Shelter (2007)

Until the major studios decide to produce a major gay love story, they’ll remain the dominion of the independent circuit. I’ve seen many gay related films -mostly the staple of them, the coming out stories - and have listened to the director/writer/cast commentaries on the DVD’s. One of the many things that comes across is how quickly these films are shot, mostly in three weeks or less. So you hear the director bemoan missed coverage shots, filming in natural light and chasing the sun to complete them; single takes that they wished they could’ve re-done.

Its all about compromise in many of these small budgeted films.

Now most of these stories work, like Eating Out, Beautiful Thing, Edge of Seventeen, Trick, The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green and even to some extent, Another Gay Movie. But to be honest, there are many more that fail to capture the real relationship between the two male leads. It’s about sex, most of the time.

Shelter, written and directed by Jonah Markowitz, does try to correct this and, in my opinion, gives us a truly romantic gay love story without falling into the stereotypes that have befallen other films of this ilk.

Zach (newcomer Trevor Wright) puts his future on hold so that he can work to support his young nephew Cody because his family is fractured, a dead mother, a father who barley survives with some back injury and a sister who seems to make many bad decisions. In his free time, he spends time with his nephew (Jackson Wurth), his friend Gabe (Ross Thomas), his girlfriend Tori (Katie Walder) and riding the waves surfing. When Gabe's older brother Shaun (Brad Rowe) comes back home searching for a cure for writer's block, he and Zach start hanging out, mostly surfing. But their friendship blossoms into love, leaving Zach confused and worried about how people will react. Once the relationship is discovered, Zach is once again put in the position of putting his family first and suffer for it or he must fight for what he wants, as Shaun and Tori want him to do.

What makes this film work is the chemistry between Rowe and Wright. Despite the short, three week shoot, the actors worked well together. On the commentary, writer/director Markowitz mentions he filmed the kisses between the two actors linearly, in hopes of creating a natural flow for Wright’s character of Zach. And while there is sex between the characters, this film is about intimacy and even romance between the two males leads.

Trevor Wright shines as the put-upon young man who seems to be the only adult in his family, even though at times you wonder how much more crap Markowitz will throw Zach’s way. But Wright comes across as believable; a typical young man confused as to his sexuality, his place in the family and what he’ll need to further give up in life to take care of his nephew.

There are also strong performances from Tina Holmes as Zach’s sister, Jeanne. Her character comes across, at times, unappealing. She’s a horrible mother, forcing her younger brother to become a father to her son. Yet, at times, you have sympathy for as well. And Katie Walder is great as Tori, a girl hurt by Zach’s distance even before Shaun’s return, and the only one who realizes sooner than anyone that she knows why.

Among some of the many great scenes in the film comes late, when Gabe visits Zach at his job to talk to him about why he never told him he was gay. Zach tries to change the subject, but Gabe presses him, and only appears to be weired out that Zach is having sex with his older brother. Gabe informs him that nothing changes in their friendship, and I love the fact that here is this straight guy telling his best friend that. It’s a touching scene.

Not a great film, but it sure is a good one. And if more independent films can be made like this, one can hope a major studio will some day produce a grand, epic gay romance without fear of reprisals from conservative groups.

Books: Plays Well with Others by Allan Gurganus (1999)

There was a Before in the artist circles that kept New York strumming in the late 1970s, where young men of all shades, sizes and age descended on the Big Apple. Most, if not all, where escaping small town middle class life, with all their obligations, all their traditions. All came there to not only let the world see what they created, but to find love. 

If only for one night that is.

I can guess that much of Allan Gurganus’ Plays Well with Others must be autobiographical, but I can’t seem to find too much evidence of that. Still, with an inventive narrative and a sense of emotional punch that made those days seem so much fun, we meet Hartley Mins, a young writer who arrives in Manhattan just before the onslaught of AIDS. Through his narrative we get to meet composer Robert Christian Gustafson, an impossibly good-looking man from Iowa, son of a preacher. Of course, Hartley falls for him, but he gets caught In Robert’s wake because those good looks get Robert everything he wants, anyone he wants, both men and women. 

Also along for the ride is Angelina "Alabama" Byrnes, a failed debutant struggling to make her paintings mean something. And like then, as today, these friends take shelter with each other, promote each other's work, and compete sexually. And become the family of understanding souls that somehow got lost from where they grew up. When tragedy strikes, this circle grows up fast, somehow finding, at the worst of times, the truest sort of family.

Not sure this was, at the time of publication, the AIDS crises great novel, but I’m struck with the idea that while there has been tons of nonfiction books published over the last twenty to 30 years after it began, I’m guessing (though I may be wrong here) not many novels about that era have been published. Well, at least by well-known authors like Gurganus (who is also the author of the huge 1989 best-seller The Oldest Confederate Widow Tells All). Still, we lost so many that part of the problem may be that there is no one left to tell the tale. In the end, it’s a deeply engaging novel about flawed, well-meaning people; but can also be describes as a valentine to dear friendships, and a canticle to a brilliant and now-vanished world.

Books: Two Boys Kissing By David Levithan (2013)

A kiss is just a kiss, as the saying goes. A kiss can launch ships, a kiss can heal a child’s wound and kiss can determined the fate of the universe. In David Levithan’s Two Boys Kissing, it becomes the catalyst for a group of young teenagers navigating a new world of freedoms, tempered triumphs and loss and, for one, a darkness of overwhelming self-hatred. 

The novel is told in a sort-of third person narrative, a Greek chorus if you will, of all the people who have died of AIDS, all the ones who “were going to be your role models….to give you art and music and confidence and shelter and a much better world.” They died, paving the way for what we have today –a more open society that is coming to terms with their gay children. These voices of the book take us to Harry and Craig, who’ve have recently split-up, to Avery and Ryan who meet at the separate High School prom for LGBT students, to Neil and Peter, a committed high school couple and to Cooper Riggs, a bolt of self-hatred for who is and who spends hours trolling websites and hook-up apps in search of men who can fulfill his dreams of brutal sex. 

Despite breaking up, Craig and Harry remain friends. So much so that when Craig comes up with the idea of breaking the world’s record for kissing, Harry agrees. The boys set up in front of their school and with help from friends and supporters, what starts out as small event, blossoms over its 32 hours into millions of viewers over the internet as the world watches two boys kissing.

While clearly driven to the YA market, Two Boys Kissing can be read by older folks, especially the gay men who survived the Plague Years. Like parents who pass their legacy onto their children, those gay men who came before us had hoped to do that to those that would follow in their footsteps. But so many have died, so many have passed into the Undiscovered Country, that history of what they fought for is like an old black and white TV show, interesting to some, but boring to most. The voices in the book want to help, especially to Cooper who imbibes every self-loathing aspect many early generations had to deal with –though some of that still exists today. But the power between the past, the present and the unknowable future sometimes makes that help difficult.

It is a brilliant book for those teens that are coming out now (and so much more sooner than even 20 years ago), those youths who don’t know who paved their way to that early closet door busting. I mean, many gay men who survived AIDS are bothered by today’s gay youth lack of enthusiasm for activism. And with this book, perhaps Levithan can show them what was done to give them their bright present and future, for the novels chorus laments: “As we become the distant past, you become a future few of us would have imagined. We resent you. You astonish us.”

It's time to fight the Good Fight

"In the clearing stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down or cut him
til he cried out in his anger and his shame
I am leaving, I am leaving, but the fighter still remains
Yes he still remains."

Do I live in the land of the free and the brave?

Two days ago, the state of California made it sure that gay people are not part of that land and free statement. Nope, with outside peddling from the Catholic Church and the Mormons, Prop 8 passed, ensuring that gay men and women can be and will be discriminated against.

What strikes me most about this blow to equal rights is how some folks who have really no problem with gay people, the so called friends, who seem to think this is all about some judges who acted in defiance of the constitution (with the often ubiquitous "activist judges" thrown around because that seems to be the only word they know how to use; besides it also makes them sound smart) and the will of Californians. They claim they had to pass it, because if they let it fail, then the Constitution means nothing. That some sort of anarchy would be created if it was to fail.

These so called friends are not that at all, because a true friend would help out, no matter what the cost. These people are nothing but the mouth piece to religious zealots who command power through the use of money.

The influence of both the Mormons and the Catholics does not surprise me, but the fact that they got away with it, and the fact the Mormons now want everyone to treat people with "civility, with respect and with love" just astounds me beyond belief.

Jebus on a crutch, can Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the LDS be serious?

As Towleroad said, "Bitch, Please."

On Star Trek they say "revenge is a best dish served cold." And while revenge is petty and, at times, just as bad as the offense, I'm all for an appeal of all Church's tax exempt status. Force these weasels to start paying taxes, and they'll have less money to influence discrimination.

And this was never, ever about children (indecently, only children who are signed up for Comprehensive Sex Education in California schools are taught about gay relationships and sex., so you see how YES on 8 distorted the issue). I was talking to my cousins wife, a stalwart Republican. While she voted NO on Prop 8, she was able to shelter her two children, 11 and 8, from both the YES and NO groups. It wasn't until she passed a rally for YES on 8 that she had to explain to her kids what it was about. And as one who does not believe in lying to her children when they ask a question, she explained to them what was going on. She was not ready to say these things to her children, but she felt, in the end, that it was better to tell the truth.

So, ironically, it was the YES on 8 and not the NO people who forced her hand. Way to go.

But some of this failure to stop this was gays themselves. This was, perhaps, not the most important issue on our road to equal rights. Personally, as I've said before, call it a Civil Union. The word "marriage" carries too much baggage, too much pain and hate. Much like the abortion issue that polarizes a nation, having gays be able to call their commitment together a marriage is never, ever going to happen.

What we need to fight for, in all fifty states of this great Union, is equal rights when is comes to money, and life decisions. Once again, I'll note personal finance guru Suzie Orman when she says its sad that her partner is not entitled to get her money when she dies, because that partner is a woman and that their relationship is not seen as legal, like in straight and common law arrangements. Yes, even in common law arrangements, who ever survives does get their partners pension and inherits their belongings.

In a gay relationship, that is not so. If I have a pension and I die, my partner does not get it. As a matter of fact, my family members could then come to my survivng partner and take everything that was mine -including the roof over his head - and my partner would not have a legal foot to stand on.

And in anyone's book, that is not right.

And one more thing, before I leave, this is not a choice. The flimsy house of cards the religious right builds their argument on is quickly falling by the wayside, and that scares them. But the sad aspect, one I learned this past Saturday when a YES on rally was right outside my front door, that the only way these fools will change their argument is if science gives them 100% empirical evidence (though, they'll still cart out the "activist" phrase because, well, that's the only argument they'll have left). Nothing less than one hundred percent proof -as if the is any actual proof God actually exists.

And while the Catholics had modified their stance for the coming truth with the love the sinner, hate the sin propoganda, the Evangelical Christians will never, it appears, surrender to reality. They want to live in a closed world where only a few people have knowledge and power, and where the rest should be just just lambs, molified by endless episodes of Dancing with the Stars.

On Novemeber 4th, America overwhelming swept away the one of the last shackles of racial intolerence by electing a black man to lead our nation. We took a huge leap forward in this land of the free and brave, but after all the confetti settled, here in California, the people decided that discrimnating against the entire GLBT nation still okay.

After all, it was for the kids.

But like my friend JT said, I'm not done with Prop 8. It's time to become more visable in this battle for equality.

I can no longer sit back and let this intolerance continue. If the Mormons, if the Evangelicals, if the Catholics want a fight, well with my God behind me, I'll fight.

This separate but equal crap is over.

Exclusive clip #1 from the film Shelter

Exclusive clip #2 from the film Shelter

Shelter

Saddled with responsibility beyond his means, a young man takes care of his five year-old nephew, his irresponsible older sister and his alcoholic dad while holding down a job at a diner and struggling with his burgeoning feelings for his friend's older brother.

Another clip from the upcoming film, Shelter

Books: Star Trek: Coda: Oblivion's Gate by David Mack (2021)

 

"At the end of Moments Asunder, author James Swallow’s middle chapter of the Coda trilogy, our reneged Starfleet folks have taken shelter in the Mirror Universe to escape Admiral William Riker, who is being influenced by some kind of temporal personality disorder, and the Devidians’ attack across all of time. Here we meet new versions of our familiar characters, including Luc Picard, the captain of the CSS Enterprise and Director Savvik of Memory Omega, a scientific facility that houses all kinds of advanced technology. It is also here that the team of Data, Spock, and Wesley, using the Bajoran Orb of Time, learn a horrible truth about their existence and what they’ll have to sacrifice if they’re going to stop the end of the universe."

 

While Oblivion‘s Gate hits the ground running, once I got some fifty pages into it and learned that entire two decade run of Star Trek novels since Nemesis (well, really since First Contact) has actually been set in an alternate branch of the Prime Timeline seen in TNG, DS9, and VGR –called First Splinter- and this revelation left me cold. I mean, I’ve not read a lot of those Star Trek books that have been published in the last 20 years, but then I began to think about those long time readers who have. So then comes the Coda trilogy, and watch out, because this series is now saying that every single event these readers have read in those books, every character moment they have loved, every emotional loss and success that the crews of various series has encountered, has now been explicitly erased –they never happened. So all those relationships the readers have invested in, the ongoing Picard and Crusher relationship, or Janeway and Chakotay one, all the journeys these characters have been on in the last two decades are lost, leaving no mark in the extended Lit universe of Star Trek.

 

While the notion of First Splinter tangent was created during the events of Star Trek: First Contact film is an intriguing idea, as I read, I began to realize the cause to effect of this revelation and then it makes me feel there should’ve been a better way to close out this portion of the Trek-Lit line. Sure, the writers of this trilogy remind us what Star Trek has always stood for: self-sacrifice, the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few, that giving up their lives in the service of stopping the Devidians is a noble cause, but it comes with the idea that nobody will know what they did.

 

This theme has also been done many times before on the Star Trek live-action series, especially on Voyager, in the two-part Year of Hell, Timeless, and series finale, Endgame. It’s a shame that this was the only way three talented writers could end this two decade period.

 

Sure, Disney labeling their Star Wars EU novels as “Legacy” tales not connected to the franchise relaunch back in 2015 angered long-time readers, but they have (for good or bad, depending on your view) cherry picked some of the best characters and situations from them, especially for both the animated series and Disney+ live-action series. So repeating this error with the Star Trek books was not going to work.

 

For good or bad, for me, the Coda trilogy does not end on a hopeful or optimistic note. In addition, while as I've said, I’ve not devoted a lot of time to these various novels over the last twenty years, I can see where some that have will not be pleased with what has been done here. Then again, there may be an equal number who loved all of it.

 

But for me, the series (and this book) has too much going on, too much jumping around, too many characters to keep track of, so it became an effort to keep things in some cohesive structure. Had I read the seventeen novels and other short stories that comprise this conclusive series, I may have felt more connected. Try as they might, I do feel anyone reading this series will need to have read those previous books to really get a better perspective from them.

 

But again, this was all designed to retcon Star Trek Picard into the literary Star Trek universe. My end thought is maybe they just should’ve just slapped “Legend” on the old books and been done with it.

Matthew Montgomery and his films

After months of Netflixing TV shows I've missed, I started to rent some gay themed films. Shelter was nice, and did a brief review of it on the blog. East Side Story was another. Then I rented two flicks that starred Matthew Montgomery, an actor friend who played on the web series Star Trek: Hidden Frontier as a Klingon that I worked on. Now he plays Own Vaughan on the HF spin-off, Star Trek: Odyssey.

The first was the horror thriller Socket

I liked it very much, despite the film resembling an even lower budget David Cronenberg film (writer/director Sean Abley used Videodrome as template). Still, Matthew Montgomery showed his acting chops (among other things) and now I know why HF cast him. He's very good.

I then rented Long-Term Relationship, a romantic comedy that once again showed me what a find Matthew really is. His range between drama and comedy is near perfect, and I began to wonder why he is not doing more films, even though he's found a rewarding career in indies.

I've qeued up Back Soon, the film he did after LTR, from the same writer/director and most of the same cast.

According to his IMDB posting, he's completed four films in 2008, with another currently getting close to production.

In a recent interview with AfterElton, Matthew explained why he's not gone mainstream:

AE: Do you have an agent? Are you auditioning for studio movies? Network roles?

MM: I’m still a non-union actor. So everything I’ve done up until now has been without representation, without being in a union. It’s all been on my own. Most of the network stuff, I’m not eligible until I’m in the union. And a lot of reps don’t feel comfortable representing an openly gay actor or someone who does primarily independent gay cinema, and I have no interest in changing how I represent myself.

So, yeah for Matthew. Yet, despite knowing him sort-of well, I think he's a brilliant actor who should be doing movies or network TV shows.

And he's really good on Odyssey.

Books: Good Behavior By Donald E. Westlake (1985)

"John Dortmunder's one of the slyest burglars going. While fleeing the police during his latest caper, he falls through the roof of the Silent Sisterhood of St. Filumena -and tumbles into the lap of trouble. It's an act of God, the sisters exclaim. Only the Creator himself could have sent this criminal just when they needed him. Sure, they'll shelter him from the cops. But there's a price: He must help them to retrieve their youngest and newest member from her father's clutches. This promises to get sticky. Dear old dad hates the Sisterhood like the plague. And he happens to have an odd hobby: putting together mercenary armies."

Good Behavior, the sixth book in the John Dortmunder series, is another tale of pure delight. And much like the last book, Why Me, Donald E. Westlake continues to shift away from Andy Kelp being the jinx of the team and just make John have some sort of "curse" of bad luck. This sort of alters both the character and the nature of John's burglary career, and it's a weird transition from the first three or four books in the series, but it's noticeable. But not horrible in any way, though.

Like the rest of the Dortmunder tales, the book is filled with various hijinks, with some fun and some outright funny set pieces (Dortmunder's inadvertent recruitment into this army is the best of a lot of funny scenes), with great dialogue, along with poking fun at some lowlife characters that exist in New York of that bygone era (including the cops). One of the best things about this series is how different all the plots are -Westlake creates some pretty unique and clever things for Dortmunder to get out of. I've read as the series ages, the plots remain fairly tight, but seem to go on longer than the should. Even Good Behavior seemed to go on longer that it should, but that may just be my warped opinion.