Said RuPaul, quoted by Ronan Farrow, in "RuPaul Doesn’t See How That’s Any of Your Business/The drag star brought the form mainstream, and made an empire out of queer expression. Now he fears 'the absolute worst'" (The New Yorker).
Later, RuPaul seemed to want to revise that "I don't like kids" remark. He's quoted as saying that he'd "be a great parent" and that he "fucking love[s]" the "white noise of joy" of kids playing outside in the schoolyard near his cottage.
Farrow tells us RuPaul is "a proponent of psychedelics":
“[H]allucinogens are so wonderful. Because your self-consciousness is stripped away when you’re tripping your balls,” he said. The spiritual guru he finds most influential, he said, is “my fucking idol, Bugs Bunny. Who is a fucking Zen master.” His teachings: “Don’t take other people too serious. And stay ahead of their stupidity. If you have to, build a fucking compound somewhere, but stay ahead of their own self-destructive, ridiculous mentality.”
When you took LSD, what character revealed himself/herself to you as a spiritual guide? If you didn't take LSD or if you did but hallucinated no guru, just imagine you did. Did you get Bugs Bunny? Assuming it has to be a cartoon character, who better than Bugs Bunny?
Here's a list of Looney Tunes characters.
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52 comments:
Michigan J Frog is THE BEST.
I’ve always liked RuPaul- seems a decent fellow…
…and I’ll risk you guys throwing things at my head and credit George Will for a remark I always remembered- the panel show was talking about the girls breaking records for youngest solo pilot this and that and there was that one that crashed and died. The panel was remarking about tragedy and never bury and child and yada yada then George Will gave them a George Will equivalent of a bitch slap with One of the responsibilities of a parent is to instill rational fears in your children. Yes. Prepare them for an unsafe world. Sendak had the same idea helping children to confront fears. Did parents cancel Sendak? I bet they did…
"The drag star brought the form mainstream, and made an empire out of queer expression. Now he fears 'the absolute worst'"
Fuck RuPaul. His circus. His monkeys. I also don't believe "he doesn't like kids". I believe he would "love the white noise joy of kids" as only a drag queen q-ball could.
Ru used to hang out at The 688Club in Atlanta which was the main real punk rock place in Atlanta. I used to see him there all the time. 7’ tall, shaved head and army coat. Seemed like everybody else to me.
I've always felt deeply touched and yes, even inspired by Dumbo. There is so much vulnerable "humanity" to the challenges dear Dumbo faced. I used to ride and compete on high stepping spirited show horses as a middle aged adult. I was often somewhat scared by my lack of skills and had a secret strap in the front of my saddle to hook a finger under to help stabilize my balance. I called it my Dumbo strap because it gave me confidence and courage. Ha, and this was all when I was in my forties.
"Suffering succotash!"
centered around their feelings
A center is a point. You cannot center around something. You have to center on it.
Sorry. Pet peeve.
Anyway, I agree with Ru Paul's point -- sometimes you have to work through something, and when you're on the other side, you look back and reflect on how/why things happened, learning from it all.
RuPaul and the proto-mainstream-transvestite Divine (John Waters films of the 1970s-1980s) built their careers by pushing against cultural norms and assumptions. Humor followed from contrasting their campy behavior with that of predictable average people. That era is long gone.
At this point, two or three generations of the "truth is a social construct" subculture have made humor, scientific facts, and functional life goals (i.e., breeding healthy offspring) impossible.
When youth have no functional guidance from parents, teachers, and adults they will revert to primal survival methods (aka instincts or heuristics). These are the emotions.
@Enigma
Preach. They put the clown nose on. Now they take it off. How dare you hold them accountable for things they did when they were acting like funny clowns now that they're old and only want to provide "perspective".
The future will not be kind to they/them.
No LSD admissions yet? ;-) All I remember from fifty years ago is that I had no guru, no method, no teacher.
I don’t like RuPaul.
There's "teaching that the world is not always safe" and there's "deliberately living life in difficult mode." Recognizing risks and seeking risks out are not the same.
A center is a point. You cannot center around something. You have to center on it.
Center has multiple definitions, not just a point. It can also mean the source or origin, or a broad reference to the middle. Centered around their feelings is correct.
RuPaul and Cory Booker are cousins.
RuPaul owns a 60,000 acre ranch in WY (no state income tax) and he has fracking on his real estate.
Sometimes you play the odds, and sometimes the odds play you. Wile E. Coyote was my spirit animal. One time he climbed a tree and sawed off the branch that Roadrunner was perched on. The result was that the branch remained aloft, and the tree fell down. There is no safe space for Wile E. Coyote.
I never saw cartoon characters while on LSD. One time, my college roommate and I were on a road trip and I hadn't slept in about 36 hours. I swear I saw Wile E. Coyote chasing the Roadrunner next to my car, somewhere around Mountain Home Idaho.
I miss Divine
I like Richard Lewis better than RuPaul, but you can argue that RuPaul won a bigger pot with a weaker hand....I've never watched any of RuPaul's shows, but he's been around forever, and I know who he is. Richard Lewis had a successful career, but, in his field, he was never a big star like Seinfeld or Robin Williams. If you asked me to name a drag queen, I could name RuPaul but no others. If asked to name a stand up comedian or sitcom star, the name Richard Lewis would not spring to mind.
"Mister Trouble never hangs around
When he hears this Mighty sound.
"Here I come to save the day"
That means that Mighty Mouse is on the way."
source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/mightymouselyrics.html
Foghorn Leghorn mixed with Tevye became my adult personality. No LSD was involved, however.
rehajm is correct. I'm an Aspie, but you can't take these things too far. You have to look for alternative explanations.
Paywall. What is "the absolute worst" according to RuPaul?
Hope it's not something so boring and predictable as Trump getting re-elected.
OK. I don't know what to do with this.
Serious question: How is drag any less offensive than blackface?
Gays Against Groomers
“[H]allucinogens are so wonderful. Because your self-consciousness is stripped away when you’re tripping your balls,”
The Beach Boys have a song about this in 1966:
I know so many people
Who think they can do it alone
They isolate their heads
And stay in their safety zones
Now what can you tell them
What can you say that
Won't make them defensive?
Hang on to your ego
Hang on, but I know that
You're gonna lose the fight
They come on like their peaceful
But inside they're so uptight
They trip through the day
And waste all their thoughts at night
Now how can I say it
And how can I come on
When I know I'm guilty?
Hang on to your ego
Hang on, but I know that
You're gonna lose the fight
"I don’t like kids." ............... "he'd "be a great parent" and that he "fucking love[s]" the "white noise of joy"
The cover is the lie.
Wile E. Coyote his faith every time he looked down, and so fell. Roadrunner, clearly an angel with infinite patience, sent to teach him the lessons that have to be taught again and again.
Say what you want, One Froggy Evening' is an absolutely classic fable on the human condition, in 7 minutes. Michigan J. Frog is Super Genius.
Center is in the dictionary. Center has 29 definitions. However, #29 seems pertinent here:
- Usage 29. Although sometimes condemned for alleged illogicality, the phrases CENTER ABOUT and CENTER AROUND have appeared in edited writing for more than a century to express the sense of gathering or collections as if around a center: The objections center around the question of fiscal responsibility.
Popeye the Sailor Man
Popeye is unpolished and uneducated, but he's knows who and what he is and makes no apology. "I am what I am and that's all that I am." He's a simple man who knows what he likes. "I ain't no tailor, but I know what suits me."
He's a practical man and an ingenious problem solver. "I ain't no physcikisk, but I know what matters."
He has surprising strength and tremendous endurance. He knows what's good for him and he does that, even though it's not something enjoyable. "I'm strong to the finish 'cause I eats me spinach."
Popeye is lover who is devoted to his woman. He doesn't hesitate to fight for her and protect her. He's the good guy. He stands up to the bully and prevails with his wit and strength. He's never daunted, never gives up and always overcomes despite the odds. "Bluto, even though you're larger than me, you can't wins 'cause you're bad and the good always wins over the bad."
Popeye keeps his cool and a positive attitude, but he'll only put up with so much. "Careful there. Don't ruffle me feathers." If he's pushed too far, he'll start kicking some ass. "That's all I can stands and I can't stands no more."
Ronan farrow where has he been
Liberal religions are inherently at risk of suffering progress in the most queer and often wicked productions.
AMDG said "The Beach Boys have a song about this in 1966..."
Brian re-wrote those lyrics and it became "I Know There's An Answer" on Pet Sounds
I've got to admit that when I tried to visualize a Looney Tunes character coming to me in an LSD hallucination, the first one I thought of was Yosemite Sam.
I had to scan the list for a better idea. Of course, Michigan J. Frog hopped out at me.
If you haven't watched Rocky and Bullwinkle on acid, you haven't truly lived.
RuPaul is not only a successful entertainer, but also the best women's tennis player in history!
Wait, I'm being handed a note...
I loved LSD, even though I never got to Yellow Submarine land nor saw monsters coming out of the walls. Underdosed perhaps, though it didn't seem so at the time. I did see some spaghetti worms and lots of wavering walls, etc, but it wasn't even about that for me anyway - it was always just a lot of fun and laughs. I quit after about six trips, having come to the conclusion that anything that could so profoundly manipulate my mind probably wasn't particularly good for my brain.
And then I discovered MDMA! Good lord that is wonderful stuff. Quit it even sooner, for the same reason - LSD on steroids.
Yes, LSD. And various other hallucinogens. And man...there were a lot of names for a lot of garbage. I'm glad I'm not a yoot today. Too many things much more dangerous running around out there now. But I never saw any cartoon characters. Though if I had to pick one, it would of course be Bugs. The best of all time. I still say "What a maroon!"
A group of us used to like to take acid as a group, then write together. We'd pass around a legal pad, each person writing down a paragraph or two, then passing it to the next person. The object was to stay on story- whatever the story was. Not to just ramble on about what mind your mind is going to. It was a way to follow the path of the 'high' through the minds of 6 or so individuals, trying to stay focused on one story.
It was always hilarious later to read how good it actually was at first, and then see where it comes off the rails, and when it finally just drops off...mid sentence. Good times.
And that's how you end up in sales. Funny...today I won't even take a gummie.
I never saw a 'spirit' animal or anything else while tripping but still had a lot of fun the half dozen or so times I tried it. If I had, it would probably been Bugs Bunny. On the other hand, Popeye is the only cartoon character I've quoted in my own defense. I got married late (36) and while doing something I'd always done (probably starting in on the evening paper as soon as I got home from work) when my wife complained. I told her that she'd married Popeye "I yam what I yam" and she shouldn't expect that much change in me. Needless to say that didn't go over very well.
I hallucinated under the influence of the morphine I was given before the operation to reseat my nose. Ninth grade.
When the opportunity arose a few years later to hallucinate at my leisure, I declined.
To me other people's LSD drips are as boring as their (and most of my) dreams are.
He's money on TV, but a dime-a-dozen in the Castro.
Man, did I miss a lot during the 60's and 70's.
FWIW I suppose if I had taken LSD and watched comics To Terrific would have been appropriate.
LSD drips . . . trips. Spiritual journeys. Whatever.
Like Donald, I saw nothing to dislike in the old RuPaul. We had mutual acquaintances. I rarely went to clubs except to play pool, but it's hard to miss a seven foot tall black man in a punk crowd. I didn't even know he did drag. Maybe he didn't then.
His tv show humiliates and mocks women.
Maybe I should reevaluate Drag Race. Sure, they never stop calling each other bitches and whores and worse, but I've never seen anyone call someone else a hottentot.
The one time I had LSD I was listening to Layla. It was a great experience but not a place for a cartoon character, It was like being with someone confidently walking along a woodland path on a golden day. There was no strain or conflict or humor, just one long walk. Maybe I would have seen Bugs Bunny lying back on a meadow bank, chewing on a carrot and he would have winked as I went by.
Rupaul is 6’4”.
"Ru used to hang out at The 688Club in Atlanta which was the main real punk rock place in Atlanta. I used to see him there all the time. 7’ tall, shaved head and army coat. Seemed like everybody else to me."
Late one night I was leaving The Cooler in the Meatpacking district of NYC, probably 2:00 AM or so. It was a former meat-packing facility on 14th Street between 9th and 10th avenues. ("The Cooler" referred to the refrigeration in which the butchered meat had been stored). It had become a venue for outre rock bands and avant garde jazz musicians.
I had seen some performers there, and the street was pretty deserted, everything mostly closed, (except a bagel bakery and a bar at the corner). This was before the area was gentrified. I was walking west and at the corner was long, tall feminine figure in a tight dress and a big wig. The figure was very tall, taller than me, (and at my best I was 6'3"). Well, of course it was RuPaul, which I could easily see when I passed directly past him. I should have said something, "Hello," or what not, but I didn't, and he didn't say anything to me.
I love and miss NYC.
Ha! I just looked at a street view of the old location of The Cooler on (far) West 14th Street. Right now, the location is occupied by a Patagonia Clothing store, (apparently a "Teal" company, which I can applaud).
A friend was RuPaul's roommate while in college in Athens. She related that Ru would begin each day by standing in front of the mirror, clicking the heels of his pumps together and repeating: "I'm gonna be a star!" Whatever else you may think of Ru, this is not a person who requires coddling.
In the late '90s my friend happened to be in NYC for New Years and received an invitation to Ru's party at BowlMore lanes in the Village. I tagged along as her plus-one. Ru is a very good bowler (250+) and an overpowering presence both physically and as a personality. Again, just not a person to need much sheltering. The world could do with a few more as certain of themselves as Ru and as willing and able to chart their own course.
Robert Cook said...
"Ha! I just looked at a street view of the old location of The Cooler on (far) West 14th Street. Right now, the location is occupied by a Patagonia Clothing store, (apparently a "Teal" company, which I can applaud)."
Too bad they don't honor their warrantys
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