Congratulations!

Report: DeGeneres, de Rossi plan to marry - Celebrities- msnbc.com

Ellen may not have had any direct hand in yesterday's ruling, but her bravery a decade ago certainly helped kick off the sea change in attitudes about gay relationships we've seen since.

I hope she throws the wedding of the year. She deserves it, and seeing it will help a lot of people understand why gay marriage matters.

Tears of Joy

Gay marriage ban overturned in Calif. - msnbc.com

Funny how this doesn't seem quite as revolutionary as Massachusetts, and yet...it means just as much , maybe more.

And good news: "I respect the court's decision and as governor, I will uphold its ruling," said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a statement. "Also, as I have said in the past, I will not support an amendment to the constitution that would overturn this (ruling)."

Wow.

LOOK!

I cannot believe this happened. I am in utter shock. Also ecstasy.

Seize the Day!

Amazon.com: Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death: Irvin D. Yalom: Books

This is a tough book to get into. That's not a knock on Yalom, whose writing is engaging and warm throughout despite a chilly topic. But who really wants to ponder their own mortality for 300 pages?

But this is a book that, once you get into it, can change your life. I finished it two months ago, and I am reviewing it now because I've finally had time for it to sink in. I challenge you to read this book and not come away reconsidering your priorities, questioning whether the choices you have made in life are the right ones, wondering if you're letting your fears dominate your life.

So much of what we fear, Yalom argues, is really our fear of death, of the transitory nature of existence, of the one way flow of time. And only by facing up to these realities, and to the possibility that this is all there is, can we wake up, grasp what a gift it is to be alive, and seize the opportunity we have in whatever time we have left.

In short, this seemingly morbid little tome can wake you from your slumber and get you pursuing happiness again. Give it a shot.

This review has been posted on Amazon.com. Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death was provided for review as part of Amazon's Vine program.

Nuke Monday

The AP article on Luke and Noah has exploded; it's suddenly everywhere!

Including the front page of FoxNews.com:



And the front page of USA Today's Life section (in the actual paper):



And even, finally, the front page of The Advocate's Web site:

Going Worldwide

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | US soap viewers demand gay kiss

People are reading about Luke and Noah in Britain this morning!

Let My People Kiss!

Unexpected protest at a soap - Yahoo! News

And then it was everywhere. The Associated Press has a story by David Bauder out this morning, and it's appearing on the Web sites of major newspapers, and a lot of smaller ones, across the country. Luke and Noah are everywhere!

EDIT: Including the New York Times, where the story has a better headline: Unexpected Soap Protest Favors Gay Kiss.

Keep It Coming

Their soap smooch made history. Fans ask: Will it happen again? - The Boston Globe

First the LA Times, then the New York Daily News. This morning readers in Boston woke to find Luke and Noah on the front page of their paper's arts section, accompanied by one of the hottest pictures ever committed to print:



















The media blitz continues!

Round Two

Gay kiss is missed on soap

Well, readers in America's two largest cities will learn about Luke and Noah today. The New York Daily News has a piece on the couple and their lack of kissing this morning.

Who knew that if a bunch of people wrote to TV critics, those critics might write articles about the subjects of all those letters?

Going National

Soap fans claim bias against gay characters - Los Angeles Times

Well, would you look at that! A journalist at a big paper has written about the Luke and Noah storyline!

Don't be surprised if this isn't the last you see about them...

Putting a Hole in the Floor

Concerns over Economy Push George W. Bush's Overall Job Approval to New Low

According to this poll, his approval rating is 19%.

That's right. 19.

The previous low in this poll is 25; last month he was at 34. Can Americans really be getting smarter THIS quickly?

A Most Unusual Birthday Gift

Celebrating the Semicolon in a Most Unlikely Location - New York Times

Thank you, Sam Roberts! An article about the semicolon--one of my favorite pieces of punctuation, right up there with the long dash--is exactly what I wanted for my birthday!

Gimme a Kiss

There are a lot of reasons to be outraged in the world, so I don't expect you to add this to your list. But on Thursday, for Valentine's Day, As the World Turns aired a special fantasy episode in which different couples on the show imagined how their lives might have played out if certain things had happened. In Luke and Noah's case, they imagined what would have happened if Noah had followed his father's wishes, enlisted in the Navy, and never met Noah.

Over the course of the episode, well...


Everyone kissed but them. As the video shows, they were about to kiss in "reality," but an extra walked by.

They have not kissed, on-screen, since September 26. At this point, the show has achieved quite a feat--it has managed to make its portrayal of an extremely romantic young gay couple seem homophobic.

If that strikes you as wrong, feel free to visit the Support Luke and Noah page to find out how you can help.

In the meantime, I've written a sequel to The Photo Shoot. It's called The Dressing Room. It may be the last part of this little tale...time will tell!

Gore on Gays

Remind me, again: Why is this man not president?

Where My Mind Has Gone

rmn21879 - The Photo Shoot

Wondering where my head is at lately? Look above. Warning: real-person slash.

You Can't Show That On TV!

As long as I'm posting things today, I thought I'd share the video below. As you may or may not realize, the reason I haven't been blogging all that much is that I spend my online time helping keep the Luke and Noah Wiki up and running and chattering about daytime TV's first gay couple with others on a fan site that will remain nameless (to protect me from extreme embarrassment).

Well, that gay couple shared daytime's first gay kiss back in August, and a second in September, but now that they're boyfriends--as opposed to a gay guy and a guy who's struggling to accept who he is--they don't kiss anymore. So a bunch of us looked for screencaps of all the little moments of affection that have replaced the affection, and someone put them all together in this video. Enjoy!

Mitt for Brains

The Onion diagnoses Mitt Romney's tolerance problem | AfterElton.com

It's been more than a month between posts, but in the wake of Mitt's remarkable win in his birth state last night, I thought the link above would be a good reminder of why he may be my least favorite of the presidential candidates.

I would welcome him as the Republican nominee, though--I think he'd get crushed in November!

Best Music 2007

About a month ago, my friend Paul wrote about 2007 being a down year for music. I have to agree. I’ve been buying fewer CDs, and enjoying the ones I do buy less, than at any point I can remember. Part of this, I am sure, is my fault; I’m getting older, more set in my ways, and less willing to give new things a chance. But how to explain that I got plenty excited about a lot of songs, but not about very many albums? This is completely out of character for me. It makes me think that maybe, in an iPod world, musicians have stopped trying to make those other ten tracks on an album count. For people like me, who live for those ten tracks no one else ever hears, this is a major blow.

Still, there were a few albums this year that managed to rattle my cage. So, in no particular order, here are my top five of 2007. (Visit 3 Minutes, 49 Seconds for Paul's top ten.)

Arcade Fire: Neon Bible
If I listened to this album every day I think I would have driven off a cliff by now, but there’s no denying the power of Arcade Fire’s second full album. The lyrics and music capture the paranoia and fear of living in Bushworld ’07, a land of bogeymen propped up by liars competing with actual threats that pop up seemingly around every turn. The killer track is “Windowsill,” in which lead singer Win Butler concludes a long list of things he doesn’t want with the tear-inducing (for me, at least) words, “I don’t want to be an American no more.” For a man who considers the Constitution a holy document, them’s fightin’ words—but who can blame Butler?

The Shins: Wincing the Night Away
Even this gem wasn’t perfect enough for me—Chutes Too Narrow really had me expecting divinity—but “Australia” and “Phantom Limb” are so darn good and the connective tissue of the rest of the album is very strong. Also, give this enough spins and I think you’ll begin to suss out a theme!

Spoon: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Not the deepest title, is it? But for half an hour this is just one big happy rocker, and, like a large penis, that is always welcome. (That joke will make sense only to those who have watched Rome. But isn’t it true regardless?) Yet there are moments of depth, and this was one of two albums on the list to feature a song with minimal lyrics that absolutely mesmerized me: “It’s just my Japanese cigarette case / Bring a mirror to my face / Let all my memories be gone.” I’m no drug user, but who hasn’t had a day that made you feel like that?

Iron and Wine: The Shepherd’s Dog
Sam Beam continues to astonish me at every turn. To go from the whipering bard of his first album to this bold experimental work and not drop a single clunker along the way is no mean feat! Here he pulls out steel guitar and jazz piano and yet his whisper is still the star of the show. Tremendous.

LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver
I bought this on a whim because I remembered playing the last LCD Soundsystem album during a dinner party two years ago and finding that everyone seemed to dig it. Little did I know that James Murphy had concocted a meditation on growing up set to danceable beats. One song has only the following lyrics: “Sound of silver, talk to me/ Makes you want to feel like a teenager/ Until you remember the feelings of/ A real live emotional teenager/ Then you think again.” Madness—but so true!

A list of only five albums doesn’t mean I didn’t like anything else in 2007! Amy Winehouse made a fine album with a few transcendent cuts; I can only hope people who are waiting for her next album are giving Dusty Springfield a chance while they wait.

“Four Winds” by Bright Eyes just about puts tears in my eyes every time I hear it; this is what people were talking about when they called him the next Dylan back at the turn of the millennium.

Parts of the Modest Mouse album thrilled me, and I can’t help singing along to “Effect and Cause” at the end of the new White Stripes album. “Radio Nowhere” kicks off the new Springsteen album with a shot, and even after hearing it during the World Series about a thousand times I still like it.

Kelly Clarkson’s album flopped, but “Never Again” was filled with a gleaming rage that I just get. And another Idol alum, Elliott Yamin, made a pretty good album, too, that actually seemed to get the radio airplay it deserved. Take that, Taylor and Katherine! (And Jordin, and Blake, and...why am I still watching that show?)

Ryan Adams returned after more than a year without an album and delivered a strong one, though it did more to make me re-listen to all his old stuff than to get me to play it.

Oh, and Rufus Wainwright made an album that held my interest, at least for a while. I still can’t get enough of “Release the Stars,” in which I swear he slurs the lyric “So why not just release the gates and let them all come out?” so that you hear “release the gays.” What a joke on Hollywood in a year when letting the gays out was a big topic of conversation! Oh, and “Between my Legs” is so deliciously naughty and derivative of Phantom of the Opera to boot that I can’t help but recommend it.

What did I miss? Feel free to give me grief in the comments…

Best of the Rest, 2007

Traditionally this would be where I'd give you a list of my favorite music in a variety of categories. (Paul has the whole deal up on 3 Minutes, 49 Seconds.) But, as you'll see when you read the Best of 2007 post, this was no ordinary year. And so, I have but one recommendation to offer in this space this year. It's about my best concert experience--but you can share it with me, even though it took place way back in May.

It was my first time hearing Bernard Haitink conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the program was a doozy: Bruckner's 7th Symphony. I arrived excited to see Haitink, enthused about our seats (we'd finally made the switch from the upper balcony to the lower and expected a better view and better listening experience), and delighted with the piece about to be performed.

Wouldn't you know it? For once, I went into something with high hopes and was still completely blown away. Haitink had me at hello, and for almost 70 minutes I was enraptured. I've been going to more and more classical concerts every year since I moved back to Chicago in 2003, and over time I've had plenty of great experiences; I chronicled one transcendent night at Ravinia in 2006 and I can remember plenty of others (Marin Alsop's rendition of Tchaikovsky 4, Pierre Boulez's Mahler 7, Paavo Jarvi's night of two Concertos for Orchestra, one Bartok, the other Lutoslawski...). But on May 12 of this year, for the first time, something incredible happened.

I cried.

Those who know me know that I cry easily; the wrong song on the radio, or a sad ending to a movie or TV show, is all it takes. But at a concert? Of music that ostensibly has no set meaning?

And yet, when the piece drew to a close, there the tears were, in my eyes, welling up even through thunderous applause.

And why, you ask, do you care? Because for once, I can share my concert experience with you. The CSO has released a recording of that very performance. It's the second release on its new CSO Resound label, and the first to be released as a Super Audio CD. You can buy it here. I cannot promise that it will bring tears to your eyes, but if it does, you've been warned.

Juices Flowing

If you're not using an RSS reader yet and you've been checking around here occasionally expecting an update, my apologies. A man can only attend to so many things at once, and lately I've been busy at work, busy with school, and busy with my new obsession (see below).

Now, many of my old friends may be shocked and appalled to find me devoting so much time and energy to caring about a soap opera couple, taking up a role as an administrator on the Luke and Noah Wiki and posting thoughts on a fan site, VanHansis.net. Who am I, and what have I done with Richard?

Well, I've gotten him to write again, for one thing. The last time I wrote anything fictional I lived in a different state. But yesterday when I got out of the shower, I had a story fully formed in my mind. And today I wrote a second part to it.

The catch? These "stories" are actually screenplays for the Luke/Noah scenes for two episodes of As the World Turns. Inspired by a single line of spoiler for next week's shows that annoyed me, I built two days' worth of scenes that I think should happen next. Is this as creative as creating a tale out of whole cloth? No. I didn't have to invent characters or backstory or make people care--the people reading these scenes already care quite a bit.

But still, the rush! The feeling! It's as if parts of me that were dead or withered are being rejuvenated. I wrote an article about tai chi and how it can improve immunity for grad school the other week. It was fine; I wouldn't have been ashamed to see it in the local paper. But right in the middle of it there was this lyrical passage describing a tai chi class I attended. For five minutes, typing it, I felt like a different person. I remembered the joy putting words together can bring. I've been so slammed at work of late that I had quite forgotten.

Does this mean more blogging? Hard to say. I have a couple of Amazon products coming for review through Vine, though I don't post those reviews here if they're not interesting. (Do you really care that I think the Homedics quad-roller massage cushion with heat is nothing special?) But in the meantime, here are links to the two stories:
The Day After Thanksgiving
The Day After, Part Two
Happy Thanksgiving!