No Nice Way To Say It: The Olympic Mascot Looks Like A Penis

There was a great bit on JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE earlier this week about the Olympic mascot for the London Games, which officially open tonight.  There are actually two of them Wenlock and Mandeville and they are supposed to be two drops of steel, which Kimmel says appropriately "makes no sense at all".  Agreed.

When he showed an image of the one on the right (Wenlock I think?) and asked some folks walking down Hollywood Blvd. what they thought it was, the majority though it looked just like a penis.  Seriously.

This would not be the first time an Olympic mascot has caused some concern. There was the weird Izzy from the Atlanta Games, who garnered the unfortunate nickname "Sperm In Sneakers".  But with stories about all the sex going on in the Olympic Village, maybe it's totally appropriate. So let the games begin...

Warner Bros. Long History Of Violent Movies

The mass shooting at a Colorado movie theatre last week was an awful tragedy. But whenever this sort of madness erupts, there is always a great deal of national handwringing over the role that violence in the movies plays in shootings like these. Are these madmen inspired by the movies? Or are they just people who would do the same thing without the examples presented in Hollywood's films.

The NY Times today ran a interesting article on the topic from a broader perspective; that of Warner Bros. studios long-history of violent, crime-ridden films that have often been controversial.  In the 1940s and 1950s, as a bit of theatrical counterprograming, Warners specialized in gritty B/W films filled with criminals and, in some cases, based on real life crimes. The films were so violent and extreme, compared to the sunny & singing studio output of MGM and Columbia, that when the French got to see them after WWII ended they coined the term "Film Noir".

Though studios "brands" don't really exist now the way they used to in the olden days, it is interesting to note that Warners is the studio behind THE DARK KNIGHT trilogy. These three films are darker than any noir (even though they are shot in a faded, washed out color) in their twisted stories, psychologically disturbed characters, and deranged criminals, namely Heath Ledger's mad Joker who may have inspired the Colorado shooter. Nolan's trilogy already had caused a great deal of debate, even before the shooting last week. Other Warners films that have caused cultural consternation are THE MATRIX, DIRTY HARRY, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, BONNIE & CLYDE and, way back in '32, I AM A FUGITIVE ON THE CHAIN GANG. However, unlike a lot of those films, the great irony in the case of THE DARK KNIGHT is that the film's hero doesn't even use a gun.

"On Location" Art Series Comes To Julius With TEAROOM

On Monday evening, I stopped by Julius, a gay bar in the west village, for an unusual art installation.  As part of On Location, a month-long site-specific visual arts event happening all over town, the film TEAROOM was being shown on a loop all night long.  TEAROOM was shot secretly behind one way-mirror in a public men's restroom in Mansfield, Ohio (pictured above) which was under investigation by police as a hotbed of sexual activity in July and August of 1962.

The film, which is about an hour long, came from the footage of a 3-week police sting that summer. Shot exactly 50 years ago, it is a striking vision of the past that's both disturbing and fascinating as the men's brazen sexual activities are seen by the shaky camera hidden in a broom closet. What I found most surprising were all the interracial hookups happening.  In this literally underground washroom, it seems that all of the usual social, economic, racial, and age barriers of that time were wiped away as all sorts of men meet to have sex in their secret bunker. The film is somewhat haunting as well since roughly half of the 70 men appearing in the film were convicted of sexual indecency and served up to a year in prison.  Some were likely institutionalized as well since, at that time "homosexuality" was considered a mental disorder.

In a great online interview, filmmaker William E. Jones talks about how he found this footage when doing research on the summer of '62 sting. The original film was in the garage of the town's former police chief. Jones grew up in Ohio, not too far from Mansfield, and for him the film has a strong personal resonance.Though the film has caused some controversy when screened, it is an essential piece of history which reminds us of the intense persecution of "homosexuality" that was endemic in mid-century America.

NetPix: Judy's Last Film I COULD GO ON SINGING

Last night, I went to the monthly Queer Art Film series at the IFC Center, co-curated by fellow filmmakers Ira Sachs and Adam Baran. They screened Judy Garland's I COULD GO ON SINGING, a film I'd heard of but never actually seen. I'm so glad I did get to see it finally, on a big screen and with a wonderful audience too.

The film is practically a documentary as Garland plays herself, an extremely talented singer/actress who has a lonely and troubled personal life. There are even scenes that mimic Garland's real life, like a semi-wobbly performance at London's famed Palladium.  The fictional story line, about a son she left to her British lover (played by longtime real life pal Dirk Bogarde) to raise, is incredibly touching without being saccharine.

There are some wonderful moments, particularly a sequence where Garland attends a boys school production of Gilbert & Sullivan. Her young son, in British stage drag, actually resembles a young Garland as he belts out the number with gusto, delighting his mother to no end. Then there is a priceless backstage scene where Garland gathers the boys around the piano (half dressed as sailors and half in drag!) for an impromptu G&S sing-a-long. You can tell that Garland is having the time of her life, surrounding by these young talented performers.  

Later, there are more dramatic and heartbreaking scenes with her son as he realizes who his true mother is and must decide what his relationship with her is going to be. A scene of Garland on the phone with the boy is beautifully written, performed and directed, done in one continuous take. The director, Ronald Neame, does a great job with Garland (who was apparently a handful on set), and really draws out what is one of her best performances.

The film was selected for the QAF series by Heather Matarazzo, the actress formerly known as "Dawn Weiner" from the indie classic WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE. There was an intensely personal Q/A afterward about how much Matarazzo was moved by the film and by Garland's raw performance in it. Matarazzo also got her start in show business quite young, at age 7, and picked the film as she related to Garland's upbringing in the biz. It was a wonderful, personal discussion about how one artist can inspire another..which is the point of this wonderful film series. Kudos to Adam and Ira for creating this unique and essential cultural conversation, now going into its 4th year.

Did London Grindr Really Crash Because Of Olympians?

I saw a headline which I initially thought was something from The Onion: "Gay Dating App Crashes As Olympic Athletes Arrive."  This was from THE SUN, a notorious tabloid in the UK. But despite the craziness of this statement, it's factually true. Grindr, a gay dating app, did crash over the weekend at the same time that athletes from around the world were arriving in London for the kickoff of the 2012 Olympics, which start this Friday.  The outage started in East London where a lot of athletes are staying.

Grindr's most popular city is London, with 350,000 users, and the speculation is that the arrival of thousands of athletes caused the system to overload. However, not all Olympians are gay.  In fact, I would argue that very few of them are....maybe 7-10% if you take the usual statistical model. It's possible it was just a busy sexy summer weekend in London and it crashed, just as the athletes happened to show up. Friends in NYC w/iPhones report that Grindr crashes/freezes are becoming more common as the service grows more popular. 

Anyway, it does make for a good headline though....and it has been racing around the internet today because of it.  

BEST SUMMER EVER Needs Your Help--Just 12 Days Left

So we've got 12 days left on our Kickstarter to raise money for BEST SUMMER EVER, my new feature film. The bad news is we've got a long way to go to make our goal. On Kickstarter, it's all or nothing and so far we have only raised about 10% of the 25k needed to start production on the film.  But fear not...we can still reach our goal. That is, if you help us out.

The beauty of crowd-funding is that all it takes is a lot of people giving a little bit to help make it happen. For instance if everyone I know on Facebook donates just $20 then our campaign is over TODAY. Done. That's it. And we can start making this movie a reality. So if you haven't helped us out, here are all the pertinent links below.  

http://kck.st/LPKr4B     (Kickstarter)

http://on.fb.me/MXNIlr    (FB)

http://bit.ly/NPnG4w  (tumblr)

twitter.com/bestsummermovie

Please give what you can and support us online by tweeting or posting about our Kickstarter w/our bitly link below. Or you can copy and share our image above too...it's prettier that way! Everything little thing you to support this little film counts...so don't underestimate the power of you. :) Thanks so much and I hope you are having the BEST SUMMER EVER!  #BSE

Boy Scouts Strip Eagle Scout Of His Rank Because He's Gay

It's been a bad week for the Boy Scouts.  They decided to continue their practice of banning "avowed homosexuals" from the organization as both leaders and scouts.  First of all, who uses the phrase "avowed homosexuals"?  Clearly this is the start of their problem.  They are stuck so far in the past it would be comical, if not for the fact that their hateful policy has such real world percussions.

Take the case of 19 year old Eagle Scout Eric Jones. He sat down to be honest (a Boy Scout trait, mind you) with his scout leader about his sexuality last weekend and he was not only asked not to return to the troop, but he was stripped of all honors earned over the last decade he had been involved in scouting.

The BSA are now taking the US military's old line, that they are not asking people their sexuality but if they are honest and open about it, then they will be asked to leave the organization.  You would think they might heed the military's example, which now encourages soldiers to be honest and not lie which was deemed damaging to morale and esprit de corps. But the Scouts would like to pretend it is the 1960s, when being an "avowed homosexual" was basically a criminal act.  Fortunately, that is no longer the case. 


It would only serve Scouting to accept the reality that has long been the case and will be in the future; there are gay men in scouting. I was one and, though it was all years before I came out, I had wonderful experiences with troop 460 in Kensington, MD. It seems wrong that they would want to deny that same experience to other young men simply because they are gay. 

20 Years Of Construction On The Gowanus Expressway

The folks over at NY1 have been doing an interesting series of reports, looking back on 20 years of NYC local news as they celebrate their 20th anniversary. There's a piece that went up today on their website about one story that hasn't changed in two decades; that of the constant road work on the Gowanus Expressway.

Anyone who has driven this awful stretch of elevated highway knows it is one of the worst traffic spots in the entire metro area and a stretch of highway that has not gotten noticeably better since 1992 (when NY1 went on the air). There have been plans floated to replace it with a tunnel but instead the city and state will continue to plow more than $700 million dollars into this overcrowded, antiquated road. Civic planning, or lack thereof, at its absolute worst. It took nearly 20 years for Boston's Big Dig--but at least that city has something to show for it!

The Lovesong Of J. Gordon Leavitt

So this is cute: an adorkable guy on Fire Island in a trendy tank plays a ukelele love song to Joseph Gordon Leavitt. In the song he refers to him as JGL which is fortunate because are all sorts of great words that rhyme with "L", as he demonstrates in this 3 minute song. At the end, his friends say that this will get him on THE ELLEN SHOW. Well, with the new and final DARK NIGHT opening this Friday, starring JGL of course, they just might be right.  5,000 hits today and counting....

Was The Summer of '82 The Best Summer Ever For Movies?

There was a piece online this week from CBS This Morning where film critic David Edelstein of New York magazine called the summer of '82 Hollywood's Best Summer Ever for movies.  If you look at the lineup, you just might agree; E.T., POLTERGEIST, STAR TREK II: WRATH OF KAHN, CONAN THE BARBARIAN, ROCKY III and even TRON.  He says it was the last summer of big movies with personal themes before the marketeers took over. He is not alone in his assessment.

In fact, down in Texas at one of my favorite local movie houses The Alamo (where I've had a few films play myself!), they are doing a summer retrospective of the summer of '82.  They have these movies playing on their original release dates even.  What a fun idea!  Anyway, you can watch the segment below and post your comments about whether you agree with Edelstein.