hill's journal

Wow, now, even the prominent white male artists!

Most of a Guardian article:

Thursday May 11, 2006

According to his official biography, Richard Kelly is the director of the acclaimed Donnie Darko, the writer of the less acclaimed Domino and a contender for the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes film festival. According to the Department of Homeland Security he is a suspected terrorist who may now be prevented from travelling to Cannes next week.

Kelly, 31, appears caught in bureaucratic limbo after his passport was reportedly "held under review" by the US government. Sources suggest that the film-maker has been confused with another man, "James Kelly", who is on the terrorist watch list. Kelly's full name is James Richard Kelly.

His latest picture, Southland Tales, is set in a dystopian Los Angeles paralysed by economic and environmental collapse. Ironically, the film is implicitly concerned with security measures taken by the US government after the events of September 11 2001.

"The paranoid conspiracy freak inside me is starting to think this has something to do with the film," Kelly admitted yesterday. In the meantime he has enlisted his mother to hunt for documents that prove his American citizenship.

I've been loving how much NPR has been playing Bush's "I'm the Decider" quote in defense of Don Rumsfeld. It seems like they're not protecting him from himself as much any more... more quotes in full.

And now, here's a fantastic musical spoof from a guy named Paul Hipp, to the tune of "I Am the Walrus"! It's really funny. The template provided by Lennon's dense, surreal original lyrics lend themselves well to putting in lots of specific political references without sounding clunky.

It's got a page on the Huffington Post. Make sure your computer's sound is up so you can hear it.

Can you believe I did it? A non-Brokeback post! Am I recovering?

fearfuloptimist reminded me that I forgot to post in my personal LJ about the resolution of NetFlix situation... yes, this is a Brokeback Mountain-related post. I have forgotten how to make any other kind of LJ post. Sorry.

But it was a very happy ending... I posted to wranglers about it, if you want to get the scoop.

In other "news," my relentless interpreting helped convert felicks to the camp of not being so sure that Jack was murdered. She made a very insightful observation about the editing of the Ennis-Lureen phone call sequence, noting that the cuts go:
* Lureen telling the tire accident story
* Ennis looking traumatized on the other end of the phone
* stylistically uncharacteristically fast and unclear murder of Jack scene
* Ennis on the phone, horrified
In other words, as she points out, with Ennis sandwiched on both sides of the murder scene, it could mean that this is only Ennis's interpretation of Lureen's words, but that she isn't necessarily lying. He decides that it's the murderous tire iron of his childhood fears, not a tire explosion accident.

Here's a good read: the funny, upsetting, but ultimately touching account of a self-described "chapstick lesbian" watching Brokeback Mountain with her dad.

I just discovered that my beloved NetFlix has a serious flaw. Despite a stated policy of screening member reviews of movies for discriminatory and inflammatory language, there were many horrifyingly homophobic reviews up on the Brokeback Mountain page. Sunday, while home sick with a cold, I drafted a very pointed, specific letter requesting that they remove 18 reviews (only the most egregious ones), all of which I pasted in, noting exactly how each violated their policy.

I haven't heard back from NetFlix yet, but I cc-ed GLAAD, afterelton.com editor Michael Jensen, and journalist/author Dave Cullen, who runs the very active Ultimate Brokeback Forum. I also posted my letter to NetFlix on the Brokeback Mountain LJ community, wranglers.

I heard back from Dave Cullen almost immediately, and he said to keep him posted, that if NetFlix didn't address my concerns, then perhaps the Ultimate Brokeback Forum could organize something. Those fans mean business -- after the Oscar loss for best picture, they took out a gracious, yet defiant print ad in Variety, and their effort got some national coverage. Next I got an email back from Michael Jensen, who wanted to know if he could print my name in his blog entry about NetFlix on The Big Gay Picture. He posted yesterday, and put the whole thing really well, I thought. Then, Monday morning, I got a reply to my wranglers post from the New York Area Bisexual Network, also asking me to keep them apprised of NetFlix's response. All this within 24 hours -- I love the Internet! Maybe something will come of this.

If you're a NetFlix subscriber, please let them know you're displeased and want the anti-queer reviews removed. Email problemreview@netflix.com -- you might want to read their review guidelines first.

I said, my ex-boyfriend's family was so white bread that...

You/audience: HOW WHITE BREAD WERE THEY?

They were so white bread that when my friends and I asked his homemaker mother where in her enormous kitchen she kept the garlic, she had to get out a stepstool, stand on her tiptoes and reach to a tippy top shelf to grab the garlic powder.

[snare hit, snare hit... cymbal crash]

There were many other anecdotes generated by my one stay in their house (mid-road trip with two other brown girls), tales of whitebreadness and creepy silences and downright insanity. Did I mention that they segregated our food into the garage fridge? I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when they suddenly declared that they could not love an African American grandchild. My favorite bit of fatherly wisdom offered to my ex: "Well, there are black people at work -- and I'm cordial -- but it's not like I'm friends with them."

[muted trumpet: wah-wah-wah-wahhhh...]

This journal is all Brokeback all the time! Ah, me. Who would have ever thought that the only movie poster up in my apartment would picture two white cowboys?!? I generally despise Westerns.

Abridged intro to thought-provoking article from afterelton.com:

"During the run-up to the Academy Awards Tony Curtis told Fox News that he hadn't yet seen Brokeback Mountain and had no intention of doing so. He claimed he wasn't alone in the sentiment and other Academy members felt the same way... 'Howard Hughes and John Wayne wouldn't like it,' Curtis said in an interview.

"...I have seen Brokeback Mountain, and I did like it tremendously—as did millions of others. Our bewilderment over its defeat at the Oscars has been misinterpreted. Would you humor us by considering the following analogy that better explains our position? Let's simply recast Brokeback Mountain as the story about the intolerance faced by a white woman and her black husband in rural Wyoming in the 1960s. At the end of the film, her husband is murdered in a brutal hate crime because of others' disgust over miscegenation.

"Now imagine that, before this film even premieres, it is the butt of racist jokes. Conservative news commentators decry its very existence as a mistake, calling it a profane plea for acceptance of the sin that is a mixed marriage... The movies opens and critics rave that it is an exquisite, poignant, and supremely-well crafted film... Nonetheless, all during its cinematic run, talk show hosts, humorists and live comedy-ensemble network programs can't seem to let a day go by without satirical reference to that 'jungle fever cowboy movie.' Black and white celebrities play out creepy parodies of 'BrokeBlack Mounting.' Often these skits are done in whiteface and blackface..."

Read the whole thing...

Wow, Willie Nelson's more specific than I imagined he would be. I guess it is country music after all. Here's the whole song with bouncing ball:

"Cowboys are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other"

Help!

I have had white spots all over my throat since Friday night and no health insurance. I've been on hold waiting for Highland Hospital's advice nurse for almost an hour. West Berkeley Family Practice turned me away. Should I just go to Highland's emergency room and get the waiting started? Should I try to go the Berkeley Free Clinic or the SF Free Clinic?

All I really need is a throat culture and a prescription for antibiotics if this doesn't go away in a few more days.

Ugh...

A nice postscript to my previous post...

Gene Shalit apologized in a letter to GLAAD for any hurt he caused with his offensive review of Brokeback Mountain. Turns out his son Peter is gay and very active in the gay community in Seattle, and has always been supported by his dad -- Peter wrote GLAAD a passionate letter in defense of his dad, and GLAAD was happy to accept his apology.

Here's an interesting article about it from afterelton.com, with a nice analysis of how many people -- even relatively progressive and well-intentioned people like Gene Shalit -- see sex but not love in gay romance on film.

Does my new South Park user pic approximate me in any way? It's kind of funny. I created this here. I was going to make a peace sign for my character's T shirt, but forced myself to cease and desist.

And yes, my journal is degenerating into a pop culture morass. I'm helpless to stop the tide... Somewhat in memory of Arrested Development, you may enjoy this funny clip.

EDIT: You may need to pause the clip after first visiting the page and let it load for a while before attempting to view it.

There's a Brokeback Mountain movie poster over my bed -- but listen friend, I won it at the Piedmont Theater in a raffle. And I have read the short story. And argued about interpretation endlessly with friends both virtual and real. And read dozens of articles. On the lighter side...

HBO Brokeback spoof ad -- nicely positive spoof from Bill Maher.

Soap Net spoof ad -- click "Best friends till the end" on the left.

Brokeback to the Future spoof preview. Reminds me of the ingenius spoof preview reedit of The Shining, which turns it into a Nora Ephron-like family dramedy.

Bush can't handle the suggestion, "You would love it, you should check it out!"

And once again, the especially hilarious for those of us who've worked a HelpDesk, the Broke Mac Mountain spoof preview.

I wish I knew how to quit this Brokeback joking, but I think it's all going to be around for decades like, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." Wooooo hoo!

Which Lost character are you?

OK, this is incredibly silly, but if any of my fellow Lost fans care to try this OK, Cupid test also, please tell me your results. I'm still puzzling over mine... maybe someone else can see why I got this? Something to do with kindness? Hmmm...

Walt You scored 90% kindness, 28% courage, 28% seedy past, and 41% secretiveness!

"Don't open it. Don't open that thing." You are Walt. You're a kind person who is eager to talk to everyone and absorb all the crazy things that are going on around you. Since you are still so young, you're not very brave, but your father will be able to show you how to be courageous. Your mysterious psychic powers are kind of creepy, but everyone needs a hobby, right? Your polar opposite is: Sawyer. You are similar to: Claire and Sun.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on kindness You scored higher than 6% on courage You scored higher than 35% on seedy past You scored higher than 15% on secretiveness

Link: The Which Lost Character Are You Test written by ack_attack on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

As mightyjoh so humorously wrote recently, we regularly have to deal with the unpleasantness of our two cats' vomitous ways.

Well, my cat Fly just took it to a whole new level, demonstrating exceptionally bad timing. Rafe, the guy I'm supposedly seeing, became the first person in years and years to sleep in my bed with me overnight -- to be accurate, I should say "with Fly and me," since there's no way to keep her out. After purring loudly, walking around and licking both our hands for an embarrassingly and irritatingly long time, Fly finally settled on sleeping in the corner next to Rafe's head. I was still awake at 3:50 am when my ears were jolted by the signature gulping, clucking sound of cat-throwing-up. I couldn't see what was going on, since I keep my room really dark, but by the time I got up and pulled her off the bed, she'd already puked just a little near his head (luckily, not on him). Horrifying!

Rafe was a really, really good sport about it and groggily gave me suprisingly accurate cleaning advice. We'd already discussed that he's a really deep sleeper and that I'm quite the opposite, so he wasn't surprised to hear that I hadn't slept yet and was getting nervous about getting to work the next morning. After I cleaned up Fly's mess, I took the opportunity to brew myself some Sleepytime tea, and when I came back and sat in bed and drank it in the dark, he massaged my back. That earned him some serious points.

Still don't know what the hell we're doing together or if Fly's action was a message from the universe, ha ha.

Yay, Desperate Housewives! OK, you didn't think this was a purely porny post, did you? No, it's one of my usual pop culture queer report-backs for all of you lefty TVtotalers.

Tonight's episode featured Andrew, the bisexual teenage son of Bree (one of the heroines) and his fuckbuddy, and I was amazed to see how casually their relationship was presented, even while a main part of the storyline is that that Bree, a conservative NRA homophobe, can't handle Andrew being into boys. It was truly a quiet landmark, I thought, for the following reasons:

1. Andrew is under 18. (His friend is probably 18 or 19, but Andrew is the alpha male.)
2. They are not in love -- they're definitely friends with benefits, not boyfriends and have been for a long time.
3. They are shown naked in bed in the morning.
4. They are shown having a romantic goodbye kiss.
5. This was all a natural part of the episode, and it was not pumped up as this big moment. We've long known the two were involved, but this episode pushed further, showing more of the kissing and filming it from the correct angle!
6. In the closing montage -- the episode's theme was the different meanings of kisses -- they are one of the duos shown sharing a kiss, and they're actually shown kissing and necking! The voiceover, which describes the different kisses of married couple, concerned parent and child, and so on proceeding through the cast, terms Andrew and his fuckbuddy as "lovers" with a growing passion. Definitely not negative, definitely on equal footing with the straight couples presented. Awesome!

I have to admit though that Andrew has a bit of the villain about him; but it's a very broad dramedy with many such characters, and in his case, he's definitely got justification. His motives are fueled by a very good reason -- his mother, herself a supremely imperfect person, told him that's he's going to go to hell if he doesn't limit himself to girls. He's angry because his mother's love is conditional and she's damned him to hell. And this happened amidst the breakup of his parents' marriage, which was presented as very much the fault of both parties, if not mostly his mom's. I like the way they're doing his character... I don't smell a crazy, evil bisexual stereotype.

GLAAD alert! Gene Shalit thinks Brokeback Mountain is vastly overrated and that Jake Gyllenhaal's character is a sexual predator who pressures Heath Ledger's character. What a dipshit.

EDIT: Happy ending here.

Discussion I commented on, here.

EDIT: Turns out the screenwriters aren't sure about the ending... Check out this tidbit from an LJ report back from a panel at the Santa Monica Film Festival: "Diana [Ossana] said that she and Larry [McMurtry] change their minds daily about how Jack died. I never considered that there was any option but the tire iron, but I guess people were right to think that maybe it was just in Ennis' mind's eye, because Diana doesn't know herself!"

I was sick for perhaps a quarter of 2005 and spent a lot of time resting on my sofa, so this list is particularly dense...

1.) Cillian Murphy -- this year I saw everything he's ever in been in that's been released in theaters and on DVD. An amazingly sensitive, chameleonic actor, he's gorgeous playing men or women, sympathetic protagonists or Batman's latest nemesis. He's got great taste in projects, so most of the films he's in are very good, but the two absolute must sees are Disco Pigs and the new Breakfast on Pluto.

2.) NetFlix -- I love the list-making and the huge selection of indie films. And this is what easily enabled obsession #1 and the chasing of any and all tangents, such as finally watching Terry Gross's favorite cop series, Homicide: Life on the Street. (Andre Braugher, mmmmm.)

3.) Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem -- after I finished this book, I was sad for two weeks that it was over. Its non-fiction companion is Honky by Dalton Conley.

4.) My iPod -- it was more useful to me on the NYC subway than out in Cali, but it's got me integrating iTunes into my life very nicely. I love listening to podcasts, especially to shows I miss from WNYC.

5.) Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine. The usual great wordplay and melodic twists with a new dash of mature self-deprecation. I must confess that Coldplay gets the runner-up spot to this slot.

6.) Lost, the ABC series with the most diverse and large cast ever on TV. Character studies, suspense and mystery.

7.) Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson. Never thought I'd be riveted by a book by this title, but this book ROCKS and has saved my sanity and my health on a few occasions. This is a book that trumps the Internet every time -- trust me, you need this on your reference book shelf.

8.) BitTorrent -- this geek finally took the time to figure out how to download awesome cable shows like Deadwood, Rescue Me, Queer as Folk and The L Word, plus last year's holdover obsession, Gilmore Girls.

9.) Mysterious Skin (see it ASAP!) and Brokeback Mountain -- amusingly, I won the poster when I saw the latter film. Once you see it, tell me whether you think the ending is ambiguous or not.

10.) Still enjoying TV's recent streak of radical new comedies, particularly Arrested Development and The Office(s) (BBC & NBC), plus Everybody Hates Chris, My Name is Earl, and Desperate Housewives.

Here is an affectionate little obit which I had to write recently. *sniffle*

Fun Guy Brooks, Eccentric House Cat, Dies at 14
November 13, 2005

Fun Guy Junior "Guy" B., an exceptionally prolific hunter and loquacious house cat, died yesterday in Manhattan. He was 14. Guy is survived by longtime companion, Venus Flytrap "Fly" B., caretaker Hillary B., and fellow tortilla chip aficionado, Jeremy B.


Fun Guy relaxing in Brooklyn in 2000

According to his family, Guy suffered from chronic kidney disease. In September, he began to experience disorienting, debilitating seizures indicative of the last stage of renal failure. This week, his health declined precipitously, and he was euthanized to spare him further suffering.

A native of San Francisco, Guy and his late brother Flea were adopted in 1991 to be companions for Fly, who was bereaved following her sister's death. Punningly dubbed "Fun Guy" after a nickname given to the Motherpeace tarot jester, the Son of Wands, he was also known as "Junior," because he was thought to resemble his then-roommate, Gabriel S.

Separated from his mother too soon, Guy began to alienate himself by nursing on Fly's belly, then Flea's and her paws, but when physically shown that he could suck his own "thumb," he once more reingratiated himself into the "orange pie" of snuggling kitties on 10th Avenue in the Inner Sunset district. It was here that Guy's brother is buried, along with some of the rubber bands Flea would scoop from the kitchen drawer and drop to bagman Guy on the floor below, in an ingenious two-man operation that long baffled investigators. Guy endured a period of illness as a kitten due to an incurable immune syndrome, eosinophilic granuloma, but he soon entered his tomcat prime.

In 1993, Guy was revealed to be living a double life. Unbeknownst to his family, Guy had taken up with the people next door, regularly eating their cat food and sometimes even sleeping with them. Guy's alternative lifestyle proved a liability after his household's two-block move to 8th Avenue, ( Read more... )

I couldn't help myself... had to republish my alternate words for Handel's Hallelujah chorus again this year. (BTW, 'hallelujah' is Hebrew for 'praise g-d,' but I didn't edit that for content.) BTW, for some reason, some layouts and browsers can't see this table... I know not why, I know not why, but if you can't see this, click here.

MY VERSION	ORIGINAL ENGLISH VERSION
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!	Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!	Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!	Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!	Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Oh, the Force we cannot yet explaineth.	For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!	Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Oh, the Force we cannot yet explaineth.	For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!	Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
The Life Force of this world	The Kingdom of this world
Is in us.	Is become
The Life Force is in us,	The Kingdom of our Lord,
We know not why,	And of his Christ,
We know not why.	And of his Christ.
But no one lives forever and ever.	And He shall reign forever and ever.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!	Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Questionings,	King of Kings,
Forever and ever, Hallelujah! Hallelujah!	Forever and ever, Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Of the Life Force,	And Lord of Lords.
Forever and ever, Hallelujah! Hallelujah!	Forever and ever, Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
But no one lives forever and ever.	And He shall reign forever and ever.
Questionings of the Life Force	King of Kings and Lord of Lords
Questionings of the Life Force	King of Kings and Lord of Lords
But no one lives forever and ever.	And He shall reign forever and ever.
Questionings of the Life Force	King of Kings and Lord of Lords
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!	Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Halle...lu...jah!	Halle...lu...jah!

Ta da...there it is... hope you got a giggle out of it.

I compulsively rate movies on imdb.com. Do you?

Finally, a criminal justice show that focuses on wrongly convicted people! It's ABC's "Injustice," and it's set to premiere in January. Seems like it focuses on an Innocence Project-type legal team. Stars Kyle MacLachlan of Blue Velvet, Dune, Twin Peaks and Sex and the City.

Dunno if it's supposed to be any good or not.

My DNA Ancestry certificate just arrived from DNAPrint Genomics Genealogy.

In cold hard numbers on paper, the results unsettled me far more than I expected. The main question I expected to answer was whether the paternal family legend of a Native American great-(great?)-grandmother is true or not. Unsuprisingly, though not 100% definitively, the answer for me, like so many Americans, is no: the certificate read 0% Native American ancestry. But neither this fact, nor the fact that I'm 0% East Asian, were what I found unsettling.

( What's weird is that I'm 67% European and only 33% Sub-Saharan African... )

I can now die happy.

Today, a brand new dishwasher was successfully installed in the kitchen of the apartment I rent. The first load of dishes, which stacked up during my bout with the East Bay serial virus, is running now.

That is all.

I picked up an important referral at Thanksgiving dinner. It was for bizarre new wavey hip hop by Leslie and the Lys. Their homepage has links for three videos, "Gem Sweater," "Bedazzler" and "Gold Pants Live." Watch 'em in order.

Anyone else familiar with this wacky fat girl art school madness?

I seem to have lost my enthusiasm for Halloween. I think my last good costume was Billie Holiday and that was years and years ago.

But in honor of the day, here's three tales of... ( 3 embarrassing Halloween moments )

I always meant to read the book Guns, Germs and Steel, but now PBS has lent me a hand by making it into a documentary.

I just watched the first of 3 one-hour installments tonight. It blew my mind. The central question: what is the explanation for human inequality in terms of technology and wealth? The answer: the luck of geography & differing natural resources. For example, did you know that of all thousands of animals on the planet, there are only a limited number that for humans are worth farming, and of those, despite thousands of years of trying, only 14 were successfully domesticated, and all but two of those came out of the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East, our "cradle" of so-called civilization? And so farming thrived, surpluses grew and some people could be excused from the ranks of meeting basic needs in order to work on technology.

It's not amazing as a film in terms of artistry or technique, but it's absolutely fascinating nonetheless. Check it out!

OK, these are the moments when I am embarrassed by my obsession with pop culture. So I invite you to send me telepathic--or text comment--messages of "shame!"

( Yes, I just tuned in for the repeat of Tom Cruise's reputedly loony perhaps doth-protest-too-much appearance on Oprah ... )

I’ve always wanted to get a book that says how to remove stains, and recently I’ve wanted to get one that tells you how to make your own cleaning brews to save money on all the commercial cleaners. Also, I’ve been wondering how to fold fitted sheets and about plenty of other things that I do badly or inefficiently, things that I didn't fully learn or learn at all from my mom. Sometimes housekeeping issues are so frustrating and I often wish I knew more.

Well, I just bought the greatest reference book, Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson, a lawyer, philosphy PhD and encyclopedic housekeeper (and OCD sufferer?!?). It is soooo comprehensive. It’s like having a fantabulously competent and clever grandmother on hand to ask anything you need to know about anything. I was enraptured yesterday, first reading about air quality and mold, then how to choose allergenic bedding--which moved me to make several changes that should help my recent asthma problems--then on to how best to wash the floor and so on and so on. The book really has everything! ( Read more... )

I am half-watching "Showgirls" out of curiosity, and I must tell you: SHOWGIRLS IS THE WORST MAJOR MOTION PICTURE OF ALL TIME. Despite its bad reputation, I was actually shocked at just how incredibly worthless and embarrassing this film is. How did it get made?

I think the only things that come close are "Stayin' Alive" and "Cop."

Anyone ever see this debacle? Any other opinions on worst Hollywood movies ever?