Looking Back at 2011

 I'll be honest: 2011 is not a year that I will be looking back on fondly overall, at least not on a personal level. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't glad to see it coming to an end. Still, like any year there was plenty of good mixed in with the not-so-good.

 For instance, 2011 could be said to be the year of the people, or perhaps of the bottom 99% of them. This was the year of the Arab Spring, with popular uprisings trying- and in many cases succeeding- in sweeping away repressive regimes in the Mid East. In fact, 2011 was the year in which the likes of Osama bin Laden, Muammar Gaddafi, and Kim Jong-il ceased to exist, leaving the world that much better off.

  Here in the United States, we saw the beginnings of the Occupy movement as well as popular uprisings against unpopular measures such as the stripping away of union rights in Ohio and Wisconsin.

  For many, though, 2011 was a year of continued economic hardship. This was driven home for me in a very real way with the bankruptcy of Borders, a company for which I spent the better part of a decade working. The ultimate closure of all Borders and Waldenbooks stores by mid September left most of my former co-workers out of work and they were far from being alone. It also left a gaping hole in the middle of the book world, whatever your opinions on big box stores vs independents.

  The most high profile coming out of the year was Zachary Quinto, star of Heroes and the new Star Trek films. Quinto wasn't alone in coming out, though. This year's list also included actor Sean Maher, CNN anchor Don Lemon and sports figures Jed Hooper, Graeme Obree, Scott Norton, Steven Davies, and David Testo, covering a wide range of sports from professional bowling, rugby, cricket, cycling and American Soccer.

 Actress Evan Rachel Wood came out as bisexual and Geri Jewell, an actress and comedienne with cerebral palsy who back in the early 1980's became the first person with a disability to play a recurring character on a television show (The Facts of Life)  came out in a new memoir.

 This year saw the passing of some true legends from the entertainment world like Elizabeth Taylor, Arthur Laurents, and Sidney Lumet, and those whose lives had a far reaching impact on the world in general, like Vaclav Havel and Steve Jobs.

 In the world of daytime TV, the losses just kept coming. ABC cancelled both All My Children and One Life to Live simultaneously, though the latter won't go off the air until the new year.  For a few months, it looked like the shows had been saved and would make the jump to airing online, but in the end that deal fell through and both shows were left with cliffhanger endings that would never be resolved.

 As far as gay characters on daytime, things are looking up from last year at this time, when the total number of LGBT characters had plummeted to zero. This year we've got an out and proud Sonny Kiriakis and an about to come out Will Horton on Days of Our Lives, so 2012 looks pretty promising in that respect.

 Now, on to my picks for some of my favorite things in 2011.

*Favorite Short Story Collection I read this year:  Ladies and Gentlemen by Adam Ross

*Favorite Novel I read this year:  Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson

*Favorite Classic Gay Fiction Book I read this year:  Two People by Donald Windham

*Favorite Modern Gay Fiction Book I read this year:  Two Gentlemen Sharing by William Corlett

*Favorite Non-Fiction (Literary) Book I read this year:  The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee

*Favorite Non-Fiction (Autobiography) Book I read this year:  Bossypants by Tina Fey

*Favorite Film I saw this year:  X-Men: First Class. I should note that I saw very few films this year overall; in fact, I won't be doing my usual category of Favorite Gay Themed Film because I can't think of a single one that I saw!

*Favorite TV Drama: Once Upon a Time

*Favorite Sitcom:  New Girl, with The Big Bang Theory and Modern Family tied for a very close second place.

*Favorite Supernatural Themed Drama:  Teen Wolf

*Favorite News Program: The Rachel Maddow Show. After moving in March, I discovered that my new cable package offered MSNBC. Rachel's show quickly became my new addiction.

*Favorite Show that Needs Help: Glee. A lot of fans had issues with the show's second season, and I was right there with them. It wasn't until the third season began, though, that I felt Glee was truly in danger of losing what had made it so special to begin with. When Glee is good, it's fantastic, like with the recent episode 'The First Time' and with the scenes of Santana coming out to her grandmother. Things like that keep me watching, but the uneven writing is becoming more and more of a problem. One example is the character of Mercedes who has been completely destroyed by bad writing. How many times is Mercedes going to freak out about Rachel getting all the attention, have her issues seemingly resolved, and then go through it all again five or ten episodes later as if the earlier experience never happened? It makes the character completely unlikeable. With the prospect of losing key cast members after this year when their characters graduate, I'm not sure if Glee will ever get its magic back.

*Favorite Daytime Soap:  One Life to Live remained the best written all year long. With that said, in the final months of 2011, my heart belonged to Days of Our Lives once again.

*Favorite Gay Themed Website of the year: AfterElton.com.

*Favorite Gay Character of the year (Daytime): Since Will Horton has yet to actually come out, there is only one option for this category and that's Days of Our Lives' Sonny Kiriakis.  His introductory storyline was a bit preachy and he hasn't had all that much to do since, but he's attractive, likable, and I'm sure he'll be fantastic when/if he's paired with Will.

*Favorite Gay Character of the year (Primetime): It's a tie! Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson, Glee. For all the show's problems, it can't be denied that Kurt and Blaine had a really great year. They shared their first kiss during the season finale last Spring and this fall they lost their virginity together in an episode that juxtaposed their experience with Rachel losing her virginity to Finn. They've even got a potential love triangle brewing with new gay character Sebastian.

 *Hottest Actor (Daytime):  It's a Tie! This year, I've been all about the Chill factor. Chandler Massey and Casey Deidrick (aka Will Horton and Chad DiMera) may never actually be able to play out a Chill love story on the show, but their chemistry is as electric as they are hot.

*Hottest Actor (Primetime): It's so hard to pick just one, as my post about the Men Who Made 2011 should demonstrate. With that said, I'm going to go with Once Upon a Time's Jamie Dornan.

  *Hottest Actor (Film): If I'm going just by films I actually saw this year, one actor who did stand out for me was Lucas Till of X-Men: First Class.

 


If, however, I'm going by film actors in general, I'd have to say that while Chris Evans may be my second favorite Evans brother, he's still one of the hottest men working in film today:

  *Hottest Out Gay Celebrity: I'm going to have to go with the newest member of the club, Zachary Quinto.

Not only is Zachary sexy as hell, but he gets to hang out with some of my other favorite hotties, like Jonathan Groff and Colton Haynes:

 Well, there we have it, 2011 in a nutshell. I hope everyone reading this has a wonderful 2012!

2011: Best & Worst Lists

  One of my favorite things about the end of any year are all of the Best of (and Worst of) lists that come out on just about any conceivable topic. I'm working on my own, which should be up tomorrow. Following my own year end tradition at Seth in the City I thought I'd share some of the ones I've been enjoying from the professionals.

  Let's start with Film. I myself managed to get to the movie theater exactly three times this year and one of those times was to see a filmed Broadway musical and not an actual feature film, so I'm far from being a good judge of what was great and what wasn't. 

 The experts, though, have spoken. First up is Roger Ebert's look at the Best Films of 2011, his top twenty picks for the year, none of which I've seen. I have very much enjoyed watching Ebert Presents At The Movies this year, though, with Christy Lemire of The Associated Press and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of Mubi.com. Sadly, at this point the show has no funding to continue on past this week's episode unless they can find sponsors or willing foundations to help out. Roger and his wife Chaz were mainly funding it themselves.

  Next up, the trio of film critics for The New Yorker. David Denby's top 10 list does contain one film I've actually seen this year, albeit on DVD: Source Code. I can't say the same for any of the films on Anthony Lane's list, but you'd think I'd have a better chance at having seen some of the 26 films that Richard Brody writes about in his list. You'd be mistaken, though. I guess I should start going to the movies more often!

  Moving on to the small screen, Ken Tucker at Entertainment Weekly has his annual look at the Best and Worst in Television this year. Darren Franich also has a list of the Best TV Character Deaths of the year, including my Sheriff Graham from Once Upon a Time.

 Turning to the world of the stage, the staff of Playbill.com offer their favorite moments from 2011, and a photo gallery of all the Playbill covers from this past year, while the New Yorker's John Lahr offers his take on the best theater of the year and Hilton Als offers a look at his year in culture. EW's Tom Geier also offers his picks for the best of the stage this year.

 Let's move on to my own personal favorite topic: Books. The New Yorker once again offers up several lists on the subject of the Best Books of 2011, from the likes of James Woods, Sam Lipsyte, Yiyun Li, Tessa Hadley, Tad Friend, Ben Marcus, Malcolm Gladwell, Lorrie Moore, and Anne Beattie. Meanwhile, Entertainment Weekly takes a look at the Best and Worst in Fiction and in Nonfiction this year.

 Lambda Literary offers up the best in LGBT books of 2011 and I think my favorite list of the year is from one of my favorite blogs, Band of Thebes. In this particular list, 92 authors offer their selections for the best in LGBT books for 2011. This list alone could provide me with ample reading for 2012.

  The New Yorker has a complete listing that includes many more lists than I've mentioned, as does Entertainment Weekly, including a Top 20 of everything list by Stephen King.

 Another favorite site of mine, AfterElton.com, offers up 2011's Most Memorable LGBT Quotes.

 I'll be back tomorrow with my own look back at 2011.

The Men Who Made 2011

It's time again for what has to be one of my favorite posts of the year! Starting in 2008, I've ended each year since with a look at the men who made my year extra special. While they're not necessarily guys that were new to the entertainment scene this year, they are guys that I've noticed either for the first time or in a whole new way, men who really stood out in 2011.

So, without further ado, let's take a look at the guys who made the past twelve months especially hot!

Every year that I've done this list, I've opened with a guy from One Life to Live. Thanks to the powers that be at ABC and the epic failure of Prospect Park to follow through on their deal to give the show new life online, 2011 is my very last opportunity to do so. Luckily, One Life to Live didn't fail to deliver this year by providing me with a viable candidate!

Josh Kelly debuted on the show exactly a year ago today as con artist Cutter Wentworth and he certainly helped to make the show's final twelve months hot! There's just something so good about a bad boy with a naughty grin! Josh even made facial hair, which I usually can't stand, seem downright sexy!
I will definitely miss having Josh Kelly steaming up the screen on daytime, but I'm certain the future holds big things for him. He's already landed a pilot for MTV called Dumb Girls, and I for one will be checking it out when and if it goes to series.

Speaking of MTV, my next pick for the Men Who Made 2011 is cheating just a little bit, because I'm actually choosing an entire male cast instead of just one guy. If you'd told me a year ago that I'd become a fan of an MTV show centered around high school students, I would have groaned. Surely I'd finally outgrown teen dramas (Glee being more of a comedy, of course), especially ones on MTV? Then along came an incredibly homoerotic series with a drop dead gorgeous male cast, and I was hooked.

I'm talking, of course, about Teen Wolf. The series had me wanting my MTV all summer long. I'm not even sure which guy I liked the most (okay, Tyler Hoechlin) because they all had that something special.

First up is Tyler Posey, who plays Scott, the title character. He's got an adorable grin, dreamy eyes, and a killer body:
Then there's the sidekick/best friend character, Stiles, a Seth Cohen for the 2010's, played to sarcastic perfection by Dylan O'Brien:
Then there's Jackson, that teen drama staple the asshole jock, played by a male model come deliciously to life in the form of Colton Haynes:
There's even an out gay character, lacrosse player Danny, played by Keahu Kahuanui, who had his own male date to the prom but ended up sharing a dance with Scott:
Finally, there's Scott's mentor, a slightly more mature werewolf, Derek, played by the electrifyingly sexy Tyler Hoechlin:

Yes, the summer of 2011 was made infinitely hotter by the men of Teen Wolf!

Next up, a guy who I had no idea existed before this past fall when I decided to check out the new series Once Upon a Time. The show itself is pretty good, though I can't see how they'll sustain the concept for more than a season or two at most. The guy who really caught my eye right from the beginning was Jamie Dornan, the hottie with the Irish accent who played Sheriff Graham and who for the second time this year had me re-evaluating facial hair:

He's pretty much my idea of a Fairy Tale Prince come to life, even if his character actually turned out to be the Huntsman who lets Snow White live. Sadly, in the most recent episode Sheriff Graham was killed off. Since part of the show is set in the fairy tale past, though, I'm hoping we'll at least see more of him as The Huntsman.

Finally, 2011 brought to my attention in a whole new way a man who I was perfectly familiar with before now. Back in 2008, I'd watched him on Greek, where he played Nick Pepper, a love interest for Calvin. He was likable enough, and certainly attractive, but at the time I wanted Calvin to get back together with Heath, so I wasn't at all upset when things ended with Nick and the character disappeared.

Flash forward to this fall, when the hilarious new series New Girl debuted on Fox. My first thought when I saw that Max Greenfield was going to be in the cast was a tepid "Oh, it's that guy." When I'd finished watching the first episode, which he'd stolen completely as Schmidt, my thoughts ran more along the lines of "I'm in love!" Max steals the show every week and they're not at all afraid to show off his body, which is an added bonus. So, if you haven't seen the show yet, get a little Schmidt on your face and take a look:

Well, there we have them, the Men Who Made 2011. A fantastic year for hot guys, if for nothing else! Can 2012 ever compete? Only time will tell.

More Ewings Checking in to Southfork

I'm getting more and more excited over the new Dallas update as the days pass. Earlier this month came the news that another Desperate Housewives alum was joining the cast, this time actress Brenda Strong, who will be playing Bobby Ewing's wife Ann. I can't wait to meet the new Mrs. Ewing!

Today I read that two more original Dallas cast members will be in the pilot! Steve Kanaly will be back as ranch foreman turned Ewing half brother, Ray Krebbs, while Charlene Tilton will reprise her role of Lucy Ewing Cooper.

Ray was in the second reunion movie, War of the Ewings (which, sadly, sucked), but we haven't seen Lucy since way back in 1990. It will be very interesting to catch up with these two characters!

I wonder if the new writers will remember that Bobby has a second son, Lucas? His mother is Jenna Wade and he was adopted by Ray, who married Jenna and moved off to Europe with her. That could make for an interesting story in a lot of ways, this nephew/son of Bobby's who wasn't raised as part of the Southfork branch of the family. I wonder if we'll be seeing Jenna, too?

Speaking of the Southfork clan, this picture of Larry Hagman, the still beautiful Linda Gray, and their new TV son Josh Henderson, which was posted by the latter on Facebook, leaves me feeling like a kid anticipating Christmas morning! I can't wait!

Groff Returns to Glee!

Yesterday I wrote about a bit of casting news that annoyed the hell out of me, but the news I read tonight had very much the opposite effect.

I'm talking, of course, about the report that Jonathan Groff will be returning to his role as Jesse St James on Glee for the final three episodes of the season!

I became a huge fan of Jonathan's during his run on the show last year. He's not only beautiful, a talented actor, and a fantastic signer, he's also openly gay, which makes him even more awesome as far as I'm concerned.

Jonathan spent some of the time since leaving the show starring on stage in Deathtrap in London's West End and while I'm sure he was fantastic in that, I couldn't exactly afford to fly over to the UK to see it, so I'm very happy that I'll be able to see him on my TV screen again.

I wonder if the show will have Rachel break out Carly Simon's 'Jesse' when Mr. St James returns to town? ("Oh mother, say a prayer for me, Jesse's back in town, it won't be easy...") The lyrics seem to work perfectly for the situation.

More to the point, will Jonathan share any screen time with Darren Criss? That much hotness onscreen at one time could be too much to handle, but I'll gladly take the risk!

Van Gets Psyched

Some great news for all of us Van Hansis fans: the former Luke Snyder will be on our TV screens again in the near future. Van has landed a guest starring role on an episode of the series Psych.

I know that it has only been six months since As The World Turns went off the air and that I've seen Van more recently on YouTube in the Black Swan parody, Pale Swan, but it really seems like it has been ages since I last had my Hansis fix!

Van is a seriously talented guy and I can't wait to see what he does with this new role. I know it's going to be just the first of many.

About a month ago, by the way, I had a dream that Luke & Noah were given a spin off show that also starred Kyle and Fish from One Life to Live, along with several characters from Queer As Folk. It was pretty epic and I was so disappointed when I woke up and realized it was just a dream!

Thoughts on Glee

With everything that has been going on in my life, I have yet to comment on the second season of Glee other than to note my approval of the two hot guys who joined the cast last fall. I've been meaning to blog on the subject for months and there's no time like the present, right?

To start with, I should say that Chris Colfer has continued to impress the hell out of me. I was practically jumping up and down with joy when he won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in January. I don't think anyone deserved it more than he did and his acceptance speech was the high point of the evening.

I've loved the bullying story arc that is still unresolved. It's an important story and Chris played it beautifully, especially during the scene where Kurt finally confronted his bully Karofsky in the locker room.

I think one of my favorite scenes not only of the year but from any TV show EVER has to be the scene where Kurt's Dad gives him The Talk about sex. This was such a groundbreaking moment, to see a straight father sit down with his gay teenage son and discuss not only safe sex, but the emotional aspects of becoming sexually involved with another person. I honestly never thought I'd see a scene like this on network television. If Glee had ceased to air immediately afterward, it would have earned its place in history just with that scene.

What made this all truly spectacular was Mike O'Malley and Chris Colfer as the father and son in question. They were both pitch perfect as they had the uncomfortable but important conversation, and if it were up to me they would both be showered with every award possible just for this alone.

One of the best things about the new season has been the addition of Blaine Anderson to the cast of characters. Yes, Blaine is played by the incredibly sexy Darren Criss (see above), but that's only one reason to love this character. A far better one is that Criss is a talented actor and singer who has made Blaine truly come alive onscreen.

I could cite many examples of this, but I think the best one actually comes from this past week's episode. The scene I'm talking about is the one in which Blaine is listening to Kurt perform 'Blackbird' and there's no doubt as you're watching that you're seeing him fall in love with his fellow Warbler right before your eyes. Blaine doesn't say a word, but the dawning realization is all right there on his face and in his body language.

I've loved the way in which Kurt & Blaine have become friends (although Kurt was in love from the moment Blaine sang Teenage Dream to him) and how Blaine has tried to be a mentor to Kurt, and I'm excited to see where things go from here, now that they've finally become a couple.
With that said, I'm so ready to see Kurt back at McKinley High! All of the Warbler's performances tend to start sounding the same after awhile, with so little diversity in the singing, and I just miss seeing Kurt interacting with his old friends. I've loved seeing him become closer with Rachel since his transfer to Dalton and I'd like to see how that holds up when they're in the same glee club again.

What about the rest of the show, outside of Kurt and Blaine? Well, I've got to say that I'm incredibly disappointed with the way things were written for Will & Emma. Throwing Carl into the mix and then having Emma marry him so suddenly was not only wildly out of character for her, it also sort of ruined Emma & Will for me.

I liked the addition of Holly Holliday and I have to confess that I've never liked Gwyneth Paltrow more, but I don't see her being a long term character. If she's just in the mix to get Emma and Will back together, as seems likely, I'm less than impressed.

One truly fantastic decision they made this year was the casting of Dot-Marie Jones as Coach Beiste. At first, I thought the new football coach was going to be little more than a stereotype and a joke, but I quickly lost that idea. The writing has given Dot-Marie Jones a chance to shine both as a comic actress and in some surprisingly emotional scenes.

I also very much enjoyed the addition of Chord Overstreet as Sam Evans, though for somewhat different reasons:

Yes, he's fantastic eye candy, but I also loved how secretly dorky Sam was underneath the hot jock exterior. When he spoke Na'vi and did his McConaughey impression, I melted. I was especially excited when I thought that he was coming on to be Kurt's new boyfriend. My disappointment on that front was quickly appeased by the real chemistry that existed between Sam & Quinn, though. I really enjoyed that pairing.

Since then, they haven't seemed to know what to do with Sam. They trashed his relationship with Quinn to do a Quinn & Finn retread (boring!) and then paired him up with Santana, only to have her confess her love for Brittany. There is some truly interesting story to be told with the character of Sam, his insecurity, and his overwhelming need to be popular, but will they tell it?

Don't get me wrong, though, I love the whole Brittany/Santana relationship. It will be interesting to see where that goes. I've also enjoyed the Brittany/Artie match.

I have mixed feelings on the Puck/Lauren pairing. I love Lauren's complete confidence in herself and in her sex appeal, in spite of not looking like what is accepted in our society today as 'sexy', but I just feel like the pairing with Puck is too forced to be believable. They don't quite carry it off, somehow.

Where is Mercedes? Yes, she's physically present and has had a few great songs (I loved the duet of 'Take Me or Leave Me' she did with Rachel!), but she's had no character development whatsoever this season, outside of the tater tot thing. Give her a story already!

I also think they need to be very careful with Sue. She's always been deliciously over the top and I love Jane Lynch, but some of the character's actions this season have been a tad too much, even for Sue. If they made her a complete cartoon, that would be one thing, but they continually ground her with scenes in which we see that she is indeed human. So, why would she not care if she killed Brittany to win a competition, to give one example?

Overall, the show has had some great episodes this season and a few that weren't quite all that they could have been. I hope they'll move away from doing too many more episodes that revolve around the music of just one artist. It worked beautifully in the Madonna episode last year, but... well, let's just say Britney Spears is no Madonna.

Still, at this point I'd take a less than perfect episode of Glee over almost anything else on offer. It continues to be groundbreaking and remains my favorite show.