This is the part of summer that seems to be filled with happy hour mixers.

The weekend before last our office had a ballgame outing. We went to the Cyclones game at Coney Island. I didn't pay much attention to the game, but had fun chatting with the other ACLU interns and staff. After the game, we grabbed some food on the boardwalk and walked down to the beach to see the fireworks. 

Then I went to see Happy Potter 7.2 on Saturday. There were more than a few tears. And cheers. The crowd at the theater went batshit for the final scene with Mrs. Weasley and Bellatrix.

On Sunday I went and sat in the sun at the Great Hill in Central Park. Lots of hot guys wandering around but sadly no photos because my camera phone decided to start malfunctioning that day.

I went to see Harry Potter again on Monday, this time with friends from work. And in 3D. The movie didn't suffer from a second viewing.

On Tuesday my summer job with the school as a tutor with AEP (which I also did last summer) started. That's going to eat into my free time a bit, but I need the cash flow this late in the summer.

This weekend was also action-packed. On Friday I went to see Captain America. I liked it a lot. More than Green Lantern, maybe not quite as much as Thor. Although the Avengers trailer that played after the credits was pure joy.

On Saturday I went to Central Park again and had a picnic of grapes, sushi and stuffed grape leaves.  Because of the heat wave there was almost nobody in the park this time.

On Sunday I got up early and headed down to the City Marriage Bureau. The ACLU had us come out to celebrate the first day of marriage for all. I got there a bit before 8:00. The Westboro Baptist Church was one one corner and across the way diagonally were hundreds of couples already waiting in line. The WBC bigots left around 8:30. They had to get to the bigger hate rallies in the other boroughs. 

I also saw The Daily Show's Samantha Bee and Jason Jones wandering around filming. Samantha Bee had amazing shoes.

They started letting people into the bureau a little after 8:30. Around 9:30 or so the first couples emerged from the other end of the building, happily married. That's when things got really exciting. Some observations:

• There were probably 4 photographers or journalists for every couple.
• I've never been in a gathering of so many gay people where everyone had their shirt on (especially considering the heat). As one guy commented "It's like gay pride without the vodka commercial."
• Speaking of gay pride, because of my clever sign I felt like a walking photo op. I imagine that must be what fantastically dressed drag queens feel like at Pride.
• Speaking of my clever sign, the trick to drawing a good Beyoncé is the use of negative space.
•  The marriage of the puppets from Avenue Q was cute. The actors playing the puppet characters were cuter.

As my twitter friends and facebook friends probably already know, my picture has shown up in quite a few news stories about the event. (That last photo was on Queerty and was taken by a photographer with name that sounds like we ought to be related if he didn't spell his last name wrong.) Having a big poster strategically blocking my gut is probably the best outcome I could have hoped for when ending up in national news coverage.

After a few hours of marriage madness I left to go to my friend Lee's birthday party at this cute steampunk bar near Union Square where I chatted with fellow nerds about comic books and movies.

Anyway, that's what has been keeping me occupied this summer. 

p.s. If anyone is a fan of Drop Dead Diva, yesterday's episode was about a lesbian couple who wanted to go to prom. The court that hears the case is presided over by Wanda Sykes and the bailiff is played by ACLU's client Constance McMillen, who had to sue her school for the right to attend prom. It was a cute episode that also included Clay Aiken and Lance Bass and (as always) Margaret Cho - it was a gaysplosion!

In other news, today is my first no-smoke-iversary. Technically, I think it might be tomorrow, but it doesn’t matter, it’s been a full year since I quit smoking. I celebrated by pushing myself for a really fast run in the park this morning. I was on track to do 5 miles in under 40 minutes, but about halfway through I ran headlong into about 5000 marathoners going in the opposite direction and I was forced to take a break and figure out how to get around them.

I also looked at some apartments today. There’s one in Harlem that I really, really like, although the guy who is moving out just said this morning that he doesn’t plan to leave until June 1 and I have to be out of the dorm May 28 at the very latest, so it might be impossible.

I started reading Changeless by Gail Carriger yesterday. It’s the second book in the series after Soulless, which I read over Spring Break. A few lines had me laughing out loud in Sheep’s Meadow this afternoon.

I also took myself to see Clash of the Titans last night. I was a great date, but I did get a little handsy later. Anyway, I thought the movie was fine summer popcorn fare. They did exactly what they promised to do – update the original film with modern special effects. Same plot. Same characters. Same opportunities for respectable actors to chew the scenery as mythical gods and monsters and warriors.

Otherwise, school is school. It’s not as stressful as last semester, but it’s not as new and exciting, either. We had a rather intense Constitutional Law week, covering 3 weeks of material in 3 days. Even though it was interesting material (14th Amendment Equal Protection stuff), it was rough. Interestingly, we had more classroom resistance to heightened scrutiny of gender-based laws than we did to applying a higher standard of review for laws that negatively impact gays, lesbians and bisexuals (again, not an especially trans-aware discussion). Whatever, I mostly keep my mouth shut in class these days and listen, especially on issues where I feel passionate.

Anyway, I’m soaking up some sun and having some fun because once school starts up again, it’s all downhill to finals, then the writing competition for law review and journals, then summer interning, then registering for classes… aside from Memorial Day (when I will likely be settling into a new apartment), I don’t anticipate a long weekend again until the 4th of July.

Avatar is sort of like a twink on ecstasy working a stripper pole. Sure, it’s fun to look at and mildly diverting, but you feel bad about it because it’s shallow, not very smart, and kinda offensive. I could forgive the plot holes bigger than Craig and Enrico‘s combined p33ns (like the disappearance of all the other human-driven avatars after act 1), I could forgive the characterization that made me yearn for the complexity of stereotypes (the general who walked on screen and said “I’m the bad guy who wants to kill or bully everyone… hate me now, hate me forever, I have no positive characteristics”). What I can’t forgive (because I’m me) is the offensive white hetero male fantasy where strong women sacrifice themselves, the white man assimilates into native culture and saves the minority culture through (essentially) terrorism, and the thinly veiled use of blue aliens as stand-ins for Native Americans and tribal Africans.

On the flip side, there’s not much about Sherlock Holmes that I didn’t like. I don’t remember Sherlock Holmes being quite so smartass or lecherous to chamber maids in the books, but whatever. Robert Downey Jr is great at playing Robert Downey Jr. The story was well done and I was able to pick up on a few clues prior to the unraveling of the mystery at the end. I hope the holder of copyright isn’t going to stop the future movies because of teh gheys having buttsecks subtext.

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides wasn’t exactly my idea of light vacation reading, but it was Enrico‘s idea of light vacation reading, and that’s what I get for asking him for a recommendation. Kidding aside, what I loved most about this book was the style. The writing itself was superb and I don’t think I’ve ever read another book that so effectively used first person plural for a narrator’s voice. The structure of the book was also interesting as it vaulted back and forth between present day commentary and various points in the story. What I didn’t love about the book was the story itself and the themes. They struck me as being the weak point of the book and I wish Eugenides had used his excellent storytelling skills to tell a more interesting story.

Ah, urban fantasy. Now this is my idea of light vacation reading. White Witch, Black Curse is the seventh book in Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan series. Unlike some urban fantasy series (I’m looking at you Laurell K. Hamilton), it always feels like Harrison is moving the larger story along rather than stringing it out as long as possible. I still like the characters and Harrison manages to continue coming up with new and credible threats and mysteries to solve (again, looking at you LKH).

Anyway, my flight back to NY is late Thursday. I’m already getting emails from my professors and school is coming back way too quickly. I wouldn’t mind another few weeks of down time. Of course, when you’re putting in several resumes a day for summer internships, it’s not really a true vacation.

ETA: Somehow I forgot to mention the first movie I saw on this trip, Nine. I didn’t really love it much more than when I first heard the Broadway Cast Album in the 90s. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t exactly riveting cinema, either. The cast did a fine job, but if you never connect with or care about Guido Contini, it’s all an exercise in standalone performances.

Movies I saw in the theater in 2009:

• Avatar
• Nine
• Happy Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Star Trek
• The Hurt Locker
• Sugar
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Notable not-required-for-school Books I read in 2009:

• Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk
• One L, Scott Turow
• Foundation (Valdemar: Collegium Chronicles, Book 1), Mercedes Lackey
• Swallowing Darkness, Laurell K. Hamilton
• The Outlaw Demon Wails, Kim Harrison
• Touchy Subjects, Emma Donoghue
• The Phoenix Endangered, Mercedes Lackey

Places I’ve been (for more than a day) in 2009:

• Cincinnati, OH
• New York City, NY
• Salt Lake City, UT

Blog stats for 2009:

Month	Monthly visits	Avg. daily visitors
January	4,240	137
February	3,912	140
March	4,412	142
April	3,213	107
May	3,159	102
June	5,126	171
July	4,626	149
August	4,972	160
September	1,683	56
October	1,791	58
November	1,866	62
December	1,966	68
Total/Overall	40,966	113

Everyone told me it was a filler movie, meant to move the plot along to the coming finale. Everyone was right. I’m not sure you can say anything else about it without understanding that point. The plot was less traditionally structured, more character-driven, and the resolution was entirely a build-up to the last two movies. There was a lot less random magic than earlier movies, and the magic that did permeate the school seemed darker and more menacing than previous years. I miss the moving stairways, playful creatures, talking paintings and classroom adventures, but the tone is becoming more serious and adult, and magic either becomes wild and dangerous or utilitarian. I also don’t know how two hours and 45 minutes of movie can still feel rushed and cruel in the cuts to the source material, but it happened.

Anyway, there’s no class next week and I’m not sure how I’m going to occupy myself. I’m too poor to keep going to shows or shopping. I think next week is going to be free museum and city wandering week.

The plan is to take a nap this afternoon so I can drive through the night. I have a feeling that’s not going to work out well. Nerves.

Last night Jennifer and Jacob took me to see The Hurt Jacket. Overall, I liked it. You know how lots of movies brag about being non-stop action and thrills? This movie actually did that. A film about bomb experts in Iraq, it was scene after scene of intense suspense. Even the “breather” scenes could suddenly become chokingly emotional in a heartbeat.

My only complaint is that the director never a met a “war film” cliche she didn’t like. Soldier in silhouette against flames? check. Long, intense, extreme close-up in the desert sun? check. Shaky hand-cam and rapid cuts? check. Slow-mo explosions? check. Weeping and collapsing in the shower? check.

Despite the overused tropes, the film is intriguing on many levels. The psychology of the soldier, especially as adrenaline junkie. The emotional connection and break made with the people of the occupied land. The confusion of purpose, the despair of the soldier, the clueless or distant command structure, the guilt of insecurity when lives are on the line, the nobility of intention… the film has a rather unflinching eye toward the experience of the soldiers.

Anyway, even though I’m not usually one for war films, this was worth the trip.

Sugar: Brendan Fehr, Andre Noble, Marnie McPhail

Based on several short stories by writer Bruce LeBruce, Sugar is a provocative and funny coming of age love story. Cliff, a gay teen, is restless in his sheltered suburban life, and anxious to have his first sexual experience. One night, while downtown, he meets a tough street hustler, Butch, who introduces him to a world of sex, drugs, prostitution and life on the streets. Romance blossoms between the two until drugs begin to pull them apart. Realistic and challenging, Sugar is about coming out and coming of age.

Turns out, Jenn’s Flixter app on iphone was linked to the description for the 2004 movie above, but the movie we actually saw was:

Sugar: Algenis Perez Soto, Andre Holland, Ann Whitney

Miguel Santos, a.k.a Azucar, a Dominican pitcher from San Pedro de Macoris, struggles to make it to the big leagues and pull himself and his family out of poverty. Playing professionally at the Kansas City Knights baseball academy, Miguel finally gets his break at age 19 when he advances to the United States’ minor league system. Miguel travels from his tight knit community in the Dominican Republic to a small town in Iowa, corn country, where he and a couple other Latin American teammates are the only Spanish-speaking people in the vicinity. As Miguel struggles with the new language and culture, despite the welcoming efforts of his host family, he is faced with an isolation he never before experienced. When his play on the mound falters, he begins examining more closely the world around him and his place within it, and ultimately questions the single-mindedness of his life’s ambition.

So instead of (gay) sex, drugs and prostitution, we got a movie about baseball – the most boring of all sports (other than golf). Good thing the movie didn’t totally suck. In fact, I sorta liked it. The acting was great, the story was better than the write-up above would indicate, and the movie was well-crafted (if a bit longer than was necessary to tell the story).

I saw the movie as a critique on corporate American baseball – particularly in the way it exploits players from impoverished communities like the Dominican Republic. While players out of the U.S. college system have fallback careers and higher starting salaries, the Dominican players are pushed to perform with the threat of deportation and loss of Visa if the start to struggle. Like others before him, the title character (who once loved baseball) grows increasingly desperate after an injury throws off his pitching streak. He ends up running away to New York and becoming another illegal immigrant struggling to get by and provide for his family back home. In an uplifting ending, however, Sugar rediscovers his love of the game when he joins a local community league made up of other immigrants brought to the states and discarded by the professional system.

We also got a few chuckles out of the way Miguel reacted to such Midwestern experiences as being spoken to very condescendingly by white folks, hearing offensive fake Spanish (“no chickas”), and getting suckered into showing up at an evangelical youth chastity group.

My one big complaint (aside from this not being a movie about gay sex): apparently now the overuse of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” has now crossed the language barrier as the emotional climax of the movie involved an admittedly lovely rendition in Spanish.

Also, even though we didn’t get any hot gay man-on-man action, Algenis Perez Soto isn’t hard to look at.

On a related note, Mariemont is now officially the creepiest part of the greater Cincinnati area I have visited. We stopped into Graeters for birthday ice cream and there was a table of 7-8 children, all the same age, all with blue eyes and blonde hair. A few minutes later, another group of blonde-haired, blue-eyed children (slightly older) gathered outside the store window. It was disturbingly “Children of the Corn” and the neighborhood’s Tudor buildings only reinforced the bizarre Stepford quality.

It’s a really, really good movie and may make a full-fledged Trekkie out of me yet, although I want to see if this reboot can pull off “smart” with as much success as it pulled off “action.”

And like a lemming, I will continue to go see these movies, only perpetuating the success of the franchise.

Luckily, I’ve got another set of press photos with Blingee enhancements to make it all better. Remember, if it glitters, it must be true!

Tell you what, boys, bring along Taylor Kitsch and we’ll call it even.

Saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine yesterday. Here’s the thing, I’ve given Hollywood a lot of slack on the X-Men films. From the beginning, I’ve accepted that they were going to play a bit fast-and-loose with the back stories of the characters and eliminate some of the really far-fetched elements of the X-men universe (e.g. magic, aliens, cyborgs and robots, time-travel, etc.). But really, I’m starting to feel insulted. There is more to Emma Frost than “blonde, turns into diamond.” There is more to Remy/Gambit than “New Orleans, makes things explode.” There is more to Fred/the Blob than “strong, fat, vaguely Southern.” These aren’t minor characters they’re messing with, these are major characters with long, established and well-known stories. And don’t get me started on Deadpool. My point is simply that the movie was fine, it was well-acted and enjoyable, but I wish they’d rename it “Wolverine: A movie based extremely vaguely on characteristics of an X-Men comic book.”

I finished reading Chuck Palahniuk’s Snuff last night. I always sort of like Palahniuk’s work, particularly because he seems so aware of the novel as a form and takes interesting risks with the format. I get weary of the apocalyptic stakes-raising of each book, and I wonder if he could have told the same story in half the time and just as effectively by cutting 1/3 of the random trivia, but it’s fun to read and painless, so I don’t mind. In Snuff, we follow 4 characters around during a 600-man gangbang of world famous porn actress Cassie Wright, and it’s possible one of the 600 men plans to kill her. The characters, a veteran porn actor who will be “Mr. 600″, a washed-up actor running from rumors of his sexual orientation, a young man virgin with an unusual interest in the aging star, and the intelligent and philosophical talent wrangler keeping all 600 men in line. Palahniuk reveals the story and the characters one layer at a time until we know the deepest, most neurotic details of these 5 lives (Cassie gets revealed through the people around her) into his typically absurd climax of storytelling whether nothing really gets resolved and no one gets what they wanted.