Friday, October 13, 2006 (page 2)

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LARAMIE PROJECT HONORED BY THE MATTHEW SHEPARD FOUNDATION
Matthew Shepard would've turned thirty this coming December 1st and, as they have with every aspect of Matthew's tragic death, his parents are making good come out of bad by hosting An Evening Honoring The Laramie Project. Judith Light, Robert Desiderio, Van Hansis (As The World Turns), and openly gay actor Chad Allen will do a special reading of The Laramie Project, the play about Matthew's murder. Afterward, Cyndi Lauper will give a live musical performance.

But the highlight of the evening will be the presentation of the Making a Difference Award to Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Project which created The Laramie Project. Since its debut seven years ago, the play has been produced over 5000 times across the country helping to ensure Matthew's death was not in vain.

The event will be held Town Hall Theater in Times Square, New York City.To purchase tickets or for further information visit MatthewShepard.org/TheLaramieProject.

WHY READ THE SLASH FICTION WHEN YOU CAN WATCH THE SLASH VIDEO?
Our recent article on slash fiction generated quite a bit of feedback, including one fellow who wrote in about slash video. For those of you who missed the article, just go here and all will be explained. Or I can nutshell it for you. Basically, slash involves the pairing of two fictional characters, say, Kirk and Spock, in a romantic relationship. Slash video does the same thing by taking clips from movies and shows and editing them in such a way to create a usually steamy romance. Slash fiction has been around for many years, slash video not as long.

A reader sent me this clip. It's a slash video for Firefly, Joss Whedon's short-lived sci fi series a few years back. After watching it, I got curious about what other slash videos were out there and did a search on Youtube. So for your viewing pleasure, let me present you with some Buffy the Vampire Slayer slash between Spike and Giles, and, of course, some Kirk/Spock slash. WARNING: The music for the Kirk/Spock clip is definitely NSFW.

What struck me about the slash vids was how violent they are, given that they portray the supposed love interests beating each up other. But since the video makers have to work with the footage at hand, it's really not that surprising. What a sad commentary it is that much of the time the only physical interaction between straight men is when they are pounding on each other (on television at any rate). I'll let you Freud scholars out there work out the significance of that.

FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE
So far so good for the new network shows with gay characters. (And I'll let you decide if that's good or bad.) It looks like ABC's strategy for saving The Class is working so far. You'll recall I explained last week how they flipped its timeslot with How I Met Your Mother which now airs before The Class. In doing so, The Class actually improved on Mother's numbers meaning it's definitely in the safe column for now. Too bad I find Lina so much more interesting than Kyle.

It also appears that Help Me Help You isn't going anywhere soon. It's not doing blockbuster numbers, but it's not tanking either. I definitely thought this week's episode was an improvement, but that's only because Jonathan, the “gay” character, didn't deal with whether or not he was gay. Instead, it was about believing in yourself, setting goals, blah, blah, blah. If ABC really cares about me, they'll make it clear Jonathan isn't gay and I can stop watching.

But the best news is that it looks like Brothers and Sisters is shaping up to be a winner. Again, it's not posting huge numbers, but it's doing respectably, seems to be building momentum, and is doing well among key demographics. (Just saying “key demographics” makes me feel I'm in Logan's Run and I'm going to suddenly vanish the day I'm no longer “key”.) This is good for gay viewers because Kevin (Matthew Rhys) actually seems headed toward something nearly as rare as ugly people on network television (excepting fat ones getting makeovers): an actual same-sex romance that isn't treated as a joke. Just thinking about it makes me faint!

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