BEAUTY: Men--Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd

Over the years, professional and fine art photographer Richard Renaldi has taken self portraits of himself and his partner Seth Boyd as they have traveled the world. But this delightful and unique series does not feature them in or near tourist destinations or expected picturesque spots; it chronicles them in their various hotel and motel rooms!


See the complete series here:
http://www.renaldi.com/portfolio/hotels1.html

And also visit:
http://www.renaldi.com/
http://renaldi.com/2/
http://richardrenaldi.blogspot.com/

Just watched...

..."The Kids Are All Right" directed by Lisa Cholodenko (watched in what felt like a futile effort to catch up on the never-ending Netflix queue).


A gentle exploration of the complexity of sexuality, marriage, and relationships, “The Kids Are All Right” is by turns funny, uncomfortable, light, and serious. It is always intelligent, never talking down to the audience or pandering to obvious choices.

Annette Benning plays Nic and Julianne Moore plays Jules, a married gay couple in LA who have each given birth to a child by the same anonymous sperm donor. Now that their daughter is eighteen and their son is fifteen, the kids—without their mothers’ knowledge—contact their birth father, played by Mark Ruffalo. Nic and Jules each have their own reaction to the sudden presence of a stranger in their family. The difficulty is that he is a part of their family, even though he is a stranger. How does one navigate such a situation? Well, there are as many ways of navigating it as there are people to do the navigating. This particular story is engaging, charming, and true to life because of the portrayal of the all shades of gray in the sexual spectrum. There are some bold choices in the plot and I admire openly gay director and writer Lisa Colodenko and her co-creator Stuart Blumberg for presenting such choices. I also really appreciated the fact that there is no neat wrap-up, no pat answers, and no perfect ending tied with a bow for the audience. Life is a journey, relationships are a journey, and how we interact with these things is an on-going process, organic and unfolding. You just have to do it and see…

Recommend? Absolutely.

Benning won a Best Actress Golden Globe for her work (Moore was also nominated for the same award for her work as Jules), and the film won a Golden Globe for Best Picture. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture and Cholodenko and Blumberg were nominated for Best Screenplay.

http://filminfocus.com/the_kids_are_all_right/

DREAM 9.17.11: Sugar Graffiti

I come home to discover that someone has broken into my house and put graffiti on the ceilings and walls. But the graffiti is made out of piped and hardened sugar cake decorations, the kind you get at the market on the cake aisle that says "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" with numbers and candle holders. I call 911 to report that my home has been broken into and vandalized.

Happy Birthday, Fallingwater!

You're 75 but you don't look a day over 50...


This National Historic Landmark residence was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) in 1935 for the Kaufman family in rural Pennsylvania. Fallingwater gets its nickname from the fact that the home is cantilevered and built out partially over a waterfall on the Bear Run river. Construction began in 1936 and the house was completed in 1937. No longer a private residence, the house is owned and operated by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy which allows visitors into this living museum, and Wright's most famous creation.

http://www.fallingwater.org/

Currently listening to...

...Pete Townshend's amazing, aggressive, nearly manic "Rough Boys" from "Empty Glass," his first official solo release in 1980. It is a rocking ode to not only the punks of that era (liner notes for the album say the song is dedicated to The Sex Pistols) but also to his attraction to men. Ten years later, Townshend publicly declared his bisexuality.

It is a pretty sexy song, and the homoerotic horseplay (full of the macho bravado and posturing of inexperienced youth) in the video is fun to watch too...

"Tough boys
Running the streets
Come a little closer
Rough toys
Under the sheets
Nobody knows her
Rough boys
Don't walk away
I very nearly missed you
Tough boys
Come over here
I wanna bite and kiss you

I wanna see what I can find
Tough kids
Take a bottle of wine
When your deal is broken
Ten quid
She's so easy to find
Not a word is spoken
Rough boys
Don't walk away
I'm still pretty blissed here
Tough boy
I'm gonna carry you home
You got pretty pissed dear

Gonna get inside you
Gonna get inside your bitter mind
I wanna see what I can find

Rough boys
Don't walk away
I wanna buy you leather
Make noise
Try and talk me away
We can't be seen together
Tough kids
What can I do?
I'm so pale and weedy
Rough fits
In my Hush Puppy shoes
But I'm still pleading

Tough boys
Running the streets
Come a little closer
Rough toys
Under the sheets
Nobody knows her
Rough boys
Don't walk away
I very nearly missed you
Tough boys
Come over here
I wanna bite and kiss you

I wanna see what I can find!"

http://www.thewho.com/

Just finished reading...

...ALL THE LIVES HE LED, sci-fi legend Frederik Pohl's newest book.


Fred Pohl is a science fiction writer but this is not really science fiction… more social fiction. Although there is a bit of science in it. But no space travel, no alien cultures. We peek in on the world in the year 2079, and most of the action takes place in Pompeii, Italy. You see, the original eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii was exactly 2,000 years prior and the ruins of the ancient city have been turned into a theme park and tourist attraction for a celebration of the volcano. Our narrator Brad Sheridan, who works at the park, tells us all we need to know about how the park works, including the “virts” as he calls them: virtual reality holographic projections that make the ruins seem like a brand new Roman-era city!

And much like several works by the brilliant Margaret Atwood, we see that the future is a place a lot like our world right now… except only more, and worse, and bigger, and crazier, and more difficult, and more dangerous. After the eruption of Yellowstone in the United States, which wiped out ¾ of the country, sent millions of people to refugee camps all along the eastern seaboard, and destroyed or disrupted every aspect of life, other areas of the world rose to power, particularly China. In ALL THE LIVES HE LED, terrorism is now the norm, with fringe groups too many to count bombing, sinking, burning, exploding and maiming millions of people for causes that are even more strange and esoteric than our terrorists in 2011.

The title ALL THE LIVES HE LED is really a bit misleading. I didn’t feel that Sheridan led many lives; Pohl shows us that the single one he did have was plenty. From a prosperous family in Kansas City, to a refugee camp in New York, to being an indentured slave in first Egypt and then Pompeii, we see that Sheridan does indeed get around. But honestly, there is really only one plot line... and one life.

And that is one of the drawbacks of this novel. The first half of it seems like a very long, protracted set up for one plot line. I kept thinking, “Yes, I get it, yes the theme park is almost all virtual reality, yes, terrorism is everywhere.” Very little happens in that first half. We just get descriptions of the same things over and over. Another drawback is the first person narrative of this story… I usually don’t mind first person narratives, but it seems that as a literary device, in this instance it is doing a little more harm than good. I think if we were not tied to Sheridan, the book might have been able to roam a bit more, discover a bit more, and ultimately be a little more interesting than it is.

However, when the action does finally start, it is interesting enough. And it does weave together some of the things from the extra-long set up (a few plot threads get dropped or totally forgotten—the author is in his 90s after all). Although married (five times!) and presumably heterosexual, Pohl has always been a very gay-friendly writer and this book contains some interesting gender and sexuality issues as well. But as the story wound down, I felt like we ended up with the opposite problem from the first half of the book: the ending is swift and facile, and not really explored well. We are told a lot of things instead of seeing them unfold. It feels rushed and hurried, less of an ending and more of an afterthought.

I have read Pohl's STARBURST and his HEECHEE SERIES, and those novels are more imaginative and from what I recall, paced much better. This feels like a freshman or sophomore attempt at a novel by a much less experienced writer than I know Pohl to be.

Recommend? Don’t get me wrong, this is not a terrible book—it is mildly enjoyable and it can be a quick read (despite the seeming slowness of the first half). But if you have something else waiting for you on your night stand, read that instead.

http://www.frederikpohl.com/

"Last Night's Ghosts"

Last Night's Ghosts

A little boy stands, stares,
points mutely at the wall.

Wings of secrets flutter
inside a wooden box
with a lid…

One woman is
under water.

No rushing, no pushing,
just shifting, fading.

An empty spot:
not “nothing” but
full of “missing.”

A man climbs a tree
to get home.

“You are the one thing
that will impede my progress
on this road.”

©JEF 2011

The Floating Stage of Bregenz

Every summer, on the shore of Lake Constance in Austria, the Bregenzer Festspiele takes place on the world's largest floating stage. Operas from the popular repertoire are presented to an audience of 7,000 on absolutely mind-boggling sets. The scale of these stage elements are epic and monumental.

And this year, they premiered "Solaris," an opera based on the novel by Polish author Stanislaw Lem (which was also turned into a film by the Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky).

Above: two views from a production of A MASKED BALL

Above: a view of a production of ANDRÉ CHÉNIER

Above: two views of a production of IL TROVATORE

Above: two views of a production of TOSCA

Above: two views of a production of WEST SIDE STORY

http://www.bregenzerfestspiele.com/en/

The Living Bridges of Cherrapunji

The village of Cherrapunji, located in the state of Meghalaya, in India is known as the wettest place in the world due to the elevation and torrential monsoons.

The village is also known for its “Living Bridges.” Amazingly, the villagers have constructed a system of bridges using living trees, roots and vines. Over a period of years—often decades!—they train tree roots along hollowed out betel-nut tree trunks, crossing spans, and rejoining soil on the opposite side. Once the bridges are ready for use, the villagers put dirt and stepping stones on the bridge for easier passage. It is said that the bridges can hold up to fifty people.

BEAUTY: Painting--Ray Caesar

Ray Caesar's spooky paintings are a kind of Georgian steam-punk/ 1950s science fiction hybrid. Angelic, tattooed children are not really children at all but spider-like aliens with tentacles or pincer arms, or even robots. They exist in a Regency tableau, waiting...


Top to bottom: Home Coming; Merchant of Dreams; Monday's Child; Trouble With Insects; Castor; Pollux
http://www.raycaesar.com

BEAUTY: Clothing--Asher Levine

With barely a week of summer remaining, autumn clothing is starting to make an appearance. And Asher Levine's Fall/ Winter '11-'12 collection is a thing to behold!

Levine's work is rooted in the natural world: animals, plants, and minerals make their way, whether obviously or subliminally, into his creations. His silhouettes and shoes often seem to be sprouting scales or lizard-like spikes. (I like the idea of a traditional fall/ winter plaid flannel shirt but given the Asher Levine treatment so that is looks like it is fleeced with odd vestigial flaps...)

As a side note, I will not wear real fur, and I suspect that Levine is using a lot of it in this collection. Although I disapprove of this material, I still see the beauty and art in what he has created. ESPECIALLY those shoes!



http://www.asherlevine.com/

100 Years Of Fashion In 100 Seconds

To advertise the September 13th 2011 opening of Westfield Stratford City, Europe's largest urban shopping mall and the UK's largest mall anywhere, promoters made this delightful montage of fashion from 1911 to now. It has always been fascinating to me how silhouettes change over time, and consequently how we perceive ourselves as humans. You can tell what was going on in culture, society, religion, economics, entertainment, and psychology by which body parts are emphasized and which ones are de-emphasized.

I appreciate the reference to World War II when the man disappears briefly to go off to war.

http://www.westfieldstratfordcity2011.com/

This marvelous chart of silhouettes through time is pretty amazing too. Click to study the larger version.