ACOMSDave

Community Journalist

Archives for July 2021

An Asian Minor: The True Story of Ganymede by Felice Picanco – a book review

By Leave a Comment

 

An Asian Minor: The True Story of Ganymede

An Asian Minor is a clever retelling of the Greek myth of Ganymede in the language of a likeable streetwise American ‘teen’.  There are a couple of lapses of style, but the joke never outstays its welcome.

The illustrations are “Gay Art” at its worst, they appear to have been bought as a job-lot.  They are irrelevant, contradict the words, the main character in the pictures being an Aryan blond while the script describes him as swarthy and having curly brown hair.

The drawings are probably the reason why the book is so pricey though they drag it down from the plane of genuine wit to that of a questionable jest.

 

 

 

 

Links

 

Title An Asian Minor: The True Story of Ganymede
Author Felice Picano
Publisher Lethe Press
Amazon Link AmazonLink
Pages  
Price £5.94
Other Formats Kindle and Audiobook
   

1991 A Belfast Pride to be remembered!

By Leave a Comment

1991 A Belfast Pride to be remembered!1991 A Belfast Pride to be remembered!, happened.  An intrepid bunch of gays and lesbians marched through Belfast in the first Belfast Pride.  This was an auspicious day and has been rightly celebrated because it said we were more than just a court case (Jeffrey Dudgeon v the United Kingdom).  

In fact, we were and are!

But what people forget is that we didn’t just have a march (or in Belfast terms ‘a wee dander’), we also had a week of events. e.g.

 

  •  ‘Mixtures and Allsorts was in the Old Museum Arts Centre.  It was billed as a cabaret – we were required to bring our own refreshments – so we did! There was a vast range of performance styles:
  • large chunks of Martin Sherman’s ‘Bent’ done by the Gauntlet theatre group
  • The Confused Sisters juggled with flaming torches
  • Two women from Out and Out theatre company performed a dance, which was reminiscent of the beautifully choreographed love scenes from Desert Heart. 
  • Paul Johnston, of the Dublin-based mandance, did a beautiful, angular solo, described as being based on dreams
  • The Hole in the Wall gang (Eamon Freil, Hugh Jordan, and Brian Lynch) did various pieces, including some risque jokes.
  • The Queen’s University Drama Society produced an inverted parlour-farce
  • There was Mary Scarlett’s 20-year-old ‘Insight in the life of the”Heterosexual” (A married (male) couple trying to talk their rebellious son out of his obsession with …  wait for it … ‘het-ero-sex-ual-ity

All this was completed on a minuscule budget, and with the best-willed volunteers you could imagine.

For a first attempt, it was good, indeed it was brilliant and excellent, and obviously, the current Belfast Pride is radically different and has grown.  But what mustn’t be forgotten is that this first Belfast Pride came on the back of a historic judicial judgment in the Europe Courts which had been brought by Jeff Dudgeon with the support of so many individuals and groups throughout all of Great Britain and Ireland – from fundraisers in Liverpool, Manchester, London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, and Dublin, to people who distributed flyers and distributed them in venues everywhere.

1991 A Belfast Pride to be remembered! 1991 A Belfast Pride to be remembered!

 

Belfast Pride is our pride – but remember we still have to continue and show who we are, and therefore what we are marching for yearly.

 

The full write-up of the first Belfast Pride can be found in the Linenhall Library archives, where copies of all the Gay Star, update, and upstart magazines have been placed for research.

 

Links:

Chicken (2001) – a gay short movie review

By Leave a Comment

‘Chicken’ is directed by Barry Dignam, with Darren Healy and Niall O’Shea as the two young stars in a very short movie (3 mins) but boy does it pack a punch.  It is atmospheric being set in the Irish countryside beside Chickena railway line.  You can almost hear the mothers saying ‘don’t go near the line it is dangerous!’

The boys are escaping from adult oversight, engaging in what boys do; drink, throw stones at empty cans, and then Chicken takes on a dark overtone, with Mick (Darren Healy) pushing Kev (Niall O’Shea) into a game of mumbly peg.  A form of intimacy creeps in because the game has Mick’s hand overlaying Kev’s, with the fingers splayed out as he (Mick) moves a knife between their fingers, the aim being not to hit the fingers, and whilst this is going on you can hear a train approaching generating more tension and adding an extra dimension in terms of the noise of train gaining with it coming closer.

As the train speeds by, Mick accidentally cuts Kev and his own finger.  This leads to them clasping each other’s hands which leads to Kev embracing Mick – something that you feel Mick has been longing for, but not knowing how to get.

‘Chicken’ ends, with a single screen of credits, and then the last shot showing a red sunset sky with the boys silhouetted against it and the sound of waves crashing gently on the shore.

 

Chicken

Director  –  Barry Dignam
Writer     –  Audrey O’Reilly
Stars       –  Darren Healy and Niall O’Shea

 

Filming locations:   –  County Wicklow, Ireland
Production companies:   –   Bórd Scannán na hÉireannHit and Run Productions

Links:

 

 

Coming to Power by Samois: Writings and Graphics on Lesbian S/M. – a gay book review by Anne Ross

By Leave a Comment

The interesting and fun things you find when you review older publications of your own are reviews by friends; in this case the review by my friend Anne Ross of the book ‘ Coming to Power: Writings and Graphics on Lesbian S/M.

First and foremost Anne was a dear friend of mine, sadly passed away due to cancer almost too many years to remember.  I remember her from her hard work and support on various committees and groups like Cara Friend, NIGRA, various woman’s support groups, but I also remember her sense of fun like when she moved into her first house and decided to hold a party, and because she had no glasses she coerced me and a few others to go to the local pub and ask if we could borrow some glasses – she also decided to make up a green punch coloured punch which looked hideous but turned out to have a lovely taste but horrible hangover.  I missed her when she moved to London, and now miss her even more as I can never hear her infectious laugher again.

Now to her review:

Coming to PowerComing to Power: Writings and Graphics on Lesbian S/M

By Samois 

Published by Samois initially then by Alyson Publications

Price:  £ – currently unknown as out of print 

Excellent book on Lesbian S/M.  Clears a lot of myths and uneasiness that folk may have conjured up in their minds about S/M.  Basically, the book is made up of various people’s views of and experiences with S/M.  A few chapters deal with practicalities, like when care must be taken and just when to draw the line.

I would advise anyone unsure of their view of S/M to read this; probably at the end, they’ll find they see it differently from what they originally thought.

 

Anne Ross

 

Links:

 

Brexit in one!

By Leave a Comment

Brexit in one!I have clearly stated many times that I found the departure from the EU to be a farce; so many lies, mistruths and out of it all we get the Brexit deal which is very close to scuppering the Good Friday Agreement.  An agreement which is not perfect, has at least allowed the people of N Ireland to live relatively peacefully, and for the LGBTQ+ community to continue to fight for their rights, and most of the political parties now in N Ireland at least on paper support our community.

As an example of how Brexit has failed, I would suggest reading the article in the Guardian ‘Out! How Brexit sent one UK tennis kit firm to Romania‘, which highlighted the plight of one small company that moved lock, stock and barrel to Romania.  And, I am not just talking about the company, but the owners with their children also.  

…The Walkingtons decided they had to relocate lock, stock and barrel with their two children – after whom the company is named – last autumn and are now in the process of moving into new premises in Romania, where they are not only free of Brexit bureaucracy but are also benefiting from abundant skilled labour and help from the country’s authorities…

But to further compound this story about one small company, there is evidence that a substantial amount of other small companies are doing the same with Department for International TradeBresit in one! advisors advising them to do so!

…Six months after the UK finally left the EU’s single market, thousands of other small companies have faced similar problems, and many have either relocated entirely to the EU or set up branches or warehouses inside the EU to avoid the export delays and costs. Advisers at the Department for International Trade have encouraged many to do so. The authorities in EU countries including the Netherlands, Austria and Romania are going out of their way to help UK companies shift their operations to the continent, knowing local jobs and new economic activity will be created…

This would tend to indicate a further weakening of the British economy.

Brexit in one!But bringing the article back to LGBTQ+ politics, I am afraid that the DUP’s latest little foray into trying to win the LGBTQ+ vote is limp handed.  A few words by one of the team which are almost repudiated the next day by the leader in terms of ‘others should be apologising to us’ does not indicate a party that has accepted us.  To this, we can also add the continued delay by the Prime Minister (Rt Hon Boris Johnston) with one review after another, and nothing actually happens – reminds me of Yes Minister – A Public Inquiry.

We also have various stories now highlighting how since the pandemic, incidents of violence to eh LGBTQ+ community have increased. 

These are not helped by the stories coming out of Hungary of violence being perpetuated on the LGBTQ+ community – and now we have the new EU chief Janez Jansa, Prime Minister of Slovenia, warning the EU that if it continues to try to impost ‘the west’s liberal views on Central Europe’ then it would be ‘the fastest road to collapse’ of the bloc.

 

Links:

 

 

 

Making Love – a gay movie review

By Leave a Comment

Making Love

‘A movie of its time’!Making Love

Director – Arthur Hiller

Writers – Barry Sandler(screenplay)

               A. Scott Berg(story)

Main actors of a large cast

Making Love came as rather a surprise to us; far from being sheer Hollywood treacle, it was in fact a quite strong story.  Mind you, the direction and the editing and also the camerawork would have been better expended on a commercial for (soft) soap.

Everybody appears to live beyond their means, or are vastly overpaid, especially ‘Bart’, who is supposed to be a novelist who hasn’t hit the jackpot – yet.  Bart becomes involved with Zack, a doctor, whom we have seen in earlier scenes “looking at men”, and, in one, trying to pick someone up in a cruising area.

Zack is married and has been for eight years, and he and his wife enter a new phase in their lives quite early on in the action, when they move into a new/old house which they keep on saying they can’t afford – she also becomes something unspecified but important in a T.V. company, and Bart meets Zack.  They end up in bed together and Zack wants to pretend that he is only experimenting.  Bart savagely exposes this fraud and then tells Zack that if he has fallen in love then he has chosen the wrong man, as he, Bart, has no intention of settling down to a life of connubial bliss.

This skirmish is the result of Zack telling Claire, his wife, and her violent reaction to it.  (Rather over-violent – people tend (so we are told) to cry on these occasions, not thump their partners).

There is a very awkward jump in the film here, and we are expected to take the passage of a considerable amount of time for granted.  Claire goes in search of Zack and discovers that he has become hot-stuff on the meat-market.  This episode does, however, give the scriptwriter the entrée for a very positive little speech from a gay man, where he says that he is at least as happy as anyone else.

Claire and Zack meet each other at the funeral of a mutual friend and live happily ever after, it is assumed.  The only problem here is that Zack is shown as being what we can only describe as sem-wedded to a by no means appetising man in New York, New York.

 

Links:

Out! – short gay movie 2020 – movie review

By Leave a Comment

Out!

 

Title:  Out!

Date:   August 3, 2020 

Length:   9.59mins  

Genre:   Gay

Director:   Ben Hull

Actors:   Pauline McLynn and Paul Sloss

 

Out! - 3 - Pauline McLynn Out!-1 - Paul Sloss

Out! Takes place at the dinner table between the Mother and the son, with a noticeable gap at the table. It revolves around what was said, what wasn’t said and then finally with the son coming out.  It also puts straight into the open homophobia, or perceived homophobia, and how a mother always knows.

It covers family relationships, the fear of rejection and the desire for acceptance.

 

Funny line ‘I didn’t like curry until I tried it’

 

For me what makes the movie interesting is the interaction between the mother and son, it almost is a re-enactment of the typical Irish matriarchial mother.

 

‘Anyone that you want to bring here to this house is welcome, so long as they respect you and treat you well’

 

the film ends with a laugh (if not a downright snigger) – you will enjoy this movie, and I would rate it 4.5 out of 5.

 

Links:

 

Queer Ceili at the Marty Forsyth

By Leave a Comment

Queer Ceili at the Marty Forsyth

Breaking News: The play, Queer Ceili at the Marty Forsyth (dedicated to the life & legacy of Dan Chesters 1973-2018), and the subject of rave press reviews at its premiere is coming to Manchester for Manchester Pride (end of August) together with the Queering the North Exhibition. The play portrays events around one tumultuous weekend in 1983 when Belfast University Student Union hosted the first Lesbian and Gay Conference in Ireland attendance included over 50 Manchester students. The intimidating, extraordinary, and humorous events of that weekend contrast the mass protest by Rev. Paisley Save Ulster from Sodomy Campaigners and an unexpected invitation from the fiercely nationalist community of Turf Lodge, West Belfast. [Irish Times Review – A Queer Céilí at the Marty Forsythe review]

 

The Queering the North Exhibition (that Dan also helped commission) provides the first retrospective reading of theQueer Ceili at the Marty Forsyth largely unknown but nonetheless courageous campaigning of LGBT+ activists during and after the ‘Troubles’. This remarkable insight offers the wider community along with the younger LGBT+ generation a rare insight into that remarkable and heartening story of Human/LGBT+ Rights campaigning in often highly confrontational and deadly environments. The Exhibition is dedicated to the life and legacy of the Belfast born USA based LGBT+/Human Rights activist Tarlach Mac Niallais (1963-2020) whose enthusiasm for an archival contribution to this project was seminal.

 

Manchester Central Library, St Peter’s Square is showcasing both as part of Manchester Pride celebrations: The Exhibition from Monday 23rd to Friday 27th August 2021. The Play “Queer Ceili…’ will be performed on Thursday 26th & Friday 27th August in the ‘posh’ Performance Space of the Library. The tickets for the play will go on sale via the internet shortly.

 

Links:

 

 

Nudes and Flowers: 40 Watercolours by Davide Hutter – gay book review – Rose Ann McGreevy

By Leave a Comment

Nudes and FlowersWith Nudes and Flowers: 40 Watercolours, it is difficult, given the condition of patriarchy, to look at naked bodies partially clothed and not conceive of them as “nude”, that is, containing sensations of sexual exploitation.  I do not think Mr Hutter has managed to cross this barrier, even though I find the drawings in themselves, men-loving.  If Mr Hutter is to get beyond the sentimentality of application, which unfortunately puts him in the soft-porn arena, and into a real celebration of male sexuality through a male’s eyes, it would be better to leave high camp behind.

It is not enough to be a male artist painting male nudes because, what seems confronting as an act, may be a soft option, given the context of the gay-male sub-culture, unless the artist is rigorous and not aiming to please.  Francis Bacon’s “The Wrestlers” which depicts two men on a bed, is ruthless in the rawness of its content.  Compare this with Hutter’s “Sick Leave” or “On The Terrace”, both of which I find distasteful.  The suffering of the physical disability of the sitters is lost in the banal theatricality.Nudes and Flowers

“The Heat Of The Day” and “Mr O’Murphy” would be more honestly placed in S/M magazines.  Most of the rest of the nudes.  I feel, could feature in glossy publications which cater for the cult of the young, white body-beautiful male.

“Young Pyewackett” does not fall into this category, and although it contains some sentimental elements, it is at once honest and kindly.  It is sensual and loving and it is probably the least ‘thought-out’ in the book.  A private drawing which stays private, in that the viewer realises that she/he is privy to a quiet moment in someone’s life, and that is the picture’s strength.

The flower drawings are competent.  I enjoyed the confidence of “Field Poppies”.  “Peonies” I enjoyed for its craft and overt simplicity of composition.

Mr Hutter, as a watercolourist, is no mean executive, his ability in tackling colour is impressive.  I admire the fact that he explores the figure in this medium – few artists do.  I do not feel Mr Hutter has pulled the above-mentioned talent and intention into strong imagery about male sexuality, on this occasion.

Links:

 

 

Title

Nudes and Flowers: 40 Watercolours
Author

David Hutter
Publisher

Gay Mens Press
Amazon Link

Nudes and Flowers: 40 Watercolours
Pages

95
Price

£32.24
Other Formats  
   

Homophobia and Terrorism are not limited to Muslims.

By Leave a Comment

 

Homophobia and Terrorism

Homophobia and Terrorism are not limited to Muslims, history shows that and often what we do not understand and fear (often irrationally) we throw out words like terrorism, not our people etc.

Andrew Pulver wrote an impassioned article on how journalism in all its forms needs to stop the ‘Toxic portrayals of Muslims’!  I would suggest that we need in the West, and in other cultures, to take a reality check.  The portrayals of terrorists as being only from one side of the world’s population is disingenuous.  All the major maritime powers in Europe sponsored pirates to enact terrorism on their rivals!  Then we have terrorists/freedom fighters, for example,   in 1867 there was the Clerkenwell explosion in London by the Fenians / Irish Republican Brotherhood (proto – IRA), in 1903 there were the Thessaloniki bombings by a Bulgarian group from Veles, mostly young graduates from the Bulgarian Men’s High School of Thessaloniki. Terrorism and Homophobia The list is endless, go and have a look at the Wikipedia article ‘Terrorism in Europe’ as a starting point.

But and it is a large BUT, terrorism by its very nature is subjective; dependent upon where you are with your life, your family, your community, your society, One Man’s Terrorist Is Another Man’s Freedom Fighter

So, therefore, you must ask why am I Interested?  My interest lies in my knowledge of Muslims.  I have been lucky enough to work, live and make friends with Muslims within their society whilst working in the Middle East; I have also been able to have similar experiences in the Far East, Canada, South America, and Europe.  I have always found a welcome within these communities, and I have had many discussions covering all aspects of their and my own society over politics, religion, homosexuality, with these debates has come an understanding of the local fears, even the fear of loss of identity (the Northern Irish are not unique).

In an article published in LGBTQ Nation (commentary by Michael Jensen and Brent Hartinger) it highlighted the position that a few of the local queer Muslim’s had in Turkey, a country which is 97% Muslim and where LGBTQ rights have gone backwards in recent years.  But similar pressure is being placed on LGBTQ freedom in other parts of Europe, e.g., Hungary and Poland.  According to the European Union in 2020 43% of LGBTQ people, last year said they felt discriminated against, up from 37% in 2012.

So, you can from this short overview firstly that terrorism and homophobia are not just related to Muslim society.

We need to educate against toxic rhetoric and politics wherever it is shown.  We need to be vigilant locally and fight against what certain elements among the local politicians will repeatedly roll out – remember throughout history it has always been easy to use a minority as the whipping boy for society wrongs – the Jews when they no longer were willing financiers of the British Crown, and indeed with a number of European monarchies, the travellers, Jews, homosexuals by Nazi Germany, the travellers even today in the United Kingdom, and for certain parties in Northern Ireland politics the LGBTQ+ society.

 

Links: