Watching the 2010 Olympics Monday, Feb 22 2010 

queer culture and What I'm Watching thisgaudygildedstage 5:47 pm

This year I’m watching the winter Olympics much more than I usually do. Working a 9 to 5 job means that I look forward to coming home and watching t.v. in the evening. Consequently, I’m watching it in a much more routinized way than I have in the past.

In addition to relaxing, watching the Olympics has been particularly fun this year for a few reasons. First, I’m watching different sports than I usually do. In the past, I pretty much only watched figure skating. The women’s and men’s competitions have always been fun to watch, since I would be fairly familiar with the major competitors, since figure skating is on television throughout the winter. I’ve especially enjoyed watching the men skate, since many of them seem so gay (whether they really are or not).

But this year I didn’t watch the men’s competition, except for a few minutes of one or two skaters who had no chance to medal. In many ways, this year’s competition seems like a repeat of years past with the same skaters vying for medals. More significantly, I think, I’ve simply lost interest in the sport. So many articles have come along lately about trying to butch the men up and about the way in which Johnny Weir has been penalized for his flamboyance. For a sport that revels in gay clichés, it seems a shame that it’s so homophobic. I’ve also been reading about how the sport is dominated by anti-gay evangelicals, which, whether true or not, just seems to reinforce the image of a self-loathing sport. Are these guys actually ashamed to be figure skaters? Ashamed of artistry and performance? It just seems sad.

So, I’ve been watching other sports instead. Of course, as a gay man what gets me immediately interested in watching a new sport is seeing a hot athlete performing at his peak. So, I’ve noticed that the sports I’m watching all feature hot men. Consequently, I decided to organize the rest of this post around my five favorite men of the 2010 Olympics. Bode Miller gets all of the network attention, but these guys are the real reasons to watch the Winter games!

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Little Ashes: A Review Sunday, Feb 21 2010 

movies and queer culture thisgaudygildedstage 11:57 am

Last night PJ and I watched Little Ashes, which stars Robert Pattinson and Javier Beltrán as Salvador Dalí and Federico García Lorca, respectively. The movie follows these men’s relationship from the time they meet at university in Madrid to Lorca’s assassination by the Fascists during the Spanish Civil War. Here’s the trailer:

My response to this movie was rather mixed. On the one hand, I’ll admit up front that I didn’t know much about either Dalí or Lorca before seeing this movie. While my ignorance made the film difficult to follow at times, it also meant that I learned something about these men, which I liked. On the other hand, the movie did little to help someone ignorant like me, which made the film unnecessarily difficult to admire or enjoy. I liked it, but I thought that it could have been a much better film.

Let’s start with the positive. Beltran is especially good in the role of Lorca, and in many ways the film is really about him. He reminds me of a young Antonio Banderas or Javier Bardem. What he brings to the role of Lorca is a great combination of sensitivity and masculinity. I really liked his ability to avoid depicting Lorca’s homosexuality as effeminacy. Too often, gays are simply depicted as mincing would-be women. Beltran’s Lorca is just a poet who happens to like men in general and Dali in particular. He’s very good in this role, and I hope someone like Pedro Almodovar casts him in a big movie soon.

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Happy Valentine’s Day! Sunday, Feb 14 2010 

holidays and music and queer culture thisgaudygildedstage 1:01 pm

While, like many people I know, I’m hesitant to indulge the commercial interests of Valentine’s Day, I do think it’s nice to have at least one day a year on which to reflect on the love in my life. I’m eternally grateful for the love I share with PJ and for how much he loves me every day we’re together. We’ve been incredibly lucky. We were able to get academic jobs at the same institution without having to spend too many years apart. We have two great cats who bring us joy. And we share so many interests and experiences that enrich our lives together.

So, in celebration of Valentine’s Day I thought that I would take a few minutes and share five of my favorite love songs, all of which I dedicate to my dear and loving husband.

My absolute favorite love song is John Denver’s “Annie’s Song,” which I would love to have sung at our wedding if we were to ever get married:

It totally sums up how I feel about PJ. I love everything about my life, but what I want most is to give that life to him, to share it with him for as long as possible, since he’s what makes it complete and joyous.

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“Kiss Me Again” by Jessica Lea Mayfield Wednesday, Feb 10 2010 

music and song of the week thisgaudygildedstage 3:57 pm

Over the weekend, our electricity was knocked out by the snow storm. The first night our power was out it was actually kind of fun. After going out to dinner and seeing a movie, Young Victoria, we lit some candles, cuddled up in blankets, and listened to “Mountain Stage” on the radio. My feeling Saturday night was that spending a night without electricity and listening to the radio by candlelight with PJ was a perfectly delightful way to spend the evening.

When we turned on “Mountain Stage” we couldn’t quite place the voice of the woman who was singing. She sounded a but like a mix between Lucinda Williams and Kasey Chambers. At the end of her set, we learned that it was Jessica Lea Mayfield. Listening to her music with PJ by candlelight felt kind of perfect, so I decided to make her song “Kiss Me Again” my song of the week. Here’s a clip of her singing it live:

Once our power came back on, I looked her up on the internet and downloaded her CD, With Blasphemy So Heartfelt, from iTunes. I really like her music and hope she puts out a new album soon! She’s from Kent, Ohio, who started out singing with her family in a bluegrass group. Now she’s out on her own (her brother’s in her band), and she released her album in 2008.

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At first it was beautiful … Monday, Feb 8 2010 

cats and weather thisgaudygildedstage 9:43 pm

PJ and I spent most of the weekend without electricity. Our power went out on Saturday around 1 pm and didn’t come back on until this afternoon at 2.

At first the snow was kind of fun. I enjoy shoveling snow, so I shoveled the back deck and started taking pictures of the house. I even worked out with our Biggest Loser DVD.

The power went out just before we left to go to the women’s basketball game (and even though we lost, it was a fun game). So, we walked to campus in the snow and then walked home afterwards. On the way home, we passed one someone we knew who lives near us. His power was back on, so we happily kept walking only to find that our power was still out.

The walk to and from campus was beautiful. We had gotten about 8 inches of snow, and everything was covered in a gorgeous white blanket. And it wasn’t too cold.

While our water heater is gas-powered, and we therefore had hot water, our heating requires electricity and all of our kitchen appliances are electric. And, just as importantly, our garage door is electric. When the power goes off, there’s no way to get into the garage.

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Downtown Church by Patty Griffin: A Review Monday, Feb 1 2010 

music and song of the week thisgaudygildedstage 8:59 pm

Last Tuesday I ordered my copy of Patty Griffin’s new CD (and for once I actually bought the CD rather than downloading the album from iTunes) Downtown Church, which NPR describes as “the equivalent of a slow walk into a field of wildflowers — a journey in which you look up at a bluebird sky and take a deep breath with your eyes closed.” I really like much of Griffin’s other music, and PJ and I had seen her in concert here in Athens with Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, and Buddy Miller not too long ago (and, PJ reminds me, we also saw her as the opening act for Lucinda Williams back in the 1990s when we lived in Knoxville).

Even though I generally like her music, I’ve never bought it before. Usually PJ buys it and I just listen to it. But I started listening to it on NPR and thought it was worth getting. Besides, if I didn’t like it I could always give it to him.

It turns out that I love this album. It’s already in contention for my favorite album of the year. It’s definitely a breathe of fresh air. I also agree with NPR that she’s produced “an album that’s so mesmerizing, it’s difficult to believe Griffin isn’t a card-carrying member of The Downtown Presbyterian Church in Nashville.” (Griffin recorded the album there about a year ago.)

Only two of the songs on the album are original; the others are all gospel classics or traditional tunes in the public domain. Not surprisingly, it’s the two original songs that I love most, “Little Fire” and “Coming Home to Me.” After much internal debate, I’ve selected the latter as my song of the week:

I love that, while this song is written from a God-like perspective, it can easily be transferred to other situations as well. For example, when I listen to this song, what I hear is a song from one lover to another, a reminder that whatever is happening in his life he’s always coming home to me, to my arms, to my love. And vice versa. In that way, it’s an incredibly moving and beautiful song.

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HotM: Antonio Canova Sunday, Jan 31 2010 

art and museums and seventeenth- and eighteenth-century 'hotties' thisgaudygildedstage 3:51 pm

It’s been nearly a year since I had a hottie of the month, my tongue-in-cheek homage to men and women from the long eighteenth century. The lack of “hotties” has largely been due to the fact that I haven’t been teaching (or even researching) in the eighteenth century lately. Now that I’m a dean, I’m not teaching as much, on the one hand, and I don’t have much time for writing, on the other.

But I think it’s time to get back to my blogging roots. When I started this blog, it was mostly about my teaching and research. Over time it’s become more pop culture centered. While I’m still going to write about movies, music, and other random aspects of my life and opinions, I also want to write about eighteenth-century subjects. So, I’ve decided to revive the hottie of the month feature!

This month’s hottie is the eighteenth-century Italian sculptor Antonio Canova. While PJ and I were in Italy last summer, I fell in love with sculpture in a way that I had never been before. I was especially drawn to Bernini’s work at the Borghese Gallery. Canova also has a prominent work at the Borghese: a statue of Pauline Bonaparte:

As this image suggests, Canova’s ability to suggest drapery in this statue is amazing. It’s even better in person. The cushion she’s sitting on and the “fabric” on the side of the piece both make you feel like you could reach out and feel their softness.

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Nothing Really Matters, Love is All We Need Thursday, Jan 28 2010 

music and song of the week thisgaudygildedstage 10:38 am

This week’s song of the week is Madonna’s “Nothing Really Matters” from her 1998 album, Ray of Light. Here’s a clip of her singing it at the 1999 Grammy’s:

I’ve been looking for more than a song of the week since the beginning of the new year; I’ve also been looking for a theme for the year. Last year, my theme was “Here, Now, and Me,” which became a kind of mantra that helped me keep focused on what seemed most important: living in the now (rather than the past or future) and focusing on what it was I want out of life.

Since the new year is a time for resolutions and new commitments, I started looking for a theme that encapsulates what I’m thinking now. At first, I couldn’t find anything that felt right, but then I remembered Madonna’s song, which I’ve always liked. In fact, it’s one of my favorite songs from Ray of Light. I even bought the single when it came out.

So, I broke out the single and started listening to it in my car as I drove back and forth to work. The more I listened to it, the more it seemed to fit my mood and thoughts at this moment in several ways.

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Vampire Darcy’s Desire: A Review Monday, Jan 25 2010 

books thisgaudygildedstage 11:11 am

I’m a total nut for (some) rewrites of Jane Austen’s novels. As I’ve blogged about before, I love Susan Kaye’s rewrite of Persuasion from Captain Wentworth’s point of view and Pamela Aidan’s rewrite of Pride and Prejudice from Darcy’s point of view.

But I’m also a bit of a purist when it comes to my Austen rewrites. I’m not interested in rewriting the novels’ plots — no alternative endings. I’m also not a fan of the next generation type novels — Darcy and Elizabeth’s daughters, for example. And I’m definitely not a fan of time travel Austen novels — Elizabeth coming to the present or a contemporary woman traveling back into the novel.

While PJ and I were in New York last month, I looked around for an Austen rewrite to read — I especially like reading Austen and her emulators while I’m traveling; it makes me feel more comfortable or something. I stumbled across Regina Jeffers’ Vampire Darcy’s Desire. This book should have immediately fallen into the second category I described above, the this-is-an-abomination category, but I read a page or two while standing in the bookstore and was immediately impressed with Jeffers’ writing style. In fact, her prose quickly captured my interest and made me want to keep reading. Here’s how the first chapter opens (there’s a prologue before this that describes Darcy’s rescue of Georgiana from the vampire Wickham):

It took more than a day to explain it all to Georgiana. At first, she did not believe him, but the truth lay all around them. He explained what he knew of her acquaintance with Wickham–how she met the pretender one day in a village shop–how she saw him several times about the estate–how she thought him to be a friend of her brother’s. Slowly, with Darcy’s explanation, Georgiana realized Wickham offered her no future. (7)

I’m a firm believer in the idea that, if a novel doesn’t grab me pretty quickly in the opening page or two, it’s not going to appeal to me so I don’t read it. (This often has as much or more to do with my disposition at the time than the novel — a book that doesn’t appeal to me at one point in time might be perfectly fun to read 6 months later, for example.) What I liked about this opening paragraph is that it could have been a straight rewrite of Pride and Prejudice rather than the beginning of a vampire novel. It signals that Jeffers knows what she’s doing.

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The Biggest Loser: Boot Camp Sunday, Jan 24 2010 

health and working out thisgaudygildedstage 3:17 pm

Now that I’m an administrator, I’ve completely fallen off the work out wagon. I probably made it to the gym only three or four times in the last five months of 2009. And I’ve started seeing the consequences: my waist is slowly getting bigger. I know that I’ve reached a turning point: either start working out again or go back up a pants size.

I really don’t want to go up a pants size again, especially after working so hard to get back to my ideal size. Furthermore, I’ve had it in my mind for the last year or two that I want to be in the best shape I’ve ever been in when I turn 40 this June. That’s not the path I’m on right now, so I know that I’ve got to make some lifestyle changes.

In particular, I knew that I needed to find something that I could do at home to workout. Some of my fellow deans were talking before a recent meeting about having a treadmill at home. I’m not prepared to go that far yet, but I do need to have some way of working out that doesn’t mean going to the gym at 8 or 9 PM.

So, when PJ and I were grocery shopping last Sunday, we saw a display of workout DVDs on sale. They are by the personal trainers from NBC’s The Biggest Loser. Since they were on sale and since I’d been saying I needed something to do at home, we bought two of them, including The Biggest Loser: Boot Camp. Here’s a sample:

I finally got around to trying it out on Thursday evening. I have to say that it’s a great workout, especially for someone who hasn’t been working out for a while. The beginner section, which lasts 30 minutes (5 minutes of warm-up, 20 minutes of workout, and 5 minutes of cool down), is really pretty hard. I could barely move on Friday!

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