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Posts Tagged ‘acting’

This discussion…[is] likely to escalate and go absolutely nowhere.  –  Molly Burrets

I’m unsure why squeaky rubber chickens have become musical instruments on YouTube, but this one (shared by Mike Siegel) is probably the funniest one yet.  Mike also provided the last link above the video; the first two are from Mistress Matisse and Kevin Wilson, and all the others are from IncarcerNation.

From the Archives

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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[Sex work] should be decriminalized and not in any way regulated because it is a sex worker’s body and it is up to them to decide how they will use it in their livelihood.  –  Sean Baker

The Notorious Badge

From Hustlers to Pretty Woman, films centering sex workers continue to drive blockbusters for Hollywood — and last year was no different.  Anora was one of Hollywood’s most lauded films of 2024…By casting real-life sex workers in the club scenes…the film made strides that are rare for Hollywood.  Multiple sex workers were reportedly hired as consultants to ensure the accuracy and fair portrayal of these characters, and there was even a private screening of the film…for…sex workers…[but] the film industry continues to discriminate against…actors with a history of sex work — ironically, even when they’re auditioning to play sex workers…

Sexcrime (#1354)

It’s only been six years since the UK lost in court the last time it tried this:

…pornography should be banned…[if any bureaucrat working for the UK censorship agency] Ofcom [points at it and belches the magic formula]…”degrading, violent and misogynistic”…[the] propos[al is basically an attempt to reinstate the overturned 2014 law] that porn videos [refused]…for any [BBFC] certificate in the offline world should be banned online.  Baroness Bertin[, a fanatical pro-censorship politician, claimed in Nixonian fashion]…”I’m not a prude”…[while demanding that] the state should police people’s sex lives…

Shame, Shame (#1421)

These thieves have absolutely no shame:

Botify AI, a site for chatting with [computers]…hosts bots resembling real actors that state their age as under 18, engage in sexually charged conversations, offer “hot photos,” and in some instances describe age-of-consent laws as “arbitrary” and “meant to be broken”…MIT Technology Review…found popular user-created bots…meant to resemble Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams, Emma Watson as Hermione Granger, and Millie Bobby Brown, among others.  After receiving questions…about such characters, Botify AI removed the[m]…from its website, but numerous other underage-celebrity bots remain…Botify…[is] operated by Ex-Human, a [corporation] that…also licenses [chatbots] to other companies, like the dating app Grindr…and…has more than a million different characters, [imita]ting everyone from Elon Musk to Marilyn Monroe…


The Cop Myth (#1484)

Good riddance to bad rubbish:

A [typical and representative] Nashville [cop] died [of old age] while in [jail] for [murdering] his wife…87-year-old John Sorace died on Feb. 20, following…[his] arrest…for…reckless homicide after [murdering] his wife on Jan. 9…

Thought Control (#1498)

It’s sad that the First Amendment has been so weakened it needs a state law to give it teeth:

Several [wannabe book-banners] spoke out…against the effort to pass legislation designed to deter book banning in Connecticut libraries.  They [bloviate] that [individual] parents should have [power to overrule librarians and remove]…books [from] library shelves…[for all legal minors], particularly…those [which might] contain [information authoritarian parents want to deny them]…Bob Duff…co-sponsor of Senate Bill 1271, said Connecticut libraries dealt with 113 [attempts] to [ban] books in 2023 alone.  Duff said that bans “pave the way for greater censorship”…and…[waste] librarians[‘ time while threatening them with culture-war violence]…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1499)

Politicians will use any asinine rhetoric to gain control of the internet:

[The U.S. Congress’ top anti-porn crusader, Utah] Senator Mike Lee has introduced [a bill with the deeply-moronic moniker] the Shielding Children’s Retinas from Egregious Exposure on the Net (SCREEN) Act, a step toward [age-gating the entire internet so as to make government surveillance of adults even easier than it already is.  Previous attempts at similar censorship, both at the State and federal level]…have [repeatedly] been challenged and overturned by [federal courts, up to and including] the Supreme Court on the grounds of not [being remotely Constitutional].  Nonetheless…[politicians keep trying anyway because defending the indefensible in court doesn’t come out of their pockets, and culture-war jihads appeal…to the authoritarian nitwits who vote for them]…and garner…[financial] support from the [usual collection of pro-censorship gangs and cabals which infest the US]…

If Men Were Angels (#1517)

Wannabe preachers are often as bad as the real thing:

[North Carolina cops] arrested Lucas Timothy Hunt…the founder of the “Thank You Jesus” signs movement, [for child porn, acting on information from]…the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children…the Thank You Jesus mission…re[fu]sed…[to] comment…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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Diary #748

One of my generous gentlemen sent me several DVDs for my birthday, including this Boris Karloff thriller, filmed only a year before his death in 1969.  When it arrived, I hadn’t yet decided which movies to watch on my birthday (we generally do a triple feature), but since I’ve never seen it I decided to do a Karloff triple with Frankenstein (1931) and Isle of the Dead (1945).  I also haven’t actually decided what I want to do for my birthday dinner; usually I prefer the sort of things that can easily be eaten in front of movies (finger foods and the like), and often end up doing a lot more work for my own celebration than one would expect!  Chekhov says he’s bringing a cake, though, so that will be one thing I don’t have to deal with; it’s not so much the baking as the cleanup.  So whatever I do choose to make, it’ll probably be something that doesn’t involve much more cleanup than loading the dishwasher; I don’t think taking it a little easy on my birthday is too much to ask.

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What you’re seeing now is a real Jezebel.  –  Lance Wallnau

It’s rare that I actually find seasonal videos any more, so please enjoy this number from the early ’60s featuring Carol Burnett, Chita Rivera, Caterina Valente, and Boris Karloff.  The links above it were provided by Dan Savage, Jacob Sullum, Ronald Bailey, Lenore Skenazy, Radley Balko, IncarcerNation, and Emma Camp, in that order.

From the Archives

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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For quite some time, Canadian actress and director Sook-Yin Lee worked to get a film made of Paying For It, Chester Brown’s graphic-novel memoir of seeing sex workers on a regular basis after the breakup of his real-life romantic relationship with Lee.  A couple of years ago she managed to make a deal with a production company, and the film is now finished; it will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6th.  Chester is played by Dan Beirne and Sook-Yin’s alter ego “Sonny” by Emily Lê; real-life sex worker Andrea Werhun plays Chester’s long-time favorite Denise.  Chester doesn’t know when or how (theaters? Netflix?) the film will be shown in the US, and there’s no poster yet because apparently the producers have not been clear about whether they want Chester to do the poster or if they’re doing it some other way.  However, there’s a new movie edition of the book, whose cover is pictured here; the girl is based on the actress who plays the first pro Chester sees.  I’m looking forward to seeing the film when it becomes available on DVD, and I really hope it’s successful, not only because it will mean more money for Chester, but also because I’m happy for anything that helps normalize pragmatic sexual relationships.

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Are you going to shoot me?  –  Ta’Kiya Young, last words

Weird Al’s polkas have never been my favorites among his oeuvre, and I don’t know any of the songs parodied in this video. But since he’s semi-retired now and it has some funny animation, here it is.  The links above it were provided by Radley Balko; Jesse WalkerDan Savage; Brooke Magnanti; Phoenix Calida (x2); and IncarcerNation (x2), in that order.

From the Archives

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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Though I’ve read the explanation of why the cohort born from 1928 to 1945 was first named “The Silent Generation“, I cannot fathom how so many nitwits still think it’s a good label for the generation which gave us Elvis, The Beatles, and every other pioneer of Rock and Roll; most of the leaders of the civil rights movement, including Martin Luther King, Jr; actors including Robert De Niro and Elizabeth Taylor; directors including Stanley Kubrick; artists including Andy Warhol and Jim Henson; writers including Harlan Ellison and Charles Beaumont; comedians including Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder; scientists including Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan; sports stars including Muhammad Ali and Willie Mays; and many, many other important (and not at all silent) public figures.  And since the generation gave us the majority of the Beatniks and the older hippies as well, I have started a one-woman campaign to start calling it “The Beat Generation”.

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We all live below sea level in one way or another.  –  Matthew Christopher

Another video from Amy Winfrey on big corporations stealing art to train programs they hope will replace artists.  The links above it were provided by Jesse Walker, Brooke Magnanti, Scott Greenfield, IncarcerNation, Nun Ya, and Mistress Matisse, in that order.

From the Archives

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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It’s not dangerous to be scared.  –  Blair Carlyle

I don’t generally give actors a video sendoff, but in this case I couldn’t resist.  The links above it were provided by Jesse Walker (x2), Franklin Harris, and IncarcerNation (x3), in that order.

From the Archives

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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They want to put someone away, so they can say the case is solved.  –  Sandra Hemme

This week’s video was suggested by one of my generous gentlemen, who correctly surmised that I would enjoy it.  The links above it were provided by Stephen Lemons; Mike Siegel; Dan Savage and Genya; Popehat, IncarcerNation (x2), and J.D. Tuccille, in that order.

From the Archives

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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