the trace

Politics of Disgust

2009-12-16T11:19:00.000-08:00

Martha Nussbaum discusses her new book, From Disgust to Humanity: Sexual Orientation and Constitutional Law:

“What is it that makes people think that a same-sex couple living next door would defile or taint their own marriage when they don’t think that, let’s say, some flaky heterosexual living next door would taint their marriage? At some level, disgust is still operating.”

Read the NYT interview here

I first read Nussbaum's Love's Knowledge when I was an undergrad, and her discussion of The Symposium pretty much blew my world open. I still really enjoy her work, and like that she isn't afraid to wrangle with Judith Butler.

Colfer: "Yes."

2009-12-14T12:11:00.000-08:00

Chelsea Handler interviewing Chris Colfer from Glee.

Vampire Diaries

2009-12-08T01:09:00.000-08:00

This is what I've learned so far from watching The Vampire Diaries. If you are a teen girl, and have premarital sex, you are going to get killed by a vampire. Whether you're camping with your boyfriend, at a kegger, or taking pills...the outcome is always the same. A vampire's going to get you. The vampire will look exactly like Boone from Lost.

In actual fact, it is not a bad show so far. I can see how it's trying to capitalize on the tween readership of Twilight, but I also recognize that Stephanie Meyer's series is one of those meteoric events that crashes into a genre like YA lit, and it can't be avoided. The Diaries borrows more heavily, I think, from the cultural inventory of Buffy. Probably for that reason alone, I'm willing to keep watching. And then there's the faint hope that a young queer character might appear. Or one can always hold out for the 'pansexual vampire' trope, because, hey, the lead looks a tiny bit like David Boreanaz, and that could be good.

James Baldwin

2009-12-04T03:05:00.000-08:00

Baldwin being interviewed after a meeting with Senator Robert Kennedy, talking about violent vs. non-violent protest tactics. "I want to get to your point...and I'm going to." The lighting of the cigarette is masterful.

Ellen and Lady Gaga

2009-12-04T01:31:00.000-08:00

Lady Gaga on Ellen. I love at the end of the clip, when she says: "Be good to your parents!"

Ciao

2009-12-02T23:06:00.000-08:00

I was procrastinating on Youtube, and found this video, marked "best gay kiss ever." It is from Alessandro Calza's 2008 film Ciao. Maybe not 'the best,' but definitely one of the sweetest ones I've seen in a while.

"And What About Love?"

2009-12-02T12:53:00.001-08:00

The XBox game Dragon Age Origins features a surprisingly steamy sex-scene between the main character and (of course) an Elf. Where was this game when I was a teenager? There was definitely no gay sex in Crusaders of the Dark Savant.

Fish

2009-11-26T17:53:00.000-08:00

The tortured queer story arc of Officer Oliver "Fish" and Kyle on OTLT (Scott Evans, the out actor who plays Oliver, is the brother of Chris Evans, and his mom even guest-starred on the show.)

Domingo

2009-11-21T21:34:00.000-08:00

"Domingo" ("Sunday") by Nacho Vigalondo

Trauma

2009-11-16T22:52:00.000-08:00

EMT Tyler Briggs on Trauma comes out to his partner (after they end up at a Halloween party in the Castro.) Because NBC is sadly predictable, this show will probably be canceled. I agree that there is a glut of medical dramas at the moment, but come on, this is way better than Mercy.

Wicked Glee

2009-11-16T21:57:00.001-08:00

Kurt and Rachel from Glee singing "Defying Gravity," from the musical Wicked. Chris Colfer the actor mentions in an Advocate interview that he told the show's creator Ryan Murphy about wanting to perform the song, and it was added to the show's narrative.

Dickson Film 1894

2009-11-03T19:38:00.000-08:00

And an older, classier version, made for the late nineteenth-century kinetophone.

Torchwood Season One

2009-11-03T18:21:00.001-08:00

Sigh.

OSI Book 3

2009-10-26T09:48:00.001-07:00

Inhuman Resources, Book 3 in the OSI series, is now available for pre-order from Amazon

Private Practice.

2009-10-18T21:09:00.000-07:00

Season 3? Why is it so good? How has it sucked me in for yet another year?

Madmen Season 3: Strong and getting stronger. I love Peggy Olson's narrative.

Glee: Last episode was underwhelming, but it is still going strong.

Cougartown: Why do I keep watching? Watching it is a perfectly neutral experience.

Inhuman Resources (forthcoming Spring 2010)

2009-10-15T15:43:00.000-07:00

I should get a few ARCs for Inhuman Resources soon, Book 3 in the OSI Series. I am waiting to post the cover art until it appears properly on Amazon. Suffice it to say, it involves stained glass, wings (which may be on fire), and a pretty sweet lanyard badge hanging from Agent Corday's neck. Once again, Timothy Lantz has crafted something really beautiful, and I'm happy to have it grace the cover of my books.

blues

2009-10-14T18:13:00.001-07:00

Hello Eve.

I miss you. I miss talking about our totem animals, and I am still very much a polar bear, as was decided earlier. I miss your beishung bear. Thank you for reading things that I wrote, and thank you for giving me new ideas. It was lovely to meet you when I did, and lovely to know you in some little way, and I am glad to have known you. I respected you and idolized you and were jealous of you for years, and getting to spend time with you was something that remains really precious to me. I was in Vancouver when I heard that you'd gone. I read it in an email while I was at Kinko's. I didn't know who to tell or what to do. I felt overwhelmingly pissed off, and then cheated, and then just sad, really sad.

I have been thinking of you a lot lately, since there have been several events held in your honor already, and more to come. And I have to adjust to the now distant, now slightly aslant, fact of you that is transmuted from the register of the physical to the memorial.

I will remember the sound of the ice cubes in your cup rattling slightly as you walked past the mailboxes and into the gray carpeted hallway of the grad center. The sound made me happy, and it still does.

Jes

Sunburst shortlist

2009-10-12T22:03:00.001-07:00

Just a quick note as well to say that Night Child was shortlisted for the 2009 Sunburst Award in Canadian Science Fiction. You can see the full shortlist here.

Chris Colfer from Glee

2009-10-11T16:49:00.001-07:00

Interview with Chris Colfer, out teen actor who plays Kurt in Glee. When asked if he was out in high school, Colfer replies: "Oh, no. People are killed for that in my hometown."

Full interview

NFL and queer rights

2009-10-11T16:41:00.000-07:00

Scott Fujita, in a recent interview with Dave Zirin from The Nation, discusses homophobia in the NFL, as well as same-sex adoption rights. "They call me the Pinko Commie Fag from Berkeley," he says, since he earned a B.A. in Political Science from UC-Berkeley.

Read full article

Zizek: Love is Evil

2009-10-06T19:40:00.000-07:00

Transgender teacher fired

2009-10-02T17:14:00.000-07:00

EDMONTON - A transgendered substitute teacher fired by a Roman Catholic public school board has filed a human rights complaint demanding to be reinstated.

Jan Buterman is praised in a letter of dismissal for his teaching abilities, but told his gender change from woman to man is not aligned with the teachings of the Catholic church or its values.

Full article

Staffordshire hoard

2009-09-24T10:59:00.000-07:00

Possibly the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon artifacts in history has been unearthed in Staffordshire:

Glee

2009-09-21T23:50:00.000-07:00

Positive things so far about GLEE:

1. A gay boy with an Hermes bag.
2. Overachiever raised by gay parents.
3. Manipulative use of Journey and Grease
4. A first kiss scene that actually reminds me of high school
5. Critiques of the United States education system
6. Adolescent singing fantasies (I still have them)

You could really watch it just for Jane Lynch alone.

I blame this post on Facebook

2009-09-20T21:02:00.000-07:00