Best of the Decade - Movies

Lost in Translation (2003) - Sofia Coppola stepped out of her father's shadow writing and directing this sweet and sad "love story" starring a never-better Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson as lost souls wandering the streets of Tokyo. It also has one of the best soundtracks, too.

Kill Bill (2003-2004) Topping Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown didn't seem possible but Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman proved us wrong with this two-part opus about a vengeful bride.

Mulholland Drive (2001) Quite possibly David Lynch's most "accessible" film, but still full of shocks and "what the fuck?" moments to make the purists happy. Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring are sexy as hell, too.

Japanese Story (2003) What begins as an almost offbeat comedy in the Australian outback turns into shocking, searing tragedy. Sue Brooks directs and Toni Collette gives her best screen performance.

Cache (2005) Michael Haneke's suspenseful thriller about a couple -- the brilliant Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil -- under surveillance by a hidden camera with one of the most talked about endings in years.

Amelie (2001) Jean-Pierre Jeunet's breathtaking, kinetic postcard about love in Paris led by Audrey Tautou.

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) Wes Anderson's absurd, brilliant tale of a dysfunctional family led by a scenery-chewing Gene Hackman. Gwyneth Paltrow's best role, too.

The Dark Knight (2008) Christopher Nolan's dark re-imagining of Batman and Heath Ledger's disturbing portrayal of The Joker brought new life to the comic book film genre.

The Hours (2002) The stirring adaptation of Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winner with Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and an unrecognizable Nicole Kidman in an Oscar-winning role as Virginia Woolf.

House of Mirth (2000) Gillian Anderson left Agent Scully behind in this heartbreaking adaption of Edith Wharton's classic tragedy.

Best of the Decade - Music

Aerial - Kate Bush (2005) An epic double album 12 years in the making and one of the best albums ever. Combining electronica, rock, flamenco, classical and sampled bird sounds, it's a rich, multi-layered, emotional work. Worth the wait and then some.

The Fame/The Fame Monster - Lady Gaga (2008/09) Proving that an American artist still knows how to make hooky, dance music.

Vespertine - Bjork (2001) Dreamy, sampled soundscapes and some of her best songs - "Pagan Poetry," "Unison" and "It's in Our Hands" -- are all here.

Deep Cuts - The Knife (2003) Swedish brother and sister duo Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer's brilliant collection of electropop, including one of the best songs of the decade, "Pass This On."

Joe Sent Me - Vanessa Daou (2008) Jazz, pop, and poetry in this smokey, sexy album.

Before the Poison - Marianne Faithfull (2005) Collaborating with PJ Harvey and Nick Cave, a brooding collection of songs and one of Faithfull's best.

Lungs - Florence + The Machine (2009) If Kate Bush has an heir-apparent, it's Florence Welch and her driving, drum-machine heavy debut.

Back to Black - Amy Winehouse (2007) Before the antics, drugs and tabloid frenzy, Winehouse ushered in the British retro sound.

Stories from the City, Stories From the Sea - PJ Harvey (2000) Elemental rock and haunted lyrics courtesy of Polly Jean's vital voice.

Up - Peter Gabriel (2002) If you don't get emotional over "I Grieve" and "Sky Blue," you're a soulless zombie.

Also worthy of mention: Roisin Murphy's solo albums Ruby Blue and Overpowered and Goldfrapp's Supernature.

Read This: Better With Friends - Helen Losse

Helen Losse's new collection Better With Friends ($14, Rank Stranger Press) is a book of devotion -- to friends, family, God and memory. At first glimpse, and without more careful reading, the collection might appear to be a book of "religious poems," but it's far from it. While God does get numerous mentions, it's always in context and there is a running thread through the poems as the narrator works to keep her faith in the face of death, war, racism and bigotry.

Also snaking through the book are memories of trains. The arrivals, departures, distant sounds and iconic images of engines pulling long lines of cars through mountain valleys act as metaphor to our own personal and spiritual journeys.

Writing in an accessible, narrative style, Losse groups the collection into short sections, with two long poems -- "There Is A Presence" and "Where the Reverie is Apt to Lead" -- taking up the last quarter of the book. It's the latter poem that contains the line "This is a poem about living," which neatly sums up all the work to be found in this thoughtful collection.

Where the Reverie is Apt to Lead

1.

This isn't about prayer as such

but concerns the yellow flowers and the barking dog,

the coffee shop downtown, where memory floods

the mind in uneven scenes, and no one prays or even

pauses as though he might pray, drinking the depth

of the city's drivel. This is a poem about living:

About visions in a world of dreams, about rough places

in the world's basement, where we see, hear,

and smell the vomit, before drifting off to chase truth.

This is about the man who sits in the gutter, wearing mis-

mated socks -- he's a lot like us -- and about

other common places the reveries might lead.

Read This: Most Likely You Go Your Way & I'll Go Mine - Ben Tanzer

I read Ben Tanzer's novel, Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine ($11, Orange Alert Press), in two days. His ear for dialogue is sharp and conversations make up 90 percent of the novel. It has a Richard Linklater film quality, especially the ultra-talky Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. That's a good thing. You are inside the heads of the characters who are charting an uncertain course through love and life in Manhattan, circa 1993.

Geoff and Jen have had their series of lovers, one-night-stands and horrible break-ups. They have become cynical and nearly immobile when it comes to connecting with the opposite sex. They have also suddenly found themselves grown up, working dead-end jobs and feeling familial pressures that accompany adulthood. Geoff and Jen have instant chemistry when they meet at a party, while their best friends Paul and Rhonda have a disastrous one night stand. The book explores both couples, but the narrative mostly stays with Geoff and Jen as we get insight into their pasts. Geoff has a volatile, drug-addicted brother, while Jen feels under the gun to find a man when her younger sister becomes engaged.

Self-doubt and miscommunication are rife in this novel and Tanzer peppers it with pop culture references and music lyrics that are almost Tarantino-esque. At 172 pages, it's a brisk, hyper read. Definitely one to check out.

See This: A Single Man (2009, Tom Ford)

Fashion designer Tom Ford's adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's novel, A Single Man, is an astonishing directorial debut. Set in 1962, sun-bleached Los Angles at the height of the Cuban missile crisis burns off the screen. The detail, look and mood of the film transport you so completely back in time that you'll swear the movie was made in 1962. That accomplishment alone would have been something, but the performances Ford gets from Colin Firth, Julianne Moore and Nicholas Hoult make this one of the best films of the year. It might be a "period piece," but the subject matter has never been more timely.

Firth plays George, a grieving college professor, whose longtime lover, Jim, was killed months earlier in a car accident while visiting his family in Colorado. Since it's the '60s and homosexuals are invisible perverts, George finds out about Jim's death days after the tragedy in a phone call from an anonymous family member. Jim's parents refused to call George and have made the funeral for "family only." The grief Firth summons up for this scene, as he crumples into his chair and tears stream down his cheeks, is heartbreaking. There are numerous dream sequences where Firth is naked underwater, metaphorically drowning in grief.

The film unfolds over a single day, so much of it is told in flashback as we see how George and Jim met and fell in love. During the course of this day, George carefully plans his suicide. He empties his safe deposit box of insurance papers, writes notes, presses his best suit and lays it all out on the dining room table with instructions. George is that kind of meticulous, middle-aged man, yet he doesn't seem fussy and Firth refuses to play him as camp.

Over the course of planning his suicide, George has several encounters that make him question his decision. One is with Charley (another fantastic performance from Julianne Moore), his boozy best friend with whom he shared a brief affair with back in England. During dinner, Charley wants to rekindle their affair and intimates that the life George had with Jim wasn't a "real relationship."

Another encounter is outside a liquor store with a Spanish hustler, Carlos, (Jon Kortajarena), who came to LA to be an actor and sports a smoldering James Dean look. George and Carlos share a cigarette and subtle flirtations in the parking lot framed by a giant billboard for Hitchcock's "Psycho." The scene has an Almodovar quality -- so maybe it's no coincidence that Carlos is from Madrid. George gives Carlos money, but refuses sex.

The last encounter is with Kenny (the scorchingly hot Nicholas Hoult, who played the geeky kid in About a Boy and was a regular on the UK series Skins), a college student in lust, if not in love, with George. Ford lavishes the camera on Hoult with angelic lighting to highlight his penetrating blue eyes and smooth skin. Kenny has followed George around all day and suspects his professor is suicidal.

Kenny is the one who, almost literally, saves George from drowning in grief. They skinny dip together, flirt at George's home and the sexual tension between them is palpable. Watching Kenny sleep, George realizes there is something -- and perhaps someone else -- to live for. And then... well, I can't tell you. The final few minutes of the film are unexpected -- and sad -- but we last see George with a nearly beatific smile on his face.

Bravo to Tom Ford for making a film about a gay man without making a "gay film." Forty years on, and the LGBT community might not be invisible, but the "pervert" label still sticks, so Ford handily draws those parallels without making it political. Kudos to Colin Firth for what will surely get him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. He deserves to win.

See This: Up in the Air (2009, Jason Reitman)

I hate to use the word "dramedy" to describe the brilliant film, Up in the Air, but that's what it is. One moment you're laughing your head off and the next your blinking away tears. George Clooney is superb as career-transition counselor Ryan Bingham. That's a fancy title for someone who flies in and fires half a corporation's workforce in one afternoon. The reactions of the people being fired -- some are actors, some are real people recounting their stories -- are mostly heartbreaking. I can't think of a recent film that so perfectly mirrors the time we're living in.

Ryan is in the air more than 300 days a year, and he calls airplane interiors home. He knows how to efficiently live out of one suitcase and he turns going through airport security into poetry. Ryan's dream is reach 10 million frequent flyer miles (and he's very close) and is elated when he's picked to give a talk at a Las Vegas career expo about how to reduce your life so you can live out of backpack. The message he gives during this lecture that the "slower we move, the faster we die," has become his motto. It's also soul-deadening, and has isolated Ryan from his family and everyone around him.

He's also got the art of firing people down to a science. He says the firing is not a tragedy, but an opportunity as he pushes a packet of information toward them. Ryan's voice is at once soothing and authorative in these canning sessions; when an employee freaks out, Ryan is calm and understanding.

On the road, Ryan meets Alex (the sexy Vera Farmiga), an executive who shares his desire for elite status and is also constantly on the road. They begin a casual relationship, synching up their laptop calendars to meet for sex when they happen to be in the same city or on a long layover. "Think of me as you, but with a vagina," she tells him. Things change when Ryan gets a call from his boss (a smarmy Jason Bateman) to return to company headquarters in Omaha for a meeting.

At the meeting, we're introduced to Natalie (Anna Kendrick in an Oscar-worthy role), a 23-year-old Ivy Leaguer who wants to save the company money and fire people more efficiently -- by computer conference. Ryan, threatened by the destruction of his lifestyle, and Natalie butt heads immediately, so he takes her on the road to show her that firing people is something that must be done face to face. Natalie looks like an ice queen, but once she's in America's heartland, seeing the reactions of people who have just lost their livelihoods, her cold exterior cracks wide open. When her fiance dumps her by text message, she unravels.

While this is happening, Ryan and Alex's relationship seems to be growing more affectionate. When he invites her to his younger sister's wedding in Minnesota, it's obvious Ryan is starting to question his single, lonely life in the air and perhaps Alex might be the one to become his "co-pilot" in life. I can't reveal the twists that happen after the wedding, but it's unexpected and leaves the film on a melancholy note. Jason Reitman (who directed the hit indie, Juno) gets this so, so right. There should be a boatload of Oscar nominations coming for this film and deservedly so.

Holiday Weekend Report

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. On Christmas Eve, I met up with Megan, Mindy and Cleo to see George Clooney's new flick, Up in the Air, and eat Chinese food. The movie is brilliant, especially Anna Kendrick. I'll be posting a review this week.

I spent Christmas Day at my grandmother's house with my parents. We had a gigantic meal -- ham, roast beef, corn, green beans, squash, yams, potato salad and more -- and exchanged small gifts. I gave lottery tickets, but, sadly, no one won anything from them. Ah, well... On Christmas night, BFF Malory and I went to see A Single Man starring Colin Firth, Julianne Moore and the scorchingly hot Nicholas Hoult (from About a Boy and Skins). Review coming on that one, too.

Saturday was spent on the couch channel surfing, writing a little, eating leftovers and watching part one of the final David Tennant episode of Doctor Who. Next Saturday's finale is going to be very sad. Despite what the fanboys think, Tennant has been the best Doctor ever. It was nice to have a day to just chill out, or chillax as folks are saying these days. Pretty soon, we'll be back to speaking in grunts.

How was your weekend?

Happy Christmas

Fairytale of New York - The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl

It was Christmas Eve babe

In the drunk tank

An old man said to me, won't see another one

And then he sang a song

The Rare Old Mountain Dew

I turned my face away

And dreamed about you

Got on a lucky one

Came in eighteen to one

I've got a feeling

This year's for me and you

So happy Christmas

I love you baby

I can see a better time

When all our dreams come true

They've got cars big as bars

They've got rivers of gold

But the wind goes right through you

It's no place for the old

When you first took my hand

On a cold Christmas Eve

You promised me

Broadway was waiting for me

You were handsome

You were pretty

Queen of New York City

When the band finished playing

They howled out for more

Sinatra was swinging,

All the drunks they were singing

We kissed on a corner

Then danced through the night

The boys of the NYPD choir

Were singing "Galway Bay"

And the bells were ringing out

For Christmas day

You're a bum

You're a punk

You're an old slut on junk

Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed

You scumbag, you maggot

You cheap lousy faggot

Happy Christmas your arse

I pray God it's our last

I could have been someone

Well so could anyone

You took my dreams from me

When I first found you

I kept them with me babe

I put them with my own

Can't make it all alone

I've built my dreams around you

The boys of the NYPD choir

Still singing "Galway Bay"

And the bells were ringing out

For Christmas day

Christmas Eve

I've spent the better part of the afternoon cleaning up my blogroll links and wishing fellow bloggers happy holidays. I hadn't done a link clean-up in a year and it was shocking how many folks have abandoned their blogs, shut them down all together or moved to other platforms. My blogroll is now a good bit shorter than it was before and I've tried to update all the links for those who have moved elsewhere. Let me know if I missed you.

I'm off with friends tonight for dinner and a movie and then spending Christmas Day with the family eating ham, pork roast and other goodies. I'm giving my parents and grandmother lottery tickets. No joke. We're not really doing presents this year since no one has any money, so it really is the thought that counts.

I'm posting some reviews and a "Best of 2009" list over the weekend and next week, not to mention working on the Conquering Venus sequel.

I'm posting another of my favorite holiday songs below -- Sting's "Gabriel's Message." Tomorrow, I'll be posting holiday wishes and the video for the greatest Christmas song ever.

Carol of the Bells

The defunct Windham Hill Records started as a folk label, but eventually evolved into a bastion of "New Age," world and early electronic. This brooding, steel-drum enhanced version of the classic carol features most of Windham Hill's artists who were signed to the label in the 80s, including the brilliant pianist Liz Story. I've loved her for nearly 25 years now, so this always brings me a little holiday joy.

December Will Be Magic Again

Kate Bush performing "December Will Be Magic Again" from her 1979 holiday special on the BBC. This song always puts me in a more festive mood. And because Dustin insisted, I've added the "wicker chair workout" version, too. :-)

Holidaze 2009

I'm feeling a little disconnected from the holidays this season. Maybe it's because I'm not doing any shopping and I haven't been to any parties. Like last year, I didn't buy any gifts and told friends and family that their good wishes was all I required. I've been sending emails and making phone calls to my friends and loved ones. I'm serious about saving money. I think the disconnect also has to do with my hectic schedule lately, which has finally settled down and I'll finally be able to get back to work on the second novel. That's my Christmas present to myself -- time. I'm spending Christmas Day with my family and I hope to meet up with some friends for a movie or two over the long weekend. I really want to see Up in the Air with Mr. Clooney.

I've been stuck in the 200-page range on the Conquering Venus sequel for a few months now. I write, I revise, I move scenes around or delete them all together. My goal is to have 50 new pages by the time the long New Year's weekend is over. That would also be a good gift. What are you -- gentle readers -- doing for yourself over the holidays?

There will be more blog posts this week, as I also hope to get started on my resolution to be a better blogger. Expect some book reviews -- fiction and poetry -- and my annual video posting of holiday songs. That will help put me in a more festive mood. Maybe.

A new interview with Vanessa Daou

I have a new interview with the great Vanessa Daou at SoldOut. A new remix collection, Daouhaus, has just been released by Twisted Records, so we talk about that, her place in dance music history and more.

Two new profiles

Didi Menendez, creator of the fabulous MiPOesias, asked me to participate in a series of profiles for her blog Poetry: The First 10 Years of the New Millennium. You can read my Q&A and the reprise of "Why I Want To Be Pam Grier" at this link.

Neil de la Flor also did a profile with me at his Almost Dorothy blog as part of his Potty Mouth Interviews series. You can read it at this link. This one was really fun and irreverent. Team Jacob all the way!

Novel & Poetry Updates

There's been a flurry of events and reviews of Conquering Venus over the last few days. First up, the lovely video review by Erica Hensley from Bound to Be Read Books in Atlanta. You can watch it above.

There's also the great review by Jennifer Perry in the latest edition of New Southerner. You can read it online at this link.

Yesterday, I read at Bound to Be Read Books during the queer literary showcase, Homo for the Holidays. Franklin Abbott, Cleo Creech, Karen Head, Alice Teeter, Larry Corse and Yolo Akili all performed. That's a pic of me at left courtesy of Karen.

The reading in Nashville was a great experience. The audience was small but Jim and everyone at OutLoud Books and OutCentral cultural center for fantastic. There was some lively Q&A and thoughtful questions about the book and my experiences in Europe that inspired the story. I forgot my camera, so I have no photos but Lisa Allender was there and should have some soon. I'm looking forward to going back to Nashville. It's an easy drive from Atlanta and it's a very cool city (and quite cold, since it was 18 degrees when I woke up on Friday for the drive back).

Tonight, I'm talking to a local book club that has been reading the novel. Looking forward to hearing their thoughts and questions.

I've still got my finger in the poetry pie, too, with three new poems in the debut issue of Scythe Literary Journal, created by Joe and Chenelle Milford. The issue features guests who have appeared on the Joe Milford Poetry Show.

Homo for the Holidays

I'm packing for for my trip to Nashville tomorrow and looking forward to reading Conquering Venus out of town (see the post below for details). Unfortunately, that excitement has been slightly tempered by having to postpone some events in the new year. Readings in San Francisco, San Jose and LA are on hold for now because I simply can't afford to go. The press doesn't have any money to pick up the tab and I don't have any academic affiliation or sugardaddy to tap into for funds, so that means I'll be chillin' in the ATL working on the second book instead. There's also some changes happening at my day job, which will require me to be around more often. As a journalist, I'm thrilled to still have a job, so I plan to give it my full attention.

While that's disappointing, there are readings coming up in Savannah, Washington D.C., AWP in Denver and maybe New Orleans. I'll also be doing a few more events in Atlanta, including this Saturday's Homo for the Holidays extravaganza at Bound to Be Read Books in East Atlanta Village. The reading is from 3-6 p.m. and features Karen Head, Robin Kemp, Franklin Abbott, Alice Teeter, Cleo Creech, Larry Corse, Antron-Rechaud and Yolo Akili. We'll be reading from our work and books will be for sale. Check out the link on Bound to Be Read's website for more.

I'll post photos up tomorrow night of the reading at OutCentral in Nashville. I also want to have my photo taken at the Ryman Auditorium. I wonder if they'd let me read a poem on the stage or maybe hum a few bars of Patsy Cline's "Walking After Midnight." Maybe? Ya think? Yeah, probably not.

Notes & Notions: American Idol, Nashville, head colds

As I said in a previous post, I've dithered over recapping American Idol's new season, which begins on Jan. 12. It's a major time commitment and I generally start feeling recap fatigue in April. However, I now have renewed purpose, plus a new home for the recaps at Project Q Atlanta -- the online news and entertainment source for the city's LGBT community. It will give my snark-filled rants a much bigger audience and, hopefully, create some healthy debate and humor. The recaps will appear first on Project Q and then post here on the blog. Many thanks to Matt and Mike at Q for their support.

I'll be in Nashville on Thursday, Dec. 10, 7 p.m. for a reading from Conquering Venus at OutCentral, the city's LGBT cultural center, followed by a book signing at OutLoud Books. OutCenteral is at 1709 Church St. and the bookstore just next door. If you're in Nashville, please stop by and say hello!

The future of book tours is pretty grim. Just read this article in The Indie Reader about why tours are becoming an endangered species. I'm having to take a good look at my budget for early 2010. I have a feeling that some of the readings/signings may have to be cancelled. The economy might be showing signs of improvement, but it hasn't made money magically appear in my bank account.

My cold -- which is finally dissipating -- was one of the worst ever. It's lingered on for a week, and now I just have a little cough. I'm taking mucinex to help clear up my chest. I think I'm going to get a flu shot when I return from Nashville. If this cold is any indication of the winter cold/flu season, then I need to get a booster.

Writer, Interrupted

I've had one of the worst cold/flu things going on since Friday. My weekend was spent in a drug haze on the couch. I accomplished nothing. My plan was to dive back into the second novel, but I couldn't even muster the energy to look at the computer for long periods of time.

I felt the big sick coming on Thursday evening, after having a huge Thanksgiving meal (turkey and dressing, ham, veggies supplied by The Colonnade -- yum!) with my parents and grandmother. I rushed home and started knocking back juice, vitamins, etc. It was too late.

Yesterday was a near death experience. I dragged myself down to the Fulton County Courthouse for jury duty (the first time I've ever been called) and sat for eight hours in a hot room with several hundred other people. It was Kafkaesque. I don't get why they call so many people to jury duty when they aren't ever going to use them all. It seems like a giant waste of taxpayer time and money.

Peony Moon asked me to name my favorite collections of poetry for 2009. You can see my choices at this link.

Please take a moment and remember that it is World AIDS Day. There are more than 33 million infected and in 2008, 2 million people died of HIV/AIDS-related illnesses.