What I’m Watching: Torchwood, Dr. Who, & Bob and Rose Saturday, Sep 15 2007 

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Torchwood premiered on BBC America last Saturday. Here’s the trailer:

PJ and I first were interesting in seeing Torchwood because it stars John Barrowman and because we had heard that his character is bisexual. There are so few American television shows that have interesting depictions of sexuality that we definitely wanted to see how far Torchwood would go.

John BarrowmanWe also wanted to see it because Barrowman is gay. I first saw him when he starred in Central Park West, a fun primetime soap that aired in 1995. While his character in CPW was straight, he seemed so gay that we were interested in following his career even before he came out.

We didn’t actually see any of his movies, mind you, but we’ve kept an eye out for what he’s been in. I did buy his album, John Barrowman Swings Cole Porter, but apparently I’m not that kind of gay, since I didn’t really care for it. Don’t get me wrong — he’s very good at what he does, but I’m not really into Cole Porter.

But back to Torchwood. While I first tuned in for its depiction of sexuality, I’ve already gotten hooked on its geeky sci-fi plots, gadgets, and action. It’s quick paced and action packed. And in just two episodes it’s managed to create characters that I can get into and “care about.” I also really like that it seems to assume non-heterosexuality as the default sexuality for all of its characters. The first episode had one of the male characters go ahead with a seduction of a man and woman when the woman’s boyfriend unexpectedly show up, and the second episode had a female character snogging another woman when she gets caught up in alien pheromones.

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U.S. Open Round-Up Sunday, Sep 9 2007 

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Roger FedererThe last Grand Slam tournament of the year is over, and it’s left me feeling a little down. For me, the men’s final each year is the true marker that we’ve really entered the fall, that the quarter has started, and that the end of the year is just around the corner. I’m definitely sad that it’s over — I’ve spent way too much time in the past two weeks watching it. Now I’ll actually have to get to work!

One didn’t need much expertise to predict that Federer was going to win again. His 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 win over Djokovic wasn’t surprising, especially considering the fact that this was Djokovic’s first big final. When it came to the big points — five of them in the first set alone — he choked. So many of the players do in their first match of this magnitude.

What was kind of surprising is that Federer didn’t actually play all that well. Djokovic really should have been up two sets to love, and it seemed to me that, while Federer kept his cool and won the key points, it was really a case of Djokovic tightening up and letting Federer have them. I felt the same way at the end of the Wimbledon final — Nadal should have won that match, but didn’t take advantage of his lead in that last set.

What this says to me is that Federer’s reign is almost over. If he wins three of the Grand Slam tournaments next year, I think it will either be a miracle or, more likely, a disappointment. It’s been great for the game to have Federer at the top. He’s a great ambassador for the sport and really seems like a nice guy. (And he’s got the best hair ever!) But tennis is getting really boring. Why watch the big tournaments if we all know that Federer’s going to win them all? Why watch just to see the up and coming players give it all away each time they get ahead?

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Visiting the Musee d’Orsay Saturday, Sep 8 2007 

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While we were in Paris two months ago — was it already two months ago?! — PJ, James, and I visited the Musee d’Orsay, which is now one of my favorite museums. The museum is housed in a renovated train station, a fabulously renovated train station, that is. I tried to get a good picture of the inside of the museum, but I was still learning how to use my camera. Here’s the best one I took:

Musee d'Orsay

Besides this main area, there are two floors of rooms off of this main hall and an additional floor that doesn’t branch off of this main area. Architecturally, it’s a magnificent space for art. It really succeeds in a way that I think the Tate Modern, another great museum, doesn’t.

There are too many works here that I loved to write about them all, so I’ll just have to hit the highlights. One of my favorites is Jason et Médée by Gustave Moreau:

Jason et medee

I love everything about this painting. First, I love the golden colors of the painting, mimicking the golden fleece. Second, I love that Jason and Medea’s nudity evokes (to me, at least) Adam and Eve. I love the youthful masculinity of Jason’s body in this work. He’s young, but he’s a man. And finally, I really, really love that his nudity is covered by a scarf tied to evoke genitalia. It’s suffused with youthful energy and eroticism. I love it!

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Walk on Water: A Review Tuesday, Sep 4 2007 

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Last night I watched Eytan Fox‘s 2004 film Walk on Water. Here’s the trailer:

I have to admit that I really disliked Fox’s previous film, Yossi & Jagger, from 2002. That film was disappointing in so many ways, but I especially didn’t like the way it ended. I wasn’t in the mood for a film about missed opportunity in the Israeli army.

Because I disliked Yossi & Jagger, I almost didn’t watch Walk on Water. The U.S. Open is happening right now, and so I was going to watch that instead. But there was a lull between matches, so I thought I’d give the movie a chance when PJ started watching. I’m glad I did, because I really liked it.

Walk on Water is kind of the gay version of Munich. It stars Lior Ashkenazi as Eyal, an agent in the Mossad. As we see in the movie’s opening scene, he is very effective in his job, eliminating Palestinian agents. His career is thrown for a loop, however, when his wife commits suicide while he’s on assignment in Istanbul. When he refuses to seek therapy afterwards, the government deems him unfit for continued assignments.

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Hottie of the Month: Jane Austen Friday, Aug 31 2007 

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Jane AustenAugust has clearly been Jane Austen month for me. First, I read Pamela Aidan’s Darcy trilogy. Then I taught my favorite Austen novel in my Woman & Literature class, Persuasion. I also read Susan Kaye’s None But You, a rewriting of Persuasion from Captain Wentworth’s point of view. (I’ll blog about that novel in the next few days.) And finally, I saw Becoming Jane. I’m not sure I could get more Austen into one month!

I’ve always loved Persuasion. I can’t now remember when I first read it, but I assume it must have been in college. Whenever it was, I immediately identified with Anne Elliott. I’m not entirely sure why — I clearly wasn’t an aging woman still in love with the man who proposed to me seven years before! But something about her seemed to sum up my feelings as a young gay man too scared to fully come out yet. I’ve taught the novel twice since coming to OU. The first time was in a survey of eighteenth-century lit. I don’t think most of the students cared much for it. More of my students this summer seemed to like it, especially compared to Ann Radcliffe’s The Italian, which not a novel I’m likely to teach again anytime soon.

My earliest memory of being aware of Austen was seeing the 1940 film version of Pride and Prejudice starring Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson. My parents like old black and white movies, so we watched this one from time to time. I loved it. Here’s a good clip:

Then I actually read the book. I had no idea that Elizabeth visited Pemberley! Last summer, I had my students read the novel and then watch both the 1940 version and the 2005 film. They then wrote a paper on which version they think best captured the essence of the novel. I have to say that, despite its obvious problems, I love the romanticism of the 2005 film, as in this clip:

It’s beautiful to watch, and I’ve gotten used to the dreadful ending. (Like most people, I think that the 1995 miniseries version of Pride and Prejudice is by far the best adaptation. Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle are perfect as Darcy and Elizabeth.)

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What I’m Listening To: Grace Jones Wednesday, Aug 29 2007 

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It all started with seeing La Vie en Rose last month. Afterwards, I was looking on YouTube for a clip of Edith Piaf singing the song from which the movie takes its title. I found it, but I also stumbled across this clip:

This clip is from Grace Jones’s “A One Man Show” from 1982. I think her version of this classic song is genius, and now I’m obsessed with her music. She’s clearly a brilliant performance artist.

I only barely remember Grace Jones from the early ’80s. She started as a vocalist in the late ’70s and then moved on to modeling and movies (campy pics like Conan the Destroyer, Vamp, and the James Bond film, A View to a Kill). She is, of course, known for her androgyny. Hers was an incredibly influential look, and I read that her severe haircut influenced men’s haircuts throughout the ’80s. Here’s what the Christian Science Monitor says about her:

Grace Jones took the disco world by storm with her predatory poses, flashy style, and androgenous looks. Her music mixed punk energy with reggae rhythm.

Ms. Jones was born in Spanishtown, Jamaica, in 1952, but moved to Syracuse, N.Y., at age 12. She became a top model in her early 20s. In 1977, her debut single, “I need a man,” became a disco classic. Several successful albums followed.

After disco’s demise, Jones became a pop star and a poster girl for the ’80s nightclub scene. “Slave to the Rhythm” (1985) was her most enduring album. She also pursued performance art and starred in films, including “A View to a Kill” (1985) and “Conan the Destroyer” (1984).

I’ve been listening to a collection of her early hits for the past week or so. So far, my favorite tracks, besides “La Vie en Rose” are “Libertango,” “Pull Up to the Bumper,” “Breakdown,” and “My Jamaican Guy.”

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Becoming Jane: A Review Tuesday, Aug 28 2007 

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This past weekend I saw Julian Jarrold‘s Becoming Jane, a fictionalized retelling of Jane Austen’s becoming a novelist. Here’s the trailer:

The movie stars Anne Hathaway as Austen and James McAvoy as the penniless man she falls in love with but, due to his penury, cannot marry. McAvoy’s Tom LeFroy is dependent on his uncle for an allowance. When his uncle demands that he marry well, LeFroy’s hope of marrying his true love, whom he’s recently met after being banished by said uncle to the deep countryside in punishment for his libertine activities in London, becomes impossible.

Meanwhile, every man in the country seems to fall in love with Jane, including the heir to Lady Gresham’s estate, Mr. Wisley, played by Laurence Fox. Lady Gresham is played by the incomparable Maggie Smith. Poor Jane must decide which beau to marry: the penniless LeFroy, the heir, or one of her other suitors.

The film also shows us Austen’s home life. Her impoverished parents, played by James Cromwell and Julie Walters, debate the roles of love and money in marriage while trying to make sure that their daughter marries as happily as possible. Her sister, Cassandra, played by Anna Maxwell Martin, is happily engaged to her fiance, who must make one last voyage abroad before he’s able to marry her. And the Austens’ cousin, Eliza De Feuillide, played by Lucy Cohu, a widowed emigrant from Revolutionary France, has the money to marry the man of her choice, which turns out to be the Austen’s younger son, Henry, played by the very handsome Joe Anderson.

I have to admit that I didn’t care much for this film. Julian Jarrold also directed Kinky Boots, a movie that I really enjoyed. So, I’m disappointed that I disliked this movie so much. But in this case, I think his direction was rather pedestrian. I didn’t feel like I was seeing anything new or even terribly interesting in this movie. The film that kept coming to mind as a comparison was Pride and Prejudice (2005) directed by Joe Wright. I especially liked Wright’s direction of that movie. A scene that stands out is when Elizabeth and Darcy are dancing together and all of the other dancers disappear, reflecting the couple’s amorous focus on one another. This movie could have used a little more of that romance.

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Rufus Wainwright Friday, Aug 24 2007 

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Last night, PJ and I went to Rufus Wainwright’s concert at the Lifestyle Communities Pavilion in Columbus. We’d been to this venue once before to see Natalie Merchant. In general, I think it’s a good place to see smaller bands — it’s not too big, you can get pretty close to the stage, and they serve beer and other drinks. This time, we sat in section A row J.

As you can see, that means we were fairly close to the stage. It’s an outdoor venue, so the problem this time was the weather: it was so hot. Add the heat to the fact that the seats are relatively small and bound together and you get a very uncomfortable concert. I had the added difficulty of having to share about a third of my seat with the guy next to me, who took up more room than his own seat provided. Even after sunset, it was terribly hot.

But the concert itself was great. There were two opening acts. The first was A Fine Frenzy, which is the stage name used by Alison Sudol. Here’s a sample of her music:

Her set was pretty short and took place in the blazing sun. But especially considering the heat, she did a great job getting the crowd ready for the subsequent acts. (PJ and I also really liked her drummer, who impressively played percussion and a guitar on one song!)

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Boy Culture: A Review Tuesday, Aug 21 2007 

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PJ and I just finished watching Boy Culture, a movie about “X,” a gay prostitute in love with one of his roommates. Here’s the trailer:

The movie stars Derek Magyar as X. X is very successful in his work. He’s twenty-five, ruggedly handsome, and very good at his job. While he limits the number of his clientele to just twelve men, they pay him well. For tax purposes, he has taken on two roommates. The youngest is Joey, played by Jonathon Trent, an eighteen-year-old partier who, though he takes full advantage of his youthful attractiveness, still can’t seduce the man he wants most, X.

Andrew, played by Darryl Stephens, is the other roommate. As X relates early in the film, the movie is really all about Andrew. X is in love with him but is too afraid of rejection to fully open himself to the possibility of love. Hence, the plot of the film: Will X and Andrew overcome their differences and get together or will their respective issues stand in their way?

Boy Culture is based on a novel of the same name by Matthew Rettenmund. I read the novel last year and really liked it. In fact, I had thought seriously about teaching it in my Lesbian & Gay Literature class this past time (but ended up teaching Hard by Wayne Hoffman instead).

What I like most about the novel, however, is what’s missing from the movie. Rettenmund’s book avoids sentimentality even while telling a love story. It also contains quite a bit of sex, much of it somewhat graphically related. The movie, however, revels in sentimentality — surprisingly so for a film about a hustler. It also pretty much avoids sex — except for a comic montage of X’s clients, a little shirtlessness every now and then, and lots of talk about sex, the movie is down right staid compared to something like Queer as Folk (British or American version) or Dante’s Cove.

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Superbad: A Review Friday, Aug 17 2007 

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I just got back from seeing Superbad, starring Jonah Hill and Michael Cera. It is by far the funniest movie I’ve seen this year. Here’s the trailer:

The movie is directed by Greg Mottola and was written by Seth Rogen, who also appears in the film, and Evan Goldberg. As a lot of the advance press has noted, Rogen and Goldberg started writing the screenplay when they were 14. Rogen is perhaps most famous right now for starring in Knocked Up.

Superbad is very much a genre picture — three high school friends about to graduate conclude that the last party before summer is their perfect shot at losing their virginities and gaining sexual experience before going off to college. But it takes the genre in a whole new direction by easily being the most hilarious high-school-buddies-losing-their-virginities-movie ever made.

Hill, who had small roles in Knocked Up and The 40 Year Old Virgin, among other films, and Cera, who shined as George-Michael Bluth in “Arrested Development,” are great as the film’s two leading buddies. Hill is wonderful as the blundering idiot with a heart of gold, and Cera has the part of the awkward good guy who doesn’t just want sex with the girl of his dreams down pat — he wants to respect her too. But the film really belongs to Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who plays the nerdy pal who is getting a fake ID just in time to buy alcohol for the party. When the three guys show up at the liquor store, a wild ride ensues as they get separated, come back together, and get separated again. One gets befriended by the cops who should be arresting him; one ends up with menstrual blood on his pants after dirty dancing with a woman at a party; and one learns that he can run like the wind.

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