All the Bands in the '80s Indiegogo Campaign Launch

I'm thrilled to announce that I've officially launched my Indiegogo campaign for my screenplay, "All the Bands in the '80s"!!! And I'm offering some great perks! For $25 you get a thank you in the credits! For $50 you get a thank you in the credits AND a chance to appear as an extra in a crowd scene! You can donate here: https://igg.me/at/AllTheBandsInThe80s/x/38080695#/

I'm also planning to do a Facebook fundraiser in conjunction with my birthday on August 2.

Fuck Trump/Fuck ICE

It’s Pride Day, but not I’m not feeling very proud as an American. Quite the opposite. I’m absolutely furious about what’s going on in this country. People are being kidnapped off the street and disappeared to foreign countries or sent to concentration camps in this country. Meanwhile, in the dead of night, Senate Republicans passed Trump’s "Big Beautiful Bill," which would cut Medicaid and give Trump unchecked power.

As Aaron Hicklin pointed out in his New York Times essay last week, our fair-weather corporate allies have abandoned us due to Trump’s policy of intimidation and censorship. So the Pride March, which I’ve attended and/or marched in for over 40 years, may have to, of necessity, become more political, as it was originally.

Which is why, when I attend today’s march, I’ll be carrying these two homemade signs. It’s not much, but it’s all I could fit.

All the Bands in the ’80s Indiegogo Pre-launch

I’m proud to announce the pre-launch of my Indiegogo campaign for my screenplay about the Cruel World festival, All the Bands in the ’80s. Sign up here to find out when my campaign goes “live”: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/--3235048/coming_soon/x/38080695

Cruel World Festival 2025

It seemed like the universe was conspiring against me when I attended the Cruel World festival for the third time this year. Everything from the weather (unseasonably cool and rainy) to my plane (late) to my bus (also late) to my Airbnb (disgustingly dirty) went wrong. I even showed up late to see the first act I was interested in, Midge Ure, because I read the schedule wrong. (Fortunately, I’d already seen him in New York). Festival security even confiscated my umbrella at the entrance! 

And I’ll explain why that was a problem.

You see, I’d been planning this trip for several months! The one day I needed the weather to be good, it sucked! Several British performers even apologized for “bringing the British weather.” 

And I have a history of bad weather with Cruel World.

The first time I attended the festival, two years ago, Iggy Pop’s set was cut short and Siouxsie didn’t perform at all because of “dangerous” weather (i.e., lightning). 

 And I’m still pissed off about it!

After I was at the concert for about three hours, the rain stopped. Still, three hours of steady drizzle can be pretty fucking annoying!

In spite of the rain, I was happy to be among my people: fans of ’80s music. I even shed a tear, ironically, during Midge Ure’s “Dancing with Tears in My Eyes.”

Some other things I made note of:

• Alison Moyet lost weight!
• The Buzzcocks performed without their original lead singer Pete Shelley, who died in 2018. (Original member Steve Diggle handled lead vocals.) They tore through their set so fast, it was if they were hoping that people wouldn’t notice that the guy singing wasn’t Pete Shelley.
• Madness sounded great and their saxophonist, Lee Thompson, took off his clothes.
• Devo has great visuals.
• The Go-Gos have great harmonies, but they played a different arrangement of “Our Lips Are Sealed,” one of the greatest pop songs ever written. (I suppose bands get tired of playing even great songs.)
• Bernard Sumner of New Order may have a limited vocal range, but the band makes up for it with innovative synthesizer and drum machine programming and by using the bass as a lead instrument.
• I was pleasantly surprised by some bands I haven’t seen before (Blancmange, OMD).

On a more positive note, I finally figured out where the Rose Bowl's free shuttle buses are, so I didn’t have to walk a mile (to avoid congestion pricing) and then wait a half hour for a Lyft. 

If I come back next year, I’ll stay at the Airbnb I stayed at last year (which was immaculate). 

And maybe, if I’m really lucky, it won’t rain.

Midge Ure

Blancmange

Alison Moyet

OMD's Andy McCluskey

OMD's Paul Humphreys

Madness

Devo

The Go-Go's

New Order

Synergy

Today’s word is “synergy.”

You see, in an ideal world, one thing is supposed to promote another thing and so on and so on and so on. Just like that that old shampoo commercial.

For example, if you like my blog, on Saturday, May 10 at 9pm, I’m kicking off the fourth year of my monthly stand-up comedy show, Eat Drink Laugh, at Pangea.

Advance tickets available here:

https://cur8.com/23871/project/131620

If you like that, you can watch some of my old stand-up comedy sets, song parodies, short films and my one-man show, "Take My Job, Please, Confessions of a Stand-up Doorman" (a.k.a. "Doorman Confidential") on my YouTube page, here:

https://www.youtube.com/paulhallasy1

And did I mention that I wrote a screenplay called All the Bands in the '80s, which I’m trying to get produced?

It’s coming soon to an Indiegogo site near you, but in the meantime, here’s a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFwwiOl5WAU

But if you really want to know my back story, I suggest you read my book, New York Trilogy,

which you can buy here:

https://www.iuniverse.com/BookStore/BookDetails/112312-New-York-Trilogy

And if you liked my book, you might want to take the audio walking tour of the East Village I created, New York Trilogy: A Walking Tour, which you can buy here: https://voicemap.me/tour/new-york-city/new-york-trilogy-a-walking-tour

And there you have it! The complete Paul Hallasy/Gay Curmudgeon experience!

Now go wash your hair!

The New Hunks

There’s been a recent spate of movies that put women and female sexuality front and center: Babygirl, The Substance and Anora.

At the same time (and what’s equally noteworthy), is that there’s been a new crop of young male actors who are often the objects of female (or gay male) attention and who defy the muscular stereotype of yore.

In Babygirl, Nicole Kidman plays a powerful executive who falls under the spell of a kinky young intern, played by Harris Dickinson. While it’s somewhat shocking to see an A-list actress like Kidman completely naked (see also Demi Moore in The Substance), what may be equally noteworthy is the attention paid to Dicksinon, particularly in an extended slow dance scene to the tune of George Michael’s “Father Figure.”

Harris Dickinson in Babygirl

In Queer, Drew Starkey is the object gay writer Daniel Craig's attention. I’ve already written about how the camera lingers over Starkey’s naked body, illustrating Craig’s desire.

Drew Starkey in Queer

The New Hunk is tall and lean (and occasionally tattooed), unlike the steroid-enhanced gym bunnies of just a few years ago. (Hi, John Cena!)

Of course, the prototype of the New Hunk may be Jacob Elordi, who burst onto the scene in Euphoria and subsequently was the obsession of the nerdy character played by Barry Keoghan in Saltburn. (To be fair, Keoghan’s character in the movie is actually bisexual.)

Jacob Elordi in Saltburn

What’s also notable about this new crop of sexually frank films is that many of them were directed by women (Babygirl’s Halina Reijn, The Substance's Coralie Fargeat, Saltburn’s Emerald Fennell) or gay men (Queer’s Luca Guadagnino*). They also tend to be produced by upstart, independent companies like A24 and Neon.

All of these films represent a welcome departure from the typical heterosexual male point of view.

*While Luca Guadagnino has been in a long-term relationship with Ferdinando Cito Filomarino, he has not publicly identified his sexuality.