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Stories from a man who fails to meet media expectations of what it means to be gay:
white, frivolous, over sexed yet sexless, shrill, single, stylish, a clown, unimportant, et al.
Wednesday 05/28/2003
The entry that could well be titled media whore, but it isn't
Write about topics of importance and substance? Who has time for that when I can write about things of no value at all?
Toca la guitara you P*nche marijaneros. Culture Clash has a play at the Mark Taper, Chavez Ravine. In the play, ghosts and memories visit Fernando Valenzuela during his 1st game at Dodger stadium. They tell him the story of how a neighborhood (a slum or proud community depending on your viewpoint) razed for public housing ended up being the site of a baseball stadium.
I had known the basics of the story of how Chavez Ravine was to have been a pubic housing project, but I did not know the extent that back room politics and red baiting had played in killing the project and making sure certain rich and powerful men stayed rich and powerful.
Being Culture Clash, there were many comedic elements along with the seriousness of the story. It's a hard balance to achieve, but they did it with skill.
Being a preview, there were a couple of problems with the performance, mainly some errors with audio effects, which the actors played off well. One even broke character to make a crack that "it's only a f*cking preview," which had the audience bursting out in laughter.
During intermission, an older white couple a few seats over from me stayed, talking about the play. I ignored them until I heard the woman swearing in Spanish. I was about to turn a look at her, when I realized that she was reading a list Spanish phrases that the audience had been given at the beginning of the play. When she read the English definition out loud a moment later, she became mortified, then amused, because she had used a "Spanish four letter word."
She and her husband laughed for a while and I had a hard time not laughing out loud as well.
Previously on Buffy. I've finished the first season DVD and have gone on to a second season of vampires, teen angst and wacky shenanigans. The last episode of which I've seen being the one where Buffy and Angel finally do the deed. Angel, like all good boys, immediately becomes an evil monster once the girl finally puts out.
When these episodes first aired, I remember thinking that David what'shisname who plays Angel was a major hottie. Now I'm wondering why. It's not that he isn't attractive, it's just that he's, well handsome in a fairly boring way.
I had forgotten the slashy vagueness that the Xander character had in these early episodes. With him uttering lines like "shoot me, stuff me, mount me" to other men, it's no wonder Xander is a very, very busy boy at various slash fiction sites.
From interviews on the extra features of the DVD's, Joss Whedon has essentially said that he is Xander, so I doubt there ever was a real chance that Xandster would come bursting out of the closet. Even so, the boy does do some odd things...
Records sans holes. The funniest movie I've seen lately has been A Mighty Wind. It was made by the same folks who did Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman. This time round, a famed producer of 60's folk music has died, so his children decide to put together a tribute show featuring his three most famous acts. Deadly funny movie. It could have done with more Parker Posey, but then again, most movies could do with more Parker Posey.
Like many parodies, it helps to know about the genre being made fun of, but even with my admittedly vague knowledge of folk music (peter, paul, and who?), I had a fun time.
Buffy the Series is over. Unlike some people complaining about how the final episode sucked, I thought it was a good ending. The story of Buffy the Vampire slayer is over, but in such a way that future stories of Buffy the person are possible. Of course, any future stories (official stories that is) depend on whims of ratings, money, Whedon's clout after having one of his show's canceled, and whether Sara Michelle Geller can make a post Buffy career work.
Unofficial stories are another thing entirely. Not even a full 24 hours after the episode aired, fan fic sites were inundated with "season 8" stories ('what should happen next') and alternate versions of the finaly ('how it really should have ended' (usually different folks dying)). From a cursory glance, it's obvious that many of these were written overnight.
I guess if I want to continue with 'official' stories, I'll have to start watching Angel again. A potentially hard task since I haven't bothered to watch it since the first season, when they killed off the only character I found even halfway interesting (Mr. half Irish/half Demon boy).
On the "unofficial" side of things, I'm just waiting for the inevitable slash stories where Xander and Andrew get drunk while morning Anya and wake up naked in each other's arms.
Evil flaming mutants as metaphor for refusing to stay closeted? The X-Men sequel was a cool movie, and as everyone has already stated, it is a better movie than the first one. Although it could have been a lot better. If the writers could have figured out a reason for the actor playing Wolverine to have spent the entire movie shirtless (or even more 'less'), the flick would have been spectacular.
The mutant as gay scene were young Bobby/Iceman comes out to his family was amusing. Even though they kept Wolverboy in far to much clothing, the writers did at least have a sense of humor, although there may be negative consequences to the "can't you just not be a mutant" scene. I am half expecting to discover that "I'm a mutant" has become the phrase du jour to announce ones' homosexuality among the fag-geek set.
Even though the flick itself was good, the movie watching experience was not without problems. A mid-twenties straight couple with toddlers sat next to my party. I understand the financial reasons for taking kids with you to movies, but if you have to do this, please show some responsibility. These parents were more concerned with watching the movie than they were with watching their kids. A three-year-old boy sitting next to a friend spent half the movie talking out loud, trying to stick his finger in her drink, and kicking her. He also spent time crying every time something scary happened on screen. It seems there were many scary things happening on screen. Only once did his folks try to deal with him. The rest of the time, he ran around crazily.
Considering my friends' usual reaction to kids, I'm amazed that she didn't just pick the brat up, drop him on his mom or dad's lap, and leave to complain to management. She showed remarkable self-restraint.
Perhaps not surprisingly, after the family left, we noticed that they did not even bother to throw away their trash. Popcorn boxes, soda cups, and candy wrappers were left strewn about their seats. I sometimes worry about the future.
Enterprise the second season comes screeching to a halt. Alien gangbangers tag Earth by gouging Florida, slicing Cuba in half, and defacing Venezuela, so the Captain decides to take the ship into the "Hood" to get with the retribution. Next season will feature a gangster rap version of the theme song that everyone loves to hate.
I've had a fairly laissez fair attitude towards this series. I've missed roughly half of the episodes, but as long as the shows I have caught have given me some slashy subtext, I've been more than happy to put up with the nonsense.
I'm thinking that the next season is going to be a trying one. I guess that ratings have not been too great, and making things meaner and grittier is hoped to be the answer. Although other giving the actor playing Trip Tucker a chance to scow, growl, and be all vengeful for a while, I doubt much will change.
There is one thing that could potentially totally tick me off. There was a line about some military personnel/space marines joining the crew, but none were shown, even though the episode supposedly lasted several months. Possibly because no one has been cast yet? Anyway, if one of these new folks turns out to be Vasquez from Aliens, I'm going to be annoyed. Then again, if it was done right (IE: not only does she have the hots for Hoshi, she actually does something about it) then I'd be most happy. Then again, this is Star Trek, so it won't be done right and I'm sure to be less than pleased. Oh well.
Are people confused if Neo is a computer program or human solely because of a certain persons acting abilities? I watched a matinee of Matrix Reloaded, and like everyone else in the theater, when it was over, I was left wondering if they would ever get Han Solo out of that block of carbonite. OK, so I didn't. I was actually wondering if it had really been worth waiting through all the credits for the Matrix Revolutions trailer. The answer would have to be no.
Even though I spent a lot of the movie waiting for certain nonimpressive scenes (the oddly unsexy sex filled rave, Neo as game boy protagonist) to end, I neither hated nor loved the flick. It was obviously a middle movie, or more accurately, the first half of a story which will presumably end this November, so hopefully it will all seem more coherent by then.
I couldn't get anyone to see it with me, but I did talk about for a while with my sister a few days later. We talked plot points and about some of the hints/clues that suggest a further questioning of reality is in order. We also talked about how this idea seemed to upset a lot of people online because "that's lame since it's already been done," and "that's not original." It seems these folks have never heard the idea that All stories have already been told. Therefore, what matters is not that your ideas are new, but the way you tell your tale.
This topic lead to a conversation about the lack of civility online. Granted, it takes a certain level of commitment to bother posting comments, but even so, people seem a bit too obsessed with making sure everyone agrees with them. It seems that no difference in opinion is allowed.
Giant monster movie live. Word is that there will be a live action version of Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's a cool idea, and considering who is doing it, it will no doubt look spectacular, but how the heck do you turn a huge multi-hour long behemoth of a story into a 90-minute movie? There's also a slight problem with the protagonist Shinji. Even being a fan of the show, I can barely stand him. By American/Western standards, he is an aggressively passive character.
He doesn't just spend most of the story in an adolescent funk; he spends most of it in a state of near catatonic collapse. Not exactly your standard action hero. Not exactly the goal of most moviemakers to have the audience wanting the hero to die a horrible death.
I don't doubt that his character will end up getting changed a bit. Something that probably would end up happening no matter what his psychological state of mind. After all, the movie version of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen has added the character of Tom Sawyer. Presumably so that American audiences could watch a movie set in England and still have someone to route for who didn't talk all funny like.
I'm assuming the same thing will happen here. As long as Shinji doesn't become a blond, blue eyed, all American, macho stud, named Rick Hunter who bravely fights giant monsters in Neo New York, it shouldn't be too bad. Maybe.
I am curious as to which bits and pieces of the story will get left out of the movie.
Will there still be inappropriate relationships with clones of dead loved ones?
Will Shinji still have a questionable/vaguely homosexual relationship with the other boy Kaoru?
Will the computer scientist whose name I don't recall still be a dyke in all but name?
Will Shinji and Asuka still be forced to play Dance, Dance Revolution for days at a time to prepare for battle?
Will Shinji still do that nasty thing he does over Asuka's comatose body?
Um, while I do hope that most of the nontraditional sexual/identity elements remain, they can leave off that last bit, cause, well that was gross.
More later,
nico
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