Hot, smart & homo

Rupert Everett is way smarter than anyone has ever given him credit for. Read this interview, and you'll understand what I mean:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jul/17/g2-interview-rupert-everett

After reading the interview, you may also agree with my claim that Everett indeed seems smarter than the journalist interviewing him, and to understand my following statement:

Some people are very concerned with the labels "homosexual", "heterosexual" and "bisexual". Most people are very clearly defined as one or the other or the third, and some people seem to think that these labels also define the rest of your personality. That they define what you can do as an actor. Or what kind of ideas you can understand. Or what kind of ways you relate or are able to relate to other people.

What the most-preoccupied-with-labels-type of people tend to forget are that there are so many things not defined by a label. Individual features always matter more than group identities. There are the people who are simply sexual. There are the people who are simply people. And then, of course, there are the people who do not know what they are, sexually or personally, and who prefer to use their identity labels as identities. It's easier. It's a great deal easier, because if you do, you don't have to define or to front a real personality. And to define and to front a real personality? Well. Even if you do, you will sometimes be seen as one of the group more than one of your own.

Carry on, baby

Extremely busy on all accounts, this week, lots to post about, but it will have to wait.

But this one, as I am travelling for the time being, I couldn't help myself from noticing:

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/07/you_know_that_thing_youre_afra.html

Or to comment on, expanded here, from what I said on NY Mag:

So maybe all those movie stars claiming that their sex tapes "accidentally" got out are telling the truth after all. Airport employees find them when they open their luggage & log on their why-on-earth-not-carried-on and why-on-earth-not-protected-by-passwords laptops... And whoopsy daisy, there's this compromising thing showing star X at his/her hottest, something that always happens to happen at a time when a career is on the rise, but can need an extra little attention to peak, or, alternatively, so very rapidly on its way down an extra little attention is not just needed, but needed DESPERATELY.

Interesting question on the same note: What should I do when I am travelling with a vibrator? (Not an entirely hypothetical thing...) Carry it through security to have it shown off to the line when X-rayed and asked stuff like "what is this thing?" or "does this really need batteries to work?" or put it in your checked luggage not to be sure where it's been or what it's done when you unpack?

PS: On the tags on this post, today's luggage tags: "Things I love" refer to movie star tapes & vibrators & travelling. "Things I hate" refer to snooping. In case anyone wondered.

On Michael and the rest of us

The NYMag Vulture discussion on Michael Jackson’s death and memorial has somewhat developed into a discussion on black and white.

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/07/mj_memorial.html

I do not refer to the MJ song by the same name, but to people saying things like “I can’t stand f***in white people” and “Most of you are mad that a BLACK man (that’s right I said a BLACK man) can get this type of tribute” on one side, and “this freak should have been put down years ago” on the other side. Some of you may fail to see the racial in the latter sentence, but as it was written by a person calling himself “White35”, the quote has a somewhat different air and a more bigot undertone than a name like, say, “IHatePedos” would have implied.

I don’t think it should be necessary to point out what I just did on the same board. But obviously, the following is not clear to everyone, and it can’t hurt repeating it here. Some of you will think this is so self-evident it’s unnecessary to say it. I love you for that, but I still think it's important to make it clear this is our point of view. It deals with humanity, and the right to own humanity is and should always be the human right topping the list. The headline for the rest of them, or the groundwork, if you will.

The “you” I am referring to in the below, is the original poster dissing whites:

Generalizations about/hatred towards white people are no less racist than white hatred/generalizations. We're different, too, you know, different values, different viewpoints. All people are individuals, whatever origin. There are white scum and black scum and white goodness and black goodness. Most often, pardon the pun, it's not as black'n'white as many people, either hue, pretend. Grey zones aplenty, and it doesn't go with the skin color, goes with the personality.

I say that, and I wholeheartedly mean it, but I am by no means ignorant of the fact that culture matters in shaping personalities, and that black culture/communities have suffered way more under white racism than the other way around. White people were never slaves under black ownership in this country. White people do not still suffer under different socio-economic dynamics. I think you're entitled to be angry for that, I am, I find it most unfair. But don't you be mad at those of us who've never made ourselves guilty of that particular sin.

Do not put all of us under the white supremacy umbrella.

Most of the white people I know do not belong under it, just like most of the black people I know do not accept black racism towards white people. Being in doubt of the moral character of a person repeatedly accused of the same disgusting crime does not make anyone a racist. Let's just remember that.

We're all people, and every generalization is as much a lie as a truth. Except for this one, of course: Whoever fails to realize the truth in what I just said is an idiot.

Self-distraction at work

Fabulous Rebecca Rose has put a very important issue on today's curriculum: Hot dudes allowing themselves to let go. For women who regard their work outs as sacred (ok, that goes for me, not so sure about RR) this is a crime of the most severe variety.

http://rebeccarose2004.blogspot.com/2009/06/hot-guys-i-want-to-d-oh-no-not-again.html

To punish the guys in question and make up for the crime to the victims (drooling women, that is, represented by yours truly and mentioned RR plus a whole load of others, I am sure), I suggest a world-wide internet campaign for a 2010 remake of the Top Gun movie. Female bloggers, unite! Or let us at least campaign for a 2009 remake of the volleyball scene, which is, come to think of it, the only part of Top Gun I have bothered to see more than twice anyway... Ok. Drop the rest of the movie. Let's have a volleyball scene remake. And make it a more diverse one, to cater to our tastes. I suggest one Viking, one Black man, one Latino and one Asian, all representing the best of their ethnicity, and to make sure they'll do, I think I should pick the two former and let RR pick the two latter. And then Team Lady and Team RR can play volleyball for a couple of hours straight. Ah, if straight women ruled Hollywood...

Hm. In role of the Viking I suggest Swedish actor Mikael Persbrandt, Norwegian actor Aksel Hennie (he just have to put on some more muscle first) or, if he agrees to grow back his Lord-of-the-Rings hair and beard and associated muscle strength, Viggo Mortensen. Alternatively, we could let Viking blood be Viking blood and go for Daniel Craig. (With those eyes, I am sure he’s got some genes from the other side of the Northern Sea anyway.) Eric Dane, if not a Dane for real, probably would be a good choice, too. Idris Elba could be his sparring partner. Or Tyson Beckford. Tyrese Gibson would be perfect. Or Isaiah Washington, or Dulé Hill, or Chiwetel Ejiofor, or D.L. Hughley, or Shemar Moore, or Blair Underwood, though I wish I had thought of that before that eye operation of his. Plastic surgery does not make a man more of a man, dear - you'd be better looking if you let yourself mature the way you're meant to. But that does not, by any means, allow you to go the Val Kilmer route!!!

Cats and dogs and Sonia Sotomayor

Some people, not known for their racial sensibilities, now claim Sonia Sotomayor is a racist. A «new racist», they call it, to make sure their audience will understand her background is different from the «old racist»’s.
She once said: «I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white man who hasn’t lived that life».
As those of us being experienced in reading now can tell, Sotomayor spoke about the value of a diverse life experience. She did not value people of one ethnic background higher than another. That the «certain people» I am talking about fail to understand the truth in this, or that they choose to twist it their way, does not make our new Bronx born hero a racist. It rather proves her point, and it shows «old racism» is still alive and kicking.

Let me put it this way: Of course an underdog is more street smart than a house cat. Only the house cat can fail to see the truth in this. True, it is not as if house cats do not have a certain knowledge of their own. They know where the milk is kept. They know how to purr to get it. But one does not need to be an underdog to hope that the new home owner will dole out the milk in a more just manner than the last. Sure, for himself, he does not regard pedigree the same way as the one who just moved out, but this gentleman, too, will have to consider what the neighbors think, or he will be forced to move again.

Sonia Sotomayor is a street dog having been accepted within the house. House needs a new watch dog, and she can do the job. She’s among the lucky few and she knows it. But she has not gotten her own food bowl yet. The house cats show their claws, scratch and scream and try kicking her out in the cold. They’d rather have a lapdog doing the service the way they direct him to. Let’s hope their meowing won’t keep the home’s family up at night. Owner needs to stay calm to do his job to feed his family, cats and dogs included, and he should be able to focus his energy on that, rather than on silencing the cats’ complaints.

Me, I am an alley cat. I was born a house cat, with what they call the finest of pedigrees in the richest of houses. But I found my golden cage a bit too tight. I wanted to roam the world, and one of those days, I simply slipped out the back door. I was just a kitten, really, and luckily, they hadn’t started breeding on me yet. I easily adjusted to the alleys. I am fully aware I am among the privileged here too. My pedigree is visible. My manners are exquisite, but I know how to fight. I don’t have to resort to catching my own prey, but can eat the leftovers from the fancy restaurants, and the chefs will even stroke my back so I purr when I do it. I know, too, that if something should change, say, if one of my friends should knock me up, I could go back to the garage to deliver my offspring. Some house would most likely take me in if I wanted to, whatever reason. I don’t need to fear that exterminators will get to me, I know how to avoid them.
But, exterminators, and house cats: Don't you dare thinking, for even a second, that looking like you make me agree with you. I can assure you of this. I will kick and scream and scratch you with my claws, when you target one of my fellow animal friends. Keep this up, and you’ll have to watch your eyes and lick your wounds before you know it. And there are other cats like me in this world too, you know. When survival of the fittest rules, we’re a great deal stronger than you.