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JeffandWill.com is under renovation. As of this afternoon, this blog is not the place for updates. Please go to JeffandWill.com to check out the new site!
Hope to see you there!
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Note, as posts are moved to the new site, they will be deleted from here, so you'll start to notice that after this post, things are back in 2007.
If there's one thing I can't stand, it's when a magazine "freshens up" it's look. ARGH! It seems every time I flip the to the page with the masthead, there's a new name at the top and 99.99% of the time that new editor has a fresh new "vision." DOUBLE ARGH! I understand that the magazine business is volatile and there's a lot of turnover, but it seems to be a particular problem with the gay mags. The latest culprit is The Advocate. Their new look is sleeker and more modern, with a slightly more serious/newsy tone. Newsflash: Two different type fonts on the same page doesn't make you modern. It's freaking stupid!
Okay, rant over.
Reason 3,549 Why Not Being Legally Married is Problem: Signing up for health insurance at the new job, which does offer domestic partner coverage (which is, of course, great), is made all the more difficult because I have to produce a notarized document certifying that we are domestic partners. If we were legally married, I'd just have to produce our license. What I'm doing instead is running around trying to find a notary and finding out that it's not an easy thing to do. I don't begrudge my company or the insurance company for wanting this proof, they should make sure they aren't covering roommates or friends. I blame the government for failing to give us the ease that other committed couples have to prove their relationship.
Martha's Collection: I love this commercial. Actually all of the new Macy's ads are fun. But I love this one the most and had to share for anyone who hasn't seen it.
TV Season Update: Of course, it's been a busy TV week since the new season is underway. Here are some quick thoughts about what I've seen so far.
Heroes: A little too sweeping for me. There was a lot of varied material stuffed into one episode. I think less would've been more... but I am already looking forward to next week.
Beebo Brinker: Tomorrow evening we are off to see The Beebo Brinker Chronicles, a stage adaptation of the legendary 1950s lesbian pulp novels by Ann Bannon. Will discovered these books a few years ago and we both loved them, so we're excited to see this show. Bannon is doing a talk-back session after the show, so that's going to make it extra special. More on this will get posted late tomorrow or Monday.
September 28, 1987...Trekkies around the world huddled in front of their TVs to see if Star Trek: The Next Generation would live up to their expectations. Almost uniformly, that initial answer was no. That first episode, "Encounter at Farpoint" was a bit slow, a bit stiff and a bit disappointing. But the series quickly recovered in that first season, and a couple of that season's shows even stand as some of the finest of the series' 178 episodes.
Certainly it captivated my friends and I for the seven seasons, as we would often gather to watch the episodes week-after-week. And, we even traveled to conventions to hang out with other geeks. I think we went to four or five conventions over the years.
To celebrate the anniversary of TNG (in my opinion, the best of the five Trek series), here's my personal top 10 TNG episodes.
1) Chain of Command, Part 2 (Season 6): Picard, captured by the Cardassians, is tortured. Patrick Stewart's performance makes this episode a standout and it's stunning he didn't receive an Emmy for this work.
2) The Best of Both Worlds Part 1 & 2 (season 3/4): The season 3 cliffhanger was a nail biter as Riker squares off against Borged-out Picard. The conclusion at the start of season 4 kept up the pressure right down to the final destruction of the Borg cube.
3) The Inner Light (Season 5): Here Picard, possessed by an alien probe, lives an entire other life. Another standout performance from Stewart and one of the most touching of all TNG episodes.
4) Conspiracy (Season 1): Worms are taking over Starfleet and it's up to Picard and Riker to stop it. Okay, sounds silly, but it's a solid episode (and to me lays the ground work for where the series went with the Borg).
5) Yesterday's Enterprise (season 3): All Trek series time travel and it doesn't get any better than this. When the Enterprise C shows up through a rift, everything changes, including the return of Tasha Yar.
6) I, Borg (Season 5): One Borg learns how to think for himself. We'd end up and see Hugh a couple more times over the course of TNG and the other Trek series.
7) The Offspring (season 3): Another episode to pull on your emotions as Data manufactures an offspring, but then must also face her death.
8) The Big Goodbye (season 1): The first of the "disaster-in-the-holodeck" episodes was the best of the lot as Picard and Company get stuck playing out a deadly Dixon Hill mystery.
9) All Good Things... Part 1 & 2 (Season 7): It's rare to feel complete closure from a series finale, but TNG lived up to the challenge going back to "Farpoint" and forward into a possible future.
10) The Arsenal of Freedom (season 1): It's kind of a kooky episode as the crew has to deal with an automated weapons salesman, whose weapons threaten to wipe them all out.
Now, let's take a moment to look at how it all began. This promo cropped up in the summer of 1987 on the VHS release of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Dancing with the Stars opened its fifth season strong on Monday and Tuesday night with a girl vs. guy competition. Monday night the girls brought their foxtrots and cha-chas to the dancefloor and the guys answered the challenge on Tuesday. By far, this was the strongest opening show in the five seasons with no one looking like a disaster, even though the rehearsal period was only four weeks. There were three standout performances across the two nights.
Among the women, Cheetah Girl Sabrina Byan sizzled with her professional partner Mark Mallas (who is new to the show this season). Their cha-cha was high energy and sexy. The judges didn't care for the hip-hop moves they threw in, but to me it worked and they got what had to be one of the highest scores ever given on an opening show with a 26.
For them men, boxer Floyd Mayweather also brought a high energy cha-cha to the ballroom, yet for some reason he was shot down by the judges, earning only 16 points. I'm not clear what they didn't like, especially since Sabrina scored so high. No matter, I thought Floyd was great. The other highlight was model Albert Reed who put his hips to work in a sexy cha-cha. If he can channel his energy right he'll go a long way in this competition.
Two clunkers of the 12: Wayne Newton and Josie Maran. He got more points than he deserved since he seemed to get lost during his cha-cha a couple of times, and yet the judges didn't call him on it. Maran played it too safe in her routine, making all the more obvious that her dancing skills lack.
This year, the women are, by far, stronger than the men. Marie Osmond, Jeanie Garth, Jane Seymour and Mel B were all solid. With such impressive opening dances, you can imagine how good they'll get as the weeks go on. It was less clear with the men where the stand outs were besides Floyd and Albert. The other male who stood out was Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. His dance wasn't perfect, but he sold it well (a surprise since he's not a performer). Racecar driver Helio Castroneves was also good in his fox trot and it will be fun to watch him grow over the coming weeks.
Right now, I pick Sabrina Bryan to win the whole thing (it would be the first time a woman has one DWTS since season 1). And I think Josie Maran will go home tomorrow.
Look for other DWTS commentaries on Tuesdays after the results show. With my Bluestreak training schedule, I'm not home on Mondays to watch and predict so I'm just going to comment on the whole week's events after the results show on Tuesday night.
Results Update: Yes! Josie went home. And Sabrina got to dance again, which was fun to see all over again. Dolly Parton was great too. The "9 to 5" number was very enjoyable... good singing and good dancing! I feel like it's going to be a solid season.
I really wanted to love this movie. It was certainly one that I should have loved, right? I love The Beatles; I love musicals; I love movie musicals that have big visual style. All of that is present in Across The Universe and yet, as a package, the film didn't move me one way or the other. I didn't hate, but I didn't love it.
Its core is the love story between Lucy and Jude and it unfolds with the turbulent late 60s as a backdrop. We witness race riots, reaction to Martin Luther King's assassination, the drug and hippie culture and, of course, Vietnam and the war protests. Unfortunately, director Julie Taymor (a Tony Award winner for the Broadway Musical version of The Lion King) seems to rely on other films to get most of her visual imagery. There are way-too-easy comparisons to Pink Floyd's The Wall, The Beatles own Yellow Submarine, Hair and bit of a nod at Moulin Rouge. Sadly, Taymor never seems to break off on her own to give us anything truly new and awe inspiring.
Even more disappointing are the overuse of Beatles in jokes. Such as Max and Jude renting a room from Sadie and she says to Max, "You look clean cut, of course you could've hit your grandma over the head with a hammer" ("Maxwell's Silver Hammer"). Or the when Prudence arrives, climbing in to the apartment from the fire escape. Sadie asks Jude where she came from... "She came in through the bathroom window" (a song title). The biggest groan for me was the final sequence where Sadie's band plays on top of their record company's headquarters (lifted from the sequence made famous in The Beatles Let It Be).
Let me focus on some of the good stuff. Some of the musical sequences are really great:
There is one thing I hated. Eddie Izzard's tripping his way through "Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite" was awful. It was part of the expected mid-film drug induced trip out, an entire bit that could have been excised (and that would've taken 15 to 20 minutes out of the film, making it a bit more concise).
I went into Across the Universe hoping it would either be fabulous like Moulin Rouge or at least kooky fun like the misguided Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band movie. I didn't expect to feel so flatlined about it in the end. There was something there that kept me from fully connecting to the characters and the story.
Now, Will, on the other hand, liked the movie, and not in a Cool Cinema Trash sort of way. I'm hoping he'll either comment or do his own post to provide some counterpoint.
Happy Fall! It is, as regular readers know, my favorite time of year. Crisp air, clear skies... and it means the snow will be here sooner rather than later (unless this year is like last when there was such a sad snow drought). It doesn't feel very fall-esque today, but there've been hints of it in the past couple weeks and it looks like later this week it'll be back! Yay
Fall Means...: Saturday morning hockey has rolled back from starting at 8am to starting at 5am and next week it lands at 4am where it will be until sometime in February or March. I love playing at this hour. It's just a few people (today was 10) playing for a couple of hours. It's such a blast. It's a chance to play with people who are significantly better than me, which only helps my own game... and it's lots of ice time. I was exhausted when I came home. It was like being a kid playing outside until you can play no more. It's a great feeling!
Betty, Betty Betty: ABC Family has an Ugly Betty marathon today, showing 13 of the season's episodes. It'll be hard to get anything meaningful done since it will be very easy to sit on the couch and just watch. It's the perfect thing to get ready for next week's premiere.
New TV Season: Some of the new TV season debuted last week. Soooo disappointed so far. Prison Break was a huge disappointment. No only is it disappointing that everyone's back in prison again, but the writing was flat and dull (some of the episode seemed lifted right out of Max Max Beyond Thunderdome... all that was missing was Tina Turner). We also looked at Gossip Girl and bailed at the second commercial break. The characters weren't interesting and it all seemed like a pale imitation of Cruel Intentions.
Next week the season really kicks off. Of course, looking forward to Dancing with the Stars (three nights next week, wow!), Heroes, Smallville and lots more. The DVR will definitely be working overtime.
First Week of Work: It's been a great week at work. First, it's been nice to feel more at ease. There's more work to do, especially getting up to speed on things, but it's not overwhelming either. It's a good change of pace.
Something I realized to make the work location even better: I'm 5 blocks away from free ice skating in Bryant Park, which will start up some time in late October if it stays on the same schedule as last year. So, it is possible I can hop out at lunch time and do some skating! And talk about a nice setting for skating...
Coming Out: October 11 is National Coming Out Day and this year it is also the 20th Anniversary of the Lesbian and Gay March on Washington and the first unfurling of the Names Project AIDS Quilt on the National Mall. This year for National Coming Out Day, the Human Rights Campaign is reaching out to the LGBT community to create a collection of stories about their coming out experiences. Learn more about this initiative on HRC's website (and with the video below) and consider sharing your story.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the world premiere of Hair at New York's Public Theater. And Geek Out is celebrating because this weekend the Public is doing special anniversary concert stagings of the musical at its theater is Central Park. (I'm sad I'm not going to one of these performances; I just can't face taking the time to deal with the line to get the free tickets.)
I suspect most everyone has heard at least one song from Hair since it spawned classics like "Aquarius," "Easy to be Hard" and "Let the Sun Shine In" (in fact, it's hard to miss that song these days since it's used in an ad for Kia automobiles). Hair has been a movie and the stage show seems to get performed often. Since we've lived in New York there has been at least three major stagings: 1) a stint at City Center in its Encores series (which tried to make the leap to Broadway, but failed), 2) a concert performance for the Actor's Fund (which spawned a new CD with some great performances, including Jennifer Hudson singing "Easy to be Hard") and now 3) this weekend's performances in the Park.
I discovered Hair back in the early 80s when the 1979 Milos Forman was on Showtime. I fell for the music and picked up the Broadway cast recording soon after. It wasn't until I was in college, about 10 years later, that I finally saw the play. The play and the movie are two very different things, even though the basic plot remains the same (hippies, Vietnam War, drugs, etc). The movie starts to deal with class issues and turns all the character relationships inside out. Where the play has everyone as friends from start; in the film Claude comes to New York from Oklahoma just as he's about to be drafted and he meets everyone else. You really have to take the two works as separate because the plots take such differing paths (down to the fact that different characters die in the end). However, both are good entertainments.
In the end, the stage show moves me more than the film does. There's too much about the film that just kinda kooky. The stage version has some real emotional power as Claude decides that he is going to go to Vietnam, even though is friends are willing to go to great lengths to keep him home. Claude pays the ultimate price for sticking to his convictions, which builds to an emotional climax with "The Flesh Failures/Let the Sun Shine In" which takes you from the sadness of his death to the hope that the future can be better. If you can ever catch the stage version, I highly recommend it.
Here's a good contrast to the different tones of the stage and movie versions. First up is the cast of Hair performing "Aquarius" on The Smothers Brothers show.
Next, here's the same song from the movie. One of the great things the movie has going for it is choreogrpahy from Twyla Tharp and this scene shows that off well.
I've been trying to figure out what kept nagging me about this book and I finally figured it out: It's a little too afterschool special. There's a lot to like about Robin Reardon's A Secret Edge; however, this kept me from completely embracing it. The novel is about track star Jason Peele coming to terms with his gayness and for such a quick read (258 pages), there is a lot of plot in here (let's take a quick count of the major plot points):
1) Jason fully realizes he's gay; 2) Jason helps out a kid in English class that's having trouble with character sketches; 3) Jason falls for Raj and they start down the path of having a relationship, a tumultuous one to say the least; 4) Jason starts coming out; 5) Jason prepares for the big track meet; 6) Jason befriends another closeted guy at school; 7) Jason gets bullied. There are at least two more that I could put in here, but that would start to ruin some of the climax of the book and I don't want to do that. And, there's usually a lesson around all of these.
I don't want to sound harsh about the book, a did like it. But I think the message elements bash you over the head a little too much. Some of the very same lessons were in Hero, but the morals there were more subtle. I know that this, as a book for the Young Adult audience, seeks to tell the right message to its readers but you also have to have some faith that the reader will get it.
Taking the heavy-handed messages and putting that aside. I liked the book. The plot was compelling and Reardon did a good job of making everything tie together.
Next up, taking a break from the novels for a bit to dig into the October issue of Vanity Fair.
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