Gay and Gayer

Think gay this fall; then think Hollywood. Tinsel town is literally awash with films; back to back that keep portraying gay characters, so much so you could be forgiven for thinking American cinema had turned a corner and become "seriously independent".
Watching the BBC's 'Talking Movies' the other day I can now rattle off for you a roll-call of mostly, gay flicks which you might see opening at cinemas far far away from you.(Capote, Brokeback, Transamerica..... and the list goes on and on and on...)
The real challenge, as one critic on the programme pointed out, lies in getting a mostly straight audience to buy tickets to such movies let alone develop an appetite for gay romanticism in mainstream cinema; something not too many studios are willing to take a call on,either.
Much has been made of openly straight leads for gay characters but you would think this one's a slam-dunk - no openly straight actor, not even in his gay frame of mind would be gullible enough to imagine audiences taking, what they hear or see in make believe world of cinema, at face-value, so on that count I doubt if straights playing gays deserve any extra brownie points at all.
Besides, for some of us at least, straights acting gay simply does not cut the muster : gays playing gay can bring an uncommon intensity on screen which, at best, can leave most straight actors groping to get a handle on. There's nothing quite like hearing it straight from the horse's mouth; if you see what I mean. Besides casting for gay characters isn't exactly what you might call a "level playing field" either, with there being a dearth of gay talent, save Chad Allen's to be tapped into .
Now that brings us to improvisations on films belonging to this bonafide genre of gay film making for a straight audience. What could Ang Lee have possibly done differently, to make Brokeback twice as great a film it is touted to be?
Well, for starters, they could have given him free rein in telling the story of a fledgling romance between a Texan cowboy and an Afro-Caribbean farm hand or to have it filmed down under; capturing an Aussie life guard from Bondi Beach on heat for his Aborigine lover-boy, as alternative themes for Brokeback.
Much water has flown under the bridge of gay rights activism at a safe remove from race issues that we can no longer ONLY embrace 'homogeneity of homosexuality' - there's every need to jazz read heterogenize things up a little, every now and again, and how well we can jazz it up too!
Having come this far, Hollywood ought to give producers and script-writers the fiat to develop storylines and film on location in prisons, army barracks(CENTCOM's included) besides closeted religious fiefdoms the world over, where the concept of gay love blossoming, is wholly conceivable. I am willing to bet you my best friend's Vertu that that would indeed make for some compelling cinema.
Am I right or am I right?

Blog Detour...... treading the off -beaten track

Blog fatigue is fast catching up with me, and what with chat-rooms full of people venting their spleen on others or spewing bile over trifling non-isues on ethically challenged partisan bulletin boards, my blog decides to do an about-face this weekend with links from the other side.

As recommended reading for the weekend I give you:
www.sciammind.com - for those awkward times when you are running low on latex or the lubricant.
www.gurdjieff.org
www.aynrand.org
www.susansontag.com
www.mensa.org : could that be the reason why right now, every woman, in this country, and her sister are no longer out shopping or staying glued to their mobiles whilst carrying on delegating child rearing duties to the domestic help?
websudoku.com - now we know what's been taking so long for immigration and customs clearance at Kuwait international; the chaps are sudoking away to glory on their Palmtops. Carry on Chaps!
www.tm.org - begin a secular journey of self-discovery; the sooner the better :)

N-joy,
L'homme

Wisdom Cookie....on a wet lease for 2006

'What I must do is all that concerns me,
not what the people think.
This rule, equally arduous in actual and intellectual Life,
may serve for the whole distance between greatness and meanness.
It is the harder because you will always find those who think they know
what is your duty better than you know it.

It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion;
it is easy in solitude to live after our own;
but the great person is one who in the middle of the crowd
keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude'.
- Emerson, Ralph (the similarity with Ralph Lauren ending there).
Perhaps, even I can aspire for such greatness, or then, maybe not.
Wonder how"they" would respond to this, though.