Here He Comes

My second earliest gay memory happened when I was six. I loved Speed Racer. No, not that kind of love. I just really, really dug the show. I mean, what six-year-old doesn't want a car that can chop down trees and has a monkey in the trunk.? Plus, it's really easy to act out old-style anime. You only have to move one frame every couple of seconds or so. Easy!

But if Speed ruled, Racer X rocked. Tall, dark, handsome. Mysteriously edgey. Maybe even a bad guy. But, as the Shangri La's sang, he's good bad, but he's not evil. So, the whole gay thing: I remember one afternoon watching the cartoon like I always did. Racer X came on, so I naturally paid more attention. Then--and I'm smiling as I type this--he got into a glass-doored shower for a Brian DePalma steam special.

It was years before I had a name for what happened to me next.

There was never another moment like that in the entire series. I know. I looked. Now I've learned that those wacky Hollywood Wachowskis are putting together a live action Speed Racer movie. Insert gear shift joke here. Ahem.

The Noble Art of Missing Me

Missing me yet?

Work is taking up almost all of my time, these past few days, and will continue to do so for at least two more weeks. That means not as many posts. If I had more readers, I could have a guest blogger sit in and make stuff up about me. But since it's mostly just me and the unmanned attacks from Saudi Arabia, I'll just have to let it go.

And speaking of work, I generated the image below to help "clearly explain" one of my ideas. How funny is that? I think I need a vacation.

Best. PowerPoint Presentation. Ever.

Royksopp rocks it!

The Other One

I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.
Jean Cocteau

Insult of the Week

From Gawker's comment page on the Rosie O'Donnell-Elisabeth Hasselbeck dust up:

mitts off the preggo? I don't care is she's carrying an endangered white tiger around in there--if she spouts off bullshit in a public forum, she should be taken to task for it.

A gloves-off street brawl from NYC--with the added benefit of truth! And who doesn't love the Left-Right tussle reflected in the image of an endangered species vs. a pro-life neo con. Beauty.

Radio, Radio

Most of Elvis Costello's recent material is so lame that it's got folks reevaluating his previous work. Now, that's gotta suck. My advice: Listen to the old stuff and remember the first time you heard it. Junior high schooler, sitting in your bedroom, LP spinning in the dark, imagining that this strange man from England was going to save rock and roll. And maybe even your life. Enjoy.

Update: Here's the infamous, blisteringly ad hoc performance of "Radio, Radio" on Saturday Night Live in 1977. This is the one that had Lorne Michaels giving him the finger from the wings, and got Elvis banned from SNL for years to come.

Gay Assimilation: Good or Bad? Discuss

The news from Russia certainly makes me rethink my longing for the good old days of the gay subculture. It's easy to forget how bad it was, even as one remembers the parts that were engergizing and fun.

Don't get me wrong. I've always thought of myself as assimilated, even when it wasn't true. And even to the point of getting ultra-lefty activists pissed at my desire for ordinariness. But I always had the subculture to fall back on if things got too safe.

That's why Little Britain's Daffyd Thomas is a brilliant tonic. As "the only gay in the village", he reminds us that there is a certain comfort and stability to be found in victimhood. But enjoying it is very limiting--and only possible when you're not actually being beaten.

Religion + Skinheads = Idiots

Nationalist and pro-fascist thugs (with help from militant Orthodox Christians) attacked and beat peaceful gay rights protesters in Moscow yesterday. Who do the police arrest? The gay demonstrators, of course. In front of the office of the mayor, who last year called gays "satanic". Personally, I think that any coalition that includes Orthodox priests, skinheads, and the elderly is pretty fucking satanic. Perhaps now we can put to rest thoughts that Russia can join civilized nations at the same table.

Veronica Mars: Gone, Not Forgotten

Veronica Mars was easily one the best shows on television. But the CW--a tragically shallow television network quickly losing its reason for being--seriously screwed up. They not only cancelled Veronica, but actually dumped the last two episodes on air, with no attempt to wrap up any of the outstanding storylines. Oh well.

I highly recommend Veronica's first season to almost anyone. Just be sure to have two full days free, because you won't want to stop watching once you start.

And if you ever miss our spunky detective too much, you can download your own Veronica for The Sims computer game. But don't be a perv.

(If you are a perv, you can also get Sims versions of the shirtless cowboys from Brokeback Mountain.)

"God's Lonely Man"

The original trailer for Taxi Driver. Still dropping jaws after all these years.

Found

I'm a very nosey man who loves to read those abandoned receipts at my ATM. So of course I dig Found magazine, where visitors mail notes, photos, grocery lists--pretty much anything--to the editors, who post them without comment.

As with stars in the sky, the more you look, the more you see. Ain't life sad great weird.

10 Movie to Watch For

Salon's fantastically readable indie movie critic, Andrew O'Hehir, sends this list from Cannes. Of them all, I'm getting sweaty palms thinking about Control directed by Anton Corbijn:

Corbijn's film is a glum, black-and-white period piece about Ian Curtis, the late singer in the legendary English post-punk band Joy Division, and there are only two possible reactions to that information. It's either "Who cares? or "What do I have to do to see it?" Samantha Morton stars as Curtis' wife, Deborah (the film is based on her book), with unknown Sam Riley as the espresso-depresso gloomster champion of his time.

Corbijn's music videos for Depeche Mode, Nirvana, and others were beautiful and perfectly tuned into their times. I wonder how well he does with late 70's England? And speaking of which, Ian and the boys appeared in 24 Hour Party People a few years back. It wasn't really their story, but I still hightly recommend it to anyone who loves post-punk music and gloomy dudes singing death disco.

The Ultimate Dynasty Catfight...in French

My Favorite Photography Blog

Strobist is one of the coolest and most practical blogs around. I rank it up there with Lifehacker for it's consistent "wow, I never knew I could do that" factor.

An example? It taught me how to build an in-home studio for $12 that actually works. Can't beat that.

Wi-Fi iPod?

CyberNet says maybe. It's an old article, but it still made my ears perk up.

What the Hell Is a "lolcat"?

That would be: Laugh Out Loud Cat.

Sometimes I think I get this whole internet-y thing. I've been working on it for more than 10 years, so I should know something, right? Then I hear about LolCats, scratch my head, and think "WTF?"

So what is a lolcat? A cute picture of a cat or other pet, with a humorous caption, written in some weird pidgeon English. And here's a shocking tidbit for you. The lolcat site I Can Has Cheezburger accounts for one-third of the Wordpress blogging bandwidth.

WTF?

Laugh out loud here.

Conservatives Want the Terrorists to Win

From AP:

Lawmakers who say the military has kicked out 58 Arabic language experts because they were gay want the Pentagon to explain how it can afford to let the valuable specialists go.

Seems to me: Bigots = Traitors.

Jazz Thursdays: Dave Brubeck Quartet (1961)

Gabba Gabba Hey! It's the Punk Zine Archive

Take a peek at your fav punk zines from 1977 to 1998: Suburban Voice, MaximumRockandRoll, HeartAttaCK, and Flipside are all here. I've never loved reading zines, finding them a little too difficult to actually deal with, but I loved that fact that they existed. Kind of like vampire bats. From Operation Phoenix Records.

DC Observed

I've spent the last few years really trying to become a better fine arts photographer, even to the point of considering an MFA in photography. So it's no surprise that I've created a personal photography blog. Actually, it's more of a personal photography art object project: I'll be posting one image each day for the next year taken in and around DC. It's been up one week. Check it out.