World AIDS Day: Flashing Back to "When AIDS Was Funny"

AIDS was, of course, never really funny. But for a time, people got titters about it, because it was "gay cancer," and openly gay Americans were rather rare, and the whole subject was treated like a joke. A dirty, truly tasteless joke. The most troubling fact about that, is that it wasn't just 13-year-old boys with pocket "dead baby" joke books treating it that way, but the official stance of the Reagan Administration. How much differently could the AIDS crisis have turned out, had Saint Ronnie treated the subject more seriously at the outset? We'll never know.

[Excerpt]

The Reagan Administration’s Unearthed Response to the AIDS Crisis Is Chilling

One of the most prominent stains on the reputation of the much-mythologized Reagan administration was its response, or lack of response, to the AIDS crisis as it began to ravage American cities in the early and mid-1980s. President Reagan famously (though, not famously enough) didn’t himself publicly mention AIDS until 1985, when more than 5,000 people, most of them gay men, had already been killed by the disease. Filmmaker Scott Calonico’s new documentary short, When AIDS Was Funny, exclusively debuting on VF.com, shows how the Reagan administration reacted to the mounting problem in chilling fashion. Not even Reagan’s appointed mouthpiece, notorious press secretary Larry Speakes, had much to say about the crisis beyond derisive laughter. . .


Read more (with video) at: Vanity Fair

Blast from the Past: Class of '84, The Bands (Male Edition)

Since this is my 30th class reunion year (sorry, WYHS Class of '84, I can't make it), I'm continuing my theme of hit songs from that year, 30 years ago. I've got to wonder if these tunes strike the ears of kids today, like early rock and roll of the 1950s did to me.

1. New Moon on Monday by Duran Duran - Not one of their more enduring tunes, to be sure. But this was big that year.
2. Cum on Feel the Noize by Quiet Riot - It was a year that really mixed genres, and this song proves it.



3. Karma Chameleon by Culture Club - Can you imagine this song coexisting with the previous one today on the pop chart?
4. Say it Isn't So by Hall & Oates - This 70s band had a resurgence during my high school years, kind of like the next one.



5. You're the Inspiration by Chicago - As I said, groups don't get more 70s, but Chicago had a string of 80s hits. My best friend and I used to sing this to his car: "Your My Transportation. . ."
6. The Heart of Rock & Roll by Huey Lewis - This song was huge, but their zenith was The Power of Love, the next year, from the Back to the Future Soundtrack.



7. When You Close Your Eyes by Night Ranger- Squeeze the cheese.
8. Wrapped Around Your Finger by The Police - It wouldn't be long after this that Sting went permanently solo.



9. Owner of a Lonely Heart by Yes - I didn't realize until putting this list together, how many bands from earlier decades were having a resurgence. Yes was a big one.
10. Hold Me Now by Thompson Twins - Yeah, there was a girl in this group, but since they were a trio, and 2/3 men, they fit in this category. I love their stuff, from any year. But this may have been their biggest hit.



And, that will do it for this week guys. It's been a busy weekend, and is sure to be a busy week. Hang in there, and Happy Monday!

Blast from the Past: Class of 1984, the Men

As a further tribute to my graduating year, lo those thirty years ago, this week's Blast from the Past follows last week's The Women of '84 with The Men of '84. Not the bands, that comes later. These are the solo acts. As with last week's edition, though the stars themselves will be no surprise, not all of the songs will necessarily be the ones you expect.

1. I Would Die 4 U by Prince - The little purple dude had four hits in 1984, all from the film Purple Rain. Prince has had a long career, but these would be his glory days.
2. Thriller by Michael Jackson - I'd use a different song, given this ones ubiquity, but MJ was running out the clock on this album by '84, and had no other solo hits for a while. Plus there was that whole "head on fire" incident. But I couldn't leave this on off.



3. Rock Me Tonite by Billy Squier - Squier isn't maybe the first guy you'd think of from the '80s, but I've gotta tell ya, he was huge at my high school.
4. The Longest Time by Billy Joel - Joel's discography runs so long, it's easy to forget his early-'80s MTV phase.



5. Eyes Without a Face by Billy Idol - Who knew there were so many "Billys" in this grouping? And so very different from each other. Idol, certainly, is the most '80s of them.
6. Caribbean Queen by Billy Ocean - Obviously, I'm caught in a Billy wave.



7. Running with the Night by Lionel Ritchie - Ritchie gets overrun by Michael Jackson and Prince in our memories of 80s R&B-crossover artists (which is what they were back then), but he was huge in the early 80s.
8. Sad Songs (Say So Much) by Elton John - Back when he was straight. Heh.



9. Major Tom (Coming Home) by Peter Schilling - Had to put a one-hit wonder in here somewhere.
10. Blue Jean by David Bowie - I realized that I couldn't mention the last guy, and then leave off Bowie. It wasn't a big year for him, but he was kind of between hits.



And there you have it, I've hit my limit for the week. And I didn't even get around to John "Cougar" Mellencamp, Christopher Cross, John-freakin'-Lennon, Ray Parker Jr., Bruce-yeah, Bruce-Springsteen, Rick Springfield, Rod Stewart, Peabo Bryson, Corey Hart, Steve Perry, Dan Hartman, and so many others. Maybe a sequel is in order?

Meanwhile, happy Monday!

The Gay Thing: My Thoughts on The Normal Heart

I was in high school when there started to be scattered reports of "gay cancer" in New York, and other large cities. As a Columbus, Ohio teenager who had sussed out long-term suspicions, and inwardly accepted that I myself was gay, I was attuned to any scrap of news that came out. In those days, with no internet, and being terrified of being "found out," it's kind of a mystery to me how I managed to keep up to date on the story, but I did.

HBO's The Normal Heart begins just before any items I may have heard about in the news, before anyone knew there was a coming plague. As I was getting my developing sense of self intertwined with fear of a deadly disease, the actual people that the film's characters are based on were living it. It had to be terrifying, and enraging. The film centers upon the activists who were desperately trying to get a handle on what began to be known as "GRID," and later AIDS. These activists weren't just at ground zero of the disease, they were present for the waning days of the sexual revolution, and the height of 1970s/early 80s excess, which was magnified in the gay community.

Remember that the gay community, such as it was, hadn't even existed for very long. Not until after Stonewall in 1969, was there a community outside of the shadows. Imagine if you belonged to a group of people who were marginalized, demonized, and forced to hide your life away for most of recorded history, and suddenly you were free to do what you wanted! Add to this freedom, the fact that what binds you together with this group is sexuality, and that you're all men. That things were excessive and unbridled isn't really a surprise, then, is it?

But the ultimate party had a hell of a hangover. Put a sexually transmitted disease into a group that has lots of sex, and you have the perfect storm. Throw in other "undesirables" like IV drug users, and you get a shrug from the general public, at least at first. I remember hearing things like "AIDS is a punishment from God," and "Hey, it's killing all the right people." Getting people to care was difficult, and getting people to help was even harder. Add to that, the disease itself was amazingly adaptable, and difficult to pin down, and also easy to spread. It was (and still is) a horror show.

Somehow, as this was evolving, I was able to see through the negative public take on AIDS, the biased and unflattering portrayals in the media--even from hard news sources--and see what was happening. That's one thing that I always felt about being gay, and I really don't know how I arrived at it: "I'm not wrong, everyone else is." I never felt guilty, or ashamed, or bad for who I was. And I didn't assign those things to AIDS sufferers either. But it sure would have been easy to in those early days.

The protagonist in The Normal Heart is based upon its author, Larry Kramer, and played (very well) by Mark Ruffalo. Kramer in real life is an abrasive guy, and quite polarizing, even in the gay community. The film doesn't pull punches there. It follows him (or rather, his avatar) as AIDS starts taking his friends, and ultimately his partner (Matt Bomer, who goes from stunningly gorgeous to wasted away and covered with sores), while local and federal government stands on the sidelines.  The film is ultimately a snapshot in time, covering the early development of the AIDS crisis before it really had that name. As such, there is no happy ending of course, and no resolution. As HIV is still not cured (though much more manageable and preventable), it still kills people in great numbers today.

The film is worth a view, particularly if you--like me--were not at the heart of it. I was 19 by the time Rock Hudson died, and the disease went "mainstream".  I basically sat out the worst years of the crisis, having been young, stuck in an unrequited love situation and being terrified to do anything about it. So, I didn't lose any friends, and have to date known very few people with HIV (that I'm aware of). And while nobody would lament not having lived through it personally, it does make me feel a bit disconnected from it.

That's why films like this are important though, to connect you to what happened. To realize what our community has been through, and to see how far we've come. And when it is done like this film was, with excellent actors, treated with a measure of reverence, it's even better. I will be shocked if The Normal Heart doesn't pick up a number of Emmys and other awards. It's worth your time, I highly recommend it. But get your box of tissues ready.

The Normal Heart is available on HBO Go, and HBO On Demand, and also stars Jim Parsons, Julia Roberts and Taylor Kitsch.

National Organization for Marriage Recruits Kirk Cameran as Spokesman

Still cute. But sooo dumb! Image from Salon.

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is a typically badly-named arch conservative group that more accurately is against marriage equality.  They could even more accurately be described as anti-gay period, more than just anti-gay marriage, if their NOMBlog.com posts and commentary are to be believed. And, they are a hate group, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

They've been behind several successful state ballot issues to ban same-sex marriage. The people behind NOM are a little more difficult to figure out, and they continue to flout election laws about that, but that's not the point of this post. They are also quite ham-handed as an organization, electoral victories or not. For instance, a while back they got busted for hatching a plan to exploit and foster a rift between the LGBT and the black communities.  And after they got busted, they followed through with the plan undeterred, regularly posting divisive, race vs. sexuality articles. They also now feature people of color in their various stock photos pictures of happy NOM members.

They also were discovered to be seeking a spokesperson (or spokespeople) for NOM, to combat all of the high-profile celebrities who are on board for gay marriage. But remember when I said ham-handed? Here was their description of what they wanted:

"Hollywood with its cultural biases is far bigger than we can hope to be. We recognize this. But we also recognize the opportunity - the disproportionate potential impact of proactively seeking to gather and connect a community of artists, athletes, writers, beauty queens and other glamorous non-cognitive elites across national boundaries. (This is applying the Witherspoon and IAV model to non-intellectual elites.)"

(emphasis added)              [Source: GLAAD]

Non-cognitive! Which I can only interpret as "non-thinking," "unintelligent," "gullible" or "stupid." And the really, really funny part? They got somebody! And I'll grant them, Kirk Cameron--onetime teen heartthrob and costar of Growing Pains--fits the description. I don't know about "glamorous" or "elite" but he's still cute. And he's starred in all of those hilarious terrible Left Behind movies!

I'm guessing the gay stuff all somehow
links back to this picture. Image from
StayOnFountain.

Ever since Growing Pains, Cameron has been something of a church fart. He got involved in the dogma-heavy, thinking-light kind of Christianity that actually believes in the Tim LaHaye/Jerry Jenkins Armageddon nonsense. He thinks bananas are obviously divinely designed, because they fit in your hand and mouth so perfectly. Ahem. And he doesn't like gay people very much.

Which is perfect for NOM, because though they like to claim that they have nothing against "the gay," per se, they very clearly do. I can only hope that Kirk Cameron is one day discovered grabbing a banana in Griffith Park. . .while he's still employed by NOM!


[Excerpt]


Hey, Kirk Cameron, learn your Bible

Today in things you hadn’t heard about for a few months, we bring you a double-header: Kirk Cameron and the National Organization for Marriage. .  .


Read more at (with video!): Salon

Ann Coulter's Inspiration: Robert Palmer

Earlier, I posted a video clip of comedienne, Kathy Griffin, who compares Ann Coulter to a "Robert Palmer Girl." I was reminded of this when my MP3 player picked Addicted to Love immediately after I Didn't Mean to Turn You On today. I got to thinking, and remembered a regular feature on TowleRoad.com is aYouTube roundup, with a four-way split screen.

I think I learned how to do it! So, here are four "Robert Palmer Girls" videos. The first, Addicted to Love, was the original, and the girls sort of just played musical robot/mannequins. In the second, I Didn't Mean to Turn You On, the mannequins are joined by dancers with really bad 80s fashion sense. The third video is a Pepsi commercial (Robert sells out), and the fourth, Simply Irresistible, the ultimate culmination (and I think final installment) of the concept.

Robert Palmer died on September 26, 2003 of a heart attack at age 54. But his legacy lives on, with his "lip girls!"

I really wanted to include a video of the 1989 Geena Davis appearance on Saturday Night Live, where she played a "Robert Palmer Girl" in a skit called "The Robert Palmer Bunch," a Brady Bunch-inspired sitcom, with all of the girls living with Robert Palmer in suburbia. It was quite funny, but I can't find a video clip The best I could do was this photo. Yes that is the (unfortunately) late Phil Hartman as Palmer.


Photo from NBC.com

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