SqueezeBox!, 2008, USA

Regi: Steven Saporito och Zach Schaffer

Under sju år (mellan 1994 och 2001) fanns klubben SqueezeBox i New York, en dragcentrerad rockklubb där ingen fick mima. Med punklegenden Jayne County (fd Wayne County) som förebild blev SqueezeBox ett ställe där inget var för spektakulärt eller extremt – en orgie i måttlöshet i andan ”du vet att du älskar det”.

Det var på SqueezeBox Hedwig and the Angry Inch föddes, och klubben stod modell för Justin Bonds sexbejakande klubb i Shortbus. Band som Psychotica och Toilet Boys tog sina första självande andetag (eller snarare, drog av sina första rock n’ roll-vrål samtidigt som de headbangade i jätteperuker). Jag kan tycka att dokumentären är lite ensidigt hyllande, men samtidigt, varför inte? Det är inte utan att Sverige känns en aning kallt, litet, hämmat och trist i jämförelse. När jag blev punkare en gång för länge sen var det något som SqueezeBox jag drömde om. Fint att det har funnits på riktigt!

/Bobbi

Major crushin’ on this smart, talented, female. I didn’t love “Shortbus“– found it mostly cloying and too much in love with its idealized view of sex-as-religion/sex-as-catharis but was impressed by how much former MuchMusic VJ Sook-Yin Lee threw herself into the role of awkward, fish-out-of-water sexual experimentour.

Her directorial debut “Year of the Carnivore” first came to my attention through fellow Canadian dilletante Buck 65’s announcement that he scored the film. From reviews it sounds like she has taken part John Cameron Mitchell provacative sexuality and mixed it with a bit of coming-of-age indie-romance with vignettes from her own bisexual awakening. Exciting. Not holding my breath for a Minneapolis screening but hopefully a DVD screener rip will appear soon. Gotta love the internet.

A trailer for the film is still coming soon according to the site but Sook-Yin has done a number of short films recently that you can find online.

I found a bunch of old Head Of The Class tapes. It’s more of a guilty pleasure than anything: the scripts were pretty weak, some of the actors playing students were 30+ years old, and for supposedly smart kids they sure stayed around in high school far too long.  Some of the most cringeworthy aspects to the show were the unironic rat-tail, and later mullet, that Hesseman’s character Mr. Moore had, and I can’t suspend my disbelief long enough to buy that high school students (even an honors program) would have the ability to come up with a video for the time capsule that used state-of-the-art-for-1987 computer effects set to the tune of Timbuk 3’s “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades” (an exercise in cheese).

Mr. Moore (Howard Hesseman) demonstrates that a mullet on a teacher was actually once socially acceptable in the 1980s.

For a mid-level sitcom shot on tape, though, it was at least decent at least for the first four years.  It did go downhill when Howard Hesseman was replaced by Billy Connolly, mainly because Connolly’s character didn’t so much teach as go on extended comedic tangents (just imagine if they couldn’t find a teacher at a real high school and they just had Craig Ferguson rant for an hour).  I am surprised how many recognizable guest stars I’ve spotted on the show, though, mainly Elaine Stritch, Stephen Root, Roscoe Lee Browne, Lori Petty (Tank Girl), John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), Kirsten Kemp Becker (then known as Kirsten Holmquist, Property Ladder), and Brad Pitt (tabloids).   They also did a few interesting episodes based around the cast doing a musical theatre production that actually incorporate the “opening night performances” (based on the episodes’ individual writing credits, the shows creators Rich Eustis and Michael Elias were the one that had a thing for musical theatre), and were the first American sitcom to shoot in the Soviet Union, giving what was generally a mid-level sitcom added notability.

Recurring characters Manfred (John Cameron Mitchell) and Monica (Kirsten Holmquist) performing "White Boys" in a style that presages the singing music teachers from SNL

I doubt the show will be heading to DVD season sets anytime soon because music licensing is a big hurdle, at least for the musical episodes, and there likely isn’t a strong enough market for it to justify the cost.  Part of the reason a lot of worse and shorter-lived shows are on DVD is because they can make money back on those (which explains why Small Wonder is actually getting a DVD release).  It wasn’t great by any stretch of the imagination but I am having fun watching my old tapes again as I transfer them to disc (and removing countless ads for 1-809 sex lines that used to run late at night on CKY-Winnipeg, but those are another post).

The students included one of Tony Soprano's mistresses (top row centre), the men responsible for the career of Kenan Thompson (top row left), and the victim of Tobias Funke's glitter basket (bottom row centre).

Whenever it is announced that Nicole Kidman is going to be starring in something, I have to brace for all the negative comments that will be made on the comments section of any website that carries those news. Most of these comments will be Botox or facial expression related. Why the hate? Is it because of all the Botox she has put into her face? Or is it because of the career boost that her relationship with Tom Cruise gave her? I guess we’ll never know, but what I do know is that she is the best actress of her generation.

No other actress of her generation has worked with as many auteurs as she has. Stanley Kubrick (Eyes Wide Shut), Gus Van Sant (To Die For), Lars Von Trier (Dogville), Baz Luhrman (Moulin Rouge! and Australia), Oliver Hirschbiegel(The Invasion), Rob Marshall (Nine), George Miller (Happy Feet), Nora Ephron (Bewitched), Sydney Pollack (The Interpreter), Anthony Mighella (Cold Mountain), Stephen Daldry (The Hours), Alejandro Amenabar (The Others), Jane Campion ( Portrait of a Lady), Ron Howard (Far and Away), Joel Schumacher (Batman Forever), and Noah Baumbach (Margot at the Wedding) are some

of the directors she’s worked with. And she will soon be starring in movies directed by John Cameron Mitchell (Rabbit Hole) and Tomas Alfedson (The Danish Girl).

Yes, most people would say that those movies she starred in were the worst of their respective directors’ careers (especially Far and Away, The Invasion, and, some would say, Eyes Wide Shut), and I do hate some of them myself. However, are these failures her fault? Does her presence bring the quality of the movie down? In my opinion it is the fault of the writer, and sometimes the director, for not being able to bring quality material to the screen. In most of her movies she brings her A-game and sometimes turns into the only highlight of a piece of crap.

With that, now I’m going to analyze all the movies that I’ve seen of hers, as well as her performances. I have not seen them all, but with this you’ll see where I’m coming from about her being the best actress working today (after Meryl Streep, of course). I’ll list them and analyze them in alphabetical order, some of them I’ve not seen in a long time, but I’ll do it from memory.

-     Australia- The film is very flawed, but I love it. Here Kidman is great at giving a performance similar to those in the classic epic romances. She doesn’t pretend it is any more than that.

Batman Forever- One of the worst Batman movies, but she does what she has to do, and nothing more.

Bewitched- The concept was ambitious but it didn’t work, and Kidman didn’t have much to do. This one was one of those instances where her performance was meh.

Birth- The premise is somewhat ridiculous, but her performance, as well as good direction and a great score, makes this movie better than it should have been.

Cold Mountain- Love it, the entire cast is amazing.

Dogville- Her bravest performance yet.

Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus- The movie would have been better had it been a straight biopic, but she is great as  Arbus.

The Golden Compass- Had this movie been better and the follow-ups would have been made, she would have been to His Dark Materials what Ian McKellen was to Lord of the Rings

Happy Feet- Very little role, but she does what she has to

The Hours- Crap film, good performance. She did not deserve to win the Oscar.

The Interpreter- I doubt interpreters at the UN look like her, but she makes it work.

Margot at the Wedding- Crap film, but she gives one of the best performances of it’s year.

Moulin Rouge!- Her second-best performance and one of the top-10 performances of the decade in one of the top 10 movies of the decade

To Die For- Her best performance and one of my favorite performances of all time.

The Others- Her third-best performance. There was lots of room for her to chew scenery, but she avoided that.

Practical Magic- It is mostly about Sandra Bullock, but I love her as the rebellious sister.

The Stepford Wives- A guilty pleasure of mine. Not her best performance, but it adds to the camp of the whole movie.

So, yes, she does have a lot of failures, but not performance-wise. She is one of the few actresses who are willing to take risks. First off, any actress that works with Lars Von Trier is a brave actress in my book. He just put them through so many challenges that one can’t help but feel for them. In fact, I read that Von Trier offered her the female role in Antichrist but she turned it down (if you know anything about the movie then you can guess you why). Then there are movies like Fur, Birth, and Margot at the Wedding that would have never been made or would not have gotten any attention without her.

In the end, it is up to you to decide whether she is just a poster girl for the effects of Botox, someone who got lucky by marrying Tom Cruise, or just someone annoying. However, one can’t deny that she can sometimes be important to many movies, and she likes to take risks. For this reason, she is the best actress of her generation.

[Note: This is a movie I've been dying to talk to folks about, but it's kind of hard to be like "Hey! You wanna come over and watch a man sing the national anthem into another man's ass? No, but really, despite the hardcore, unsimulated fucking, it's really an interesting meditation on post-9/11 New York. Doesn't that sound like fun?" So, now I guess I'll just talk to the internet.]

—–

“But you know what’s the most wonderful thing about New York? It’s where everyone comes to get fucked. It’s one of the last places where people are still willing to bend over to let in the new. And the old. New Yorkers are, uh, permeable. … Therefore, we’re sane. Consequently, we’re the target of the impermeable. And the insane.”

The first time I watched Shortbus I was taken aback by how graphic it is. Not because I’m a prude, but because it’s a film like none other I’ve ever seen. Having watched it a second and now a third time, I am able to really make myself permeable enough to absorb its intricacies (and some red wine didn’t hurt).

On a high level, I’m floored by the film’s ability to use sex in such an honest and raw way, and yet the sex is not the fulcrum on which the other plot points hinge. In most mainstream film, the (watered-down, romanticized, and most assuredly cleverly edited as to avoid nudity) sex scenes are used to illustrate a very real commitment or a pivotal moment of growth for characters or their relationships. Here, the sex, while probably the film’s most notable talking point, doesn’t carry the same narrative implications. Sophia, for example, visits the Shortbus sexual salon first solo and it’s not even a consideration within her marriage to Rob. Also, James’s time with Caleb is not the piece that drives the wedge between him and Jamie, but it’s the thing that brings them together.

That nontraditional view of sex as a narrative device manages to strip down sex to the most visceral and human elements without robbing it of its importance.

And now onto the characters (and again, this is some glasses of red wine in, so forgive me if this is not all cohesive):

Jamie/James: My boyfriend and I disagreed on whether these two are the quintessence of selfishness or the ultimate paragons of selflessness. On the one hand, Jamie is living in the past, quoting his famed soundbite from back when he was a child star; James is spending six months making a visual suicide note. However, they could also be seen as both being profoundly broken. Jamie isn’t selfish and unwilling to give up on the past as much as he’s incapable of doing so. All of his love comes from a very pure place and, as James says, he loves “so hard.” In his naivete, he’s just not able to understand what James is going through. James, meanwhile, is not selfish as much as he is actually severely damaged. He can’t see beyond himself because he is so hurt. He’s unwilling to let Jamie in because he loves him too much to subject him to the ugly he’s going through. His inability to be permeable is physically manifested in his refusal to be fucked. It’s not until he can allow that to happen (courtesy Caleb) that he can let himself become permeable and accept the raw love Jamie so desperately wants to give him.

Ceth: I love thinking of Ceth as an angelic figure. When Tobias the mayor tells him, “But imagine if you grew up here, like I did. Home can be very unforgiving. It’s true. People said I didn’t do enough to help prevent the AIDS crisis, because I was in the closet. That’s not true. I did the best I could. I was… I was scared. And impermeable. Everybody knew so little then. I know even less now,” Ceth is there to forgive him. And he’s there to forgive the Jamies for their crippling inability to be the men they wish to be; to help them move past their self-loathing and insecurities and get to a place where they can be a more perfect lover for their counterpart.

Severin: Her whole world being a prostitute is all about sensory experience and where does she choose to take Sophia and ultimately make the connection she’s longing for? A sensory deprivation chamber. Even when Jesse (her john) cums on the Pollack (or maybe it’s just Pollack-esque, I’m not an art history major), it’s just one more sexual mark in an entire world of chaos for her. During the climax of the film, she’s the only character not getting intimate sexually, but she’s connecting with everyone else there in a very real way. Her laugh and crash on the cymbal is one of my most favorite scenes.

Sophia: While Sophia’s storyline revolves all around her missing orgasm, I think more than the Jamies, she’s a comment on traditional relationships. Her and Rob do everything “right” from a very clinical I’m OK, You’re OK sort of view. They use “I” statements and have a post-fight sort of validation session. But it’s not until they can do something so unconventional at the Shortbus salon that Sophia can really let go and get what she needs. I also really love the sort of surrealist scene on the bench with the singular lamppost — her light needs to be turned on. Brilliant.

Post-9/11 New York: Yes, this is really a character in this film. Sure technically its screentime is mostly relegated to the gorgeous, sweeping views through the miniaturized modeled cityscape, but those breathtaking shots have a life about them that permeates every character. We first meet Severin in a hotel room with Jesse overlooking Ground Zero. He asks, “You’re taking a picture of yourself at Ground Zero: Do you smile?” That thinking lingers throughout the film. How does one (or one city) live life after the fact? How do you go on? How do you continue to make connections and feel and love and not feel guilty about it after a very real thing happens and shakes you to your very core? Can an interpersonal relationship ever even come close to affecting you in the same way? Can you ever feel again to such a degree, or will that hurt hang heavy your whole life and mock everything you feel afterward for being so small? I remember living in New York during the 2003 blackout the film alludes to. It was scary and exhilarating, because in those few hours that it lasted, I remember girding myself to get ready for the same sort of feelings that I felt on 9/11; that something awful was happening … again. However, at the same time, New York was nearly two years removed from the World Trade Center attacks and we all bore witness to the outpouring of kindness and neighborlyness that followed. We were all together this time. It’s a moment that I think the film uses with fantastic care, right down to Justin Bond’s singing the following into a megaphone to close out the film:

we all bear the scars
yeah, we all feign a laugh
we all cry in the dark
get cut off before we start

and as your last breath begins
you find your demon’s your best friend
and we all get it in
the end

So yeah, there’s my treatise on Shortbus. Have you seen it? What are your thoughts?

If there is one regret that I will carry with me for the rest of my life, it’s that I couldn’t go to the Hedwig concert in Korea last year, when John Cameron Mitchell, the (sexy) original director and star of the rock musical classic indie film Hedwig and the Angry Inch, performed for hordes of screaming fans. Accompanying him on stage was, along with a bunch of other Korean musical actors who had performed in the Korean musical version of Hedwig: Oh Man Seok. I repeat: Oh Man Seok, the love of my life, and John Cameron Mitchell, one of my earliest girlhood crushes, were together on one stage, performing together. Performing songs from HEDWIG, which has one of my favourite soundtracks of all time. And I couldn’t be there, due to the simple fact that I do not live in Korea, and do not have the money to pay for plane tickets. WHY IS LIFE SO UNFAIR?

Thank god for fancams, right?

So here’s a fancam of Oh Man Seok and John Cameron Mitchell performing “Midnight Radio” together in 2008. My favourite part: When Oh kisses Mitchell on the cheek. I squealed like a pig at that point, I have to admit. (OTP! OTP!) A close second for favourite moment: When Oh rushes towards the audience, and collapses onto the stage as the song ends. Ya never would’ve guessed that behind that kind smile lay a fountain of power and energy, right?

(Also, Oh Man Seok’s English is ADORABLE.)

The quality isn’t all that great, but you can still hear, and you can get the gist of things. Besides, why wouldn’t you want to watch such a great performance?

Shortbus foi feito por John Cameron Mitchell (2006) e não é um filme de sexo!

Neste filme, em que a personagem central é uma terapeuta sexual que nunca atingiu um orgasmo, há algo de emocionante e ousado onde são abordados alguns temas pesados mas com muita diversão à mistura. Aliás, a miscelânea de personagens em busca de aceitação é o ponto forte neste filme. Por parte de quem assiste, é também precisaouma boa dose de aceitação e open mind!

Fala-se no amor e no sexo, na forma tão real que esta relação é: divertida quando precisa de ser, com raiva algumas vezes, hesitante e insegura, forte e intensa noutras.

Há muita cena ousada, muitas passagens que nunca tinha visto em cinema; mas e o que me faz gostar deste filme? A forma divertida e real de falar de sexo sem ser algo pornográfico, tal qual ele é de verdade.

E aquela cena de abertura, wooww, prendeu-me até ao final!

These bitches sucking cock and eating ass… then they show up at the buffet and say they’re vegan.

– Justin Bond

I am familiar with John Cameron Mitchell’s work, thoroughly enjoying his transsexual rock musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch. I eagerly wanted for his follow-up. Now, we have Shortbus. It’s not going to be a classic film, but a suitable one.

The focus of film is on Jaime (PJ Deboy) and James’ (Paul Dawson) relationship. They have been together for five years that are thinking about opening up their relationship. James is severely depressed. James carries around a video camera to record his life for a pet project of his that he is keeping secret from Jaime.

They go to see Dr. Sofia Lin (Sook-Yin Kim), a couple’s counselor that is having trouble achieving an orgasm from her husband, Rob (Raphael Barker). The couple tells Sofia about a sex club called “Shortbus”. Justin Bond is the mistress of the club that shows Sofia around the place.

She befriends Severin (Lindsay Beamish), a dominatrix that is looking for a meaningful relationship. They try to fix each other’s problems.

Jaime and James find a possible third partner in their relationship, Ceth (Jay Brannan). They should be happy, right? Nothing is, as it seems. There is a neighbor across the way that is obsessed with James, Caleb (Peter Stickles).

The movie tackles the topic of relationships and all that comes along with that; love, commitment, monogamy and sex. It’s infamously known that the unknown actors had un-simulated sex in the movie. I think that Mitchell wanted to have an honest portrayal of what two people is thinking, feeling, acting in a couple. You cannot shy away from sex. It’s a part of life and we should not be a afraid of it.

The core message of the film is connection in whatever configuration that might be. That tired saying, “find your bliss” can be applied here.

I understand Mitchell’s intentions with the film. I enjoyed two-thirds of this film, but the last falls off the rails into some weird shit.

Judgment: If you want to see somebody sing the national anthem into somebody’s ass, watch this film.

Rating: ***1/2

Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, in “Rabbit Hole”, directed by John cameron Mitchell

Nicole Kidman took on another demanding new role in “Rabbit Hole,” an adaptation of David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer prize-winning drama about a fraying family“Rabbit Hole,” as well, as a producer of the movie, the first from her production company, Blossom Films. With a modest budget of less than $10 million, a brisk 28-day shoot, a surprising director in John Cameron Mitchell, few frills (no trailers for the stars) and many interns, “Rabbit Hole” is more like an indie than a Hollywood production. Make no mistake: it was Ms. Kidman’s wattage that got it made, and quickly. But it does not yet have distribution.

“This is a passion project for Nicole,” Aaron Eckhart, who plays her husband, said after shooting a scene at Papazzio restaurant in Bayside. “The reason why I’m in the movie is Nicole. If she wants to work with somebody, then that’s what happens.”(Dianne Wiest, Tammy Blanchard and Sandra Oh are also in the cast.)

Mr. Mitchell noted that he received the call to direct in February and began working soon after. “That never happens,” he said, “but it was a priority for her.”

A downtown actor known for adapting his own often raucous and sexually explicit work — “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” and “Shortbus” — Mr. Mitchell was an unorthodox choice to direct an intimate story about the differing ways a couple cope with the accidental death of their young son. (In fact he was the second unorthodox choice: Sam Raimi was originally attached, but withdrew to do the next “Spider-Man.”) And it was strange for him to want to do it. “It’s the first thing since ‘Hedwig’ 10 years ago that made me drop everything,” Mr. Mitchell said.

He was attracted by Mr. Lindsay-Abaire’s taut script, and by a personal connection. “When I was 14,” he said, “we lost our brother, who was 4, to a heart problem. It was a sudden, unexpected event. It defined a family forever and recovering from it was something we’re still doing.”

But Ms. Kidman said Mr. Mitchell hardly needed to pitch her to get the job. “He already had it,” even before the phone call when he told her his story, she said. “Talking to someone, I don’t think words and talking is ultimately the way that you choose to do a piece,” she added over a cappuccino in the back of the set. “It’s all based on a sensation, on an instinct. That’s what my whole life’s been based on, a gut instinct. And either it goes way off and it’s something else, or it’s exactly what I thought it would be, or it’s way more.”

Her instincts have not always served her well lately. Ms. Kidman’s last three big-budget films, “Australia,” “The Golden Compass” and “The Invasion” were box-office disappointments, and an auteur-directed indie, Noah Baumbach’s “Margot at the Wedding,” was a moderate success at best. So while her red-carpet appeal is undiminished (her life in Nashville with her husband, the country star Keith Urban, and their daughter, Sunday Rose, is still tabloid worthy), her big-screen clout may be. That there are fewer boutique studios releasing the “odd stories” Ms. Kidman says she’s interested in — Paramount Vantage, which distributed “Margot,” is much diminished, for example — means she may have a harder time following her gut.

“It’s definitely a rough time,” said Bob Berney, the former president of Picturehouse, a division of Time Warner that was shut down last year. “There’s fewer buyers than ever before. On the other hand, I think the market in terms of audience is stronger than ever, in terms of the number of theaters there are, in terms of people who are interested in something unique or different.” (Mr. Berney has just opened a new distribution company, Apparition.)

Blossom Films has a first-look deal with 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight specifically for “Rabbit Hole.” “We get to finish at the pace that we want to,” Ms. Kidman said, “and then if people respond to it, we get to place it somewhere, with people that we feel are as passionate about it as we are.”

Ms. Kidman did not see “Rabbit Hole” on Broadway in 2006, but after reading a review, she called Per Saari, Blossom Films’ producer, and he flew to New York from Los Angeles that night, he said. He saw the show, for which Cynthia Nixon won a Tony in the role of the grieving mother, and set up a meeting with Mr. Lindsay-Abaire. Ms. Kidman read the play and later saw an Australian production.

“When I first responded to it, it was because I read it, and it was about grief, which fascinates me,” she said. “Loss and love seem to be themes that run through my work.” This film is about “a marriage and the way that people fuse through pain, that you can either be pulled apart or you can come together. In the same way that ‘Birth,’ a film that I did, was about loss of the loved one who’s your partner in life, this is the most profound loss, and it’s the worst place to tread. And so my nature tends to be to explore something that I’m terrified of.”

Shooting a tense scene at the restaurant, Ms. Kidman and Mr. Eckhart remained in character between takes, continuing their conversation as husband and wife or staring intently down in concentration. Ms. Kidman didn’t deviate from the text, but made subtle changes in her inflection, giving the moment, in which she reveals that she no longer wants to attend a support group for grieving parents, a tinge of sadness or bitter resignation.

Asked if making a smaller-scale movie was a refreshing change, Ms. Kidman seemed to bristle. “I’ve always done them,” she said. “I mean, I won the Academy Award” — in 2003, for “The Hours” — “and I went straight into making ‘Birth.’ ”

True: for an A-list star, her career is a patchwork of quirky choices. And in conversation she was personable and down to earth, asking for recommendations of things to do in New York. “A good jazz club is what I need,” she said, “something that is really underground.”

Mr. Saari said she reminded him of his last boss, Robert Redford. “Redford has always had one foot outside of Hollywood,” he said. “I think Nicole, although she’s known to be a movie star, she has this independent spirit to her. It’s the same part of her that lives in Nashville and has a farm. She brings in these giant squash, and says, ‘Look what I grew in my garden.’ She wanted to enter them in a competition.”

Ms. Kidman said her goal with Blossom Films was to promote the vision of directors like Mr. Mitchell and writers like Mr. Lindsay-Abaire, who was surprised to find himself a part of the production even after he submitted his draft. “They haven’t changed anything without my permission, which in my experience never happens,” he said.

Of course vanity production companies in Hollywood are nothing new, nor are pet projects. Most of the films that Blossom is developing, including “The Danish Girl,” based on a novel about the first man to have a sex change operation, have roles for Ms. Kidman. (One that doesn’t is a remake of “How to Marry a Millionaire” in which a man is the gold digger; Ms. Kidman said it was her idea.) But surprise: Ms. Kidman said she has no plans to direct, though she would like to write. “I’m not interested in just producing movies,” she said. “I’m actually interested in protecting the material, because you don’t want this stuff to get hacked to pieces and commercialized and taken into a place that isn’t authentic and real.”

That may be true as an actor, but as a producer, doesn’t she want her films to be commercially successful? Ms. Kidman dismissed the question.

“Films are so ephemeral,” she said. “You can have all of the components and still miss horribly. That’s the beauty of art.”

Take the I-70 route to Boulder, Colorado.  Stop there for a couple of hours for beer, food, shopping.
Go from Boulder straight to Gerlach, NV, stopping in Salt Lake City for any last minute provisions.  (We can top up on ice and etc in Fernley)

Hopefully by last minute provisions he means “everything you need for a week…”

In good news, a spot opened up on the bus and will hopefully be filled by a cute, effigy-building burner man. So that means I can pack less books! You know for the non-stop bus orgy we’ll be having (note to self, bring a copy of Short Bus) we’ll be having.

Yeah.

I’m packing a big ol’ box of books.

*sigh*

Actually, I am trying to stave off reading a few books I’ve aquired – I am a terribly fast reader, so a book that might last someone the whole trip, I’ll finish in a day or less.

And another Kingsolver I don’t think I’ve read. Which is hard to believe, as she is wonderful and I thought I’d read everything. I’m also taking

and more…

I was feeling lonely and depressed on a Thursday night, so what better to do then finish off a bottle of Sangria with a hipster / “progressive” movie.  Unfortunately, Shortbus did little but exacerbate my state of depression.

First off, the acting ranged from noticeably bad to god awful.  I understand going with first time actors as a technique to make things feel more “raw” and “real,” but there’s a certain point at which it takes you out of the film and just ruins everything.  Granted, it might not be entirely these kids fault, as the dialogue was so poorly written and the stories were so transparent that Olivier would’ve  had a tough time making them feel authentic.

Next, the stories were basically just plain dumb.  I get it.  There are women out there who have never experienced an orgasm!  Gasp!  And what’s worse, they hide it from people!  Luckily a couple of gay dudes will be able to see right through them and take them to an underground sex party and introduce them to other crazy people with ambiguous sexualities to help them figure it all out and acheive that elusive orgasm……?  Um no.  This is where your edgy and envelope-pushing movie devolves into trite and predictably drab circumstances.  And no amount of color and authentic sex will mask that.  The techniques are interesting, but if there’s one thing I hate, it’s being beaten over the head by messages in art.  Ohhh, look!  John Cameron Mitchell is being edgy and exposing things in art that no one else has the balls to expose!  Actually, no.  If you want to make things edgy, remember to make them interesting first.  Thanks.

After writing, directing and starring in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, John Cameron Mitchell then made waves with the controversial Shortbus, but the high profile cast list for his next film suggests it’ll be a little less daring. Rabbit Hole will be out in 2010 and stars Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart and Sandra Oh.

I’ve loved him since he played Daniel Deronda for the BBC, but Hugh Dancy is fast becoming more popular in Hollywood than fellow British Hugh, Mr Grant. He was lovely in Confessions of a Shopaholic and new film Adam, in which he does a very convincing American accent, is set to be another big hit.

One of my favourite TV shows of all time is Gilmore Girls, so I’m pleased to see that both Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel have new films coming out. The girls can be seen in The Answer Man and Post-Grad respectively, and both of the films look well worth seeing, especially Answer Man which has had great reviews.

After writing about The Boat That Rocked the other day, I thought about other music-related movies that I really enjoyed and found that I had several favorites that I could watch over and over again and enjoy almost as much as the first time. These aren’t concert films – those are obvious repeat performers – but movies about pop music. I’m also focusing on the more modern era (forgive me, Sal Mineo). Plus the movie has to be good (sorry, Tommy) . A few are obvious commercial favorites (is there anyone who doesn’t quote Spinal Tap?) but a couple of these must be off the path; I find most people have never heard of them, let alone seen them.

But hey, that’s a large part of why I do this, to share information about what knocks me out and hopefully expose people to a great band, film or book they might have missed. I highly recommend every single one of these, and hopefully there’s at least one you haven’t seen that you will take a chance on. Enjoy some great movies with great music, whether it’s a library rental, a used copy on Amazon or circling the listing in TV Guide when you see it. Without further ado (you’ve had just the right amount of ado so far, right?) and with apologies to The Committments and The Rutles, here they are in alphabetical order…

Almost Famous : Cameron Crowe drew upon his own story to craft this brilliant peek behind rock’s curtain, from the groupies (sorry…Band-Aids) to the roadies and the madness that is rock’n'roll. Great music and wonderful performances from the leads and Philip Seymour Hoffman’s great turn as Lester Bangs.

A Hard Day’s Night : The Beatles. Need I say more? “I’m a Mocker”

Hedwig and the Angry Inch : Absolutely the best rock opera ever. John Cameron Mitchell’s brilliant performance and Stephen Trask’s music are a perfect match, and both the musical and the movie soundtracks could stand on their own as great music. But the film is phenomenal.

The Idolmaker : Ray Sharkey should have won the Academy Award for his performance as a teen idol Svengali. Great performances from Paul Land, Joe Pantoliano and Peter Gallagher.

A Mighty Wind : The Spinal Tap of folk music and another perfect movie from Christopher Guest. Tremendous performances from everyone, but Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara as “Mitch and Mickey” were brilliant. How did this song not win the Academy Award?

Rock and Roll High School : The Ramones. Need I say more? “Things sure have changed since I got kicked out of high school”.

Spinal Tap : Absolutely hilarious, with pitch perfect performances from the three leads and an amazing array of bit parts and cameo roles, like Paul Shaffer as Artie Fufkin and Bruno Kirby as the Sinatra-loving limo driver (the extended deleted scenes are priceless). Here’s a song so good I like it even though it’s parody.

Still Crazy : I think the common thread in all these movies is perfect casting. Bill Nighy is wonderful as the fragile lead singer and you can’t go wrong with comic geniuses Billy Connolly and Timothy Spall. But the story is as heartwarming as it is funny and the music is phenomenal.

That Thing You Do : Tom Hanks nailed the screenplay about a one-hit-wonder band and even wrote many of the songs that the other acts in the “galaxy of stars” performed. The main songs benefitted from pop wizards like Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne) and Mike Viola, but the perfect casting was only exceeded by the movie’s heart. One of my favorite films of all time in any genre.

Velvet Goldmine : Glam fans will lap this up – an Eddie and The Cruisers type plot in the world of glitter and decadence, with Ewan McGregor and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as thinly disguised Iggy Pop and David Bowie plus great performances from Christian Bale and Eddie Izzard.

USA 95m, Colour
Director: John Cameron Mitchell; Cast: John Cameron Mitchell, Miriam Shor, Stephen Trask, Andrea Martin, Michael Pitt

Hedwig is a brilliant documentary-styled musical comedy that tells the story of a young transgendered East German man who undergoes a sex change to marry his American soldier boyfriend as a means to escape the Iron Curtain. After their marriage fails, Hedwig is forced to take odd jobs, which includes fronting her own rock band: the “Angry Inch” which tours a chain seafood restaurants in an effort to claim ownership of songs she has written but has had stolen by her estranged ex-boyfriend turned superstar: Tommy Gnosis. The musical numbers are some of the best in film and are augmented with great animation sequences which provide added dimension to this already remarkable work (Klaus Ming May 2009).

As all you many, many frequent readers of Bosh With Elaine and Josh know, Josh and I have been hard at working putting on our very own production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.  And since it has now come and passed, I think it mertis one long-ass post to wrap it up.

The first time I heard of Hedwig was in ninth grade when I was still coming down from my Rocky Horror high. So many people compare the two, that I added Hedwig to a long list of movies that I’d see eventually. The opportunity arose as I was sick and found the movie in the Comedy section of Blockbuster. I watched it when I went home, and I didn’t like it. Maybe it was the cold medicine or something, but it just didn’t mean anything to me. For whatever reason, I watched it again and fell in love. Suddenly everything clicked. I recognized myself in little Hansel – trapped in an oven of endless possibilties but limited means, and wanted to cry during “Origin of Love” because it so clearly expained the purpose for living. By the time it got to “Midnight Radio” when Hedwig was singing to the misfits, losers and rock and rollers, I knew that this was forever going to be my favorite movie.

I introduced it to Josh the night before he left to spend six weeks in Taiwan, and I ‘m not really sure how he felt about it. But as he left and I had the summer to myself, the research began. As I learned about John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask I became appreciative of Hedwig on another level because they had done exactly what it is truly my dream to do: musical to movie to cult phenomenom.

I can’t remember if producing the musical was my idea, or Josh’s, or a combination, but I know we agreed upon it the summer before sophomore year sitting in the little park by my house. Then some drunk twenty-somethings ran through the park and scared the shit out of us.

But I digress.

Through 10th and 11th grade we periodically spoke of it, but didn’t really focus on it. Then at the beginning of senior year we got serious. In September we got the rights and arranged to use the San Diego LGBT Center for three evenings in March . Then we set up auditions with people we met on Craigslist and through community college bulletin boards. We met some weird people and thankfully didn’t get murdered (which I hear is a possiblity when you invite people you meet on the Internet to your house or go to theirs), and unfortunatley…it just didn’t work out. We cancelled at the Center and had a serious talk at SMG about the prospects of Hedwig over California burritos.

It was looking grim and we were discouraged. It was already February and it was clear that we could never pull everything together by May. Josh suggested giving up (several times), but I knew that this was too important not to complete. Perhaps it had something to do with the passing of Prop 8, but I think it was mainly for the selfish reasons of wanting to finish something that I’d been dreaming about for going on three years. (Also I’d written about it in my college applications…)

So then we decided so scale way down and make it Josh, me, and a karaoke track for a very ghetto production sometime in May and the beautiful Scripps Ranch library.

Thankfully, Forrest and Rebecca agreed to help us out. Now there was a cast of three with Josh as Hedwig (this took some coaxing, but he eventually warmed to the idea), Forrest as the entire band (but specifically Skszp, the musical director), and Rebecca as Yitzhak. But as things got busy at school (and as we procrastinated) we arrived at the week before our scheduled performance fully unprepared.

We had costumes and the very limited required set pieces (including the ninety-three illustraions I drew which were to be projected during the entire show), but as for the acting and music…there was none of that.

So we worked hard for the next week to get our show ready for Monday May 4th.

And it sort of bombed. The projector was missing the correct cable, Hedwig’s wig fell off, an entire portion was forgotten, daylight poured through the glass doors, the lighting was nonexistent…

But everyone still clapped and was very nice to us about it. Luckily, Rebecca’s brother is besties with a lady in Scripps Ranch who owns a Performing Arts studio and she let us use it for our second show. We kept rehearsing and found Huy and Kevin to round out the necessary drum and piano sections of the music. And on May 16th, with an audience of about twenty, we put on a really good production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

The projections added another dimension to the story, the music sounded really good, we had a real lighting board, Josh did such a good job, everyone looked great…it just went so well.

I know that this whole thing was supposed to be for our Senior Exhibitions, but I feel like this was really our first great life accomplishtment. I don’t mean to  gush, but really I couldn’t be more proud of what we were able to do. Or more thankful to all the people who helped us. We’ve said it a thousand times, but they deserve repeating: Forrest, Rebecca, Thomas, Kevin, Huy, Angela, my Mom and Carl…it would have been impossible without you.

But there was one person that I forgot to thank when we took the microphone after the show and that would be Josh. I’m really glad that he didn’t give up, even though it would have been easier, and that he played Hedwig (which he really did so well). So thanks, Josh. Cause I couldn’t have done it on my own.

We’ll have pictures and video coming soon, but in the meantime enjoy this clip of “Sugar Daddy”:

And if you missed the show or you want to see it again…well, you never know when Hedwig will stop by Scripps Ranch again.

Em um de seus “simpósios”, Platão nos conta o mito da “alma gêmea”: no princípio, havia três gêneros: o masculino, o feminino e o andrógino.Esses últimos eram como gêmeos siameses, dois seres fundidos num único. Habilidosos e inteligentes, os andróginos desafiavam o poder dos deuses. Não por acaso, Zeus decidiu separá-los, enfraquecendo-os. Desde então, um passaria eternamente buscando o outro, sua metade perdida, sua alma gêmea.

O mito sobrevive até os dias de hoje. Afinal, não é difícil encontrar pessoas procurando pela “outra metade da laranja”, almejando a possibilidade de encontrar aquele alguém com o qual se possa fundir e “voltar” a ser um só. Mas e quando se nasce “andrógino”? Quando as duas metades já vem confusas numa única pessoa, denunciando um aparente descuido dos deuses? É o que “Hedwig: rock, amor e traição” (“Hedwig and the angry inch”, 2001) vem contar.

Baseado num musical off-boradway, o filme é embalado ao ritmo do rock n´roll e escrito e dirigido por John Cameron Mitchell, que também atua no papel principal. “Hedwig” foi o primeiro trabalho do diretor de “Shortbus“. Logo na primeira cena, somos apresentados a uma inusitada banda de rock: entre roqueiros “invocados” e guitarras distorcidas, aparece uma transexual. De maquiagem carregada e uma enorme peruca loira, Hedwig é a vocalista. Daí pra frente, a narrativa não-linear nos conduzirá através de flashbacks e divagações dos personagens, através dos quais descobriremos que Hedwig nascera na Alemanha Oriental em plena guerra fria. Almejando uma vida melhor, o ainda-garoto Hansel faz uma cirurgia de mudança de sexo para poder se casar e tentar o sonho americano. Só que a operação não dá muito certo: Hedwig fica com uma “polegada” de pênis, a tal “angry inch” (algo como “polegada furiosa”) do título original.

O mais interessante em “Hedwig”, e, talvez, tema principal do filme, é justamente a dualidade. Tudo no filme gira em torno dessas divisões, quebras, sempre quebrando ao meio algo que deveria ser uno. E Mitchell parece ter notado isso desde o roteiro trazendo para a sua direção, que se torna extremamente fragmentada, partida. O filme é quase “clivado”, na medida em que vai se dividindo junto com a personagem principal enquanto nos conduz a um final que se poderia dizer apoteótico. Passado e presente, causa e consquência… tudo se desconecta. As convenções não parecem coerentes quando a história a ser contada gira em torno de assuntos transgressores como o rock e a transexualidade.

Primeiro, parte-se a Alemanha. Um só país rachado ao meio por um muro. Mas o filme não nos contará essa história com diálogos, nem com imagens documentais. Tudo vira animação. Afinal, nada mais justo do que visitar as lembranças da infância de Hedwig através de seus próprios desenhos (aqui criados por Emily Hubley). E é violentamente, como a guerra, que se forma a personalidade de Hedwig.

Parte-se então a personagem. E é aqui que Mitchell demonstra seu talento precoce (trata-se de seu primeiro filme) na direção. A primeira relação sexual de Hedwig, por exemplo, é mostrada de uma forma que mistura humor e poesia. O diretor brinca com as imagens, metáforas e as conhecidas “balas de ursinho”, criando uma das sequências mais notáveis do filme. O mesmo acontece, aliás, ao longo de toda a história: dificilmente veremos algo decupado de forma naturalista. Como a própria Hedwig, tudo ganha um tom bizarro, inusitado. Entre as cores bem compostas e as imagens alucinantes que compõem o estilo de Mitchell, o público não sabe onde acaba a forma e começa a função. Mais uma dualidade misturada.

E há a música, afinal, estamos falando de um musical. Composta por Stephen Trask (que no filme interpreta um dos membros da banda), a trilha vai do rock mais pesado até o mais pop. E as letras são uma atração a parte. “Origins of love”, por exemplo, em que Hedwig conta como acredita ter surgido o amor, passa pelo mito das almas gêmas de Platão, ganha pitadas de cosmologia (misturando deuses das mitologias nórdica, grega, egícpcia e judaica) e termina sem deixar de lado as guitarras nervosas e a atitude “violenta”. Aliás, cosmologia é assunto que dá pano pra manga em “Hedwig”. Em uma outra cena, vemos Hedwig como uma inesperada Eva ao lado de um confuso Adão. Em um “éden” projetado contra um fundo branco, os dois discutem questões que vão do criacionismo ao relacionamento entre eles.

Embora a imensa maioria das canções seja cantada nos próprios shows da banda, na medida em que vamos conhecendo o passado (e o presente) dos personagens, elas começam a ser, também, parte importante da narrativa. Essa junção entre a música e a história também acontecerá de forma progressiva, fechando outra das muitas dualidades com que “Hedwig” brinca.

Finalmente, as atuações dão vida a cada personagem de “Hedwig” de uma forma visceral.Mitchell faz de Hedwig uma diva do absurdo, uma adorável megera. Não se trata apenas de uma transexual (que por si só faz do papel um desafio), mas de uma transexual que traz em si as dualidades de um mundo que, desde sua sexualidade até seu país de origem, se rasga ao meio. Hedwig é intempestiva, bipolar. Ao mesmo tempo que se torce por ela, queremos vê-la pagar pela forma como trata as pessoas ao seu redor. Não são apenas os gêneros que se misturam na personagem.

Outra atuação de peso é mérito de Michael Pitt (que em 2003 se tornaria conhecido por seu papel em “Os Sonhadores”, de Bertolucci). Com apenas 20 anos na época, Pitt compõe de forma surpreendente e humana o rock star Tommy Gnosis, “cria” da própria Hedwig. E é interessante notar como as expressões, o gestual e mesmo o olhar do ator mudam ao longo da vida de Tommy: desde a adolescência, quando ainda vivia com os pais conservadores, até a vida desregrada e enbanjadora de uma grande estrela da música.

Hedwig foi lançado em 2001, ano em que, coincidentemente, aconteceram os atentados contra as torres gêmeas. É engraçado pensar que, mais uma vez, o mundo seria partido ao meio: oriente e ocidente estariam novamente separados. Num tempo em que o “outro” se torna motivo de medo e estranhamento, Hedwig representa tudo o que se queria banido: trangressão, homossexualidade, transexualidade, instabilidade. Misturava em si dois lados que deveriam estar nitidamente divididos. O mundo, como na infância de Hedwig, não estava preparado para ela. Talvez esteja aí a grande sacada do filme: lembrar que o andrógino, desde o mito de Platão, precisou ser dizimado pelos deuses, uma vez que ameaçava sua soberania. Sendo profano, quando este ser eventualmente ressurge, provoca incômodo, nojo, instabilidade. Entretanto, ele é a única evidência de que, ainda que humanos, podemos desafiar o poder do Olimpo.

Assista ao trailer

A few nights ago a couple of good friends came over to watch a movie and relax.

When sifting through my collection I decided to pull out “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” by John Cameron Mitchell. Since a few of my peeps had never seen the film, I felt it to be the necessary choice for the evening.

This original play gone movie was written by the incomparable John Cameron Mitchell and the music in the film was written by Stephen Trask. Together, the duo created an epic piece of art that has been commonly referred to as the modern day Rocky Horror Picture Show. While there are some similarities between the film, they really couldn’t be anymore different.

In the film – Hedwig embodies that raw emotion so many of us feel when it comes to love. Her twisted fate takes the audience on spin after turn which leads to a very climatic ending. One of my favorite songs in the film is called “Wicked Little Town.” I think her hair  looks totally adorable in the scene – and how can you not love Kwang Yi (on the guitar ladies and gentlemen)?

If you haven’t seen this film I highly reccomend it. And if it’s been a while since you have, I suggest you revisit this classic sometime in the near future.

After all, “to be free – one must give up a little part of oneself.”

This is beautiful. The message, the graphics, John Cameron Mitchell, the whole thing. I have read a bit about this song which was written for the movie Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The song was inspired by a story from Plato’s Symposium which was taken from a speech made by Aristophanes called “The Origin of Love.”
The song is about how we are all looking for our soul mate. In the beginning there were humans that were made of two people stuck back to back. There were male-male humans from the sun, female-female from the earth and female-male from the moon. But the gods were jealous and split them apart and now a persons only desire is to find love, or their other half.

El versátil actor Aaron Eckhart negocia actualmente su incorporación al drama Rabbit Hole, que cuenta ya con Nicole Kidman como protagonista y productora. La australiana ha puesto el proyecto en manos del director John Cameron Mitchell en una producción liderada por su compañía Blossom Films, dependiente de 20th Century Fox. La película tiene como protagonista a una pareja cuyas vidas sufren un horrible cambio tras la pérdida de su hijo de cuatro años en un accidente de tráfico. Juntos iniciarán un viaje en busca de la redención que logre corregir el rumbo de sus vidas. David Lindsay-Abaire se encarga del guión, que adapta su propia obra teatral. 

• Oh, that Mickey Rourke. He got a faceful of Marisa Tomei’s ta-tas in The Wrestler. Now Megan Fox might have a toot on his trumpet. Hey, get your mind of the gutter. Mitch Glazer’s Passion Plays will have Rourke’s horn-blower taking a carnival beauty named “Angel” under his wing and protecting her from a gangster type. Angels? Trumpets? Wings? Geddit? While the thriller itself sounds skippable, bloggers everywhere thank Mr. Glazer for giving them an op to post near-naked Fox pictures. (Hollywood Reporter)
• We’re not done with Mr. Big. Sex and the City 2 will come again in theaters on May 28, 2010, giving heterosexual men only a year and a month to steel themselves for another two-and-a-half-hours of drag queens who lunch. Warner Bros. and New Line haven’t given any more details, but as they come in, we’ll have more opportunities to indulge in inappropriate homophobia. Note to the fanboys: Sex and the City: The Movie made $412.6 million worldwide, easily out-grossing a certain comic book movie we’re all tired of hearing about. (Variety)
• “Stringer” Bell is pumping up his resume. Idris Elba and Zoe Saldana are joining Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Losers. They’ll all play members of a special forces team who are left for dead, then try to erase their names from a CIA dead pool. Wait, doesn’t it usually happen the other way around? Elba will be doing cold and ruthless, Zoe will be doing wounded and tough, and Morgan is this Z-team’s Hannibal. (Hollywood Reporter)
• If anybody wants Aaron Eckhart to play Two-Face again, they’d better have a word. The actor is filling up his future by falling into Rabbit Hole, which also stars Nicole Kidman. The play finds a family rocked by the sudden death of their four-year-old, and the audience thinking, “Hurry up and get on with your lives.” Hedwig and the Angry Inch’s John Cameron Mitchell directs, so with luck there will be a song or two. (Production Weekly)
• Meet the Parents director Jay Roach is currently helping Sacha Baron Cohen out with Bruno. So Paul Weitz is looking to jump into the helmer’s chair for Little Fockers, the third part of the comic trilogy. He’s the lesser known half of the American Pie team. Ben Stiller is expected to learn that Robert De Niro is his real father and Teri Polo will meet Ewoks. Actually, what we’ll really see is the sorry spectacle of Jake LaMotta doing changing diaper gags. (Variety)

Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart have signed on to star in an adaptation of Rabbit Hole, a play written by David Lindsay-Abaire, which will be directed by Hedwig and Shortbus helmer John Cameron Mitchell.

The play, according to Wikipedia, concerns:

“…a couple, Becca and Howie, trying to cope with the death of their only child, a four-year-old, in an auto accident, while Becca’s well-meaning mom and off-kilter sister attempt to lift their spirits (and deal with their own problems), each in her own inimitable way. The couple’s lives are further complicated when the young driver who killed their son contacts them seeking closure as well.”

Abaire won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama in recognition of the work, which starred Sex and the City’s Cynthia Nixon and Mad Men’s John Slattery.

It apparently induced a wave of tears during its run in New York and could well provide a way for Kidman to reassert herself in the A-list acting game following a period of quietness and missteps (Australia, anyone?). It could also right the minor wrong of Aaron Eckhart being eschewed from the supporting actor race this year.

After a seven-hour car trip to Asheville, NC, I arrived at the University of North Carolina Asheville for the Queer Art/Queer Action conference, that ran March 26-29. Two groups from the University of Cincinnati, GenderBloc and Equality UC, attended the conference during Spring Break.

I must first start with how beautiful everything is out there. I mean, we drove past some crazy stuff in Kentucky and Tennessee (like the first KFC and a 50-foot-high white cross juxtaposed against an adult store), but once we entered the mountains, the scenery was just awe-inspiring. And Asheville is a breath of fresh air: People will talk to you (and not in a creepy “hey girl, hey” kind of way), and they are generally nice. Not to mention, for a town in the South it is extremely indie, liberal and radical: an oasis among a desert of backwoods and republicans.

We of course check in to the hotel and take a short drive to the scenic campus of UNCA. We rush to check in for the conference, gobble down some food (which was impressively delicious for campus food in the student union) and head over to see a screening of Hedwig And The Angry Inch followed by a lecture by John Cameron Mitchell. He read of a personal narrative of his time in Russia and answered questions from the audience.

It is important to note the people in the following pictures are one and the same.

John Cameron Mitchell answers questions at UNCA.

John Cameron Mitchell plays Hedwig in Hedwig And The Angry Inch. From Movies.Pop-Cult.com.

John Cameron Mitchell speaks at UNCA

On the next day, Friday, March 27, I awoke bright and early for conference activities. I first attended a panel on ancient sexuality. When I arrived, I learned that any session labeled “panel” was code for “people reading their academic papers,” and after the first paper was presented I skipped out early to attend another session titled Queer Teaching/Queer Learning. I listened to a delightful poet named Lee discuss being an out professor. I was actually pretty intrigued by her paper, and it was one of the few presentations that kept my attention. She used the word “canoodling” quite frequently, and discussed how queer students gravitated toward her classes. I also watched a presentation by Caroline Cottingham that also held my interest because she had a Powerpoint –  a breath of fresh air when the most visual stimulation I was receiving was a woman brushing back her hair behind her ear while reading her paper.

After an hour and 15 minutes of paper reading, I decided to stick to everything labeled “workshop” for the duration of the conference. That lead me to JAC Stringer’s Bending Desire: Sexual Desire and Genderqueer Identities and Performance presentation. Stringer defined all of the basic terms and discussed drag performance, as well as included photos of people from his own drag troupe the Black Mondays to illustrate his points.

One Tough Cookie performs Ludacris' "Fantasy" at UNCA.

Following a lunch break, I attended more workshops, but the highlight of the afternoon was a one-person band by the name of One Tough Cookie, that reminded me of Adelaide Windsome from Tranny Roadshow. The artist, Rae, sang short songs with a children’s key board, accordion and xylophone. Topics ranged from sexual assault to eating disorders to the government to sex and relationships. Rae was extremely interactive with the crowd and took shout-out requests for songs or specific instruments.

The keynote speaker for that night was poet Joan Larkin. She spoke briefly on how she has seen poetry change and then read some of her poems. Larkin even unveiled some new work for her latest book – a novel composed of sonnets.  

After all of the conference activities it was pretty late, but not late enough not to go out to a bar. Turns out John Cameron Mitchell (see pictures above) invited some of my friends out to the bar LaRue’s Backdoor. (Charming name isn’t it?) The fine establishment is a bit bigger than my living room and featured a painting of The Last Supper on one wall and bunt cake tins on another.

I did have a fairly good time. The bartender was a doll, and some random gay men explained to me why I was “fierce,” and then decided to demonstrate my walk. (You would have thought it was a taping America’s Next Top Model in there). As I was going to leave, John Cameron Mitchell did the thing that just about everyone does to me when they first meet me: He pulled my hoodie off of my shoulders and felt my chest tattoos as he cooed “Oh, I love your tattoos.” This lead into discussion on Hedwig’s makeup and what queen had such handy work, and it all ended in an awkward half hug, half handshake type of goodbye.

On Saturday, March 29, the final day of the conference, I woke up bright and early again. My first session was lead by Talka and Rae (from One Tough Cookie), and they presented the Tranzmission project. Tranzmission is an organization serving queer and trans inmates, filling orders for books and placing inmates with penpals. In prisons, inmates are assigned to living quarters based upon sex, which is problematic for transpeople. Often trans and queer people are abused and isolated in prisons, and Tranzmission offers resources for these inmates.

Dean Spade lectures at UNCA.

Dean Spade was the keynote for Saturday, and he presented some fairly radical topics. He explained that the problem with the current queer activism is the fact that it is run by white, gay lawyers. For example, according to Spade, in California the large organizations that are run by the white, gay lawyers decided to tackle Proposition 8 because they had done everything else. California had anti-gay hate crimes legislation and civil unions with all the same protections as marriage. This is the type of activism Spade hates; the only type he wants to do is the kind labeled “impossible” or “politically inviable.”

Spade spoke on giving away our money as well. It is the capitalist in us that thinks we have to save every penny for ourselves, but if we want to see real change, we should donate that change. 

Spade also introduced an interesting four pillars model of activism. Service, policy and law, consciousness raising and power are each a pillar. All of the other pillars are put into place in order to gain power, but most of the time, organizations just focus on one pillar, when they need all of the pillars to work together in order to be successful.

Overall I had a wonderful time at the Queer Art/Queer Action conference and exploring Asheville, NC. I met some great people, was introduced to new topics and grew as a queer and an activist.

I will leave you with a final photo of my view of the beautiful mountains as I departed Asheville.

The Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina.