I Read It And Tweeted It

Thursday, March 18, 2010

I have a new favorite religious nut-job/hobo. Every morning at the Jefferson Park Blue Line stop here in Chicago, there is a gentleman holding a sign the fervently proclaims that Saturday is, in fact, the Sabbath, not Sunday as is commonly observed. He claims this was so decreed by Jesus himself, so therefore anyone "celebrating" the Sabbath on Sunday is obviously a sinner of immeasurable proportion. But that's not what makes him my new favorite. What clenched that honored title is this: when you walk by him, he yells at you to "Read it, then Tweet it." Awesome.

This tells me a few things. Most importantly, it tells me that Twitter is dead. Once the religious hobos are on board with the newest social media trend, it can only mean that the trend has reached critical mass and is about to implode upon itself. However, it also tells me that there is apparently a Very Important Debate about when the Sabbath actually is, which is a debate I have been ignorant of until recently. I suppose that's due to my general contempt toward Christianity, but I would think at least Fox News would be running non-stop terror stories about how the Jews are out to kill all Christians (or something equally hilarious/sad) because they practice Sabbath on Saturday versus the Christian's obviously superior Sunday… but that hasn't happened, which is why I guess I didn't know about it.

It also tells me that Jeff Park is now the new Market of Religious Nutbaggery. At least in the mornings. Every morning, there are at least 5 religious douches handing out all sorts of flyers, pamphlets and propaganda, asking to talk to you about Jesus, and now screaming at you to Tweet about it. Which I did, natch.

I would say that I should find a new route to work, but frankly these zealots provide more entertainment in the mornings than I get all day at work, so I have to keep going that way. I never get these kind of Nuttishness anywhere else since I don't go through downtown anymore, and it's good to be reminded from time-to-time that I live in a giant city that is big enough to produce absolutely insane religious freak bags. And that makes me happy.

Gaga And Beyonce Go Lesbian

Friday, March 12, 2010

I don't know what else to say about this video.  It's pure Win!  Gaga, Beyonce, and lesbians galore... oh, and wonder woman inspired costumes.  There is absolutely nothing that is not perfect in this video.

Watch it.  Now! 

I don't think I EVER expected Beyonce to do something like this, much less play a lesbian, if by innuendo only.  After Gaga's extremely gay-centric Some Me Your Teeth video, I'm not too surprised to see her bust out something lesbianesque, but Beyonce doing it just seems.... well, perfect!

Lesbians.  Jail.  Cabaret-inspired outfits.  "Sunglasses" made of smoking cigarettes.  Beyonce committing mass homicide.  A big-ass truck named the "Pussy Wagon."  If that's not enough to make you watch this 10-minute clip, you probably don't have  a soul anymore.

How To Gay It Up In Class, Sci-Fi Style

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Or SyFy style… however the kids are spelling it these days.

A few weeks ago, the fiancé and I sat down to start watching the new SyFy show Caprica, which is a spin off of Battlestar Galactica. Battlestar is quite possibly one of the best science fiction shows to have graced cable TV, a show which explored the depths of human nature, what it means to be human, and what it means to fight for survival. Caprica is a prequel to Battlestar and explores the society that created the Cylons to begin with, and looks to be the story of how the Cylons came to be and what leads to their eventual rebellion. (If that didn't make sense to you, you need to go get the complete series of Battlestar on Amazon and start watching today!)

Caprica has been getting a luke warm reception from the Battlestar fans and mainly because so far we're seeing much less "action" than we did in Battlestar. In Battlestar, we saw explosions and drama and fights, but so far in Caprica we've only seen character exploration, some drama, a tiddley bit of fighting and one explosion. But what can you expect from the first few episodes of a series? This is the exposition, the start of the tale, the part of the story that needs to be drawn out so that later pieces make sense. Regardless of the reception though, SyFy is remaining publicly committed to the show, noting that they never expected huge ratings right off the bat and that they knew going in that the series would take some time to grow. This is great news, not just for fans of great science fiction, but also for fans of well-rounded characters and gay-inclusive shows.

One of the main characters in the show, Sam Adama (pictured right), is tough, strong and a bit of a strong arm. Oh, he's also in the mafia. Well, Caprica's version of the mafia: a group of Taurons, or people from the colony of Tauron (in the Battlestar lore, there are 13 colonies one different planets each named after a Greek God/Constellation). He's the go-to guy it seems, the guy that actually does things like roughing people up or potentially killing mob targets. In short, he's a force to be reckoned with. And he's gay.

I was supremely impressed with how they "revealed" this character to be gay. With the way we are programmed in our society, we often just assume a character is straight until told otherwise, so there had to be some sort of "reveal," but the way they handled this on Caprica just blew me away. Basically, there was no reveal. There was no big moment or conversation or argument, it was simply presented in a way that helped characterize the character and society as a world where sexuality is completely a non-issue.

What was the reveal? Sam was walking through Little Tauron with young William Adama (who is the commanding General throughout Battlestar Gallactica), introducing him to the Tauron culture that Will's father (the smoking hot Esai Morales of NYPD Blue fame pictured right) had been depriving him of, and Sam told Will that he and Joseph (Will's father) use to come to a market there when they were younger and Sam would try to pick up guys while Joseph would walk away with girl's phone numbers. That was it. Just a casual reference to their lives as kids with not a single moment of shock or having "the talk." It was brilliant.

Since that episode, we've seen Sam with his husband a couple of times and Sam has made mention of his husband in a few conversations and not a single issue has arisen in the show as a result of it. And it's not because people are afraid to say something to the gangster, it's because it's simply not a characteristic that would cause problems.

TV producers should be taking notes at this point as this is how you handle gay characters, particularly in Sci-Fi. The occasional "gay as victim of our cruel society" is appropriate because that still happens these days, but portraying every gay character as someone that has to face insurmountable societal pressures is getting a bit old. Not to mention that when I watch fantasy television about a future society (or previous society, depending on your take of Battlestar lore), I like to think that society will have progressed beyond many of the issues we still face today and that sexuality will have become a non-issue. Sex, on the other hand, will likely always cause issues, but sexual identity should not.

Bravo, SyFy! Your rebranded name still sucks, but this show is a great success in my eyes, both for presenting gay characters in a fantastic manner and for being a overall captivating story.

Sad State Of My Guitar

Monday, March 1, 2010

This weekend I decided to string up my 12-sting and get to playing again. But, as luck would have it, fate was not particularly on my side and I busted my low E-string while trying to tune up the guitar… it has been so long that I forgot how to properly tune Wesley up (Wesley is the name of my guitar… that's a story for another time).

I'm really not sure what has kept me away from my guitar for so damn long. I love writing music, I love pouring over the creative process of it all and love exploring emotions in song that I may not be able to process in writing or through some other creative process. What I hate is trying to remember how to play some of my favorite songs that I wrote. Last time I picked up my guitar I tried to play one song in particular that I really like and simply could not remember it. I was beyond frustrated by that!

I don't think I can ever make a career at being a musician. I love music, and although music is truly a passion of mine, I just don't think I have the particular gumption to make it a real career. That does not mean, however, that I shouldn't pursue it for pleasure and fun. I want to record an album at some point as well, if for no other reason than for posterity and to say I did it.

But, that will all have to wait until I can make it to Guitar Center again and pick up a new set of strings. Well, another new set. When I get a few things set up, and when I get back in the swing of things, I'll be sure to post a few songs up here for y'all to check out. Just promise to not be mean!

Double Standard

Friday, February 26, 2010

I just need to put this out into the world, because I think this is a huge double standard. If a dog so much as bites someone, there will be public outcry to put the dog down. Said dog mist be unstable and unbalanced, so it does not have the right to live. If a dog killed someone, there would be no question or outcry, the dog would simply be euthanized. End of story.

Yet when a whale kills one person and is linked to two other human deaths, the common reaction is to say "meh"?

Listen, I'm not advocating that the whale be killed, but I'm not understanding why we would bother keeping the whale around and certainly not understanding why anyone would choose to work with the whale now. It either needs to be released to the wild where it's instincts will better serve it or taken away from human contact all together somehow.

For the record, I'm not sure I understand the killing of dogs that are aggressive. Most likely they need a new owner that will train them and treat them correctly. But a dog that shows his willingness to kill 3 times.... Well, let's just say that if your first reaction to that sentence is to put the dog down, then I would say why isn't that also your first reaction to the situation with this Sea World whale?

What's Wrong With Valentine's Day?

Monday, February 22, 2010

The fiancé picked on me the last week because he's gotten to the point when he knows exactly what will spark a blog entry from me. While I resisted that particular entry (but still have the itch to write it), I can't resist this entry simply because it bothered me so much. I got really agitated by the whole incident and it made me feel like despite any advances we've made as a gay community, there's still a loooooong way to go. So what bothered me so much?

We went to see Valentine's Day.

OK, the movie itself wasn't the problem. I didn't like the movie, he liked it, but frankly anytime Eric Dane walks around half naked it can't be all bad. No, the movie itself did not bother me, aside from its mostly predictable plot. What bothered me was the crowd's reaction to the movie.

Spoilers Ahead

I'll give you a fair warning now, if you haven't seen it and actually care to, STOP READING at this point. I will have some spoilers below… of course, that assumes a movie that is this much of a carbon copy of every other romantic dramedy has anything that can be spoiled.

One of the big spoilers of the flick is that near the end of the movie, it is suddenly revealed to the audience that Eric Dane's character (an "old" NFL quarterback that just came out of the closet… ooops, another spoiler) is actually dating Bradley Cooper's character (who, until that point, had absolutely no reason to be in the movie). This is revealed in a bit of an awkward scene in which Cooper walks into Dane's house to find Dane sleeping shirtless in a chair, walks up to him, brushes a few roses against Dane's cheek to wake him up then bends over and plays with Dane's hair. That's it. No kiss, no "I love you," not even a hug. Just a hand playing in some hair and some doey eyed looks, and since you find out earlier that Dane's character is gay and this is a romance, the audience is left to assume they are a couple.

Before I start in, I do have to give a small amount of credit to the studio and the actors. I honestly thought the scene was sweet and the actors looked like two boys in love. Two very hot boys in love. And this was a story that could easily have been cut from the movie, but the studio plugged ahead and left it in. /golfclap

What's Wrong With The Movie

With that out of the way, I'm beyond baffled as to why the studio decided to minimize this relationship with respect to all the other relationships in this film. All of the other relationships featured expressions of love beyond a cranial massage. Lovers kissed, danced, made love, chased each other down in airports (oh yes… yes, they did)… yet this relationship was merely a 2 minute (if that) clip that only went so far as a few gentle smiles. Is this all the studio can handle showing the public? Is that what they think of gay people? Are we now allowed to love, but not allowed to show it? In this post-Brokeback Mountain era where two A-list males were passionate with each other on screen, are we really so scared of gay romance that we have to reduce it to 1940's style innuendos?

What's Wrong With The Audience

But that wasn't even my biggest gripe with the move. Actually, yes that was. My biggest gripe is not even about the movie itself, it was with the audience. When the "big reveal" happened the audience erupted in snickers and giggles. And yes, even though there were only 30 other people in our showing, erupted is the correct term to use. I'm not the only one that experienced this either, some reviewers warned of this in their screenings as well. Again, in this post-Brokeback World, is this really still an issue to chuckle at? Is it really still funny to some people to see two gay men showing emotion to each other? And if so, can you pretty fucking please explain to me why it is so damned funny?

Taking a step back, I do admit the story was poorly told and that scene, while decently handled by the actors, was very poorly delivered by the director. Maybe it was the overall hokiness of the film getting to the audience? Maybe it was that by this time in the movie, they were just looking for something to laugh at? Or maybe they, like me, thought the movie was just not that great and needed some comic relief?

Or maybe the audience has just gotten used to Hollywood treating gay men as punch lines so they just assume this was a punch line too.

It's All Wrong In The End

Whatever the reasoning, it was very, very aggravating. If I had not already disliked this flick, that would have ruined it for me by itself. Nothing about that scene commanded the audiences respect, and the audience responded in the way they thought was most appropriate: Gays are funny. They should be laughed at and mocked. That is truly a sad state of affairs, on both parts of the equation.

To summarize: A) Don’t waste your time with Valentine's Day, B) Hollywood needs to start treating gay relationships with some fucking respect, and C) Immature straight people need to grow the fuck up and get the hell over their own issues. I had to bust down closet doors and continue to face daily struggles to be who I am, the last thing I need is some "frat-boy" dumbass chuckling it up at my expense in a subversive attempt at attacking my sexuality.

Escapism Is...

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Times can get rough real fast. Sometimes there's just nothing we can do about it except put on some good old comfort music and let our minds slip away for awhile.

I have a few bands and artists that fit that bill for me. Anything Stone Temple Pilots or Live always drifts my back to simpler times in high school, early Travis brings back the fun times of college, Soundgarden reminds me of close friends from years ago, Buckcherry reminds me of parties past, and Magnet brings back memories from when the fiancé and I first started dating. Depending on my particular mood on any given day and the memories I need to relax me, I can pull up these bands on my iPhone and slip away for a few minutes.

Music has always been my go to escape. Books and video games also work, but much less ubiquitous in every day life. I can sit at my desk at work with my headphones in and no one cares, but if I tried to boot up World of Warcraft during a "mental health" break, I'm thinking that I'd be summoned to the chambers of HR fairly quickly.

Blogging has become an escape for me as well because it's something else I can do while at work without my consequence. I've always needed a creative outlet for my energies and that use to be song-writing, but while that has taken a bit more of a back burner in recent years, I've turned more to the in-the-moment release that blogging can provide. If you've read my older posts, it should be pretty obvious that most of what I write is unchecked emotion. I've never been the type to write a post and revisit it over and over again, meticulously changing words and phrases, prior to hitting that little publish button. I write, spell check, do a quick once over and add any formatting at the same time, then hit publish.

So what's my point, you may be asking? We all have things that we do to help us deal with issues in tough times. If you're me and a little ADD, you have several things you do in tough times. Other than just stating that, there's no real point to this post other than to give some love to this near neglected blog that desperately needs a facelift.

Many More Details Ironed Out

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

A lot has happened on the wedding front in the past few weeks! We've nailed down where we are staying, when we are arriving and departing, found our Marriage Commissioner, and even found the location for the wedding. Normally I would have taken the time to write about these things as I went, but time has just not allowed for that. So instead, here's a synopsis of all the new developments:

Where We're Staying

We had been going back and forth about where in Vancouver we wanted to stay. On one hand, we thought a cute Bed and Breakfast outside the city would be nice. The upside of the B&B option is that it would be small and we could probably rent out the entire B&B for a weekend, but the downside is that finding lodging for anyone that couldn't stay at the B&B would be difficult and transporting people to and from would prove a challenge as well. On the other hand we could stay in a hotel in Vancouver proper and block off a set of rooms for our guests. The upside with the hotel would be having everyone centrally located and in the heart of the city, but we'd then be dealing with a Hotel and all their "coporateness" and employees that aren't always the best.

As luck would have it though, we stumbled upon a solution that combines the best of both worlds: The Nelson House B&B, located right in the heart of Vancouver! It's a gay-owned B&B, so there's no question that the place will be friendly to us on our wedding weekend, and it's a smaller, warmer atmosphere, which is what we wanted as well. Further, there are a ton of other hotels within a couple blocks, so any of our quests that can't stay at the B&B have plenty of options, and everyone gets to stay in the heart of the city so transportation is that much easier.

When We're Staying

As I've said before, our wedding will be on June 26. It's a cute date for us because it will be our regular dating anniversary as well. So given that we'll be getting married on a Saturday, we've decided to fly into Vancouver on the Thursday before hand, which will give us time to get settled in and get all of the necessary documents for the marriage. Also, we're planning on sticking around until Tuesday afternoon so that we can see any of our guests off and so we can spend a little bit of time in the city exploring and sight seeing.

Marriage Commissioner

For anyone not marrying in a church, Vancouver requires you hire a licensed Marriage Commissioner to preside over the ceremony. The Canadian government provides a fairly easy-to-search directory if you need to find a Commissioner, but we just asked the owners of the B&B if they had anyone they reccomended. Luckily they did and after emailing with her a few times to make sure our times matched up and such, we booked her.

Location

I say we found the location, and by found I mean we're 95% sure of the location. Our Marriage Commissioner has offered to host the ceremony at her home, and after just a tiny bit of cyber-stalking via Google Maps and Google Earth, I think her place will make a nice setting for our ceremony. We may consider other locations, but to be honest, I think her house will be a great setting and will require a lot less coordination on our part, which is always a plus!

What's Left?

So what's left to plan? Way too many details! We still need to decide on a restaurant to host our reception dinner, figure out how to get from our hotel to the ceremony and back, coordinate guests, and possibly plan other activities for the weekend. And then there's the matter of what to wear. And I'm sure there's about a thousand other details in the mix somewhere that we haven't even thought of yet. In my mind though, we've crossed a critical barrier and have some of the biggest questions out of the way, and I'm both excited and relieved to have these details fleshed out.

It's Time To Lip Synch For Your Life... Again!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Just wanted to drop a note saying that the new season of RuPaul's Drag Race starts tonight on Logo! For those of us out there that don't have Logo (or have the desire to pay for the damn channel because it never seems to be included in the basic cable package…), last season was available on Logo's website to stream usually the day after episode aired, so I'm hoping they'll do the same this year.

I loved last season. It was just a brilliant show and they did A LOT with the bare bones budget they were given. It looks like they were given a much bigger budget for the show this year after the break-out success of the show last year. Certainly they've put a lot of ad money behind it because I've seen tons of ads for the show here in Chicago. Even the bus stop in front of our condo has a giant poster advertising the show, which is both awesome and inspiring. It's also the first show from Logo that I've seen a major ad campaign for, which is great news for the show and the network.

In any case, I'm certainly looking forward to the insanity of this year's show. I have a feeling I'll be posting quite a bit about this year's competitors!

American Idiot: The Musical

Sunday, January 31, 2010

I gotta say, this was just about the last this I expected, but it's true: Green Day's American Idiot, one of my favorite albums of all time from one of my top 10 favorite bands, is being transformed into a Broadway Musical. Correction. It has already been turned into a musical, and will be coming to Broadway very soonish.

I didn't know a damned thing about this until the fiance and I were watching the Grammys last night and the cast from the musical came out on stage with the band. But it's been confirmed, and if you're interested in the plot there is also a full blown Wikipedia article for it already.

American Idiot is a fantastic album, and you should buy it from Amazon if you don't own it yet, but a full fledged musical? I suppose it's possible. It was a full on concept album with a loose story in there... somewhere. This will either be brilliant or terrible, and I want to be there to find out!

Now then, if you'll excuse me, I need to go book a flight to New York.