the L word

I’ve often heard fellow heterosexual men joke about being lesbian. It’s one of those big mysteries…why lesbians are a turn-on to heterosexual men? Part of the reason (some may even say problem) is Western chauvinism has socialized us that way. We are meant to believe that a man and a woman is a natural combination. But then if you start to mix it…whoa, you’re in trouble. I find it fascinating that our cultures values are influenced by society, which is in fact popular opinion which has evolved over time. That said this brings me to marvel at a TV series I’ve recently been watching, the L word.

The title is ambiguous. Clearly the ‘L’ is for the term lesbian, although it can also be associated with other words. The words love, laughter, life, longing, lilting, Los Angeles, lonely night, legally, lawfully, laurels, liberal, lightning, lecherous, least, lewd, literature, lesson, leaving, luscious, lithe, list, leggy, lust, label, limpid, lips, laps, lyrics, liquid, launch, large, lasting, lacking, languorous and looking also appear in the title. (Generally you wouldn’t have time to read all of that.) This is a fairly good summary of the series itself, however I’ll elaborate.

There is a group of lesbians that this story revolves around. (See below.)

• Mia Kirshner as Jenny Schecter
• Jennifer Beals as Bette Porter
• Laurel Holloman as Tina Kennard
• Eric Mabius as Tim Haspel
• Katherine Moennig as Shane McCutcheon
• Erin Daniels as Dana Fairbanks
• Leisha Hailey as Alice Pieszecki
• Pam Grier as Kit Porter
• Karina Lombard as Marina

They are all successful women, but like all of us, they struggle with their personal lives. At first when I sat down to watch this I was highly skeptical, since I thought it was going to be a glamorized porn film. Look it is certainly explicit throughout the series, but it’s is still hugely profound. It’s an in-depth look at what lesbians get up to, and the challenges that they face.

So far I’ve only watched the first season, but it’s so intensely emotional it’s actually brought me to tears on a few occasions. Mostly I’m a cynic when watching and reviewing cinema, although this one I have to speak differently about. Of course I won’t deny that part of the appeal is because I’m a straight guy. I’m not convinced that a straight woman would find this series compelling.

IMO there are two major reasons why I would recommend this series. That would be the dynamic cast and the multifarious storylines. It’s intensely layered with emotion and honesty, and because of that I believe it’s one of the most accurate glimpses you’ll get of the lesbian world. This is one of those series that is not for the faint-hearted, so try and be open-minded when you approach it.

PhilosopherPoet

The confession of a chaos addict

It is overcast today. The clouds are looking too depressed for their own good. The smell of rain is in the air. When this happens my Englishness seems to give an excited whoop, on the inside. It’s hard to explain to some people that bad weather is actually a delight. Maybe is because bad weather is more of an event. Think about it went the clouds gather up together like some depressed emos, it tells you one thing…shit is going to happen. There will be rain, or thunder/lightning, road accidents, and soaked pedestrians.

We’re chaos-based people. Call me a pessimist, but are the good things really meaningful to us, or are we actually taking a breather until we have to face more chaos again? Chaos is a limited word, and in this case slightly crude. I’ll stick with it though. I’ll give an example to support my claim.

Jim and Sarah are going through a rough patch. This is because Sarah suspects her husband is cheating on someone else. She is pregnant, and at this stage is limited to staying at home and doing all the house work. It’s not an ideal situation. Jim tries to spend more time at work than usual, because Sarah is emotional unstable, and easily angered.

So now (as usual) everyone is in one big melting pot of chaos. This couple may end up with a divorce and finding their own direction, or they may pull themselves together and talk things through. There are never two sides to the coin, especially when you’ve got a relationship to deal with. This may be all and well, but what is my point? Are we inherently bad people because of this? Not at all…

Allow me to euphemize the word ‘chaos’ and instead we are system-based people. We are controlled by systems most of the time. We have responsibilities, jobs, relationships, because they make our lives more meaningful. At the same time we can’t escape the systems we’re in. It’s a default that life throws at us. I’ll elaborate…

Just like Plato’s analogy of the cave, the Systems are what we start off with. Just like everyone begins in the cave, everyone is born into systems. It’s inescapable. This doesn’t mean though that we are out of our control. I believe that the only way we can make enjoy our existence, is to learn the Systems. Eventually once we’ve spent many years of thinking, we’ll get the systems to work for us. The greatest achievement in life is to have the Systems compliment and enrich our lives, rather than control and dominate us.

Comments Welcome

PhilosopherPoet

dragon

some sudden compulsion drove me to it was an out of hand and over-the-top gesture you could say I wasn’t too happy about doing it my hand rang out like the long warble a telephone gives before it’s about to die all the others in the crowd didn’t seem to notice either it was weird in a sociable way the way I hugged her I gently spun half a shoulder into a cradle to catch her voice and her words but then I realized coming to the end of an intense experience that maybe I was being too forward with my words

you see not all woman will listen to the words we hold in our hands it’s about as communicative as we can be throwing out silent strokes and shadow hugs not everyone wants to mourn and eat all the anger into a shoulder but those that do will let you know with time and perhaps a tear that will run and hide in the folds of her skin buried and left to sink and swell and rise and fall with the beating rapid rhythm she’s given or what she received

pardon me my mind was wondering under your skirt

at the mentioned of such boyish and blunt words I traced the inky dragon on her back in an attempt to bring my mind to the front of affairs and audience members dressed in pairs and ready to dance they didn’t though most of the time you could see that they wanted to by the way that their mouths moved and the way conversation seemed to sway in and out of beat rising through the fires and black stones on the mantelpiece I listened to the flames argue with each other they ran through choked logs and smoked each other with a glowing regret in their eyes

you can tell I read into things too much even jessica realized this when her handle wondered over my cheek for a gentle stroke and hello instead was greeted with the slack jaw of a day dreamer but her giggle and brave embarrassment made my mind slot back into the simmering small talk and the wine glass’ gleaming throat which is more or less when she stroked my chin again and I

rode her dragon in the palm of my hand

 

PhilosopherPoet

The World is Dead (Horror is Born)

Haven’t you noticed? I suppose this is what happens when you spend your evenings watching horror movies, rather than be a normal person and get out to a date, or the pub. Anyway, I sometimes find they are the best entertainment we still have around. I was watching the classic, Dawn of the Dead. Wow, what a film! I don’t care how unrealistic and absurd it really is…the whole point of undead people ripping up a handful of living ones…somehow excites me.

I mostly avoid explaining my fascination with death to people. The reason why is a) it doesn’t make for such a good dinner conversation and b) people will think I’m cuckoo and will probably give me some pills rather than some freedom to talk. Putting my personal issues aside I started thinking about why we create these creatures…

Why was horror born? Well like anything there are a number of reasons behind it. One of them is that it is a reaction to the norms of society. Horror started way back in the Victorian Era with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. This was a significant leap into the genre as we know it. The Victorian’s took Christianity very seriously. Woman had to be covered up, and children were best seen and not heard. Think of your grandparents going Amish, and then you’ve got the right idea. Moving on into the Early 1900s books are still highly regarded…but a new medium in film is developing…cinema.

When the Roaring Twenties hit America, it was a sort of Media Renaissance. Society was starting to open its eyes. Women got far braver by wearing shorter skirts, smoking in public, drinking in public, and attending events without a chaperone. It all sounds pretty innocent to us. Although tell any Victorian to wear a knee-high dress and whip out a cigarette, and she’d probably tell you to sod off.

Everyone was trying to forget all the business of WWI, and so the Western world was living it up. Cinema happened to be an indication of the evolution of entertainment when the silent film appeared in the late 1920s (if my memory serves me). So now people are getting bored with books, and want a new medium to give the audience. Movies were born on pretty primitive technology, but that didn’t stop anyone. All of a sudden theaters were for the old folks, and cinema became a rage.

Ticket after ticket were sold all around Europe and America. After WWI Europe was still limping after the war, so America had the resources to hone this newly found craft. By the time WWII struck in the forties, black and white films were going strong. Media was now reaching the masses. Any person could pay for a movie ticket, and go and sit in a cinema, not to mention it was a helluva experience seeing character’s expressions 100x closer than in reality.

I’m skimming over the topic of Cinema pretty briefly simply because there is so much in it. Anyway, to make a long story short, after the sixties Horror really came to the Media’s attention. Special effects were developing at a massive rate. By the time the eighties came along this was not only the rise of Horror, but also the darker side of Heavy Metal. I would be lying if I said that this is when this music genre really started, but it’s certainly where things began to kick off. Also all media is interlinked, and compliments each other, so we can’t deny music not playing a role.

So I obviously am aware that the world isn’t dead. Although I think when I lay my head down at night…my mind may take some convincing. All I need to do is pray they don’t eat me, and move on to someone else.

 

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PhilosopherPoet