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TRUTH WILL OUT

So to speak.

I am not a complete knee jerk gay man.

I have been embarrassed and ashamed of the general gay stance vv Bradley Manning and the so called Wikileak case.

Gay people and other lefties leaped to Manning's defense. They accused the government, specifically the military of harassment and mistreatment. Even of torture.

These people were very very noisy.

They are more or less silent today on all the liberal/progressive and gay blogs.

Here is why.

Bradley Manning Enters Guilty Pleas in Wikileaks Case

Not that this will silence them all.

They will still claim that Manning, an enlisted military intelligence specialist did the right thing.

Never mind that what he did is traitorous.

I have not been ready to support Manning at any point in all this.

I believe that security clearance is a legit thing and to violate it is a very serious offense.

Is he really serious that he thought it was his duty? To whom?

Sure we over-securitize but that is another point.

Manning has manned up and stated the obvious, what was obvious from the very beginning.

Incidentally, a hacker who Manning confided in blew the whistle on him. Good for him. The whistleblower got whistled.

See that uniform? That makes all the difference as far as I am concerned.

The place of Wikileaks in all this seems to be detached. They apparently didn't ask Manning to do it. He sent the stuff to them. They didn't brainwash him. He did it on his own.

Sure, he is gay. So fucking what? Picked on? OK. Is that a basis to turn traitor to your country and violate your oath?

Don't think so.

Oh. Did they give him a hard time? Probably. A stockade is not a friendly place and, in the same way a child molester is the lowest of the low in prison, a traitor is the lowest of the low in military prison. He was kept separate to protect him. That this was used as a way to kick his ass some is an open question. I suppose it was. Too bad. Give him some time off his sentence.

Labels: spying

CORPORATIONS FOR GAY RIGHTS

Another very big deal.

Business/Companies Ask Justices to Overturn Gay Marriage Ban

This is very good.

There is a rumor, unfounded, the the US Chamber of Commerce, normally a right wing or conservative group (not the same thing) will break ranks and do the same. But I don't believe it.

SYNERGY

If you are going to see one Errol Morris film, this is probably the one you should see.

Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (1997)

And the film is a NYTimes Critics' Pick.

Three disparate topics come together and are intercut with one another. The result is a remarkable synchronicity.

A topiarist, a circus lion tamer, a terminologist and the head of the MIT artificial intelligence lab.

Overlaps of visuals and sound are used to provide a symphony of thoughts and visualizations. Like a symphony in that watching and listening results in a cascade of one's own brain waves. I think that each time I have seen it (four times?) it has given me something else as a result.

Skillful. Never boring. Always stimulating.

At the surface, these people share a one in a million kind of situation. They are probably the only people doing what they do. They are expert and they are also childlike in their amusement and curiosity. There is far more here even more than meets the eye.

Sound is very important. The cry of an elephant punctuates the talk about robots. Subtle but very connected. We are prompted to think about all of the subjects at once.

Each person also has another side. The circus lion trainer idolizes and remembers Clyde Beatty. The topiarist talks about the estate on which he has spent his life carving animals and other shapes out of bushes. And so on.

There is no doubt that I will see this again. It is like a tonic! A 5 out of Netflix5!

Labels: films

TIDAL WAVE

So the Obamas weigh in.

Administration to Urge Justices to Overturn a Gay Marriage Ban

This is a big deal.

While everyone gay has wanted them to support repeal of 8, they have been politically cautious about coming on the scene.

But it is time. And, most amazingly, not a time which requires a lot of political caution.

By many counts, 61% of America thinks it is time for gay people to have the same rights as anyone else.

You know, we call it "gay marriage" but it is really "gay rights".

Gay men and women deserve to be treated as equals to anyone else. To be officially connected to those they love.

If there were no "straight marriage", we would not have to do this. But there is. Straight married people get benefits and consideration that committed gay couples do not.

And so on.

We have come a long way from the time that John and I donated our time and money to the GLAD efforts to achieve marriage equality in Boston. Way back when no one thought it would happen in our lifetime.

We were amazed to find ourselves actually married some years later in California.

And this is what makes this issue so immediate and personal for us.

Proposition 8 took rights away from us that had been granted in the California court system. Out of state money underwrote the seizure of our progress.

Only 18000 of us made it through in time. We were in that vanguard.

For a time it was thought that we might be unmarried but early on in the process, it seemed clear that this would not happen. But it still could.

SCOTUS could easily strike down our marriage.

We will go on fighting.

Labels: gay marriage, gay rights

CERTAINTY?

Today's movie was another documentary from Errol Morris

The Fog of War (2003)

interviewing Robert McNamara about the Cuban missile crisis and the Vietnam period.

This won the Oscar for best documentary in its year as well as several other prestigious awards.

Remarkable face close shots with McNamara using Morris invention for eye contact, the "Interrotron," "a video device that allows Morris and his subjects to look into each other's eyes while also looking directly into the camera lens".

The film is intercut with ingenious snatches of visual and aural history including stunning audio tape material between McNamara and Kennedy and then Johnson.

Philip Glass' music sets a mournful tone and is less intrusive than in an earlier film where he supplied the score.

I remember these times with some clarity. I marched. I wasn't a true peacenik because I was in the military myself and knew the uncertainty that obtains in any combat situation whether small scale in a platoon or in the big picture as seen in this film.

Ambivalence.

The backbone of the film is McNamara's 11 Lessons. A good backbone.

How does McNamara come off? He is 85 here. The events happened 30 - 40 years earlier.

He is clear and energetic. He is certain until he isn't. He is open. Tears and remorse are often not far from the surface.

The part about Kennedy's assassination are very moving. Upsetting. This is also very near the surface for me.

One thing is proven, more or less, and that is that LBJ was a prick.

On the other hand he had an impossible situation.

As a documentary, this film is rich. It is filled with evocative film shots as well as documents and handwritten notes close up.

It is more than fair to McNamara and his critics at the same time. There is a right and wrong and it gets evenly spread. The man was the SecDef for nine years. A lot of exposure to critics.

It is not an interview. Morris is there. Prompting. Sometimes exclaiming. Occasionally asking for some more. It is said that McNamara was going to give Morris an hour. He ended up doing 20.

I will make this a 4 out of Netflix 5 for, while I am willing to see this again, really feel that once is enough and the reliving of it all is better behind me than in front of me.

Labels: films, war and peace

BY THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH

Yesterday's movie period was taken up by a visit to the dentist.

My four month checkup. A result of bad teeth and advanced age. More scraping and digging.

It turned out that I had no cavities at all. I was scolded for some deeper crevasses along the gum line.

I take a lot of this with a grain of salt. Perhaps that is why I have less than perfect teeth. I have been guilty of a life of half-way measures.

It was also my first visit since the meltdown I had with the other dental technician last time. We are incompatible. I had him before and didn't like it and somehow they had scheduled him instead of Cathy, my regular.

Things went downhill. Neither of us likes the other.

I should have left but I didn't. He made some negative notes. Cathy said she wouldn't read them when she saw certain words like "disagreeable". Good.

It is over.

I am done until June sometime. In the meantime, I am to keep those crevasses open and bloody. Or something.

FreddiesModernKungFu shows us how to floss correctly. I honestly never knew it was to be done this way. Is this right?

I am not kidding.

I did buy the Waterpik water flosser and use it every night. There is no way that it reproduces this action.

Labels: dental, dentist

ELECTORALLY SPEAKING

This guy has, as an art project, developed geographical areas of equal population.

Electoral college reform (fifty states with equal population)

I am fascinated with the graphics of this. I also like the names.

A point of clarity. See the legend. Cities that already have 500,000 people in them are marked with a square. Los Angeles, Orange. Other cities are included in their own area. Bakersfield is in Tule. Santa Fe is part of Shiprock.

I am living in Temecula.

I love the names.

Tule is a thick grand fog that settles in the San Joaquin Valley. Shiprock is a prominent geographical feature sacred to the Navajo. Temecula is a town near us, on the other side of the mountain. I go through it when I go the scenic route to San Diego. "Exva Temeeku" is the name of a sacred place, the union between earth and sky. The peoples of this area were Temecula. Many tribes. This is their area. Right to go back, eh?

Actually, I think I am living in "Phoenix" which is named after, well, Phoenix but that is a city with a square. Somehow I think he took the easy way out here. I would rather be in Temecula. So I will say that I am.

I grew up in Pocono! In the Pocono Mountains. Pennsylvania.

Labels: art, elections

FREE

This is a stick in the eye of the xenophobes.

Immigrants Released Ahead of Automatic Budget Cuts

Two birds with one stone.

Free the oppressed, caught up in the draconian immigration policies and, at the same time, rub it into the GOoPers for their intransigence with the budgets.

I think we will see more of this kind of stuff from the Obamas.

Three cheers. We need these people. They are us.

Labels: immigration

EXERCISING HIS FREE SPEECH RIGHTS

In a lecture to German students, today.

"The reason is, that's freedom, freedom of speech. In America you have a right to be stupid - if you want to be," he said, prompting laughter. "And you have a right to be disconnected to somebody else if you want to be.

"And we tolerate it. We somehow make it through that. Now, I think that's a virtue. I think that's something worth fighting for," he added. "The important thing is to have the tolerance to say, you know, you can have a different point of view."

Kerry made the comments on his first foreign trip since becoming secretary of state on February 1. After one-night stops in London and Berlin, he visits Paris, Rome, Ankara, Cairo, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Doha before returning to Washington on March 6.

If for no other reason than to get away from "the wife". My opinion.

This is very hard for people overseas to grasp. Even the democracies. Social and political pressure often trump freedom of speech. Now, it is common place for liberties to be squelched in the name of enlightenment or political correctness.

Not here, God knows, not here.

Labels: Kerry

REMARKABLE

In direct contradiction of my belief that Republicans have their heads up their asses, there is this, this morning.

Prominent Republicans Sign Brief in Support of Gay Marriage

This is a major development.

One, because it is support from an unlikely quarter which might, vaguely, sway SCOTUS members even a little bit.

Second, because it creates another breach between the economic conservatives and the social warriors.

I do notice that not one of the signatories are in office anywhere. But that is to be expected. Had they stated their views so openly they would not have been elected.

I don't suppose that this will do a lot but it feels good.

The Court will hear arguments in late March then deliberate.

The Prop 8 case is not the only one wending its way to the Supremes. But it is the earliest one and the one that would most affect me. My state. My marriage.

Labels: gay ma

REMAINS OF THE DAY

Today's film was Errol Morris' first film

Gates of Heaven (1978)

Morris was just a regular guy when he read of a pet cemetery failing financially. They had to move the remains to another place. The Gates of Heaven.

He got a cameraman and some film and went to work.

Here, he establishes his methods which serve him for the rest of his career.

A subject that has a weird combination of rational and irrational reaction. Interviews with people involved, even peripherally, in the story. Let 'em talk.

No questions. No script. No commentary before, during or after. Just the film and the editing.

Later, Morris will interview and set up scenes. In yesterday's film, he showed a conspiracy to falsely convict a man of murder. There is prep. But he lets the people tell the story.

The camera is fixed, for the most part. The eye contact is engaging. Later, Morris will invent a way for people to see him and yet be seen as looking into the lens.

And so on.

The point here is that Morris lets people go on and on.

In this film, a woman who lives near a cemetery site tells her story. One shot. No cuts. She gives the headlines, the core narrative, and by the end of her monologue manages to contradict everything that she has said.

The power of serendipity.

This film can be taken as a survey of the pet cemetery business. But I don't think that is what it is about.

It is about the lives that are caught up, one way or another, in this bizarre enterprise.

Themes here would be the power of capitalism. The experience of life's failures. The loss of money. The ability to gloss almost any experience with a tasty icing. And so on. Self delusion isn't too far from the top.

There is a family who runs the cemetery. Father, mom and two sons. Lovelorn and lost sons. Failed in commerce, they return to the homestead.

You will find your own "stuff".

I would be happy to see this film again. A 4 out of Netflix5.

This is a showing of the film that took place a year ago. Morris talks about how the film came about and what has happened since. He also gives us a slight sense of "what is it about?"

JUSTICE BLINDFOLD SLIPS

I am going to be watching a series of documentaries by the master doc guy

Errol Morris

He is the master of the one shot closeup. He is tireless in the pursuit of truth.

His interviews are exercises in revealing what really happened, what the person is really thinking.

Today's film is a good example of this "detective" work.

It was a NYTimes Best 1176 Film.

The Thin Blue Line (1988)

in which a convict named Randall Adams is found to have some considerable "reasonable doubt" in his case. That he was railroaded seems undeniable.

It is a tour de force. Music by Philip Glass is a little too woozie for me but otherwise, it is a gem of personal testimony combined with re-enactment.

A cop stops a car. The cop is shot. The police cannot find a suspect until they turn up a punk kid who tells them "who did it". Could be that he was actually the one "who".

Dallas Texas. Not the cradle of justice evidently. The balance tilts the wrong way and the lady is peeking out from the blindfold.

This is a 5 by definition as I saw it before and was happy to watch it again.

The story continued after this film. At the end of the film, Adams is still in jail due to a technicality in court procedures around appeals.

Then, events shifted.

From Wikipedia:

In 1989, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Ex parte Adams[6] overturned Adams' conviction on the grounds of malfeasance by the prosecutor Douglas D. Mulder and inconsistencies in the testimony of a key witness, Emily Miller.[7][8] The appeals court found that prosecutor Mulder withheld a statement by Emily Miller to the police that cast doubt on her credibility and also allowed her to give perjured testimony. Further, the court found that after Adams' attorney discovered the statement late in Adams' trial, Mulder falsely told the court that he did not know the witness's whereabouts. The case remained in limbo.[9] In 1981, Mulder returned to practice private law in Dallas,[10] and the new prosecution then dropped charges in 1989.[11] The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said (and Adams agreed) that "conviction was unfair mainly because of prosecutor Doug Mulder."[12][13] Adams later worked as an anti-death penalty activist.

Adams wrote a book about his story, Adams V. Texas, which was published in June 1992.[14] [edit]Lawsuit over the story

After release from prison, Adams ended up in a legal battle with Errol Morris, the director of The Thin Blue Line, concerning the rights to his story. The matter was settled out of court after Adams was granted sole use of anything written or made on the subject of his life.[15] Adams said of the matter: "Mr. Morris felt he had the exclusive rights to my life story. ... I did not sue Errol Morris for any money or any percentages of The Thin Blue Line, though the media portrayed it that way."[16] Morris, for his part, remembers: "When he got out, he became very angry at the fact that he had signed a release giving me rights to his life story. And he felt as though I had stolen something from him. Maybe I had, maybe I just don't understand what it's like to be in prison for that long, for a crime you hadn't committed. In a certain sense, the whole crazy deal with the release was fueled by my relationship with his attorney. And it's a long, complicated story, but I guess when people are involved, there's always a mess somewhere."[17] At a legislative hearing, Adams said:“ The man you see before you is here by the grace of God. The fact that it took 12 and a half years and a movie to prove my innocence should scare the hell out of everyone in this room and, if it doesn’t, then that scares the hell out of me.[18]

Labels: crime, films

NOT DISAPPOINTED

I have just finished reading

The Journal of a Disappointed Man

by Wilhelm Nero Pilate Barbellion, the nom-de-plume of Bruce Frederick Cummings (7 September 1889 – 22 October 1919).

Bennett took the name as a cover because the diary was published at the end of his very short life time and many people in his circle were still living.

Barbellion started the diary when he was 13.

He was a self taught zoologist, collecting, dissecting, reading before he was college age. Because of family finances, he basically supported his father who was a journalist by writing his material for him and then began to have his own byline in County news.

The remarkable thing about this diary is that we know and, eventually, he will find out that he has multiple sclerosis and, therefore, only a short time to live. Almost 30 years.

Here is why the diary is important. It throbs with life. He is an amazing man. Young, vital, intelligent and quite without inhibition. A rascal and a rake but highly moral. Honest to a fault about his point of view of people, places and things. Hence the anonymous publication. There are not many things he missed doing in his short life. Except get old, of course.

At an early age he achieved an appointment to the British Museum, a sinecure, as an entomologist where he meets a life long friend with whom he has an extraordinary relationship. Happy, smart, brave, the two young men reinforce each other's precocity.

He meets a young woman with whom he falls desperately in love. He is disarmed by this. He fumbles and stumbles around, dopey from the exhilaration of it. Love sick. They marry.

The circumstances of their getting together are complicated by the fact that she knows his future and he does not. This is in the days when the docs didn't tell you about what was going on.

She marries him anyway. I would.

They have a daughter.

Here is the thing. Barbellion's observation about life, nature and human, are as current as any account could be. They read fresh today.

He also wrote in a style which, later, he saw James Joyce use so effectively in his works.

One would think that something like this would be morbid. A downer.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The knowledge of death, I mean we all will die, is a great liberator. The book is filled with joy.

I believe that it has always been in print. Right now it is between printings and I had to buy a used copy but that won't last for very long.

His brother wrote:

"he was as greedy as a shark for life in the raw, for the whole of life"

There is a "Last Diary" appended which gathers together additional writings as well as the diary after the publication.

I will keep this book. Not one for the library pile where most go now. We don't save books any more. Well, I don't.

Labels: books

HUZZAHHH

I got all my tax shit together this morning.

Finally.

My "broker", now a "wealth manager", changed hands and names and on top of that I got a new advisor because mine left that company because of all the changes!

So they were late.

Which gave me an excuse to dawdle.

But they have come through beautifully and I know longer can blame them so, I did the work instead of thinking about doing the work.

I know that this is a cliché, but still. It is always more difficult to think about doing something than actually doing it.

We had the threesome walk this morning, a new revised route which Booker was not totally pleased about, and then I watered the patio and courtyard. Then I had put in wash so I had hoped I would get to fold that next but, no dice.

The drier had another ten minutes to go.

So, no excuse.

I think that the job took less than an hour.

As usual, I had to chase down one out of four of the quarterly advisory fees from the "wealth management" company.

Then, I had to scour the American Express files for the auto registration fee. And the usual fumble with all the donation receipts. I have been trying to do all of those with PayPal who has about the most friendly record keeping of all. But many people won't take that. The County Tax Collector will not even take a credit card unless you pay a 25 dollar service fee. Anachronistic as that is.

So, the pile is on my desk. Next step, John copies. Then off to Peter the Tax Guy (PeterDoesTaxes.com)who will probably take another hour or less to put them in order.

I will, of course, have to pay them something since I am careful not to take any distributions until the last quarter. No quarterly filings. It took me a while to get to tha that point but it is a great release. I am a bit on thin ice with it but no one has complained. Yet.

Labels: money

AND MORE ON THE MARRIAGE FRONT

This is another case before the SCOTUS

Obama Administration Asks Supreme Courts to Strike Down Defense of Marriage Act

This is a case which has already been decided by a panel of Appeal Court judges and was appealed by the bigots.

We still do not know if the DOJ will be filing a motion or recommendation on the Prop 8 case.

It is said that the Obamas are mulling it over.

Labels: gay marriage, gay rights

DEAR SUPREMES, THIS IS ONE TOUGH LETTER

Boies and Olson (left and right wing guys together) have written their final brief to the Supremes for their hearing on March 26th about Proposition 8 in California.

The unmistakable purpose and effect of Proposition 8 is to stigmatize gay men and lesbians—and them alone—and enshrine in California’s Constitution that they are “unequal to everyone else,” Rome v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620, 635 (1996), that their committed relationships are ineligible for the designation “marriage,” and that they are unworthy of that “most important relation in life.” Neither tradition, nor fear of change, nor an “interest in democratic self-governance” (Prop. Br. 55), can absolve society, or this Court, of the obligation to identify and rectify discrimination in all its forms. If a history of discrimination were sufficient to justify its perpetual existence, as Proponents argue, our public schools, drinking fountains, and swimming pools would still be segregated by race, our government workplaces and military institutions would still be largely offlimits to one sex—and to gays and lesbians, and marriage would still be unattainable for interracial couples. Yet the Fourteenth Amendment could not tolerate those discriminatory practices, and it similarly does not tolerate the permanent exclusion of gay men and lesbians from the most important relation in life. “In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law.” Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, 559 (1896) (Harlan, J., dissenting).

Kos says it qualifies them as "bad-asses".

This is a video made for the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial Plenary. It is very well done.

Labels: gay marriage, gay rights

COMING SOON

I read that the (ahem) religious right isn't happy about this.

I was. It is one of the few SNL skits I have laughed at as much. But then I don't laugh at SNL skits much.

I also like that it takes on Tarrentino who I don't think very much of either. Double pleasure.

Labels: christist watch, fun

OSCAR PREP

I won't be watching the Oscars.

But I like the buzz surrounding them.

How about this guy. Manic. Nuts. Brilliant.

The 75 Best Supporting Actresses in about two minutes. Well, three.

Labels: films, fun

HOME IS WHERE YOU LIVE

Today's film was the documentary by Aaron Schock

Circo (2010)

A NYTimes Critics' Pick.

As Schock tells it, he had decided to do a film from "inside Mexico", that is, far away from the border with the US stuff. Totally from the other side. Mexico as it has been for centuries and still is to a lesser extent. A dying way of life.

In the process, a circus came to town. The Circo Mexico.

He went to the show. He got to visit with the family who owned and performed in it and he decided this was the film he wanted to make.

He ran away with the circus.

This is a wonderful film with all the glitz of the ring and absolute mind boggling work back stage. Traveling town to town, no more than two shows in a town, usually one, the circus and the family, the Ponces, truly make a life for themselves on the road.

We see the show and the back story. Ups and downs. Including a breakdown of the marriage of the key figure, the son of the owner.

I don't think they hid much from Schock and I don't think he left a lot out.

The kids are all "exploited" happily. The family has been together in the circus life for over a hundred years and they expect to continue it.

Prodigious performances in a tattered tent, a rough hewn ring, and, very often, mud just outside miring the whole operation down.

Life is abundant here. It is hard to leave the show. Even for me. I had to watch all the "extras" because I didn't want it to be over.

Actually, it is good to watch the extras because it tells what happens next and finds the family, especially the kids, two years later.

I can say that I am glad I never ran away with the circus.

I remember there was a show that came to our town every other or third year or so. It was similar. One ring. The performers obviously doubling despite ingenious costume and makeup changes. Big kids, little kids, others. "Death defying acts" which, for them, as we see here, are routine matters of daily life.

Get into town very late or very early, rig the tents, assemble the trailer compound, setup the show area, take care of the animals, practice, practice, practice. Day in and day out.

You will not find this kind of life in the USA because our laws would not allow it. The kids. The danger. The animals.

It is already gone here and will surely be gone there some day.

But not yet.

I would like to see this again sometime but, if I don't, this small, brave, rugged family will live in my heart.

Presentación de los Ponces, el Circo de México!

This is a 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

REWRITE

I have never done this. I didn't like my "review" of the film

Elliot Loves (2012)

Look. It is as simple as this.

Gay men are either afraid of commitment or obsessed with finding a lover to commit to. Believe me. I have been there. Both sides.

Sometimes they abide together in the same mind and body. Been there and done that too.

Inevitably, these men meet other men, usually the opposite.

Elliot wants a relationship, bad. But he picks guys who are relation-a-phobic.

He has a broken picker.

One reason is that while his mind tells him he wants a lover, he also wants to get laid. Not the same thing.

Why is Elliot screwed up? His childhood, of course. His own and his parents experience with relationships.

So Terracino has written and directed a film which lays this out very clearly with a young Elliot, with his screwup Mom, and older Elliot who is playing out the same script as his mother with the guys he meets.

The child is the father of the man.

Simple.

That is the whole thing.

A series of vignettes shows young Elliot then older Elliot. You draw the comparisons.

Cartoons are used very creatively to dilute the basic tragedy of this kind of endless loop of parent/child/child/parent dance.

The story shows us how Elliot resolves this and gains insight through hard practical experience.

The film is funny, sad, suspenseful and satisfying. And gentle even though it does lay the child abuse cards on the table.

Incidentally, there is a straight corollary to this. It just happens that Elliot is gay.

A five. Great movie. Go below if you want to see the preview. Seeing the film is better.

Labels: films

UNGUARDED

Today's film was the Spanish prizewinner (8 Goyas, the Spanish Oscar)

Celda 211 / Cell 211m (2009)

A new prison guard shows up a day early and gets a casual tour. Suddenly, a mutiny breaks out and he is marooned in the riot area by himself. He improvises. And very well, I must say.

This is a roller coaster of a movie. It does not let up and there are many turns on the ride. What you think is safe is dangerous and who you think we can trust is all wrong. We live it with this guy as he goes through it.

He does make "friends" with the prison leader and the film becomes a buddy picture. But unconventionally so.

The two main actors are superb. Well, the whole thing is quite something. Ensemble acting to the max.

Once it really gets going we realize that the problem here is a duplicitous central authority that holds the prison under tight control. The system. But politics are avoided.

Complications arise in the inevitable negotiations as four Basque separatists become fodder for both sides to chew on.

There is a wife of the hero.

Just when you think you have the thing settled, shit happens.

Edge of seat stuff.

I liked it very much and would be glad to see it again. I did watch the "making of" feature as I was interested in the background of extras and the prison itself. Some real cons, a real but superannuated prison.

Labels: films

PSA

Offered as a public service for everyone who "doesn't take a good picture".

Have you considered that this just might be a birth defect?

Labels: fun

GETTING READY FOR THE OSCARS

Since I only see films on Netflix disc (we have to say "disc" now because there is streaming from the same company which I will not use), I am not really ready to have an opinion about the Oscars.

I have seen "Beasts" but would not vote for it or the cute girl or the amateur actor playing her father. No. Actually, not any of the categories.

So that is that.

I am sort of excited about seeing a few of them some day. Argo. But there are a couple that give me a headache just thinking about it. Lincoln.

I do not much like Tarentino films. I don't get it. So he would be out.

I am prepared to like a few just on the face of it. They are in my queue. But none of them are there because of the Oscar nod.

No. I will not put the TM next to Oscar.

Les Mis? No fucking way. I saw the musical and it was horrible. This is one of those vanity productions, Jackman and Hathaway I am looking at you. I would however vote for Eddy Redmayne for any position, movie, anything. Go Eddy.

Here is a great video to help anyone who has not done their homework get ready for the Awards. Or even vote for something.

This is the guy who does I Love Charts

Labels: films

LOVE OR SEX?

Today's film was Terracino's

Elliot Loves (2012)

This is a gay film with a difference. But, the situation it explores is not at all unusual in the gay community.

That is, there are plenty of guys ready to have sex. In fact, the shy homosexual seems to be a thing of the past. What is missing is love. Guys can screw often, well and with considerable creativity but when it comes to "love", the word, the act, the possibility of it, there is a kind of brownout.

Elliot is looking for love. He is a young gay man and has the wherewithal for "encounters" but nothing lasts. He doesn't last. The others don't last.

Fear of intimacy clutches the best. Looks don't count.

Terracino handles this in really creative ways. We find young teen Elliot and grown up Elliot. Elliot with his single mom and Elliot with other single guys. Elliot with his mom's inadequate or bashing boyfriends, Elliot the same.

There is more comedy at first. Then things shadow up a bit.

I was caught off guard by the seriousness of this film's purpose. Like Elliot, I want to find him a man. Overlooking the fact that Elliot never learned how to be a man, be with a man or know how to love.

It is funny. And light. There are cartoons! Very well done.

Will Elliot find someone? Will he be able to be himself and let the guy be with him? Will he ever resolve his mom stuff that gets in his way as a grown up?

Well, the title isElliot Loves so, after all, there might be light at the end of the, hope.

This is almost g-rated except for the theme and language. A nice film. You could show it to your mother. Well, yours not mine.

I enjoyed it and I was fully satisfied by its arc and conclusion.

It is fun to watch the kid Elliot disappear from the grown up Elliot as he learns how not to develop a relationship through hard experience.

I wonder if the boy and the man actors met or worked their shit out or what. It is a perfect meld. I guess that is the director's job. You never doubt for a second that Elliot is Elliot.

One other thing. This film is filled with "ethnic" actors. A lot of brown people. What a relief from the white bread standards we are used to.

This film is a Kickstarter funded film. Kickstarter is a crowd funded financial resource for many kinds of projects. Films especially. I am a Kickstarter member on another film being produced right now by Marco Berger, the creator of Plan B. It is fun to do. They keep us informed and all. There are perks. I am less interested in those than helping get a project started.

This film is a good example of what can be done. It may or may not have commercial appeal but the creators have to be proud of it.

I already bought the disc so it is a 5 out of Netflix5 by definition. I will watch it again. Not all the DVD's I get will get a lot or replays. I think this one has the legs.

Labels: films, gay films

SURGING WITH LIFE

I just finished

The River Swimmer

by Jim Harrison, the wonderful writer who has followed me all his life. Or is it that I have followed Jim Harrison?

Just when I think that, perhaps, I am reading the last writing of the man, here he is again. Magnificently generous with his soul in the form of two novellas.

Look at him. He looks like the Wreck of the Hesperus. He has led a rough hewn life and has shared it at every step of the way.

There are some near death experiences in this book and I have the idea that Harrison may have been there himself.

The first novella concerns a 60 year old art critic, connoisseur and appraiser who has come to his boyhood home to be a companion to his mother for only a month. Clive. His sister, who has the job full-time, has taken time off to see France.

There is nothing wrong with his mother, actually. So it is not really bad time. He needs to take her for her birdwatching and get out of the way. Which he does. His mom is adept at zingers. They come flying in when least expected. Clive is still vulnerable to them.

He walks around the farm, the neighborhood, and he runs into a teen age crush.

He finds his water colors in his boyhood closet mess. Clive, that is his name, was an aspiring artist and gave up on it along the way veering into talking about art rather than doing it.

We spend the month with him in his "place of origin".

It isn't hard to make the leap between an artist who has taken to talking about art rather than doing it to a writer who has gotten to be a formidable spokesman for his trade. Fortunately, Harrison still does it.

His writing about art and artists in this long story is beautifully clear and filled with wry asides, a Harrison trademark.

The second story, the title story, is about being 17 and male. I remember what that was like. In fact, my 17 year old lives not too far from the surface in my body, mind and spirit. The same must be true for Jim Harrison.

The boy who loves swimming, Thad, finds himself at a crossroads. End of high school, end of a girl-next door relationship. And so on.

To keep his equilibrium, he swims.

He has water visions.

An aquatic farm boy with a penchant for aphorisms that describe his discoveries about himself and and in the world.

Delightful.

The thing about Jim Harrison's writing is that it is pleasure itself. Yes. There is a point of view. A likable, or not, character who is well defined, usually just like me. And then there is the telling of it. The asides, the hilarious observations, the surprising topography of lives in action. Harrison's characters are rarely still unless they are made so by physical impairment or a sudden and drastic life change.

I recommend this book and, if it were a movie, I would give it a 5 out of Netflix5.

WORLD CUP

Booker and I have been watching the preparations for

The World Cup / International Pentathlon

It is just up the street headquartered in the baseball stadium and in the playing fields adjacent. Also the swimming pool. And the pavilions. Two big venues for large meetings. Really large.

Fencing, Shooting, Riding, Swimming and Running.

It is hard to see inside but the street and sidewalk levels on the one side reveal that there are horse facilities in one field along with hurdles and that kind of thing.

We did go past one side where they were exercising horses and, at least I, could see the horse head and rider.

Booker got very excited. When he was at the Airedale holding place, they had horses and he saw them every night.

I wish I could have lifted him up to see but he knew they were right there.

Guess how. And then we passed a dumpster filled with horse shit.

The photo is of the British team.

Labels: Booker, sports

THE TIME HAS COME

I never thought I would see this happen.

Skeptical me.

The changes over the last decade are exponential.

This is from the RESPECT FOR MARRIAGE COALITION, a new highly funded gay marriage advocacy group which goes across party and other lines to push the cause forward. Now. 9 States. Millions of people.

The bigots have lost.

Labels: gay history, gay marriage, gay rights

HAIR TODAY GONE TOMORROW

Well, not really gone. But there is less and less.

Today's movie was a haircut. Same time slot.

I had a good time. That has not always been the case.

I have a long love/hate relationship with barbers, hair stylists and, the present worker on my head, hair dressers. That is what he calls it.

At times, I have been my own barber.

Why am I so resistant and reluctant about hair dos?

Maybe it is trauma although I can't remember anything of note.

Maybe it is hard wired.

I don't like attention of that kind. Group adulation, crowd love, put the spotlight on me me me. One and one, not so much.

Then there is the hoo-doo that goes with it. The mirror. Is it all right? The dressing. The fucking blower.

I have tried it all and found most of it wanting.

But now, there are two things. I do want long hair. And if one is to have it, one needs help. I can give myself a pretty good buzz cut but not "leave it long in the back, a little off the sides and......"

I got to be close friends with a hair dresser, his word for it, and he was at me to let him do my hair. Finally, I let go and went into his shop and the rest is history.

I have pretty much relaxed into the process.

There are some things I still cringe over, some. I don't much like to have the "stress massage" at the beginning. I get stressed rather than lose stress.

I don't much like the shampoo but I have adopted his products for mine and so there is nothing strange about it other than that he is doing it. Best thing about this is that there is no hair on my neck when I go home. It is clean.

I am ambivalent about the drier but we have reached a rapprochement on this. He does a little to shape the sides but then I intervene and show him how I "style" it with wet hands, slicked back. He stops. We go through this dumb show every time.

It is fun because we are friends. There is none of what I had become used to with hair people. No small talk please. I would pretty much be silent. Them too once they caught on. If they did. If they did not I didn't go back.

But my hair dresser is my friend now and so there is just more of the same talk we have any other time.

Easy.

So. No movie today, just a friendly hair job.

At the end he told me to come with him out in the quad that the shop sits on. To meet someone. He had spotted another friend across the court and so both of us went over and hung out a little. Very nice.

This video is really cute. They found a way to let these kids have a bit of a good time while getting the job done.

Distractions work.

Hey, it keeps me going to the same place and getting the best haircut in town from the best hair cutter in town. That is by a vote, folks. And, he is my friend.

Labels: hair

TESTS

It is always something.

But for me, the somethings are, fortunately, serial in nature.

I am talking about health stuff.

By serial, I mean that there is this thing, then that gets over and soon it is another thing. Once that clears up I get another thing.

Nothing all at once.

Good huh?

So now, the next thing looks like a kidney thing.

My test this time was, one more time, a little higher on the kidney function test.

Doctor Jim called this morning with the results. We don't discuss the part where I have good results for everything else. Notably PSA and HIV although the chance for me getting HIV is about the same as getting gonorrhea from a door knob. Never touch those knobs that way.

No. Nothing about the good stuff. All about the kidney function. An elevated creatinine test. Not bad. Just, well, irritated.

So I am to go see Doctor Jim's "kidney guy". He will review meds that I take particularly the blood pressure stuff and anything else. I suppose he won't want me taking as much aspirin as I do. But I don't know.

So I asked Jim if it was serious. He said "no" but he doesn't want it to be that is why we do these tests. Well, I am glad they finally turned up something.

I asked if I should line up one or two of my kids as kidney donors. He said "not yet". A chuckle there from a famously taciturn doc.

I don't even have to call Doctor Stone (good name for a kidney guy, huh). He will call me. Or someone will.

So I went to my Meeting and about the third person I talked to about this (we tell each other shit like this so we don't hang on to it all by ourselves) has had (some kind of initials) kidney disease, (ends in KD). He has had it for five years.

He said that he isn't sure what they do for it. He has some pills and goes to see the doc more often than he thinks he should have to. But the main thing is that there are no physical symptoms. It is silent.

Now, my friend looks a bit worn around the edges but he is 85! He laughs when he talks about his kidney problems.

That is good enough for me.

Another friend asked if I was one of those who goes to the internet to see all I could about it.

Nahhh. Not me.

But I did find this.

I don't know what my BUN is. Maybe I should just wait until I see the nephrologist.

Did you know that they put medical lectures on "the YouTube"?

Labels: health

PIFFLE

Today's movie was

What Happens Next? (2011)

I take it as my solemn duty to see as many gay themed films as are available to be seen.

There are a few exceptions when I read enough to know that a film is over the sadistic top, so to speak, or focuses much on homophobic behavior. We see so much in real life.

But, usually, I go with the flow and try them out.

Today's film is homosexual only insofar as the hero, an older guy who has been asexual all his life, an entrepreneur, has sold his company and has a lot of time on his hands. Well, that isn't it.

His sister, a conniving bitch, tries to marry him off to an attractive but similarly neuter-ish woman as a companion of convenience. At the same time she gives him a dog. A puppy. Not that he wants one but it is easier than going for the neutered woman.

No. That isn't what makes it homosexual.

How a man can get to the age of fifty and still not have any idea of his sexual orientation has to define the meaning of the word workaholic.

But there he is. With a puppy who needs walking. And there, on a park bench is a man in his thirties with his dog. As it happens the younger man is gay and quite aware of it.

Ah. Here comes the gay part.

They become friends, they begin to have feelings for one another and, after a brush with homosexual panic on the part of the older man and some overly demanding out-behavior expectations of the younger gay, they conclude that they indeed do love one another "that way" and, "more or less" live happily ever after.

The story is cute, improbable and, given the subject material, rather sexless.

Well there is one scene apré sex when the older guy leaves early rather than spend the night. In confusion.

I watched this all the way through. It is amazingly HD clear in its photography which really is not bad at all. There are glitches in the continuity and some loose ends which would bother me more if I cared more about the people.

I am going to give this a 2 out of Netflix5. I saw it through without FF but grudgingly.

Incidentally, at the end, the older guy is still not very bonded to the puppy. But we do see him and the younger guy being playful and having a good time together walking along the river.

Oh. There is a brown maid of indeterminate but probably Jamaican extraction and she all but shuffles and jives across the screen. Wow. In a gay film they have a stereotypical brown person. With blond hair. Also, on very flamboyant queen who comes along to make a point that being gay can be kinda scary if you are a repressed, unflamboyant old queen.

Filmed in Philadelphia in a neighborhood I know well. Rittenhouse Square. The HD makes it pop. Too bad about the story and the general production values.

Labels: films, gay films

HAPPY HOLIDAY

Special shoutout to James Buchanan, the only unmarried President but not the only one rumored to be homosexual.

The gay construct was not in place at this time.

And, a bi-shout out to none other than Abraham Lincoln for whom, sleeping with his bodyguard, same bed, counts for something.

I know, they say that a lot of men slept with their best friends and held hands and kissed and all. Bromances. But as far as I am concerned that puts them on the Kinsey spectrum.

Don't mind me. Everything comes up gay if you are one and have spent a long time hiding out about it.

Labels: gay history, history

LIBERATION

Today's film was the epic

Hors la loi / Outside the Law (2010)

an Algerian production directed by Rachid Bouchareb, this film was a foreign language Oscar nominee.

The liberation of Algeria from French colonial control.

I remember this period very well. I was deeply touched by what was going on over the years. I remember fantasizing about being there and in it. I had a history teacher who made us get into this kind of thing and write papers, have a point of view and so on.

The period is viewed from the perspective of three brothers whose family loses its land in Algeria to the colonialists. The first big scenes are the massacre at Serif and, the film ends with the liberation.

The three brothers are engaged in diffent ways but all end up in the FLN which was the underground organization and, some would say, terrorists working to scare France out of holding on to their country.

They are fought by the rival MNA who lose and then France's own state sponsored terror organization, the Red Hand who took on the rough stuff on behalf of the French.

It is an ugly messy business and a story well told.

This is a big movie with a huge story and it is for sure biased for the Algerians. You will see why.

It is longish which I suppose is necessary to squeeze the story in.

I watched a little of the "making of" and realize that many of the huge scenes are on a studio lot in built sets. There are hundreds of extras. The battle scenes are breathtaking.

I liked it a lot and would not mind seeing it again.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5 and probably, some day, see it again with this directors other well known and highly praised film, Days of Glory.

Labels: films

GUESTS--SOMEONE IS COMING FOR DINNER

Once more, California is out front on a social issue of great importance.

California Eases Its Tone as Latinos Make Gains

When we moved here, we were astonished at the degree of hostility some people had for people from Mexico. New or old.

This played itself out in a kind of hypocrisy about immigrants. Keep them here to do the heavy work. Continue to deport but make it fairly obvious when and where you are going to do it so that people could get a free flight back if they were ready to go back home for awhile. Disparage and rant about the "mexicans".

We, on the other hand were innocents. We figured this land had belonged to Mexicans at one time and they were just coming home. A lefty response to a serious problem. Cover it up with a slogan.

Now, things are much different.

Latinos are everywhere. I mean out in the open. Living a life like anyone else.

They are at the gym, they are in my AA Meetings, they are in the stores. They are eating in restaurants not just prepping the food.

It is rare to hear anything said about the "beaners" or the "greaser".

What happened?

A tipping point happened.

For one thing there are more of them than there are of "us".

Another is that they have attained some political power.

And a third thing is that they have assimilated.

Of the kids I interview for admittance to MIT, at least half are from immigrant families who still speak 100% spanish. They are the ones who will leave to lead a better life.

My new Congressman is named Paul Ruiz. Second generation.

It is the same American immigrant story that has always worked its way through our culture.

Stereotype dissolve when you are working out right next to one of "them". When one of "them" is out of the closet and just another gay man. When you are in recovery with one of them. When you just gave some money to a political candidate who is one of "them". And wins!

Or when you go to high school right along side "them". Especially when they are getting admitted to one of the best colleges in the country. Both my recent admits are from Mexican families.

I am so proud of them.

They are sitting at the table just like the rest of us.

Labels: immigration, Latino

COLD WINDS

Today's film was the Dutch wartime film

Oorlogswinter / Winter in Wartime (2008) just recently released in the States.

This is an old fashioned movie with a post modern twist.

That doesn't mean they have left any of the tropes out. There is still the small town, the nazi hardness and the determined resistance.

What is different is that the soldiers are more human, the clarity of "sides" resistors and collaborators more ambiguously laid out and the simplicity of the production.

There are no big guns in this. Mostly people at a small town level. Very little discernible special effects. I don't think that one thing blows up.

It is a coming of age story but a younger age. At fourteen, Michiel has more to deal with than most even in a war movie. The sureties of life slip away. His dad is the mayor. A close friend asks him to help him deliver a secret message. He finds a surviving British pilot in the woods. His uncle shows up out of nowhere and seems to be on a mysterious mission.

There is a lot of excitement here. Sometimes breathtaking twists and turns. It is not just good versus bad guys.

He is often in over his head. Figuratively and really.

Great editing. An old fashioned score with a full orchestra! Sometimes thrilling.

I liked this a lot. It would be worth another look anytime. Perhaps a 5 but I think, for now, a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

FOOTBALL MIGRAINE

Mark Allen has caught it exactly.

Is Gay Men's Distaste for Football Innate?

Actually, he does not answer that question. He does, however, list the symptoms and experience of a gay man who does not "get" team sports.

That is me.

I identify completely.

When I was a kid, I could play softball. Get it? Soft. Not hard. Or rather I thought I could play softball.

But when I was on a real team they always put me in right field. Wait. Is that right? Is that the one where the ball doesn't get hit very often? Yes. I think.

See? I still don't know.

As far as hitting was concerned, I whiffed a lot and was really worried I would get hit by the ball.

Shit, I worried I would get hit with the ball in right field. Or that it would sting when I caught it, if I did.

For a brief period, I had a roll-on with pitching. But it was slow pitch and it went away the first time that anyone paid much attention to me. The clutch.

I was clueless for basketball. We had to play it in gym. It was one of the two sports played by any school team in the area I grew up.

When basketball came up as the gym subject, if I could know about it in advance, I would get the sniffles and have an excuse from gym from my mother.

Joe Murray, the gym teacher, caught onto this. A Marine, Joe was not to be fooled or deterred. He threw me on the court. Shirts and skins.

I sort of liked that part. For the wrong reasons.

I prayed they would not pass the ball to me. I appeared to be active by being the one to throw the ball from out of, what is that when it goes over the lines. Anyway. It was a moment to stand still. I could throw it.

See, I never learned to dribble. I could not do it. If I got the ball I would pass it or run with it and get the whistle. "Walking".

They did teach "fundamentals". But I never learned any.

I would do the best I could at dribbling (not at all) and jumping a shot into the basket. I was sort of good at foul shots. But since I always stayed as far from the ball as possible in any game, I rarely got fouled.

It was a disaster. I hated it.

Fast forward.

I tried later in life to learn golf. The first game I played I did pretty well but then the curse came down on me. The curse? Not giving a shit.

The same as with basketball. I didn't give a shit there either. Nor in softball if they were going to have a real game.

Eventually, I just gave up on the team.

I did play sports though. Later. In college. Nothing heavy. Not anything competitive. I sailed. I swam. I learned that off a team I would give a shit. I was pretty good.

I was very good at ROTC drill. Weird huh? No. Not at all. Think "control".

So.

Since I never played any team sport I never bothered to watch anyone play it either.

When I did, I found that I didn't understand it at all. Not the plays, not the enthusiasm, not the rules, not the whole fucking thing.

And I still do not today.

Hockey? I never understood icing. I have watched my son be a goalie, I understand that. But I don't get anything else. Nothing.

Football? Please. We never even had it in our school

The other football? Soccer? Not one thing happens for the longest time. Nothing. Running up and down. It is better than US football because there are scant costumes and they take their shirts off if they win. But this is scant payback for the time wasted in watching.

When I went to college, I began to run. I ran and ran and ran and, later in life, I could even run competively because what is more amazing is that there were hundreds of people who also didn't give a shit. They were just running. I was not going to be first and I was not going to be last and the middle was one big friendly mob of people who, like me, probably hated team sports as much as I did.

Now. The gay thing.

Here is my theory. It rests on an early separation from the father. Most straight boys identify deeply with their dad who encourages them and helps them get into sports. Gay boys, now watch this, figure out very early. Four? Earlier? That they are different. This is not a sob story thing. We are different.

We are all raised by straight people except now, for the lucky ones, some get to have gay dads.

My father quickly learned or got this. He understood because he didn't get team sports either. He would spend hours watching professional wrestling on teevee. This was the old days when it was at least realistic.

I often wondered if he had missed the gene too. I don't know if he was gay or not but he sure got excited about wrestling.

I liked to watch that too. But it was not a team. It was not a sport. I couldn't go anywhere and do it.

I still have a photo of Antonino Rocca in my erotic photo collection. Ahhh.

My Dad though. The one thing he did like to do, hunting and fishing, was out of my interest zone. I had antipathy. I just couldn't kill anything. Period. That is not so unusual actually. There are a lot less hunters and fishermen than there are football addicts.

Traditional dads had no way to deal with this huge gap. They just gave up. As my Dad did.

Finally he found a connection with me. Work. We both liked to do that, for money not at home. And he hired me to work in his store. And I was good at it.

We had detoured our bonding from sports to something else.

Gay men who like sports? They have managed to find a way through with their Dad who in the modern era are more inclined to let nature take its course with kids. And there are more options. Kids, gay or straight, don't have to be on team sports. They don't know their sons are gay, if they are, but they know that the sons need some special handling and, apparently, a lot of them know how to give it.

Also, most gay athletes went to bigger schools than I did. They can find a way in with their friends.

But this is a small theory. It is too personal. It doesn't cover the territory.

Today? I married a man with the same deficit as me. There is no football in our house. None. No baseball either. Shit, no television.

We are out of the loop eternally.

Do we care? Not a bit. We still simply do not give a shit.

See that kid?

That kinda fat kid?

The one sort of hugging the dummy?

I will bet ten to one that he is gay. Or will be.

Look at the coach.

See that look?

That. Right there. That is what ruins it for a lot of gay kids.

Where did I get this photo? It was right there on the third line of google images under "football in grade school". The first photo I looked at. That is me.

Not giving a shit and not getting it at all. Next gym class? This kid will bring an excuse from his mom.

Labels: gay life, gay sports

GITMO FOREVER

I must admit that when it comes to daily outrages, the facility and the inmates of Guantanamo Bay is pretty low on my list.

This is a pretty good article of how things stand. And stand. And stand.

And probably will stand until the inmates, presently incarcerated, have all died. Or close to.

Obama's Guantanamo Is Never Going To Close, So Everyone Might As Well Get Comfortable

Well, it is not Obama's. It is mine and yours. Ours.

Yes, he promised to close it but "they" wouldn't let him. Who they? Congress of both parties, the courts, any place they thought of putting them (NOMBY) and so on.

There are 166 people currently imprisoned, down from a high of 684 in 2003. But those who remain are likely to do so indefinitely. Effectively banned from the continental U.S. by Congress, disowned by their home countries and unwelcome pretty much everywhere else, they have no place to go.

I know. There are still some civil liberty nuts who think that they should be released or tried or whatever.

This was always the soft spot of the now defunct "war on terrorism". In a war kind of war with the Geneva Convention rules, prisoners are to be re-patriated at the conclusion of hostilities.

Old, antiquated rules. This is not that kind of war. They are not POW's per se. They are people who got caught or swept up and put where they couldn't harm anyone.

By this time, the part that the Obamas have accomplished is the whittling down, the end of torture, the restoration of humane conditions and the reduction of population down to an irreducible number.

OK with me. How about you?

It has been awhile since I have read anything about some sad case that is still under detention. No one is speaking for them.

Look, these people have had their tickets punched. They are out of the running.

It could be worse for them. They could, in fact, be accepted back into some of the countries who would like to kick their asses, torture them and otherwise punish them without end. For the weepers. Would that be better? No dice.

Actually, I don't think there are any of those either. No one to send back anywhere.

What is amazing is that, at the present time, there are about 5000 Americans at the base. Enough to support a small economy of retail, food and other enterprises.

Those people are stuck there too. I don't know if it is hard duty or not.

Soon, someday, our relations with Cuba will be normalized and the situation will change some. At least the 5000 Americans will be able to smoke a good cigar.

Labels: terrorism

TWILIGHT OF THE GANGSTER GODS

Today's film by (and starring) Takeshi Katano was

Sonatine (1993)

This early film is about an aging gangster (yakuza) who has been sent to Okinawa to help another group in his hierarchy only to find that he has been betrayed by the big boss. A ploy to annex his hard-won territory.

Takeshi is the master of the stone face. He is, at the beginning, the boss who orders and punishes. As he is sent away with a small cadre he begins to loosen up and become a part of the group again. Aided by a few younger sidekicks who are loyal and yet not afraid to tweak his nose, the boss loosens up and plays some games of his own. Funny not deadly ones.

This long central part of the film is basically a seaside idyll filled with great cinematography, beautiful sea scenes and filled with joy.

So much the harsher is the last sequence in which, realizing he has been had, the boss goes back to settle scores.

The point of this film is that a life of violence never ends no matter how it may be interrupted. Stoic and philosophic to the end, the boss finishes his business in the style to which he, and we, have become accustomed in this fine film.

Takeshi's direction is very ritualistic. Violence erupts almost without warning and ends as quickly. Bystanders are agape. Nothing moves.

Red is a big color in this film. Blood.

I liked this film a lot.

I have planned to watch a lot of Takeshi's films later in the queue but this one was recommended so I just went ahead and watched it. I will probably see it again.

A 4 out of Netflix5.

IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT ROGER

In today's NYT:

California: Former Archbishop Writes of Humiliation

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony says he has been publicly humiliated in recent days by people who are angry over his handling of the clergy sexual abuse scandal. Cardinal Mahony, a former archbishop of Los Angeles, said in a blog post on Thursday that he understood the depth of their anger and had asked God to bless and forgive them. He also said he is praying during Lent for the grace to endure the public criticism. Recently released files show that Cardinal Mahoney and other top officials maneuvered to shield priests accused of sexual abuse to protect the Roman Catholic Church from scandal.

The release of files has been through all of the courts. There is nowhere to turn.

But Roger insists that it is about victimizing and blaming him, the good "father". He is one of the most blatant resistors in the child abuse scandal.

He is hated in LA. Period.

I suppose this means that people are approaching him personally to vent their anger at him. I hope they are spitting too.

If I saw him I would say something.

Another hypocrite hiding behind a "religion".

Labels: christist watch

OVER AND OUT

Labels: christist watch

NICE ANGST

Today's film was the Icelandic production

Jitters (2010)

just now being distributed in the US.

This is a teen coming of age film featuring a gay boy who, on a field trip to England, discovers that he gets the "jitters" when he kisses another boy. They are room mates at the English School. From the same town.

When he rejoins his friends, we see a group of kids, his friends, who are having growing up issues. They are sweet together and give a lot of support. There are shitty parents and, here and there, a parent who is really supportive and helpful.

The gay kid, Gabriel (of course Gabriel) has an interfering mom but his dad who left the mom for the same reasons, interfering, is great as is, as it turns out, the stepfather.

There is no new ground being plowed in this but the Iceland angle is interesting (not much different actually) and the kids are very kind to one another. For once.

There is a sparkle to the whole thing. The acting is very good. The story concise and to the point. Rather complex actually.

The gay angle is actually not the only theme here although it is the through line for the entire film. Beginning to end.

Gabriel is described early on as a "cuddler", the one the girls all go to for comfort and support. He is that. So he is part of everyone's situation as well as, of course, his own.

How many actors are there in Iceland? How many good teen actors? I read that in Denmark, for example, there are so few actors that they are all in most of the television and movies. Similarly, Iceland has its own language so there is a call for an Icelandic cinema and television. A lot of work.

There is much to like in this film and I will buy a copy for our collection.

A 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

HAVE A HEART

Happy Valentines Day to friends and family in all directions.

Labels: holidays

GIBSON WORLD

Today's movie was based on the William Gibson story

Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

with Keanu Reeves as the guy who has an overloaded implant in his head with everyone trying to get what's in there out. Even if they have to take the head to get there.

It is a cyberpunk masterpiece. There aren't many. Blade Runner, a few more.

I have not seen it in a very long time.

I like William Gibson, I like Keanu Reeves and so it is a natural high five out of Netflix five for me.

There is little to say about the film. It is a long chase. There is a lot of fighting. The ideas behind it are intellectually satisfying. The sets are magnificent.

I have read all of Gibson and the idea of dystopian divisions between the corporates and the lowteks is carried out perfectly.

Most of Gibson's insurgent, rebel have-not populations live in or on a bridge community made out of all kinds of materials scrounged from the rich world. I have seen this in my mind's eye. This film captures what I have seen quite closely. No dissonance.

The cast is pretty good and the acting is beautifully cartoonish. Not camp.

The special effects are superb and not overdone. Unlike some current films, the director does not depend on these to carry dramatic arc or excitement. Conventional elements like the sets and the costume design do the heavy lifting which include a cyber-dolphin named Joan. Great stuff.

Direction by Robert Longo.

Did I say this was a five? Yes. It is.

I am doing a slow insertion of Keanu films into the queue as I go along. One, Point Break, is in such demand that it has been at the top of my list for weeks waiting for me to get my turn at it.

Many of his films are now cult items. Both of these are good examples.

Soon I will be getting Speed and some more. And more.

Labels: films

UNACCEPTABLE WORKING CONDITIONS

Labels: christist watch, fun, gay fun

REINFORCE

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has a word to teach us about.

Look.

JG-L can get my attention any day and it is hard to get through this without smiling.

At the situation.

At Murray.

And at Joseph. Let's replay this.

Labels: fun, hunks

CHECKUP

I went to the doc today, 40 pounds lighter. That pleased him. And me.

I passed all the tests that he had with flying colors.

I took my little blood pressure machine and we looked at all the results I have been keeping for the last 6 months. He is going to keep me on the pills for now. Maybe forever. OK.

The only small cloud on the horizon is a slightly elevated kidney function result from last lab.

An irritation. Not high high, just high.

Tomorrow is the lab. This is not the annual which is in October. I am back on the four month cycle again. The blood pressure and kidney results make me slightly more radioactive for him.

Labels: health

HIGH DRAMA

Today's movie was the much maligned

The Paper Boy (2012)

with Zac Efron, Nicole Simpson, Matthew McConaughey, John Cusack and an amazing Macy Grey.

This movie is a cracker's fever dream. Florida swamps, alligator hunters, dead sheriffs, unsolved crimes, sensational news reporters, a nympho with a thing for prisoners and ex-cons, a young frustrated "paper boy" sexually inexperienced since his mama deserted the family, a homo brother with a thing for negro rough trade and so on.

Mostly the "cracker" stuff, which means white trash in Floridian.

Swirl this all together and there is fun as well as heartache with a little bit of thriller (a chase through the swamps) and some upsetting results of an investigation gone awry.

This film was not well received or, rather, it was received in the wrong way.

It is one of those where you wonder if any of the stars or their reps read the whole script or envisioned what a film of this original novel would look like.

Me? I enjoyed it. I was glued to my seat. I cannot say that I liked it but I would not have missed it for the world.

There is a lot of Zac Efron on view but we saw so many previews and photos there is nothing new in that. The real shock value is to see John Cusack play a psychopath.

Nicole Simpson must have loved doing this. She is, at heart, a transgressive actor and this is raw meat.

So.

I don't want to see it again but I am happy to have been around for it in all its grisly wonder.

A 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

I SPY

I just finished Ian McEwan's latest novel

Sweet Tooth (2012)

I read all his novels without question so the question really is "how does this stack up?"

I would say that it is middle McEwan.

It is written from the POV of a young woman recruited into Britains M15 spy organization by an older lover, her professor.

She finds herself shuffled around in make work situations and sees the underbelly of the spy service, a giant bureaucracy beyond zealous about their files.

She gets put on a lower level project that sets up a front for writers and other artists funded by the government. This is kept blind to people getting grants.

She meets an author who fits the criteria for funding and falls in bed with him.

She is sort of fucking her way through this somewhat special civil service job which is not a good idea as it is prohibited and government secrets are involved. All that rot.

I became impatient with this woman. She is kind of a literature bore. But then so is McEwan.

Names are dropped, books are mentioned and so on. Erudite.

One nice touch, the author writes some short stories which are summarized in this novel so it is like having a bonus. I am told that some of the stories are early McEwan. Recycling.

The period of this novel is the paranoid 70s. There is not only a lot of tension around the Soviets but also the IRA and other home grown terrorist outfits.

The secrecy of the work falls on the relationships described. Blah blah blah.

You do want him to get on with it and he does eventually. But there is some heavy lifting on the way to what is a nifty ending. A sleight of hand move by the authors, the one in the book and McEwan himself. Surprise!

I liked it. Not as much as the others. I said that.

The 70s are a kind of boring period. Not that there wasn't a lot going on. It is just so, well, old. All that spy stuff and the super power bullshit. It is also draining to be in the middle of yet another British austerity period where everyone has a hunger headache and drinks too much.

Frankly, I don't think you want to read this book. Let me be the one who tried it and found it wanting. Too much tired blood and listless fucking.

A 3 out of 5.

Labels: books

SOTU

I thought he did a great job.

Of course.

The laundry list or "do list" was long and ambitious. It was challenging for all.

There was not a lot of standing by the opposition party. Always a good sign that there has been a full throated appeal to the cause we all feel so strongly.

At the end, the laundry list over, he gave an emotional appeal for votes, up or down, on the proposals for gun control.

He cited people in the gallery, visitors who had lost a family member or someone who had taken fire themselves and put their lives on the line to save others.

This put faces on the issues.

He came on very strongly on voter rights. He was in their face.

Very strong on climate control and they didn't like it.

I thought he was very strong and, despite what they say, bi-partisan.

He invited participation but he also left no doubt that he would forge ahead without them.

Labels: Barack Obama

YOU WILL SEE MORE OF THIS

Kenneth Faried, Denver Nuggets Star, Becomes First NBA Player To Join Gay Rights Sports Group

He has two moms.

They say that he is a terror on the court.

Look how much he loves his moms. Don't get in his way.

Labels: gay history, gay marriage, gay right

VAMPIRE SPELLED HOW?*

Today's film was another by Olivier Assayas'

Irma Vep (1996)

A movie within a movie about a silent movie made in the 19 teens, we have lots of stuff going on around the set.

Gossip, artistic opinion, rivalry, character assassination, nervous breakdowns, friendship, genuine esprit de corps, love affairs, attempted love affairs, dope on the side and much much more.

Maggie Chung plays herself as a Hong Kong star brought in to fulfill the vision of the director played by Jean-Pierre Léaud. There is a lot of homage to French cinema here and Leaud's presence signifies the wonderful Truffaut Day For Night, in which he starred as the lead in another film within a film.

It is a hall of mirrors and sometimes one can get lost. It is in English, Cheung's language, and obviously French for all the others. Another isolating factor for the star of the piece. One sees her as an international star trapped in the maze of production. She is never less than gracious and accepting, friendly and wise. The antithesis of the usual temperamental star stereotype. And the opposite of the craziness of much of the others in the production.

There is a lot of upside down cake here.

I liked the film a lot and am glad that I pulled it out of the stack but once is enough.

A 3 out of Netflix5.

To add to the possible confusion, the same story as the original film was brought to the stage in New York by Charles Ludlam and his Theater of the Ridiculous.

Absurd camp which was produced over and over by many other companies.

*IRMA VEP is an anagram for VAMPIRE.

Labels: films

GAYGANGS

I read this back in June but I didn't do anything about it in the blog.

Welcome to the Gayborhood

This lists by zip code the top neighborhoods for gay male and/or female couples.

Singles not studied.

Of course, for men, San Francisco tops the list, actually The Castro. Then Palm Springs Zip 92264, where we used to live. Then Provincetown where we used to live and then, in fourth place, Palm Springs Zip 92262 where we live now.

They don't mention Boston or the South End there which is now going straight, since we left, or Jamaica Plains. I looked for a larger list and couldn't find it.

In any event, we knew when we came here that we would be in the thick of things and we were right. It would only be thicker in SFO and that would be laying it on a bit too thick for my liking. I have lived in a gay ghetto since I came out and there is, in my experience, such a thing as too much gay.

I love this photo which has been around for quite a while. Supposedly neighbors in The Castro but I think it might be posed.

Labels: gay life, gay marriage

FUNNY FOOTBALL

Guy Branum tells those SF Forty Niners where they live.

No. You don't need any background to see this.

You don't even need to be gay although it is funnier that way.

And you sure as fuck don't need to live in SFO because all of us gay people, "the gays" live in SFO even if we don't live there.

Labels: gay culture, gay fun, sports

HA HA HA

Faux News Uses Lesbian Couples Wedding for Straight Bigot's Presentation

I always thought there was a mole in the Fox News Room. Or somewhere in the infrastructure.

This kind of happy bonehead accident happens too often.

Time for Ailes to conduct a purge?

Labels: gay fun, gay marriage, gay rights

INCREDIBLE

I watched the very emotional ceremony for this.

You can as well. WhiteHouse.gov videos Medal of Honor. Today.

I watch as many of these as I can. Which is all of them.

It is a way for me to stay in touch with the reality of the war we are waging and the people who are fighting there. I am grateful and proud for them.

Labels: Medal of Honor

THE VATICAN DRAG

The late Tom Lehrer who was also gay.

Labels: fun, religion

PAPA!

The fucking pope resigned. Good riddance.

Old and frail. Sure. But since when was that a reason.

Most of them are too old to even understand the world they got old in. It passed them by.

This guy was worse than most.

Even if you get by the absurdity of having some big daddy running things with "moral authority" as they do, this one was audaciously and conspicuously conservative.

Could they do worse? Maybe not. He hit the bottom. Although once he almost said it was ok to use a condom but then they pulled him back from the precipice.

A ray of light that was quickly extinguished.

A guy at the gym said that maybe they would pick Dolan, the NYC cardinal. That he would be much better. I just gave him a look and said that they all hated me equally. Of course that is not true. But mostly. And anyone who doesn't hold the line on "the gays", never mind all the rest of it, will be shown the door.

To even discuss this goes against the grain for me.

The pope is nothing to me and, really, nothing to a lot of other people in the world. Even catholics.

I will not rehearse the ancient lines against the church and its arrogant bullshit.

Let this one go. Let the other one come in. Live your life. Let them go. Anachronisms.

Labels: evil bastards, religion

EARLY OUT

Astonishing. But then, I did it. So did all my friends.

Practically Everyone Retires Early These Days

Part of this is the financial reward for doing so.

There is a difference of course if you go out early, less money, but the difference does not in the aggregate mean that much as life expectancy increases.

I even had the SSA person I went to convince me to take it early. She did the math and, yup, it worked out to be more in the aggregate in just those four years than if I waited for the bigger payment.

If they want people to work longer, and I am not sure why they would actually as it would increase unemployment, the need to amend the payment structure and to stop the SSN employees from selling the early out option.

Besides, many many people have a separate retirement package which covers the difference anyhow if you loo at it the right way. Blur your vision. And, at least here, you can work for pay on top of the social security check and do it under the table. I do not, of course, but it is very common to do so.

Labels: retirement

FAME

Spoiler alert!

Today's film was a gay version of the old chestnut. Like the prince who hides among the commoners, a movie star meets a gay man who helps him home from a drunken bout of gutter diving.

The good samaritan doesn't watch American films so he has no idea of who his guest is.

The rest of the film has an element of hide and seek and whether they will bridge the chasm between them once the cat is out of the bag. So to speak. In this case, a 20 something hunk who is truly star material.

What makes it gay is that the guest makes the opening moves with a "good morning" blow job.

I suppose that this doesn't sound like the kind of film everyone would enjoy and that is exactly true.

You need a certain background of deprivation that comes from years of watching straight fairy tales and wishing you could have the prince instead of the girl in the picture.

Or at least someone like you could have the prince.

At last. Fantasy realized.

Well, not entirely as it is not me that is getting the nice wake up call.

It takes a while for them to resolve all the confusion and difficulty but once they do there is a nice soft landing.

There is a "best friend" in this, a female, who sort of fucks this up. She is what is known, or used to be known pre-PC, as a fag hag. Now they are "just friends". No relationship in sight for her so grab onto the gay man who is no threat.

We get to see a lot of Paris. Very nice. The boy is found lying in the gutter on a street which leads to the Moulin Rouge which is seen just out of frame. Nice touch.

We see a lot of the men too. Both are quite attractive and they have fun together and so do we. Nicely handled.

All said and done, I really liked this film. The other gay man in the house liked it too.

You can't get this at Netflix. It is probably too new to make it onto their rather abundant gay list. But if it were, I would give it a 4 out of 5 meaning I would be happy to see it again.

Given that I went out and bought it for our collection it is almost assured that I will.

Oh. The title!

Rue des Mauvais Garçon / Bad Boy Street (2012).

The title has nothing to do with the film but I can see that the film maker saw the street and was inspired to build a movie around it. Come to think of it the movie star is the kind of bad boy that you would want to stick around with.

They do pass the street sign as they wander around Paris.

Labels: films, gay films

OUT ON THE FIELD

Yes. MIT has a baseball team. Yes. There are a lot of gay people at MIT.

It only figures that the old Venn diagram would overlap sooner or later.

Ballplayer Gets Big Hit Coming Out

Great. Great when anyone comes out. Great when an MIT student comes out. Great for ball players when any athlete comes out anywhere.

There were a lot of gay people at MIT when I went there. I was one, right, huh?

Then there were the others that I found through some trial and error during my time there.

MIT had the first gay student group. Anywhere. Good beginning.

I interviewed at least two open gay guys who wanted to attend.

Sure, there are gay engineers. Sure there are engineers who can play good softball.

Labels: coming out, gay rights, gay sports, MIT

WET

There is a lot of whining about drones and targeted killings especially killings of US citizens abroad.

As though this is something new.

The drone is new, yes. The killing not so much.

The CIA and other services have been assassinating defectors, counterspies, avowed terrorists and before that soviet aparatchiks all over the world.

Not wholesale. Just occasionally.

Well, we just occasionally killed that rat. The one with the granny glasses. Anwar al-Awlaki.

I know. I am a liberal. A progressive. But I am not naive.

We have been doing this stuff as long as we could do it on the sly since the birth of our country.

This is called "wet work".

Does this go against our values? I don't think so. There have to be so many layers of decision to get to the point where we do the deed that plenty of hands and heads get involved in it. It is what we have a bureaucracy for. To draw it out, take time, deliberate.

For example, today:

From Politico:

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers on Sunday defended President Barack Obama’s use of drone strikes, saying he reviews every attack after it happens.

“I, as chairman, review every single airstrike that we use in the war on terror, both from the civilian and the military side when it comes to airstrikes,” the Michigan Republican said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “There is plenty of oversight here. There’s not an American list somewhere overseas for targeting, that does not exist. … The oversight rules have been consistent.”

But what about the conspiracy theorists? What really really goes on?

Yes. I have seen those movies too. The ones that have the conspiracies and the behind the scenes bastards pulling the strings.

Life is not a movie. Very hard to do this stuff and especially go get away with it.

Look at what is going on now.

Every so often something comes up like a nomination (Brennan) or a leak (White House letter on the legal aspect) that gives us a chance to chew it all over again.

Good. Go for it.

I am glad that they got Anwar al-Awlaki. I was glad when I heard of it and I am glad of it now. He was an open terrorist and flaunted his citizenship for protection.

This is akin to my reluctance to condemn torture. They say it does not work. I have read enough about the Gestapo's methods in WWII to know that when a member of the underground was captured, they dismantled his or her network immediately on the assumption that everyone, me included, will talk.

So here we are again. Having one of these discussions and it is a good thing.

Should there be another layer of bureaucratic second guessing? A special court? I don't know. It is OK if they do it.

The people out there on the job of keeping us safer will do what they need to do regardless. Period.

As I think that they should.

Labels: assassination, terrorism, torture