Movie Quote of the Week

You gotta be rich to be insane, Hol. Losing your mind is not a luxury for the middle class.
--Gina Gershon, P.S., I Love You (2007)

TV Quote of the Week

Being drunk doesn’t change who you are, just reveals it.
--Olivia Wilde, House M.D., "House Divided"

Pop Song of the Week: "Hot in the City"

The Passion, MTV Style, Part II. Now with American and Confederate flags.

Quote of the Week

Hemingway and Fitzgerald didn’t drink because they were creative, alienated, or morally weak. They drank because it’s what alkies are wired up to do. Creative people probably do run a greater risk of alcoholism and addiction than those in some other jobs, but so what? We all look pretty much the same when we’re puking in the gutter.
--Stephen King, On Writing

Movie Song of the Week: "Get Happy"

From the 1950 musical Summer Stock, it's the legendary Judy Garland singing the other song she's most famous for.

Trailer of the Week: Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994)

Believe it or not, not all self-destructive celebrities end up dying young.

Hey, I Remember This Show: Six Feet Under

Ordinarily I'd wait till autumn to post this but my late father died in November of 2003 so I'd just as soon not post it then. Interesting enough, Michael C. Hall seems to have been the cast member who has had the biggest success after this series though one sees Freddy Rodriguez still working every now and then. Of course, the real mystery is what happened to Lauren Ambrose, who should have had the same amount of fame that Hall acquired but so far has not. Perhaps that will change.

R.I.P. Amy Winehouse

English singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse, ironically most famous for the song "Rehab," sang her last note yesterday at age 27. It didn't have to happen that way but it did.

She will be missed.

Movie Quote of the Week

Mucho gracias, senor. I always speak Spanish when I'm eatin' -- gives it a better flavor.
--Guinn “Big Boy” Williams, Brimstone (1949)

TV Quote of the Week

You keep leaving me. I hate it when you leave me. One time you died and I ended up a Mexican.
--Tom Lenk, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Conversations with Dead People”

It Isn’t a Choice; It’s a Spectrum

You know how it goes. You go for years without meeting one openly bisexual woman and then it seems like they’re all over the place. Ironically, I didn’t encounter that many female bisexuals until after I got involved a few years ago with a young bisexual who was so deeply in the closet it was a wonder she was not covered with plaster. And it says something about my gaydar that no matter how many such women I meet, I’m usually the last to know unless they announce it out loud at our first encounter.

Of course, it could be argued that most bisexuals are just gay people in denial and I’m sure that for some such people, that’s actually true. However, you spend enough time listening to a woman talk about the troubles she has with both her ex-boyfriend and her ex-girlfriend and spend even more time with an openly bisexual woman who talks more about child custody arrangements than gay marriage and you realize it’s not always that simple.

It’s not that I believe all gay people have a choice. Indeed, it’s obvious from history that many gay people would have as hard a time pretending not to be attracted to the same sex as most heterosexuals like myself would have pretending not to be attracted to the opposite sex. And no matter how many attempts at conversion are directed their way, that’s not likely to change.

But it’s also fairly obvious that many people are fairly flexible when it comes to the gender of their sex partner. And ironically, the very social openness that makes it so comfortable for so many die-hard homosexuals to come out of the closet also makes it possible for bisexuals to come out as well.

Perhaps the whole issue of sexual orientation was best summed up in an old Ellen episode in which Ellen’s attraction to an old boyfriend was explained as her being part of a spectrum with people who were one hundred percent homosexual on one end, people who were one hundred percent heterosexual on the other, and Ellen somewhere in-between. It could be argued that the bisexual women I have encountered are also somewhere in the middle of the spectrum.

I can see why many people would have a problem with this. The Christian Right would prefer that only one end of the spectrum exist and of course, gay rights activists find it easier to fight attempts at conversion and discrimination by arguing that it isn’t a choice. And as I noted above, in a sense they’re right. It isn’t a choice -- for some. For others, however, it is. Anyway, the most moral question involved in gay rights should not be whether or not homosexuality is a choice but whether or not it is “bad” enough to deserve sanction or punishment. I don't believe it is and I don't see why we spend so much time as a society pretending otherwise when there are so many serious crimes out there that could use a bit of the attention we focus toward homosexuality.

Ideally, the matter of sexual orientation should be treated like the matter of religious belief; if it neither picks my pockets nor breaks my leg nor causes any harm to an innocent, it should make no difference which gender my neighbor chooses to sleep with. Moreover, it shouldn’t matter whether my neighbor’s choice of gender in sex partner is voluntary or involuntary. There are so many incidents in which people afflict actual physical harm onto other people that I’m surprised we spend so much time on an issue like this in which people do not get hurt.

This doesn’t mean that I approve of the bisexual man who cheats on his wife or the gay pedophile who preys on innocent kids. I like to think it goes without saying that certain deeds are not worth defending, no matter what the sexual orientation of the person who commits them.

But the person who seeks only love and companionship from another consenting adult and who has no desire to harm another person -- either physically or emotionally -- that person should be free to choose his or her own beloved, no matter what the gender of the would-be beloved might be. And if that choice interferes with the philosophy of another person, well, said person doesn’t have to emulate said choice if he or she does not wish to.

Pop Song of the Week: "Cruel Summer"

Just some good ol' gals. Never meaning no harm...

Movie Song of the Week: "Surrender"

Not the Cheap Trick song of the same title but the Bond song by that most famous of lesbian singers KD Lang. It's not everyone who can channel Shirley Bassey so successfully as Lang does with this song and it's a shame this tune never got as much attention as other Bond songs.

Tech Support Follies

No, my home computer isn't fixed yet. But the process of trying to restore my Internet connection has been amusing. For example, a Tech Support rep from a local store hooked up my hard drive unit to a store monitor and then tried to tell me my motherboard was fried because it wasn't showing anything on the monitor.

Of course, when I got my unit back home and attached it to my own monitor, it worked just fine -- apart from the Internet connection which had been the original problem.

I know my computer is old. I know it is obsolete. But if it's possible to get it hooked up to the Internet again, I'm going to keep using it as long as it works. And if I can't get my connection restored, I may have to get rid of my home Internet connection altogether until I can save up for a new computer.

I'll let you all know what happens. Thank you all for your patience.

Will the Real Tonio Kruger Please Log On?

It's tempting to pretend otherwise but this isn't my Facebook page. In fact, I don't even have a Facebook account under the name of Tonio Kruger though I've been tempted to apply for one. And no, I don't really look like the guy in that photograph. Not even in my dreams. Not that he's bad-looking; he's just not me.

For what it's worth, this isn't me either. Seriously.

Trailer of the Week: Tarantula (1955)

Not even dynamite? What is it with these modern-day spiders?

Hey, I Remember This Show: Transformers

Actually I never watched this show but I suspect my younger brothers did. And I honestly thought they'd never make a movie out of this series. Honest.

Here We Go Again

My life right now seems like a zany TV sitcom without the humor. My internet connection went down yesterday and I suspect a virus is responsible. I spent most of the day trying to solve the problem with one form of tech support; tomorrow I get to consult the people who helped me fix the last problem.

On the plus side, I'm interviewing for a job next week. And I think I have a new friend on the Internet. My biggest worry until yesterday was the discovery that I had to wear bifocals, but at least that means that I can still see.

Anyway, I might not be as prompt with my regular features this week but it's not because I don't want to be.

Thank you and muchas gracias for your patience.

Movie Quote of the Week

Valuing life is not weakness.
--Elizabeth Peña, The Incredibles (2004)

TV Quote of the Week

Give me the players any day. At least you know going in, they’re motivated by the money. It’s the greed. But with these politicos, man, they just like it.
--Don Johnson, Miami Vice, “Free Verse”

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Tonio Kruger!

Actress Kate del Castillo says celebrating my birthday is more fun than a game of croquet. Or perhaps she just meant it is more fun than getting hit in the head with a croquet mallet.

Anyway, muchas gracias to my loyal readers on this day. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

Pop Song of the Week: "Back on the Chain Gang"

Chrissie Hynde has been peeking through my photo album again.

Movie Song of the Week: "Sit Down, John!"

William Daniels plays the immortal John Adams in this number from the 1972 movie musical 1776. Vote yes, indeed.

¡Feliz Cuatro de Julio!

Actor Danny Trejo wishes my readers all the best for this noble holiday. At least I'd like to think that's what he's doing.

On a more serious note, it's also my late father's birthday. He is still most seriously missed.

Magazine Cover of the Week

Oh, how quickly we forget.

Trailer of the Week: Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

If one can't be reminded of Jimmy Cagney's most famous movie musical on July 4th weekend, when can one be reminded of it?

Hey, I Remember This Show: The Patty Duke Show

Given the type of things actress Patty Duke has said about her teenage years in her autobiography, it seems like a sick joke for me to have any fond memories of this show. But at least I still find the theme to be catchy. And if nothing else, this show's existence in my own childhood might explain my own obsession with female cousins and for that matter, the fact that I once fell head over heels for a woman named Cathy. Of course, if the Cathy in question had looked anything like Patty Duke, that would be strange, but fortunately, she didn't.

As for the real-life Patty Duke, I wish for her sake that life had been as pleasant for her off-screen as it seemed to be on-screen. But that was not to be.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Karen

From 1964, it's one of the last black-and-white TV sitcoms ever to be produced. Plus it's one of the few such sitcoms to have a theme song sung by the Beach Boys.

Despite all that and a young cast member who looks surprisingly like Lost in Space's Angela Cartwright, the show never did too good in syndication, which might explain why so few members of my generation have ever heard of it. Hopefully, someone back in the day liked it, right?

Magazine Cover of the Week

In 1967, marriages like this were front-page news in America. Nowadays, few Americans pay attention to them anymore save for a few reactionaries and while such marriages may not be universally popular in America, few Americans doubt their legality.

Indeed, the one such problem with such marriages is that though they were the subject of a lot of idealistic rhetoric back in the day, they were still subject to the same human flaws which create problems in intraracial marriages. Of course, intraracial marriages receive a lot of idealistic rhetoric in their favor too and no one thinks it bad that such marriages sometimes fail despite the efforts of both partners. And I suspect some of the marriages recently legalized in New York will ultimately fail for similar reasons. (Then again, I suspect some of them will succeed.)

I could argue that one can avoid the whole mess by simply not getting married in the first place but I've seen too many quarrels between couples who never got legally married to pretend that's an adequate solution. After all, it's usually not the marriage license that causes the problems. It's the two people who sign it.

Movie Poster of the Week

Heh. Who says the movies of yesteryear have no valid messages for the moviegoers of today?