SotW: Changing Your Mind by Bob Schneider Wednesday, Oct 20 2010 

music and song of the week thisgaudygildedstage 11:02 am

This week’s song of the week is Bob Schneider’s “Changing Your Mind,” which was featured in the movie Harmony and Me. Here’s a live version I found on YouTube:

This song is great in the movie, but it’s also just a great song. I didn’t know anything about Schneider’s music before now, but I definitely want to check more of it out. What I’ve learned so far is that he’s an Austin-based musician, which speaks well of him in my book. Also, his newest album includes a version of this song with Patty Griffin, also a plus.

I think the sense of sad resignation in “Changing Your Mind” is what appeals to me most. There are times in life when someone in your life makes a decision that drastically affects or perhaps even ends your relationship and there’s nothing you can do about it. This song captures that moment really well, I think.

But it’s also kind of upbeat. The last verse recalls what appealed to you about that person in the first place. And even if the person is gone, at least you have the memories of what was. In other words, to quote a song from Tina Turner, something beautiful remains.

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Harmony and Me: A Review Monday, Oct 18 2010 

movies thisgaudygildedstage 10:16 am

On Friday, PJ and I watched Harmony and Me on Netflix for Wii. This was my first time watching a movie through Wii, and I thought it worked really well. Soon, there will no longer be a need for DVDs!

Harmony and Me stars Justin Rice as Harmony, a barely employed musician whose girlfriend has recently broken up with him. This relatively short film — it’s just a little over an hour long, follows Harmony as he tries to recover from this heartbreak. As Harmony keeps telling everyone, she’s still breaking his heart, since she hasn’t finished the job yet.

Here’s the trailer:

I love mumblecore as a genre, and we initially started watching this movie in part because we thought it was a mumblecore movie, but it really isn’t. While the film clearly borrows from the techniques of mumblecore — the documentary realness of the cinematography, the dialogue, and the plot — it is more heavily plotted than the primary examples of that genre.

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RIP Marlowe (2002-2010) Saturday, Oct 16 2010 

cats thisgaudygildedstage 3:18 pm

This morning, PJ and I decided it was time to take our little buddy, Marlowe, to the vet for his final visit.

He had been diagnosed with fibrosarcoma, a very aggressive form of cancer, back in February. The cancer was growing in his right jaw and cheek. He underwent surgery in late February to remove as much of the tumor as possible. But we knew then that the chances of getting it all were slight. While the vet had done her best, the cancer returned, and the past eight months have largely been waiting for this day to come.

I can’t say enough about how much we loved him. He was a very special and loving companion for us and our other cat Paisley. He was always PJ’s cat, enjoying time almost every morning sitting in PJ’s lap while he sat at his desk. As PJ noted today, no one (or nothing else) will ever look at him with such complete adoration as Marlowe looked at him. And while Marlowe never looked at me that way, I’m glad that over these last few weeks he had begun to sit on my lap for up to a half hour at a time. I am grateful to have had this time with him.

Marlowe first entered our lives in November 2002 when he suddenly appeared in the back yard of some friends of ours. He was apparently dumped or got separated from his mother, and he decided that our friends should adopt him. They were unable to do so, so they started looking for a home for him. Due to a couple of factors, we weren’t able to take him until January. No one else adopted him in the intervening time, so he joined our family shortly after the New Year. PJ and I are incredibly grateful that he did.

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SotW: I Want to Hold Your Hand by Glee Monday, Oct 11 2010 

music and queer culture and song of the week and television and What I'm Watching thisgaudygildedstage 6:33 pm

Since today is National Coming Out Day, I especially wanted to blog about last week’s episode of Glee, which is one of my favorite shows. Chris Colfer was particularly wonderful in this episode, in which Kurt’s father has a heart attack and is left in a coma. While his father is in the hospital, Kurt sings The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in Glee Club:

This song is very affecting in this episode, but what I like most about it is its potential as a queer song. This song is all about longing and wanting to love another person in this really simple way: to hold their hand.

Ultimately, I think that’s what all gay rights issues are really about: we want to hold the hand of our beloved openly and fearlessly, to be able to acknowledge who we are and who we love and share our lives with. This song sums that up for me, especially with a gay actor singing it.

Colfer’s version of the song is so simply beautiful. After hearing it for the first time, I told PJ that someday, when we’re allowed to marry legally and have a ceremony, I want this version of the song to be sung at our wedding. I think it would be beautiful.

So, I’ve downloaded it from iTunes, and I’m dreaming of the day when I’ll get married to the man I love. I can’t wait.

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