Queer Literature

Read:

The City and the Pillar - Gore Vidal
A Single Man - Christopher Isherwood
Bertram Cope's Year -
Without You - Anthony Rapp
Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin
Distinguished Air - Robert McAlmon
The Laramie Project -
Angels in America - Tony Kushner
Stop Kiss -
The Normal Heart - Larry Kramer
The Destiny of Me - Larry Kramer
Next Fall -
A Gaggle of Saints - Neil Labute
I Am My Own Wife -
Gross Indecency -
A Language of Their Own -
Dark Fruit -
The Boys in the Band -
Torch Song Trilogy - Harvey Fierstein
Edward II - Christopher Marlowe
Some Men - Terrence McNally
Street Theatre - Doric Wilson
Pages from an Abandoned Journal - Gore Vidal
Borderlands - Eric Samuelson
Facing East - Carol Lynn Pearson
No More Goodbyes - Carol Lynn Pearson
The Children's Hour - Lillian Hellman
Magical Thinking - Augusten Burroughs
Possible Side Effects - Augusten Burroughs
Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
Naked - David Sedaris
Maurice - E.M. Forster


Need to Read:

Corpus Christi - Terrence McNally
Myra Breckinridge - Gore Vidal
Palimpsest - Gore Vidal
Christopher and His Kind - Christopher Isherwood
Berlin Stories - Christopher Isherwood
Rubyfruit Jungle - Rita Mae Brown
People in Trouble - Sarah Schulman
The Child - Sarah Schulman
Goodbye, I Love You - Carol Lynn Pearson
Orlando - Virginia Woolf
Kiss of the Spider Woman - Manuel Puig

Movies to see Draft

Goodbye Lenin!
Interview with a Vampire
Hideous Kinky
Holy Smoke
Ben-Hur
Spartacus
Dr. Strangelove
The Stepford Wives (1975)
The Wicker Man (1973)
Barry Lyndon
Lolita
Full Metal Jacket
Natural Born Killers
Reservoir Dogs
Memento
4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days

8 Goals to Reach Before Summer's End.

Watch all movies on movie list

Read all books on book list

Write 1st draft of screenplay

Drink Scotch

Get a Job

Reach a weight under 200 lbs.

Reach secret goal (20)

Me singing The Ladies Who Lunch drunk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbDRRtHl200

Top 25 Sondheim Songs

1. Being Alive - Company
2. No One is Alone - Into the Woods
3. Move On - Sunday in the Park with George
4. Something Just Broke - Assassins
5. No More - Into the Woods
6. Send in the Clowns - Company
7. I Know Things Now - Into the Woods
8. Giants in the Sky - Into the Woods
9. The Ladies Who Lunch - Company
10. Another National Anthem - Assassins
11. Another Hundred People - Company
12. The Ballad of Sweeney Todd (finale) - Sweeney Todd
13. Marry Me a Little - Company
14. Everything's Coming Up Roses - Gypsy
15. Finishing the Hat - Sunday in the Park with George
16. Anyone Can Whistle - Anyone Can Whistle

17. We Do Not Belong Together - Sunday in the Park with George

18. Side by Side by Side/What Would We Do Without You? - Company
19. It's Hot Up Here - Sunday in the Park with George

20. Green Finch and Linnet Bird - Sweeney Todd

21. Last Midnight - Into the Woods
22. The Ballad of Czolgosz - Assassins
23. Putting It Together - Sunday in the Park with George
24. Children and Art - Sunday in the Park with George
25. The Little Things You Do Together - Company
26. Getting Married Today - Company
27. You Gotta Get a Gimmick - Gypsy
28. Everybody Loves Louis - Sunday in the Park with George
29. The Ballad of Guiteau - Assassins
30. Sunday - Sunday in the Park with George

Sondheim songs top 10 list nominations

Everything's Coming Up Roses - Gypsy
You Gotta Get a Gimmick - Gypsy
Comedy Tonight - A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum
Anyone Can Whistle - Anyone Can Whistle
The Little Things You Do Together - Company
Another Hundred People - Company
Getting Married Today - Company
Marry Me a Little - Company
Side by Side by Side/What Would We Do Without You? - Company
The Ladies Who Lunch - Company
Being Alive - Company
Send in the Clowns - A Little Night Music
Green Finch and Linnet Bird - Sweeney Todd
A Little Priest - Sweeney Todd
By the Sea - Sweeney Todd
Not While I'm Around - Sweeney Todd
The Ballad of Sweeney Todd (finale) - Sweeney Todd
Everybody Loves Louis - Sunday in the Park with George
Finishing the Hat - Sunday in the Park with George
We Do Not Belong Together - Sunday in the Park with George
Sunday - Sunday in the Park with George
It's Hot Up Here - Sunday in the Park with George
Putting It Together - Sunday in the Park with George
Children and Art - Sunday in the Park with George
Move On - Sunday in the Park with George
I Know Things Now - Into the Woods
Giants in the Sky - Into the Woods
Last Midnight - Into the Woods
No More - Into the Woods
No One is Alone - Into the Woods
The Ballad of Czolgosz - Assassins
Another National Anthem - Assassins
The Ballad of Guiteau - Assassins
Something Just Broke - Assassins

Works of art I want to see during my upcoming trip to New York:

The Met
I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold by Charles Demuth
Portes de la Reine at Aigues-Mortes by Frederic Bazille
White Flag by Jasper Johns
Joan of Arc by Jules Bastien-Lepage
Adam and Eve by Albrecht Durer

The MoMA


The Whitney
A Distinguished Air by Charles Demuth

More to come

Academic books I want to own or read

Haskell, Barbara. Charles Demuth

Weinberg, Jonathan. Speaking for vice : homosexuality in the art of Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, and the first American avant-garde

Meyer, Richard. Outlaw Representation: Censorship and Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century American Art

Russo, Vito. The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies

"We need more dear, lot's, lot's more."

Top 10 of 2011

Honestly, it hasn't been the best year for movies in my opinion. Still, there were a few good ones. Here's a top ten list I just through together, I feel like I'm missing something, and there's still a few movies I should probably see before making this list. So, as is true of pretty much every year, think of this as a draft that could and will change, even if I don't actually publish it.

1. The Descendants
2. Beginners
3. The Muppets
4. The Artist
5. Midnight in Paris
6. Contagion
7. Carnage
8. Hugo
9. Certified Copy
10. Captain America

15 of my favorite movies from before I was born

In no particular order and fully admitting that I probably forgot a few, I felt like compiling a list of some of my favorite movies made before I was born. I'm happy to see that it's much more eclectic than I thought it was going to be when I got the idea.

The Graduate
Fame
A Clockwork Orange
Rope
All That Jazz
Harold and Maude
Sunset Boulevard
All About Eve
Ordinary People
Annie Hall
Vertigo
The Wizard of Oz
Clue
The Little Mermaid
The Breakfast Club

My Reading List (proposed finish date: August 31, 2012)

Christopher and His Kind by Christopher Isherwood

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

The Chosen by Chaim Potok

People in Trouble by Sarah Schulman

Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde

Maurice by E.M. Forster

Letters on Cezanne by Rainer Maria Rilke

A Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burroughs

Oscar Predictions:

Best Picture: The Artist

Best Director: Martin Scorsese, "Hugo"

Best Actor: Jean Dujardin, "The Artist"

Best Actress: Meryl Streep, "The Iron Lady"

Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, "Beginners"

Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain, "The Help"

Best Animated Feature Film: Rango

Best Foreign Film: A Seperation

Best Original Screenplay: The Artist

Best Adapted Screenplay: Hugo

Best Art Direction: Hugo

Best Costume Design: The Artist

Best Original Song: Man or Muppet, "The Muppets"

Best Documentary: Pina

Best Documentary (Short): Saving Face

Best Cinematography: Hugo

Best Film Editing: The Artist

Best Makeup: The Iron Lady

Best Sound Editing: Hugo

Best Sond Mixing: Hugo

Best Visual Effects: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Best Short Film (Animated): The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Best Short Film (Live Action): Pentecost

Why would anyone choose that life?

My response to Mel Sundquists tumblr thing...cause I don't know how to actually respond to it on tumblr

http://thepsychodelicate.tumblr.com/post/18111978988/so-within-my-itty-bitty-circle-ive-been-hearing#

First of all, I love being gay. I would never choose to be straight if I was magically given the opportunity. However I do understand where the argument comes from, and there is some truth in it. While I would choose to remain gay now, when I was first discovering my sexuality in my early teens, it was hard. It was a long journey, and given social pressures of what I should be compared with what I was, it was a deeply internal struggle. However much I value that struggle I went through now, if given the choice then, I certainly would not choose to add more confusion to my already confusing teenage life if just being straight like everyone else was an option. Basically, the argument is rooted in something that I think is legitimate and true, however I think that it gets used in a way that is very misleading. Being gay is awesome, especially if you can get past dealing with all the bigoted assholes.

Also, getting into the issue of whether or not it is a choice IS annoying. I didn't choose to be gay, I just am, but sexuality is more complex than that. It's not the same for everyone and sometimes it's more fluid, but that really doesn't matter.

2011 Oscar nominees currently available on DVD

A Better Life
Beginners
Bridesmaids
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II
Hell and Back Again (Also available on Netflix Instant Play)
The Help
The Ides of March
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (Also available on Netflix Instant Play
Jane Eyre
Kung Fu Panda 2
Margin Call
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
Rango
Real Steel
Rio
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
The Tree of Life
Warrior

Nomination Upsets I would love:

Best Picture:

Beginners
The Muppets
Contagion

Best Actress:

Jodie Foster - Carnage

Best Actor:

Daniel Radcliffe - Harry Potter (which I did actually predict)

Best Supporting Actress:

Kate Winslet - Carnage
Kate Winslet - Contagion

Best Original Screenplay:

The Muppets
Certified Copy

Best Picture predictions

This category's nominations are being done a little different this year, so I think it first deserves a bit of explanation. There can be anywhere from 5 to 10 nominations depending on the Academy's number 1 votes. In order for a movie to be nominated, it has to get at least 5% of the Academy's number 1 votes, after that their number 2, 3, and the rest of their votes are taken into account. So, for this category I will not only be predicting which movies will be nominated, but also how many movies will be nominated. Here goes nothing.

The first 5:

The Artist
The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris

If there's 6:
War Horse

If there's 7:
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

If there's 8:
Moneyball

If there's 9:
The Ides of March

If there's 10:
Drive

I'm predicting there will be 9 nominees. In other words, I don't think Drive will be part of that 9. However, if I'm wrong and there's 10, I think it will be number 10.

Best Direction

Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris
Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Alexander Payne - The Descendants
Martin Scorsese - Hugo
Steven Spielberg - War Horse

Best Actress predictions

Glenn Close - Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis - The Help
Elizabeth Olsen - Martha Marcy May Marlene
Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams - My Week With Marilyn

Best Actor predictions

George Clooney - The Descendants
Jean Dujardin - The Artist
Michael Fassbender - Shame
Brad Pitt - Moneyball
Daniel Radcliffe - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II

Every year, I usually go out on a limb at least once. Daniel Radcliffe almost definitely won't be nominated, but I genuinely believe he deserves to be.

Best Makeup Design predictions

The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II
The Iron Lady

Best Song prediction

If there is three:

Life's a Happy Song - The Muppets
Lay Your Head Down - Albert Nobbs
The Living Proof - The Help

If there is five:

Hello Hello - Gnomeo and Juliet
Pictures in My Head - The Muppets

Best Art Direction predictions

The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II
Hugo
Tree of Life
War Horse

Best Original Screenplay predictions

50/50
The Artist
Beginners
Bridesmaids
Midnight in Paris

Best Supporting Actor Predictions

Kenneth Branagh - My Week With Marilyn
Jonah Hill - Moneyball
Nick Nolte - Warrior
Christopher Plummer - Beginners
Christoph Waltz - Carnage

Best Animated Feature predictions

If there's three nominations:

The Adventures of Tintin
Rango
Rio

If there's another two:

Cars 2
Kung-fu Panda 2

Best Costume Design predictions

The Artist
Captain America
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris

Best Cinematography Predictions

The Artist
Hugo
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tree of Life
War Horse

Best Adapted Screenplay Predictions

The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
Moneyball
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Best Supporting Actress Nomination Predictions

Berenice Bejo - The Artist
Jessica Chastain - The Help
Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer - The Help
Shailene Woodley - The Descendants

Oscar Categories for which I will be predicting the nominees:

Today I am predicting which people and movies will be nominated for Academy Awards tomorrow morning. I'll be creating blog posts for individual categories (links will be posted on twitter). As much as I'd like to predict nominees for all categories, there are some that I'm just not well informed enough to do (Shorts, Foreign, Sound, etc.). These are the categories I will be predicting by midnight tonight:

Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actress
Best Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Original Screenplay
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Animated Feature
Best Art Direction
Best Cinematography
Best Costume Design
Best Original Score
Best Make-up Design
Best Original Song