We Did the Reading

iPhones. This movie has everything: trans women, Christmas carols, donuts, meth, and prisons and your father’s making!

What does it mean for a white cis guy to make a film about black trans women and Is it possible to tell others’ stories ethically through collaboration? What’s so appealing about DIY projects? What is the difference between observation and participation? And why is this called Tangerine anyway? Listen to Pia bully Clementine about their (objectively ridiculous) name.

Additional Reading:

• Paris is Burning (duhhhhh)

Extra Credit:

• Follow us at @wedidthereading 📚🌈
• Read more of Clementine’s words at @clementinevonradics
• See more of Pia’s drawings at @pia_marchetti
• Thanks to Mirin Doja for creating our theme song

We’re talking about our favorite anti-male pump up jam, SCUM Manifesto. This controversial and iconic essay was written by Valerie Solanas, founder and singular member of SCUM (the Society for Cutting Up Men) and failed assassin of pop art darling Andy Warhol. Werk!

We dig into this manifesto, break down the perfect gay storm that lead to Andy Warhol’s shooting, and celebrate the performance art of Solanas & Warhol’s relationship. Could this text be contemporary if we replaced the word “men” with “patriarchy?” How much should we consider the artist’s intention when reading a work? What would Valerie Solanas’ twitter look like?

Additional Reading:

• On Liking Women by Andrea Long Chu
• For Her by Fiona Apple
• The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again) by Andy Warhol

Extra Credit:

• Follow us at @wedidthereading 📚🌈
• Read more of Clementine’s words at @clementinevonradics
• See more of Pia’s drawings at @pia_marchetti
• Thanks to Mirin Doja for creating our theme song

In 2020 while the world was literally falling apart, comic icon Simon Hanselmann stepped up as the hero we needed. Publishing daily to instagram, Hanselmann showed in real time how the cast of his cult classic series Megg and Mogg were coping in the quarantine. In our opinion, it’s the best piece of COVID media ever made, and possibly also the only good piece of COVID media ever made. It won an Eisner award for Chirst’s sake!

We talk about the catharsis of media by and for the people, the freedom provided by a cast of Problematic™ characters, and the power of shared niche interests. Pia also gushes extensively over Simon Hanselmann. (Simon if you are free this Thursday, Pia is free on Thursday when she is free.)

All hail the Anus King!

Additional Reading:

• Dive into the the Megg and Mogg universe with Megahex or Megg and Mogg in Amsterdam by Simon Hanselmann
• Fight Club (the book) by known queer weirdo Chuck Palahniuk (trust us, the book is more perverted than you’d think)
• The beginning of Trailer Park Boys season 6 episode 5 “Halloween 1977”

Extra Credit:

• Follow us at @wedidthereading 📚🌈
• Read more of Clementine’s words at @clementinevonradics
• See more of Pia’s drawings at @pia_marchetti
• Thanks to Mirin Doja for creating our theme song

Surprise, bitch! I bet you thought you’d seen the last of me! It’s our first episode back in New York so obviously we drank a bottle of rosé and talked about Sex and the City. And as we recorded this episode, we couldn’t help but wonder if all lesbians are Mirandas by default or if there’s a more nuanced choice for each of us.

Extra Credit:

• Follow us at @wedidthereading 📚🌈
• Read more of Clementine’s words at @clementinevonradics
• See more of Pia’s drawings at @pia_marchett
• Thanks to Mirin Doja for creating our theme song
  

We’re discussing the iconic camp film, Mommie Dearest, starring Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford. It’s our first ever episode in the same room! We discuss camp entertainment as therapy, the behinds the scenes gossip of both the making of Mommie Dearest and the life of Joan Crawford herself.

Why are the gays so good at irony? What defines camp? Be honest, how devastating are Joan Crawford’s eyebrows? Joan us for this love letter to a film that truly broke our brains.

We’re discussing the music video for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” by Lil Nas X, examining the referential nature of queer art, the influence of memes on pop music, and whether or not one can successfully masturbate using a peach.

Does Clementine look like Khloé Kardashian if she read queer theory? Who’s the Trish and who’s the Ethan? What is Pia’s favorite horse song? Join us for this dick-positive episode. #topscelebratingbottoms

Additional Reading:

• Cellophane by FKA Twigs

Extra Credit:

• Follow us at @wedidthereading 📚🌈
• Read more of Clementine’s words at @clementinevonradics
• See more of Pia’s drawings at @pia_marchetti
• Thanks to Mirin Doja for creating our theme song

We interview Kevin Kantor about their new poetry collection, Please Come Off-Book. Using their personal experience as an actor, Kevin explores gender, family, and art-making (all the good stuff) through the lens of the American theatre tradition.

We talk to Kevin about the complicated aftermath of going viral from a traumatic poem, the nuances of being a trans non-binary theatre maker, and why we’re over straight actors playing queer (@ Timothée Chalamet). We also discuss our shared love of the 1954 Filmed Stage Production of Peter Pan Starring Mary Martin. If that unlocked a gay memory for you - call us.

Additional Reading:

• Wound from the Mouth of a Wound by Torrin A. Greathouse
• 1954 Filmed Stage Production of Peter Pan Starring Mary Martin
  

Extra Credit:

• Follow us at @wedidthereading 📚🌈
• Follow our Kevin at @kevin_kantor and buy Please Come Off Book out now via Button Poetry
• Read more of Clementine’s words at @clementinevonradics
• See more of Pia’s drawings at @pia_marchetti
• Thanks to Mirin Doja for creating our theme song

Our very first guest, long time friend and fellow gay goblin Aurelia Grierson joins us to preach the gospel that Taylor Swift is bisexual. We look at all the bisexual clues presented in T-Swift’s canon, especially on sister records Folklore & Evermore.

Is Taylor Swift bisexual? Does it even matter if she writes bisexuality authentically? Why do we as queer people search for and create queer narratives? Where is the line between T-Swift and Talyor? Do we ship trans Severus Snape and Taylor Swift? Does Pia have a shot with Caroline Calloway? All questions posed; some answered.

Additional Reading:

• Is Taylor Swift the World’s Most Powerful Psychic? by Brandon Taylor on The Cut
• Gay For Play Episode 2 “A Bi-Pride Flag On Acid” (Sayonara Wild Hearts)
• Norman Fucking Rockwell! by Lana Del Rey (Mom needs a new iPhone case)
• On Liking Women by Andrea Long Chu in n+1
  

Extra Credit:

• Follow us at @wedidthereading
• Follow our very first guest, Aurelia Grierson The Juvenilia Collective, listen to their podcast That Do It For Ya, and engage with their personal musings at @nonbinarybutler on Twitter or @shesagoodboy on Instagram
• Read more of Clementine’s words at @clementinevonradics
• See more of Pia’s drawings at @pia_marchetti
• Thanks to Mirin Doja for creating our theme song! Listen to more of her music and follow them @mirin_doja

Murder! Drugs! Murder while on drugs! Life size humanoid rats as a narrative device to avoid a libel lawsuit! Macaulay Culkin! This movie has everything - and everybody - you’ve ever wanted to see committed to film.

We talk about how this already homo/pomo text was adapted into an even more homo/pomo movie, and detail the truly outrageous cast which acts as a who’s who of queer cinema. James St. James: if you are free on Thursday we are also free on Thursday.

Additional Reading:

• Party Monster: The Shockumentary
• New York Gritty: 'Party Monster' Michael Alig Details Grisly Crime in Exclusive Interview
• Party Monster: Behind the Scenes w/ James St. James & Fenton Bailey
• Any religious text which might cleanse you of these sins
  

Extra Credit:

• Follow us at @wedidthereading
• Read more of Clementine’s words at @clementinevonradics
• See more of Pia’s drawings at @pia_marchetti
• Hear more of Mirin Dojas's sick beats at @Mirin_Doja

Hear ye, hear ye! All girls, gays, and theys have been summoned to this emergency episode. The #FREEBRITNEY movement has finally garnered the attention of the heterosexuals due to The New York Times’ recent documentary about Britney’s conservatorship, bitch. We literally had to talk about it.

We discuss the machine of sexism that set Britney up to fail, the inherent paradox of teen girl sexuality, and the three music videos that might offer insight into Britney’s 2007 state of mind. Also, Chris Crocker was right.

Additional Reading:

• Lolita Podcast hosted by Jamie Loftus
• Britney’s Gram hosted by Tess Barker and Barbara Gray
• I Love Dick by Chris Kraus
• Gimme More, Piece of Me, and Break the Ice by Britney Spears music videos
• Paparazzi by Lady Gaga music video
• “Britney Spears | Hot 100 Chart History” by KP Television
• Touch of My Hand by Britney Spears
• “My Journey with Gender at 33” by Chris Crocker
• @kardashian_kolloquium
  

Extra Credit:

• Follow us at @wedidthereading
• Read more of Clementine’s words at @clementinevonradics
• See more of Pia’s drawings at @pia_marchetti
  

We’re talking about the “fabulous but true tale of murder in clubland,” Disco Bloodbath. Later re-printed as Party Monster, this non-linear, Ketamine-infused true crime novel paints an abstract picture of the Club Kids and details the horrific murder of Andre “Angel” Melendez by scene leader, Michael Alig. 

This book has absolutely everything you could want from a queer text... and also some things you might not want want. We talk about how we as queer people can integrate the fabulousness with the grotesque and how we can maintain our bonds without the trauma. Also we talk about Ketamine. 

Additional Reading:

• Michael Alig NYC Club Kids on Geraldo April 17, 1990
• Life of the Party by Olivia Gatwood
• Peeew! #565: RIP Michael Alig
• Party Monster (2003) Dir. Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato (We’re talking about this one next week!)

Extra Credit:

• Follow us at @wedidthereading
• Read more of Clementine’s words at @clementinevonradics
• See more of Pia’s drawings at @pia_marchetti

We’re comparing and contrasting two articles profiling our queen: Rolling Stone’s 1999 cover story Britney Spears, Teen Queen: Inside the Heart and Mind (and Bedroom) of Britney and The Tragedy of Britney Spears from the same publication 9 years later.

It's Britney, bitch.

Additional Reading:

• Losing a Pop Legend to the Media - Britney Spears in 2007 by Deep Dive
• Miley Cyrus & The Social Distancers cover of Gimme More from Miley Cyrus Backyard Sessions
• Britney Spears & *NSYNC’s “Baby One More Time”/Tearin’ Up My Heart 1999 VMAs performance compared with Britney Spears’ “Gimme More” 2007 VMAs performance
• From the Bottom of My Broken Heart music video (1999) compared with Gimme More music video (2007)
• Leave Britney Alone (2007) by Chris Crocker

Extra Credit:

• Follow us at @wedidthereading
• Read more of Clementine’s words at @clementinevonradics
• See more of Pia’s drawings at @pia_marchetti

#FREEBRITNEY

Everybody’s talking about Happiest Season and so are we! Clea DuVall of But I’m a Cheerleader and we-knew-before-she-did fame writes and directs this traumatic lesbian coming out story decorated in festive rom-com wrapping paper. Also Kristen Stewart is there. Bottoms rejoice!

We discuss queering a genre based in heteronormative tropes, valid reasons to break up with someone, and the Christmas Miracle that is Aubrey Plaza.

Additional Reading:

• Saving Face (2004) Dir. Alice Wu

Extra Credit:

• Follow us at @wedidthereading
• Read more of Clementine’s words at @clementinevonradics
• See more of Pia’s drawings at @pia_marchetti

We’re comparing two episodes of iconic sitcom and cultural reset, The Golden Girls. We eat a cheesecake and discuss the two Very Special Episodes which track Blanche’s brother’s coming out arch: (S4E10) "Scared Straight" and (S6E14) "Sisters of the Bride."

We talk about engaging with media with outdated politics, The Golden Girls as a Socratic circle, and gladiator movies.

Additional Reading:

• Sex and the City Boy (S2E04) "Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl..."
• The Golden Girls Gay Journey - From Coming Out to Marriage Equality by Matt Baume

Extra Credit:

• Follow us at @wedidthereading
• Read more of Clementine’s words at @clementinevonradics
• See more of Pia’s drawings at @pia_marchetti

We’re diving into graphic memoir Are You My Mother, fittingly written by Pia’s literal (figurative) biological mother Alison Bechdel. We talk about mom trauma, the “two genders” of color, and God. You know, the usual stuff.

Does this episode pass the Bechdel test? And will your reading group pass the Bechdel test when discussing this episode? Does the Bechdel test pass the Bechdel test?

Additional Reading:

The Essential Dykes the Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel

Fun Home (A New Broadway Musical), "Ring of Keys"

Extra Credit:

• Follow us at @wedidthereading.
• Read more of Clementine’s words at @clementinevonradics.
• See more of Pia’s drawings at @pia_marchetti.
  

In our very first episode, we’re talking about contemporary classic Crush by Richard Siken. This award winning homo pomo poetry collection was the perfect place to dive in to the queer canon. We talk about male violence, reinventing the Bible in our own image, and David Lynch. 

What even is a poem? What even isn’t a poem? We investigate.

Additional Reading:

• Mulholland Drive (2001) Dir. David Lynch
• Without Protection by Gala Mukomolova

Extra Credit:

• Follow us at @wedidthereading.
• Read more of Clementine’s words at @clementinevonradics.
• See more of Pia’s drawings at @pia_marchetti.

In which your hosts expound on the merits of this deeply queer podcast.