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• Post #2137478

  Tokyo court says Japanese constitution does NOT give a right to equal marriage. A great shame. Previous courts have been more favourable. OTOH, I do think it's better on the whole to get an explicit buy-in to equal marriage. This 'constitution' strategy (re-interpreting a document that clearly wasn't written with the intention of providing for equal marriage) seems very vulnerable going forward. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyz7njqwvvo #japan #lgbtq #equalmarriage #sa...

• Post #2037224

  Oh no! Not Glenda Jackson! And after her amazing return to acting. She was unforgettable as King Lear. To think she'd been away from the stage (and from acting) for a quarter of a century. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65916692 #RIP #GlendaJackson #GreatActors #Theatre #UK #KingLear #Wirral

• Post #2036758

  MzVee - so talented and the one of the sexiest voices I’ve ever heard. https://open.spotify.com/track/3RxKUI1BK2CEuTWTBYuHAU?si=zspQnFSRQqK_MQ6pplUoLA #MzVee #FemaleVocalists #Ghana #Africa

• Post #2036740

  I totally agree with Sally Wainwright about the beauty of writing that is grounded in a place, rather than bland & generic to make it easier to market. https://www.ft.com/content/7792625d-ff25-45c2-818a-3a797eb3beed #SallyWainwright #HappyValley #GentlemanJack #LastTangoInHalifax #Yorkshire #NorthernEngland #TVdrama

• Post #1929070

  “Elis Regina is … one of the last unknown treasure troves of the 20th century that the world could discover … and she’s just one click away,” Elis Regina was incredible. A ‘skin voice’. I came across her on a Brazilian music compilation in 1992 and it was instant love. If it takes #AI and a #Volkswagen advert to bring her to the rest of the world, so be it. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/14/brazil-singer-elis-regina-artificial-intelligence-volkswagen #ElisRegina #Brazil #GreatSi...

• Post #1918133

  So... who's surprised? Racism, misogyny, xenophobia, islamophobia in the Met (London Metropolitan Police). It's still upsetting and depressing though. And the sad thing is there are lots of decent police officers and they end up getting tarred with the same brush. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgq06d44jyo #met #metpolice #racism #misogyny #islamophobia #domesticviolence #sexism #sexualviolence #xenophobia

• Post #1798474

  Not sure how much it's a case of women being more liberal than men over issues like immigration. I suspect it’s more that they understand that their own rights are at risk if they back illiberal trends. During the run up to the Brexit referendum I heard some people from ethnic minorities express hostility to the EU and some migrants. But they voted Remain because they perceived the Brexiteers as hostile to them too. Complacency about this is dangerous. There is usually a weak spot. The pol...

• Post #1725699

  The lyrics of ‘Spring, Spring, Spring’ as sung by Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire are insane - gloriously insane. From ‘While there's no antelope who feels that he can't elope’ to ‘Each cocoon has a tenant, so they hung out a pennant’ to ‘To itself, each amoeba softly croons, "Ach, du Lieber"’ and ‘While the proud little termite feels as large as a worm might’… those rhymes! https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Bing-Crosby-Fred-Astaire/Spring-Spring-Spring #SpringSpringSpring #Bi...

• Post #1624140

  Desmond Morris has died. I wonder how many people still remember him? ‘The Naked Ape’ was sexist of course and simplistic, but one thing it taught me, reading it in my early teens back in the 80s, is that there’s nothing shameful about acknowledging that as humans we are animals. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c51y797v200o #DesmondMorris #TheNakedApe #primates

• Post #1517554

  No matter how many times I watch Yam Kim-Fai (#任劍輝), I can’t see ‘him’ as a woman. It fascinates me. Pak Suet-Sin (#白雪仙) fascinates me full stop. https://youtube.com/watch?v=x3FMOYHyZek&feature=share #YamKimFai #PakSuetSin #CantoneseOpera #HongKong #ChineseOpera

• Post #1517553

  I always see Mira Anju (#安寿ミラ) as a woman but that’s fine by me! Maybe I appreciate the otokoyaku (male role players) in a different way from Japanese audiences. It doesn’t matter, the magic still works. And what magic it is! http://b23.tv/49hs0PF #Takarazuka #宝塚 #Japan #otokoyaku

• Post #1517283

  It is the 98th anniversary of the birth of the illustrator & writer Edward Gorey today! The author of ‘The Doubtful Guest’. What a book! #EdwardGorey #TheDoubtfulGuest

• Post #1093550

  #RIP Asha Bhosle. What a singer! I’ll never forget watching her perform live at the South Bank Centre in around 2011. Already in her late 70s she put younger singers to shame with her energy. And that charisma! A diva who had every right to be a diva. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/apr/12/indian-singer-asha-bhosle-dies-aged-92 #AshaBhosle

• Post #937533

  Hello. I am a #trans man and proud member of the wider #lgbtq community. I love books, music, theatre and am a massive fan of the former #Takarazuka star Mira Anju (#安寿ミラ). #Introduction #transman #ftm

• Post #877962

  Happy birthday to my beloved Mira Anju! The best - always! Seen here on a London park bench circa 1999 in a photo from her 20th anniversary photo book. #安寿ミラ #ヤン #MiraAnju #Yan #宝塚 #Takarazuka #Japan #日本🇯🇵 #theatre #舞台 #dance #ダンス #London #ロンドン #birthday #演劇 #長崎 #Nagasaki #choreographer #振り付け #誕生日

• Post #869915

  Thank god! Signs that the lights are coming on re Palantir and the NHS. ‘a growing recognition that the issue of Palantir and potential reputation risk had moved beyond the Labour left and Greens, who have led criticism in the past’ ‘When you look at some of the things Palantir’s leaders have said in the States, when you look at their political views and their outlook … If you were to put [Thiel] and some of those Palantir bosses on the political spectrum in the UK, they would be well off to...

• Post #827811

  On the BBC website neither the main page nor even the UK news page report the anti far right Together march that took place in London today. You have to filter all the way to England. Mind you, that’s better than they did for Trans Pride which only showed on the London page. A bit of a difference from how they covered the far right’s marches last year? #bbc #bbcnews #FarRight #mediabias #london #ukpolitics

• Post #793796

  Wandering the graveyard of dead Japanese words - fascinating article about ‘shigo’, words that have ‘died’. Some words get worn out, others die young. https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20260312/p2a/00m/0op/044000c #shigo #deadwords #japanese #damianflanagan #japan #日本語 #日本🇯🇵 #死語 #language #languagechange

• Post #793793

  Are there any recordings of (the great actress) Katharine Cornell apart from her recitals of poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning? Her voice and her command of it are things of wonder. It seems wrong - I can’t think of how to put it - that so little remains. #KatharineCornell #greatactors #ElizabethBarrettBrowning #poetry #theatre #America #20thCActors

• Post #793792

  Kumiko Ueda, Japanese theatre director (ex-Takarazuka) reflects on the relationship between the audience and the performance in this fascinating blog post. She was directing Hamlet at the time and so she also looks at what we know about Shakespeare’s audiences - the people who saw the plays at the Globe Theatre in the late 16th/early 17th century. And she points to how fragmented and segmented audiences have become and the difficulties that creates. The post is in Japanese but if you use Chr...

• Post #793791

  These illegal immigrants and their woke friends… #PaddingtonBear #WaterlooStation #SouthBankCentre #Peru #London #woke #immigration #Londoners #Migrants

• Post #793789

  Watched ‘Flashdance’ with a mate a while back. First time I’ve seen the film since it came out in the mid-80s. And you know - yes, the storyline is implausible and the characters are cliches, but it’s loads of fun and some of the dancing is fabulous (although you don’t want to look too closely or the editing is screamingly obvious). I’ve seen interviews where dancers said ‘Flashdance’ was what inspired them to start dancing. Best of all is the soundtrack. Some absolute bangers on it! And t...

• Post #788747

  They did it again! The Lionesses won the Euros! God knows it often felt like the Lionesses were getting through this tournament by the skin of their teeth, but what an achievement! And what a nail-biting finale! Even watching the penalties on iPlayer now it's all over I get nervous. #Lionesses #euros2025 #euros2025finals #England #womensfootball #ChloeKelly #NiamhCharles #AlexGreenwood #LucyBronze #AlessiaRusso #KeiraWalsh #BethMead ... and ALL the rest of the team! And, above all, #...

• Post #788728

  My Mum & Dad are watching a programme about country life, featuring shire horses. I love shire horses. A fella down the road from us kept some in a field nearby when I was growing up. Sometimes he’d let us kids have a ride on their backs. They had such lovely calm and accepting temperaments. You felt safe and as glorious as a king up there. #shirehorses #horses

• Post #780162

  I'd been under the impression that the Takarazuka performance in July 1994 was my first proper theatre experience, but this Turgenev play was in Feb/Mar 1994, so came before it. I love Helen Mirren (and had the most massive crush on her at the time) but I don't recall being blown away by 'A Month In The Country'. Joseph Fiennes kept fiddling with his sleeve. I'd forgotten John Hurt was even in it. https://www.helen-mirren.net/projects/1994amonthinthecountry/ #HelenMir...

• Post #780039

  There are some situations where the very act of making a film or TV series seems heroic. This director Ahmed Farah in Somalia is an example. Haifaa Al-Mansour, who made 'Wadjda' in Saudi Arabia is another. A female film director in a country where women couldn't even drive. For outdoor scenes, She had to direct hidden inside a van. No idea what the Somali TV series is like, but Wadjda's a lovely film. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-65390047 #AhmedFarah #HaifaaAlMans...

• Post #779955

  For anyone who is ex-Twitter and who used to encounter JK Rowling’s tweets there (and I didn’t even follow her), reading the BBC’s representation of her attitude to trans people is like entering a parallel universe. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64572328 #trans #JKRowling #BBC #Twitter #tweets

• Post #779829

  Today marks the 130th anniversary of the birth of Conrad Veidt, great German actor and anti-Nazi. He was brilliant in silent movies (I love Weimar Cinema!) but also in talkies too. Sadly, he was limited in his speaking roles, once he left Germany, by his strong German accent. In the ‘Cabinet of Doctor Caligari’ he somehow has to make a zombie soulful. #ConradVeidt #WeimarCinema #GermanCinema #SilentMovies #GreatActor #EarlyCinema #1920sfilm #AntiNazi #Germany #talkies https://youtu.be/IA...

• Post #773373

  Another look at the ONS data on gender and sexual orientation: “London also had higher proportions of people identifying as transgender men (0.16%) and trans women (0.16%) when compared with the rest of England and Wales.” Gosh. No wonder we're seen as such a threat. THREE in every 2,000 people. Fewer than that outside London. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64184736 #Census21 #ONS #gender #London #transgender #trans

• Post #773259

  Isn’t there an episode of a 70s/early 80s TV series (British) in which the villains have discovered a way to turn old men back into (beautiful) young men who fight as soldiers for them… reverting to old men when they die? They are Nazis trying to bring Hitler back to life I think. #70sTV #BritishTV