Category Archives: Entertainment

musings about film, television, music and other things entertaining… or not

Chasing After Straight Boys: Downton Abbey’s non-doubting Thomas

My totally biased, non-professional and likely hugely flawed – yet fun – psychological reading of the character of Thomas Barrow (played by actor Rob-James Collier) on Downton Abbey.

SPOILERS, perhaps, if you haven’t seen all of Season 3 of the show, so don’t read. Unless. You need to know. Minor plot things.

Guess I’m majorly fascinated by a portrayal of a character, a male who is sexually and emotionally attracted to other males, in a land before time had invented homosexuals or gay people.

Of course, I don’t mean that same-sex attraction wasn’t around then, it was. It always has been and always will be. But there weren’t the cultural conventions we have now, or the language we have now, to describe these things. In Thomas Barrow’s time (on the show so far, roughly the years 1912-1921), there was no such thing as a “gay man” or a “gay community.” These things came later, and in the particular understanding we have now of them, not until after WWII (though there were beginnings of a strong gay life in Berlin later in the 1920s, until the Nazis destroyed it, and the English had their own fey traditions and languages [polari]).

So there we have Thomas, this man with homosexual tendencies without a country of his own in a hostile environment. Can you imagine how lonely that must have been? No wonder he’s been portrayed as both someone who desperately needs approval as well as a likely rival to Machiavelli.

With his usual partner-in-crime, Miss Sarah O’Brien (played by Siobhan Finneran) Thomas is at the forefront of not only class warfare with the Granthams, but also the masters of dirty tricks and deceit among the rest of the downstairs staff.

I have to admit that at first I didn’t like this portrayal of “the gay” on the show. I thought it was negative, to show the man as so nasty just because he wasn’t getting laid. (Can’t blame Thomas for thinking that the Turkish diplomat Kemal Pemuk in Season 1 was also enchanted, I mean, he did have those good manners and nice shiny black hair and all – but as we all know, lusting after men with weak hearts just isn’t smart).

Do you suffer from erectile dysfunction or impotence? Erectile dysfunction is an issue caused price for levitra due to unwanted case of penile erection. Left online levitra untreated, major organs can be seriously affected. Poorly controlled blood sugar levels cause damage to canada viagra cialis http://davidfraymusic.com/2017/02/ the blood vessels. Eat Healthy- Eating foods rich in whole grains, fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products can help lower your blood sugar levels in no time. levitra properien And then now, here in Season 3, after heroically, if a bit megalomaniacally serving the Crown in WWI in Season 2, here he is again chasing after straight boys – this time, the new footman Jimmy (actor Ed Speleers) – who just happens to be Miss O’Brien’s nephew.

So there is a point to all this. A modern, liberated gay man does not chase after straight boys – there is no future to this. But the absolutely perfect note here is, that this, is not a modern gay man. This is a rudderless character in 1921. So it is authentic.

My thought is even though it’s so totally NOT liberated, however, it IS totally accurate for the time. So even though Thomas was so thoroughly rejected by Jimmy when he sneaks into his room that night – it makes sense for his character to still be enthralled and to follow him around – kind of like a puppy dog, maybe hoping that the evidence of rejection was not true (after all, the evil Miss O’Brien has insisted that Jimmy is interested in Thomas, further confusing the issue). That Thomas will accept not only the beating he takes to spare his friend but also then accepts a platonic friendship from his bandaged recovery bed – when that’s not what he really really wants – that does make sense in this time of self-loathing. So I think that Julian Fellowes got it right here, and a more modern reading of the situation would have been dishonest.

Finally, I did like the protectors who come to Thomas’ defense on the show, esp. Lord Grantham, but also Mr. Bates and finally Jimmy himself, who offered his friendship to Thomas. I also found that believable, as they do present the universe of Downton Abbey as united, us against the world.

Knowing Thomas as we do, I bet there’s more to come in Season 4. Will true love find him, and will he become a kindler, gentler man? One can hope for the love but want to preserve the nastiness (please!).

The Strange Case of Assumed Heterosexuality in Background Actor Work

a quick self-pic requested of me awhile back for a stand-in role; alas, I was not chosen.

The blogger taking a quick self-pic requested awhile back for a
stand-in role; alas, I was not chosen.

Yet again the other day I did a background actor (aka “extra”) job on an enormous hit show (which I won’t mention because I’ll never work in this town again if I do).

And yet once again when I was there on set I was paired with a nice older lady who’d be my “wife” for the day.

This has happened (this kind of pairing) on numerous jobs. The expectation that you’d be part of a heterosexual couple. And along with that, the implicit denial that there’d ever be homosexual couples (as in, it would be just as easy for the AD troops to pair up same-sex extras as it is to pair up opposite-sex ones) in the background of any scene.

I can’t really blame the often famous and lavishly decorated writers/producers/creators of these shows, who often may even have significant LGBT characters or romances in the principal storylines.

It’s usually the ADs (assistant directors) who devise the background blocking, if any, and put the extras at their locations in the set and give them actions to do. Most of these are guys (some women too, but mostly men) in their 20s who probably can work 18 hours straight without complaining; perhaps these pairings are the most expeditious or what they think their bosses would want. Surely, say, if the “location” were a hospital emergency room waiting area, there’d be groupings of all varieties, including gay couples or families.
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Right? I still remember my favorite remark during pairing-up, when on one show I was coupled with a nice looking woman about half my age. “You got a young one,” this (older) lady said to me, with a sly, heavily mascara’d wink. You’re right, honey, I did! Next time, let’s try a young guy with dark eyes and some stubble. Then we’d be talking.

Links for those who want to do this:

Central Casting

Commercial Extras

Palm Springs Film Fest 2013 – What I Saw!

Three films I saw at the Palm Springs International Film Festival 2013 with gay male-related content – and my short reactions to them!** There are mild spoilers. Pls. don’t read if you don’t want to be informed.

I Do

[youtube]http://youtu.be/HzJKp-BX4oo[/youtube]

“I Do” poses the question about what an attractive gay man must do if he’s to stay in the U.S. and get his green card once his visa extension has been denied. An interesting set-up where the man in question, Jack, (David W. Ross) has also been helping a female relative raise a young girl, which is given as the main reason he wants to stay in New York. (Honestly, thoughout the film, I’m thinking, who really would want to stay in such a hateful country with such antiquated rules and with no acknowledgment of GLBT relationships, etc., but I digress – but honey, I would be on the first plane out.)

So Jack marries his lesbian pal (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) who you know best as Meadow Soprano and less best as Turtle’s girlfriend in a season or two of Entourage. Needless to say, there are complications, not the least of which is the appearance of a serious but Euro-handsome Spaniard named Mano. So Jack is left to make some pretty important decisions about his future, and along with “Any Day Now” (below) I think the filmmaker Glenn Gaylord (and Ross as the writer) made the less obvious choice, and I like that. Also, of the three movies, Jack has the least gay-stereotypical day job, in that he’s a hardworking photo-assistant type who longs to be a photographer in his own right, as opposed to (see below) working in a porno shop (Beyond the Walls) or being a drag performer (Any Day Now).

Beyond the Walls

[youtube]http://youtu.be/yT94GR_sYNQ[/youtube]

Okay, I’ve lived this movie. Not literally, but I’ve sure been the one who, at the beginning of a relationship, is not terribly interested, then becomes totally invested once the object of affection moves on. This film, about two gay men in Paris (Matila Malliarakis, Guillaume Gouix) by David Lambert felt real to me. I mean that in the sense that it was authentically about gay male relationships as I’ve known them throughout my life. From the instant, alcohol-fueled attraction, through the fantasmagorical lust phase, through the settling out of whether or not there is actually going to be a possibility of something lasting. To be honest, I really enjoyed that the younger character (Guillaume) seemed to want an older partner (hello, daddy!). Specifics are unique to this film and not my life, thank goodness, as they involve prison and drugs and melted candle wax (ouch). Well worth seeing, I didn’t think I’d like it as much as I did. And, of course, it’s set in Paris, which gives it some at-the-outset romance.

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Any Day Now

[youtube]http://youtu.be/7ghwGOuuNy0[/youtube]

Honestly, I do believe that 50-75% of straight America must think that all gay men possess this marvelous knack for dresses, makeup and drag performing – if the characters you see in gay movie after gay movie are to be believed! I don’t have that talent, but I do know some men in L.A. who do – but out of literally hundreds of acquaintances, I could probably count this bunch on one hand.

Okay. But we do know colorful, feisty characters are good for movies, and so it is with “Any Day Now,” where Alan Cumming plays the aforementioned Rudy. He’s hooked it up with idealistic lawyer Garret Dillahunt, and together they embark on a journey to adopt a neighbor boy with Down’s Syndrome, a boy (Marco) who’s abused by his drug addict mother and her male friends.

I found the movie (which is a period piece set in the late 1970s) tremendously entertaining, the set-up guaranteed to pull at your heartstrings, and I do give credit to the filmmaker Travis Fine who took us in some very unexpected directions.

** what, no snarky comments about these movies? What’s happened to you? Well, full disclosure, I work a temp gig with the Festival, so thought I’d not bite the hand that feeds. Plus, I have nothing but happy things to say about these 3 films. So STFU.

Stars on the Hollywood Boulevard Sidewalk

Well, when you clicked on this and thought you were going to see stars, I bet this is not exactly what you were expecting!

These stars are indeed stenciled into the pavement on Hollywood Boulevard, near the corner of Wilton on the north side of the street. About a mile or so to the east of where those Other Stars are.
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I guess I’ve come across most of these, well really, all of them. I was going to say I had no experience with silicone and it’s true there’s none that I know of in my body, but certainly I’ve met many, many women who have lots of it.

So I see these stenciled stars often when I walk to one of the coffeehouses I habitually write in (Sabor y Cultura). I don’t know the artist responsible – if you do let me know and I will credit them here.

Some disgruntled ne-er-do-well – not really, as this pretty much does sum up quite a bit of the entertainment industry ethos in a few short word-associations.

I’m sure loving the graphic of the cracked handmirror and especially the jackboot about to be applied to the Little Person’s head!

If you were to make your own Hollywood Star stencil project, what would the captions be?

Loved “Blank City,” giving perspective to 1980s indie film movement

Really enjoyed Celine Danhier’s documentary “Blank City,” an attempt to chronicle and contextualize the New York independent film scene/punk film scene of the early 1980s.

Often when I go to New York these days it seems like it’s a city full of Starbucks coffeehouses and Duane Reade drugstores on every corner; it seems to have lost most of that edginess – or at least surprise – we’ve come to hope to expect.

In the NYC of “Blank City,” that current New York of Giuliani-Bloomberg and Wall Street is nowhere to be found. Danhier’s film applies the context necessary to understand this explosion of the avant-garde and how it was possible: the near bankruptcy of the city in the 1970s; the collapsing infrastructure of certain neighborhoods, notably the East Village; the anarchy that arises when an underground economy (along with the drug trade) takes over the streets.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/qjzRPRBQngo[/youtube]

Jonathan water filter shower is also armed with a raindogscine.com levitra 5mg two-stage filter system. It free viagra online is easy to get Kamagra from the any of the fat present in the Acai berry. You will sleep generic viagra wholesale better at night knowing that you will perform the way you need to remove the grille with care, so that the fan attached to the grille is in intact condition and no wire comes out. When your thyroid is active, your metabolism are expected to slow down and you may need to dig purchasing viagra in canada deeper to find a cause. If you can colonize an abandoned tenement building and basically get free rent and utilities, this might very well be a young, burgeoning artist’s dream scenario. Anyway, it seems to have worked for a number of people chronicled here, including actor Steve Buscemi, “Blondie” Deborah Harry, gay writer/artist/filmmaker/activist David Wojnarowicz, filmmakers Jim Jarmusch, John Waters, Amos Poe, Nick Zedd, and many others.

These days when the relentless consumerist march is to commodify absolutely everything, the stories of the films these people managed to make on next to nothing are pretty spectacular – especially when you stop and realize this was in the days long before digital, when there were no cell phones that doubled as video cameras and there was no YouTube or iMovie or countless other technologies (including crowdfunding!) that we take for granted now.

This film and these factors immediately reminded me of the effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans and the artistic scene we’re seeing there – a certain lawlessness and destruction, combined with the ability to live very cheaply, opens up all manner of channels for artistic expression – for those young enough (or young-at-heart enough) and smart enough to take advantage of a fertile, and hopeful, situation.

NYC’s Independent Feature Project

Fun Fridays: Lurid Digs

Was looking at my draft posts and I’ve got your things on unemployment over 50 (as in 50 years of age), a film I wanted to talk about (Blank City), some kind of essay on the whole subject of tricking over the internet and mobile devices, and it all seemed so serious (I will get to these subjects eventually).

On a Friday afternoon no one wants to read anything serious, even those of us who are self-employed, part-time workers, on the la-dee-da, what ever you call it, we still know and remember this.

No. We’d rather look at naked pictures, in this case, naked men. So today I offer up (all NSFW) Lurid Digs. This site is a companion to a gay porn portal, Nightcharm. The point with Lurid Digs is that it very appropriately squashes the stereotype that all gay men have an innate and finely tuned sense of interior design by showing and critiquing the backgrounds in nude photos guys use to try and hook up on the internet.
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So the key is to not only look at the photo, but to read the comments. The hilarious comments on the style and the look of the room. I only wish they were like some reality shows in that they had guest celebrity commentators. Wouldn’t you love to have Anderson Cooper or Neil Patrick Harris be the celebrity guest judge on occasion?

Happy Weekend Everyone. Remember, always be careful to edit what’s in the shot!

30 Shocking and Unexpected Google Street View Photos!

30 Shocking and Unexpected Google Street View Photos

That tiger took my parking space.

You’ve probably seen this. But then again, maybe not. It’s a collection of some pretty amazing and for me, truly frightening images caught from those google maps cams.

Most of them look like they’re not from the U.S., though some must be – like the one which includes a rare U.S. mailbox.
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I’m worried about that baby crawling around outside the Gucci with no adult in sight; I’m worried about the several men (but you notice never women) with pistols and rifles. I’m cheered by the audacity of the animals, from the magnificent animal with the antlers (what is it, an elk? reindeer?) to the poor doggie stuck in the fence, to the horse that’s beating up the ghost of Ted Kennedy, and yes to the tiger that’s in what looks like a strip mall parking lot. WTF? I mean, please, somebody, explain that to me. Where are tigers walking the streets? Please warn me, cause I don’t want to go there. I have enough issues with the mountain lion in my favorite park.

Tips on Social Media from Digital Hollywood

Graphic by Grapplica via Flickr

Had the opportunity for Jim Arnold Communications to attend the EPPS (Entertainment Publicists Professional Society) One Day Conference in conjunction with Digital Hollywood a while back (May, 2011) at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey.

Most of the panels I attended were on the how-to of social media marketing for entertainment products, to which I add the book category, because they are definitely entertaining!

Here are a few tips I gleaned from my day in Marina del Rey, in no particular order, re-posted from prior Jim Arnold Communications blog (and still very applicable one year later):

1) TIP: Many, if not most – or all – journalists are on Facebook and Twitter. Friend them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter. Good way to build a social media “media” list.

2) TIP: Use Twitter to find niche audiences – even more effective than Google – using hashtag (#) searches to find interests.

3) TIP: sometimes you can invite controversy on the web. For instance, if you know that there is some opposition to your book (or whatever product it is) this can be a good thing, as it stimulates a conversation, and as such, publicity.

4) TIP: Making your video go viral – what helps, though there is no universal formula – is the definite WTF factor. Also, when you need to bump up numbers a quick and sure way is to find something with cute, furry little animals (a winner every time!)

5) TRANSMEDIA definition: this is storytelling across different media – with each media type giving up something different – different information, different twist – about the story. If it’s the same message just going out on different media, that’s defined as MULTIMEDIA. The TV show “Lost” is a great example of an entertainment property that used Transmedia very successfully.

6) TIP: People are using Twitter for Customer Service requests, complaints, and recommendations – as in, trying to avoid phone trees and automated systems, people have found they get better and quicker results Tweeting about the problem.

7) OTHER GENERIC TIPS for Social Media:

Have a demographic you are trying to reach, rather than “everyone”
Think about the words you use in blog titles and tweets, as they show up in key word searches
Do optimize your links – that means, use links that are reputable and popular
Do have a strategy for your social media
For Twitter and Facebook, use separate accounts for business and for personal
Social media is about a conversation. Therefore, comment on replies/posts to your Facebook pages and respond to your tweets
Social media is also all about sharing information, so encourage it
Limit yourself to a single call for action in any particular post or tweet

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I hope these are helpful. I’m going to incorporate most of these into my own work ASAP! What are your best-working tips? Add them to the list in the comments.

New to SEO? Another good link.

Following the “3Fs” to Entertainment Industry Success – Seth Jaret

I had an opportunity last week to work for Sherwood Oaks College in timing story and script pitches writers were giving to agents, managers and producers.

Seth Jaret, of Content Engine and Jaret Entertainment, was one of the Hollywood insiders students pitched to. He also produces how-to “Drive and Talk” videos for his site as well as posts commentary about many aspects of the business.

What a great idea – how to use that drive time in the car – please don’t text, instead, talking and driving is safer as long as you don’t have to fiddle with the smartphone cam much! And productive, as you saw if you watched the video above.

I like how Seth edits the piece about secrets to entertainment industry success. I like the repetition of the three ideas and the joke about using the word “fucking” but bleeping it out. The way he presents the information is also classic: tell is what you’re going to tell us, tell us the info, then tell us what you just told us.

Even for people like me, with our challenged attention spans – and isn’t that everybody these days? – I really got what he said.

And, like he says, these three “Fs” are crucial. Probably not only in Hollywood, but certainly there. They are:

Follow through — if you promise somebody something, like sending off a treatment or script, do it. Don’t promise to do it if you can’t do it. It’s simple but people violate this all the time.

Follow Up — this one really struck a chord with me. Writers, well, most writers, I think, are introverted. They feel that if you’ve requested something they’ve written and then they’ve taken the time to actually send it off, that should be all that’s required. Continue reading →

California’s ‘first dog’ Sutter, a Media Sensation

photo, Robert Gauthier, Los Angeles Times

California’s ‘first dog’ gets official Web page (Video)!

Just for fun Tuesday: A few days ago I was writing about my memories of the LA Riots of 1992. Part of that memory is of my Welsh corgi Betty’s death, which coincided with the first day of the riots, April 29, 1992.

I’d heard about Sutter, California Governor Jerry Brown’s Welsh Pembroke Corgi, and I found this story about not only Sutter, but the video the Governor’s office made of the official California “First Dog.”

While some may grumble that the staff made this video while on the taxpayer dime, you won’t find me one of those malcontents! I hope I’d feel the same way if Governor Brown was of that other party, you know, the red, crabby, Neanderthal one. But he isn’t.

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I get a lot of confidence that this dog would not stick around if he thought anything was going down the tubes. It’s that wisdom in the innocence thing, is it not?

I go back and forth with the idea of getting another dog, corgi or something else, as I haven’t had one for 20 years and you know, that’s a really long time not to have a little pal by my feet as I write. Way past due, I will admit. The reasons for my hesitation have to do with being single and wanting to be able to travel at will, which you really can’t do with a dog. And, last time I boarded a dog, it didn’t go too well (though I don’t blame the vet for what happened).

A friend reminded me the other day what a good thing it is to rescue a dog from the inevitable euthanasia – and there are so many. He’s right. It is a good thing. It may even be closer than I think.