Mommy's busy.Normally I Don't Like To Share My Past New Year's Resolutions because it's bad form and it jinxes my good intentions. I shared my 1996 resolution involving Queen Latifah, and I think we all know how that ended. In January 1997 one of my resolutions, largely adhered to, made my life smoother than a full-body wax. In a blast of bonhomie bon·ho·mie n. A pleasant and affable disposition; geniality. [French, from bonhomme, good-natured man : bon, good (from Latin bonus; see deu-2 , I share it with you. In 1997 I resolved and have resolved again in 1998 not to go to any so-called blockbuster movies and not to attend any movies unless they have British accents and/or subtitles. This year I added a third proviso: I would rather blow Kenneth Starr than go to another movie that uses that damned blue wall to create special effects. Therefore, I have not seen the new 007 opus or Titanic (I know how it ends) or Amistad (my friend Pauline spent the whole movie trying to identify Matthew McConaughey's accent). The one exception to my resolution was In & Out, the gay blockbuster. Loved Out; hated In. Between blockbuster and independent is the DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone) A middle ground between an organization's trusted internal network and an untrusted, external network such as the Internet. Also called a "perimeter network," the DMZ is a subnetwork (subnet) that may sit between firewalls or off one leg of a of commercial movies. I was hideously uncomfortable in As Good As It Gets during the establishment of Jack Nicholson's character, Melvin, who spews well-crafted homophobic, racist, sexist vitriol vitriol: see sulfuric acid. to justify the marvel of his later transformation into human being. It was not the good-hearted gay man or the tough-love waitress who began the change in him. It was Prozac and the dog. Kolya, The Wings of the Dove, and, most recently, Ma Vie en Rose have enriched my life far more. I won't ruin it for you, but at the end of Ma Vie en Rose, the young dykus ex machina swaps her tiara and organza or·gan·za n. A sheer, stiff fabric of silk or synthetic material used for trimming, neckwear, or evening dresses. [Probably after Organzi (Urganch), a city of western Uzbekistan. party dress for the outfit of her halfhearted half·heart·ed adj. Exhibiting or feeling little interest, enthusiasm, or heart; uninspired: a halfhearted attempt at writing a novel. swishbuckling friend, Ludo ludo Noun Brit & Austral a simple board game in which players move counters forward by throwing dice [Latin: I play] Noun 1. , and, more important, stands up for him when he gets in trouble for indulging his old cross-dressing ways. She in all her ambiguity is a signal to Ludo that his transgressive trans·gres·sive adj. 1. Exceeding a limit or boundary, especially of social acceptability. 2. Of or relating to a genre of fiction, filmmaking, or art characterized by graphic depictions of behavior that violates socially , transdressive impulse is not criminal, anti-family, or evil. She is a fellow gender bender, and she will stand by him in his her-ness. It is a moment of extraordinary courage and kindness and one of the only times in the film I loosened my knuckle-melding grip on my girlfriend. Ma Vie en Rose is a poignant, excruciating in-breath that Waiting to Exhale exhale /ex·hale/ (eks´hal) to breathe out. ex·hale v. 1. To breathe out. 2. To emit a gas, vapor, or odor. only aspired to. Oddly enough, on that relaxed exhaled breath, I thought of Larry Kramer. Ever since Larry's lament in The New York Times that lesbians are not stepping in to referee the playground fight between his people (the hair Shirts) versus Sex Panic! (the foreSkins), I have been deconstructing Larry. I suppose he intends the spirit of his rant to cause such Ma Vie en Rose moments as when the DIT (dyke in training) defends Ludo. But since Larry always sounds like Jack Klugman on Quincy with veins popping out of his forehead, shouting, "Don't you understand what this means?" it's hard to muster a sanguine response. Historically, for every emergence of women, men have had an emergency. Gay and lesbian history is no exception. After 15 years of AIDS work, lesbians are turning to our own specific issues--violence against women, reproductive freedom, health care, custody issues, and whether Ellen and Anne should have a baby. Larry is mad. I'm busy. But perhaps younger lesbians have the time to wade into the fray. It's a thankless job. Call Out magazine's former editor in chief Sarah Pettit, who found that we're lesbian enough to mediate fights between gay men but not lesbian enough to run a magazine. To train lesbians for the difficult task of running gay men's lives, I am working with the Yamagootchie research-and-development people to create a new line of electronic pets. Move over, pet rocks, Barbie, Elmo, and Beanie Babies. It's time to tend to your Yamagaytchie. Using the device, lesbians will learn the proper care and fat-free feeding of gay men. The prototype, the Kramergootchie, is in test markets in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. and Los Angeles and a tiny suburb of Chicago. It requires around-the-clock slavish slav·ish adj. 1. Of or characteristic of a slave or slavery; servile: Her slavish devotion to her job ruled her life. 2. attention and redefines the term personal trainer. A series of beeps indicates when it's time for a PowerBar, time for skin care, time to pack for the cruise. The duenna duenna Noun (esp. in Spain) an elderly woman acting as chaperon to girls [Spanish dueña] Noun 1. duenna - a woman chaperon button is for monitoring gay men's sex lives. There are some bugs to work out. I heard one going off behind me at the movies, followed by the sound of smashing plastic and crunching logic boards and a young woman hissing, "I am not your mother." |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion