REID #85
SHORT:
I am currently watching the hit TV Show The Circle. Should I apply to be on it? They’re always having “guys chats” and “girls chats” so I’d be all alone in the nonbinary chat.
They just asked everyone on the show to share what the title of their memoirs would be
And a girl just yelled: “what is memoirs”
What IS memoirs…
when you rly think about it…
I saw Elliot Page on the street this week and was weird about it.
Should that go in my memoir[s]?
MEDIUM:
My gay senior citizen continues to be incredible and hilarious and the best person to talk to on the phone.
The other day he said: “you know, Reid, I may not be able to remember what I did 5 minutes go, but I’ll always remember 5 years ago, when I did 5 guys in 1 night.”
I can’t really remember 5 minutes ago or 5 years ago…I need to go out and experience more things… but I’m so lazy. “Experiencing things” usually requires drinking outside. Or opening ur front door. And that’s not what I’m “into rn”.
I haven’t really gotten drunk since I got taken out on a gurney at my friend’s Netflix special premiere. Remember that? Feels like a lifetime ago (two months). If you don’t remember that, scroll through the newsletter archives and you’ll find the 1 where I talk about it. Lmk ur favorite old newsletter (cuz god knows the newsletters these days are rly… not hitting the mark).
A boy on The Circle just referred to women as “females”. I love that! Make it sound like a slur! Be an SAT scantron bathroom door birth certificate! Assert power in an (unintentional?) dehumanizing bizzarro way! FEMALES!
I’m teaching podcast lessons again.
Lmk if you want one.
FEMALES reminded me of it b/c I taught a mom how to pod today.
Btw it’s my brother’s bday. Happy Birthday Seth. I’ll always remember when you got locked outside for 3 hours in your robe when you were little because you went out to water the plants at 6am and nobody was awake to let you back in.
LONG:
Besides The Circle, this week’s allll about me making a pitch deck for my show about gay old people and struggling to write jokes for the pitch that don’t feel cheugy/ make me feel like melting into a pile of my own shite.
I made the tagline “Born This Way (a long time ago)”…
… but my friend Sebastian and I also came up with “Silence = Death (so make sure they keep talkin!)”
I won’t be including that one in the deck.
I hope the show can inspire people to foster inter-generational friendships and LOOK FORWARD TO AGING INSTEAD OF FEARING IT. Especially queer people. I recently read a NYT article about elderly sexuality and an overwhelming amount of the comments were ones of disgust, which made me sad. People get old. But they stay PEOPLE.
My gay senior citizen told me he wanted his bio to be included in the project and for it to be: “[Name] is a 75 year old retired accountant who lives in Astoria. He enjoys Italian food and watching shirtless twinks run by his window in the summertime.”
He also told me to take some time in my industry presentation to ask if anyone there is blonde, taller than 6ft, and wants to date him.
I’m going all emo in the presentation and talking about how I am a trans person who often struggles to envision a happy, long-lasting life for myself and how people like my gay senior citizen and his gay old folks center remind me that a long life of queer joy is possible (and that queer community doesn’t have to melt away as you grow older).
I want the show to serve as a reminder of this for a wider audience who might not have someone like my gay guy to call every week.
DOES THAT MAKE YOU WANT TO BUY IT?
While there’s more queer TV representation than ever before, it rarely includes elderly queer people and almost never includes inter-generational queer relationships. This paints a very specific and narrow picture of what the queer community looks like. A picture that, in my opinion, is dangerous and potentially damaging.
People cannot imagine what they cannot see.
For example, I could not imagine a future for myself as a hot person named Reid until I saw Reid Scott who plays Dan Egan on VEEP.
I could not imagine a future for myself as a 5’4’’ person with an amazing voice until I saw Liza Minnelli.
I rly shouldn’t be putting any of this info in here in case someone steals it.
But whatever.
Steal it so I can sue and show up at court in my “martha stewart is kristen stewart’s mom” shirt and get added to the list alongside martha herself.
C U NEXT TUESDAY
also if u want to pay for this newsletter i would greatly appreciate it, if u pay what you can, even if it’s just a dollar, that’s like a lot of single dollars from peeps that read each week, ok c u next tuesday luv u
Thank you for subscribing. If this is your first time reading the newsletter, read the archives. Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s not – it’s very much like when people slip on ice.
Sincerely,
Reid
Venmo: @rpope-venmo-26
Donate to The Audre Lorde Project
Bonus Jonas Zone:
“People cannot imagine what they cannot see” ← is that even true? don’t tell me… it felt smart when i wrote it… but now i’m like wait… imagining is the very nature of conjuring something up that doesn’t exist… UGH
“People cannot imagine what they cannot see” felt profound to me lol I read it and was like “oh yah ur definitely right” so idk if that helps, but