Be Mine: A Review Saturday, May 22 2010 

movies and queer culture thisgaudygildedstage 7:29 pm

Last night, PJ and I watched the 2009 movie  Be Mine on DVD. (In fact, I think it was a straight-to-video movie — is that what the “V” means on http://www.imdb.com?) It stars Dan Selon as Mason, a college senior who has never kissed a boy. The movie is told in flashbacks: we see how he met the guy he’s just married and how he went from never-been-kissed to totally in love. Here’s the trailer:

We tried to watch this movie once before, but the DVD was defective. The few minutes we saw the first time made us wonder if it was worth trying again. Overall, I’d say that Be Mine is a likable romantic comedy, but it feels more like the pilot for a sitcom than a movie — it’s all set up with very little dramatic/comedic action.

Basically, Be Mine follows Mason as he sees a guy he thinks is cute, admits that he’s never been kissed (much less had sex), and meets up with the guy again at a party that night. All of this is told in flashbacks; we learn right off the bat that Mason has married this guy, Reiley, played by Jared Welch.

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Satisfied by Woody Pines Wednesday, May 19 2010 

music and song of the week thisgaudygildedstage 5:49 pm

After seeing Woody Pines live over the weekend, I decided to make one of their songs, “Satisfied,” my song of the week. It’s a great little song about being happy where you are. Here’s a live version I found on YouTube:

I’m looking forward to the band’s return to Athens next weekend (May 28). PJ and I are going to go (they’re playing at Casa Cantina) as are a couple of our friends. It should be a lot of fun.

“Satisfied” is off the new, 2009 album, Counting Alligators, which is great. I can’t find the lyrics for this song, so I’ve added another video of the band after the break.

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Nelsonville Music Festival 2010 Sunday, May 16 2010 

music thisgaudygildedstage 3:45 pm

Yesterday, PJ and I spent the late afternoon and evening at the Nelsonville Music Festival. We’ve been to the festival twice before, the first time to see Iris Dement, one of our favorite artists. Last year we saw Willie Nelson at the festival. We were extremely excited to have the opportunity this year to see Loretta Lynn, but there were also a number of other acts that we wanted to hear.

We arrived at the festival around 4 o’clock. The first thing we did was find a good spot for our lawn chairs so that we could see the stage when Loretta Lynn appeared later. Our favorite local band was already playing, so we also got to see their set:

These seats put us near enough to see well without being too close. Last year, the sound system wasn’t amplified enough; this year there were no problems with that, so I didn’t want to be so close we couldn’t hear each other talk.

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Favorite Videos of 2009 Monday, May 3 2010 

music thisgaudygildedstage 2:53 pm

After an incredibly busy two months, which put me way behind on blogging, I finally have a few minutes to finish my best-of posts for 2009! I’ve already listed my favorite movies, albums, and singles/tracks from 2009. Now I’ll list my favorite videos.

2009 was definitely the year of Lady Gaga. She became a full-fledged video artist, especially with her videos for “Paparazzi” and “Bad Romance,” my favorite videos of the year:

These songs are both great pop/dance songs, and the videos are, in my opinion, the best of the year. With “Paparazzi,” Gaga established herself as an artist who wants to tell stories with her videos, and with “Bad Romance” she took another step towards visual artistry. No one else is as interesting as Gaga at the moment.

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Is Chad White the Hottest Man in the World? Sunday, May 2 2010 

male models thisgaudygildedstage 2:28 pm

Back in November, I posted a little homage to three of my favorite Brazilian models, Arthur Sales, Rodrigo Calazans, and Edilson Nascimento, all of whom are smoking hot. But today I’d like to make the case for Chad White as the hottest man in the world.

This video, which I first saw on We Love Guys, perfectly sums up the argument for why Chad White is undeniably one of the hottest guys in the world:

There are several things that I particularly like about Chad White.

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April is the Cruelest Month Thursday, Apr 29 2010 

academia and teaching thisgaudygildedstage 1:02 pm

APRIL is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

~ T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

If my life as a college administrator in the past month is any indication, Eliot knew what he was talking about! April has been the most exhausting month of my deanship thus far. Every time I think that things can’t possibly get any busier, my job proves me wrong!

But I should say up front that much of the headache involved in my job is the direct result of the fact that I love it so much. If I didn’t really care, then it wouldn’t be as much work and worry as it is. I definitely want to do right by my students and staff (and the university). I also want to succeed for my own sake. And being dean of the honors college combines all of the things that I most enjoy doing. So, a huge part of my exhaustion comes from my commitment to do excel as dean (or try as hard as I can to excel).

Now feels as good a time as any to think a little bit about how things are going. I’m exhausted all the time, but I love it! Some part of my job are going extremely well; other parts are more challenging. I think we’re headed in a good direction, but only time will tell if we can end up where we want to be.

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Pick U Up by Adam Lambert Wednesday, Apr 28 2010 

music and song of the week thisgaudygildedstage 12:51 pm

Adam Lambert’s “Pick U Up” has been in my head for the past two weeks. I love it! It sounds a quite a bit like All-American Rejects, although it was co-written by Rivers Cuomo.

It’s a great song, and Lambert’s voice is amazing, especially toward the end with the big note at the end of the line, “I need someone to be my lover.”

This is the third of Lambert’s tracks on For Your Entertainment that I’ve made my song of the week. It’s the kind of album that I like more and more the more I listen to it. It also reminds me just how personality-free this season’s American Idol is. People might have complained last year that Adam was too over the top, but I think everyone would have to admit that he brought a lot of drama to the season. No one’s doing that this year.

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Eyes Wide Open: A Review Monday, Apr 26 2010 

movies and queer culture and religion thisgaudygildedstage 12:46 pm

Yesterday PJ and I saw Eyes Wide Open (Einaym Pkuhot), an Israeli film by director Haim Tabakman. It stars Zohar Shtrauss as an Orthodox butcher with a wife and kids who suddenly finds himself attracted to his apprentice, Ezri, played by Ran Danker. The movie explores what this means for Aaron, his community, and his family (in roughly that order). Here’s the trailer:

Shtrauss is great as Aaron, a man obviously torn between everything he’s ever known and lived and his desire for Ezri. He plays Aaron as a very quiet, insular man who suddenly blossoms when he meets Ezri. At first his responses to the younger man are tentative and shy, and Shtrauss is excellent in this segment of the film.

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The Art of Being Straight: A Review Sunday, Apr 25 2010 

movies and queer culture thisgaudygildedstage 11:52 am

Last night PJ and I watched The Art of Being Straight a 2008 comedy/drama about a young twenty-something who moves to Los Angeles after breaking up with his girlfriend. He takes an entry-level job at an advertising agency, where he starts getting hit on by one of his bosses, a guy named Paul. His response to these come-ons opens up the possibility that he might not be as straight as he and his friends had always thought. I really liked this complex look at sexuality.

Here’s the trailer:

The Art of Being Straight was written and directed by Jesse Rosen, who also stars as the lead character, Jon. Jon has a reputation among his friends for being a ladies man, the kind of guy who, somewhat inexplicably, is able to hook up with any girl he wants. When Paul, played by Johnny Ray, starts hitting on him, Jon’s surprised to find himself attracted to this older man. Although he admits to Paul that he experimented with a friend in high school, he had never gone all the way with a guy before. Equally surprising is that, while he’s not ready to date a guy, he is interested in hooking up more than once.

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Money Changes Everything Thursday, Apr 15 2010 

music and song of the week thisgaudygildedstage 7:14 pm

Suddenly, I can’t get Cyndi Lauper’s “Money Changes Everything” out of my head:

I  love the original version, which is the one stuck in my head, but I also thought I would look around and see what other versions there are. I found this one from Lauper’s 2005 acoustic album, which rerecords some of her biggest hits in acoustic duets with other artists:

I’ve since downloaded this album, and I really like it. Lauper has a bit of raspiness to her voice in this version of “Money Changes Everything” that really appeals to me. This version feels like the point of view of a more mature woman rather than the carefree younger woman of the original version.

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