The final frontier

I'm sorry, but when I think of one, I can't help but think about the other. If I were better at PhotoShop, . . . . well, you get the idea.

So where were we?

Ah yes, sick with yet another head cold and shacking up with Twitter, that's pretty much what you need to know for the moment, with the promise of more to come this week.

In the meantime, a few images to entertain you, one still, one moving.

I have been in a reliving-my-life-in-Texas-with-regular-forays-into-Mexico mode. Some of this, a lot of it in fact, has been prompted by my recent addiction to Twitter and the "curators" of the world project. First, there was Sweden, then there were, all in a rush, Australia, the USA, Mexico, the city of Leeds in the north of England, and now, scheduled to launch on Monday,  "Basques Abroad."

I've really enjoyed these personal, thoughtful, and often very funny takes on life in different places and cultures. I've even suggested to the head of an international LGBT rights group about helping organize a "gay curators" group to talk about our lives in a more positive way than, say, any former Pennsylvania politician running for presidential office might do.

But again, we'll get to these and other topics about my current state of twitterpation.

The Mexico project has been particularly engaging to me. The first curator, Israel from Monterrey, did a wonderful week showing us around the city and talking about current issues in Mexican politics and culture. And now Penélope from Aguascalientes is showing us her city, showing off the local cuisine and sights, and introducing us to some Mexican cultural motifs, such as noted illustrator and political cartoonist, José Guadalupe Posada.

So it's all coming back to me now: The times I have spent in Monterrey, seeing some of the same sights; enjoying the discussions about food, having dined on some of the same dishes; the cultural and political moments, remembering classes I've taken, books I've read, and conversations I've had.

As Penélope took us on a tour of the Posada Museum this afternoon, I took this photo of some items in my personal collection, a couple of "calaveras" in the style of Posada and Mexico's famed Day of the Dead cultural motif.

The skeletal married couple (who me trying to make a cultural point?) are probably more in keeping with Posada's work, a critique of the upper classes, the Don Catrín and Doña Catrina of the late 1800s and early 1900s, too wealthy and too unworried about the masses, fiddling around while Mexico was about to catch fire and burst into flames of revolution.

Totally irrelevant to today's place and time, of course.

The vendor selling "elotes" or corn, well, that's just fun, and elicits a lovely memory of buying "elotes" along the street in towns on both sides of the border, hot, cooked corn kernels served in a cup with a mix of maybe milk and a light, creamy mayonnaise, and chili powder, and who knows what else. One of the best, most simple, most delicious foods I've ever had the pleasure of eating.

¡Viva México! Ay, Dios, what I wouldn't give for some of your cuisine and culture right this very moment. Why did I ever leave you? Why did you let me?

The moving image, well, hmmm, this is more of what you're used to in this blog, my less serious side. This clip highlights another delicacy of Mexican culture when I was living in its orbit in the mid-'90s to mid-2000s: The Mexican boy band.

Señores y Señoras, may I present to you one of the better ones, Kairo, and their huge mid- to late-'90s hit, "Dile que la amo" ("Tell her that I love her").



Where to begin with this one?

Oh lord, did we really all wear those pale blue jeans with white t-shirts, leather jackets, and black boots? I don't recall that just being a Mexican fashion faux-pas; I think that's pure '90s pitifulness.

But who's looking at the clothes? It's the two barely-singing, oiled-up dancers our eyes are focused on, natch. (Or at least that's where my focus is.) Those boys from Kairo and a zillion other Latin boy bands were almost too perfect in an Isla de Doctor Moreno kind of way. Not that I'm complaining. How I wish I could put in an order for some carne asada like that and have it shipped northward.

Nevertheless, why don't we see more of the lead singer, who is just so darned adorable? OK, I get it, maybe he doesn't have the body of the other two, and when dealing with video for teen girls and pervy, middle-aged men, muscle is the message. So keep the cute one in a leather jacket and tight jeans, while los dos musculeros hit the gym and keep at it with the steroids. Anything but that tucked out t-shirt that makes el monito look only tinier and more elfin.

Not a good look, Televisa, but I still wouldn't kick the little one out of my recámara for eating tostadas and salsa.

¡Ándale!

Waiting to inhale

My new "professional class" inhaler. (I stopped calling it my "executive inhaler" when a friend pointed out that there was no wood grain on it.)

I'm told if I use this successfully, I might graduate up to a pocket protector or slide ruler.

Hashtag "effing head cold."

Wide open

Can I just say that I do not understand why there is such a huge deal over the fact that Tim Tebow drops to one knee and prays after every maneuver on the football field . . . ?

Lawsy, like this is some significant accomplishment or remarkable occurrence.

Gay men and straight women have been dropping to *both* knees, praise, since time began--to worship true idols, to pray for divine inspiration, to partake of the blood (or whatever) and the body, to bow down before him, kneel, and submit--and no one devotes every other second of broadcast time to this fact of life.

Say amen, somebody.

Say goodbye to Llanview: Asa's ex-wives and other jokes

We've had a few days of high drama and sentimental favorites, something soaps are well-known for. But soaps can also be funny, funnier than you might imagine, and often more clever and hilarious than a lot of prime-time comedy shows. At least IMHO.

I thought the old NBC soap, Santa Barbara, especially in the mid- to late-'80s was quite comical. Consciously so. In fact, it was often a very sophisticated show, full of pop culture and political references a-go-go. It was the Dynasty of daytime, but even better. If anything, I thought sometimes they played it with a little too much farce and fabulousity, so much so that I suspect they left some of their audience blinded by the sparkle and glamor of it all.

It was a quirky, smart, cocktail party of a soap. When it ended its run in the early '90s, its glory had long been tarnished. But for a brief while, it was the quintessence of '80s fashion and attitude. Just ask Europe, where the show was number 1 for much of its run.

Sara Bibel, who writes the column Deep Soap for the Comcast/Xfinity network, has described One Life to Live in a similar way, framing it as being an "arthouse soap." No doubt at times the show's quirkiness, its out-there antics, its humor, and perhaps its more New York sensibility, haven't always appealed to the majority of soap fans.

Or so I'm assuming; I'm not convinced anyone, especially in the entertainment industry, knows what soap fans are like or what they want. Certainly, they weren't expecting the public outcry over the cancellation of both All My Children and One Life to Live, which happened in spring 2011.

Nonetheless, in the last year, the show picked up a cool half-million viewers according to official ratings, so they must have been doing something right. Plenty of people got the joke. And they were laughing with OLTL, not at it.

May I present to you a case in point--particularly, the one above, a scene from 2001, "one of" family patriarch Asa Buchanan's funerals. (It's a soap, after all; lots of people have multiple funerals, wives, children, and evil twins.) There are a couple of things to watch out for and laugh at--

• The fact that Asa has had something like 9 wives and 11 marriages and most of those wives showed up at his funeral.
• That one wife in particular, Alex Olanov, gets up "to speak a few words in honor of Asa," and ends up taking over the funeral and turning it into an ex-wives' club rally against the late patriarch.
• And the moment when ex-wife Blair Cramer reacts when she recalls her own wedding to Asa. The flashback is to Asa's wedding to the original Blair, who was played by a dark-haired Asian-American woman, not the Kentucky-accented blonde that is Kassie DePaiva.

Trust me, over the years, there have been a number of inside jokes about that casting decision.

But OLTL, at least in the 2000s, when I watched it heavily, has never been afraid to laugh at itself or to take itself lightly. At both funerals and weddings, such as Bo and Nora's remarriage in 2010. Some of this is a little too cute for its own good, especially Bo's son David's (Tuc Watkins) ongoing commentary, in which a little goes a long way. So skip ahead to 5:30 and focus on the beginning of the actual ceremony.

There's more, but this is a good taste of what you've been missing on TV while you're at work.

* * *

And here's another example, a bit long--but "it's because I double-majored." The ridiculous premiere of Vicker Man (starring David Vickers Buchanan), interrupted by the ridiculous premiere of Hold the Diploma (starring, uh, Buster Ridge). Circa summer 2011.



And yet another, Christmas at La Boulaie, Dorian Cramer's estate, where "Santa" makes an appearance.



The comedy is broad, but, hey, I think it's funny all the same.

Say goodbye to Llanview: Sealed with a Kish

Say hello and goodbye to what was once Llanview's resident gay couple, Kish. (Kyle + [Oliver] Fish = Kish.) They didn't last long (maybe a year, from 2009 to spring of 2010), but what a story, or a series of stories, as One Life to Live at the time gayed out in a pretty big way.

We had gotten to know Fish (Scott Evans) over time as a member of the Llanview Police Department. Later, Kyle (Brett Claywell) moved to town, as the brother of another character, crazy-woman-with-a-vendetta Rebecca Lewis. It took a while for the reveal that Kyle and Fish knew each other before, had known each other quite well in fact, in college. But by the time we figured all that out, Fish had already become involved with the feisty, gorgeous Layla Williamson, as well as the stripper-with-a-heart-of-brass, Stacy Morasco.

Meanwhile, Dorian Kramer (Robin Strasser) would run for the office of mayor of Llanview and would actively court Llanview's gay vote, conducting a mass "wedding-in" for local gay and lesbian couples, herself marrying her (fake) female lover. It's all in a day's politics in Llanview.

When thugs threatened the gay wedding, Fish would fight back and come out. Layla and he would break up, he'd learn that he was the baby daddy, he'd patch things up with Kyle, and together they would go off to raise their baby, after Stacy drowned. All in the space of a year or so. Certainly much quicker than the Luke and Noah (aka, "Nuke") relationship played out on As the World Turns. Man, it took Oakdale's resident gay boys forever to have kiss and have sex, while in Llanview we learned that Fish was a top within a year!

So where are they now? Somewhere in Llanview raising a baby, working the beat, and playing doctor (Kyle was a physician, if I recall correctly). Various rumors surround the denouement, that the ratings for the show dropped during this era, perhaps because of the front-burner gay storylines (and it was gay, gay, gay, front and center, there for a while, I'll admit), that the actors had crazy salary demands, or that they just started showing up late to the set, a serious no-no in budget-pressed daytime.

I have no idea where the truth lies. In her book, Afternoon Delight: Why Soaps Still Matter, Carolyn Hinsey argues all of this, plus the "hard fit" for gay couples, especially gay male couples, in a female-focused medium. That, essentially, no one wants to see gay men fall in love on daytime.

Hmmm, I just don't know. Here's one gay man who loves soaps, and I know a number of others who do, too. So there's one audience for this kind of love, and one that's been there for a long time, whether the shows acknowledged it or not. And I know a number of women that are comfortable with gay men, even as fantasy romantic heroes. They may all be in Japan, but they exist, nonetheless. Besides, Oliver Fish's coming-out story was dramatic and tortured (his family disowned him at one point, and Kyle and he were lovesick for one another for a long time), and he had a number of entanglements and friendships with Llanview residents to keep story moving along, in my opinion, for at least a while longer.

Plus, to me, in a medium that is currently "challenged" and likely to disappear from American screens altogether in the next couple of years, wouldn't you want to hook and keep viewers? Whether by acknowledging this particular, hidden minority in your audience or making your show more consistently inclusive toward all minority characters (which was a founding tenet of One Live to Live, a racially and economically diverse cast, with this diversity often playing out in the storylines, when it launched in 1968), the time would seem to be now (or more accurately, yesterday) to take action.

Or is that soap audiences (and the companies that own the shows) are too conservative and Kish was just too hot for daytime?

I guess we'll never know, because OLTL ends in just a couple more days.

So goodbye, Kish. You meant a lot to me while you were around. You touched my heart and stimulated my mind in a way that no other characters, no other show, has ever managed to do so deeply.

Say goodbye to Llanview: Starr-X'ed lovers

Editor's note: I couldn't embed the videos as I wanted to, so just follow the links to see the musical numbers.

Four days and counting until the end of One Life to Live . . .

More random favorite moments in One Life to Live history. These are excerpts from episodes that aired in May 2010, when the kids of Llanview High put on a musical (yes, yes, shades of High School Musical, Glee, and maybe even Spring Awakening), Starr-X'ed Lovers, written about the Romeo and Juliet of Llanview, Starr Manning (Kristen Alderson) and Cole Thornhart (Brandon Buddy).

As you might imagine, teen love stories don't really do it for me, but this was a particularly good one, paying homage to the long-standing history of hate and violence between Starr's father Todd and Cole's mother Marty, who Todd had raped two decades before. (The benefit and the detriment of a long-running soap: Lots of history to contend with, not all of it pretty.)

What's of more interest to me in these segments are the musical numbers, which are often quite entertaining--and, given daytime budgets, probably delivered in one take.

Some of the songs used were well-known pop tunes, which require payment of royalties. Still others were original songs, which required talent to write and perform. A lot of the cast performed in this series of episodes, singing and dancing their way through a couple of weeks' worth of story. It's a benefit to having a New York-based show, which has at its disposal kids and adults who often moonlight in theater and, thus, know how to put on a show.

I just don't think you'd see the same level of performance or ability on a Los Angeles-based soap. While they do indeed have good actors on LA shows (depending on the show and the writing), I don't think it's any shock to say that some of the shows favor looks over ability, and looking good over getting dirty while acting. In the LA universe, the look that's favored and featured often seems to be a very generically handsome/beautiful one, one without any rough edges (or body hair, for that matter).

Another benefit to a New York-based soap? Interesting look people. People with dark hair, red hair, wavy hair, kinky hair. Not all straight and blond. People with varied skin tones. Not all white, not even all WASP.

You know, real people.

While the soaps intermittently and inconsistently delivered on ethnic diversity in their casts and stories, to me they always seemed more aware of issues and appearances on the New York shows.

And when OLTL goes off the air on Friday, that will be the end of the New York-based soaps.

Say goodbye to Llanview: The Takeover and The Aftermath

Am loving the hat!

Here is the first in a series of some of my favorite episodes from One Life to Live's past: These were aired in early June 2008 and highlight Dorian's (Robin Strasser) big reveal that she has taken over Buchanan Enterprises from the Buchanan family--and financially and emotionally ruined the Buchanan family in the process.

This event kicked off quite a lot of story for months to come--the death of Jessica's (Bree Williamson) husband Nash, the ostracizing of Natalie (Melissa Archer) and Jared (John Brotherton), Jessica's inability to cope and subsequent insanity, Jessica's pregnancy and the resulting drama from that.



What I like about these episodes is that they are very '80s soap, daytime or nighttime--grand machinations (and a serious wardrobe budget) triggering unforeseen consequences and resulting in deep emotional impact on the characters. These episodes are more like something out of early to mid-Dallas than a hard-pressed daytime drama of the late Naughties.

It's not all about rapid-fire plot points and glossed-over feelings (a character dies, everyone grieves for a week, the widow meets a new love interest at the funeral . . .). Instead, the players react in character about the events, and it propels further emotional development, as well as story, for months and years to come.



I think OLTL was firing on all cylinders, at least during this time period. Despite lots of background noise from the network (cancellation worries, no promotion, favoring General Hospital and All My Children's future over the awkward guest to the party that was One Life to Live), the producers, writers, directors, and actors went for broke to deliver some satisfying drama and must-watch TV.

Last episode, Friday, January 13th, 2012. Llanview, you will be missed.

Say goodbye to Llanview: Can I get a witness?

In honor of the last week of One Life to Live, I'm planning to blog about the show, a mainstay of daytime TV since 1968 and a current and past favorite of mine, daytime and nighttime altogether.

I won't be live-blogging--I have to daytime job, after all, and must rely on evening rebroadcasts on SoapNet to get my daytime soap sustenance. So instead, this week, I'm going to focus on past, memorable episodes and storylines, ones that have stayed with me over the years and, obviously, meant a lot, then and now.

Let's get the tribute going with what is perhaps one of the most well-known of OLTL episodes--and perhaps one of the most memorable moments in TV history (according to TV Guide, no less): Karen Wolek (Judith Light) testifies on the witness stand in defense of Victoria Lord Riley (Erika Slezak), accused of murder, and is forced to reveal to the courtroom and her husband that she is a "common hooker."

I remember watching this with my brother--I was in high school, he was in college--and, at the time, we were both enthralled by the story, the drama, and the acting. It was classic soap opera, near the end of the golden age, when the shows were more about human emotions and less about fantastical and ridiculous plots. I'm talking to you, Ice Princess.

Yes, admittedly, reality is in the eye of the beholder: There probably wasn't then and isn't now a pride of "housewife hookers" around Anytown, USA (at least, not real housewife hookers; I'm not so sure about all those Real housewives), turning tricks by day, playing wifey to their middle-class doctor-husbands by night. But the intricate, long-arc storytelling; the tormented, cathartic emotional release; the freedom to act and not worry about how messy or neurotic you look, while not trying so hard to look messy and neurotic--well, golly, they sadly don't make 'em like that anymore. Even OLTL doesn't necessarily make 'em like that anymore.

Is it over-the-top? Well, maybe a tad, but then so were Greek tragedies and that shameless crowd-pleaser Shakespeare.

I read recently a quote from one of the actors on OLTL, who said that soaps were the closest thing on TV to doing live theater, and that was part of the attraction for the actors. I think this episode of One Life to Live bears witness to the theatrical quality of the medium (good and bad), and the emotional payoff that it offers. I think, too, these are qualities that you only get from shows based in New York, a major center of theater in the U.S. and the English-speaking world.

But we'll get that this week. All in good time . . .

Back to work, back to winter

Sure plays a mean pinball

Pinball flippers by ElHeineken, Wikimedia Commons

Min Gud, I love Radio Sweden. This was one of their features on today's (3 January 2012) broadcast, a segment on new words added to the Swedish language during 2011.

"Pinball parent" is pretty cute--and I'm oddly comforted to know that the "flipper" form of parenting isn't limited to the U.S. Really, it sounds like the lazy-assed manager approach to child-rearing, so I just assumed it was American, yet another "gift" from our MBA glut.

There are some other goodies, but my favorite has to be one of the terms mentioned in the podcast, "attitude incontinence," which refers to the phenomenon of someone rather too generously sharing their opinions about everything with everyone all the time.

It sounds so much classier than "diarrhea of the mouth," inte det?

Ja, it does.

A hot and cold playlist

Imagine these frozen and on fire! Borrowed from Wikipedia.

Now available for your listening pleasure, "A Hot and Cold Mix," made by yours truly using the Mixmeister program, then turned into a podcast with narration (again, by yours truly) with GarageBand software.

You can tune in here.

To get a better sense of what you're listening to, here is the official playlist:

• Manu Dibango - "Soul Makossa"
• LCD Soundsystem - "Too Much Love"
• Robyn - "Dancing on My Own"
• Little Boots - "Stuck on Repeat"
• Agnetha Fältskog - "One Way Love" (Razormaid remix)
• Bobby Orlando - "I'm So Hot for You"
• Sara Love (aka Sara Lumholdt) featuring Milano - "Glamour Bitch"
• Annie - "Hey Annie"
• Just Jack - "Writer's Block"
• Chris Cornell - "Ground Zero"
• Deborah Harry - "In Love with Love"
• Cut Copy - "Need You Now"
• Marvin Gaye - "Got to Give It Up" (Parts I & II)
• Yelle - "Unillusion"
• Cheryl Lynn - "Shake It Up Tonight"
• LCD Soundsystem - "One Touch"
• The B-52s - "Mesopotamia" (1990 remix)
• Kleerup - "Tower of Trelick"

As I explain in the podcast, originally I had some different ideas for this mix, including more Afropop (and generally more examples of "warmer" songs) and a different ending ("Soul Makossa 2.0" featuring Manu Dibango and Wayne Beckford). But time and my collection were not on my side.

So consider this "take 1," with "take 2" to follow . . . depending on my mood and my music.