Author: Michael

It seems that ringing in the new year also merits some sort of relevant comments on life in the last year, or life in the coming year. I’ve never been very good at categorizing things by year (which is surprising, since I was a cataloger by profession for many years, and like to categorize things) but I will try to organize my thoughts in some fashion that is appropriate.

Now that we’re living right in Boston proper, Scot and I took small advantage of some First Night activities, something I haven’t done for over 15 years! Chris joined us at the Boston Public Library for the musical entertainment of Ziaf. This four-piece band performs the dramatic music of Edith Piaf, and does so with style and quite a bit of talent. Ziaf drummer, Tamara Gooding, is the girlfriend of Scot’s haridresser Elyse (star of Ryan Landry’s Exorsissy – see below) which is how we heard about the show. Ziaf is fronted by the Swiss-born Christine Zufferey who captures the powerful, throaty vibrato of Piaf with uncanny clarity. Zufferey’s dramatic pauses, knowing inflections, and impeccable accent combine to great effect, and she is backed by a talented trio of musicians in Gooding on drums, Catherine Capozzi on guitar, and Carol Namkoong on piano. This inventive quartet deftly takes fully orchestrated songs and breaks them down with style to a piano-guitar-drums cabaret/rock style that left us wanting more. They played to the packed 300-seat Rabb Theatre at the BPL. Bravo!

Following the show, Chris, Scot and I met up with Ron and Marlin for a late dinner at Caffe Umbra (Pictured from left, Marlin, Ron, Chris, Michael, Scot). It was terrific to see Ron and Marlin again. They’ve been so busy; we’ve only seen them once since the summer! We’ll have to give them a spanking! Caffe Umbra had a terrific selection of food for their special dinners that night, and we stayed there through the ringing in of the New Year. Conversation topics went on to trying to find a new way to capitalize on the gay porn market to the fact that the earth’s rotation has increased speed due to last week’s horrific earthquake. After dinner, Ron and Marlin, who were both flirting with and recovering from illness respectively, headed home while Chris returned to our place. We enjoyed some VH-1 and the wacky antics of the film THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE. It was a fun night.

Now 2005 is here, and the world goes on. I’ve been thinking of my favorite films of 2004, but there are still a few from last year that I’m going to try to catch before making that list. The new music I listened to in 2004 was such a hodgepodge of music from so many years that I would have trouble singling out the stuff released last year. I don know one of the things I’l greatly looking forward to in 2005. The release of a new Kate Bush album! I know, I won’t hold my breath until I have it in my hands, and there’s a good chance, for a variety of reasons, that it will be a disappointment. Still, after listening to some of her older work while typing this blog, I was reminded what a musical genius she truly was and hopefully still is. I’m also very excited about the new album by Emm Gryner entitled “Songs of Love and Death,” which I should be getting in the mail in a couple of weeks. And while I’m not one for resolutions, I do have high hopes for really getting our apartment looking fabulous. I have all sorts of painting schemes in mind.

So Happy New Year everyone, and may 2005 be a good year for us all.

Isn’t it funny that I can watch hours of VH1 Classic and just get the biggest kick out of seeing videos that I used to groan at when they came on for the 7th time in a day back in the 80’s? Did I actually just sit through Billy Idol‘s “Dancing with Myself?” Surely I’ve seen that video about 350 times in my lifetime, but it’s true, I probably haven’t seen it for at least 15 years. Of course, the trade off is getting to enjoy a pair (since it’s Tuesday Two-Play) of videos from Erasure that very cleverly, and much to my delight, segued into a pair of vids from Yaz! “Nobody’s Diary” is a favorite of mine, and I had never seen the video for “Only You.” (I think I would have prefered the wacky hijinks of “Don’t Go.”) Then imagine my surprise when I found out that old song I loved (and hadn’t heard for ages) “Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy,” was by Sammy Hagar!

I admit it, I was a video geek during the 80’s. When MTV first come on, and it was cool, commercial free, and there so few videos they had to play really cool, offbeat stuff, the town I lived in didn’t get it. I was in a band at the time (the appropriately 80’s-named Psyclone) and after practicing at our friend’s house in a neighboring town, we’d all sit around and watch MTV. So cool… I actually remember seeing a video by Robin Lane and the Chartbusters! How cool is that? Does anyone else remember “All Touch” by Rough Trade in heavy rotation? Clearly a dearth of music videos was heaven for a burgeoning queer like me. (And if you haven’t read Rough Trade vocalist/songwriter Carole Pope’s autobiograhpy Anti-Diva… oh, what do you care. No one south of the Canadian border cares that Rough Trade was one of the most sexually subversive pop bands in history of modern music.)

Hmmm… I think I’m going to make a list of the 10 videos I’d most like to see again. Not now, this is going to take some time! Look for it in a few days…

Here it is, ten months after Mel Gibson’s THE PASSION hit the big screen, and it’s still bugging me. Forget the fact that Gibson is a homophobic, religious fanatic. Forget the fact too, that THE PASSION struck out on Golden Globe Award nominations. Doesn’t anyone find it unsettling that in this day of war in Iraq and the religious right trying to curtail our liberties, the third highest grossing film of the year is Mel Gibson’s religious, gore-fest THE PASSION? (Thank God for cartoons and comic books. SHREK and SPIDER-MAN 2 beat Jesus at the box office.)

Violence and religion are today’s staples, while good old sex is being pushed more and more to the sidelines. Why is it that violence is so acceptable and sex, something that should be a celebration between people, is so abhorrent? I’ve ranted about this before: to my friends, on my old website, on this blog… it gets tiresome, I’m sure, but I just don’t understand it. I haven’t seen THE PASSION, nor do I plan to. Some will say that you can’t criticize what you haven’t seen, and I agree with that, so I won’t say anything else about the film.

I saw a couple of good films this weekend. Annette Bening shines in BEING JULIA, a delightfully fun film about the theatre in 1930’s London. On DVD I caught a quiet and intriguing French film by Andr? T?chin? called STRAYED. (Ironically, the latter film was about the effects on everyday people during the German invasion of France during World War II. There is very little violence, and it makes the point quite effectively.)

Had I known there was a University giving Masters’ Degrees to cats, I think I would have signed Gertrudis up long ago. (Doesn’t she look wise in that picture?) Yahoo News reports (thanks Scot!) that the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office sued an online university for allegedly selling an MBA to a cat. Investigator’s paid $299 for a bachelor’s degree for their cat, Colby Nolan. Included on Colby’s resume was baby-sitting and retail experience. Trinity Southern University in Texas allegedly determined that Colby’s resume earned him an MBA. They subsequently issued a transcript listing the kitty’s course work at a 3.5 grade point average.

I always knew Gertrudis was smart, now here’s her chance to prove it with a degree! Brain the size of a walnut… ha! I’ve seen the way she looks at us and there’s more going on in there than a walnut could hold. At any rate, it seems that there is no end to the depths that online shysters will sink to make a buck… and it seems there is no end to the depths that idiots will sink when it comes to buying quick and easy deals on the Internet. Not surprisingly, Trinity Southern University in Texas does not exist.