I had this whole plan. I was going to make this totally deep, meaningful post about the teen show by which all others are judged: My So-Called Life. Then I was going to calmly segue into mentioning that Wilson Cruz, who of course played Rickie Vasquez -- for most of us in or around our 30s he was the first, and most out and proud gay kid we saw regularly on TV -- is in this year's Out 100. Now, Wilson is a totally amazingly sweet guy, and smart, and funny, and hot, and he's done an extraordinary thing in Hollywood since that show was unceremoniously yanked off the air by ABC after only 19 episodes: he's been a working actor, one who worked steadily and consistently. And he was never not out. (He also has one of my favorite MySpace blogs, by the way, because it sounds exactly like talking to him in person: down to earth, thoughtful, serious but not without a sense of humor.)
Anyway instead I brought up the idea to Noah and this is what happened:
Shana: did you know you can watch MSCL on ABC.com now??? Noah: do you have a favorite? i love the mother daughter fashion show one where they play enigma at the end. and claire scrunches up her chin. her chin scrunch ALWAYS gets me crying Shana: i love the finale of course. also i love the boiler room one. Noah: GOD, the boiler room one! Shana: where they're making out all the time but he won't tell his friends. and then at the end after the buffalo tom show and rayanne yells at him he TAKES HER HAND IN THE HALLWAY. Noah: THAT YES. HE TAKES HER HAND. i'm getting like choked up RIGHT NOW. i can see it perfectly! Shana: I KNOW. also my other favorite one is where they are doing the play. and katimski is giving rickie a hard time about signing up Noah: oh yeah. that's a great one. Shana: and he keeps calling him enrique. and finally rickie is like THAT'S NOT MY NAME. and then he says something about he doesn't hate it, it's just not his name. and katimski says, that's good. a person should never hate who they are. and then rickie goes and signs up for drama club or WHATEVER. and i cry every time. bc that teacher is such a fucking spaz. but he's like, oh little gay kid it will be OK. Noah: YES. i have it on dvd. i watch it sometimes. Shana: of course! i love the christmas one even though it is totes cheezy. Noah: YES! and the angel is julianna hatfield! she's all like, busking in the afterlife Shana: and at the end jordan drives rickie home and they sort of bond over having shitty families that don't love them Noah: it's totes tender. it was just such a real show -- as gross and lame as that sounds? Shana: no, it was. also even though i was fan of the violent femmes before that show, every time i hear blister in the sun i want to jump around my room like angela declaring she is over jordan catalano. Noah: YES YES YES Shana: i bet that scene is on youtube somewhere Noah: oh totally.
Wilson, we totally love you and we promise to promote the hell out of your next project. But thanks also for the excuse to take an awesome trip down memory lane.
Annie Lennox was a busy lady at last night's American Music Awards. She performed for the first time since having back surgery in August. She received a special Award of Merit (presented by Justin Timberlake, no less). She donned a sparkly shirt as a shout-out to her HIV awareness group, the SING Campaign, for which she won Out's Humanitarian of the Year award in 2007. And we're assuming she talked up her first greatest hits collection, due out in February.
We love love love Annie, and more than a few of us found her fearless example a much-needed inspiration to be ourselves, no matter how weird or queer or off the wall we may have seemed to friends and family. So we can only hope that somehow, amidst the red carpet madness, she and almost-Idol David Archuleta (above) found a few minutes and something to chat about.
> I'm suffering from an extra strong case of trying to turn the world gay today. It only belatedly occurred to me that there's not much chance the president played by Out 100 alumCherry Jones (above) on the new season of 24 would be a lesbian, too. (Nope, just your not-so-often seen woman in charge.) And then when I read that her son would be played by Gossip Girl Blake Lively's brother, Eric, it took me another 10 minutes to realize they meant real-life brother, not on-screen little bro gay Eric, played by Connor Paolo. It might be time for me to hang up my magic wand for the day.
> But it's not just me! Randomly overheard at an LA liquor store Friday night, as a hipsterish straight-couple perused the periodicals rack and commented on President-Elect Barack Obama's mug on the cover of hip-hop mag The Source: "Just watch," the hip chick said. "Next he'll be on the cover of Out." I'm a little obsessed with the "lifestreaming" of Obama, but I promise you'd hear that one here first.
> Back to 24 for a second. Remember back in 2001 when the two most shocking things about 24's debut were a) that they had to trim out some scarily omniscient big plane explosions by terrorists, and b) that a black man (Dennis Haysbert) was about the clinch the Democratic nomination for president? If only, that is, Jack Bauer could save him from being assassinated. At the time I had some elaborate conspiracy theory, I recall, about what the conservative Fox empire was implying with all that. Now it just seems quaint, like -- remember when we had to invent a black president because the idea of really getting one was so absurd!?
No Doubt is regrouping and will hit the road before releasing a new album in 2009. The band hasn't released an album since 2001's Rock Steady, as Stefani
has been busy marrying hunky rockers and popping out babies and solo albums. The other members of
the band have spent their time writing and playing on other musicians'
albums including, most recently, Scott Weiland's second solo album, Happy in Galoshes.
On their MySpace page, Fol Chen describes itself as “melodramatic popular song.” But judging from the first single, “Cable TV” off their forthcoming debut album Part 1: John Shade, Your Fortune's Made, we’d also describe them as the campy lovechild of Prince and Crystal Castles. This song strikes our fancy because it's light (but not insignificant) and has a clever narrative that plays on the nostalgic memories we have of roadside motels boasting "Cable" on their marquees:
"Won't you come away with me/I'm not rich but the first night is on me/You know I just got paid, baby/I know a place and they've got cable TV.”
Ok, Fol Chen. If the first night;s on you, then we're in. For now, keep checking their MySpace for updates, and make sure to catch their new album when it drops February 3, 2009. Until then, we'll excitedly ponder the mission statement Fol Chen released on their record label's (Asthmatic Kitty) website: "We are cryptic and joyful and we would like you to dance."
This weekend brought two more glowing, enraptured, befuddled media profiles of Out 100er Rachel Maddow.
> "These days, the 'M' in MSNBC might as well stand for Rachel Maddow," coos Wall Street Journal's Marketwatch. They credit her success hosting "a nightly prime-time news program that stresses biting but civil discourse," recount a star struck crowd of otherwise-cynical New Yorkers at a Greenwich Village restaurant, and get Vanity Fair's Michael Wolff to quip, "No surprises, no hysterics, no drama -- just the nice liberal, lesbian down the street."
> Newsweek takes a slightly more calculated approach: "[Maddow's popularity is] not despite her differences from other talking heads, but because
of them. A funny, cerebral and likable young woman who reads graphic
novels and hungers for political change is more representative of the
times than the older, angrier male pundits who've dominated the debate
for so long. Maddow is not angry -- her fans find her adorable, often
confessing to crushes on her -- but she is anxious, driven and determined.
She did not stumble into a boys' club. She elbowed her way in, smiling." And they quote her partner, who "believes the 'unlikely' label is just code for lesbian: 'She goes from
Stanford to Oxford to activism to radio, then TV? What's so unusual
about that? Is it because she is a gay lady?'"
But the piece also smartly shows us a softer, sadder side, if no less determined. MSNBC head Phil Griffin says, "She comes in every day and studies for eight hours." She talks about having "cyclical depression since puberty that, she says, you can set your watch by." She came out at 17 by plastering posters in the bathroom of her freshman dorm at Stanford, but now says, "It was such an obnoxious thing to do when I think about it. Why did I
think anybody in my freshman dorm would care? I was 90 percent
attitude." Someone helpfully mailed her very Roman Catholic folks a copy of an article about the stunt.
> Our awesome Out.com intern Joseph Hassan is as obsessed with Ms. Maddow as the rest of the country, and sent in this dispatch on her late-night visit to Conan O'Brien on Friday. Read on for his review...
The first hour is a boring, drawn-out wait for the girl to get that yes, he is a vampire and yes, he likes you, too. The second hour is a suddenly convoluted cross-country chase. The dialogue is painful throughout. I know (and love) melodrama and camp -- this movie misses both of those marks, landing instead in a mire of schlock. I found myself thinking "oh, well, I'm glad Sarah Clarke got work" because someone else's happiness might keep me from checking my watch for the 18th time.
Maybe I'm an out-of-touch adult who doesn't see the sexual appeal of Robert Pattinson (pictured above) -- still that kid from the Harry Potter movies to me. Taylor Lautner is the most compelling actor in the flick, so maybe I'm just a member of Team Jacob. But I don't think this is about not being 14, since the teenagers in the lobby from the show before and those in the theater with me didn't seem especially jazzed about the movie itself -- only compelled by an occasion to be out in public with their friends en masse. (And en masse they were -- the movie made some $70 million in the US this weekend.) Afterwards the adults around me primarily conversed about whether they had fallen asleep or not.
If you're considering seeing this movie because you're a fan of the books, wait for the DVD. If you're considering it because you're a fan of teenagers and vampires doing it, re-watch your box set of season two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If you actually liked this film, my boredom is your lucky day -- they've already green-lit and written the sequel script.
Recent Comments
Golden Girls pack up, Lifetime vs. Bravo