17 ways RENT lied to you — Page 2

It was cold that winter.

I remember Rent being at New York Theatre Workshop. It was freezing that winter and they couldn't give tickets away. And this was after Jonathan's death. But somebody got behind the show and hired a top notch publicity machine. That publicity machine kicked into high gear and suddenly Rent was everywhere and there was a line down to Port Authority to get a $20 seat.

Was Rent the greatest musical? No. But it came along at a time when there was a lull in Broadway musicals. It was the first musical of the 1990s to give audiences something different. There were excellent shows in the early to mid-90s, but Rent was outside the norm.

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#15 is the most wrong of all. If Mimi Imfurst can shoot a subway dancing music video without being knocked out by a true superhero fighting for the peace of the people, then anyone can pull off a choreographed dance routine on a subway without annoying people.
Mimi Imfurst can dance on a subway, so Buzzfeed's wrong

Rent came out when I was 13. At that time, I knew that I was queer, and that I wanted something different from the life my parents were giving me, but I didn't know what it was or how to do it. Rent, imperfect and sometimes illogical as it is, showed me some options. Maureen was the first bisexual character that I met who was a person first and queer as a secondary characteristic, and she (and Idina) became my hero. I loved that the show valued community and art over money and "the American Dream". It changed my life. I know many friends who are about my age who felt the same way about that show. So I don't know if it would have made it to Broadway without Jonathan's death, but I'm sure that it would have had at least a niche audience of queer teenagers who didn't quite know what to do with their lives.

Um, this isn't an akita.

"I totally never noticed that they ordered all vegetarian food during "La Vie Boheme."

I hate them."

The Life Cafe was vegetarian.

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Updated On: 9/23/13 at 07:36 PM

CONAires, HannahBelle's use of "queer" is academically correct and not derogatory, but not especially common in conversation.

Queer, in its academic sense, is anything that does not fall strongly under the heteronormative-patriarchal umbrella. Anything gay, anything bi, anything kinky, anything experimental... even masturbation and feminist activism are considered queer acts or queer ways of being by many theorists. The number of people who fall one hundred percent outside the "queer umbrella" is extremely small, as even the staunchest Republican has surely watched a little porn or touched themselves once or twice- thus committing allegedly "deviant," "non-normative" and ultimately queer acts. But fear and a strongly-ingrained culture of gendered sexualities make queer acts and queer people stigmatized as a lumped group, though they may not be a minority at all.

Actually the Life Cafe started going for political correctness in the 90s. It started serving some tofu dishes. They said they closed due to rent increase, but I think it was trying to change their essence from regular restaurant to hippie enclave that did them in.

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I tend to think of "queer" as a modern version of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" - coopting the pejorative to take the sting away. However, as a straight female, it wouldn't be polite for me to use the term.

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I've never been fond of "queer." I don't embrace it or identify with that word as a term for my orientation. Its meaning, according to Merriam-Webster is "differing in some odd way from what is usual or normal." If that's how you see yourself, fine. I don't see myself as differing in some odd way from what is usual or normal.

To me, it's like a mentally challenged person embracing "retarded" as an acceptable term.

Now ... back to bashing Rent ...

(... waits for someone to say "Rent is retarded ...")

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Updated On: 9/24/13 at 09:21 AM