cats and What I'm Watching 10:52 pm
I am officially in love with the Talking Kitty videos created by Steve Cash. In these videos, Sylvester the cat is kind of a dick to his owner, Steve, the dog, Shelby, and the other cat, Gibson.
Here’s my favorite of the videos, which all feature Sylvester’s potty mouth:
He had me at “Fuck ’em!” All of the videos are great and highly addictive!
music and song of the week 10:42 pm
Last week I bought Matt Alber’s new album, Constant Crows. I haven’t had a chance to really listen to it carefully yet, but so far I really like its quiet, acoustic sound. Alber is most known, at least in gay circles, for his wonderful “End of the World,” a beautiful, romantic love song that had a great, Mad Men type video. I’ve been waiting for his follow-up all year.
One of the highlights that immediately stand out is his cover of Madonna’s “Take a Bow.” Here’s a live version I found on YouTube:
I’ve uploaded the album to my iPod so that I can listen to it more. “The River,” “Velvet Goldmine,” and “Tightrope” also stand out as potential favorites. I hope he puts out a video or two too — “End of the World” demonstrates that he has the video aesthetic to be a great video artist.
movies 10:40 pm
Last night, PJ and I watched The Devil’s Double, which tells the story of Latif Yahia, who was forced to become the body double for Uday Hussein, Sadam Hussein’s psychotic son. Based on a true story, The Devil’s Double stars Dominic Cooper as both Latif and Uday in a memorizing performance that makes this movie a must-see. Here’s the trailer:
Cooper is amazing in this role. In the past, I’ve mostly thought of him as a sexy actor. In such movies as Momma Mia!, An Education, The Duchess, and The History Boys, he stands out as a handsome, attractive man rather than as an accomplished actor. The Devil’s Double certainly makes the most of his physical attractiveness. Early in the movie, for example, we see him in various states of undress, such as with his shirt unbuttoned:
In a speedo:
museums and song of the week 7:17 pm
Unlike PJ, I’m not a big She and Him fan. I love M. Ward, but Zooey Deschanel is a little too much for me. So, I was surprised when I heard a bit of their new Christmas album and immediately loved it. I ordered a copy of the CD ostensibly for PJ, but I probably love it even more than he does.
I love the album’s quiet simplicity, which really works on a song like “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” the old Judy Garland classic:
The album also features “The Christmas Waltz,” “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” and “Blue Christmas,” all of which are great! I highly recommend it.
movies 6:40 pm
Miranda July‘s You and Me and Everyone We Know is one of my favorite movies, so PJ and I were looking forward to seeing her new movie, The Future, which is about a 30-something couple, played by July and Hamish Linklater, who lead rather aimless lives until they decide to adopt a cat, Paw-Paw, who happens to be severely ill and who they think will only live a short time. In essence, they’re going to adopt it just so it can have a home to die in.
When they go to pick up the cat, they learn that they will have to wait 30 days before it can come home with them and that it might live for a few years if they nurse it properly. This isn’t at all what they had planned for, and it throws their lives into disarray. Jason, played by Linklater, quits his job as a computer tech guy and volunteers to help save the environment, and Sophie, played by July, quits her job as a children’s dance teacher and starts an affair with an older man with a young daughter. As their relationship falls apart, Paw-Paw, who also narrates the film, waits in the shelter hoping they will come to rescue him/her.
Here’s the trailer:
I won’t give away any more of the plot than that, but I have to say that this is one of the most affecting movies I’ve seen in a long time. Just thinking about it recalls the emotions I felt while watching it. I’m not sure I understand it, and I’m not even sure I enjoyed it, but I nevertheless think it is an interesting, smart, complex, and powerful movie that has stayed with me.
PJ and I recently saw the new Muppets movie starring Jason Segel, Amy Adams, and the Muppets. Here’s the trailer:
The plot of the movie is pretty simple: it’s been years since the Muppets were hot, so they have each gone their separate ways to have careers of their own. Some are barely making it — like Fozzie Bear, who stars in a knock-off group, The Moopets — while others are wildly successful in their new careers — like Gonzo, who runs a plumber supply shop. When Walter, a new character, and his fellow Muppet fans Gary and Mary (Segel and Adams) arrive in Hollywood to tour the Muppet Studios only to discover that evil oil baron Chris Cooper is planning to demolish the Muppet Theater and drill for oil, they reunite the Muppets for a big televised benefit to safe the theater.
Overall, The Muppets is fun and enjoyable. I thought the early plot points took a little too long to unfold — I would have liked more of the telethon scenes — but the songs are good, and it’s simply fun to see the Muppets on-screen again. I wish they would return to TV. Disney should restart The Muppet Show! People my age would love it!
PJ and I visited the Columbus Museum of Art this past Friday. I was in Columbus for a meeting, and PJ come along to do a little site seeing and shopping. We both wanted to see the new Caravaggio exhibit, so I met him at the museum as soon as my meeting was over.
We’ve visited the CMA before. It’s a little larger than I remember it being, and it has an excellent collection of modern art. The Sirak Collection, which contains “78 works by masters such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste-Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Paul Klee, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Chaim Soutine, and Henri Matisse among others,” is especially good.
I was also fascinated by a new work on display, Gregory Scott’s Structure, 2011. Here’s a video I found of it:
It’s especially interesting in person — even once I knew what was happening, I was constantly surprised by the changing images. It repeatedly tricks you into thinking you know what you’re seeing only to change it in surprising ways. I loved it.
music and song of the week 8:08 pm
I am now officially obsessed with Florence + the Machine. I started listening to their new album, Ceremonials, on iTunes the other day and then I purchased it. It’s definitely a great album. So far, my favorite track if “What the Water Gave Me“:
I love the video for this song too. I’m fascinated by how different Florence Welch looks from different angles and in different clothes. Sometimes she looks like a teenager; sometimes she looks like a middle-aged Joan Crawford. She’s actually 25. I love the way she plays with her image in this way — sometimes seeming to be an innocent girl and sometimes being an amazonian woman. Her visual sense is even more impressive to me than Lady Gaga’s (who I also love).
While “What the Water Gave Me” is my favorite track, I also love several others: “Only if for a Night,” “Shake It Out,” and “Spectrum.”
Here’s the video for “Shake It Out”:
And here is a live performance of the song on The X Factor, just to show her visual aesthetic:
movies and queer culture 6:57 pm
Last night PJ and I went to see Weekend, a new gay independent film about two men, Russell and Glen, who meet on a one-night stand and end up spending a weekend together. Here’s the trailer:
This movie has gotten great reviews, and we assumed we would have to wait until our trip to New York next month to see it, so we were really excited when our local art theater, The Athena, announced that it was showing here. It’s not a perfect movie, but I really enjoyed it — it’s far and away better than the average gay independent movie!
Tom Cullen plays Russell, a not quite fully out gay man in search of connection after spending the evening drinking and smoking pot with his best straight friends. Chris New plays Glen, an artist who politicizes his gayness by talking loudly about gay S&M while hanging out in straight bars and then arguing with the other patrons about it, for example.
As the two men spend the weekend talking, arguing, fucking, and partying, they begin to open up to one another as they’ve never opened up to anyone before. The most appealing aspect of the film is the emotional honesty that these characters have. You feel like you’re eavesdropping on real conversations. For example, Glen and Russell talk about their coming out stories. Both of their stories feel real and honest. These moments seem incredibly wise and insightful but not out of character — Glen and Russell are never wiser than men like them would be. I tend to like talky pictures; that’s definitely what I like best about Weekend.
art and books and queer culture 5:04 pm
After reading Hide/Seek, I became interested in illustrator J. C. (Joseph Christian) Leyendecker, so I looked around for a good book to read about him. Eventually, I settled on J.C. Leyendecker (2008) by Laurence S. Cutler, Judy Goffman Cutler, and the National Museum of American Illustration. This book is a wonderful collection of Leyendecker’s illustrations accompanied by excellent essays about the Golden Age of American Illustration, Leyendecker’s life, and Leyendecker’s distinctive work. I enjoyed reading (and looking at) it!
Leyendecker’s importance in the history of early twentieth-century American illustration can’t be overstated. He produced over 300 covers for The Saturday Evening Post and was one of, if not the, most popular advertising illustrators of the 1920s and 30s. His images became iconographic representations of sophisticated, urban American chic.
Leyendecker was also gay, and his illustrations often incorporate homoerotic imagery. I find the way this book discusses this element of his art to be very interesting:
Knowing that revealing his secret would threaten his popularity and success, Joe never came out of the closet…. He also attempted to conceal his sexual orientation in his work, which was often characterized by heterosexual female adoration for handsome males depicted in overtly erotic poses. Yet, ironically, he was the most manifest homosexual artist of the early twentieth century–a virtual hero–as his work clearly demonstrates to today’s enlightened audience.
To create such delicious illustrations, he smoothed oils on models’ muscles, enhancing the light reflecting on male surfaces he admired most: one model said that Joe always painted him in a darkened studio, with only candlelight highlighting the erotic qualities of his gleaming form. The gay subculture saw the irony in his work and appreciated the erotic images he lavished upon the world.
These homoerotic images appealed to heterosexual viewers as well, however. In a subtle subversion of heterosexual mores, unattractive men turned to them in their quest to be more appealing through the products being advertised. Sportsmen never saw the football players’ images as anything but manly, for they reveled in the enthusiasm created among the fans. College men, particularly Ivy Leaguers and prep school chums, were proud that their alma maters were highlighted. And most of all, women were drawn to Joe’s images, dreaming of intimacies with men who possessed “The Leyendecker Look.”
While Leyendecker was not publicly out, he did have a partner, Charles A. Beach (1886-1952), whose image is sometimes featured in Leyendecker’s work, as in this illustration, which is included in the Hide/Seek exhibit:
Beach is on the left. Beach is also the model featured in the book’s cover illustration.
![IMG_8341[1]](https://live.staticflickr.com/8644/27753735444_2ca20d29d0_s.jpg "IMG_8341[1]")
This Gaudy Gilded Stage 