(Not really about language.)

In reviewing my postings on “morning names” (now assembled here), I see that there are names I mentioned but didn’t post on — including the actor Danny Pino, whose work I have enjoyed for several years.

From Wikipedia:

Daniel Gonzalo “Danny” Pino (born April 15, 1974) is an American actor currently starring as Detective Nick Amaro in the long-running NBC legal drama, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

… Pino is known for his critically acclaimed performance as Mexican druglord and serial rapist, Armadillo Quintero, on FX’s The Shield… Pino also starred in the hit CBS series Cold Case as Detective Scotty Valens.

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Mostly engaging personas, but then there’s the druglord and serial rapist. But always streetwise.

And yes, Pino is a hunk. Here he is shirtless:

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Muscular and lean, with excellent but not extravagant abs.

Monday’s “morning name” was Dana Delany. From Wikipedia:

Dana Welles Delany (born March 13, 1956) is an American film, stage, and television actress, producer, presenter, and health activist.

Delany has been active in show business since the late 1970s. Following small roles early in her career, Delany garnered her first leading role in 1987 in the short-lived NBC sitcom Sweet Surrender and achieved wider fame in 1988–1991 as Colleen McMurphy on the ABC television show China Beach, for which she won two Emmy Awards…

… From 2007 to 2010 Delany played Katherine Mayfair on the ABC series Desperate Housewives.

She was amazing in China Beach (and won two Emmys for her work there).

In that show:

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and more recently:

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About China Beach, from Wikipedia::

China Beach is an American dramatic television series set at an evacuation hospital during the Vietnam War. The title refers to My Khe beach in the city of Đà Nẵng, Vietnam, which was nicknamed “China Beach” in English by American and Australian soldiers during the Vietnam War. The ABC TV drama aired for four seasons, from 1988 to 1991.

Set in a Vietnam locale nicknamed “Bac My An Beach” at the 510th Evacuation Hospital and R&R (the “Five-and-Dime” Rest & Recreation) facility, the series’ cast of characters includes US Army doctors and nurses, officers, soldiers, Red Cross volunteers, and civilian personnel (American, French, and Vietnamese). The series also features the experiences of the characters when they return to the U.S., either on leave or at the end of their tours of duty. The show does not shy away from showing the gruesomeness of war; it provides a very gritty view of the experience there.

The show contrasted with the earlier show M*A*S*H (set in the Korean War) in that it was played realistically and not for laughs.

(About performances rather than language.)

Another note from the Oscars: on J.K. Simmons, who got an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (in Whiplash) I recognized him immediately as a regular on two different tv crime drama: as Dr. Emil Skoda, a police psychiatrist, who has appeared on three of the four incarnations of Law & Order; and as Will Pope, Assistant Chief of the LAPD, in The Closer.

I then reflected on the casting of these shows, and the enormous number of actors they consume — as regulars (playing cops, district attorneys, medical examiners, crime lab staff, defense attorneys, and judges) and in one-shot performances (as victims, suspects, witnesses, family members, etc.).

The one-shots are often well-known actors playing parts that run against their usual roles: recently in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit re-runs, dark roles for Dean Cain (Superman!) and comedienne Carol Burnett.

The regulars are also not infrequently recruited from successful careers of very different natures. To come: a number of tv cops and a couple district attorneys of this sort.

First, two actors I’ve already posted about on this blog: BD Wong (police psychiatrist Dr. George Huang on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) and Jeff Goldbum (Detective Zach Nichols for the eighth and ninth seasons of Law & Order: Criminal Intent).

Then four cops:

Eric Bogosian: (born April 24, 1953) is an American actor, playwright, monologuist, and novelist; … known for his plays Talk Radio and subUrbia as well as numerous one-man shows; … was featured on Law & Order: Criminal Intent as Captain Danny Ross [2006-10] (Wikipedia link)

Ice-T: Tracy Lauren Marrow (born February 16, 1958), better known by his stage name Ice-T, is an American rapper, singer, and actor. He began his career as a rapper in the 1980s and was signed to Sire Records in 1987, when he released his debut album Rhyme Pays, the first hip-hop album to carry an explicit content sticker. … Since 2000, he has portrayed NYPD Detective Odafin [Fin] Tutuola on the NBC police drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. (Wikipedia link)

Richard Belzer: Richard Jay Belzer (born August 4, 1944) is an American stand-up comedian, author, and actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as John Munch, whom he has portrayed as a regular cast member on the … police drama series Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as well as in guest appearances on a number of other series. He portrayed the character for 21 years from 1993 to 2014. (Wikipedia link)

Jerry Orbach: Jerome Bernard “Jerry” Orbach (October 20, 1935 – December 28, 2004) was an American actor and singer, described at his death as “one of the last bona fide leading men of the Broadway musical and global celebrity on television” and a “versatile stage and film actor”. … In 1992, Orbach joined the main ensemble cast of Law & Order as the world-weary, wisecracking, streetwise NYPD detective Lennie Briscoe. (Wikipedia link)

Finally, two district attorneys.

Fred Thompson: Freddie Dalton “Fred” Thompson (born August 19, 1942) is an American politician, actor, attorney, lobbyist, columnist, and radio host. Thompson, a Republican, served in the United States Senate representing Tennessee from 1994 to 2003. … In the final months of his U.S. Senate term in 2002, Thompson joined the cast of the long-running NBC television series Law & Order, playing Manhattan District Attorney Arthur Branch. (Wikipedia link)

Dianne Wiest: Dianne Evelyn Wiest (… born March 28, 1948) is an American actress on stage, television and film. … Under Woody Allen’s direction, Wiest won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Hannah and Her Sisters in 1987 and Bullets over Broadway in 1995. She also appeared in three other Woody Allen films: The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Radio Days (1987) and September (1987). … From 2000 to 2002, Wiest portrayed interim District Attorney Nora Lewin in the long-running NBC crime drama Law & Order. She also played the character in two episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and the pilot episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. (Wikipedia link)

Cybill Shepherd was today’s morning name. I remember her especially from two television shows in which she was a central character (Moonlighting, Cybill) and one in which she was a supporting character (Psych).

From Wikipedia:

Cybill Lynne Shepherd (born February 18, 1950) is an American actress, singer and former model.

Shepherd’s better known roles include Jacy in The Last Picture Show (1971), Kelly in The Heartbreak Kid (1972), Betsy in Taxi Driver (1976), Maddie Hayes in Moonlighting (1985–1989), Cybill Sheridan in Cybill (1995–1998), Phyllis Kroll in The L Word (2007–2009), and Madeleine Spencer in Psych (2008–2013).

On to the tv shows.

Moonlighting is an American television series that aired on ABC from March 3, 1985, to May 14, 1989. The network aired a total of 66 episodes … Starring Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis as private detectives, the show was a mixture of drama, comedy, and romance, and was considered to be one of the first successful and influential examples of comedy-drama, or “dramedy”, emerging as a distinct television genre.

The show’s theme song was performed by jazz singer Al Jarreau and became a hit. The show is also credited with making Willis a star, while providing Shepherd with a critical success after a string of lackluster projects.

… Allyce Beasley [was featured] as Agnes DiPesto: Agnes DiPesto is the extremely loyal and quirky receptionist for the Blue Moon Detective Agency who always answers the phone in rhyme.

… Mark Harmon appeared near the end of Season 3 as Sam Crawford, Maddie’s romantic interest and rival with David. (Wikipedia link)

Willis, Shepherd, Beasley, and Harmon on the show:

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Cybill is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre, which aired on CBS from January 2, 1995, to July 13, 1998. Starring Cybill Shepherd, the show revolves around the life of Cybill Sheridan, a twice-divorced single mother of two and struggling actress in her 40s, who has never gotten her big show business break. Alicia Witt and Dedee Pfeiffer co-starred as Sheridan’s daughters, with Alan Rosenberg and Tom Wopat playing their respective fathers, while Christine Baranski appeared as Cybill’s hard-drinking friend Maryann. (Wikipedia link)

The main cast of Cybill:

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(Baranski is a standout in this show.)

Psych is an American detective comedy-drama television series created by Steve Franks and broadcast on USA Network with syndication reruns on ION Television. It is produced by Franks and Tagline Television’s Chris Henze and Kelly Kulchak. The series stars James Roday as Shawn Spencer, a young crime consultant for the Santa Barbara Police Department whose “heightened observational skills” and impressive detective instincts allow him to convince people that he solves cases with psychic abilities. The program also stars Dulé Hill as Shawn’s best friend and reluctant partner Burton “Gus” Guster [who is black], as well as Corbin Bernsen as Shawn’s father, Henry, a former officer of the Santa Barbara Police Department.

… Madeleine Spencer (Cybill Shepherd) is a police psychologist who is Shawn’s mother and Henry’s ex-wife.

… Psych debuted on Friday, July 7, 2006 … the series finale [aired] on March 26, 2014. (Wikipedia link)

Bernsen, Shepherd, and Roday on the show:

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The show was full of inspired goofiness, including constant banter between the two principals, Roday and Hill. The guys on the job:

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In my print copy of the NYT yesterday, two notable obits, for Ralph Sharon (the musician) and Richard Dysart (the actor).

Ralph Sharon. In the Times, “Ralph Sharon, Jazz Pianist Who Accompanied Tony Bennett, Dies at 91″ by Margalit Fox (apparently this appeared in print in New York on the 7th), beginning, rather playfully:

Ralph Sharon, Tony Bennett’s longtime accompanist, who in the early 1960s persuaded Mr. Bennett to sing a song originally written for a Wagnerian contralto — about the fond intersection of a large muscle in the chest with a Northern California city — and in so doing created a Grammy-winning standard, died on March 31 at his home in Boulder, Colo.

That would be “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”.

[Playful addendum: the title of this song has often been played with, most elaborately in a story that leads to the punch line “I left my harp in Sam Clam’s disco”.]

Richard Dysart. Bruce Weber’s “Richard Dysart, Emmy-Winning Actor on ‘L.A. Law,’ Dies at 86″ from yesteday:

Richard Dysart, a character actor who specialized in lawyers, doctors and other authority figures — most notably Leland McKenzie, the founding partner of the law firm McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney & Kuzak, on the soapy-serious prime-time drama “L.A. Law” — died on Sunday at his home in Santa Monica, Calif.

“L.A. Law,” seen on NBC from 1986 to 1994, made him widely known. Created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher, the show — which also starred Harry Hamlin, Jimmy Smits, Susan Dey, Jill Eikenberry, Susan Ruttan and Corbin Bernsen, among others [Alan Rachins, Michele Greene, Michael Tucker, Blair Underwood] — focused on the firm led by McKenzie, a sometimes paternal, sometimes ruthless executive who presides over an office full of well-dressed, ambitious, usually greedy and very often randy partners and underlings.

What’s especially notable here is the excellent ensemble cast assembled for this show. A few of the principals:

Richard Dysart, left, as a founder of a firm on “L.A. Law,” with, from left, Jill Eikenberry, Corbin Bernsen and Alan Rachins.

From a server at Reposado recently, a recommendation that I should look at the work of the Chicano writer Luis Valdez (whose name was unfamiliar to me); I recommended to him the work of the Chicana writer Sandra Cisneros (whose name was unfamiliar to him).

It turns out that I didn’t recognize Valdez’s name, but I certainly did know some of his work. From Wikipedia:

Luis Valdez (born June 26, 1940 [in Delano CA to migrant farm worker parents]) is an American playwright, actor, writer and film director [not to mention activist for Chicano causes]. Regarded as the father of Chicano theater in the United States, Valdez is best known for his play Zoot Suit, his movie La Bamba, and his creation of El Teatro Campesino. A pioneer in the Chicano Movement, Valdez broadened the scope of theatre and arts of the Chicano community.

Oh my, Zoot Suit and La Bamba!

Zoot Suit.From Wikipedia:

Zoot Suit is a play written by Luis Valdez, featuring incidental music by Daniel Valdez and Lalo Guerrero. Zoot Suit is based on the Sleepy Lagoon murder [1942] trial and the Zoot Suit Riots [1943]. Debuting in 1979, Zoot Suit was the first Chicano play on Broadway. In 1981, Luis Valdez also directed a filmed version of the play, combining stage and film techniques.

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About the clothing, from Wikipedia:

A zoot suit … is a men’s suit with high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers, and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. This style of clothing became popular among the African American, Chicano, Filipino American, and Italian American communities during the 1940s.

… The zoot suit was originally associated with Afro-American musicians and their sub-culture. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word zoot probably comes from a reduplication of suit.

Here’s a collection of Chicanos — identified as pachucos in the source — in a variety of zoot suits:

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On pachucos:

Pachuco refers to a particular old school subculture of Mexican-American and Latino Americans associated with zoot suits, street gangs, nightlife, and flamboyant public behavior. The idea of the pachuco – a zoot-suited, well-dressed, street-connected flamboyant playboy of Hispanic/Latino heritage – originated in El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, had moved north, following the line of migration of Mexican railroad workers (“traqueros”) into Los Angeles, where it developed further.

That gets us to East L.A. in the 1940s. And then the Zoot Suit Riots:

The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of racial attacks in 1943 during World War II that broke out in Los Angeles, California, during a period when many migrants arrived for the defense effort and newly assigned servicemen flooded the city. United States Sailors and Marines attacked Mexican youths, recognizable by the zoot suits they favored, as being unpatriotic. American military personnel and Mexicans were the main parties in the riots; servicemen attacked some African American and Filipino/Filipino American youths as well, who also took up the zoot suits.

… [In the immediate run-up to the riots; on June 4, 1943,] 200 members of the U.S. Navy got a convoy of about 20 taxicabs and headed for East Los Angeles, the center of Mexican settlement. When the sailors spotted their first victims, most of them 12- to 13-year-old boys, they clubbed the boys and any adults who tried to stop them. They stripped the boys of the zoot suits and burned the tattered clothes in a pile. They attacked and stripped all minorities that they came across wearing zoot suits.

As the violence escalated over the ensuing days, thousands of white servicemen joined the attacks, marching abreast down streets, entering bars and movie houses, and assaulting any young Latino males they encountered. In one incident, sailors dragged two zoot suiters on-stage as a film was being screened, stripped them in front of the audience, and then urinated on their suits. Although police accompanied the rioting servicemen, they had orders not to arrest any. After several days, more than 150 people had been injured and police had arrested more than 500 Latinos on charges ranging from “rioting” to “vagrancy”.

… The local white press lauded the attacks by the servicemen, describing the assaults as having a “cleansing effect” to rid Los Angeles of “miscreants” and “hoodlums”.

Yes, a shameful miscarriage of justice. And the Chicanos who had quickly been arrested and convicted for the Sleepy Hollow murders were soon cleared and released from jail.

All of this was crafted into a moving play by Valdez.

La Bamba. From Wikipedia on the film:

La Bamba is a 1987 American biographical film written and directed by Luis Valdez that follows the life and career of Chicano rock ‘n’ roll star Ritchie Valens. The film stars Lou Diamond Phillips as Valens, Esai Morales, Rosanna DeSoto, Elizabeth Peña, Danielle von Zerneck, and Joe Pantoliano. The film also covers the effect that Valens’ career had on the lives of his half-brother Bob Morales, his girlfriend Donna Ludwig and the rest of his family.

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I’ll get back to Lou Diamond Phillips in a little while. But first, on Richie Valens and the song. From Wikipedia:

Richard Steven Valenzuela (May 13, 1941 – February 3, 1959), known professionally as Ritchie Valens, was a singer, songwriter and guitarist. A rock and roll pioneer and a forefather of the Chicano rock movement, Valens’ recording career lasted eight months, as it abruptly ended when he was killed in a plane crash [in an event that became known as “the day the music died”; three rock musicians died in the crash].

During this time, he had several hits, most notably “La Bamba”, which he adapted from a Mexican folk song. Valens transformed the song into one with a rock rhythm and beat, and it became a hit in 1958, making Valens a pioneer of the Spanish-speaking rock and roll movement.

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Also from Wikipedia:

“La Bamba” … is a Mexican folk song, originally from the state of Veracruz, best known from a 1958 adaptation by Ritchie Valens, a top 40 hit in the U.S. charts and one of early rock and roll’s best-known songs.

Two renditions: the original by Valens can be listened to here; and a video from the film (with the song covered by the band Los Lobos) can be viewed here.

On Los Lobos:

Los Lobos … (Spanish for “The Wolves”) are a multiple Grammy Award–winning American rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional music such as cumbia, boleros and norteños. (Wikipedia link)

La Bamba was a big break for them. And also for Lou Diamond Phillips. From Wikipedia:

Lou Diamond Phillips (né Upchurch; born February 17, 1962 [Filipina mother, father of one-quarter Cherokee descent]) is an American actor and director. His breakthrough came when he starred in the film La Bamba as Ritchie Valens. He earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in [the movie] Stand and Deliver and a Tony Award nomination for his role [as the King of Siam] in [a Broadway revival of]  The King and I.

… In June 2012, Phillips began costarring in Longmire, about a modern-day sheriff played by Robert Taylor. Phillips plays Henry Standing Bear, a Native American, who is Longmire’s good friend — often helping him with cases and in dealing with the reservation police who do not respect or like outsiders, especially other law enforcement.

I included Longmire because it’s a show I’ve enjoyed.

From Wikipedia:

Longmire is an American crime drama television series that premiered on June 3, 2012, on the A&E network. … The show centers on Walt Longmire, a Wyoming county sheriff who returns to work after his wife’s death. Assisted by his friends and his daughter, Longmire investigates major crimes within his jurisdiction, while campaigning for re-election against one of his own deputies.

A cast photo, with Taylor on the left and Phillips on the right (and the deputy in the middle):

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In today’s Mother Goose and Grimm, a mash-up of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (the folk rock group) and Young Frankenstein (the movie), in a phrasal overlap portmanteau (POP):

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It’s a Monster Mash, as in the 1962 novelty song.

The ingredients. First, CSNY. From Wikipeda:

Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) is a folk rock supergroup made up of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. They are known as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY) when joined by occasional fourth member Neil Young. They are noted for their intricate vocal harmonies, often tumultuous interpersonal relationships, political activism, and lasting influence on US music and culture.

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Second, the film. From Wikipedia:

Young Frankenstein is a 1974 American comedy film directed by Mel Brooks and starring Gene Wilder as the title character, a descendant of the infamous Dr. Victor Frankenstein. The supporting cast includes Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, Richard Haydn and Gene Hackman.

The film is an affectionate parody of the classic horror film genre, in particular the various film adaptations of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein produced by Universal in the 1930s.

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A wonderfully funny movie.

“Monster Mash”. From Wikipedia:

“Monster Mash” is a 1962 novelty song and the best-known song by Bobby “Boris” Pickett. The song was released as a single on Gary S. Paxton’s Garpax Records label in August 1962 along with a full-length LP called The Original Monster Mash, which contained several other monster-themed tunes.

A video of Pickett performing “Monster Mash” (on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand) can be viewed here.

In billboards’s “The Top 10 Halloween Songs” from 10/27/14, “Monster Mash” is ranked #2, behind Michael Jackson’s “Thriller:.

Comment from a Facebook friend on my posting about the tv series Saving Hope, with three acting hunks featured, Kristopher Turner being the youngest:

I thought I recognized Turner! He spent many scenes in just white boxer briefs in a homoerotic classic. Wiki: “…he was cast in the lead role of Lex in director David DeCoteau’s film The Brotherhood III: Young Demons (2002)”

(That’s Turner on the right, not in the cute-kid persona he projects in Saving Hope.)

Yes indeed. Homoerotic horror from DeCoteau, who has churned out the most amazing number of genre films, in all sorts of genres. I don’t seem to have posted about the director before. So now a few words.

You can view the trailer for Brotherhood III on YouTube here. Or see the whole movie on YouTube here; note, however, that DeCoteau’s movies are very hastily made and are far from monuments of cinematic art.

Wikipedia on the director:

David DeCoteau (born January 5, 1962, Portland, Oregon) is an American and Canadian film director and producer.

… He has said of his working methods, “I always wanted to make what I could sell. So I just promised myself that I would not be set in my ways. If somebody said, ‘Look, we need a horror film, we need a creature feature, we need a Western, we need a period costume drama,’ I was able to put it together pretty quickly.”

In the February issue of Funny Times, this cartoon by political cartoonist Taylor Jones:

The third figure in the progression is Bruce Jenner, the fourth Caitlin Jenner.

Some words about Caitlin Jenner, and then a few on the Ascent of Man cartoon meme.

From Wikipedia:

Caitlyn Marie Jenner (born October 28, 1949), formerly known as Bruce Jenner, is an American television personality and retired Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete. Since 2007, she has been appearing on E!’s reality television program Keeping Up with the Kardashians and is currently starring in the reality TV show I Am Cait, which focuses on her gender transition.

Jenner was a college football player for the Graceland Yellowjackets before incurring a knee injury requiring surgery. Coach L. D. Weldon, who had coached Olympic decathlete Jack Parker, convinced Jenner to try the decathlon. After intense training, Jenner won the 1976 Olympics decathlon title at the Montreal Summer Olympics (after a Soviet athlete had won the title in 1972) during the Cold War, gaining fame as “an all-American hero”. Jenner set a third successive world record while winning the Olympics. The winner of the Olympic decathlon is traditionally given the unofficial title of “world’s greatest athlete.” With that stature, Jenner subsequently established a career in television, film, authoring, as a Playgirl cover model, auto racing and business.

On the Ascent cartoon meme, see my 12/15/15 posting on “The evolution of nostalgia”, with 4 Ascent cartoons, an inventory of earlier ones on this blog, and a reference to Juli G. Pausas’s wonderful site on the evolution of man “Hypotheses on human evolution”, which has many many cartoons on the subject (86 at the moment, without the one above).

A wonderful gay-themed 2014 movie — sweet, very hot, touching, and funny — from the same people who brought us Were the World Mine (posted on here) back in 2008. Getting Go was done on an even more minuscule budget than the earlier movie, and with only two characters (called here Go — he’s a gogo dancer, among other things (like a painter) — and Doc — he’s a writer about to graduate from college and go on studying from there); Tanner Cohen, who plays Doc, was the star of the earlier movie, and Matthew Camp, who plays Go, is a designer and performance artist now retired from a solid career as a gogo dancer in NYC.

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The movie is not a porn flick, though it does have serious man-man sex scenes, as well as a lot of romance.

You can watch the trailer for the movie here.

(Deep thanks to my friends Ph and L, who gave me a shopping bag full of gay DVDs — dramatic movies like this one, documentaries, and a fair amount of porn — as a present on Frday.)

The movie: was produced by Tom Gustafson and Cory Krueckeberg (who are both business and romantic partners), and was written, directed, and edited by Krueckeberg. Most of it was shot, amazingly, on a iPhone, which gives it a loose, documentary feel. Apparently, a lot of the dialogue was improvised by the two actors.

Cohen is quite tall (6 ft. 4 by some reports) and very cute (Go calls Doc “adorable” fairly often), while Camp is much shorter and muscle-hunkily handsome, so they’re an interesting pairing physically. The two of them kissing:

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The characters are also presented as an interesting pairing temperamentally. Doc claims to subscribe to gay heteronormativity, by which he doesn’t mean what many people do, as in my 1/12 posting “The wages of heteronormativity” (the belief “that heterosexuality is the only sexual orientation or only norm, and … that sexual and marital relations are most (or only) fitting between people of opposite sexes”), but instead the position that homosexual relationships should mirror the practices of heterosexual relationships; We should look just like They do. Go, in contrast, has an open, rebellious, sexually libertarian, politicized view of gay identity and gay relationships.

From Queerty, about a 2014 interview with Camp, “Flawless Go-Go Legend Matthew Camp Spills His Heart In New “Gay Times” Interview”:

After years of making his living dancing on New York City’s bar tops, go-go legend Matthew Camp is making his foray into film acting in a very unique way.

In a new interview with the UK’s Gay Times, Camp says his only acting experience comes from a short-lived stage acting career as a child in San Francisco, but that didn’t stop him from jumping at the chance to stretch his acting muscle again as an adult. Once he was approached by Were the World Mine filmmakers about playing himself in a new lost-footage style docudrama inspired by him, the decision was easy. [The film was mostly shot on an iPhone, on a minuscule budget.]

Months later, Getting Go: The Go Doc Project became a reality. Also starring Tanner Cohen, the film follows the story of a boy who makes contact with his idol and muse, an accomplished go-go boy, in order to film him and become a part of his everyday life. But this is Hollywood, so they obviously wind up falling in love.

Though his character “Go” was inspired directly by his dancing alter-ego, Camp says he’s actually pretty different from what most believe him to be behind closed doors — he’s quite reserved, completely monogamous, an artist, a perfumer, and nothing like what you’d assume a New York City bar star to be.

“What you see in Getting Go is a rough representation of me,” he says. “I mean, I do run around shirtless all the time, Go and I are both not afraid of a lot of things, and we danced in our underwear, so we’re both confident. But I wouldn’t have handled most of the situations in the same way Go did. I’m not as sexual as him… I don’t go on a lot of dates, I’m very reclusive, hanging out at my house. Go-go dancing was very much a job for me and after I’d perform, I’d leave right away rather than hang out at the club.”

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Now 30, Camp reveals that he began go-go dancing when he moved to the city at 21 in order to pay his bills. “I’ve never felt I should be embarrassed by go-go dancing,” he says. “It’s not prostitution – which I’m not judgmental about – but I view dancing more as performance. I don’t like opening myself up to people, so with go-go dancing, people get to just see my body, they don’t see what’s going on in my head.”

Both Camp and his character Go love displaying their bodies:

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Among the things Camp designs are custom leather jackets and perfumes, and especially fragrances for men (like his fragrace 8.5, with the scent of cocoa butter, leather, and tobacco, reproducing something of the experiece of going to a gay bar). (Camp maintains that the name has nothing to do with his dick size, which is a quite satisfactory 7.5 inches.)

Wikipedia on Cohen (who’s now about 29):

Tanner Cohen is an American stage, film and television actor, and singer.

In 2006, Cohen appeared as Tad Becker in five episodes of the American soap opera As the World Turns. He appeared alongside Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood in the 2007 thriller The Life Before Her Eyes. In 2008, he made his leading film debut as Timothy in Were the World Mine, an independent musical film, based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He also contributed to the soundtrack…

In 2010, Cohen appeared opposite Andy Ridings in “Over and Over”, a play produced as part of the New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC)…

In 2013, Cohen appeared in his second movie Getting Go: The Go Doc Project [2014] taking the role of a shy college grad who devises to shoot a documentary about the New York City nightlife scene to meet the go-go guy Matthew Camp he’s obsessed with.

Cohen is Jewish. He graduated from UCLA in 2009, and is openly gay. His brother, David Oliver Cohen, is a television actor.

(There will be stuff about music and some incidental stuff on translation, but there’s also crude mansex in very plain language, so this is certainly not for kids or the sexually modest.)

The latest Daily Jocks ad, with a caption of mine (one you can sing!):

Randy Handy stands in the shadows
While his johns walk in the light
You see the rich guys shine in brightness
But their stud hustler’s out of sight

Randy is prime meat in his rentboy stable, so a 50%-off sale is a real money-saver, guys.

Some background notes on the fantasy in the caption, then lots of words on the source of the caption (meanwhile, think “Mack the Knife”).

[Added: oh yes, there’s now a Page on this blog, on “Male prostitution”, under “XBlog essays”, with an inventory of postings on male hustlers, rentboys, escorts, etc.]

In the caption world, Randy works for an escorting agency that books tricks for him, but he also loves the excitement of being a street hustler, “loitering for the purposes of prostitution” (as the laws say) and working face to face with his prospects: showing his body off at his station in a dimly lit alley, clutching his junk invitingly, using his face to dominate the men and simultaneously offer himself to them. He cruises in nothing but minimal briefs (always from really hot companies, like TeamM8), an unusual  arrangement made possible by a trade he made with the local police (they don’t harass him in any way, in exchange for which they get unlimited free access to his services, whatever they want, whenever they want it). Randy seals the deals on the spot, negotiating on services to be rendered and price and then providing these services right there in the alley (or, if the john wants,  in a somewhat more secluded alcove a few feet away). The vision of a hunky man hooking in public virtually naked and (randily) ready for immediate sex, right there, really pulls the johns in in droves; they stand in line, and so get a sex show while they’re waiting their turn.

Mostly the johns just want to suck Randy’s cock or get fucked by him, and he’s happy to oblige (even better, his refractory period is something like two minutes, tops, so he can easily satisfy one after another, and he has the stamina for it). Early on in the business, Randy discovered that many men would pay big bucks to be abused verbally and physically, so after some coaching from his stable-mates, he got to be a master at these acts. Later he realized that many of these men gained even deeper satisfaction from the humiliation of being abused in public, in front of an audience, and would pay extra for it.

In fact he’s about as versatile as a man can get, willing to do virtually anything (so long as nobody actually gets damaged), and good at taking either role in any of these acts. Although he’s solidly, deeply gay, he can convincingly portray a contemptuous straight guy taking over a faggot, or a curious straight guy being converted to panting queerness by a superior man, or, for that matter, an affectionate lover together with an equal partner; it all depends on what the client needs / wants. His philosophy is that getting truly comfortable with receptive, submissive, etc. roles in mansex has made him better at taking the other roles (the ones that are his first preference), has taught him to appreciate what an insertive, dominant, etc. man can provide to a male sexual partner.

Although he has no drive towards sex with women, he likes women and also isn’t at all uncomfortable with their bodies. So, off work, he’s willing to provide supportive sex to a needy female friend. And, on the job, he’s up for doing a client’s female partner — and if the client wants it, him as well.

Of course, he’s fine with male couples hiring him to take care of both of them, however they want the roles to be distributed. And if a john wants to hire a pair of guys, to do whatever, Randy has buddies in the stable who work well with him.

Outside of work, Randy has clear preferences in sex, but on the job, he’s sexually transparent, completely adaptable to his customer’s wishes.

Now, Randy Handy as Super RentBoy is a fiction — no one is this perfect at the job, not to mention this extravagantly flagrant in his sexual behavior — but a potentially enjoyable one. Just imagine Randy in that dark alley, already nearly naked, ready to give or take whatever.

The caption. Lovers of the musical theatre probably recognized the meter of “Mack the Knife” even before I handed you the title. But there’s more, much more.

The background, from Wikipedia:

“Mack the Knife” or “The Ballad of Mack the Knife”, originally “Die Moritat von Mackie Messer”, is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper [DGO], or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera.
… A moritat (from mori meaning “deadly” and tat meaning “deed”) is a medieval version of the murder ballad performed by strolling minstrels. In The Threepenny Opera, the moritat singer with his street organ introduces and closes the drama with the tale of the deadly Mackie Messer, or Mack the Knife, a character based on the dashing highwayman Macheath in John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera (who was in turn based on the historical thief Jack Sheppard). The Brecht-Weill version of the character was far more cruel and sinister, and has been transformed into a modern anti-hero.

Und der Haifisch, der hat Zähne,
Und die trägt er im Gesicht.
Und Macheath, der hat ein Messer,
Doch das Messer sieht man nicht.

[literal translation:]
And the shark, it has teeth,
And it wears them in the face.
And Macheath, he has a knife,
But the knife can’t be seen. [more literally: ‘… you don’t / can’t see’]

In the best known English translation, from the Marc Blitzstein 1954 version of The Threepenny Opera, which played Off-Broadway for over six years, the words are:

Oh the shark has pretty teeth dear,
And he shows them pearly white
Just a jack-knife has Macheath dear
And he keeps it out of sight.

The rarely heard final verse — not included in the original play, but added by Brecht for the 1931 movie — expresses the theme and compares the glittering world of the rich and powerful with the dark world of the poor [and the thieves and the whores; note that my character Randy Handy is a whore, like Jenny Diver in DGO]:

Denn die einen sind im Dunkeln
Und die andern sind im Licht
Und man siehet die im Lichte
Die im Dunkeln sieht man nicht.

[literal translation:]
There are some who are in darkness
[Blitzstein has ‘shadows’, not ‘darkness’, and I use that in my caption]
And the others are in light
And you see the ones in brightness
Those in darkness drop from sight.
[even more literally: ‘…you don’t see’; but that loses the rhyme]

You’ll see the echo of the street singer’s line in his opening verse, Doch das Messer sieht man nicht,  in his closing line in the movie, Die im Dunkeln sieht man nicht. Note that the Brecht-Weill productions (the stage version, which opened in 1928, and the movie, directed by G. W. Pabst and released in 1931) were intended as Socialist critiques of the capitalist system (but with musical-comedy features as well); the economics and politics pretty much vanished in all the later versions of the work (of which there are a great many; I had the great pleasure of seeing Lotte Lenya, who played Polly Peachum in the 1928 and 1931 versions, in this role, using the Blitzstein adaptation, at the tiny Theatre de Lys in Greenwich Village, more than once in the late 1950s, but it was nothing like the movie, though it has mostly the same songs). Their intentions are clear in the movie, throughout which the rich and powerful are presented as vain, grasping predators upon the poor and dispossessed, workers who are viewed with great sympathy as sufferers under this system. At the very end of the movie we get the Dunkeln – Licht(e) quatrain, powerfully illustrated by a crowd of shabbily dressed poorfolk shuffling silently off away from the viewer into darkness.

I haven’t been able to find a clip of this final scene. But you can get the whole movie, with English subtitles, on YouTube here (which will allow you to appreciate just how different it is from versions you’re likely to be familiar with) and then forward to very close to the end.

Other German versions on film of this third finale (yes, third finale; the story is complicated) to the show are available on YouTube, in particular a performance directed by Nacho de Paz in which the light and darkness bit is harsh and biting rather than sad and despairing. But not funny or heart-warming.

The wonderful creation of Pierce in Zits:

binge-bingeing is the PRP form of a verb to binge-binge, which is an instance of one or the other of two different compound V constructions of the form to N + V, whose semantic and pragmatic differences are small enough to ignore here.

The two patterns:

(DV) either a direct verbing of a N + N compound (the compound N + binge in this case, e.g. a cheese binge ‘a binge on cheese’ > to cheese-binge ‘to experience a cheese binge, to binge on cheese’); OR

(BF) a 2pbfV (two-part back-formed V) based on a synthetic compound N + V (the PRP synthetic compound binge + Ving in this case, e.g. binge-eating ‘eating in binges’ > to binge-eat ‘to eat in binges’)

Both patterns for to N + V are well-attested, and they are subtly different in their semantics or pragmatics: in DV, the N is more prominent (in to cheese-binge, it’s about the cheese as the object of bingeing), while in BF the V is more prominent (in to binge-eat, it’s about bingeing as the style of eating). For to binge-binge, we have either a DV glossable roughly as ‘to binge on binges’ or a BF glossable roughly as ‘to binge in binges’. For Pierce’s purposes in the cartoon, this subtlety isn’t important.

(In what follows, I’ll use bingeing (rather than binging) as the spelling for  the PRP of binge (except when citing sources, where I’ll report the spelling the source uses). There’s no issue of consequence here. Similarly, I’ll cite the compound Vs in hyphenated (rather than separated) spellings — binge-eat (rather than binge eat) — though in citations I will of course use whatever spellings my sources do.)

Background: binge in NOAD2.

noun a short period devoted to indulging in an activity to excess, especially drinking alcohol or eating: he went on a binge and was in no shape to drive | a spending binge | [as modifier] : binge eating.

verb [no obj] indulge in an activity, especially eating, to excess: some dieters say they cannot help binging on chocolate | (as noun binging) : her secret binging and vomiting.

ORIGIN early 19th cent.: of unknown origin

The DV to N-binge. A considerable number of examples focusing on common objects of bingeing: favorite special foods or activities, in particular. Three food examples, three activity examples:

Yes my arteries clogged slightly on this but every once in a blue moon, you just need to cheese binge. (link)

Overall, this is a great little spot for a date or if you want to sushi binge alone. (link)

Kids will be less likely to candy-binge on a full stomach (link)

Mostly I used to chess binge randomly over the years. (link)

She ate pizza and chocolate, TV-binged on classic movies and real housewives … (link)

the tendency to Minecraft binge cannot be all that good for a rounded development [of a child]. (link)

The BF to binge-V. Though the historical record is hard to piece out, binge-drinking seems to have been the first of the synthetic compounds (without context, bingeing refers to binge-drinking), with binge-eating following, and then binge-spending and more recently binge-watching (of television). All of the synthetic compounds were quickly back-formed, to yield to binge-drink etc.

On binge-watching, from Wikipedia:

Binge-watching, also called binge-viewing or marathon-viewing, is the practice of watching television for a long time span, usually of a single television show. In a survey conducted by Netflix in February 2014, 73% of people define binge-watching as “watching between 2-6 episodes of the same TV show in one sitting.” Binge-watching as an observed cultural phenomenon has become popular with the rise of online media services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Video with which the viewer can watch television shows and movies on-demand.

The idea of assembling several consecutive episodes of a television series in order and watching them in rapid succession originated with the marathon, in which the television stations themselves programmed several hours’ worth of reruns of a single series.[citation needed] This practice began in the 1980s and is still popular among subscription television outlets.

The usage of the word “binge-watch” can be traced as far back as the late 1990s, when it was used by circles of television fandoms. It has consisted of watching several episodes of a particular show in a row via DVD sets. Prior to the introduction of the DVD format, it was commonplace to record multiple episodes, or even entire miniseries to videotape to watch later in a single viewing session. The word’s usage was popularized with the advent of on-demand viewing and online streaming. In 2013, the word “exploded” into mainstream use when Netflix started releasing episodes of its serial programming simultaneously. 61% of the Netflix survey participants said that they binge watch regularly.

Bonus. Since this is the eve of Mother’s Day in the U.S., we got a USA Today article yesterday, “5 things to binge-watch this Mother’s Day weekend” by Kelly Lawler. Some of the suggestions are one-shot views, not serial pleasures, so they’re just recommendations for watching, not actually binge-watching, but let that pass. They’re also focused on mother-daughter relationships, rather than mothers in action in general (though there are lots of tv shows with interesting mothers featured in them):

Gilmore Girls (tv), Mamma Mia! (movie), Buffy the Vampure Slayer (tv) (esp. s3 e6 “Band Candy”), The Fosters (tv), Anywhere But Here (movie)

My own binge-watching this morning has been a set of four Charlie Chan movies from the 40s — a riveting exercise in social and cinematic history.

Morning names from the 9th: a pair you can get stuck in (the Great Grimpen Mire and the La Brea Tar Pits) and the noun duff referring to decaying vegetable matter.

The mire. We travel first to Dartmoor and the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: “They were the footprints of a gigantic hound!”. From Wikipedia:

Dartmoor is an area of moorland in southern Devon, England [southwestern England, very close to Cornwall]. Protected by National Park status as Dartmoor National Park, it covers 954 square kilometres (368 sq mi).

The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous Period of geological history. The moorland is capped with many exposed granite hilltops known as tors, providing habitats for Dartmoor wildlife.

… Much more rain falls on Dartmoor than in the surrounding lowlands. As much of the national park is covered in thick layers of peat (decaying vegetation), the rain is usually absorbed quickly and distributed slowly, so the moor is rarely dry. In areas where water accumulates, dangerous bogs or mires can result. Some of these, topped with bright green moss, are known to locals as “feather beds” or “quakers”, because they can shift (or ‘quake’) beneath a person’s feet. Quakers result from sphagnum moss growing over the water that accumulates in the hollows in the granite.

… Some of the bogs on Dartmoor have achieved notoriety. Fox Tor Mire was supposedly the inspiration for Great Grimpen Mire in Conan Doyle’s novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, although there is a waymarked footpath across it.

(#1)

A wooden bridge over one of the streams of Fox Tor mire

The tar pits. We move now to very urban Los Angeles. From Wikipedia:

The La Brea Tar Pits are a group of tar pits around which Hancock Park was formed in urban Los Angeles. Natural asphalt (also called asphaltum, bitumen, pitch or tar—brea in Spanish) has seeped up from the ground in this area for tens of thousands of years. The tar is often covered with dust, leaves, or water. Over many centuries, the bones of animals that were trapped in the tar were preserved. The George C. Page Museum is dedicated to researching the tar pits and displaying specimens from the animals that died there.

… Among the prehistoric species associated with the La Brea Tar Pits are mammoths, dire wolves, short-faced bears, ground sloths, and the state fossil of California, the saber-toothed cat (Smilodon fatalis).

Reconstuction of a desperate mammoth family:

(#2)

(Note the bus on the street. The site is adjacent to LACMA, the L.A. County Museum of Art, and the Craft and Folk Art Museum.)

duff. Entry 2 under duff in NOAD2:

duff ² noun N. Amer. & Scottish  1 decaying vegetable matter covering the ground under trees.  2 Mining coal dust; dross. adjective Brit. informal   of very poor quality: duff lyrics. – incorrect or false: she played a couple of duff notes. ORIGIN late 18th cent. (denoting something worthless): of unknown origin.

(#3)

Volunteers remove the duff (decaying vegetable matter covering the ground under trees) on a new trail at Bear Run [in the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy]

NOAD2 has five senses of duff, most of unknown or unsure origin. The others:

duff ¹ noun [usu. with modifier]  a flour pudding boiled or steamed in a cloth bag: a currant duff. ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: northern English form of dough. [cf. rough, tough, enough]

duff ³ verb [with obj.] Brit. informal  1 (duff someone up) beat someone up.  2 Golf mishit (a shot). ORIGIN early 19th cent.: of uncertain origin; sense 2 is probably a back-formation from duffer¹.

duff ⁴ noun N. Amer. informal  a person’s buttocks: I did not get where I am today by sitting on my duff. ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: of unknown origin.

duff ⁵ noun (in phrase up the duff) Brit. informal  pregnant: it looks like he’s got her up the duff. ORIGIN 1940s (originally Australian): perhaps related to duff¹.

Sense 4 has figured on this blog before, in the 7/19/15 posting “Protecting fictional brand names”, about Duff Beer on The Simpsons; the tv series plays elaborately on gluteal duff, as in to get off one’s duff.

But wait! There’s more! In particular, there’s acronymic DUFF. From Wikipedia:

The Duff (stylized as THE DUFF) is a 2015 American teen comedy film directed by Ari Sandel and written by Josh A. Cagan, based on the novel of the same name by Kody Keplinger with music by Dominic Lewis and produced by Susan Cartsonis, McG and Mary Viola. The film stars Mae Whitman, Robbie Amell, Bella Thorne, Nick Eversman, Skyler Samuels, Bianca A. Santos, Allison Janney, and Ken Jeong

Bianca (Mae Whitman) is enjoying her senior year of high school with two close friends Jess (Skyler Samuels) and Casey (Bianca A. Santos) who are significantly more popular than she is. She is also the neighbor and former childhood friend of Wesley Rush (Robbie Amell), a star on the school’s football team, with whom she had fallen out with during high school. She has a crush on guitar-playing Toby Tucker (Nick Eversman), and reluctantly attends a party hosted by mean-girl Madison Morgan (Bella Thorne), hoping to talk to him. The party turns out to be a disaster for her, as it’s there that Wesley unthinkingly reveals to her that she is the DUFF of her friend group, the Designated Ugly Fat Friend. The DUFF does not actually have to be ugly or fat, he explains, it’s just the person in a social group who is less popular and more accessible than the others in the group. People exploit The DUFF to get to the popular people.

Ouch.

… the recent movie. Which I saw on Monday and am still in the grip of. A stunning film, tracking its central character from a small, weak boy (in black Miami) to a big, hard man (in black Atlanta), as he struggles to carve out a place for himself in the world and to come to terms with his sexuality.

(#1)

Notes on my life. I posted yesterday about two visits to Stanford attractions (an exhibition at the art museum; and the cactus garden), both in company with Juan Gomez, and then came Monday’s expedition (which involved lunch at the Fish Market and then the discount matinee at CineArts at Palo Alto Square — extra discount for senior citizens; no, I wasn’t carded), with Kim Darnell. All designed to give me some social life and some pleasurable time away from home, where the horrible soul-destroyingly noisy construction work on the balconies above my patio had morphed into something much worse, as rot was discovered in my walls, which have to be torn out on the outside and replaced (still to come: tearing out one wall, the one right behind my worktable, on the inside and replacing it). So these expeditions were a great gift. The (de)construction guys are off until Monday, giving Kim and me some time to clean up the mess the work has already made in my living room (black grit from the pounding and drilling outside, chunks of the wall flaking off and raining down on things).

But the movie. It comes in three sections, described below in the Wikipedia entry (which I’ve edited down to highlight the main narrative arc, the story of the constricted and barely articulated love between the central character and his buddy Kevin):

Moonlight is a 2016 American drama film written and directed by Barry Jenkins, with a story by Tarell Alvin McCraney, and stars Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Naomie Harris and Mahershala Ali.

I: Little. Shy and withdrawn Chiron [pronounced like “Shy-Ron”] (Alex Hibbert), dubbed “Little” for his meek personality and size, is chased into an abandoned motel by a pack of bullies. He is later found by Juan (Mahershala Ali), a [Cubano] crack dealer [a trapper (‘drug dealer’ in Southern Black slang)], who takes him to his house with his girlfriend Teresa (Janelle Monáe). … [Then there’s] his controlling and emotionally abusive [and crack-smoking] mother Paula (Naomie Harris). … {Other than Juan and Teresa, the only] person Chiron seems to find comfort and companionship in is his best friend Kevin (Jaden Piner), and their sexuality begins to bud when they stay after a dancing class during school to show their private parts to each other.

II: Chiron. Now a teenager, Chiron (now played by Ashton Sanders) is frequently bullied, harassed and openly threatened by one of his peers, Terrel (Patrick Decile), though he continues to remain close to Kevin (now played by Jharrel Jerome). [Chiron is then betrayed by Kevin, who’s pushed to serve as Terrel’s agent in beating Chiron up.]

III. Black. Now a hardened and tougher adult, Chiron (now played by Trevante Rhodes), going by the name “Black” … is a drug dealer living outside Atlanta, … and now leads a similar life to the one Juan led, living in a large house and driving the same car [and bulked up like Juan, and dressing the same way]. … One night, he gets a call from Kevin (now played by André Holland), who asks Chiron to visit him in Miami, where he works as a server and cook at a diner, also apologizing for his actions as a teenager, which causes Chiron to shed a tear. The next morning, Chiron wakes up to find that he had a wet dream. He drives down to Florida … [Eventually] Chiron admits to Kevin that he has not had relations with anyone but him since they last met [with the heart-breaking line, “You’re the only man that’s ever touched me”]. They physically reconcile shortly after.

… Moonlight received virtually unanimous praise from critics, particularly for its direction, cinematography, and score [also the performances of the main cast].

Well deserved on all accounts.

Moonlight is a film of character, not action, and its significant effects are almost all quite subtle, turning on small facial expressions or gestures or the use of silence. (Throughout the film, Chiron speaks very little, protectively holding himself within himself, alone against the world.) Against this backdrop, the outbursts of violence are shocking, especially in Part II: Terrel roaming through the school like a hungry shark, looking to find someone weak to bloody; Kevin punching Chiron; the pack of boys gang-beating him; Chiron raging (in utter silence) through the school to find Terrel and take revenge on him, breaking a chair into splinters on his head and knocking him out.

Chiron and his father-substitute Juan (teaching the boy to swim, offering him advice, appreciating him) early in the film:

(#2)

But Juan betrays Chiron, as Chiron sees it, by supplying crack to Paula, Chiron’s mother.

In part I, Little/Chiron and Kevin become buddies after they fight one another (Kim muttered, “I’ll never understand boys”) — a classic trope of male relationships, in which combat with a worthy opponent results in the two becoming close friends; they’ve proved their mettle to one another.

Then Chiron just after Kevin’s betrayal and the beating in part II:

(#3)

Finally, Kevin and Chiron together in part III, each man startled to see what the other has become (Kevin is married, with a son) and how they got there: both spent time behind bars, where Kevin learned the useful trade of cooking and Chiron muscled up to become a hard man, as close to a replica of Juan as he could manage (right up to his becoming a trapper):

(#4)

(Compare Juan in #2 with Chiron in #4.)

The film stock for each part roughly matches the period of that part — a subtle but effective touch. And the music is beautifully chosen. Notably, while Chiron is driving from Atlanta to Miami to see Kevin (and reconcile with his mother), we hear “Cucurrucucu Paloma” (sung by Caetano Veloso), a Mexican Spanish song of longing and lovesickness (significantly, also used by Pedro Almỏdovar in the movie Habla con Ella (Talk to Her). Neither Chiron nor Kevin is at all Latino, but Juan was a Miami Cuban.

The film is set in a solidly black world, a world in which white people are only incidental figures in the background — much the way black people function in most white people’s lives, except that if you’re black you never forget it, while most white people largely think of their race as insignificant. Someone should look at how Moonlight‘s characters use the noun nigger, and someone should look at their style shifting in their interactions with one another: it’s all African American black vernacular, but it’s by no means all the same. (Pretty much everybody of significance involved with the film is black, and they seem to know the territory pretty well.)

All three actors playing Chiron are first-class, but Trevante Rhodes, as he’s directed here, is stunning, giving us a character whose aching vulnerability lies just below an impassive surface.

(Men’s bodies and mansex, not suitable for kids or the sexually modest.)

In the Daily Jocks mailing yesterday, this heavily sexualized ad for WaterShorts swimwear (in black, aqua, lime, and coral), the first swimwear from the premium homowear company PUMP! (an old acquaintance on this blog) — with a caption of mine in run-on free verse:

(#1) The Magnficent WaterSports

cruising hard in a pack
the four ride acrest waves of desire
intimidating contemptuous seductive
assuming the burden of
creating enlivening animating
celebrity characters

muscle-hunk Yuri Bruno
menacing in black
leader of the four
crafts an actor “Yul Brynner” aka
Cajun gunslinger Chris Adams
in a famous Western movie, with
guns instead of water pistols so
ominous

haughty faggy Stevie Molleen
wanton in aqua
creates a hyper-macho
“Steve McQueen” all
fast race cars and motorcycles
doing drifter Vin Tanner in the movie
“McQueen’s” fiercely competitive love for
“Paul Newman” was notorious darling
we love them both for it

crotch-grabbing Horn Blucher
incontinent in lime the boy just
cannot keep his hands off his dick
admittedly it is beautiful a monument of
masculinity but still, he animates a
“Horst Bucholz” in the movie a young and
hot-blooded shootist called Chico all
ethnicities melt together in the
watery lands of celluloid desire

impassive Jocko Burnish
indifferent in coral, fresh
aquatic feminine coral, doesn’t
give a shit creates the super-flinty-cool
“James Coburn” whose gun rarely
stays in its holster but movie-morphs into a
knife that Britt wields in the movie one
mortal metal cock is much like any other

Yuri might be the leader, but Stevie (with his white-blond hair, stud earrings, and  hyper-ripped body, plus that haughty stare) is the focus of the group portrait. Here he is displaying his (completely smooth-shaven) body for us, alongside a crudely symbolic lion’s-mouth fountain:

(#2)

Background note: The Magnificent Seven. From Wikipedia:

The Magnificent Seven is a 1960 American Western film directed by John Sturges and starring Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter, James Coburn and Horst Buchholz. The film is an Old West–style remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 Japanese film Seven Samurai. Brynner, McQueen, Bronson, Vaughn, Dexter, Coburn and Buchholz portray the title characters, a group of seven gunfighters hired to protect a small village in Mexico from a group of marauding bandits (whose leader is played by Wallach)

Background note: Steve McQueen. Something of a maximal contrast in persona to Stevie Molleen, so that having Stevie be the creator of the “Steve McQueen” character is especially delicious. From Wikipedia about the celebrity that Stevie constructed:

Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930 – November 7, 1980) was an American actor. McQueen was nicknamed “The King of Cool”, and his antihero persona developed at the height of the counterculture of the 1960s made him a top box-office draw during the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Sand Pebbles. His other popular films include The Cincinnati Kid, Love With the Proper Stranger, The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullitt, The Getaway, and Papillon, as well as the all-star ensemble films The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, and The Towering Inferno.

The early-life script that Stevie wrote for this character is gripping: a turbulent, violent childhood history, years in reform school, a series of rough jobs, the Marines, and a breakthrough in the role of bounty hunter Josh Randall on tv’s Wanted Dead or Alive (1958-61), a paragon of great masculine strength and great decency as well. A p.r. shot for the show:

(#3)

Stevie deveoped his “Steve McQueen” character off-screen, in a series of high-macho exploits (race cars and motorcycles, palling around with other high-masculinity celebrities). Shirtess on a motorcycle:

(#4)

(Note: McQueen had a lean body type, and kept in shape, but he looked naturally fit and not gym-ripped.)

More PUMP! news. Catching up on PUMP! WaterShorts led me to another remarkable line of homowear from the company: the Creamsicle line, in burnt orange and several styles:

(#4) Left to right: brief, jock, access trunk (backless), boxer

Archly queer ad copy for these items, for example:

Fatally masculine, the Creamsicle Brief is the kind of treat you simply can’t help but crave.

A creamy style with a tangy twist, the Creamsicle Access Trunk is everyone’s favorite flavor. …  retro styling that adds a bold and playful touch for when you’re (un)dressed to impress.

The Access Trunk up close, seen from the rear, as it was meant to be:

(#5)

Earlier on this blog: my posting of 10/17/18, “PUMP!ing it up”, on the Creamsicle access trunk, and on the Creamsicle — popsicle-ice frozen exterior, vanilla ice cream interior — originally in orange flavored ice (hence the color of PUMP!’s underwear line), though now in a variety of flavors:

(#6) Old original (orange) Creamsicles

Popsicles are, of course, classic phallic symbols (especially powerful symbolically because you put them in your mouth and suck on them and eat them), and when you add cream (slang for ‘semen’) to the name, you have Gay Delight. (If you like orange ice, as I do, even better.)

And, yes, there’s a National Creamsicle Day: August 14th.

Today’s Wayno/Piraro collabo, on the opposition of hospitality and animosity, which I take to be an homage to Terry Jones (of Monty Python’s Flying Circus), who was released from life’s afflictions three days ago:

(#1) (If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 7 in this strip — see this Page.)

Wayno’s title for the cartoon is “Putdown Service”, a play on turndown service, and that‘s an allusion to the hospitality industry.

(As far as I can tell, there is no organized enterprise called the animosity industry, but the expression certainly is available for fresh metaphorical use — for reference to organizations promoting racism, anti-Semitism, and homophobia, groups for which hate industry is sometimes used, though that label now seems to have been pre-empted by far-right commentators to refer to groups organized to combat hate groups, like the Southern Poverty Law Center.)

The hospitality / animosity thing. To start with, from NOAD:

noun hospitality: the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers.

noun animosity: strong hostility: he no longer felt any animosity toward her | the animosity between the king and his brother | the five decided to put aside their animosities.

These are contrastive, but not quite opposites. The adjective hospitable has as possible opposites inhospitable and unwelcoming. These have no corresponding one-word noun versions, however, and the best we can do in that department would seem to be unfriendliness, which is too broad; animosity, on the other hand, while in the right neighborhood semantically, is too strong. But it will have to do.

But why hospitality? Back to NOAD for a domain-specific use of hospitality that will take us to a hotel:

adj. [that is, noun used as modifier] hospitality: relating to or denoting the business of housing or entertaining visitors: the hospitality industry.

And then Webster’s New World College Dictionary (5th ed.) gets us to a hotel and a conventionalized highly context-specific N + N compound:

noun hospitality suite: a suite or room, as in a hotel during a convention, rented by a corporation or organization as a place for potential clients or members to socialize, view sample products, etc.

Wayno’s play. In his title, Wayno has managed to put together animosity — as expressed in a put-down — and hospitality, in the turndown practice of the hospitality industry:

noun put-down: informal a remark intended to humiliate or criticize someone. (NOAD)

In the hospitality industry, turndown service refers to the practice of staff entering a guest’s room and “turning down” the bed linen of the bed in the room, preparing the bed for use. In multiple countries, an item of confectionery such as a chocolate or a mint is sometimes left on top of a pillow on the bed that has been turned down. (Wikipedia link)

This isn’t hospitality, this is animosity. You’re in the wrong room, buddy. In the original model: this isn’t argument, this is abuse.

They have rooms where you can pay for arguments by the minute? Rooms where you can buy lessons in being hit on the head? Well, there are hotel suites where organizations will offer you hospitality, maybe there are some where you can get animosity. The world of commercial practices is wide and multiform.

From the script of Monty Python’s Argument Clinic sketch, originally broadcast on 11/2/72:

Man [Michael Palin]: (Walks down the hall. Opens door.)

Angry man [Graham Chapman]: WHADDAYOU WANT?

Man: Well, Well, I was told outside that…

Angry man: DON’T GIVE ME THAT, YOU SNOTTY-FACED HEAP OF PARROT DROPPINGS!

Man: What?

A: SHUT YOUR FESTERING GOB, YOU TIT! YOUR TYPE MAKES ME PUKE! YOU VACUOUS TOFFEE-NOSED MALODOROUS PERVERT!!!

M: Yes, but I came here for an argument!!

A: OH! Oh! I’m sorry! This is abuse!

M: Oh! Oh I see!

A: Aha! No, you want room 12A, next door.

John Cleese awaits in that room, to engage in pointless argument with Palin; Palin eventually leaves that room in frustration. Then, in rapid succession, from Wikipedia:

In the version as originally broadcast, Palin leaves for Eric Idle’s room to complain, only to have to listen to him ranting about his shoes; he moves on to Terry Jones’ room, where Jones hits him on the head with a large wooden mallet, and instructs him on how to properly receive the blow. Jones clarifies the room that Palin just entered does not house the complaints department, but “being-hit-on-the-head” lessons. Soon enough, Inspector Fox (Chapman) enters to arrest both of them for participating in a strange sketch. A second policeman, Inspector Thomson’s-Gazelle (Idle) then arrives to arrest the entire show on three counts: being overly self-referential, saying “[name] of the Yard?!” every time a policeman enters, and repeatedly getting out of sketches without a punchline by having a member of the forces arrest everybody. Inspector Thomson’s-Gazelle himself is arrested by a third policeman (Cleese) for the latter crime, who is then arrested in turn by a hand (presumably belonging to Terry Gilliam)

(Some discussion on this blog in my 3/19/10 posting “It all depends on your definition of …”)

Terry Jones. And then a little bit about Jones the Python, from Wikipedia:

(#2) Jones at work in 1974, in a script conference for the BBC’s Monty Python’s Flying Circus (Chris Ridley — Radio Times/Getty Images)

Terence Graham Parry Jones (1 February 1942 – 21 January 2020) was a Welsh actor, writer, comedian, screenwriter, film director and historian. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy team.

After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English, Jones and writing partner Michael Palin (whom he met at Oxford) wrote and performed for several high-profile British comedy programmes, including Do Not Adjust Your Setand The Frost Report, before creating Monty Python’s Flying Circus with Cambridge graduates Eric Idle, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, and American animator/filmmaker Terry Gilliam. Jones was largely responsible for the programme’s innovative, surreal structure, in which sketches flowed from one to the next without the use of punchlines. He made his directorial debut with the team’s film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which he co-directed with Gilliam, and also directed the subsequent Python films Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.

… Jones wrote books and presented television documentaries on medieval and ancient history [notably on Geoffrey Chaucer].

… After living for several years with a degenerative aphasia [first diagnosed in 2015], he gradually lost the ability to speak and died on 21 January 2020 from frontotemporal dementia.

Smile in his memory. (Or risk being repeatedly hit in the head in the animosity suite.)