Eurofag as genre.

Get it? Gay it? Good.

There are certain immutable rules of life. One of them is that once something societal reaches the pages of an Archie comic, it can no longer be considered "cutting edge," or in fact, "edgy" at all.

I refer you to the precedents of Betty and Veronica go Goth or, going back a little further...

Now Archie has put a gay character into their comics. This is unquestionable proof positive that being gay is not only acceptable in mainstream America, but it's actually a bit passé.

Riverdale High School, the stomping grounds of comic books' favorite teen and his friends, is opening its doors to an openly gay student - a first in the 69-year history of the character.

Sigh...in the what-year history of the character?

You keep loading those fish into the barrel while I go get my gun, ok?



"Nothing against her." Yeah, that's one way of putting it.

(Get it? That was a double!)

Because seen through these eyes, We lead a double life. No one will know, So check it out, steppin' out, here I go: Are we, are we ourselves?

It's not uncommon for movies to be promoted with a line like "No one is who you think they are." The twist Dare puts on this is that most of the people in it aren't who they think they are.

I was surprised to read on the Rotten Tomatoes reviews page for Dare that at least a couple of critics took it as a comedy (and that's two of the ones that liked it). I didn't get that. To me, at least, it's a drama, probably even a melodrama.

It seems to have aspirations to be a kind of a psychological (psychosexual) horror story in a teen setting (or The Breakfast Club gone wild).

The story of three high school seniors, who reach out to define, or redefine themselves, on reflection it reminded me of a Mark Evanier line I quote a lot:

"We all do childish and insensitive things when we're 17. There are no exceptions to this rule and if you think you're one, you probably did more than your share."

But, it's a movie that knocks at your mind and never quite gets into your heart; never makes the leap off the screen. So we are just as happy to leave it there.

It is helped immeasurably by a trio of young star actors, two of whom were known to me previously. Emmy Rossum shows that she has it in her to grow beyond eye candy.

Zach Gilford, likewise, shows that he has the equipment for the long haul by rocking a character completely unlike his Friday Night Lights persona.

Ashley Springer completes the leads. New to me (and apparently to the screen), he allows humanity to shoot through what was in danger of being a caricature of the repressed gay.

Ana Gasteyer leads the older supporting players as his mother; there are surprising (in good ways, meaning they show parts of their craft I haven't seen before) cameos by Alan Cumming and Sandra Bernhard.



A young woman named Rooney Mara also bears watching as an up-and-comer. Though her part is hazily written, she succeeds in making us--me, anyway--want to get to know her better, and it isn't only because she's sexy.

Emmy Rossum is sexy, and I wouldn't want to get to know her character in this movie any more than I do at the final blackout, thanks.

This is one of those movies that it's hard to say what makes it only good, not great. As I say, it isn't the acting. And nothing really stands up and yells "BAD" about the script (by David Brind), either.

My best bet is that it's the direction (by Adam Salky), which is notably "stage-y" on a couple of occasions. Not always, however. A lot of this movie is told through looks, and a lot of the time, the director dares to get us right up close.

You know you're a nerd when...

...Rachel Maddow says something sounds "1970s-era; Tron style"--and you immediately think "Tron was early '80s, Rachel!"

I just posted a new Amazon review of a recent book

Molly Ivins, A Rebel Life, by Bill Minutaglio & W. Michael Smith.

Ho-ly mo'fucking shit....

You know how I've blogged before about Scott Baio being a Republican tool whose life of rich reward says all that need ever be said about how an entire generation lost their mind in the '70s?

You might notice that I've never said anything about his wife. This was because I'd only ever seen her on his uncommonly boring "reality" show, where she seemed like a perfectly nice young woman; maybe one who deserved something better than being paired with this asshole.

More fool I. Cupid's arrow really hit right on target with this one. She's if anything, even more offensively idiotic, anti-gay and anti-woman (!) than he is. I quote:

You bunch of FAR LEFT Lesbian s--tasses!!!!!!! No wonder you're all lesbos because what man in his right mind could put up with your c--tness? Scott Baio has more class in his piss than all of you all!!!"

Yes you can, Mr. President. When will you?

So there's an item going around about how President Obama "snapped back" at some hecklers who were protesting his glacier-like pace on repealing "Don't Ask. Don't Tell."

I first saw it last night, but didn't think of this until just now: Does anyone remember Obama ever...I mean, ever, "snapping back" like this at oh, say, anti-gay bigot homophobes?

No. People like that, he invites to deliver the invocation at his inauguration.

You know what I was just thinking of?

All those great top 10 hits we've had from "Kat" McPhee, these past few years.

Not that she isn't a supremely talented artist in her own right.

(Jest a bit of old point-scoring, folks, ignore it and go on about your day.)

'scuse me...someone needs to say this

Attn, pundits who are having difficulties pronouncing the name of the volcano the eruption of which is stranding would-be travelers across Europe.

A modest proposal: Try "Buttafuoco."

Thank you.

Curses!

Never mind.

ETA: Belay that curses and never mind, the Dragon's still on top!

Preach, Brother Roger!

Ebert returns to the argument of whether or not videogames are art.

Does art grow better the more it imitates nature? My notion is that it grows better the more it improves or alters nature through an passage through what we might call the artist's soul, or vision. Countless artists have drawn countless nudes. They are all working from nature. Some of there paintings are masterpieces, most are very bad indeed. How do we tell the difference? We know. It is a matter, yes, of taste.

This is the kind of thing on which intelligent people can disagree. Surely another definition of art is simply whether or not a particular entertainment is meaningful to its audience. Whether or not they recognize their own aesthetic philosophy within the work must also be relevant.

That said, Roger is completely right about this, and those who are reacting against him are completely wrong.

Go, Dragon!

Here's something no box office analyst was predicting headed into the weekend : How to Train Your Dragon 3D was number one at the box office. How the hell did that happen?

Seriously, this almost never happens. Can you name me another movie that opened at number one, dropped down to number three in succeeding weeks, then went back up to number one?

The Dreamworks Animation family film trumped [Kick-Ass] the power of excessive violence and dirty words with theater-goers this weekend, pulling in an impressive $20m haul in its fourth week of release.

I really like this.


Not because I particularly care if Dragon throws Kick-Ass to the curb or not. Kick-Ass has gotten mostly good reviews, but I've heard both bad and good things. I haven't seen it, though, so I have no right to an opinion.

Not because of dragons being my favorite mythological beastie either or because I saw How To Train Your Dragon last week and really enjoyed it.

No, I think I like this because I feel it's more a triumph of simple word-of-mouth than of family film over dirty words. People saw How To Train Your Dragon, thought it was cool and funny (which it is), and told their friends.

More of whom chose to see that than the latest ginned-up "controversial" movie. That's kind of the way it's supposed to work, or at least the way I (and maybe you) often wish that it would work.

Holy crap...

Looks like Big Brother was about 25 years late. A school district used computers loaned to students to watch them, without their knowledge, on webcams and to read private messages they sent to their friends.

I have a feeling I'm going to be talking more about this. Stay tuned.

It is an illusion that women in Hollywood have power

I don't know why this should surprise me...but it does, and saddens me too.

In the "Summer Movie 10" double issue of EW, they talk about Angelina Jolie's upcoming action film, Salt, which was originally written for a man.

But the process was a bit trickier than just changing the hero's name and adding high heels.

"In the original script, there was a huge sequence where Edwin Salt saves his wife, who's in danger," says [director Phillip] Noyce.

"And what we found was when Evelyn Salt saved her husband in the new script, it seemed to castrate his character a little. So we had to change the nature of that relationship."

In the end, Salt's husband, played by German actor August Diehl (Inglourious Basterds) was made tough enough that he didn't need saving, thank you very much.

Because god forbid a woman should ever save a man. Even if that woman is played by an Academy Award winner whose movies gross millions, to say nothing of the fact that she's broadly considered to be in the first rank of sex symbols.

So, proposed: It is an illusion that women in Hollywood have power.

Discuss.

A modest proposal to my friends in the mainstream media...

...would it be possible in the future to limit your coverage of Sarah Palin to just the one sentence, "And somewhere in America, Sarah Palin said something stupid today"?

Thank yew.

Proof yet again that no matter how mainstream it's gotten...

...the internet was made by nerds for nerds.

The "spell your name with Empire Strikes Back stickers" generator.



t/y, Becca

Families.

You know how when a politician's name appears in the press, they'll put a letter next to it so you know what party they're from? In the case of the R's, I'm no longer prepared to accept that this means "Republican."

I've decided to start assuming that "R" stands for "ridiculous." To explain why, let's take a look at some things that good-humored elf Mike Huckabee had to say last week, shall we?

Huckabee, a former Baptist preacher, remains in favor of keeping in place ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,’ the policy that requires the military to expel openly gay service members. “I wouldn’t support a repeal if I were commander-in-chief,”

Welcome to the 21st century, Huck.

Huckabee went on to draw parallels between homosexuality and other lifestyles that are considered by some to be morally aberrant. “You don’t go ahead and accommodate every behavioral pattern that is against the ideal,” he said of same-sex marriage. “That would be like saying, well, there are a lot of people who like to use drugs, so let’s go ahead and accommodate those who want to use drugs. There are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them. There are people who believe in polygamy, so we should accommodate them.”

Yes, all those things are exactly the same.

He also affirmed support for a law in Arkansas that prohibits same-sex couples from becoming adoptive or foster parents. “I think this is not about trying to create statements for people who want to change the basic fundamental definitions of family,” Huckabee said.

Ah yes, the "basic fundamental definitions of family."

You mean these?

Family:

1 : a group of individuals living under one roof and usually under one head : household
2 a : a group of persons of common ancestry : clan b : a people or group of peoples regarded as deriving from a common stock : race

A group of individuals who share ties of blood, marriage, or adoption; a group residing together and consisting of parents, children, and other relatives by blood or marriage; a group of individuals residing together who have consented to an arrangement similar to ties of blood or marriage.

Don't fuck with the fundamentals, fundamentalist.

“And always we should act in the best interest of the children, not in the seeming interest of the adults.”

Yes, let's do act in the best interests of the children. If the entire country were to prohibit same-sex couples from adopting or fostering, it

could displace 9,000 to 14,000 children

Q & A

Two connected stories. One:

What kind of investigation will the Obama administration Department of Labor conduct into the Massey Mine Disaster?

The answer, BTW, is secret ones, to protect the corporate criminals.

And two:

Senate will hold moment of silence for victims of deadly mine explosion

I'm sure the knowledge that Senators are thinking about them will be a great comfort to the families and friends of the victims. That's much better than oh, say, having the investigation out in the open air for everyone to see.

Having run a classic Colbert clip a couple of days ago, here's some equal time for The Daily Show

Samantha Bee MILF

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Finally, another good movie dragon.

I enjoyed How to Train Your Dragon much more than I thought I would. Maybe not as much as most people (The script was quite predictable in one or two places); definitely not as much as my nephew, but still, I enjoyed it.

(Enjoyed the heck out of it, as a matter of fact.)

The reason why I didn't want to see it was because I didn't like the designs of the dragons as I'd seen them in ads. As you may know (from the name of this blog if from nothing else), dragons have long been my favorite mythological beastie.

As a result, I'm a bit snobbish about their depiction in films. Hundreds have tried but to my mind, maybe a handful has succeeded.


The dragon in Dragonslayer, that's my idea of a great cinema dragon. The movie wasn't so great last time I checked it out, but the dragon is awesome.

Literally. As in, it inspires awe. No one's topped it in live action for nearly 30 years.

Pete's Dragon is even more flawed as a picture, but the dragon is truly magical to the six-year-old boy I was when I saw it.

And from the 1977 TV-movie version of The Hobbit

Smaug. Now there's a dragon for ya.



Falkor in Neverending Story is exceptional; the dragon in Knighty Knight Bugs is great too.

Free Video Hosting

(Do not get me started on Reign of Fire, which was just stupid, or Dragonheart, which was fucked up by its director. And don't mention H.R. Pufnstuf to me or I'll simply have no choice but to bite your head off.)

The How to Train Your Dragon dragons looked to me like they were the "wrong" sizes and/or shapes. Silly me, I should've known: Wait until you get a good, long look at them animated.

A few of them still don't meet my ridiculously high standard, but the "star" dragon takes the movie and all but flies away with it. Watching the early "training" sequences in this movie, I was reminded of The Black Stallion, and if you've seen that movie, you know that's high praise indeed.

Directors Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders have created a dragon that can stand right alongside all the others in my little "box," and maybe above more than a few.