Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The rain may fall, the wind may blow, it may get down to 20 below,
But I don’t mind ’cause I’m goin’ to the dance with you.
The rent’s unpaid, the cupboard’s bare, I don’t mind, I won’t despair
‘Cause I’m in love and goin’ to the dance with you.
And when the orchestra plays so sweet and low,
I’ll take your hand and hope you’ll know
How I wish the dance would never end, and how I’d give my love forever.
And I’d be yours, please be mine, you have made my world divine
I’m in love, goin’ to the dance with you.
Text: Goin’ to the Dance With You, excerpt, by Richard Dworsky Audio: Goin’ to the Dance With You, Shawn Ryan Image: 1920s, subjects unknown, via Varones/Flickr
What I had wanted was to be chaste,
sober and uncomfortable
for a sprawling episode on a beach somewhere
dirty, perennially out of fashion;
let the smell of cocoa butter drive deep memory wild
as the sun goes down through a bottle of pop
some kid half-left to turn warm in the sand.
The train ride would be long and hot,
and you’ve had it with men,
Me…
I’m sickened by the pronoun.
Tenderness seems as far away as Sioux City,
and besides it would have cost too much.
But you should have called,
if only since a preposterous little bout like this
is just the stuff to scare off friends,
like soaking their laps with corrosive fizz.
And us…
What an impertinence, us.
We could have played gin rummy and taken a stroll
into town or along the boardwalk, maybe
with dear old Godzilla
rising one last time
over the horizon at dusk, hurrying us to a place
we never would have dreamt of
going.
Text: Since You Didn’t Phone, August Kleinzhahler Image: Unknown, 1930s, via tobyotter/Flickr
Yatzer, the effervescent Athens-based design site lead by Costas Voyatzis, has just released its latest DIARyatzer, a collection of twelve images to accompany each month of the year. This issue showcases the work of three talented photographers, Daniel Holfeld, Petra Reiman, Dom Agius, with words by Mr. Agius, all resulting in a truly beautiful ensemble.
12 moments, 12 months
There are moments in life which are passed by
but somebody has captured the moment
somebody has created a memory
a memory of a lifetime
with feelings and senses
a memory for every month of the year
A Single Man, the classic gay novel by Christopher Isherwood, is going from page to screen in a project directed by fashion god Tom Ford and starring Colin Firth and Julianne Moore. This is terrifically exciting and long overdue.
The movie had its world premiere last week at the Venice Film Festival and all reports point to Ford’s freshman effort as being something of great beauty, emotion and, of course, style. Colin Firth won the festival’s Best Actor prize. During a press conference, Ford and the cast received an uncharacteristic standing ovation from the press corps. At the Toronto Film Festival a few nights later, the Weinstein Company paid a six-figure sum for the U.S. and German rights.
A Single Man is set in 1962 Los Angeles where 52-year-old literature professor and British expat George Falconer (Colin Firth) is coping — and not coping — with the accidental death of his longtime companion (Matthew Goode). Focused on the events of a single day, the story follows George as he navigates his past, his devastating grief and his present. Charley (Julianne Moore) George’s BFF and confidante, and Kenny (Nicholas Hoult) a student with designs on him, are two people who infuse George’s day with human interaction, but fundamentally this 24-hour saga is an examination, from the mundane to the sublime, of George as a solitary gay man. Sad, happy, biting, comical, George streams his innermost thoughts to us about what it means to be alive.
Beyond being an interesting character micro-study, A Single Man is an important novel in the context of gay literature. Penned five years before Stonewall, the book was scandalous in its day for the matter-of-fact treatment of the main character’s homosexuality. George is not troubled or suicidal because he is gay, as was common in fiction from that time period, he’s troubled and suicidal because his young lover was snatched away by death without any notice. Here, Isherwood freely shares George’s everyday as this man comes to terms with being a gay widower, flirts with young guys at the gym, observes how much more fit older gay men are compared to their straight counterparts and so forth. George honestly and unapologetically observes a very normal gay life lived in a straight world. This was subversive stuff in 1964.
Interestingly, David Scearce, the movie’s screenwriter, sheds light in an interview with the National Post on at least one answer to the long standing question of why this film hasn’t been made until now:
“This is my first film and my first script,” said Scearce from his Vancouver office, where he works on aboriginal legal issues. “I wrote it all on spec, and when it was done, I sent it off to Don Bachardy, who was Isherwood’s life partner and owns all the rights to his books.” Though Scearce says he knew Bachardy, he knew it was a gamble to send off unsolicited material. “But [Bachardy] was impressed with it because out of all the adaptations he’d seen, it was the only one that didn’t use a voice-over. … I used flashbacks instead.”
There are many reasons that A Single Man the movie is adding up to something to eagerly anticipate. Curiosity about Tom Ford’s signature. Participation by actors whom audiences respect tremendously. Interest in a screenwriter’s first script, adapted from an iconic gay novel. It looks like it could be magic.
A Single Man will get a limited release this year in order to be considered for the Academy Awards and a wide release in 2010. The film will be shown at the London Film Festival on 16 October followed by the Tokyo festival 19 October.
PS: Whatever you do, read the book first if you haven’t already.
Susan Boyle’s graceful, prepossessing rendition of the Rolling Stones’ Wild Horses just hit the airwaves. Here, I’ve matched it up with a 1930’s photo of a man who, in my mind, won’t leave his lover, despite everything.
Click to listen:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I watched you suffer a dull aching pain
Now you decided to show me the same
No sweeping exits or offstage lines
Could make me feel bitter or treat you unkind
Wild horses couldn’t drag me away
Song: Wild Horses, from Susan Boyle’s debut album I Dreamed a Dream,
due 23 November Text: Wild Horses, excerpt, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, 1971 Image: 1930s, Bulgaria, via Miss Magnolia Thunderpussy/Flickr
I want to liberate beautiful boys from false ideas about sex.
Sex is religious mystical healthy and nutritious.
It’s like eating a banana.
The Big Banana in the sky.
I’d like to peel him and eat him, foreskin and all.
Fall on my knees and worship god’s rod.
If he’s Jewish or Moslem well eat him sliced, all creamy.
Big Banana Split with nuts.
Perfect Orgone Prana Orgasm.
There is no Banana but the One Banana.
All other bananas are bananas.
I am the Big Banana.
Thou shalt have no other bananas before me.
Yes, we have no bananas.
Text: Harold Norse, The Big Banana, 1976, San Francisco Image: Unknown, 1940s
Alan Cumming closed an eight-night run in London’s West End last night. I Bought a Blue Car Today, his one-man show of songs and anecdotes, is nothing less than sublime. From the minute the curtain rises and he breaks instantly into an exhilarating version of Shine that rivals Cyndi Lauper’s original, he’s hooked you.
Cumming offers up a whole romp of a night with songs from a wide range of genres. With them he shares the provenance of the songs’ importance to him. He talks openly and lovingly about his husband, Grant Shaffer. He tells of being invited to crash on the couch of John, a New York friend-of-a-friend who was lovely and generous and working on a new character at the time named Hedwig. Fast-forward to Cumming giving us a thrilling medley of the emotional highs and lows of John Cameron Mitchell’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch. And so goes the rest of the evening.
Mr. Cumming’s voice is smooth and powerful, it’s beautiful really, but indeed, it’s his ability to exude a natural authenticity that earns him the hearts of those in the audience. We feel an intimate connection with the artist.
You may know him from his Tony-award winning performance in Cabaret, or as Nightcrawler in X2 or from other films, or even his Sebastian Flight TV character from High Life — this man has worked constantly for nearly 30 years. Seeing Alan Cumming onstage as himself in this, his concert debut, is something altogether different. It’s like the best proper first date you ever had. He talks to you with a lovely mixture of intimacy, flirtatiousness, humour, a well-exercised intellect and emotional honesty. Then there are all the love songs he croons your way. At the end of the night, you can’t wait to see him again.
Cumming is graced onstage and off by the talented Lance Horne who serves as musical director. Horne gorgeously arranged the show and wrote/co-wrote some of the material. His influence is obvious and appreciated. An eight-piece band of strapping young men brings verve to the instruments including strings, brass, drums and piano.
I Bought a Blue Car Today was previously performed at the Sydney Opera House and at New York’s Lincoln Center. It next moves to Costa Mesa, California and then back to New York, this time at the Highline Ballroom.
If you aren’t able to see the show in person, a CD of the same name will be released on September 22. Its 14 tracks don’t capture all of the songs of the show, nor, as a studio album, do they replicate the power and energy of Cumming singing to a live audience. A DVD would be a treat. But the album gives some insight into the vision for the show, the liner notes recount abbreviations of some of the stories and the voice is solid even if lacks some of the tones that sound so original onstage. It’s worth getting. Where else are you going to find a medley — a kick-ass medley — of Dolly Parton’s Here You Come Again and Mika’s Interpretation?
It’s been hot,
Also very sweet.
And I’m not usually indiscreet.
But when he sparkles,
The earth begins to sway.
What more can I say?
How can I express
How confused am I by our happiness?
I can’t eat breakfast,
I cannot tie my shoe.
What more can I do?
If I said I love him,
You might think my words come cheap.
Let’s just say
I’m glad he’s mine awake,
Asleep.
It’s been hot
Also it’s been swell.
More than not,
It’s been more than words can tell.
I halt.
I stammer.
I sing a rondelay.
What more can I say?
Can you tell
I have been revised?
It’s so swell,
Damn it, even I’m surprised.
We laugh,
We take it day by day.
What more can I say?
Text: What More Can I Say, lyrics (excerpt), Falsettoland, William Finn
Image: Unknown, 19th century, via Varones/Flickr
I have a love, and it’s all that I have.
Right or wrong, what else can I do?
I love him; I’m his,
And everything he is
I am, too.
I have a love, and it’s all that I need,
Right or wrong, and he needs me, too.
I love him, we’re one;
There’s nothing to be done,
Not a thing I can do
But hold him, hold him forever,
Be with him now, tomorrow
And all of my life!
When love comes so strong,
There is no right or wrong,
Your love is your life.
Text: I Have a Love (lyric excerpt), West Side Story, Stephen Sondheim Image: Unknown, early 20th century, via Varones/Flickr
