The Man You Had in Mind: A Review Monday, Dec 14 2009 

documentary and movies and queer culture thisgaudygildedstage 6:58 pm

Last night, PJ and I watched a documentary called The Man You Had in Mind, which tells the stories of five gay couples from the Portland, OR, area who have been together for varying lengths of time: one year, seven years, ten years, fifteen years, and fifty years. Here’s the only trailer I could find on YouTube:

I really like the idea of this documentary. There at least seem to be so few records of queer lives and relationships that any addition is more than welcome. And this documentary’s focus on what gay male relationships are like in the age of fighting for marriage equality is both interesting and timely.

In particular, I think the filmmakers have chosen their couples well. To some degree, I’m sure they were selected with some degree of randomness — whoever was willing to participate, for example. But the range of couples is really good. There is the range in the length of their relationships, for example. But there is also clearly a range in socio-economic backgrounds, in religious backgrounds, and in experiences. Some of these men have children from previous marriages; it’s interesting to see how they accommodate this into their same-sex relationships.

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Invictus: A Review Saturday, Dec 12 2009 

movies thisgaudygildedstage 10:56 pm

Tonight, PJ and I saw Invictus, Clint Eastwood‘s new film about Nelson Mandela. It stars Morgan Freeman as Mandela and Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar. The movie centers around Mandela’s use of the South African rugby team to unify his divided, post-Apartheid country. Here’s the trailer:

In sum, I’d say that I liked this movie but it probably isn’t in contention to be one of my favorite films of the year. I’ll start with what I like about it.

First and foremost, Damon is great in his role as the captain of the South African rugby team. I’m not very familiar with authentic South African accents, but Damon’s accent seemed believable to me. More importantly, it was consistent. It always drives me crazy when an actor’s dialogue comes and goes over the course of a movie (like Helen Hunt’s in As Good as It Gets).

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3-Day Weekend: A Review Friday, Dec 11 2009 

movies and queer culture thisgaudygildedstage 10:21 pm

Tonight I watched 3-Day Weekend again. I saw it for the first time several months ago but didn’t blog about it for some reason — probably too busy. I recently bought a copy, and tonight I finally got around to watching it again.

It’s about two gay couples, one of which owns a cabin (though it’s misleading to call it a “cabin” — it’s more a vacation home) in the country. Each man invites one single friend to join the two couples for a long weekend there. As one couple comes together over the weekend, another one falls apart. Here’s the trailer:

Douglas Myers plays Jason, the owner of the cabin. He and Simon, played by Derek Meeker, have been together for several years. We learn very early in the film that they are having trouble, since we know that Simon has invited the escort he’s been sleeping, Andre, played by Daniel Rhyder, with as his single friend for the weekend. Jason, on the other hand, invites a semi-closeted  coworker.

Derek Long and Stephen Twardokus play Cooper and Ace, the other couple. They’ve only been together for a year and are in an age-disparate relationship: Cooper is much older than Ace, who is only in his mid-twenties. Cooper invites his yoga instructor and Ace invites a college friend along for the weekend.

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SotW: Time after Time by Margaret Whiting Wednesday, Dec 9 2009 

music thisgaudygildedstage 7:54 pm

Last night, PJ and I watched Julie and Julia again (this time on DVD). I love the movie — Meryl Streep is amazing!

This time, I was struck by the song that plays over the closing credits. So, I checked it out. It’s Margaret Whiting‘s “Time after Time”:

Whiting first came to my attention when I saw a documentary about Jack Wrangler. Wrangler had been a famous gay porn star in the 1970s and had branched out into straight porn before meeting Whiting. Despite his sexual orientation, if that’s even the right way to put it, he and Whiting married and by all accounts remained happily together until his recent death.

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Cat Tuesday: The Mean Kitty Tuesday, Dec 8 2009 

cats thisgaudygildedstage 6:57 pm

My favorite YouTube channel is The Mean Kitty, which is devoted to videos of a young couple’s two cats, Sparta and Loki. Here’s a sample:

As this video suggests, the entire channel is pretty much just these two cats being cats. I’ll admit that I find almost all cat videos irresistible. The only exceptions are the ones where the people force their cats to play pianos or something. Cats being cats is fun enough — we don’t need interference from people!

Here’s another typical video from The Mean Kitty:

I’ll post my other two favorite Mean Kitty vids after the break …

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SotW: Finally by Adam Joseph Thursday, Dec 3 2009 

music and queer culture thisgaudygildedstage 9:45 pm

My song of the week is Adam Joseph’s cover of “Finally,” which was originally sung by CeCe Penniston. It’s a classic song for drag queens and gay bars, so it’s a natural choice for Joseph to cover it. More importantly, it’s a beautiful ode to marriage equality.

The video features Lars Stephan, who is the guy getting out of bed at the beginning of the video. He’s also a photographer. I’ve followed his flickr photostream for a long time now. He primarily focuses on one subject: himself. While this might sound narcissistic, I don’t think it is. On the one hand, Stephan is gorgeous. If anyone should be the subject of photography, he should. On the other hand, I think his art is more an exploration of identify and the ways in which the physicality of the body and of location affect identity. (Warning: Some of his work is nude, so the links to his flickr page and blog aren’t entirely safe for work.) Stephan also has a blog, which is fun to read.

Adam Joseph’s rendition of “Finally” has really grown on me. At first, it seemed too different from the original, which is such a dance hit. But the more I’ve listened to it, the more I’ve fallen in love with it. By the way, his single “Faggoty Attention” is one of the greatest gay songs ever! I’m glad he’s gone another one — I hope this presages a new album soon!

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Visiting San Antonio’s Missions Sunday, Nov 29 2009 

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PJ and I spent the first part of our Thanksgiving break with my family in San Antonio. We did the same thing two years ago. (This time we stayed with my sister, since her in-laws weren’t there.) On Wednesday, we paid a second visit to some of San Antonio’s missions, most of which date back to the eighteenth century, which is my period of study.

Last time, we visited Mission Nuestra Senora de la Purisima Concepcion de Acuna, the Alamo, and Mission San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo. This time, we started with a return visit to Mission San Jose and then visited two new ones: Mission San Juan Capistrano and Mission San Francisco de la Espada. Again, the weather was great, and we had a wonderful time visiting the missions.

Partly, I like the history of these buildings and their compounds. I also like that these missions continue to serve as parish churches. And finally, I love the architecture of the missions. The angles, ruins, and shadows are beautiful to see and photograph. I just wish I were a better photographer.

Despite my limitations as a photographer, I figured I would mostly just sample the pictures I took and then maybe write a little about what I liked about some of their subjects.

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SotW: Whataya Want from Me by Adam Lambert Wednesday, Nov 25 2009 

music and queer culture thisgaudygildedstage 7:51 pm

All the “controversy” about Adam Lambert’s performance on the American Music Awards is really just homophobic silliness. All if want to say about it is that ABC (once again) should be ashamed of itself. When they canceled Lambert’s performance because of his “unpredictability” and scheduled Chris Brown of all people, they made it clear that they are more than happy to further our country’s homophobia and misogyny, which Eve Kosofsy Sedgwick taught us go hand in hand. It’s surprising that a network other than Fox can be the villain in a story about queerness, sexuality, and artistic expression, but ABC continues to claim that mantle every chance they get. Shame on them.

End of rant.

On the flip side, Adam Lambert is an extremely talented musician who has a long career ahead of him. Any doubts about this should be laid to rest with the following live clip from CBS’s The Early Show:

I’m not such a fan that I can’t entertain some of the criticisms about Lambert’s performances from time to time — and let’s face it: the real controversy about the AMA performance should have been that it just wasn’t very good vocally. I also sometimes find myself agreeing with critics who say that he tends to scream a little too much.

But this clip shows just how talented he really is. He can be a great singer; he definitely has a great voice. And it’s a pretty good song (co-written by Pink!).

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Make the Yuletide Gay: A Review Saturday, Nov 21 2009 

movies and queer culture thisgaudygildedstage 11:34 am

Last night PJ and I watched Make the Yuletide Gay, which is about a 22-year-old college student, Olaf “Gunn” Gunnunderson, who goes home for Christmas to visit his parents, who don’t know that he’s gay. When his boyfriend,  Nathan, shows up unexpectedly, comic mayhem ensues. Here’s the trailer:

After watching the movie, I read some other reviews online. The most accurate summary would be that Make the Yuletide Gay got mixed reviews. On the one hand, some people criticize it for being over the top, badly written, and cheaply produced. On the other hand, positive reviews praise its humor, good intentions, and leading performances. I can’t totally disagree with the former, but I nevertheless loved this movie. I think it’s a fun, adorable, heart-warming Christmas movie, and it’s about time we gays got a fun, adorable, heart-warming Christmas movie!

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SotW: Rave On by M Ward Wednesday, Nov 18 2009 

music and song of the week thisgaudygildedstage 9:52 pm

This week’s song of the week is M. Ward’s “Rave On.” It’s one of my favorite songs on his album, Hold Time. Here’s the video:

What I love most about this song is that it’s a sweet little love song. It was originally written in 1958 by Sonny West, Bill Tilghman, and Norman Petty. A number of artists have covered it since then, including Bruce Springsteen, Buddy Holly (with whom it seems to be most associated), the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and John Mellencamp. Ward’s version is my favorite; I like how he’s slowed it down a bit and stripped it down too.

Here’s a live version I found on YouTube:

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