3/26: "I think the gay-lien could go anywhere."

-After much hemming and hawing and curling up in my bed in anxiety, I withdrew from Chaucer, yet another star in the constellation of my history of academic givings-up. I never thought chatting with Laurie Kobik could leave me so elated. After all that was taken care of, I called my mom for a good chat. (As an aside, I was amused and a little saddened that, though she was in the same room as my grandparents, she could still call me "Russ," because they're getting so deaf they wouldn't notice.)

-Michael and I had a brief conversation about Footloose, which I haven't seen since I saw half of it on TNT when I was nine. In retrospect, I think it may be one of the greatest films of our time. If the library has it, I know what I'm doing this weekend. WHO'S WITH ME?

3/25: "To start, you must begin."

-After a few class periods of being listless and quiet in Annabel's class, I not only was the only kid in the class to pick up on Peter Lewis in To The North being gay, but cited a way more obscure and awesome passage proving it than Annabel did. It went something like this.

A: Can someone tell me why Lady Waters isn't concerned that Peter and Emmaline would be involved. (Silence) Russell?

R: He's gay.

A: How do we know?

R: Um, Havelock Ellis!

A: [puzzled muttering]

R: He was an early British sexologist who pioneered the study of homosexuality; it's mentioned that Lady Waters asks him about Havelock Ellis at tea.

A: ...I'm not sure you could draw that conclusion from that evidence.

R: [kind of screechy insistence on the legitimacy of queer coding in literature, plus more textual support from the novel]

A: ...[PWNED]

Some of the kids, and Annabel, were also all "they could have just been talking about it because it was in the news/pop science"; I really wish that I'd remembered to point out that Ellis was working 50 years before the book was published. What good is a vast and absurd knowledge of queer history if you can't whip it out and bother people?

3/9: "As opposed to the REASON!"

More queer music videos by popular request:



Highlights include:

-The Canadian-looking androgyne who splits a log.

-Cindy Wonderful (the butch guest star) sings the couplet: "I can be there to relieve your tension/and I could hook up your stereo system."

Here's a new(ish) Athens Boys Choir video featuring Katz's hilarious 1993 bat mitzvah. It is creepy in the best way possible. Best part: "Now my Bubbie wanted a doctor to marry me/and you got two PhD.s/one in fine and one in sexy!"



EDIT: The best part is the end with the cheesy video cut that says "Elizabeth" and young Katz saying, "Goodbye everyone, I had a great time at my bat mitzvah, and I hope to see you at my wedding."