Latest news with #1987
Times
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Pandora Sykes picks this summer's top 10 beach reads
A summer holiday is the perfect time to finally knuckle down to some serious reading. Here are the most in-the-know novel to been seen reading by the pool. Florence Knapp's novel The Names is a moving riff on the concept of nominative determinism — the idea that people's lives are guided by their name — using three different timelines. Each begins in 1987, with Cora registering her newborn son's name. In the first timeline Cora calls the baby Gordon, as his abusive father has demanded. In the second she calls him Julian. And in the third, her nine-year-old daughter names him Bear. Bear grows up to be a gentle wanderer; Julian is artistic and avoidant; and Gordon is as bullish and dismissive as his father.
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
A Strange Condition Ruined My Sex Life For 40 Years. Then A Doctor Said 1 Word That Changed My Life.
I couldn't have been more than 19 years old when, as a happy-go-lucky UCLA student, I looked down at my penis and decided I was dying. Cancer, I thought, noticing small red bumps at the tip of my penis. Since I wasn't having sex with anyone — not for lack of trying, I might add — what else could they be? I was doomed before it was even legal for me to drink. A quick trip to the university's emergency room followed, where, under harsh lights, a female doctor held and studied my genitals, then, in front of a female nurse, broke out into laughter. 'My husband has those,' she told me. 'They're varicose veins in an uncommon place. Nothing to worry about. Go Bruins!' It turns out, I had a lot to worry about... but not for reasons the doctor dismissed. As a young, gay actor who moved to New York City right after college, in 1987, having red bumps on my penis wasn't exactly the invitation to sex that I was hoping to find. Not every guy I slept with noticed, but the ones who did often thought they were a sign of AIDS, herpes or god knows what else. I've never forgotten the man who said, simply, that I was 'a whore,' and, since he was in a relationship with another man, he couldn't take any risks. Um, kettle...? That said, jovially saying to guys, 'relax, they're just varicose veins,' didn't work as well as my former doctor insinuated. Perhaps I should have had her write a note. In reality, who could really blame these men for being suspicious? Guys were dropping dead from AIDS on a daily basis, and vigilance was everything. I spent a lot of time trying to have sex in the dark or simply praying that guys wouldn't examine my tip too closely. Many a hard-on was deflated just worrying one of my hook-ups would suddenly scream out, 'Dude, what's wrong with your dick?!' One guy did just that. Even in the midst of the AIDS pandemic, I slept with a lot of strangers (I always used protection for intercourse), and to them, I was just another dick — pun intended. I'm certain that, if the situation had been reversed, I'd have had a difficult time believing the varicose vein story, too. During the periods when I had steady boyfriends, the situation diminished because they trusted me and knew I wouldn't place them in harm's way. (Although I've read reports to the contrary, I've never once had one of the blood vessels break, during sex or otherwise.) However, even those men weren't always polite about my 'deformity.' One guy I dated for a long time told me that having oral sex with me was like eating ice cream with nuts — and he didn't like nuts. Charmed! I've spent a lot of my life single, though, and as I grew older in a new century, I learned that no matter what time of life you choose to be sex-positive, there will always be a target on your back from groups who find sex with multiple partners shameful. I also found that as I got older, most complaints would come from men much younger than myself. Being a 'Dilf' or a 'Daddy' has been a sweet time of life for me, but the sexual scrutiny from millennials and Generation Z has become more intense. I've had guys show up at my door and get naked, then, after foreplay, examine my penis like I was having a medical exam. Some were polite when they walked out the door, some were not. Since this rarely happens with men close to my age, I chalked it up to retro-fear of older men — an AIDS-era residue that meant those of us who were sexually active during that horrifying time were still physically scarred. By 2022, I'd had enough. I was seeing a man 20 years younger than myself and having a great time, until the night he abruptly stopped oral sex and demanded to know why I had bumps on my penis. I told him they'd always been there and that he'd just never noticed, which he didn't believe, and he said he never wanted to see or talk to me again. I've not spoken to him since. I immediately made an appointment with my doctor, pulled down my pants in the office, and asked if there was anything that could be done about my grotesque abnormality. After yet another bright-light examination, mixed in with small talk of his impending wedding and honeymoon, he told me that, contrary to what my initial doctor said, the bumps were not varicose veins, but more than likely angiokeratoma, benign blood vessels that form on the skin. His diagnosis was delivered in a tone so carefree I definitely wanted him to write a note to future lovers. He gave me a referral to an excellent dermatologist in New York, Dr. Bradley Glodny, who, when he studied my penis — sometimes I think my flaccid package has gotten more attention than the stiff version — confirmed that I had genital angiokeratoma, and said that, for an affordable price, he could remove them via laser. 'Yes, please,' I said faster than he could turn on the equipment to fix my equipment. When I told him that my dates were often repulsed by my groin area, he asked, flatly, 'What kind of people do you go out with?' Fair point. I haven't always been the best judge of character when hormones get in the way. A week of healing went by, and, as promised, almost all of the bumps disappeared (some were too tiny to remove). My self-esteem and self-confidence jumped up 100%, and my sex life since then has become substantially more fulfilling. I had no idea that hearing Dr. Glodny say that one word could change everything. In the bedroom, I've become, like, 'Hey, feel free to examine my penis. Nice, isn't it?' and 'Sure, we can have sex in bright light. Sounds like fun!' Since an internet search returned lopsided statistics on how many people have my condition, I asked Dr. Glodny for his thoughts. 'While I cannot give you an exact statistic, I believe that most men over the age of 30 have at least a few angiokeratomas in their genital area,' he said, adding that they become more prevalent as we age. What I'm baffled by — and what shocks me upon reflection — is that I ignored seeking help for my condition for 40 years, and, just as insane, I took the opinion of one doctor without seeking a second opinion. Varicose veins run in my family, and I have them on my legs, so it did seem like a legit diagnosis. But doctors, lest we forget, are simply professionals with theories, and should always be questioned. Part of me was embarrassed, too, to even discuss such a sensitive part of my anatomy with a stranger, let alone have them examine it. Clearly, I've grown up on that front. I hope that if you're reading this and have any skin condition that scares or confuses you, you won't be as stubborn as I was and seek help immediately. I don't regret having an active sex life — quite the opposite. But I should have been more dismissive of the men who disbelieved me when I told them they were safe. I accepted humiliation in the hopes that I could score some hot ass. (Remember the guy who called me a liar? I recently reached out to him so he could see the 'new and improved' me. He never responded, and, frankly, I think I dodged a bullet.) Like most guys I know, I want all of my body to be appreciated — the muscles, the hairy chest, the penis. We all have physical imperfections, wherever and whatever they may be. When we are humiliated on any level, it only increases the kind of body fascism that needs to be eradicated. Laser removal for angiokeratoma doesn't last forever, and I have them tweaked about once a year. Yeah, it hurts — a lot. Yes, insurance doesn't cover it because it's considered cosmetic. And, yes, I have to go off the market for a good week or two afterward. But at this point in my life, skipping out on the procedure and going back to hiding in the sexual shadows would be just plain nuts. David Toussaint is a four-time book author, journalist, professional screenwriter and playwright, and actor. He lives in Manhattan with his pug, Deja. Do you have a compelling personal story you'd like to see published on HuffPost? Find out what we're looking for here and send us a pitch at pitch@ I Suddenly Have 4 Severe Dents In My Head And I'm Trying To Accept My New Appearance I'm Trying To Raise My Kids As Homosexuals (And I Never Even Have To Say 'Gay') For 33 Years, I Thought Something Was Wrong With Me. Then I Faced The 1 Possibility I Hadn't Considered.
The Guardian
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘It's hard to find work': Marlee Matlin on making Hollywood history but waiting for change
In 1987, at the age of 21, Marlee Matlin became the youngest person ever to win a best actress Oscar. Footage of her victory appears early in Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, a new documentary on the trailblazing actor's life and career: Matlin, remarkably fresh-faced even for 21, in her very 80s purple dress, her brunette hair swept up by a floral headpiece, black-rimmed glasses on, appears stunned as William Hurt, her co-star in Children of a Lesser God and her boyfriend at the time, reads her name. Thunderous applause. The camera captures fellow nominee Jane Fonda mouthing 'that's so great' as Matlin, the first and still only deaf actor to win the award, approaches the podium and kisses Hurt. As she delivers her speech in American Sign Language (ASL), she seems almost too shocked to emote, overcome with the gravity of the moment. Matlin's win was indeed groundbreaking, a watershed moment for deaf representation. But as Not Alone Anymore explains, it was also much more complicated than a feelgood story of societal triumph, or a turning point for deaf creatives. Nor was it one of personal glory. Halfway through the film, the scene is replayed again, this time with the sound taken away – the thunderous applause muted to just a simulation of Matlin's own thunderous heartbeat as she walked to the stage. 'I was afraid as I walked up the stairs to get the Oscar,' Matlin recalls on screen in ASL. 'I was afraid because I knew, in my gut, that he wasn't that happy.' Hurt, 16 years her senior and an established Hollywood star, was intensely jealous of her success, and had already begun physically abusing her. Without sound and with context, what once read as overwhelming shock on her face instead appears as something darker, shaded with fear. The twist, of sorts, is one of many decisions by director Shoshannah Stern to subvert the hearing perspective that most viewers automatically assume. 'I wanted to return to her Oscar-winning moment twice,' Stern, a deaf actor herself, told me through an interpreter, 'because sound does limit people. There are a lot of things that I feel hearing people miss when they are just listening with their ears and not listening with their eyes.' When I first watched Matlin's win, I assumed, as Stern expected, that 'it's this roaring applause, so we're celebrating'. Without sound, the picture is clearer. 'You could see in that moment how scary it is,' said Stern. 'And it's right there. It's been in front of us this whole time.' Stern's intrinsic understanding of the deaf perspective was the reason Matlin, who went on to a long career on such shows as Seinfeld, The West Wing, The L Word and, most recently, the Oscar-winning film Coda, decided to make the film at all. 'Almost none of the documentaries that I've seen that have to do with a subject matter like myself have not been done right,' she told me over Zoom via her interpreter, Jack Jason, who has worked with Matlin since 1985. When PBS's American Masters approached her about a documentary, she had one demand: the director had to be deaf, and it had to be Stern, a longtime friend and occasional collaborator who co-created the show This Close. As she did with early financiers of Coda who wanted to cast big-name hearing actors for two deaf roles, Matlin stuck to her guns. Deaf participation, take it or leave it. 'I wanted to have that type of conversation I could [with] Shoshannah, where I could feel free and sign and not worry about an interpreter voiceover, not worry about my surroundings, not worry about any of that, just be there,' Matlin said. 'That was the first time that I felt at ease.' Much of Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, which first premiered at the Sundance film festival, features Stern and Matlin in conversation unlike in any prior documentary I've seen, even with deaf subjects. The two women sign without voiceover, just subtitles for hearing viewers. Any ASL interpreters were not only off camera, but in a different room, communicating via earpieces. 'I wasn't accustomed to that approach. I've never seen that,' said Matlin. 'I'm accustomed to being voiced over, because that's how it's been in my entire career. That's the hearing perspective.' As the first Oscar-winning deaf actor and still the most famous, Matlin knows how, as Stern puts it, 'the world often tries to force perspectives on people, put the weight of explaining an entire community's experience on one person'. Voiceover and interpreters 'are another forced perspective', she said. 'When I'm interviewed by hearing people, I have to look at the interpreter. Where are they? How is my language being translated into English? And then I'm limiting myself. I'm thinking in a way that the hearing interviewer or the hearing director is thinking. I'm not thinking as myself.' 'It wasn't what I wanted Marlee to say in our documentary, it was how she spoke, how that changes when our expectations and our perspectives change,' she added. 'Accessibility is for everyone. It's not just for us as deaf people, but a lot of times that responsibility, that weight, is put on one person.' Not Alone Anymore illustrates that weight, which Matlin felt acutely as a very young person experiencing rapid professional success. Cast in Children of a Lesser God fresh out of high school, Matlin was new not only to screen acting but the world beyond her small community in suburban Chicago. The youngest of three children in a hearing family – Matlin became deaf at 18 months, for unknown reasons that, she recalls, nevertheless left her parents guilt-stricken – she attended a mixed deaf/hearing school and began acting at age seven; she was inspired, in part, by Henry Winkler, a lifelong mentor she first met backstage at a school show at age 12. (In 1993, Matlin married Kevin Grandalski, a cop she met on the set of Reasonable Doubts, in the Winklers' back yard. They have four children.) Matlin's family was not fluent in ASL, and it took years for her to understand the loneliness and isolation at home. She coped by smoking marijuana. At 19, she began dating Hurt, who was then 35. Her drug use escalated with the physical and emotional abuse; she has said she smoked 20 joints a day, plus cocaine. In the midst of her awards season run, she entered rehab. She emerged sober, and also the face of a deaf community she did not totally understand. 'I didn't realize that there were more deaf people out there, outside of Chicago, a whole community. It was bigger than what I even realized,' she said. Not Alone Anymore powers through cringey clips of interviewers asking Matlin to explain deafness. How did it feel to be deaf? Had she come to terms with it? Matlin powered through as best she could. She quickly became an activist, successfully pushing legislation in the US requiring closed captioning on TV and streaming sites. But she struggled as the lone representative of deafness for hearing people. The film lingers on backlash from the deaf community when Matlin spoke at the 1988 Oscars, which many felt encouraged the stereotype that deaf intelligence was connected to one's ability to imitate hearing speech. Matlin says the incident, fanned by hearing media attention, drove her away from the deaf community for over a decade. 'I had no guidance in terms of someone to sit down to me and explain about the language that was being used, about the language that I used,' she said. 'I had to find out the hard way.' Matlin faced similar media blowback, though of a different tenor, when she disclosed Hurt's abuse, as well as incidents of molestation by a babysitter and teacher in her childhood, in her 2009 memoir, I'll Scream Later. Not Alone Anymore again assembles very pre-#MeToo clips in which interviewers discounted or dismissed her experience. In one clip, Joy Behar asks about 'spectacular' sex with Hurt. 'Marlee has always been ahead of the curve,' said Stern of Matlin's willingness to speak up years before it became more common to do so. When Hurt died in 2022, at the age of 71, Matlin found her name once again brought up in his wake. 'On social media, I had to look at both sides of the conversations,' she recalled. In posts and comments, some people accused her of lying about the abuse; others were mad at those who accused her of crying wolf. 'They were trying to define me,' she said. 'And I would have none of that. I wanted them to stop, but at the same time, I decided to step away from the conversation' during Coda's press run. Did she wish now that she said anything? 'No, I don't,' she answered, after a beat. 'Because nothing would satisfy these people. And why should I have to? I didn't trust what would happen if I did get involved, because of my past experience of being ignored, of being overlooked, not getting any help. But it was interesting to observe, to see the two factions fighting about me thinking that they knew me.' It's a typically strident answer from Matlin, who has never minced words, particularly on how her Oscar did not open up more opportunities for deaf actors – the film's title comes from her emotional reaction to Coda costar Troy Kotsur's supporting actor Oscar in 2022, becoming only the second deaf actor to win. As with Matlin's 1987 trophy, Kotsur's win hasn't changed much. 'I'm not seeing more opportunities open up,' said Stern. 'It's still up to deaf people or people from a minority group to explain their experience to the majority,' she added. 'We continue to say what is expected of us, which is: 'Great story. Representation has changed! There's going to be so many job opportunities!' That's what people are expecting us to say. And if we say that, nothing's going to change.' 'My least favorite question is: Are you working? What's next?' said Matlin. 'I hate answering that question. I say, 'Oh, well, I have this.' I try to change the subject, talk about something else because they won't understand what I'm going through. 'It's hard to find work,' she said, but still insists: 'This is something I love to do. This is a business that I love being in. I love acting. I love it all.' Naturally, she can't say what is next – 'waiting for a yes or no, an answer, that's typically what I do' – beyond press for a film she and Stern both hope challenges some perspectives. 'I hope it makes people think. I hope that people feel seen,' said Stern. 'I hope people know that they have value in how they see the world, and you don't just have to accept how things have been done for so long.' Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore is out now in US cinemas
Forbes
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
The Analogue Duo Makes Classic TurboGrafx-16 Games Accessible Again
The Analogue Duo can play classic PC Engine and TurboGrafx-16 games without the need for emulation. For fans of the TurboGrafx and PC Engine, the Analogue Duo has a lot to offer and allows these classic systems to breathe life into their software libraries once more. Originally released in 1987 in Japan, the PC Engine started off life as a cartridge console, with its own HuCards storage setup. Technically an 8-bit system, much like the Famicom, the PC Engine did have two 16-bit graphics processors, which allowed it to compete more directly with the Super Famicom. When it came Westward in 1988, it became known as the TurboGrafx-16, with the latter '16' being something of a contentious point, as it technically wasn't a full-on 16-bit system. That said, what the PC Engine, and subsequently the TurboGrafx-16, did do very well was handle arcade ports almost perfectly. The most famous of these was the first R-Type, which was split across two HuCards, which brings me onto the Duo. The Analogue Duo supports HuCards and CD-ROMs. The Duo for both systems added a CD-ROM drive to the setup and allowed games with more audio and graphics to be pumped through the system. It also meant that games like R-Type could have their two HuCards combined onto one CD, with an all-new funky soundtrack. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Considering the legacy of R-Type on the PC Engine, it felt only fitting to test drive it on the Analogue Duo, which again uses a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) like their other retro-inspired systems. That means that the Analogue Duo is not emulating its games; it's running them effectively natively. This is an important point, because if you wanted to play PC Engine games, HuCard or CD, on an original system, let alone the even rarer portable PC Engine GT, you're going to have your work cut out for you. Especially as hardware such as the PC Engine GT is notoriously unreliable these days, as these systems weren't sadly built for a long lifespan, especially when it comes to the old CD-ROM drives in the Duo. The Analogue Duo uses an FPGA, so it is not emulating the games it runs. This is where the Analogue Duo comes in and allows classic HuCard and CD-ROM games to be played on modern displays at 1080p. Games like Macross 2036, being one of the earlier Masaya shmups, are very hard to get a hold of these days, and even harder to play on classic hardware (if you can even find hardware that works). This is why Analogue, and its family of retro systems using FPGA hardware, are helping to keep classic consoles like the PC Engine and the TurboGrafx-16 alive. It's also a helpful way to look back and see how the PC Engine's foray into CD-ROM games would, in turn, force Nintendo's hand and their ill-fated alliance with Sony to create the original Nintendo PlayStation. In many ways, the PC Engine was the indirect start of the PlayStation and the legacy it has had on the games industry. Thankfully, the Analogue Duo is still readily available from their online shop for $249.99, and the wirelessly compatible 8BitDo PC Engine Mini controller is still on Amazon for $24.24. Follow me on X, Facebook and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii and am currently featured in the Giant Robots exhibition currently touring Japan.
Geek Culture
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Culture
Amazon Sets ‘Spaceballs' Sequel With Rick Moranis & Bill Pullman, Son Lewis Pullman In Talks To Join
Spaceballs , the 1987 parody film of the sci-fi genre, is getting a sequel from Amazon MGM Studios, bringing back familiar faces like Bill Pullman and Rick Moranis, with the former's son Lewis Pullman also in talks to star alongside his father onscreen. The original 1987 movie, directed by Mel Brooks, starred the elder Pullman as Lone Starr, a mercenary and parody of the Star Wars character Han Solo, who teams up with his alien sidekick Barf, played by the late John Candy, to face off against the evil Spaceballs, led by Moranis' Dark Helmet. The film was lauded for not only poking fun at the Star Wars franchise, but other sci-fi staples of the time like Star Trek , 2001: A Space Odyssey and Planet of the Apes . Directed by Josh Greenbaum ( Strays ), the sequel will also see the return of Brooks as Yogurt, a character poking fun at Star Wars' Yoda, and Daphne Zuniga, who played a parody of Princess Leia named Princess Vespa. According to The Hollywood Reporter's sources, Lewis Pullman ( Thunderbolts*, Top Gun: Maverick ) is in talks to play a character named Starburst, who is the son of Lone Starr and Vespa. New faces to the franchise include Keke Palmer ( Nope ), who plays a woman named Destiny, and Josh Gad, who also wrote the film's script, with the trio playing the lead roles of the film. 'While the title, plot details, and rest of cast are being kept under wraps, the film has been described by those who have not yet read the script as 'A Non-Prequel Non-Reboot Sequel Part Two' but with Reboot Elements Franchise Expansion Film.' said Amazon in a statement describing the upcoming project. The Spaceballs sequel currently doesn't have a firm release date, but according to Amazon MGM Studios, the film is expected to release sometime in 2027. Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise 'duds' like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3 . He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying. Amazon Amazon MGM Spaceballs Spaceballs Sequel
