the trace

Joshua Tree

2010-09-01T10:04:00.000-07:00

JOSHUA TREE, 1951: A PORTRAIT OF JAMES DEAN Teaser Trailer from Iconoclastic Features on Vimeo.

Trailer for the new film Joshua Tree 1951, exploring James Dean's queer side (did he have another side?)

What a shame

2010-08-29T01:55:00.001-07:00

A new Brokeback Mountain-inspired video by part of Take That, Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow. This video dares you not to like it. Still, you'd think with Robbie Williams, it would have been a bit more risqué. The hand on the shoulder made me think of that scene with Glen Close and Robert Sean Leonard from In The Gloaming, wherein she forgives him for being her gay son, and he talks about a mysterious ex who isn't important because he's already died from the disease that kills Sean-Leonard's character (its progress is time-lapsed for the benefit of a theatre-going audience that might not want to see what AIDS actually looks like over the course of several years).

But the video is fun. Being a fan, however, of such visual gems as the video to "Rock DJ," I really was expecting more skin from Robbie Williams.

Prop 8 overturned

2010-08-04T14:11:00.000-07:00

This just in...Proposition 8 has been struck down:

"In a highly anticipated decision, federal judge Vaughn Walker ruled that the California ballot measure banning gay marriage is unconstitutional." Read more

Don't Deke Margaret

2010-08-03T19:44:00.000-07:00

There's no rule that says writers have to get along, despite the fact that they share a creative impulse. In fact, writers are often portrayed as being inherently solitary, even melancholy life-forms who understand well what Dennis Lee calls "the difficulty of living on other planets." That said, it's nice when you meet other writers, and they turn out to be silly people very much like yourself. Once you realize that, you can start asking other people honest questions about your own work, knowing that they aren't going to skewer you, or worse, annihilate you with faint praise. I always find it slightly intimidating to ask another writer's opinion, either about their own work or anyone else's, including mine. Academics can be touchy, after all. Don't tell me you don't like Aphra Behn. Seriously, I will kick you and refuse to be your friend, or simply shake my head in sad confoundedness.

Literary theory devoted to creative writing is a new field for me, and I'm always looking for quality feminist work that reflects a modality of different techniques leading, ultimately, to whatever we want to call a creative text. Writers like Sina Queyras, Heather Milne, Nalo Hopkinson, Ursula K Leguin, Nicole Brossard, Margaret Atwood, and Chip Delany come to mind. Does anyone else have any suggestions?

Cleaning House

2010-08-02T21:58:00.001-07:00

At 31, I've come to realize that I have an agonistic relationship with cleaning. I once heard someone describe their relationship to cleaning as being "mellow," but mine is pretty much a dyad of hero and nemesis. Although I would never describe my home as dirty, the word 'cluttered' works on a number of levels. You may also notice discrete pockets of garbage, although never anything that represents a bio-hazard. And I do clean up for company, unless you have the misfortune of being my family or one of my closest friends. Then you get the full experience. Let me paint a picture: a friend of mine once asked me, sweetly, without even pausing to think that I'd take offense, "hey, can I clean your toilet?"

I realize that, because my mother cleaned every surface I have ever touched, I was able to grow up in a world that seemed to clean itself. I was the sort of kid who'd offer to clean, but rarely with the serious intent of getting anything done. And I had the sort of mom who would decline my offer 99& of the time and tell me to go read a book. I'm now learning, painfully, that I saw my mother's work at home as a kind of icing on the cake that was my existence. By taking her cleaning and cooking for granted, as rewards I was owed by some higher power, I vaporized these concrete realities into self-propagating concepts. I was understandably surprised, upon moving away from home, that my laundry did not wash itself. The first time I saw an industry-grade washer at a pay-laundry, I thought it was a Dalek, or at the very least, a money-eating machine.

I was witness to my stepmother's aggressive cleaning style from the ages of 10-15, but she wasn't able to teach me much of anything. I regarded cleaning as beneath my dignity, and saw it as tragic that my father had been forced into it. I hid in my room as much as I could, banging away on a blue screen with yellow font (this was WordPerfect 4), one ear cocked to the sound of someone's voice asking me to clean something. I moved the mop over the linoleum, but I wouldn't call what I did cleaning, and my techniques haven't improved much. This aversion has no root, at least not one that can be reached via psychotherapy. I am lazy. Not in the sense of never getting work done, but rather in the sense that my notion of 'work' is a filthy patriarchal one that ignores cleaning. I feel I've steadily improved, although I can't tell you what my gauge is. Being a bachelor helps, because there's no well-meaning partner to say, "hey, here's a thought, why don't you pick up all your books, and put them somewhere?" You have to do it yourself--otherwise, you won't be able to reach the bathroom.

I feel like Talbot, from True Blood, could teach me a lot about cleaning, since he seems to keep the King's demesne looking like an actual eighteenth-century seraglio. I suppose the embossed silver doors signal that the vampire couple enjoys flirting with danger as much as they enjoy Paladian décor. In the last episode, Russell remarks that the Magister's creepy cane-stake is "from Andalusía, the Iberian peninsula." Then, to remind us that he speaks Spanish without actually needing to prove that he can say anything interesting in Spanish, he tells the Magister that its destruction would be, "hay que lástima," a great pity. Meanwhile, all Eric is thinking about is how to get his Warren Cup-esque silver Viking crown back from the pantry of precious objects that Talbot showed him the night before. And for those of you who don't know me, the segue from my patriarchy to vampires should stand as a reminder that I am an only child, given free-reign by wonderful parents to become as weird as I wanted to be. Seriously, though. When I saw Sam Merlott in that dog-collar, I did feel a touch of the vapors.

Asgard

2010-07-29T01:59:00.000-07:00

So, it's possible that I'm turning to Norse Paganism now for pantheistic inspiration. Call me crazy, but runes, drinking horns, and cows that lick the world into being are all things that make sense to me. I'm pretty sure my Elder Futhark is Hagalaz, the Rune of Disruption (and sudden, devastating hail-storms). I feel a strange sense of phantom kinship with Heimdall, who spends most of his time patrolling the border of Bifrost, listening for the distinctive footfalls of frost and fire giants. But Ragnarok is a long way off--so what's the guy doing in the meantime? Probably, he plays a lot of chess, which the Aesir and Vanir both love. After the Vanir invade Asgard and set up a monarchy, the two families of gods blend so sweetly, you forget all about their earlier internecine strife. It's less of a battle than a kind of hostile war-dance, which culminates in everybody mixing blood-lines and pretty much carrying on with what they were doing before the Vanir siezed political control of the city of gods.

The real question: will the Save the Last Dance soundtrack actually allow me to get serious work done? Let's hope.

I Choose Me

2010-07-27T16:44:00.000-07:00

I was reading an interview with the queer musician Enio, and the interviewer asks if "finding someone" has affected his music. Enio then goes on to describe the magic of meeting his partner in 2008, and how this rescues him from what we assume to be the perpetual loneliness of being an indie musician.

These kinds of interviews always annoy me, especially when they come from mainstream LGBT publications like the advocate. For starers, although I often link to the Advocate, they've always catered more to the cultural leanings of white gay men than to any other readers. They do report on stories that are significant to the lives of transgendered people, lesbians, and questioning folks (although I almost never see any mention of intersexuality or genderQueer-identifying lives and life-modes). What annoys me, though, is not the breadth of their coverage--I'm thankful that they exist at all as an LGBT publication--but the often saccharine tone of their interviewers. "And what was it like when you found...the one?"

How is an indie musician supposed to connect with queer kids when all he can talk about is how the transformative power of same-sex love has changed his life? As a listener, I'd be much more interested in hearing about how LGBT musicians can reach a wide variety of audiences, and how they manage homophobia within and outside of the music industry. I don't need to hear about how I'll feel a lot better once I settle down with someone.

Artists, both queer and straight, should recognize that being single does not mean being alone. It can be a pleasant position, and for some, singlehood is an entirely closed circuit which neither needs nor desires outside interference. I'd like to hear more artists talking about their friends, family, and supporters, rather than "the one" who finally changed their outlook on life. What was wrong with their music and attiude before they entered into same-sex cohabitation? Why is one state more artistically satisfying than the other?

Also, pets. Doesn't anyone have pets anymore? My cat helps me all the time when I'm writing, primarily by sitting on the keyboard.

I've chosen a picture of Samantha Jones in honor of the fact that she chooses to have a relationship with herself. Concentrate on this, and not SATC 2, which is an awful, vapid joke on the state of women and men, both gay and straight.

Fairoaks Project

2010-07-24T19:31:00.001-07:00

The Advocate has an article on Frank Melleno's Fairoaks Project, which chronicles night-life at the Fairoaks Hotel in San Francisco, 1978-9. The adjacent picture is called "Stair Group."

A day and a night at the Fairoaks could mean a lot of things. The acrid smell of popper fumes and stale marijuana smoke. The clank of an eight ball in a rear pocket, the rattle of chains. Low moans and orgasmic shouts heard over an endlessly played Sylvester tune, “Do You Want to Funk With Me?” Giggles. Grunts. And whispers. The passing drifts of another cool fog spied through a curtained bay window. The happy laughter of good friends getting together. The slapping flesh of one-time lovers lustily gettin’ it on.

Family Sagas

2010-07-24T18:49:00.001-07:00

Lately, I am reading a lot of Norse sagas. This intersects, might I say a bit shadily, with my research on the Restoration and Enlightenment period, since saga-figures are reincarnated within eighteenth-century royalist drama. Ms Sám 66, currently housed at the Magnússon Institute in Reykjavik, is an example of how these periods can influence each other. The foreground is medieval, but Loki's body language resembles that of the dancing-master in William Hogarth's Rake's Progress.

I'm interested in the characters of Baldr and Heimdall in the Elder Edda (circa 950). Baldr spends his life being beautiful, then dies in an accident. Heimdall is the guardian of Bifrost, the rainbow bridge, and all we know about him is that he has nine mothers (who might be waves) and that "his hearing is lodged beneath the Ash-Tree." We're told that he hears grass growing and the world sighing.

Rings are very important in the sagas. Red Rings and Gold Rings are exchanged rapidly. A magic ring miraculously 'drops' nine further golden rings, like a litter. Sometimes, ring appears to mean anus, if we're to judge by the astonishment that its sudden usage can elicit in a conversation between two men.

In one of my favorite sagas, the dragon Fafnir lies dying. Sigurd questions him, and the two talk quite civilly. Fafnir gives a great shudder and dies, having been impaled by Sigurd's sword, and Sigurd silently collects the dragon's hoard. Nobody seems to learn anything.

Summertime, and the writing is easy....

2010-07-24T14:00:00.000-07:00

Writing in summer can acually be tough. The weather is nice, the birds are aflutter outside, and there are so many distracting things just beyond the office window. Here are a few things that help me stay focused. Man, I really do have a pathology for lists, don't I? Maybe I should see someone about this.

Anyways:

Allow yourself to write short chapters/sections. Don't set a page limit. Instead, write as much as your mind and body will let you, and when you feel the energy starting to wind down, give yourself a breather.

Incorporate the outside world into your writing. Describing a summer day can actually be inspiring, and soon, you'll be concentrating on the textual breezes and bird-songs of your own design, rather than the enticing ones outside.

Drink iced coffee. Seriously. It's the same as regular coffee, but it doesn't make you sweat. And once the ice melts fully, you end up with a third-of-a-cup of diluted, cold liquid, like a chaser.

Go somewhere air-conditioned. Seating is always the most important consideration, and after that, wifi access. If you can't leave home, find out where the cat's sleeping and set up camp there. Cats always know where the coolest spot in the house is.

ps: the picture of Lafayette Reynolds above is purely to give you an idea of how you should be dressed for summer writing.

Kele, 'Everything You Wanted'

2010-07-22T17:46:00.000-07:00

Kele is the lead-singer of Bloc Party. He's releasing a solo album, called The Boxer

10 great things about Cathedral Village in Regina

2010-07-22T01:24:00.001-07:00

1. Roca Jack's. A purist's coffee house, with two tables (always occupied), jars full of aromatic beans, and chocolate-pinwheel cookies.

2. The Fainting Goat. It has global cuisine, outdoor seating, and high spirits.

3. Paper Umbrella. It satisfies all your card and fine paper needs.

4. Buy The Book. Lots of used books crammed efficiently into a small space. The staff will never bother you, or even make eye contact with you unnecessarily.

5. 13th Ave Coffee House. You can get delicious meals here, including vegetarian bowls that remind me of the Naam in Vancouver.

6. Fiesta Filipino Bakery. Excellent pork buns and sweets.

7. Viet Thai Restaurant. Always open, in flagrant disregard to sacred holidays.

8. Coda Clothing. Cute hoodies and bright vestments, for aging hipsters like myself.

9. The Mercury. Real cheeseburgers and beer on a patio: do you need more?

10. The Bar. Called 'Outside' to some, but known simply as the bar to those of Sapphic and Marlovian persuasions.

Beau et belle

2010-07-19T18:41:00.000-07:00

Timothy Metzner meeting Belle at the France Pavilion, Disneyland. From The Advocate. Priceless.

18th Century Ship

2010-07-17T14:56:00.001-07:00

As well, the remains of an 18th Century ship were unearthed today underneath the site of the former World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. I felt I needed to share this too. There's a nice picture of the vessel's ribs here. I feel like, come next year, once the excavation's further along, Eighteenth-Century and Romantic scholars will be fighting over this 32-foot piece of a ship. In other news, I need to write this chapter so that Tess can have lunch with ____ and ____, then go visit _____ at the drop-in. And after that, I finally get to write the part where ____ figures out how to watch all of _____'s hidden _____s. Okay, maybe this post is really just a thinly-veiled ode to Mac Flecknoe.

Writer OCD

2010-07-17T14:27:00.000-07:00

Was just about to start on a chapter, and had a moment of panic. All systems were go. I'd put on writing music (Massive Attack), Blackberry was positioned next to the laptop (with my cat as the desktop picture--go me). Ninja Hippo card was sitting adjacent, sending me good vibes. Copy of David Higgs Queer Sites: Gay Urban Histories Since 1600, sitting next to the Ninja Hippo card, to remind me of the general awesomeness of David Higgs.

But where was my ball?

I looked behind the laptop. The rainbow hacki-sack was sitting there, next to the one-eyed soapstone rabbit and my USB key. I squeezed the ball. Okay. Now I was ready. And also painfully aware of the fact that I have Writer OCD. My schedule for the day/night usually unfolds like this:

Make coffee. Wait for coffee. Stand in kitchen, reading, while waiting for coffee.

Transport coffee to desk. Reassure myself of Hervey's presence (Hervey is my BlackBerry, named after the Second Baron, John Hervey. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu said, "there are men, there are women, and then there are Herveys.") I squeeze the ball, and it's time. I've also changed the background of my MS Word, at least in Draft Layout mode, to a really soft minty-beige. It eases my eyes, and also reminds me to floss.

Botineras

2010-07-16T17:16:00.001-07:00

In honor of Argentina's legalization of same-sex marriage, I thought it appropriate to post a clip from the telenovela Botineras (Wags/Footballers). This is the first kiss between El Flaco (Skinny) and Lalo, and is obviously unsafe for work, since it contains a surplus of homoerotic energies which may, if you're at work, physically transform you into a gay Argentinian futbolista.

Also, there's a bum. Sorry everyone, it's South American TV, and bums are pretty much the new middrift nowadays.

Colossus

2010-07-16T00:43:00.001-07:00

The first appearance of Colossus in X-Men, Season One. Juggernaut is also featured in this episode. In my Spanish version, Colossus still sounds Russian, and is fairly easy to understand. Guepardo is the hardest, because he speaks in a husky Canadian whisper. Jubilee remains my favorite because she screams a lot, which makes it easier to conjugate what she's saying.

I feel that this image is a precursor to the Ultimate X-Men version of Colossus, who comes out to Nightcrawler and then starts dating Northstar. Frankly, nobody is surprised, least of all Jean, and Nightcrawler's reaction to this seems to be more an indictment of German Protestantism than anything else. The romantic in me enjoys the fact that the Russian and the Québécois enfant terrible get to be an item.

Argentina legaliza matrimonio entre personas del miso sexo

2010-07-15T15:34:00.000-07:00

Argentina recently legalized same-sex marriage. Pictured to the left are Jose Maria di Bello and Alex Freyre, the first gay couple to marry. You can watch an interview with them here, although you'll have to endure a few seconds of gay tourism advertising.

For more information on same-sex marriage in South America, check out the CNN report.

Brazilian tango competitors

2010-07-15T02:40:00.000-07:00

Rodrigo and Gustavo dance the tango. If this clip had existed when I was thirteen, nay, twelve years old, I would now be a professional dancer. I wish I could understand the Portuguese, but at least one of the judges seems to enjoy it. The judge in the yellow shirt looks like a slightly more hostile Piers Morgan.

"A Day in Gay America."

2010-07-13T16:35:00.002-07:00

This photo is from an Advocate spread called "A Day in Gay America." The picture is of Wyatt Macki, a 17-year-old competitive dirt-bike racer.

4:04 p.m., near Rapid City, S.D. Clad in his racing gear, 17-year-old Wyatt Maki shows off his 2010 Honda CRF250, “which I just bought recently,” he says. “I’m an avid racer and thought it would be interesting to show a young, out (and proud) athlete.

Queer Pictures

2010-07-10T15:56:00.001-07:00

I stumbled upon the photography of Greg Endries today, by way of The Advocate. His compositional style is really interesting. And I'm always a champion of gnomes in the arts.

Writing Tips

2010-07-09T23:27:00.001-07:00

Here are the 5 things I wish another writer had told me when I was 21. Why 5 things? Because I love writing advice in list-form.

1. Writer's block does exist. It strikes everyone in different ways, but it will creep up on you. A good way to tell if you're blocked is to look at your schedule and then revisit what you've done for the past 3 days. Case in point: blogging when you have a manuscript due. If you chose to indulge in a Gilmore Girls marathon instead of finishing your chapter, it's probably writer's block. There are a few ways of dealing with it. You can force yourself to write. This is hard and often requires silence, or at the very least, a familiar movie soundtrack. You can drink, do drugs, and then write whatever comes to mind. I don't recommend this as a permanent solution, but it does tend to produce excellent haiku. One of my tricks is to write myself an email with just dialogue, no descriptors. A good dialogic volley can sometimes get you unstuck. If it's an absolute emergency, I turn to the Double-Chocolate Nestle Sunday, or re-watch crucial episodes of Buffy, often in tandem.

2. Querying an agent is easy. Writing your query letter takes forever, because you need to distill everything down to three irresistible paragraphs. But to actually send the query, all you have to do is begin it with Dear [Agent], and click SEND. Don't be afraid to send an agent something. It's their job to read queries, and the agents I've worked with all seem to really like their jobs. So nobody's going to laugh at you for sending a query-letter. And if you don't know how to write one check out Lynn Flewelling's Complete Nobody's Guide to Query Letters on the SFWA website.

3. You will not be able to choose the cover of your book. But most presses will allow you some feedback, and don't ever miss this chance to influence the image and design. Covers sell books, as well as serving to identify genres through symbolic imagery. Yes, your heroine will probably wear a tank-top. It's unavoidable. But the right artist can really make the background come alive, which is as important as the figure in the foreground.

4. Read everything before signing it. Ask your agent about anything you don't understand, and they'll do their best to explain it to you. When emailing your editor, always .cc your agent so that she can keep abreast of everything that's being planned for your book. You'll hear both of them talking a lot about the book 'earning out its advance,' which basically means that it's made enough money to cover whatever they paid you. Most books don't earn out their advances, and if this happens to you, congratulations: you're a writer, and a member of an amazing group of people. Make sure to lean on them often. In my experience, writers tend to be full of information about their genres, as well as other unfathomable subjects.

5. The only way to get better is to keep writing. Don't worry about being a novelist. Worry about finishing each chapter, or poem, or fragment. Be rude if you have to. Excuse yourself from public events. Lock yourself in a computer lab, or your bedroom, or the laundry room, even, anywhere you can write in peace. Don't worry about what appears on the page. You have lots of time to deal with it, revise it, fall in love with it, or ultimately dispense with it, and all writing is good experience. It also helps to make bad life decisions. These include: split-second travel plans, pub crawls, new relationships, old relationships, experimental sex, rash appliance purchases, loan applications, and offers to publish work for free. Also, really listen to people when they tell you stories, because if you can remember enough, you'll be able to hijack it later. Friends, family, and lovers are not immune; on the contrary, they're your richest source.

Romance Salad

2010-07-09T21:53:00.000-07:00

This clip from Parenthood will always be one of my favorite moments in a Romantic Comedy, a genre defined by directors like Ron Howard.

Interestingly, the 2009 TV spinoff is actually pretty good. But I'm also a sucker for Craig T Nelson, and Bonnie Bedelia may be one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen. I keep wanting Drew to declare himself bi, following in the footsteps of Marshall on United States of Tara. They practically dress the same anyway.

The dancing scene from Hettie Macdonald's Beautiful Thing has always struck me as particularly romantic, as well as strangely patriotic.

The bike-riding scene from Téchiné's Les Roseaux Sauvages is a favorite of mine as well. And later in the film, there's a sexy swimming scene.

But for sheer romance, nothing beats "Bella Notte" from Lady and the Tramp:

What's the deal with the Enlightenment?

2010-06-29T17:57:00.000-07:00

Recently--over the past six months, I'd say--I've become obsessed with the eighteenth century, as previous blog entries will attest. I don't know why. The seventeenth century is just as interesting, as is the Elizabethan era, but I'm not rushing out to write on anything from these time periods. There's something almost secretive about the eighteenth century. A friend of mine observed once that it's like a conspiracy: those who study literature between 1688 and 1830, designated as the longue durée of Restoration-Enlightenment, have stumbled upon the little-known fact that these texts are some of the most interesting, bizarre, and eminently readable pieces ever written. Obviously, there's a textual shift during this period, a privileging of the psychological narrative, a renewed interest in political instability and its relationship to the bourgeoisie, and the emergence of literary criticism, especially in the form of theatrical reviews and castigating epilogues. But none of that really explains why the writing is just so good.

Lately, my interest is turning to drama produced in Spain during this period, especially the tradition of teatro breve or short theatre-pieces. In Madrid, one can see the transition from the rowdy entremeses (between-act pieces) of Cosme Pérez, the entremesil actor who went by the name of Juan Rana, and the sainetes (also short pieces incorporating music and dance) of Ramon de la Cruz, which were supposed to capture modern life in urban Spain. Between these performative poles, there lies the dramatic tradition known as tardebarroco, 'after the Baroque,' which is punctuated by the work of de Zamora and Cañizares (not to be confused with the witch of the same name from Cervantes' Ejemplares).

What I love most about Spanish Theatre Studies, aside from the high quality and exactitude of the available scholarly criticism, is what I perceive as its 'newness,' at least where I'm concerned. I never learned about Lope de Vega, Maria de Zayas, or Calderón de la Barca in high school, or university, or grad school, because programs in English literature don't tend to dwell upon 'foreign' writers, unless they're French (in the case of Congreve) or German (in the case of Goethe). And although a tremendous amount has been written already upon Spain's siglo de oro, which was inarguably the height of dramatic production, eighteenth-century dramatists have received far less articles and monographs. Of those available, 97% are in Spanish or Catalan, which suggests a bit of open territory for scholars writing in English.

Improving my Spanish has become a personal mission, but my problem is that I get bored with the level of books that I should probably be reading. So I read academic articles in Spanish instead, which is grueling and didactically counter-productive, but so interesting that I can't resist. In the fall, I'll be taking Spanish 200, which will hopefully do wonders for my halting verbal skills. It will be a bit strange to interact with undergraduates as another student, rather than as an instructor, which I've become accustomed to, but it will also be good for my ego. Wait, forget I said that. I'm as humble as Juan Rama, the gracioso (buffoon), although I don't share his fondness for young pages. Lately, I orient only towards books and food.

Ode to Regina's Buses

2010-06-29T17:43:00.000-07:00

Oh Regina Transit--wherefore art thou so endlessly confusing? I've lived in many different cities, but I've never been less certain as to where/when a bus will originate or terminate on a daily basis. Take the #3, for example, which is one of only two buses that go from the downtown core to the university. The #3 stops at 13th and Albert, which is a few blocks from my house. But when there's construction (which is always), it stops on 12th st in front of the public library. When the #3 leaves the university, it no longer stops at 13th and Albert, but diverts--inexplicably--to 11th/Cornwall. This means that I can take the bus directly from the stop closest to my house, but, when coming home, I end up having to walk for no reason.

Also, due to the widening of several downtown streets, various bus stops have been randomly changed. You might show up at your designated stop and watch, bemusedly, while your bus drives right past you on the opposite side of the street. On one bus shelter in front of the Cornwall Centre, I saw two signs, one proclaiming that "#s 11 and 4 no longer stop here," and another, right next to the first sign, announcing that the "#4 bus stops here." Oh, does it? Or am I trapped in a static warp-bubble like Beverly Crusher in that episode of NextGen? In that case, only Will Wheaton can save me, so I'm not getting my hopes up.

Of course, if it hadn't been for this detour, I wouldn't have ended up shaking hands with two young Mormon elders, who were patrolling 13th st looking for pledges. I considered outing myself as a leftist homosexual atheist, but as I looked into their shining, hopeful, preternaturally polite faces, I just didn't have the heart. All I could think about was the movie Orgazmo, written by Trey Stone and Matt Parker, in which a Mormon elder unwittingly becomes a porn star with the help of an orgasm-inducing raygun. I didn't mention it.

Here's what we need--more scary violence.

2010-06-28T20:36:00.000-07:00

So far, this season of True Blood is heavy on action and scant on plot. The werewolf conspiracy is marginally interesting, but the werewolves themselves aren't. They resemble flannel-clad sexual predators who get into Dukes of Hazard-style brawls at a bar subtly called Lou Pine's.

So many new characters have made an appearance (and one never knows who will stay and who will get eaten) that it's starting to resemble a reality show. Franklin the crazy brit; the werewolf-protector whose name I've already forgotten; the bitchy vampire king and his partner who seems to do nothing but plan dinners and cast innuendo; and Jesus, the hunky sanitarium-assistant, who's been making eyes at Lafayette (while his insane, casually homophobic mother looks on, as if we're in the middle of a Tennessee Williams play).

Then there's Eric. So far, he's done nothing unexpected. If possible, he's somehow become even more rakishly charming. But his 'connection' with Sookie seems to have gone from a one-off hey, your blood was tasty moment to an excuse for constantly averting his eyes from her and mumbling things about her being Bill's property. Either way, it boils down to the same boring sexist veneer that the show has already been criticized for. Women function as items of exchange, to be passed between male supernatural agents, and even when they're given guns and they have the chance to defend themselves...they don't. There's always a vampire, werewolf, shifter, or well-meaning good 'ol boy who appears just in time.

Still, the show remains fun. And I was on board with this episode until the last four minutes. Something happens in the final scene of 3.03 that made me stare at the screen and say: "No. Really?" Something so grotesque that, as I watched it happening, it seemed to very conspicuously leave the realm of occult fantasy and bleed into the realm of actual human degradation. It's violent and so, so over-the-top, it baffles me that anyone watched the dailies of this scene while it was being filmed and thought, hey, sure, this looks good.

It makes me want to stop watching the program altogether. And if I wasn't weak, I would. But what do you do when a show that's queer-positive, and which tries to address critical issues of race and ethnicity, is also mindlessly sexist and unimaginatively pornographic in its deployment of violence against human bodies?

If anyone has the answer, please let me know,

"Gay people were kept in a separate cage."

2010-06-28T12:19:00.000-07:00

18-year-old Dan Hamilton was detained as a protester at the G20 Summit for 26 hours. "On his first day as a resident of Toronto, Dan Hamilton was a bystander during a protest when he was caught with his boyfriend in a mass arrest for "breaching the peace". In the video below, he describes how people that the police described euphemistically as "members of the gay community" were herded into stalls and segregated from the rest of the group being held. LGBT people were placed in isolation "for their own safety."

My favorite part is at the end of the video, when Hamilton says of the upcoming class-action law suit: "It should be pretty sweet." He also spells his name, D-A-N H-A-M-I-L-T-O-N for the cameraperson, as if to say, yes, I was really there, and I'm really still here.

Weird Schedule

2010-06-27T01:05:00.000-07:00

Lately, I cannot figure out what time of the day I'm going to end up working. Sometimes, like tonight, it's at 2:13 AM, assisted by the coffee I had from Rocca Jack's at 8:30. Some days I'll go steadily from 11-7, and other days I'm barely conscious before 2pm. This is a symptom of the summer, which means no teaching (for those lucky enough to have it off) but lots of uninterrupted time for writing, research, and general obsessing.

Currently, I am watching Doctor Who, Season 3, which is the beginning of the David Tennant episodes. I like the chemistry that he has with Rose, although--and I can't believe these words are actually leaving my mouth--I do miss Christopher Eccleston. I'm 2/3 of the way through Cleland's Memoirs of a Coxcomb, which could be subtitled "Why women aren't allowed to age," since Sir William does nothing but level scathing critiques at women past the age of 20 while fixating creepily on Lydia, who's practically a 'tween. Still, Cleland's descriptions of awkward sex encounters, and his lamentations on the pains of love, are as resonant today as they were in 1752.

I'm also reading an article by Josep Valldaura on the 18th C dramatist Ramon de la Cruz and his refinement of the sainete, which resembles a comic afterpiece. It's interesting to see how these short comic pieces transitioned during the reign of Carlos III, from the rowdy entremeses of Juan Rana to the fashionable and city-conscious sainetes of de la Cruz, who "crea sus pequeñas historias con personajes reconocibles." Leandro Fernandez de Moratín describes the sainetes as "la imitación exacta y graciosa de las modernas costumbres del pueblo," while dismissing the 17th C entremes tradition as "desaliño y rudeza." But Moratín is a bit of a fuss-pot, and describing an obsolete form of entertainment as 'crude' pretty much guarantees a resurgence in its popularity.

INHUMAN RESOURCES copies

2010-06-09T01:38:00.000-07:00

I have a limited number of copies of INHUMAN RESOURCES, which I'd like to give away in a contest. I'm happy to inscribe books for the winners and pay for postage to send the books their way.

Just complete this short quiz about the Occult Special Investigator universe:

1) Where do Tess and Lucian first meet?

2) True or false: Tess has kissed two other regular characters

3) What city does Tess live in?

4) What does the acronym CORE stand for?

5 ) Which duo tries to kill Tess and Mia in Night Child?

Alternatively, contestants may submit short fanfiction or other creative pieces set in the OSI universe. I will publish the best submissions on my author website and blog.

Send your quiz answers or creative pieces to: jbattis at gmail dot com

Catharsis

2010-06-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

Last night, I threw up all over my office floor, while talking to a friend on speakerphone. It was the first time in my life that I wasn't able to reach a bathroom. The cause was food poisoning, the culprit being a sketchy noodle salad purchased from a nearby major grocery chain that shan't be named. After I was finished vomiting, I surveyed the result with a mixture of anxiety and strange curiosity. I hadn't realized that my stomach could hold so much. I didn't feel sick even five minutes beforehand--I'd been in mid-sentence, and suddenly, I was heaving. I narrowly missed both my laptop and a manuscript that I'd been editing.

After I was done, I returned shakily to the phone:

"Sorry. That was really loud."
"It was. Do you feel better?"
"I'm not sure. A little."
"You need to get yourself a glass of water."
"True. But first, I need to figure out how to get off this chair."

It sort of felt like having a migraine, a stomach flu, and vertigo all at once. I managed to relocate myself to the couch, turn off all the lights, and secure both a bucket and a bottle of water. Shortly thereafter, I divested myself of the bucket, and within no time at all, I was on my laptop again. My friend and I continued our conversation on speakerphone, and I read a bit of Swift. I was fascinated by how quickly the Lilliputians were able to assemble vast mechanical stages, and how they carted away Gulliver's excrement using wheel-barrows.

A number of things occurred to me the next morning. The first, in no way a thunderbolt, was that I'm a workaholic. My brain is set to run at Chipmunk speed all day long, and I rarely think about what's going into my body unless I suddenly see it staring back at me in another form. I've never been able to really regard my body as anything other than a vehicle for conveying around my consciousness. I feed and water it, so that it will stay awake for as long as I need it to, and at the end of the night I'll wheedle it with caffeine and sugar, as if demanding an encore. Just another hour. Come on, the birds sound pretty outside, and the quality of the light is stunning. It doesn't always listen.

The second thing that occurred to me was that my job is not great for my body. There are ways to manage the stress, but it still ends up creeping in, giving you migraines and kidney stones and other wonders to deal with. If there was some way that we could read books and then eat them later, that would be an ideal diet for me.

The final thing that occurred to me was simply a sense of gratitude, for having a friend who'd stay with me on the phone while I was emptying my guts, not simply saying, "are you okay," but actually giving me permission to go to bed without cleaning up the office first. "The consistency will make it easier to clean in the morning, and the smell's going to kill you if you try to do it tonight." I did end up cleaning before I went to bed, but even so, it was nice to have the option of simply falling asleep to the sound of the fan going in the other room, blowing the sour air out the window and away.

Devin and Glen short

2010-06-08T01:05:00.000-07:00

A short film about same-sex marriage with Justin Long, Mike White, and Tom Arnold

Faggy Pillows

2010-05-29T12:39:00.000-07:00

Video here

In the otherwise trite Gaga episode of Glee last week, Kurt's dad (the aptly named Burt) explains to Finn the destructive power of hate-speech. In addition to Burt's moving speech about unconditional love, I also really appreciated Kurt's argument here. Yes, he does spend most of the scene looking devastated, but he also gets angry and tells Finn to grow up.

I was fascinated by Burt's idea that Finn might belong to "a new generation," someone who'd grown up "just knowing" that being gay was a part of life, something to be celebrated rather than denigrated and/or feared. The show itself is always hit-or-miss, but the dynamic between Kurt and his dad has always been my favorite part. I especially love when he glances around at Kurt's Moroccan-inspired boudoir and pronounces: "The place looks great."

Prom Queen

2010-05-25T14:29:00.000-07:00

After coming out of the closet this, his senior year at Flanagan High, Omar Bonilla decided to take it a step further: run for prom queen.

He almost won -- Bonilla was among the top three vote-getters -- but in the past few days, it all unraveled.

Fearful that other students would try to beat up a prom-goer in drag, the school administration asked him to wear a tuxedo to Friday night's dance. And after two meetings with the school principal to plead for the right to wear a dress, Bonilla was slapped with a two-day suspension, the timing of which meant he couldn't go to the prom at all.

As students were racing off to prom, Bonilla was putting on his blue sequin dress -- but only to pose for a Miami Herald photographer.

Read the full article in the Palm Beach Post

Queer Riverdale

2010-05-21T12:37:00.001-07:00

"Just when you thought gay life couldn't penetrate any deeper into the mainstream, Archie Comics announced there's a gay high schooler coming to the über-American town of Riverdale. That’s right, all you comic-loving kids. Archie, Veronica, Jughead, and Reggie will be joined this fall (in Veronica issue 202) by Kevin Keller, a handsome, sandy-haired, good-natured fella, and the object of Veronica’s affection (good luck, girl). Kevin is expected to pal around with the guys and be both proudly gay and as wholesome as the rest of Archie’s crew."

Full article here

M Sharkey: Queer Kids

2010-05-18T16:17:00.000-07:00

“Kids are disclosing their homosexuality with unprecedented regularity -- and they are doing so much younger. The average gay person now comes out just before or after graduating high school. In 1997 there were approximately 100 gay-straight alliances (GSAs) -- clubs for gay and gay-friendly kids -- on U.S. high school campuses. Today there are at least 3,000 GSAs -- nearly 1 in 10 high schools has one. In the 2004-05 academic year, GSAs were established at U.S. schools at the rate of three per day.”

Read more about Sharkey's photography on Out.com and on his professional website

Burke Launches Antibullying Site

2010-05-18T16:13:00.000-07:00

Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke broke down while addressing the media Monday in a press conference to launch a new website geared toward helping LGBT youths throughout Canada.

Burke, whose son Brendan was killed in a car crash last February just three months after making headlines when he came out of the closet, asked media representatives to turn off their cameras just before he broke down. Brian Burke was addressing gay rights and bullying in front of a crowd of parents, educators, and students.

“We have to get to a point where you can go to school free of fear,” Burke said at the launch at Sutton Place Hotel in Toronto. “Fear is a horrible emotion to feel and smaller kids get picked on and gay kids get picked on. It has got to stop.”

Full article from The Advocate

Kiss-Ins

2010-05-17T12:50:00.001-07:00

Kiss-Ins are being held around the world to promote International Anti-Homophobia Day. Here's some smooching in front of the Eiffel Tower. Geez, why wasn't I there?

Anti-Homophobia in Williams Lake

2010-05-17T12:42:00.000-07:00

Students at Columneetza High in Williams Lake, BC, attempted to organize several events for World Day Against Homophobia--including a video with students discussing discrimination, a gender-bending party, and an educational assembly. However, the school's administration nixed most of the events, either eliminating them or rescheduling them to make them redundant, after being pressured by parents.

Watch the BC News video here

GaGa Cover

2010-05-04T20:50:00.000-07:00

Jesse Tyler Ferguson from Modern Family covers Lady GaGa's Alejandro.

Teacher fired from Vancouver school

2010-04-28T23:41:00.000-07:00

Music teacher Lisa Reimer says she was fired from Little Flower Academy Catholic school for her sexual orientation, mere weeks after her partner gave birth to their son, Andrew.

The 34-year-old said she was dismissed after the school came under pressure from parents who didn’t want their kids to be taught by a lesbian.

“I was completely shocked. I was completely unprepared because of their reaction when I told them,” said Reimer. “They seemed so supportive. I thought they would go to bat for me.”

At a news conference Wednesday, Reimer, the founder of Vancouver’s Zing! Children’s Choir, said she was fired because parents were afraid she would lead their daughters “astray.” (Full article, The Province, Apr 28 2010).

LGBT Bullying Legislation

2010-04-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

"Minnesota senator Al Franken said Monday that he will introduce an antibullying bill addressing LGBT youth.

The Democratic senator recently criticized current antibullying laws during a senate education, labor, and pensions committee hearing on Thursday,The Minnesota Independent reports.

“There’s something very specific that has been on my mind… LGBT youth being bullied,” Franken told a panel of education experts in the hearing. “Right now we have laws that prohibit bullying based on pretty much everything, but not on gender identity and gay and lesbian kids. And the evidence is that gay kids are bullied a lot and that their achievement goes down. There’s a lot of absenteeism and even suicide.”

Full article Apr 27 2010 Advocate

Snow Business

2010-04-13T21:16:00.000-07:00

From Simon's Cat

Taunt the PhDs

2010-04-08T22:23:00.000-07:00

This episode of the Simpsons, taunting grad students, has made me think about graduate studies in general. The last two years has seen a dramatic deterioration of tenure-track jobs, as well as the cancellation of graduate programs across the United States and Canada. I am not sure what to tell the grad students in our department. Should I be encouraging? Should I be realistic, and risk discouraging them? Maybe discouragement is the humane response. The chances of them eventually being employed in a stable position is low, but not quite bleak. I don't want to extinguish the possibility, but I don't want to deceive them, either. Still, I regard that period in my life as amazing, and wouldn't want to give those years up for anything. They were defining. I don't want to cheat anyone of that experience. But I also want to say, you're going to feel liminal, you're going to be poor, you'll probably be drunk a lot, you'll accrue a loan or two (a loan with heavy interest, especially once you finish your program, and the government decides to collect). You're going to make bad decisions, but those are usually the most character-defining. Plus, there's always the hope that all of those bad decisions and peccadillos will somehow, through fortunate collision, transform into a life that's precarious but never boring.

My time at SFU was a pleasant haze of events in Vancouver, a city which owns me. New York also has a hook in me, and Toronto, and San Francisco, all for different reasons. One of the first conversations I remember having in Vancouver (21, scared shitless), was with another grad student at the Highland pub. I also remember dancing at Luv Affair, Club 23 West (dancing next to a beautiful woman wearing coiled rope around her body). Endlessly crossing the AQ by the fountain, getting distracted in the book store (or cruising for discounted course texts), and the bead store that became a convenience store, which was next to the Scotiabank ATM that never gave me money when my bank card was overdrawn.

Vancouver, for me, occurred in neighborhoods. You move a lot when you can't afford rent (and you'll probably be too precious to admit that you should be living anywhere but the trendiest of suburbs). I started in Lougheed, first on Government St, and then further up, in Burquitlam. I spent too much money at Fuji Sushi, as well as the Mountain Shadow. My cat lived with a cat named Fa'ihl, and they tolerated each other, although Fa'ihl did shit on my pillow once, an act which I immediately forgave her for, given the circumstances. Next was Commercial Drive, the graveyard of my 1992 Chevy Cavalier which leaked like crazy (I'm so sorry, Jay, but thanks for fixing it, and thanks for helping me pass the written exam in De Roo's Old English class; the favorite word that I learned was ymbeclypte).

After the Drive came the West End, Davie and Jervis, where there existed a concrete highrise known, colloquially, as Vaseline Tower. I spent a lot of time at Little Sisters, as well as Hamburger Mary's (the West End Breakfast with Pancakes, Eggs, and Fried Potatoes was essential to absorb alcohol). Walks along the Seawall, and Turtle the cat, who I was honored to have watched while her people were away, and who quietly objected to Wallerstein's World-System theory while we were sitting on the futon together watching reruns of Firefly.

After the West End was Burrard and Smithe, in a building that had its own Starbucks. Solid time spent in that apartment with Matt and Bea, endless pleasant crosswords and trips to Yaletown when we were dog-sitting (I miss you Buck, and I'm sorry if it was creepy when I posted your image as a Facebook profile pic, I just really missed you). Then Brooklyn, Greenpoint, where I learned what a cherry-cheese danish should taste like. The two dogs at Bluestockings (the guys were nice too).

It went fast. It's all going too fast. But there's nothing about my time as a grad student that I'd change. I was one of the lucky ones, with a postdoctoral fellowship and a tenure-track position marking the end of my time in grad studies. I am one of the few lucky ones, and there's no reason not to think that you couldn't be in the same position someday. Patience needs to be generated or acquired through conditioning. Some relationships last, but most are strained beyond the point of enduring countless arguments about theses and subject positions. I'm grateful for the men and women in my life who got to know me during that time.

So, there are jobs out there, as well as jobs outside of academia, and for heaven's sake, don't be afraid to leave non-tenured academia for something different. Plenty of inspired and happy teachers, editors, archivists, librarians, translators, poets, and filmmakers started out as fierce grad students. But, seriously, start an RRSP. Now. Put as much into it as you can, contribute whenever you can, but do it for as long as you can. And do not buy a Tim Horton's franchise, even if, like me, it remains one of your wildest dreams.

McMillen Sent to Fake Prom

2010-04-06T00:14:00.000-07:00

"To avoid Constance McMillen bringing a female date to her prom, the teen was sent to a "fake prom" while the rest of her class partied at a secret location at an event organized by parents.

McMillen tells The Advocate that a parent-organized prom happened behind her back — she and her date were sent to a Friday night event at a country club in Fulton, Miss., that attracted only five other students. Her school principal and teachers served as chaperones, but clearly there wasn't much to keep an eye on. (Advocate 4/06)

No Homo

2010-04-05T19:06:00.000-07:00

The phrase "no homo" gets used a fair bit in hop-hop lyrics, primarily as a kind of disclaimer: the following sounds gay, but isn't. Lil Wayne says that he's "got money out the ass, no homo." Kanye West, one of the hip-hop artists who's spoken about homophobia in the music industry, delivers the curious line in his lyrics: "It's crazy how you can go from being Joe Blow To everybody on your dick, no homo." Basically, everyone's on his dick, but not in a gay way. No homo functions as an anti-queer performative utterance: the following speech-act, although its register is queer, is not. Bryan Safi, in his That's Gay segment, discusses this in an episode.

Jay Smooth, hip-hop blogger and critic, draws attention to the fact that "no homo" is about five years old as a linguistic adoption. He's featured some great artists on Ill Doctrine, including Immortal Technique (I saw him perform in Brooklyn, and it was an amazing show). Smooth discusses "no homo" as a phrase that's simultaneously negative and playful. There's a funny euphemism to it, as when one's mother says something like, "but not in that way," referring to some queer subtext in a way that both outlines and sidelines it. The linguistic play is difficult to avoid, and there's a pleasure taken in tossing it around. I think of saying things like "but not in a faggoty way," when in the presence of certain people, mostly queer intimates. But would I use it in mixed company? Probably, I'd say something like, "but not in a sexy way," with "sexy" acting as a slippery hinge between hot and gay.

Lesbian Social Security

2010-04-03T22:47:00.000-07:00

A finalist for the Youtube NonProfit Awards contest. The video focuses on an alien seeking death-benefits after losing her same-sex partner.

Portland Trans Cafe

2010-04-03T14:58:00.000-07:00

Tuff Luck, a Portland, Ore., cafe, celebrated its grand opening last month.

The coffee shop is located inside In Other Words, a feminist bookstore, and was started as a way to help transgender people raise money for health care by providing them with a side job and a venue for selling art.

“It’s mostly people’s art that they can make money off because right now we can’t really afford to pay employees,” entrepreneur Ryder Richardson told Just Out, a Portland-area LGBT newspaper. “Down the line we’d like to set up an individual development account and get organizations to match whatever people can make working here.”

The cafe is inclusive of anyone who identifies as transgender, regardless of transition status, and raises funds for a variety of health care needs, including therapy, hormones, and surgery.

In Other Words Bookstore

"Finally" Cover

2010-04-02T15:38:00.000-07:00

Adam Joseph's cover of "Finally," reworked as an ode to same-sex marriage equality. I used to not believe in marriage, but it's amazing how your feelings change when you realize how many people are denied access to the institution. Even in Canada, where same-sex marriage is legal, there's no universal guarantee that the rights and benefits associated with marriage will be honored throughout the country, which means that we can't slip into neoliberal complacency. There's the tendency for Canadians to roll their eyes and say, "Oh, America, so backward in their human rights agenda," but this fight really ought to be everyone's fight. Plus, our federal government seems bent on eradicating safe living conditions for at-risk citizens, including poor and homeless gay, lesbian, and trans folk, sex-workers, IV drug-users, and those living with mental and physical disabilities. Canada isn't paradise, and our continued uncritical cooperation with the United States only confirms how easily we can ignore the lives of our most marginalized communities. Which means that marriage equality shouldn't be simply a middle-class issue, as this video represents, but a universal issue.

Give a Damn

2010-04-02T01:29:00.000-07:00

The Give a Damn Campaign

Queer Women in Politics

2010-04-01T11:46:00.000-07:00

The LGBT Victory Association salutes queer women in politics.

Anna Paquin

2010-04-01T11:39:00.001-07:00

True Blood star Anna Paquin came out as bisexual while filming a public service announcement for the True Colors Fund, the organization founded by Cyndi Lauper to raise money for gay rights.

"I'm Anna Paquin. I'm bisexual, and I give a damn," the actress said into the camera while filming her PSA, according to Radar Online.

Yeah Sookie! This only proves my point that contact with cool indie movies like The Piano at an early age will make you a more interesting person. Then again, I'm certain that Amadeus made me queer, so one can never tell.

Advocate Apr 1 2010

Fags Don't Belong

2010-03-31T21:41:00.000-07:00

A gay and lesbian campground in Saugatuck, Mich., was vandalized over the weekend. Photos of the site show that vandals spray-painted a swastika and the words "Fags Don't Belong" on the fence surrounding the Campit Outdoor Resort.

Co-owners Sally Howard and Michael O'Connor said this is the first time in their 10 years of ownership that such an attack has taken place at the resort. The site had been known as a gay and lesbian resort for 30 years before that. According to its website, Campit offers more than 100 RV sites, tent camping spaces, and cabins."

Advocate Mar 31

Solid Day

2010-03-30T21:02:00.001-07:00

Considering the fact that I overslept, woke up in a panic, and left the house sporting medieval hair, I think I managed to get a lot done today. Talked with my class about a sense of cat entitlement in Diane Duane's Book of Night With Moon. On Thursday, we're going to plot out Riow's journey through midtown in pictures. New York cat wizards--geez, what's up with those guys?

Reading Ruiz's Libro de Buen Amor. Recommended some books for the library that will compliment our very small section of Siglo de oro criticism (although the fact that we have what we have makes me love the library a little more). My cat has started sleeping in the cupboard, nestled amid the recyclable plastics. Her favorite game lately is to wait for me to turn my reading lamp on, then position herself directly in front of it, thereby causing Total Eclipse of the Cat.

Prom OK, But Get Out

2010-03-24T16:49:00.000-07:00

"A Georgia gay high school student who wanted to bring his date to the prom may have scored a victory at school, but he may be losing the war in his own home.

Derrick Martin, 18, lobbied his school, Bleckley County High, to let him bring his date to the prom. Administrators gave him the OK after he appealed an earlier decision turning him down. Martin's story made headlines across the country, and offers for tuxedos, limos, and dinner poured in. But because of the media attention, Martin's parents kicked him out of their home. According to Macon'sTelegraph, he is currently staying with a friend.

He said he was inspired by another Southern teenager, Constance McMillen, who was denied permission to bring her same-sex date to her prom in Mississippi. A federal judge ruled Tuesdaythat while the school board wronged McMillen, it would not have to hold the prom, which school officials canceled rather than allow her to bring a female date." (Advocate Mar 24)

Coulter speech cancelled in Ottawa

2010-03-24T00:05:00.001-07:00

OTTAWA - American right-winger Ann Coulter's speech at the University of Ottawa has been cancelled due to security concerns after thousands protest outside the venue. - Canadian Press -

Sue's Corner

2010-03-23T23:32:00.000-07:00

10 Things

2010-03-21T15:53:00.000-07:00

Here are 10 random things that have happened to me since moving to Regina, SK. They are in no particular order.

1. I've become obsessed with the eighteenth century, particularly 1720-1760. Obsessed. Anyone needing suggestions for birthday gifts to buy me, here you go.

2. I've discovered that teaching 2/2 is more difficult than it first seemed, and that holding a tenure-track position split between research and pedagogy requires its own balancing act.

3. I've discovered that there are possibilities and opportunities outside of academia, which I hadn't really thought of for the past 8 years (a PhD tends to create tunnel vision).

4. I've had two root-canals, both caused by previous fillings which basically dissolved and poisoned my mouth. I'm currently waiting for a crown replacement, which my insurance refuses to pay for.

5. I lost my favorite toque (this happened in London, but still seems to count).

6. I finished one novel, wrote another from scratch, and started a third.

7. I've been inspired by the work of my creative writing students.

8. I got the opportunity to teach the first class on queer theory in my department.

9. I've discovered what it means to be genuinely terrified of winter.

10. I've mastered the art of using Speakerphone to keep in touch with people, which, once you get used to it, is really quite amazing.

Kotex

2010-03-21T04:39:00.001-07:00

New Kotex commercial. "I like to twirl. Maybe in slow motion."

Ugly Betty

2010-03-20T21:14:00.000-07:00

Gay teen angst on Ugly Betty. It reminds me of Ricky's storyline from My So Called Life, only MSCL was a bit more subtle (1994 required subtlety, whereas 2010 requires music and CGI effects in order to distract us from the image of two young kids having their moment).

Badder Romance

2010-03-19T14:33:00.000-07:00

This is pretty amazing. Gaga's Little Monster fans have put together "Badder Romance" in homage to her video "Bad Romance."

Original Bad Romance video via YouTube

Cynthia Nixon for Fight Back NY

2010-03-10T20:49:00.000-08:00

"We've tried the carrot. Now it's time for the stick. Fight back."

SF LGBT Center

2010-03-10T09:01:00.001-08:00

(from The Advocate. Mar 10/2010)

"On the verge of foreclosure and battered by the recession, the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center has asked the city for a $1 million line of credit to help it stay afloat.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the cash-strapped city is likely to grant the “mortgage relief” fund for the city-subsidized center, although the center will likely need even more in the long run to cover almost $3 million owed on its mortgage."

Engl 110

2010-03-09T20:12:00.001-08:00

"I'm fuckin awesome at English...I got, like, a 90 in 110."

- conversation overheard between two undergrads

Thoughts On London

2010-02-27T11:45:00.000-08:00

Having grown up in Chilliwack, British Columbia, London was merely an idea for me, colored by medieval literature, popular films, and reruns of As Time Goes By. Now, after living in Vancouver, New York, Montreal, and Toronto (in that order), I thought that I'd be prepared for this city. I was very wrong. Here are some things that I discovered on my trip.

Crowds. London is a busier city than New York, if that's possible. Being in Times Square did not prepare me for visiting Piccadilly Circus on a weekday evening. You have to move fast to dodge swinging purses and flying elbows, as well as those bloody rolling suitcases that travelers always seem to wield with total impunity, as if they had all the space in the world behind them. Dude, that's my foot you just rolled over.

The Tube. Cleaner than the Manhattan subway by far, and you can actually breathe in the stations. But watch out for the weekend, when they arbitrarily decide to take 6 lines out of service and only open one ticket gate. It's like being stuck in a packed football stadium.

Food. It's expensive, and not great. But if, like me, you're a fan of potatoes, you'll find all sorts of crispy, fried, and cheese-enrobed varieties. I suggest Subway. You can get a sandwich, crisps, and a drink for 4 BP, which is pretty much the best you're going to get.

Beer. Simply better than anywhere else. Every pint I had was amazing.

Waterstone's Books. If this chain ever invades Canada, it will put Chapters out of business in a heartbeat. Only in the UK, however, could they get away with a section called "Black Interest."

The British Library. Astonishing. After dreaming about Chaucer and Sir Gawain for so many years, I can't describe what it felt like to suddenly behold a manuscript from the 13th century. The gold leaf was so bright, and the paper was so old, but it still smelled good, and the inks were so dark and pure, and the pages were brittle but surprisingly strong at the same time. I knew that this book would outlast me, just as it had outlasted its scribe by over 600 years.

The British Museum. I kept thinking: is this really free? Staring at the bronze helmet from Sutton Hoo (which has graced the cover of many an edition of Beowulf) is quite surreal. I was disappointed to miss the Staffordshire Hoard exhibition, although the museum did manage to hold on to a few microscopic pieces of jewelery that were impossible to photograph.

The Guildhall Library. A gem of an archive, with very helpful and efficient staff. Within 15 minutes of arriving, I found myself staring at a broadside from 1707. They had tavern records, bawdy poetry, and much more.

The Rose Theatre. It sits on the site of Marlowe's original Rose, which is 2/3 excavated, but they need 4 million BP more to complete the process. This was my first time watching Macbeth at a venue without heat or washrooms, where the actors were less than a foot away from my chair. It was incredible what they managed to do without a big budget (or any budget at all).

The Tower of London. The only attraction I paid for, and it was well worth it. Although I didn't care much about the crown jewels (aside from Queen Victoria's charming baby crown), the architecture was stunning. Roman foundations, medieval battlements, and a gift shop whose lovely Tudor trinkets melted even my cynical, New Historicist heart. Plus: Scotch Pies!

National Portrait Gallery. Oscar Wilde, Richard III, Quentin Crisp, and a bust of Virginia Woolf. Enough said.

The Haymarket Theatre. I saw Waiting For Godot, and I don't generally like Beckett, but this production was lovely. It probably helped that Ian McKellen was playing Estragon, but Rees, Kelly, and Pickup were excellent as well.

Oxford Circus. A bit exhausting, but man, there are a lot of pretty people in London, and they know where to buy great shoes. I felt like I'd just woken up in a ditch.

Portobello Market. Need an 18th century print, a first edition of The House At Pooh Corner, a fried chicken sandwich, and novelty earrings? You'll find them all here.

Double-Decker Buses. Yeah. They're more fun than regular buses.

Rain. A constant presence. But Vancouver prepared me for this. Don't bother with an umbrella, it will only slow you down. Just duck, leap, and dart along alleys and passageways.

Candy. Why is a Yorkie bar "for men only?" What is Curly Wurley? Some questions are best left unanswered.

Hanson article

2010-02-02T20:51:00.001-08:00

David Hanson has an interesting article in The Chronicle on welcoming gay faculty.

Read in full

LA Gay and Lesbian Center

2010-02-02T14:53:00.000-08:00

(From The Advocate Feb 2 2010)

Los Angeles students in grades 7-12 who experience bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity have a new option to complete their education free of violence and harassment at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.

According to the Los Angeles Times,“The school, which serves grades seven through 12, is a collaboration between Opportunities for Learning, a charter school with 34 locations across Los Angeles and Orange counties, and Lifeworks, a mentoring program for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth sponsored by the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center.”

So, if we include the Hetrick-Martin institute in NY, that's two schools for gay kids. How about a third in Middle America? I think if any town's going to do this, it'll be Laramie, WO. Their embattled queer history really does make them a kind of liberal democratic sphere surrounded by conservative communities.

Green Knight

2010-01-23T22:24:00.000-08:00

Ten reasons why the Pearl Poet's Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Cotton Nero MS, British Library) is the greatest of all fourteenth century texts produced in English:

1. West Midland English dialect. Any text that regularly utilizes glottal thorns is, by definition, awesome.

2. Alliterative verse. It's pleasing to read and even more pleasing to hear.

3. Manuscript illustrations (see above).

4. Best arming-of-the-hero scene. Even his helmet gets a verse paragraph.

5. His horse is named Gringolet.

6. Morgan le Fay is involved in a significant way.

7. Bertilak, the Green Knight, exchanges kisses with Gawain.

8. A green girdle gets significant narrative play.

9. The "love-talking" scenes between Gawain and the lady are medieval erotic psychology.

10. A character picks up his own heads and rides away with it.

Caprica

2010-01-23T17:52:00.000-08:00

Jane Espenson is a writer for the new Battlestar spin-off, Caprica, and she says that the cast will include LGBT characters. Espenson is a former Buffy writer, and wrote some of the funniest and most interesting episodes for that show. Read the full interview here.

This is Sam (actor Sasha Roiz). Sam is gay and on Caprica. Let's all program our VCRs, or whatever Tivo thingy the kids are using nowadays.

Covers

2010-01-23T16:52:00.000-08:00

Novel covers are a fascinating hybrid of artistic and advertising impulses. They are the visual lifeblood of the publishing industry, and in the genres of science fiction and fantasy, they can quite easily determine the popularity of a text. Frankly, nobody cares what the cover is going to be on a classic literary text, like Frazier's Golden Bough, or El cantar de mio Cid. But the cover of a new series by an previously unpublished fiction writer, and even a semi-established fiction writer, can make or break a series. Ultimately, if a browsing customer doesn't decide to pick up your book by virtue of its interesting cover, you have lost a sale. Publishers need sales. Everyone needs sales, because everyone needs to ensure their own financial survival, at all levels of the industry.

My experience in the urban fantasy genre is that covers require tank-tops. Women need to be in tank-tops, possibly with a jacket thrown hastily over one shoulder, definitely wearing a shoulder-holster of some kind. She might have an animal next to her, she might be hugging a wall, or she might be holding an amulet. But the elements are all there: gothic scenery, gloomy lighting, a firearm of some kind, and bare flesh.

What's amazing is that artists working for various publishers have found creative ways to project this idea while also adding an element of the unexpected. Everyone has limited digital and financial resources to work with, and a crushing schedule to deal with, but despite it all, fascinating covers are still produced. Take mine, for example, above.

Tess looks interesting, not mindless. She isn't wearing high-heels. She has a pretty sweet police badge lanyard around her neck. And the crime-scene tape is eye-drawing. It takes the CSI image, which is an advertising text, and extends it. Whatever's behind Tess seems pretty scary, at least to me. And trust me, it is scary. But the touch of the windows is perfect, especially because of the medieval subject matter. I think Tim Lantz did a great job.

Will this cover make more people pick up my book? I guess I'm not supposed to care about these things, I'm just supposed to "enjoy creating," or whatever they call the daimonic inspiration of writing in any genre. But I also want to be published, and the visual representation of my stories is essentially what ensures that.

Still, to me, the fantasy and science fiction aisle in a bookstore has always been the most beautiful aisle. I go there first, not to Artwork or Philosophy. I browse all the new covers like a twelve-year-old version of myself stuck inside an endless Purdy's chocolate store. Some are so pretty. Others make me cringe. Damn you, Patricia Briggs, why does Mercy just keep getting hotter with each successive cover?

I can be distracted in a bookstore this way for hours. My boyfriend is more distracted by the games section, since he sincerely wants me to play Settlers of Katan with him. Will I break? I feel like being drunk is what will ultimately decide things, but I look forward to it.

Reasons for writing

2010-01-22T17:03:00.000-08:00

In his list of reasons for being a writer, George Orwell places egomania at the very top. I am thinking of this thanks to a talk on Orwell given by a colleague that I attended today, during which he brilliantly and precisely illustrated the place of style in composition studies. Orwell is celebrated as a writer who composed 'transparent' and 'precise' short stories, compact and bordered, descriptive without saying too much. But his style may not have in fact been transparent at all, it may have been affectively charged, and probably was.

Why do I write? Is it egomania? That is definitely on the list, and close to the top spot, even. Of course I want to see my work disseminated. Of course I want to believe that people are thinking and debating my ideas, that they are talking about my writing, and therefore talking about me. Is that only child syndrome? If it's a syndrome, then I feel as if the character of it is something that I can bear quite fine. Yes, I would like you to be talking about me. It's pleasing. And that's part of style as well: Mulvey's sense of being-looked-at-ness, of being desired but also interpellated and looked through. Bring that on. I love it.

I do enjoy the experience of writing something and then seeing it in print, which includes electronic print, since it's impossible to discount the significance of online texts and blogs. At this moment in the publishing industry, as far as I can tell, digital promotion and online reviewing are the driving forces behind book promotion. I enjoy publishing fanfic as much as I enjoy publishing an article in a journal. Why should I prefer one to the other? Chapbooks are far sexier than literary journals. I have a birthday card from my friend Tara that I've kept since I was seventeen, because it's basically a graphic and literary masterpiece. I keep it in my closet in a heavy plastic binder so it will never decay. I think I may scan it.

So yes, publication feels good, and fuels the ego. But let's be honest. It also allows you to eschew therapy, because you can deal with your personal shit through the medium of print. Don't think that your characters aren't working your shit out for you--they pretty much always are. But they also divebomb you sometimes and do weird things, make decisions that you hadn't planned on. "Hey. You died in the outline. Why are you still alive in chapter thirteen?" We've all asked a character this question. Hey, when did the lawyer turn into a snow leopard? This is actually happening in a manuscript I'm writing now. There is a law court entirely run by animals, and one of the advocates is a snow leopard who communicates through an electronic amulet. Because, hey...that's just fun to write about. Plus, I feel as if I understand animal behavior more than humans. I trust animals more than I trust humans, on average. If I'm invited to a party and there's a cat present, goodbye, it's been nice chatting with you, now excuse me while I go talk to the cat for the next half-hour. I orient towards books and animals.

Writing fuels egomania, but it can also humble you. And if anything, it makes you more sensitive. I'm pretty sure I've read every review of everything I've published over the past four years, including reviews on Amazon and online book communities. The good reviews are heartening; the bad reviews sting, as does the faint praise. I react to all of it, and want to react to all of it, in the kind of perverse way you want to pinch yourself to make sure you're really feeling something. But at the same time, you internalize all of the criticism, and hopefully that makes you a better writer. Although it does drive one to drinking.

Ultimately, I wish I could write like David Sedaris. I wish I had just the charm that he has in his little finger. That man can write an essay about lancing his boil, and I read it eagerly. I credit the science fiction writer Diane Duane as the person who made me want to be a writer. I read her books about preteen wizards when I was twelve, and then again in junior high, etc., and now I basically re-read them once a year. She made writing beautiful, and her characters felt like people I really wanted in my life. And I'm pretty sure that two of her wizards were gay and lived in the same house, which was, for a 1986 YA novel, pretty great, if not intriguing. Of course I could be wrong about that. But if I am, I don't want to know about it.

Why are we always holding hands?

2010-01-17T23:41:00.001-08:00

Greg and Terry from American Dad.

Greg: "Why are we always holding hands?"
Terry: "How else will people know we're gay?"
Greg: "Oh yeah. You're right."

Kish

2010-01-01T14:13:00.000-08:00

OLTL airs the first gay sex-scene on a soap opera, between Kyle and Oliver. It's actually pretty sweet. So many candles.

The Burke Family

2009-12-30T12:11:00.000-08:00

Brian Burke's son Brendan, currently student hockey manager for the University of Miami, recently came out. His dad's reaction: "We love you." It's quite interesting when Burke's dad, currently GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs, says:

There are gay men in professional hockey. We would be fools to think otherwise. And it's sad that they feel the need to conceal this. I understand why they do so, however.

Read the full story on ESPN

The Absent Presence

2009-12-29T16:44:00.000-08:00

Brian Croxall, a visiting professor who could not afford to attend MLA after the 41 (!) jobs that he applied for produced not a single interview, delivered this paper by proxy. It has now swept through twitter and is quickly becoming an MLA legend:

"I’m sorry that I can’t be delivering these comments in person, and I thank Prof. Cavanagh for her willingness to read them on my behalf. Hearing talks delivered by the person who did not write them is only slightly better than having to be the person who is reading a talk she didn’t write, so I’ll be brief. At the same time, however, I can think of no more appropriate way for me to give a talk in a panel titled 'Today’s Students, Today’s Teachers: Economics' than in this manner. After all, I’m not a tenure-track faculty member, and the truth of the matter is that I simply cannot afford to come to this year’s MLA. I know that we as a profession are increasingly aware of the less than ideal conditions under which contingent faculty members (and graduate students) labor while providing more than half of the instruction that undergraduates receive across the nation...."

Read the full paper on Professor Croxall's website

Dorian?

2009-12-29T16:31:00.000-08:00

From the new adaptation of Dorian Gray directed by Oliver Parker. I really don't remember this scene from the book....

Poker Face

2009-12-28T23:31:00.001-08:00

The UC-Berkeley men's a-capella group performing Poker Face. Pretty sweet.

Greek

2009-12-24T15:08:00.001-08:00

Calvin and Grant, two gay frat-brothers, enjoying some homotension on Greek. It's so interesting that a network like ABC Family has decided to incorporate queer characters within a show that's basically intent on making macho fraternity culture seem more palatable and friendly. I'm not sure if it's a kind of cynical tolerance in order to snag more teen viewers, or a genuine declaration of interest in alternative sexualities on campus. Probably both. At least it's better than any of the gay stories on Touched By An Angel.

Inhuman Resources

2009-12-23T02:12:00.000-08:00

The new cover is up for Inhuman Resources, which is available for pre-order on Amazon. Book 3 in the OSI series includes:

More goblins

Baroque art

Cats

Interrogation scenes

Something wicked (and winged) shambling towards Vancouver....

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