Before Carrie Bradshaw there was...
Mrs. Madrigal. I am embarassed to admit it but until last week I'd never seen the classic Tales of the City
- what the hell was I thinking?!?!?! I guess b/c I came out late and can sometimes be oblivious to somewhat obvious things (I didn't know Steel Magnolias either until about 5 years ago...) but WOW! What a great series. I just finished Disk 1 and cannot wait until Disk 2 arrives.The last time my friend Matty was in town the subject of the movie came up while I was hanging out with him and Dbud. Matty damn near fainted and Dbud lost all the color in his face - they implored me to see the series. Well 6 months later... or maybe 9, who knows...
Talk about captivating. After watching Desperate Housewives
the other night I have concluded that writing for television shows has really gone in the shitter (big epiphany I know...) The characters are so rich, full of mystery and really vibrant. The acting is decent too (well some of it is a little bad but of course Olympia Dukakis is fantastic) and I am looking forward to seeing what happens in the 3rd episode.Anyhow I just needed to share that... I now know exactly why Matty told me to watch that movie. Though I can't help but think it was a little self-serving too... He lives in San Francisco and knows my sense of wanderlust... But before I give my Boo a heart attack, I'll say that I would need the big house on Potrero Hill with a big fuzzy man and a labrador in the yard to even consider moving...
Well I have 1 out of those 3 items, so I'd better start saving for that house... :-P
posted by TOS at 8:42 a.m.
10 Comments:
Tales is definitely a good watch... Each subsequent series gets worse in terms of acting and production, but you still wanna watch them anyway. :)
11:08 a.m.
Try the books. There's more books than dvds. And, as usual, the books are better. Though I'd have to admit my fondess for Olympia Dukakis and Laura Linney. If you haven't already, you may want to visit Mr. Maupin's website. http://www.literarybent.com/
1:01 p.m.
what the hell does steel magnolias have to do with gay men? i don't get the whole gay men fascination with women thing.
3:53 p.m.
and in the second series (more tales) you get male frontal nudity...
4:13 p.m.
Yeah -- the series does get progressively "worse" as it goes on. Characters are replaced with new actors, the writing seems to deminish a bit, and the storyline becomes a little *eh* ... but all in all, for the time, the series is pretty good.
The books, as noted by others, are MUCH better. Maupin is a great writer, if not but very simple. I've read a lot of his stuff over the years, but he made his place with TOTC. Something that even today, you would never see in a newspaper (then again, I guess that TOTC wouldn't really be considered news...)
5:34 p.m.
Nothing... it's just a movie that has somehow lodged itself in the gay "cult"ure. I don't have a good reason why but it did.
I just like it b/c of the spunky reparte and quick 1-liners that the women shoot back and forth between each other.
It could be acted out by monkeys or football players in jockstraps for all I care, I just like that type of humor.
Tho come to think of it, even Ishtar would be good if it was acted out by football players in jockstraps - but I digress...
5:57 p.m.
As said, the books are better.
And about Steel Magnolias, I believe that the playwrite was a gay man from the south who based the characters on women in his life.
Brilliant writing, if you asked me.
8:03 p.m.
The Tales of the City was shown, I think, when it first came out at the Lincoln Theater on U Street. I think it was over two nights. I can't remember if they did the same thing with More Tales of the City but I think they did. I don't remember the dates of the showings. It's been a while. Tales, at least, was quite a to-do. A lot of people were there including Barney Frank.
I'm always a little bit disappointed that younger gay men don't pay more attentiont to the early days of gay publishing. Of course there were some early books by people like James Baldwin, Gore Vidal, and others. But when Patricia Nell Warren published "The Front Runner" it was quite a big deal. I read it and the next two she wrote: "The Fancy Dancer" and "The Beauty Queen". I remember "The Best Little Boy in the World" and "The Boy Who Picked Up the Bullets" among others.
I remember reading Christopher Street like my life depended on it and considering I lived in a small town nowhere near a big city my life sort of did depend on it.
I remember reading the lesbian fiction available like Rita Mae Brown's "Rubyfruit Jungle" and "Six of One" as well as Radclyff Hall's "Well of Loneliness".
And a little further up the road I very much enjoyed Ethan Mordden's stories starting with "I've a Feeling We're Not in Kansas Anymore". Last year he concluded the series but I have't found the book. But I know some of his stuff is at the used book store on U Street.
I'm not sure how well Larry Kramer's "Faggots" and Andrew Holleran's "Dancer From the Dance" have managed to hold younger gay men's attention but I remember enjoying them very much the first time and afterwards. Best read back to back since "Dancer From the Dance" is a pretty straightforward story while "Faggots" is a satire of the same time and place (and events).
Please don't disregard the past. We have a lot of wonderful things that started in the 70s (and before!). This isn't just my past. It's yours as well and it's very important to your future. It's our collective memory. How will we advance if we don't remember who we are and where we've been?
8:07 a.m.
It's interesting to hear comments about books with gay themes from years back.
When I was 16 (which was many years ago), I can remember him and I traveling the hour and a half to Atlanta to visit what was Brushstrokes and Oxford Books.
Brushstrokes was located at the time over in the Highlands, in a dark alley, no signs, no direction. We were left with an old gay mag (Etc.) with an address.
Oxford, long since put out of business, was a world that even today brought a new adventure at each turn. Books on top of books for subjects I could only dream about. Tucked in the far back corner of the store was the "gay/lesbian" section. Cruisy at best, but for a 16 year old it was a goldmine of things we couldn't find elsewhere.
"The Front Runner" was probably my first gay book that I bought. Purchased from Brushstrokes back in 1989. The meer mention of this brought back a lot of memories and I had to go dig it up. The book, tattered, worn, edges frayed from the many times that I've read it, it provided a sense of gay life to an otherwise "virgin" gay man.
Gay history is very important. Books are a link to that history, unlike todays Pride celebrations which have now become not so much the celebration vs. the mass-marketing.
Read the books, see the movies.
Oh, as for "Steel Magnolias" ... "every gay man is named Mark, Rick, or Steve and they have track lighting" .... And we can all relate to 4 bitchy friends that love each other more that life itself.
8:40 a.m.
Thanks for the mentions, Tos! SF is a city that is vibrant and full of ghosts. Living here is an adventure...hope you come out here again soon.
7:20 p.m.
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