William S. Burroughs: A Man Within; this documentary about the incendiary “Beat” writer illuminates the man and his contributions to American culture. I recently read Naked Lunch, after many starts and stops because I just couldn’t take that much information at once. I then read Queer, and am looking forward to Junky. Burroughs has inspired …
Picture Cigarettes
I “quit” smoking almost six weeks ago. I say “quit” like that because quit without the quotation marks gives the impression of finality and totality I can’t really claim. I have smoked cigarettes since then. The next step back I’d like to claim is that I haven’t bought cigarettes since then, but that’s not true …
Better vs Better
Dan Savage’s YouTube channel ‘It Gets Better’ invited a flood of video uploads that keep coming. In these two-minute to 15-minute videos, people from all walks of life—celebrities, politicians, activists, baristas, and librarians—promise all the bullied, isolated, struggling young queers throughout the country that their life will get better. The videos come as a response …
Castro Land
My first paying job in San Francisco was as a freelance videographer. The Stop AIDS Project, a local non-profit, hired me to produce a series of web videos. The series was called PRIME; the videos featured different participants, gay men over the age of thirty, who discussed in what areas of their life they felt …
Score On Four
In the seminal 1984 film Parting Glances, Nick (played by Steve Buscemi, in an unforgettable performance), a gay man living with AIDS, classically sums up the problem of so many gay men’s relationships: NICK: You know the difference between gay guys and straight guys? MICHAEL: I forget NICK: There isn’t any. That is the scary …