The Republic of T.

By TerranceDC

OK, I know I’m being completely superficial here. But this guy would only have to ask me to marry him once.

Spanish pop singer Enrique Iglesias says he has tried repeatedly to convince his girlfriend Anna Kournikova to marry him — with no luck.

Iglesias spoke to reporters Friday after arriving in the Dominican Republic for the first of nine concerts planned across Latin America.

Iglesias says he’s been involved with the tennis star for at least three years and says she keeps ignoring his appeals to wed. In his words, “I always try, but she pays me no attention.”

I mean, what’s the problem? He seems like a good guy with a good heart to me. Hell, I’d keep an officiant on retainer and ready to be there in 15 minutes or less the next time he asked.

But maybe she has her reasons. Or maybe it’s just something he tells the press when they ask him when about marriage, etc.

It’s official. I’m an old fart. Or, well, at least I’m not as young as I used to be. But it didn’t completely gel for me until I read this article about the dearth of decent anti-war songs in today’s popular music scene.

An unpopular president, an unpopular war, a restless young generation eager for change — all the elements of a mass protest culture would seem to be present in this election year.

But one thing is missing: a mass culture.

The Vietnam era produced an entire genre of anti-war and cultural protest songs, the best-known of which became anthems of the age.

Iraq and the Bush presidency have inspired lots of music in this tradition, but nothing that has gained a large popular audience or is vying to be a generational anthem.

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the films that probably influenced me the most as a burgeoning gay boy back in the 80s was Bad Boys. I’m not sure how I saw it. I think I may have been changing channels, and came across it. I don’t remember whether I was at home or somewhere else, but I remember I stopped changing channels the minute Sean Penn appeared on the screen.

I was around 14 when it came out in 1983, and by then I’d already figured out that I liked other boys. I’d already come out to some of my high school classmates. So, when I saw Sean Penn swagger onto the screen, I was mesmerized. It didn’t hurt that he bore a strong resemblance to a (straight) classmate I was madly in love with. At the time, I was sure I wouldn’t mind at all being locked up with Sean Penn. I wouldn’t mind locking lips with him either.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s almost Oscar time again. I have to admit, when Oscar night rolls around again, it makes me nostalgic for some aspects of my pre-parenting life. (Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t take anything in the world for stuff like Parker handing me a birthday card me made himself yesterday, or playing on the floor with Dylan and hearing him laugh.) Time was, by the time the awards rolled around, I would usually have seem most or all of the nominated performances and films. If I went to an Oscar party and joined the Oscar pool, I’d make a decent score and even win on occasion.

Now, if I’ve seen one or two nominated films or performances, I count myself lucky. That’s because getting to a movie nowadays requires slightly less planning than the Normandy invasion. Maybe more. If it isn’t available on Netflix, chances are I won’t see it.

But I have seen lots of movies over the years. And after seeing this list of the 10 best Oscar Best Pictures of all time, I thought it might be fun to compile a list of my own.
Read the rest of this entry »

Ed Note: This was so much fun, I decided to update the post with a few more casting choices and bump it back up to the top of the blog.

I admit it. I’m one of those people who reads the tabloids while I’m standing in line at the grocery store. (I figure I still have some time before Parker figures out what I’m reading.) I already knew that Oliver Stone is planning a Bush biopic. What I didn’t know was that Josh Brolin will portray Dubya. At least not until I noticed a tabloid headline blaring that Brolin’s stepmom, La Streisand, is furious that he’s doing the part, (and Brolin is allegedly furious that she’s furious) because she’s worried that Dubya might get a sympathetic portrayal. (Meanwhile the folks at Fox & Friends are worried that Streisand’s stepson in the lead role means it’ll be a “hit piece.”)

The tabloid piece got me thinking: who else would I cast in the picture? Brolin is the only cast member listed right now, so the rest of the cast is anybody’s guess. The folks at Radar have already taken a stab at guessing. And while they’ve made some interesting choices, including a few I would have also made, I think there’s still room to make some suggestions of my own. (And, Oliver, if you’re reading this, all I ask is a brief walk-on and/or casting credits.)

So, here goes.

Read the rest of this entry »

When I was a little boy, growing up in Augusta, GA, I wanted to be famous. Actually, I wanted to be a star. I sang along with the radio and one day discovered I had a voice, and eventually—happily—discovered that some people even enjoyed hearing it.

My sister, her best friend, and I used to dream of fame. We made up songs, and sang them into tape recorders. After we saw The Wiz, we learned all the songs, cast ourselves in the parts (I was the scarecrow) and acted out scenes. We dreamed of moving to Hollywood, where it would all happen, of course.

Now, decades later, I’m no closer to fame than I was then, and light years away from stardom. But what I’ve seen from this distance has me thinking that perhaps my youthful dreams are best left that way. I’m not sure I’d want the glare of spotlight that never, ever shuts off shining into every aspect of my life, or on my family. Not based on what I’ve seen and read lately.

Read the rest of this entry »

When you’ve got a newborn in the house (and you’re still trying to get work done) you miss a lot. In fact, it’s took me the better part of a day to write this blog post (and that’s just the part above the fold), and another couple of days to get it posted. So, I didn’t know about the Tom Cruise Scientology indoctrination video until I read about on Gawker after the furor died down.

You have to watch this video. It shows Tom Cruise, with all the wide-eyed fervor that he brings to the promotion of a movie, making the argument for Scientology, the bizarre 20th-century religion. Making the argument is an understatement. The Hollywood actor, star of movies such as Mission Impossible, is a complete fanatic. “When you’re a Scientologist, and you drive by an accident, you know you have to do something about it, because you know you’re the only one who can really help… We are the way to happiness. We can bring peace and unite cultures.” There’s much much more. Let me put it this way: if Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah’s couch was an 8 on the scale of scary, this is a 10.

Well, I watched the video and even though I’ve made fun of Tom Cruise in the past, I’m starting to see him and his beliefs in a whole new light.
Read the rest of this entry »

Amy, Amy, Amy. If they try to make you go to rehab, please “go, go, go.” I was just listening to Back to Black this week, and it sounded as good as when I first heard it this summer. It’d be shame if there wasn’t any more music from you. It’s great that you sound a little like Billie Holiday. But emulate her sound, but don’t join her on this list of talented folks we should have heard a lot more from.

It might seem like I’m jumping on the “Bash Britney Bandwagon” here, but I think the reference is valid and the point relevant. Or at least I did when I was standing in line at the grocery store a couple of days ago. And, no, I’m not talking about her VMA performance. (But, as long as we’re on the subject, that’s not something any real diva would ever have done. Can you imagine Madonna doing that? Never. Way too much of a control freak.)

I know I called a moratorium on Britney jokes, because girlfriend clearly has problems she need to work on, but I’m not so much poking fun as I’m still venting over the Maryland Court of Appeals gay marriage ruling, which effectively married the right to marry to the possibility of procreation. I’m remembering that Britney once got married as a joke.

And, by all accounts, her second marriage was a joke, but it produced two babies. That’s bottom-line criteria for marrying in Maryland. There’s got to be at least a possibility of sperm meeting egg for there to be even the possibility of a wedding license. Britney’s met more than met that requirement. But what’s happened after conception and delivery is what’s making news now.

Technorati Tags: celebrities, child abuse, children, current events, family, gay marriage, gay rights, parenting, politics

Read the rest of this entry »

Just looking at the picture of Zac Efron in that last post made me feel like a “dirty old man.”

So maybe a shirtless Vladimir Putin is a safer bet.

Technorati Tags: celebrities, civil rights, current events, gay rights, humor, politics

Read the rest of this entry »

This is a shameless ploy for more search engine traffic. Some time ago, I noticed that a number of people came to this blog searcing for “zac efron shirtless”. Now, I didn’t know who Zack Efron even was at that point, but I did some research, and after tracking down how this blog was coming up in that search (because I never posted about and knew almost nothing about Zac Efron) I thought it would be cute to actually post Zac Efron shirtless.

Well, I did. I, I might as well face it, I got what I asked for in terms of search engine traffic, and more than I asked for in terms of comments. Zac’s fans showed up, argued with one another, and read me the riot act for posting a picture of some shirtless dude they swore up and down was not their idol. Someone claiming to be Mr. Efron’s manager even chimed in. One even managed to somehow read the post and mistake me for Zac Efron, or at least wrote her comment as if she thought that’s who she was leaving it for.

Well, I’ve now at least know who Zac Efron is, and though I haven’t seen High School Musical, it still seems like a good time to correct my previous error and post what actually appears to be a shirtless Zac Efron.

Technorati Tags: celebrities, current events, humor, web

Read the rest of this entry »

Update: Carlson has responded with the following message to Media Matters.

Let me be clear about an incident I referred to on MSNBC last night: In the mid-1980s, while I was a high school student, a man physically grabbed me in a men’s room in Washington, DC. I yelled, pulled away from him and ran out of the room. Twenty-five minutes later, a friend of mine and I returned to the men’s room. The man was still there, presumably waiting to do to someone else what he had done to me. My friend and I seized the man and held him until a security guard arrived.

Several bloggers have characterized this is a sort of gay bashing. That’s absurd, and an insult to anybody who has fought back against an unsolicited sexual attack. I wasn’t angry with the man because he was gay. I was angry because he assaulted me.

In classic Craig-like fashion, Carlson’s response raises more questions than it answers.

First, it’s markedly different from what he said on MSNBC. How did it go from “hit[ting] him against the stall with his head” to holding him until the police arrived?

So, what was last night? Macho posturing for “the boys”? Why embellish the story with violence that he now says didn’t happen? And as for fighting back, Carlson “yelled and pulled away from him” and was already gone. Long gone. For 25 minutes. Why then would he return? Did he know the guy would still be there? How did he know the guy would still be there?

And was it unsolicited sexual attack or an unwanted advance, of the kind that most women have experienced at some point or another? Would Carlson have reacted the same way to a woman making the same kind of sexual advance to him?

And while I’m asking questions, what park does Carlson take his kid to that has a thriving “tearoom”? I’ve got a five year old myself, and I’m pretty familiar with area parks. But he doesn’t go into public restrooms unless one of us goes with him, and I’ve yet to go into one where there’s any cruising action going on? And if I did, I probably wouldn’t take my kid back to that park.

Like I said, Tucker just raises more questions than he answers.

Technorati Tags: anti-gay violence, celebrities, current events, gay bashing, homophobia, politics, television

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve got a couple of actual blog posts planned for today, but right now all I got is a bunch of stuff, none of which is worth an entire post, but that I can’t resist commenting on anyway.

First, I love ya, Keith. When it comes to “Straight Guys I Love,” you’re right up there with Jon Stewart. OK? But this time I think you’re asking way to much of the president. I mean fight a war? You know and I know he’s got no experience. For that matter, neither do a lot of his supporters in the administration or in Congress. And his youngest supporters aren’t interested in the job.

Oh, and 60% of Military.Com readers area ready to quit the job too.

Tucker, you’re next. Unlike Keith, I’m completely over you. My advice: pipe down and uncross your legs already. Trust me, nobody much wants it anyway.

Amy, goodness knows I love ya. I mean, those first coupla lines in “Back to Black” were enough to do it for me. But, sugar, it’s time to go to rehab. I mean go, go, go.

Speaking of “go, go, go,” to the women nattering on and on and on about the new Harry Potter book, at the table beside me at Starbucks this morning, would you still be wild about Harry if he was black and gay? My bet is … no.

And as long as I’m being bitter, I kinda sympathize with women who fall in love with lifers — guys who ain’t probably gonna see the outside of a prison unless they manage to peek out from a pine box — but I’m not sure I’m feeling their “doing time on the outside” vibe.” After all, you can marry your man. Some of you are lining up to marry these guys. Me? I can’t marry mine, and he didn’t even kill anybody.

And speaking of marriage, you might want to check out Boi, who says the same folks who don’t want to let me get married don’t want to let you divorce either.

The funny thing is, they don’t want me to marry in this country, but if I go abroad and get married, they won’t let me get divorced either. How do ya like that? They’re so divorced from reason that the same logic that leads them to oppose my marriage would also require them to uphold it, because to let me divorce they’d first have to acknowledge the marriage. I’d almost go to Canada, come back and file for divorce just to piss them off.

And finally, I can’t wrap up without enjoying a little schadenfreude on behalf of my old home state, Georgia, which was so anxious to stick it to illegal immigrants that it ended up inadvertently sticking it to used car salesmen. Undocumented immigrants can’t get licensed, so they’re returning their cars. Boy, I’m glad people don’t think stuff like that through. It’d be a much less amusing world otherwise.

Technorati Tags: blogs, bush, celebrities, current events, gay rights, marriage, music, politics, immigration