Geefully awaiting Glee

Had a rough couple of days. Feeling angry at the world, worried about what happens when my current work contract ends in a couple of months and the crap that's going on in the world is pissing me off.

I need a shot of GLEE.

I know, it's simplistic and no High School was ever like this, not even the Fiorello H. La Guardia High School of Music and the Arts. Got news for you - you're not goin' to live forever!

The reason Glee works is because it's a fairytale. Even "Miss Musical Me" has a hard time swallowing the contrived plot twists and turns, but like any Micky and Judy Busby Berkley classic, it's all about the musical numbers. And I heard that this season they are supposed to have even more. I thought an hour had just 60 minutes.

What gets me past the contrivance is that there is no pretense to being anything other what what it is - a 21st century version of Carol Burnett's mini-musicals.

So tonight I will forget for 65 minutes, my personal problems; the sex abuse scandals; the farce that is Quebec politics; the lack of leadership and balls in our Federal Liberal Party and the tragedy of poverty and displacement in a country that is blessed with wealth and resources.

Here's a funny spoof followed by a typical "gleeful" trailer for the most hyped show this season.

HOMOSEXUALS ROCK!!! - You Can't Make Me Straight, Bitch!

Logorama - recognize the scenery?

From film's website: LOGORAMA.
"H5 directed many videos (Alex Gopher, Massive Attack, Goldfrapp, Röyksopp...), and has regularly been invited to exhibitions (2007 Nuit Blanche, Beaubourg, MoMA...).

With Logorama, H5 (François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy et Ludovic Houplain) sign its first short film (17 mn)."


Logorama from Marc Altshuler - Human Music on Vimeo.

If you're into "branding" or marketing, this film is an orgy of product placement - and - logo's.

Oh, and if you're into gratuitous violence and sicko corporate mascots, you'll love this too.
Enjoy - it's brilliant and well worthy of it's Oscar win.

Out in the Silence

The stories portrayed in this documentary, which I'm really looking forward to seeing, represent such an enviable amount of bravery and resilience against such a disgusting amount of hatred and religious hypocrisy.

The story plays out in many small towns and it's truly inspiring to see the conviction of self worth exhibited by people who are despised because the "visual" of what they do in bed is so repugnant.

Mirrors on the ceiling, anyone?

I've included photos from the films site: Out in the Silence

C.J. Springer was tormented at school because he is gay. Spring shot footage for the film, providing a painful glimpse into his very private suffering as well as needed comic relief from the antics he and his friends devised to entertain themselves in a quiet little town.


Diane Gramley, head of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania, protests




Kathy Springer, an Oil City resident whose teenage son, C.J., was brutally tormented at school because he is gay, sought help from Joe Wilson after reading the wedding announcement in the newspaper.


Dean Hamer and Joseph Wilson's wedding announcement, published in the Oil City Derrick newspaper.

Mike Wallace - "The Homosexuals" (1967)

I was an adolescent in 1967 when this documentary aired. This program represented the societal context with which I sought to form my sexual identity. That should explain a lot...

Mike Wallace later commented: "That is — God help us — what our understanding was of the homosexual lifestyle a mere twenty-five years ago because nobody was out of the closet and because that's what we heard from doctors — that's what Socarides told us, it was a matter of shame."

I am also quite amazed at Gore Vidal's revolutionary words in this interview. Remember, this was 1967 and Gore Vidal, though not the iconic curmudgeon he is today, was still firmly planted in the legit cultural firmament.

"We (Americans) have a sexual ethic that is the joke of the world...the U.S. is living out a mid nineteenth century Protestant dream of human behaviour - our basic values are all wrong, the idea of marriage is obsolete in our society..."

Is it just me or does he sound a lot like Trudeau?

Things were decidedly different in Canada. We decriminalized Homosexuality two years later.

It would take our country another generation to give gays equal rights in the bedrooms and the workplace.

How long will it take the great beacon of democracy to the south?