A French After School Special; the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Film Festival begins

We saw the first of what will be 6 films at the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. The first movie we saw,You'll Get Over It is a schockingly well acted coming out story. Vincent is a protegeé: the best high school swimmer (saving victory from the jaws of defeat) and a smart student that the other's (including his thug-ish brother) resent. So when an accident causes the other students to taunt him because he is gay. But he is!

It has all the normal supporting cast you would expect: the straight best friend who isn't phased one bit by the revelation, the hurt but nurturing girlfriend, the gruff but ultimately loving father who uses his son's admission to confess his own love of his children. But since this is a French after school special, there is some what graphic sex, boob and wiener.

The characters -- while predictable -- are surprisingly well acted and written with depth. The best friend is crushed when the Vincent's girlfriend turns him down, seeing this as an opportunity to finally be with the girl he loves. But she cuts Vincent out of her life because she can't be a friend and be so hurt at the same time. Believable characters.

Of course, there are added bonuses that most of the male leads are also swimmers, so they parade around in Speedos for a big chunk of the film. And the straight best friend is totally hot which also makes the time pass more quickly.

Inspiration; more hallucinations

I have been trying to jump start the creative part of my brain again. Maybe I should get back to painting or something, but I haven't felt like anything creative has come from me recently. (Hmm. As I type this, I realized this may be all just a form of artistic impotence brought on by the stress of work. Sadly, I tie way too of my self-esteem to how other people perceive my work. But that is another blog post.) So I have been therapeutic forcing myself to visit new sites and splash a little design aqua vita on my face.

Some cool new finds:

• Sagmeister's Q&A on design. Check out #3 - Being a Designer


• Elixir StudioTon's of stuff; I haven't gotten all the way through it, but I really like the Atlantic Records logo work.


• Sullivan Labs - if only because it shows what another company with our namesake can do with it. Tedious (and spooky) into but the content is cool


• Adam Berninger's personal website - Cool colors, nice type. Friggin' 21 years old.


• Kollektief's interior design portfolio - very nice interior designs, innovative scroller.

Anyway, enjoy the links.

"A person's mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions." - Oliver Wendell Holmes. (found on John Simpson's portfolio
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I had another olfactory hallucination today. I drove Tom (my workout partner) to work and they are painting his elevators. And he grabbed a kiwi-berry Propel. The combination of the painting fumes on his bags and the berry smell combined to smell exactly like a fruity formaldahyde. It was nauseating.

What's up with my nose?

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (in the locker room)

That title sounds a lot more salacious than it really is. This morning, when I was getting changed out, I stood next to two straight guys. They were talking about the best place to pick up chicks, the fact that one guy hasn't really dated in 2 and a half years (gulp. talk about different expectations) and how the other "stud" (who has had two girls in 6 months) did it.

I am quoting on the stud comment by the way.

And I watched them get dressed -- they made the classic shaving mistakes: upwards, no shaving cream, ratty disposible razor. The "stud's" belt was sweat-salt crusted and discolored from excessive use. The button down white shirts were 'pitted' out. The hair styles were variants of the classic-but-never-good looking "bowl". And then I looked around the gym at the homos.

We all dressed better and generally looked more presentable.

I was kinda stunned -- stunned than young men (I think they were about my age) were still clueless and stunned that I found myself on the other side of the fence. As most people know, I am rough on clothes and definitely not a fashion-oriented guy.

Definition of Geeky

You know you are a geek if you get the following:
Duke and Tux holding light sabers preparing to fight off a horde of Paperclips.

Halloween aftermath

Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year. To quote As the Apple Turns, I am a devout member of the Church of Legally-Extorted Free Candy. But this holiday, I wasn't really into it much. I think I was pre-occupied with work.

I did plan out my costume before hand -- a doctor. I still have scrubs from my BSD days. I was the only one dressed up at work. Joe wore a Mexican-ish Day of the Dead shirt -- that was a close to the Halloween spirit as the office got this holiday. I wish I could have seen Casey's outfit -- sounds like a great costume.

M. and I went to see Shakespeare on Navy Pier -- Taming of the Shrew. The production was great -- terffic set, great acting, and a very hunky leading man who wore surprisingly little most of the production. It was probably the best that I have seen at the theater. It was like seeing a literate, well produced play at the Bailiwick theater (or as I call it, the Gratuitous Nudity Theater).

Today we went and saw Dance Chicago 2003 Opening Weekend. (The guys at volleyball teased me for being an arty gay). Very good stuff -- feeling glad to get out and do more literate stuff.