Dick Cavett and that kind of thing — and he played venues as large and prestigious as the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown Los Angeles, where he improvised the line “Who knew that Dorothy Pavilion’s middle name was Chandler?” In 1984, the San Francisco Fairmont Hotel hired him for five summers in a row: he filled the room. This was a high-paying gig, and it gave him great mainstream press exposure in San Francisco, a decade after his earlier local fame. Maybe the most important role was being cast as the drag performer and emcee “Bertha Venation” in Harvey Fierstein’s film version of Torch Song Trilogy in 1988. Harvey allowed Charles to use some of his own material, and it was clearly a chance for Harvey to honor Charles as a drag pioneer. He also had “off stage” moments in the film, which again showcased his acting range.

Did the AIDS crisis impact Charles’s career?

He did many, many AIDS benefits in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. Lots of performers would come and do a song or something, but Charles could do one of his characters and bring down the house with laughter. He never made jokes about AIDS; he wanted to take the audience out of that history, even for just a few minutes. That was important to him.

How did his career wind down?

With a kind of perfect symmetry, actually. The Pasadena Playhouse, where he’d gone to acting school in the late 1940s, asked him to do an engagement at their smaller Balcony Theater. This was his show called The Legendary Ladies of the Silver Screen: All Talking, All Singing, All Dancing, All Dead. When we closed in October of 1990, he called me to say that he wanted to put away the costumes and take some time off. Turns out, he enjoyed retirement. He had become friends with Bea Arthur, and the two of them put together a show. The last gig I ever did with him was in 1993, with the Los Angeles Gay Men’s Chorus. But that full circle at the Pasadena Playhouse was really his final act.

What is the legacy of Charles Pierce?

He had a forty-plus year career. He pioneered the art of female impersonation. Careers like RuPaul’s, Charles Busch’s and Lypsinka’s owe a lot to Charles. He had a great run. Since I have my own archive of his material, I thought I could create a book that would give Charles credit for what he had achieved. As early as 1973, I wrote a piece for the gay San Francisco magazine Vector, in which I talked about Charles as a cross-over artist. Already, that early in the movement, he was becoming a kind of voice for the gay community. I included that essay in the appendix of the book because it points to his legacy. That was twenty years before his final performance, and, for me, his longevity, the fact that he helped memorialize and even preserve some of the Hollywood legends, and that he made people laugh for so long is a legacy to be proud of. For years, I’d hear late-night comics using jokes that Charles made famous. So in Write That Down! I have been able to share his act with his fans, old and new. On YouTube, there are hours of Charles Pierce performances, and of course on stage is the best way to enjoy Charles’s talent. With the book, I’ve done the best I can to keep his legacy alive.

Watch Charles transform into Joan Crawford in full-blown Mommie Dearest mode below.

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Justin Bieber, Jodie Foster, Michael Phelps, Christina Crawford, George W. Bush, Sunday Worship: NEWS

TODAY. Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers in the world.

2016 ELECTION. Sanders open to Clinton VP spot: “‘Right now, we are focused on the next five weeks of winning the Democratic nomination. If that does not happen, we are going to fight as hard as we can on the floor of the Democratic convention to make sure that we have a progressive platform that the American people will support,’ Sanders said during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer broadcast on The Situation Room. ‘Then, after that, certainly Secretary Clinton and I can sit down and talk and see where we go from there.’”

.@BernieSanders leaves the door open to being @HillaryClinton‘s running mate t.co/IYC42qyyke t.co/0cle4STH3E

— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) May 6, 2016

DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. DNC Chair Ed Rendell believes this is how it will go: “I think it’s gonna be a great convention, but of course the key to it is the Sanders people — Bernie’s gonna have his name placed in nomination, we’re gonna have a roll call, there’s gonna be a demonstration in support of Bernie, he’s gonna lose the roll call,” he said. “His supporters have to behave and not cause trouble. And I think they will and I think Sen. Sanders will send them a strong message.”

ITALY. Civil Unions bill heads to House floor on Monday: “The Lower House justice committee on Wednesday approved the Senate version of the government’s civil unions bill, paving the way for it to go to the House floor on Monday, May 9. Lawmakers from the center-right Forza Italia (FI) party, the rightwing populist Northern League, and the small centrist Area Popolare (AP) and DS-CD caucuses were absent in protest against Premier Matteo Renzi’s announced intention to put the bill to a confidence vote.”

ALABAMA. Gay rights rally takes place in Oxford following repeal of anti-trans bathroom bill:

MOMMIE DEAREST. Christina Crawford reissues book, gives first interview in years: ‘You never forget that,’ Christina says now, 55 years later. ‘It was up close and personal. She came this far from my face, and you could see it in her eyes, you can see if someone is trying to kill you.’

BIRTHS. Michael Phelps is a father: “Welcome Boomer Robert Phelps into the world!!! Born 5-5-2016 at 7:21 pm !!! Healthy and happy!!! Best feeling I have ever felt in my life!!!@nicole.m.johnson and Boomer both healthy!!! #boomerphelps 📷”

TITLE IX. Obama plans transgender rights push in schools: “With the Justice Department already locking horns with North Carolina over the state’s so-called bathroom bill, the administration plans to reaffirm its view that robust protections for transgender students are within the existing scope of Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs and activities. Multiple agencies are expected to be involved.”

INCLUSIVITY. Starbucks and Barnes & Noble join Target: “Starbucks, Hudson’s Bay Co. — parent company to Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue — and Barnes & Noble all told USA TODAY that employees and customers in their stores are welcome to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with. Starbucks spokeswoman Jaime Riley said the company is ‘looking into additional opportunities to have more gender-neutral signage in our restrooms where jurisdictions allow it.’”

DISHONORS. George W. Bush is going to accept an award from the virulently anti-gay World Congress of Families. “Bush is set to accept the award at an event whose speakers include Putin allies, anti-LGBT extremists and a 9/11 conspiracy theorist. Along with Bush, this year’s WCF will feature prominent U.S. anti-gay activists including the National Organization for Marriage’s Brian Brown, who coordinated with WCF to travel to Russia to support the country’s anti-gay policies in 2013. Also scheduled to speak is Natalia Yakunina, the wife of former Putin ally Vladimir Yakunin, who was instrumental in organizing and funding the Moscow event, and Vladimir Mischenko, a top official at a foundation run by Yakunin.”

STAR. Jodie Foster finally got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: “They’ve asked me a number of times over the years and I made a big point — that meant something to me personally — that I really wanted to get a star on Hollywood Blvd. when I was promoting a major movie I was directing,” Foster told the Daily News. “I wanted to wait for that.”

SPLITS. Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne split after 33 years of marriage: “This time around, however, drug and alcohol seem not to be the issue. While Ozzy remains sober, rumors are swirling that Sharon recently accused him of cheating with a Hollywood hairstylist.”

NEW INK. Justin Bieber got a cross tattoo on his face.

WYOMING. Judge who refuses to marry gays fights removal from the bench: “The Wyoming Supreme Court will decide if Pinedale municipal judge and circuit court magistrate Ruth Neely should be removed from her position. The Wyoming Commission on Judicial Conduct and Ethics began investigating Neely in January 2015. The investigation was prompted by statements made by Neely to a Pinedale Roundup reporter, which were published in a newspaper article. After a federal judge in Casper struck down Wyoming’s gay marriage ban, Neely told the reporter that she would not be able to perform same-sex marriages.

SCIENCE. If you needed proof that you shouldn’t look directly at the sun, especially through a telescope:

SUNDAY WORSHIP. Alan Montes shot by Isauro Cairo.

The post Justin Bieber, Jodie Foster, Michael Phelps, Christina Crawford, George W. Bush, Sunday Worship: NEWS appeared first on Towleroad.

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Flustered NC Gov. Pat McCrory Lashes Out at Feds in FOX News Sunday Interview: WATCH

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory sat down with Chris Wallace on FOX News Sunday. Wallace grilled him on how he plans to respond to a letter sent to him by the Department of Justice which gives North Carolina until Monday to say they’ll stop enforcing the anti-LGBT ‘bathroom’ law HB 2.

Should McCrory choose to defy the feds, hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding is at stake.

McCrory notes that the Department of Transportation is also looking at cutting off funding for the state.

RELATED: Justice Dept. Says HB2 Violates Civil Rights Act; Gives Pat McCrory Monday Deadline…

McCrory says that three working days is not enough time to respond to “such a threat” and said that he asked the DOJ for an extension and they replied that they would offer a one week extension “if the governor admits publicly that their language regarding bathrooms does in fact discriminate.”

Adds McCrory: “I’m not going to publicly announce that something discriminates which is agreeing with their letter because we’re really talking about a letter in which they’re trying to define gender identity. And there is no clear definition of gender identity. It is the federal government being a bully. It’s making law by their interpretation…I’m discussing all of our legal options, all of our political options.”

Asks Wallace: “You call this a case of Washington overreach. Would it be overreach for the Justice Dept to send you a letter like this to say you cannot have bathrooms in the state capitol one for white and one for black?”

Replies McCrory: “We can definitely define the race of people. It’s very hard to define transgender or gender identity.”

Wallace explains that the Justice Department defines transgender people as a protected class like race.

RELATED: NC Gov. Pat McCrory Seems Angry and Prepared to Defy Justice Department on HB 2 Order: WATCH

Replies McCrory: “That’s what they say but that’s not what the federal law says. The federal law uses the term sex and Congress does not define sex as including gender identity…So right now the Justice Department is making law for the federal government.”

Says Wallace: “It sounds like you’re going to challenge this in court.”

When Wallace asks him how many cases have they had in North Carolina where people have been convicted of using transgender protections to commit crimes in bathrooms, McCrory doesn’t have an answer, so returns to his blaming the Democratic Party for HB 2.

Insists Wallace: :”If there’s no problem then why pass the law in the first place?”

McCrory, clearly flustered, keeps turning the blame back to the Left:

“There can be a problem because the liberal Democrats are the ones pushing for bathroom laws and now President Obama and the mayor of Charlotte wants government to have bathroom rules. We did not start this on the Right.”

Watch:

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These Awkward #GrindrFails All But Guarantee A Night Alone

You never know who you might meet on Grindr, but one thing is almost always guaranteed: You’re going to run into a crazy or two while scrolling through guys. We’re talking men with bizarre senses of humor, unusual sexual fetishes, anger management problems, creepy requests, and red flags for stalker tendencies. But it all comes with the territory, right?

Check out some of the epic #GrindrFails people have shared on Instagram recently…

Try not to start by insulting me. #grindr #grindrfail #transitHo #gay #gayboy

A photo posted by Thai Rivera (@officialthairivera) on Apr 20, 2016 at 4:35am PDT

THIS JUST IN #grindrissues #grindr #grindrfail #grindrproblems #instagay #instahomo #gay #gaymer #gaytwink #gaycub #gaypup #gaywolf #gaybull #gaydaddy #gayjock #gayhunk #gaylatino #gayblack #gayfit #gayguy #gayleather #gaygeek #gayotter #gaychub #gaybooty #gaylife #gayguy #gaybear #queer #dragqueen #lgbtq @best_of_grindr @grindr.fails

A photo posted by @homotexican on Apr 22, 2016 at 3:19pm PDT

So strange… My flirting on Grindr seems to end conversations. #gayboy #grindr #grindrfail

A photo posted by Cole (@cole4srsly) on Apr 30, 2016 at 2:23am PDT

Seriously!?? Lol little Fucker. I’m 40 not 100? #ilookbetterthanyou ? Damn 50lb #kids #gaydudes #douchebag #nyclife #gaylife #myproblems #grindrfail #grindrproblems #singlelife #grindr #instagay

A photo posted by M.M. (@surfn_mike) on Apr 1, 2016 at 7:21am PDT

#grindr #gaysingle #akwardgrindr #grindrfail #gayleeds #whyimstillsingle #instagay #polishgay #gayboyproblems

A photo posted by Marcin ???? Snap Chat brad2_2 (@brad2_2) on May 6, 2016 at 1:12am PDT

I cut my hair and then grindr gets real creepy. Da faq? #gay #gayboy #instagay #instahomo #grindr #grindrfails #bestofgrindr #worstofgrindr #gayboyproblem

A photo posted by Salvador Guerrero (@steg_osaurus) on Dec 24, 2015 at 4:02pm PST

HELP ? #grindrfail #grindr #bestofgrindr

A photo posted by @valentinkhn on May 1, 2016 at 1:01pm PDT

I guess not everyone can be Steve Irwin. #grindrfail #grindrproblems #gay #kangaroos

A photo posted by Jeremy Ellis (@jvellis09) on May 1, 2016 at 9:47am PDT

I’m #rude apparently coz I didn’t want to meet someone #reallyqueen #bitchesbecray #grindrproblems #grindr #grindrmessage #instagay #whatevs

A photo posted by Bradley (@braders_101) on Apr 4, 2015 at 4:31am PDT

#grindrfail #gaydude

A photo posted by Mike Hilinski (@_mikedotcom) on Mar 22, 2016 at 2:24pm PDT

#grindrissues #grindr #grindrfail #grindrproblems #instagay #instahomo #gay #gaymer #gaytwink #gaycub #gaypup #gaywolf #gaybull #gaydaddy #gayjock #gayhunk #gaylatino #gayblack #gayfit #gayguy #gayleather #gaygeek #gayotter #gaychub #gaybooty #gaylife #gayguy #gaybear #queer #dragqueen #lgbtq

A photo posted by @homotexican on May 2, 2016 at 8:06am PDT

Little confidence boost this morning ??? #grindrfail

A photo posted by Jack Steward (@jackvictor0) on Apr 3, 2016 at 4:56pm PDT

#um #weird? #looking #lol #haha #gay #grindr #gaygrindr #grindrguy #grindrlol #grindrfail #grindrtards #gaymer #gayguy #gayboy #gayweird #wtf? #shitiseeongrindr #theshitiseeongrindr #gaytwink

A photo posted by @shitiseeongrindr on Apr 21, 2016 at 11:38am PDT

While you were sleeping… #ohgrindr #grindr #grindrfail #gay #gayboy #gayman #gaymen #beardedgay #gaybeard #gaybear

A photo posted by C D (@maestrodeluxe) on Apr 28, 2016 at 4:06am PDT

Grindr guys… Keeping it creepy. #grindr #cannibalism #wtf #whyimsingle #grindrfail

A photo posted by JD Booth (@jubberwok) on Mar 19, 2016 at 7:53pm PDT

#grindrfail

A photo posted by Matthew (@mtthwstnsn) on Apr 26, 2016 at 1:02am PDT

Related: These Terrible Grindr Tips Are Guaranteed To Get You Laid

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Captain America Civil War (or, The Avengers 3) – Weekend Movie Review

Chris Evans strains to keep a massive movie together through the power of his biceps

Poor Captain America. You know how it is. You’re frozen in a block of ice and when you wake up several decades later the world has gotten so complicated! Everyone you loved is dead except your 96 year old girlfriend with Alzheimers (Agent Peggy Carter) and your brainwashed homicidal boyfriend (Bucky aka The Winter Soldier) who is totally ghosting you.

New friends are plentiful but also trouble. Either they have two faces (Black Widow/Agent 13) or they’re constantly vanishing for personal reasons (Thor/Hulk/Hawkeye) so you totally can’t rely on them. Or maybe they aren’t your friends at all. Take Iron Man. He’s always causing you grief. Remember that whole Ultron mishegoss? Totally his fault!

Due to expert handling of the world’s most beloved super soldier by both Marvel Studios and Chris Evans over multiple films somehow this is all terribly relatable. It’s hard not to feel for Steve Rogers as we return to him just when the s*** is hitting the fan again.

See, at the beginning of CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR The Avengers accidentally cause a building to explode in the nation of Wakanda and civilians are killed. The accident kickstarts a global government debate about how to keep Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in check but before the team can do damage control tragedy strikes again. The Winter Soldier has apparently gone on a new killing spree. Steve can’t believe his beloved Bucky would do that but everyone else is totally all ‘yup, sounds like him’.

The Black Panther in hot pursuit of The Winter Soldier. Thrilling scene.

Enter Prince T’Challa, aka The Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman, commanding and thoughtful) who wants to avenge his people. Captain America can’t have that because Bucky is his friend!  Honestly, are superheroes more trouble than they’re worth?

Oh, for the nostalgia of simpler times. Captain America has had a hard time adjusting to the modern world but that’s because he isn’t from it.  While nearly all of the Marvel superheroes that dominate pop culture today were created in the turbulent 1960s (X-Men, Spider-Man, Iron Man, you name it) and quickly changed comic books with their personal angst & character flaws, Captain America made his first appearance way back in 1941.

Those were simpler days when even foreigners like Superman and Wonder Woman were patriotic for America and always on the right side of every fight. The bad guys were easy to spot, too, because they had their skulls on the outside of their faces or were wearing Nazi uniforms.

So, Happy 75th Anniversary, Captain America! To celebrate you’re going to war with all of your new friends over the Sokovia Accords, which will basically put a leash on supers, requiring them to act only with the approval of a United Nations council.

Nooooo. This movie has homework.

Half of the Avengers, including Captain America, think this is a terrible idea and half are all “Where do I sign?” and thus the infighting begins. The fight begins with words (so many words for a superhero movie!) and then with fists… and shields… and claws (Hellooo, Black Panther. Very exciting to meet you) and energy bolts… and spiderwebs (yes, it’s true: New Spider-Man is bliss)… and arrows … and disorienting shrinking… and whatever it is that Scarlet Witch and Vision are doing because nobody understands that.

The superhero genre is often compared to the western and for easy to spot reasons: there are the clearly delineated lines between good and evil (even signified by costumes when deeds aren’t enough), the moody loner hero who runs toward trouble rather than away from it, showdowns and duels as the ultimate arbiter of justice, and (sigh) the women being mostly decorative.

But if the superhero movie is the new Western we’re obviously moving into the late John Ford years and towards the Clint Eastwood era when everything became more introspective, politically troubling, and the arid yellow landscapes went all grey with moral murkiness and even regret about the violence.

The good Captain makes a grim discovery

Less than two months ago DC/Warner Bros’ Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice (reviewed) wrung its hands wondering what could be done about the collateral damage of super-battles. And now it’s Marvel/Disney’s turn to sweat it out over the mass casualties.

The difference this time is a) the movie is not garbage b) the action is coherent and c) it makes sense for these particular characters to behave in these particular ways because the movie is true to their personalities and not a gross misrepresentation of everything they stand for (but enough about Superman!) .

The end result, curiously, is much the same: by forcing movie audiences to confront the particulars of what visual mayhem would do to our real world within this fantasy context (why?) the movie studios are taking much of the fun out of the spectacle. And the spectacle is the whole reason for the genre! In one battle sequence a hero rips the wing off of a grounded plane to fight with it and instead of feeling a gleeful “wow!” at the action I honestly was all “who is going to pay for that?!” which is really not what you should be thinking when watching a superhero film.

What is going on here? Do movie studios feel guilty about all the money they’re making from CGI spectacles of destruction?! I’d love to report that Captain America Civil War is the best Marvel Studios film yet, because that’s what I’ve been reading and probably what you’ve been hearing, too. But I cannot. As noble Steve Rogers himself says (paraphrasing here) in all earnestness, in one of the key scenes:

Team Iron Man vs. Team Captain America

Doesn’t matter if the whole world decides that something wrong is something right. When they tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree and tell the whole world… ‘no, you move.’

My conscience prevents me from getting caught up in the hype and declaring this The Best. It’s the least focused on Captain America (the best character in these films) because it’s essentially The Avengers 3: The Sokovia Accords.

While it’s a huge relief that Civil War only makes one reference to those damn Infinity Stones (by the time that story happens it’ll be totally anti-climactic) and the Russo brothers in the directors chair show a fairly deft hand at balancing a dozen characters and keeping the action exciting, elsewhere there’s a bit of flailing.

The villain, as in most Marvel films, is worthless. The setup for the Sokovia Accords takes forever which also tries the patience. We know all along where the film is heading and unless every future film gets bogged down in the Accords (unlikely, else the heroes will now be criminals forever) it’s a MacGuffin anyway.

Oh Captain, My Captain!

And while each action sequences has its own thrilling moments and structure they’re uniformly sparse and low rent visually. Perhaps it’s the overcast minimalism of the grey sterile sets: airport hangars, plain stairwells, empty apartments, ancient science labs; it’s like the studio didn’t want to pay ANY extras this time around and wanted to repurpose their own abandoned sets.

When the ending arrives 2½ hours later you’re left with the feeling of “….and?”

It’s as if Marvel has given up telling whole stories at this point and knows that we’re all a captive audience bingewatching a supersized TV series together in movie theaters. Despite Civil War‘s deft handling of comic asides to keep the tone light, it’s a little sad and incomplete.

The overall effect is contemplative rather than thrilling. That miserable reflection feeling has worked wonders before in franchise films like The Empire Strikes Back and The Two Towers but they were middle films in trilogies with a clear ending in sight. Civil War is the umpteenth film in a series possibly without end so it’s deployment is not quite as satisfying.

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‘Liberal Redneck’ Trae Crowder Reveals Who He Is in New Interview: WATCH

If you’re a follower of this site or the internet in general, you’re probably by now familiar with “Liberal Redneck” Trae Crowder, whose videos expostulating on various subjects like Ted Cruz or transgender bathroom bills have gone viral in recent weeks.

The Last Word wanted to get to know Crowder better, so they did a web interview with him, which answers a lot of the questions you’ve probably had while watching his videos.

Is “Liberal Redneck” a character or is it really him?

Crowder says “it’s just a character in that it’s an exaggeration of who I actually am. I did grow up super redneck, I have always been very liberal in terms of ideology or whatever, so really the only thing that makes it different is that in person I’m not as aggressive or in your face about my beliefs or whatever. I did that because I feel like that’s how a lot of rednecks are though….and so I wanted to turn that around on them.”

Crowder says he grew up in “abject poverty” and he thinks it “should be the natural inclination of most really poor people to be liberal – otherwise, you’re going against your self interests” but that most “rednecks” are not liberal because of Jesus.

Why isn’t Crowder that way? “I just ain’t been particularly down with Jesus, and most of the reason for that is because my uncle, whom I love dearly, is gay, and so I just didn’t appreciate a lot of the things the church had to say about him growing up.”

Crowder goes on to talk about his comedy career, his upcoming tour, the 2016 election, and the other issues that upset the Liberal Redneck.

“You name it I’ve got an opinion about it.”

Watch:

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Mother’s Day 2016: Honoring Mothers Who Stand Up for Transgender Equality

On Mother’s Day this year, HRC is honoring mothers across the nation who stand up for transgender equality.

These mother have not only stood by their transgender child, but have also become advocates for all transgender youth, taking a stand against anti-transgender legislation, condemning the harmful practice of “conversion therapy” and supporting transgender youth in schools and in their communities.

There are also transgender mothers, like Maddy Goss and Tina White, who are bravely combating anti-transgender legislation in North Carolina.

These moms, and so many others, have helped change the hearts and minds of families and friends, and even strangers, just by sharing their stories and embracing the LGBT community.

Join HRC as we celebrate these inspirational mothers and thank them for their commitment and dedication to transgender equality for everyone, everywhere.

www.hrc.org/blog/mothers-day-2016-honoring-mothers-who-stand-up-for-transgender-equality?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed