Club Wish

I REALLY WISH A CLUB SOMEWHERE IN L.A. WOULD PLAY THIS SONG....! 

....EVEN ONCE.  

BUT I KNOW THEY NEVER WILL.  

:-(  :-(  :-(  :-(  :-(  

Have you seen "The Room"???

I was listening to NPR over the weekend (shocking, I know) & they were talking about the ‘so bad it’s good’ cult masterpiece that is "The Room"! It just reminded me of what’s great about watching a bad movie. 

Here’s a taste so you can see what you’re getting into: 

There are *SO MANY* hilarious scenes like this that’ve already been uploaded to Youtube that you could probably piece together the whole movie….but you probably still won't be able to figure out what the plot is.  

Where to get your Funk on in November

The “Funk Turkey Dance” has become an annual tradition for a dance venue that I love to go to called Third Saturday Swing (aka “TSS”).  It is essentially a night for swing dancers like myself to dance to music *outside* the swing genre.

And yeah - usually, they play these genres of music everywhere, but how often do you get the opportunity to listen / dance to it when you have a dance partner there??  

ALMOST NEVER. 

They even have a “Jack & Jill” contest where you can dance to different genres! 

So I went (as I always do) and competed in hopes of placing (cuz the prizes are pretty sweet).  But man, people really ‘bring it’ to this one.  Check it out:  

Gay-Straight Relations

So I was lurking around youtube last night & came across the following video dealing with the topic of why (some) gay guys hitting on straight men. 

While I guess I can see the logic behind the answers they give in this video, I was surprised that they don’t make the analogy between this & why (some) straight girls hit on gay men; I always thought the reasons for these two were the same: it’s considered ‘safe’ by the offending party so they feel they can do it without fear of being rejected. 

Let me explain: I’ve always heard that (again, some) straight women – aka ‘fag hags’ – are SUPER flirtatious with their GBFFs because they know he’s not attracted to them, so they feel like they can flirt however they want because the flirting is ‘harmless;’ “it doesn’t mean anything” because there’s no way it can actually get them anywhere. 

And they do it in a way they never would with a guy they know is straight.  Here’s another video I saw that I think best illustrates this (no offense to my straight-female-friend-offenders):

Obviously this logic doesn’t resemble any kind that we have on earth, but it’s still a valid theory…..and I’m pretty sure it’s the equivalent reason why (some) gay men hit on straight ones.  I know it’s the reason *I’ve* done it……

…..that one time. 

Seriously, it was only once, I swear!

……ANNNNND it was a long time ago. 

It doesn’t even matter.  I don’t know why I even brought it up.  It’s not like we’re even Facebook friends anymore.  

…..and the fact that we’re no longer FB friends had *nothing* to do with the flirting – which, again, was only once (and completely harmless).  

Life Update 11-11-2013

UGGGGH…. Everything is just happening all at once & who has time to write it down these days, amIrite?  But I’m going to try anyway, because blogging is a good way to let people know I haven’t died yet. 

WORK UPDATES:  I try never to talk specifically about work & my job / career for fear of them finding this blog & using it against me, but I feel like I can say without fear of repercussion that work has generally sucked ass for the past month and a half.  People have been let go (again!), leaving those of us who remain to pick up the pieces, lowering morale and essentially making me wonder why I’m still here. 

I know I say that all the time, but I think I really mean it now. 

Essentially, the only reason I am staying now is my commitment to my boss – who is honestly the best boss I’ve ever had (and I’ve worked for my mom).  If I ever become ‘management,’ I plan to model my philosophy after hers as best as I can. 

The only glimmer of ‘light at the end of the tunnel of suck’ is that some of the higher-ups recognize the hard work that I put in & are seeing the value that I contribute to the company.  I also got a couple minutes of ‘face time’ with some high-rankers in my department and it feels like they are considering me for bigger and better things.  And while that’s great, I’m not exactly sure how much I can count on that for anything. 

SOCIAL LIFE UPDATES:  In the few hours that I haven’t been slaving away at my job, I’ve been ‘putting myself out there’ by going to more social events – MOST of them gay-related (some are not): One has been gay “country” dancing at Oil Can Harry’s & another has been attending events put on by this meet-up group called “Gay Board Gaymers”.  My friend, Ryan, referred them to me & they’re a pretty fun group if I do say so myself! 

I even managed to meet a really cute guy there!  

We’ve been dating now for about a month & have been taking things kinda slowly because of major life events - he had to help his mom move to the Phillipines last month – so we’re still figuring out the ‘dating’ routine of how often we see each other and stuff.  But I totally like him: he’s smart, funny, nice…..all those incredibly ATTRACTIVE qualities that one looks for in a great boyfriend (he says, wondering if said boy is reading this)

…..and he’s a total SEXY nerd, too! 

He even took me to a legit comic convention called Bent Con: it’s catered towards the LGBT community & it was totally amazing!  I had no idea that this con even existed (or was so close to where I live)!  So I have him to thank for introducing me to all this. 

I’m trying my best to be cool & not overthink / expect too much out of him & this, but I feel really good about him.  HAPPY FACES ALL AROUND! 

        

OTHER STUFF UPDATES:  Going back to Hawaii for the Holidays (as usual) to visit my family & friends who live on the islands.  Staying till January 7^th this time, so I’ll be around for New Year’s eve, too. 

I wish I updated this blog more than 3x a month…….!  

Gay Movie Review - "AUGUST"

So there’s a lot of other stuff going on right now (in the world), but I saw this movie & just wanted to give it a mention / review because of how much I liked it: 

AUGUST

PLOT:  Two former lovers, Troy and Jonathan, reunite after a long ago painful breakup. After spending several years in Spain, Troy returns to Los Angeles and decides to phone Jonathan and meet for coffee. A seemingly innocent rendezvous turns into an attempt to revive passions past. Only this time it's not that simple as Jonathan has a new beau, Raul, and is trying to make the right decision a second time around.

REVIEW:  The trailer for this movie (below) was quite confusing & I did not figure out the plot until I actually sat down to watch it.  Adding to my confusion was the fact that the guy on the poster doesn’t look like anyone in the movie.  (Turns out it’s actually one of the main characters (Troy) who normally has all his hair, but (spoiler!)shaves it halfway through the movie.

But aside from these qualms, I found this movie surprisingly well-written & acted with so much subtext dialogue that’s delivered really well. The best scene (I feel) was the first “re-meeting” between Jonathon & Troy at the Coffee shop; there was so much said about the two hidden between the lines of their conversation & I found that spectacular. 

…. of course, I may be biased because all the actors are really hot. So watch it for yourself and see if you agree.  :-p  

Interesting sidenote – this was originally a short film (5 minutes long!) called “Postmortem”  consisting of only the coffee shop scene.  

Quick Catch-ups & Tutorials

I find that, whenever something is *important* enough to be happening in the news, there just so happens to be a Youtube tutorial SOMEWHERE out there to help you understand & form an opinion about it.  

This is one I found about The Debt Ceiling:

And this is one I found explaining that TV show: Lost: 

YOUR WELCOME. 

That Awkward moment when....!

So something awkward happened this past weekend – I ran into a co-worker of mine at that gay country bar I go to, Oil Can Harry’s.  

Aside from the fact that it’s always surprising to see someone at a place (a gay bar) outside of where you normally know them (work), it was awkward for me because I never actually told anyone at work I’m gay & am never quite sure if they know or not. 

Part of me assumes that they do – I’m still not sure how ‘gay’ I come across to people – but that small part of me that’s uncertain has always been afraid to just come right out and say it because of how long I’ve worked there without mentioning it. 

But I guess the cat’s out of the bag now! 

She was really cool about it, though, and came over to talk as soon as she recognized me.  She’s gay too (I knew previously) so I guess it was just a matter of time before I ran into her at one of these things.  I think she’s also a little gossip-y so she probably mentioned it to the other people in the office since then.  

It's a Scientific Fact.

Long time no post, so.....here's a post!  (Sorry it's just a webcomic I read today from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - but it's a great one.

Camp Hollywood 2013 ~ woooh!

Haven’t had a chance to write since last month week, but....

ERMAGERD! 
CAMP HOLLYWOOD!!!!
  

Last weekend was quite possibly the best Camp Hollywood I have ever been to.  Apparently moving it to Labor Day weekend (it was previously held during the end of July) helped bring in a *lot* more dancers from around the world.  Dancers came down all the way from Mexico, Korea, the UK, Australia, Israel, Japan, etc. to be there. 

There was also an increased the level of competition this year.  Previously, the Team performances & Couple’s showcase competitions are a handful (4 -5 teams, maybe 8 couples for the showcase); but there were NINE teams & a total of TWENTY-ONE couples performing this year.  I believe that’s some kind of record. 

They also held a sneak-preview of a movie that’s being made about swing-dancing (some of it filmed at Lindygroove in LA!) – aptly named “Swing!”  The intent behind this documentary is to explain to non-dancers what the dance means & why it’s so important to us.  We got to see the first 15 minutes of it and……wow. 

*

*

I will definitely be donating (more) money to this film & dragging my friends to see it - *when* it comes out in Theatres. 

*

*

Another thing that I thought made this year incredibly cool was the presence of same-sex partners competing this year: an all-ladies couple competed in the Amateur Balboa competition this year & an all-male couple competed (who made it to Finals!) in the Classic Lindy competition.  The follow from that couple also competed as a follow for the amateur Jack & Jill.  Nobody made a big stink about any of it, which I thought was awesome, and made me feel a little more comfortable about the swing-scene in general. 

Anyway, here are a few videos of the winning performances: 

1st Place in Team Competiton - "The Fly Rights" 

2nd Place in Showcase Competition - Kevin St. Laurent & Jo Hoffberg

Camp Hollywood 2013 is coming.....!

Thanks, Sean Bean's character from "Game of Thrones".  I'm so excited for it this year!  

So excited, I'm posting swing dance videos on youtube!  

What’s really important right now

So…..one of the more buzzworthy events that have been getting a lot of attention right now is Miley’s Cyrus’ latest performance at the Video Music Awards (“VMA’s”) last weekend. 

I didn’t see it myself – I hate award shows in general – but I’ve read a lot of interesting criticism about it - such as this article highlighting the racist (as well as sexist) implications that the performance had….which makes it sound like missing it was a good thing to do.  The essential argument is that the performance reinforces a lot of negative stereotypes that nobody at the VMA’s (or society at large) seemed have a problem with while they were coming up with it….which they really should have. 

But then I read the following Facebook post from a friend of mine who argued a different point of view: 

“Dear Everyone,
Please stop talking about Miley Cyrus. MTV has been getting attention (money) by doing outrageous, vulgar things for a couple decades now, and they're getting a lot of attention (money) from everyone telling everyone how bad it was. If you really want performances like that to stop, shut up about it. You are not perceptive or clever for pointing out how bad it is, and it says nothing about our society because it's been universally condemned. 

More than anything though, I'm sick of hearing about it. You want something to be upset about? Gay teens are being publicly urinated on, set fire to, having body parts cut off, and murdered (with full support of the public and government) all over Russia. Syria just used chemical weapons to kill civilians in its own population (including children), and there are discussions about it becoming the next Iraq if the US gets involved. And we're all scrambling to point out how sad this girl's performance was. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what THAT says about us.”

And that raises an interesting question: Should the issues addressed in the above article be dismissed in favor of other (arguably more horrific) issues going on in the world right now? 

Feminism seems to have a history of being ignored for this very reason (“yes, this is bad but there are other ‘more-bad’ things going on right now so shut up about this until later”) so ‘stop talking about it’ doesn’t seem like the appropriate reaction.  But I guess the reason behind my friend’s Facebook response is how an Awards Show performance seems to be more important than anything else going on – which definitely should not be the case, but is since more people watched the VMAs and have a connection to it than something horrible that’s happening that we have no real frame of reference for.

I guess I answered my own question here (I do that sometimes, writing these ‘train of thought’ posts down helps me organize my thoughts) about where I stand on this so maybe this was a waste of a blogpost, but AT THE TIME I was still forming my own opinions about all this.  

(Hot) Leading Asian Men.

I just....uh, came across this Buzzfeed article via Angry Asian Man (a great blog site in general about all things Asian-american related) & figured I would share it with ya'all......! 

Y'know, for.....reasons.  

Enjoy!  

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mattortile/asian-leading-men-who-deserve-more-airtime

http://blog.angryasianman.com/2013/08/14-more-asian-leading-men-who-deserve.html

The Russo Test

Look out film makers!  There's a new "film test" for critics to evaluate films with!  It's called "The Russo Test" and is based off of (almost identical to, in fact) "the Bechdel test" - named after cartoonist, Alison Bechdel.  

The Bechdel Test, for those you who aren't familiar with it, asks three simple questions as a kind of test to see how well female characters are portrayed in movies & literature these days:  

1.  Are there at least two women in this movie?  

2.  Do these two women ever talk to each other?  

3.  About anything other than a man? 

The Russo Test, similarly, asks if a movie meet the following criteria:  

1.  The film should have at least one LGBT character.  

2.  That character must not be defined as "the gay one."  (IE they are made up of the same sort of unique character traits commonly used to differentiate straight characters from each other).  

3.  He/she must be tied significantly into the plot.  (They're not there just to provide 'colorful commentary', or set-up a punchline; this character should matter).  

It was established by GLAAD earlier this year as part of a project to see how well-represented the LGBT community has been portrayed in the mainstream media (big blockbuster type movies, etc.) last year.  

Anyway, just thought I would post about it here since I happen to watch (& review) a lot of gay movies.  I found out about it through an article that was linked on IMDB (Here's the article).  

Of course, other than "God loves Uganda", I haven't really wanted to post any of the movies I've recently watched.  Some of them have been bad (see below), and the rest have just been "okay".  

(too lazy to link these; you can find them all on imdb or netflix instant) 

• The Men next door
• Morgan
• Bad Boy Street
• Ethan Mao (pretty bad)
• Clapham Junction
• Yossi & Jagger
• 29^th & Gay (pretty bad)
• Gayby 

None of these are 'big studio' movies, though.  

Think of a couple of big-studio movies you've seen in the last year that had a gay character.  Did they pass the Russo test?  

Best $5 I spent all week

If buying "The Brady Bunch Movie" on DVD is wrong, then I don't want to be right.  

Jan - you got *problems*

Date Night

Wonder if I really need to write a post about this, but I guess I should mention that all that "putting myself out there" is finally paying off - I finally got a date out of it this past weekend.  

Wasn't much of a 'love connection', though. Ended up not feeling 'the spark' or any kind of real connection with the guy.  

Shame, too - he's a country two-step dancer I met at Oil Can Harry's....and he's pretty good at it.      

But that's the way it goes, I guess.....right?  

My trip to Des Moines, IA

This post is being written a bit out of order since my trip to Des Moines happened about a month earlier than the Seattle Lindy Exchange, but I completely forgot to blog about it until now (sorry, Maren!) so here it is:  

Maren (a friend off mine from College) had been begging me to come visit her ever since she bought a house out in Des Moines & I finally said "yes" this year - mostly out of guilt because she's always making the trip out to Los Angeles.  This year, I figured I would pay her back.  

Plus - she's actually the first one of my college friends to own property, so I wanted to check it out.  

She & her boyfriend, Joe, showed me a lot of the great sights of Des Moines - particularly the 80/35 Music Festival; we save David Byrne & St. Vincent play!  

Here are some pics I took on my vacation.  

 David Byrne (of the Talking Heads) & St Vincent!  

I posted the rest of them here (and Facebook, of course).  

All in all, I had a pretty good time in Des Moines - mostly due to the heavy forethought & planning of Joe and Maren.  Thanks to the happy couple for putting me up on the 4th of July Weekend!  

Seattle Lindy Exchange 2013!

So I haven't posted in a while due to work (ugh, work), but I wanted to mention the trip I took to the Seattle Lindy Exchange last weekend.  

This one was a long time coming - a couple of months *before* I decided to take my trip to Des Moines, - I booked a flight and registered for the Exchange.  For those of you who don't know, an exchange is a kind of "meet-n-greet" of dancers visiting the local neighborhood: the local dance community hosts dancers from all over & shows them 'the scene' that the city has to offer.  I'd heard Seattle had a pretty nice scene (they do Camp Jitterbug every year) & I'd been there before several years ago to visit some friends who live in the area.  

And I have to say that the Lindy scene in Seattle is pretty great.  I managed to attend the Friday, Saturday, & Sunday Night dances as well as the Saturday afternoon dance by Capitol Hill.  Many thanks to my host (and ole' college friend), Amanda, who came out to dance with me all weekend.  I feel like I had a great experience with all that the Seattle Dance scene has to offer!  The community is a little smaller than the one in Los Angeles, but it felt to me like they were all closer to each other & more tightly-knit as a community.   

Unfortunately - I didn't take *any* pictures....and neither did Amanda - we were too busy dancing!  

I managed to take this one from the Exchange's Facebook page:  

You can even see Amanda in this picture!  (She's the one in the bottom center with the curly blonde hair)  

All in all, I had a great time & am looking forward to attending more Exchanges next year (in other cities).  I know San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, & Portland OR, still do exchanges and I'm looking into other cities on the East Coast I could travel to as well.  

**UPDATE**

Amanda reminded me that I *did* take a few pictures from my trip on my camera; just not of the exchange.  Here they are:  

MOVIE REVIEW - "God loves Uganda"

A friend of mine invited me to "Outfest" a couple of weeks ago & we decided on the following movie.  Here's my review of it:

GOD LOVES UGANDA

Here's the trailer:  



PLOT:  This documentary by Roger Ross Williams follows several religious groups - most notably, a church known as the "International House of Prayer" - and explores the influence that these groups have over the country of Uganda, focusing primarily how each Church's views on homosexuality have affected the society there.  

Review:  I was originally interested in watching this movie because I've always found religion to be interesting; almost everybody I knew in college had a strong opinion about it (specifically Christianity) & the majority of it was negative.  And after seeing this movie - I understand why.  

One example that springs to mind is how the people from the "House of Prayer" keep mentioning that the 'homosexual agenda' is trying to "recruit kids into their army" & so forth; it becomes clear by the end of the movie, though, that this is exactly what the House of Prayer is doing with their pilgrimages to Uganda.  The church sends missionaries teach people in Uganda "the ways of the Lord" - what's right & what's wrong - and end up instilling all the moral bigotry that is usually found amongst Evangelical Christian groups.  

What also kinda scared me was the fact that the Church is called "The INTERNATIONAL House of Prayer" with churches all over the world.  

I recommend seeing this movie if only to see what Evangelical Churches do & the influence they have on the world.  It's pretty unnerving.  

Sci-fi vs. Fantasy

I’ve noticed that the “Fantasy” genre has been getting increasingly popular over the years.  I’m judging this mainly by the number of movies I can list off the top of my head that are based off of Fantasy novels: 

Harry Potter

Lord of the Rings

The Hobbit

Twilight

Percy Jackson
Beautiful Creatures
Jack the Giant Slayer
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

It made me wonder about why the sci-fi genre hasn't been producing as many movies.  Lord knows it has as much reference material to draw from (if not more): But I couldn't think of anything other than the latest Star Trek movie, Ender's Game (which I will not be seeing for personal reasons), & the upcoming ones from Star Wars more than a few.  I had to rely on Google to find this list of “sci-fi movies” for me: 

Prometheus

Looper

Total Recall

Men in Black IV

Oblivion
Robot & Frank (?)  

But I guess science fiction has always been more of a niche genre than fantasy & maybe comparing the two is a little unfair.  It just strikes me as interesting how much more popular fantasy movies are becoming the further we get to the future.  

Touching Base - Summer 2013!

So when I created *this* blog, I was really hoping it would inspire me to write more posts & stuff (because a lot's been going on!), but I usually try to find time to blog at work and that's just been incredibly busy this past YEAR, so I haven't really had the time....!  

Luckily, I found some time tonight!  Now let's see.  

I think I'm finally adjusting to being on my own.  It was a little lonely at first & I didn't quite know what to do with myself (there were some long, aimless walks in the city at night and a few marathons of "Mad Men" on DVD on my Sunday afternoons), but I think I've finally remembered how to be single.  

Being single has afforded me a few adventures this year, such as: 

- seeing "They Might Be Giants" at the Anaheim House of Blues

- Vacationing in Des Moines, IA to see my ole' friend, Maren (pictures here!)

- Learning how to two-step (country western dancing) 

- seeing a film (Documentary - "God loves Uganda") at Outfest 2013

But what I really wanted to write about in this post is whether I should start dating again.....and how exactly to go about doing that nowadays.  

I felt the 'urge' last night when I was at Outfest with a friend of mine.  I managed to sit in front of a rather tall guy whose head blocked the lower-center of the screen.....until he laid his head on (I assume) his boyfriend's shoulder.  

And every so often during the movie, I would just watch them - one with his arm around the other - and get jealous.  Envious, even.  

But when the movie was over and people got out of their seats, I wondered if that's what I *really* wanted.  I've gotten used to making my own plans and having something to do almost every night of the week - fitting in a date here & there's going to be difficult.  But maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.....!  

I'm really dreading going on dates again.  Everybody I've asked has suggested "online dating" to me and, while I agree that it's a great way to meet new people (I know, I've tried it before), it tends to be a very.....mechanical(?) process.  

There's all this pressure & investment in it, yet it makes me feel like I'm going to a job interview - to apply for the position of "boyfriend" or something - a position with an extremely selective screening process. 

   

"Do you think this person *really* is the best candidate out there for this position?  Or is there someone better out there?"  

So yeah.  Wondering about all that.  If anyone has any thoughts / two-cents they'd like to contribute, feel free!  That's what blogs are for, right?  

Sorry for the ranting & lack of focus in this post.  I'm a little drunk (it was a hard day at work today) & wanted to put a lot of things in this post that didn't really go together.  

Brand new Blog for a brand new blogger (sort of)

Hello Friends & well-wishers!  (the rest of you can just shut the hell up & leave)

This is my new blog now that Xanga is (pretty much)shutting down.  (they need to raise $15K by 7/15/2013 & I doubt they’re going to make it).  And I do did have a blog already set-up on here - you can check it out if you want – but I’m starting fresh with this one because it’s going to be more….integrated than any of my previous blogs were. 

See, I actually had 2 blogs set-up through Xanga – one for the public (acquaintances, co-workers, and anyone curious enough to do a Google search on me), and another, more private one to discuss personal things like: gripes I had have about my job; my love life (or sometimes lack thereof); & things that I related to because I’m gay. 

Most of it had to do with gay-related stuff.  (If you haven’t seen that particular blog, don’t worry; you probably wouldn't have found it interesting.  :-p) 

But as I've gotten older and (presumably) matured, I find that it’s getting harder for me to separate the two (at least in terms of blogging) so I wanted to ‘merge’ the two into this one all-encompassing blog. 

So, if you’re reading this, that means I trust you enough to be open with you about all that.  And I would take it as a personal favor if you didn't abuse that trust by telling people about this blog or re-posting it somewhere for everyone to see.  I’m not ashamed of who I am anymore or anything (and a lot of people have pretty good gaydar these days) but showing people this blog without my consent is pretty much ‘outing’ me to the world. 

And personally, I think that’s a shitty thing to do. 

So here’s my first post in my new blog.  Sorry that took so long - the only reason it took as long as it did was because I had a hard time thinking up what I should name this one.  

Speaking of which, 

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE NAME?  

I took it from this sketch from the Upright Citizen's Brigade: