Letter Never Sent

Brokeback Mountain as slash fiction

From Steve Sailer’s heretical blog, Brokeback Mountain as slash fiction:

“Slash” is about 100% written and read by women — some lesbian but most straight. In fact it follows romance novel formulas very closely. One member of the buddy pair is more sensitive and feminine — physically a man, emotionally a woman — while the other is a conventional romance hero. With Kirk/Spock, it’s Kirk who’s the sensitive one and Spock who’s the cold, emotionally distant hero who discovers his true feelings at the end. Part of the appeal is that the guys end up having sex not because they’re gay, but because True Love conquers all.

Gay men aren’t any more interested in “slash” than straight men are in Georgette Heyer. [Who?] The real parallel to “slash” among straight men is girl-on-girl pornography, where women combine ultra-feminine bodies with implausibly guy-like appetites for casual sex. Presumably these women inhabit the same male fantasy land where hot babes are interested in cool guy stuff, like martial arts and field-stripping automatic weapons, instead of boring girl stuff, like relationships and feelings (whatever those are).

Both slash and girl-girl porn tell us a lot (maybe more than we’d like to know) about the chasm between male and female sexuality. but, apart from the physical activities, they have nothing to do with real homosexuality. It’s funny how many reviewers are so clueless about human sexuality they can’t figure stuff like this out.

General / Media — 1 comment
14
Feb 06

Liberace was an alien from outer space

…with hotpants. As far as I know, this is a real photo. Liberace had a huge following among middle aged women, which is completely inexplicable. Why do older women love flamboyant, closeted gay men? Clay Aiken probably has a similar following.

asides — Comments Off
14
Feb 06

The memory leak is the main problem with Firefox

Ben Goodger on the irritating Firefox memory leak: “What I think many people are talking about however with Firefox 1.5 is not really a memory leak at all. It is in fact a feature.” Bugs as design features. Sounds familiar.

Society — Comments Off
14
Feb 06

Brokeback chant

Shelus sent me this funny item:

Fans of No. 5 Gonzaga have been asked to stop yelling “Brokeback Mountain” at opposing players.

The reference to the recent movie about homosexual cowboys was chanted by some fans during Monday’s game against Saint Mary’s, and is apparently intended to suggest an opposing player is gay.

The chants were the subject of several classroom discussions over the past week, and the faculty advisers for the Kennel Club booster group urged students this week to avoid “inappropriate chants” during the Bulldogs’ Saturday game against Stanford, which was nationally televised on ESPN.

Media / Society / Software / Internet — 1 comment
13
Feb 06

Jigglypuff on American Idol

American Idol in Austin…

Film and motion pictures — Comments Off
10
Feb 06

Caché

Jody and I went out for dinner and a movie last night after work. We stopped off at Campisi’s Egyptian, a good Italian restaurant here in Dallas with good food and great atmosphere. I just read on their website that Jack Ruby ate dinner at Campisi’s the night before he shot Lee Harvey Oswald. Campisi’s is the kind of place where you see nicely dressed old couples who look like they have been coming back for a while. My favorite feature: coatrack attached to every booth. I had spaghetti and meatballs, although in this case it was meatball. The plate came piled with a ball of spaghetti and the marinara sauce was sweet and fresh. I almost had to use the garlic toast to cancel out the sweetness.

After dinner, we crossed Mockingbird Lane to stop over at the Angelika to see Caché, a French film about a couple who are being secretly filmed and provoked with these mysterious recordings. It’s a movie where you have to pay close attention. Unlike what we’re accustomed to from Hollywood, it doesn’t pre-digest the ideas or plot for you. You really have to observe and think about it. After the movie, in fact, this older gentleman kept asking people as they were leaving if they “got it” in the hopes that they would give him “the answer”. I’m glad he didn’t ask me because it seems almost a violation to ruin that sense of mystery with an inarticulation of your own sense of meaning, even though I’m sure he could have come up with his own interpretation had he just thought about what he had seen. That’s not to say that the film tries to be incomprehensible because it doesn’t, however it’s very much an examplar of the “show don’t tell” school of film-making. It is worth seeing.

Media — Comments Off
10
Feb 06

Blogs I love

Sometimes I really need a break from reading about all the technology-related prognostication and navel-gazing. Here are a few antidotes to the usual fare:

WWTDD: What would Tyler Durden do:

I don’t know how much unicorn blood they pump into her [Terri Hatcher] on the set of ‘Desperate Housewives’ to make her look human for a few hours, but think about it, when was the last time you saw a unicorn? Exactly.

Clublife:

“I heard,” I say, “that you went cliff diving, but when you dove, your lat spread flared out so wide that you took flight, and glided out to sea, and they had to send a Mexican Coast Guard boat five miles offshore to pick you up.”

Business / General — Comments Off
07
Feb 06

Start saving now

Please read this. Very interesting numbers coming out, indicative of inflation and potential recession. Pay down your debts, start saving at least 10% per check, cut up the credit cards:

The government reported last week that consumers last year spent all they earned and then some, pushing the personal savings rate into negative territory at minus 0.5 percent.

The savings rate has only been negative for a full year twice before, in 1932 and 1933, when Americans were struggling with huge job layoffs during the Great Depression.

The Fed report showed that the increase last year in credit card debt and other types of revolving credit was just 2.6 percent, the smallest in 23 years.

Analysts said some of that slowdown reflected that fact that Americans have stepped up borrowing through home equity loans rather than increasing credit card debt.

The increase in auto loans and other types of nonrevolving debt was 3.2 percent last year, the smallest rise since a decline of 1.24 percent in 1992.

For December, credit card debt and other revolving debt fell by 1.4 percent at an annual rate while auto loans and other types of nonrevolving debt rose at a rate of 3.8 percent, reflecting a rebound in auto sales during the month.

The 1.9 percent rate of growth in consumer credit for December translated into an annual increase of $3.35 billion, pushing total consumer debt to an annual level of $2.161 trillion.

That was slightly below the all-time high of $2.164 trillion set in September, a level that reflected large car sales during the summer months as automakers offered attractive sales incentives.

Society — Comments Off
30
Jan 06

Cultural Contributions of “Brokeback Mountain”

I have heard these used in the wild.

brokeback – adj. Informal neologism meaning characterized by homosexuality. Usage: “Dude, Clay Aiken is so brokeback, it’s painful.” I first heard this one on one of the local hip hop radio stations, although I forget the context.

“I wish I could quit you…” – Humorous non-sequitur. Inject it into serious discussion for maximum effect. First spotted by Phillip on Fark.com.

General — Comments Off
30
Jan 06

Upcoming films

These look good:

1. Devil And Daniel Johnston. A film about the eccentric but genuine Daniel Johnston. This should be a great film. DJ has unknowingly played a small but important role in my own life, from his “Hi, how are you?” mural on The Drag near where I once lived to his amazing show at the Cactus Cafe where he played a heart-and-audience-stirring rendition of the Beatles’ “You’ve got to hide your love away”. He’s completely unique and proves the idea that heart and honesty are the most essential aspects of artistry.

2. V for Vendetta. Alan Moore’s dystopian terrorist hero on the big screen. Produced by the Matrix brothers whose name I don’t feel like trying to spell. I like the tagline “Freedom! Forever.”

3. Superman Returns. Superman. Returns. That’s all you need to know.

Letter Never Sent Tell me when to go.