Award Winning Writing?

What a mess of an episode today's As the World Turns was. If you want proof that the Writers Guild of America is out of its mind for giving Best Writing in a Daytime Serial to ATWT, look no further than Luke & Noah's new storyline, clearly thrown together with about twenty seconds thought.

So, basically, Luke & Jade are planning a surprise 21st birthday party for their friend Casey, though Luke notes that his actual birthday isn't until Valentines Day. No big deal, except that they've planned the party to take place that night at Yo's, a local bar. Yeah, that makes sense, have the 21st birthday party in a bar, when the birthday boy (and his friends) are still underage.

Luke & Noah are greeted at Yo's by Reg, another Oakdale U gay student. The guys first met Reg (and his then boyfriend Tony) last year when they invited Luke & Noah to their all gay hot tub party, making it sound like it was to be the can't-miss Orgy of the Year.

Needless to say, virginal Luke & Noah didn't attend the party. Reg next popped up when Noah told Luke they should 'take a break' right after Noah's father died. Reg had broken up with Tony by that point and when he heard that Luke wasn't with Noah, he expressed his interest in dating Luke himself. (Tony also popped up around that time and asked Noah to Cyndi Lauper's Pride concert, where Noah & Luke reunited, dashing both Reg & Tony's hopes).

We last saw Reg this past fall, right at the beginning of the whole campaign storyline. He was present when Luke decided to run against Kevin, but we haven't seen him since.

Now, though, he's apparently close friends with Luke & Noah, and knows Casey well enough to be invited to the party and buy him gag gifts. When did this happen?

Anyway, the underage college students are having a great time drinking (except Luke) and dancing, and I'm wondering if Oakdale is actually located in an alternate universe without a legal drinking age. Actually, an alternate universe would explain a lot about the things that the writers create for this show, but I digress.

About that time, another blast from the past walks in the door: Casey's old college roommate Elwood, who started out as a likable nerd but was last seen after being caught framing Casey for theft and was sent to prison.

Long story short (too late), Luke & Noah take a break from the dance floor and go outside for some air, only to interrupt Reg & Elwood in what even a blind man could tell was a drug deal, though Luke & Noah just warn Reg that Elwood is bad news and seem otherwise completely unsuspicious.

Once they're back inside, Reg breaks up a fight between Casey & Elwood by collapsing to the floor (what a drama queen!) and the party ends with Luke & Noah at the hospital, getting the news that good old Reg is dead of a drug overdose.

Luke doesn't think Reg did drugs, though Noah points out that Tony was a recreational user, so maybe Reg was, too. About that time, a giant bag of pills (it's ridiculously large) falls out of Reg's coat, which Noah is carrying, and Luke suddenly clues in on the fact that Elwood must have sold Reg this hefty bag of pills right under their clueless noses!

So, our hero Luke charges off to find Elwood, which he of course does, and accuses him of murder for selling Reg the pills. Elwood runs off, and Luke breaks down on Noah's shoulder, looking like he's just lost his very best friend.

Maybe they could have given Reg a few scenes in the last week or two to remind the audience who he was and to show us that he's apparently been hanging out with Luke & Noah. Hell, even having Luke reference his name in the last few weeks would have been something. Instead, they bring him back out of nowhere, give him two scenes where he barely says anything, and then kill him off, most likely at the hand of another character not seen or mentioned for several months, and we're supposed to be invested in this story?

I've wished for awhile that the show would give Luke & Noah some gay friends to hang out with, and Reg would have been a good candidate for that, but apparently it was more important to kill him. I guess this is their February sweeps plan?

One thing I did like, at the very start of the episode, was a moment between the guys unrelated to the drama to come. Noah told Luke that he'd taken Valentines Day off, in case Luke wanted to surprise him. Luke's response was something like "Oh, I'm in charge of Valentines Day?" before they kissed. It was a nice moment between them, cementing the fact that they're a couple in love.

But this story is a mess and since I think it's supposed to be wrapped up before Luke's biological father hits town next month, I'm sure it won't have any long term consequences or any point at all, beyond being just the Plot of the Moment.

Idol & Broadway Backwards

I just finished watching tonight's American Idol (how weird does it feel writing that?!) and I'm glad to say that my guy, Adam Lambert, was sent through to the next round.

They showed more singing tonight (as opposed to a lot of pointless drama and very little singing last week when I watched) and Adam was featured more, singing first out of everyone. He did a version of Cher's song 'Believe', which I thought was really good. A lot of people seemed to be choosing songs that ten other people were also singing, so I liked that Adam went with something that no one else picked and really made it his own. He's got a beautiful voice.

They were dividing the contestants into rooms where everyone in the room would either go forward or be eliminated. I felt pretty confident that Adam's room was safe, given that everyone in the room seemed to have done really well, Adam included, but it was still a long wait before they gave them the good news.

I don't know how I'm going to deal with the tension of this show! I always thought it was kind of silly, but when there's someone you really want to see move forward, you truly are on the edge of your seat until you know if they're safe or not. Its ridiculous!

In the preview for tomorrow's show, they arranged the footage to make it look like Adam will be cut, but I'm hoping that's just another trick. It seems like they'd want to shock people at the last moment if he was being cut, rather than reveal it the day before in a preview.

It still feels odd to actually be watching American Idol, but I have to say that a lot of the people I saw tonight had really great voices.

Speaking of great voices, yet another reason that I want to live in New York is that I'd be able to attend shows like Broadway Backwards. If you haven't heard of this before, it's an annual benefit for NYC's LGBT Community Center in which male stars perform songs usually done by women, and vice versa.

I first heard of this last year, when Neil Patrick Harris and his partner, David Burtka, did their own version of Maureen & Joanne's song 'Take Me Or Leave Me' from Rent. I've seen clips from their performance on YouTube, but never the the whole thing. It looked so good, though, and to top that off, Cheyenne Jackson & Anthony Rapp did 'Suddenly Seymour' from Little Shop of Horrors!

What I wouldn't have given to actually be there that night!

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is that AfterElton has pictures from Broadway Backwards 4, which took place yesterday. It looks like it was another great show. I mean, you have Cheyenne Jackson and Sandra Bernhard performing 'You're the Top' together, Ugly Betty's Michael Urie and Becky Newton doing 'Getting Married Today' from Company, and Florence 'Mrs. Brady' Henderson groping a chorus boy! Whats not to love?

I really wish I could have seen this. If only they'd film these annual shows and sell the DVDs to benefit the Center! They'd make a ton of money that way and we poor non-New Yorkers would be able to enjoy the show, too.

Meanwhile, one of my best friends joked the other day, as I was enthusing over seeing Rent with Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal next summer, that I'm in danger of becoming a theatre queen. Hmmm. I'm not sure where she got that impression!

Good News

It has been a really long day for me, but there were a few things I wanted to mention tonight.

First, in all my complaining yesterday about As the World Turns' inexplicable win of a Writers Guild of America award, I forgot to mention that there was some good news as well. Dustin Lance Black won the award for Best Original Screenplay for Milk! He also won a special award for work that highlights civil rights issues.

After reading this piece about Black's acceptance speech, I think I officially have a new hero! I really hope he is able to give a similar speech on Oscar night.

More good news: Matthew Mitcham finally got a corporate sponsorship months after bringing home the gold in the summer Olympics. It's ridiculous that it took this long, but I'm glad that it finally happened.

Are You Kidding Me?!

I'm going to rant a bit. Prepare yourself!

As the World Turns just won the Writer's Guild of America Award for Best Writing in a Daytime Serial, beating the only other nominee, One Life to Live. What the hell?!

First of all, I can't believe that ATWT was even nominated to begin with. That seemed illogical enough, but then I figured that someone had to be nominated to make One Life to Live's slam dunk win look more fair, right? I mean, when there is one incredibly well written soap and seven badly written soaps and you still have to choose more than one nominee, there's no way around nominating an undeserving soap. (I hear, by the way, that The Young & The Restless is much better written now than it has been for the last couple of years, but I haven't checked it out for myself yet.)

But for As the World Turns to actually win is beyond crazy. Outside of the Nuke storyline, the show is unwatchable, even with a very talented cast. Inside the Nuke storyline, the writing is usually pretty bad, but Van Hansis & Jake Silbermann manage to save it and make it worth following.

One Life to Live, meanwhile, is just incredible right now. It's the only soap I watch every minute of, no fast forwarding. The best part is that the stories are all interwoven and connected, like they should be on a well written soap, but the other shows (and As the World Turns is especially bad with this) seem to favor isolated storyline bubbles where the stories don't really affect each other and half the cast never interact.

The stories on One Life to Live are clearly being written with an eye to long term story telling, not the Psycho of the Month brand of story telling that As the World Turns loves, where the plot of the moment is all that matters and then it's on to the next.

In other words, One Life to Live is written by people who clearly love and understand the medium of Soap Opera, while As the World Turns is not. (I should clarify that I'm mostly talking about overall story, created by the Head Writers, and not about the writers doing the day to day scripts who just have to write scenes and dialogue that follow the story set from above)

For As the World Turns to win at all is bad enough, but for One Life to Live to lose to them is unthinkable. It would have been much easier to take if they'd been nominated against a soap that was just as poorly written.

Wedding Bells

There's another LGBT daytime milestone coming up in the near future: the wedding of All My Children's Bianca & Reese on February 16th! This doesn't give me much time to catch up on the whole Rianca storyline, but I think I'm up for the challenge.

This will be the first wedding between two major LGBT characters in daytime history, although technically the dreadful (not to mention homophobic & transphobic) soap Passions beat them to the punch with daytime's first ever gay wedding at the very end of the show. Minor characters Norma & Edna shared a commitment ceremony as the show ended its run on DirecTV, nearly a year after being cancelled by NBC.

This is completely different, though, because Bianca & Reese are not only major characters on the show, they've been engaged for awhile and also share a child. This is pretty groundbreaking stuff.

I'm not thrilled, however, with the news that Eden Riegel, who plays Bianca, will be leaving All My Children shortly. Tamara Braun's Reese will be remaining with the show, which doesn't really bode well for the newlyweds.

Still, the wedding itself will be a huge milestone, one that I hope we'll see repeated between many other LGBT characters in the future.

Some Nice Luke & Noah Scenes

I was lamenting another Nuke-less episode of As the World Turns this afternoon when the guys suddenly popped up twenty minutes into the hour.

They only had a few scenes, but they were very good ones. Noah showed up at Luke's house to find his boyfriend on the computer. Luke mentioned bookmarking the site he was on and Noah started fishing for info about the Valentines Day gift he thought Luke was ordering for him.

This was a really cute scene, with Noah making guesses about his gift and Luke shooting them down with a smile. It was really good to just see the boys together, happy, and just acting like any couple in love.

These were exactly the kind of scenes I was hoping we'd see for the guys during the time between their more dramatic stories!

Of course, there was a touch of drama when Luke revealed that what he'd bookmarked was a listing for a cute little one bedroom apartment that sounded perfect for the two of them and Noah immediately put the brakes on the idea of their living together.

Luke was hurt, of course, that Noah didn't want to live with him, and pointed out that they'd discussed what their own place would be like many times. Noah told Luke that he always thought that would be someday in the future, after he finishes school and they can afford a place. Living together isn't something you do on the spur of the moment, Noah felt. Luke complained that Noah always over thinks everything and wondered why they couldn't ever be spontaneous.

Their argument was interrupted by Holden, who was feeling guilty about saying the wrong thing and hurting his sister. After Holden left to go make things right with Meg, Luke realized that if his dad was strong enough to admit when he was wrong, he could as well, and apologized to Noah for getting upset.

Luke said he just got really excited when he saw the listing for the apartment and didn't really think it through. He told Noah that if paying the rent was an issue, his parents could always help them out, but Noah responded that when they got their own place, he wanted it to be truly theirs, to split the rent 50/50.

Luke was happy to hear Noah say 'when' they got their own place, rather than 'if', and Noah promised that it would happen. The two then shared another of their once forbidden kisses and all was well again.

These were nice scenes and I liked that they showed the boys in a normal argument that any couple could have, with them making up afterwards and putting it behind them. The scenes also spoke to their characters, too, since Luke does tend to be impulsive and emotional and Noah tends to be cautious almost to a fault.

I did think it was kind of silly, though, that Noah wouldn't want to get a place with Luke now. He's right that they shouldn't be spontaneous about this issue, but that doesn't mean that it can't be carefully thought out and happen soon.

Plenty of college students live in crappy little apartments together, after all. They made it sound as if Luke & Noah had to get someplace really nice together for their first place, but I'm sure that with student loans, and Noah's job, and if Luke got a job (since he's doing nothing else with his time except playing matchmaker since being expelled), they could easily afford a cheap place right now without help from Luke's family.

The idea that they're fine with waiting until Noah finishes school (which should still be over two years away) doesn't really ring true somehow.

Still, these were nice scenes. From the preview they showed at the end of the show, the boys will be in the thick of some heavy drama again next week, so it may be awhile before we see them just enjoying life together again.

It's Just a Little Crush...

I have a confession to make. I'm watching American Idol this season. Why is this a confession? Well, I've always prided myself on having never watched American Idol, ever.

I'm not completely sure why, except that it came out at a time when I was really hating non-scripted TV with a passion (I still do, but more out of principle than passion) and it immediately became THE big thing, which always turns me off.

So, I've held my head high all this time, like some kind of television elitist snob. (You know, the kind of snob who will watch daytime soaps, but not talent competitions! Aren't there a lot of us out there?)

Then one night not long ago, I turned on the TV. The plan was to fire up the Tivo and check out the day's shows, but before I could get to the menu, I stopped. There, on my TV, was a really gorgeous guy, singing beautifully.

Before I could even wonder what I was watching, the scene shifted to the all too familiar panel of judges, known even to those two or three dozen of us who haven't tuned in before. Oh, no. American Idol! I should have switched over to my Tivo menu right there, but I was entranced.

They cut off this hot guy's singing way too quickly and passed their judgement. I wanted to kick Simon when he said the guy was 'too theatrical', but all four ended up voting him forward to the next round and he was adorable as he told Paula she was his first pop concert when he was 10 and kissed her hand.

Who was he?! I had to know. It turns out, his name is Adam Lambert and he's been in the L.A. cast of Wicked as Fiyero for the last few years. He also did a musical on stage with Val Kilmer called The Ten Commandments (yikes!) about four years ago and was in the later movie version as well.

I took this info to YouTube, where I discovered several clips of Adam performing both on stage and at the Upright Cabaret as recently as New Year's Eve. I'm not entirely sure on this, but it seems like Adam may be openly gay. I say this because of the New Year's eve clip on YouTube, where he's talking to the audience about having kissed his female co-star in Wicked and that, even though it may not be his preference, it was still nice.

I know from reading blogs and such that while there have been people on the show that came out after the fact (Jim Verraros, who I loved in the Eating Out films, and Clay Aiken to name two) no one has been acknowledged to be openly gay while still on the show. I think it would be awesome if Adam was the first. Even better, if he went on to win the whole thing.

Needless to say, my crush intensified after my YouTube viewings and the next thing I knew, I'd added a season pass to American Idol on my Tivo. There, that's my confession. My name is Seth, and I watch American Idol. All those people I was secretly looking down on for no very good reason for the past seven years can now laugh in my face.

Even worse, I'll never be able to listen to Jay Brannan's song American Idol again without feeling like I've betrayed the sentiment behind the song! ("American Idol, get the hell off my TV")

Adam was barely featured in Wednesday's episode (the first I'd recorded), but he did move forward to the next round and I'll be watching as long as he's on. What can I say, he's really talented. Yes, he's also beautiful, but it was his voice that kept me from changing the channel when I first saw him.

If you haven't heard him sing, go to YouTube and search his name. In fact, follow this link for a compilation of several of his performances that are on the site, including the American Idol audition that caught my attention.

Postcards to the President

I just read about Postcards to the President, a great chance for the LGBT community and their supporters to make themselves heard individually on equal rights and, more specifically, the repealing the Defense of Marriage Act.

I think it's a fantastic idea, something very simple that would only take a few minutes and the cost of a stamp but could really send a strong message, demonstrating just how many of us there are who care about this issue.

Take the time to send a postcard and to let others know about it!

Knight Outed

I had some topics in mind to write about tonight, but I'm just really tired and can't seem to pull anything together. So I decided to just surf the net and see if anything interesting jumped out at me that I could write about.

That's when I read that my sister's favorite New Kid on the Block, Jonathan Knight, was just outed to the National Enquirer by his ex boyfriend. Nice guy, huh? I think Jonathan's sexuality has been an open secret for awhile, but its still pretty low of his ex to sell pictures of them together and his story like that.

At least Jonathan has a chance to live his life openly now. I think everyone does have to come out in their own time, when they're ready, but I have a problem with celebrities who are completely out in their personal lives, to their friends and family, but stay publicly closeted even though they could be role models for LGBT youth all over the world. (Mind you, I don't know what Knight's situation is; he may not be out to his family yet either, in which case what his ex did is even worse)

So, that's Nsync and New Kids checked off the list. How long until we find out which Backstreet Boy is gay?

Van & Jake Interview

Advocate.Com has a great interview up with Van Hansis and Jake Silbermann about the groundbreaking 'Nuke Sex' that took place last month. Here's a preview, but read the whole thing because... well, why wouldn't you?! Van & Jake are just completely awesome.

Advocate.com: Now that it's finally aired, how do you think Nuke's first sex scene played out?
Hansis: I think it was a natural progression for the characters at this point to sleep together. I think it’s a good thing that they did. The time was right. It is important to show that they take it seriously. I am glad the fans are so happy because that is the most important thing.
Silbermann: I really liked the way the show handled it by not really having it with bells and whistles and fanfare…
Hansis: Also, it was exciting for the fans not to have any “spoilers” on it, because I know there was a big fan group waiting for this moment. In this day and age, to keep that a secret is pretty cool. I think the fans enjoyed being surprised and shocked.

Their passion seemed to ignite out of an impassioned argument, as they had been broken up for some time.
Silbermann: They weren’t really mad at each other. They really wanted to be together. So I think it was one of those heartfelt moments of what they were trying to say, and the action came out of it.

It’s important that gay romance receives fair cultural representation on television. Do you feel a responsibility in portraying these roles?
Silbermann: The most important thing is that it’s a story for people who felt unrepresented on our show, or any show.
Hansis: One of the most important things in the daytime medium, in portraying a couple long-term, is to give a voice to people who had not had a voice. Also, to show people who are not gay or who don’t have a personal connection to the story. They can form an empathetic connection to these characters. It helps people in that way.

Check out the whole interview, they discuss some upcoming stories (nothing too detailed, of course), how they feel about working with each other, and their recent foray to see a really bad movie together.

Goodbye Oscar Wilde

Bad news. The Oscar Wilde Bookshop, the oldest LGBT bookstore in the United States, is closing down, yet another victim of this lousy economy. The Oscar Wilde is more than just a bookstore, it's a cultural landmark for the LGBT community, having opened its doors in New York back in 1967, two full years before the Stonewall riots. I've read about the Oscar Wilde before and it was on my list of places to go when I finally got to NYC. That won't be happening now, and that makes me really sad.

This is really a shame, but I can't say it's a surprise. As I've noted before, I work for one of the large bookstore chains and we've been struggling for business for awhile now. I know things are much harder for independent booksellers who don't have the sweet deals with publishers that the big chains get. (Which, by the way, I fully support independent booksellers over chains. I just happened to need a job and the independents around here weren't hiring!)

It's always sad to see another independent bookstore fold, but its even harder to see a place that was such a part of the LGBT community go under.

If you live in or near NYC, the Oscar Wilde will be open until March 29th.

Not Much to See Here

Luke was back on As the World Turns today, but there really isn't much I can say about it. Noah wasn't present and Luke just had a few scenes in the whole Casey/Jade/Emily/Ali story.

I did like the fact that when he found out that Jade never passed his message on to Casey, he totally didn't buy her lie about why she hadn't and immediately confronted her about it. That's one thing I've always really liked about Luke & Jade's relationship. He knows her better than anyone, knows what she's capable of and won't let her get away with lying to him.

Perhaps more interesting today was the return of Casey's old cellmate Matt from his latest stint in prison. Granted, he seems to be present mostly to throw a further wrench into the Casey/Alison pairing, since he dated Ali briefly the last time he was out on parole. He & Casey have always had an interesting chemistry, though, and really seem to care about each other. I know the show would never pair them up romantically, of course, but I still enjoy watching their dynamic together as friends.

I'm more than ready to see Luke & Noah together again! It's been nearly three weeks since they were last onscreen at the same time. I don't mind them not having a story for a little while before their next one starts, but couldn't we at least seem them together, enjoying being in love?

Nooo! Not Kyle XY! Take 90210 Instead!

Damn you, ABC Family! I really love their series Kyle XY, as I've mentioned before, and I just found out that they've cancelled it! Why are all the really good shows, the ones that aren't exactly like every other show you see when you turn on the TV, so quick to fall victim to cancellation? First Pushing Daisies, now Kyle XY.

Three seasons were just not enough for this unique, incredible show. They haven't even said for certain yet if they'll continue airing the remaining episodes of the third season, which just started a few weeks ago, but they'd better! ABC has screwed us so far with the remaining episodes of Pushing Daisies, for which we'll probably have to wait for the DVD boxed set to see. Let's hope ABC Family is a bit kinder.

I guess the bright spot is that they did renew Greek for another season. I do really enjoy that show, but it's not on the same level as Kyle XY. They're also going to have a new show based on the film 10 Things I Hate About You, which intrigues me a bit. I've always loved that movie, especially the scene where Heath Ledger serenades Julia Stiles from the bleachers!

Seriously, though, there are so many vapid, predictable shows that go on and on, and a great show like Kyle XY gets cancelled way before its time. TV execs are clearly out of their minds.

Updike

I haven't yet mentioned the death, earlier this week, of John Updike. This is mostly because I haven't yet read a lot of Updike's work and it always feels weird to write about someone just because they've died. If their work or something they did meant something to me, of course, that's one thing, but to chime in just for the sake of noting their passing seems a bit silly to me.

In Updike's case, I just don't feel familiar enough with his body of work. I will say that the few things I have read have been incredibly good, stylistically speaking, which is not surprising. You don't get a reputation like his just for having a prolific number of books published. If you did, James Patterson and Nora Roberts would be considered literary geniuses!

I got the feeling, again just from the little I've read (short stories and critical essays; none of the novels, yet), that Updike's overall outlook was that of a typical straight white male of his generation, confused and put off by the social changes of the last fifty years.

One thing of his that particularly left me feeling irritated was his review of Alan Hollinghurst's novel The Spell (this is collected in his essay collection Due Considerations) which seemed to me to boil down to the fact that Updike thought Hollinghurst had included too much gay sex in the book. I couldn't help but feel, as I was reading the essay, that any gay sex would have seemed like too much for Updike, but maybe that's not an entirely fair point of view on my part.

I think that's largely why I've not read more of his work, though I still intend to.

Anyway, the reason that I'm bringing up John Updike now is that I just finished reading Ian McEwan's piece on his passing from The Guardian. McEwan is a writer I admire and I think the piece itself is worth reading, no matter what you thought of Updike's writing.

It certainly makes me want to read some of Updike's novels so that I can have a more fully informed opinion of this man who was undeniably a giant of 20th century American literature.

The Men of the Stage

I think I spend half my time wishing I lived in London or Paris, and the other half dreaming the (slightly more realistic) dream of living in New York city. There's just so much about New York that I'd love to experience: the stage, the nightlife, the museums; it's the epicenter of the cultural world on this side of the Atlantic.

Of course, the New York I usually fantasize about is alternately the Bohemian version to be found in Rent or a glittering literati world populated with the likes of Dorothy Parker and her Algonquin cohorts. I envision myself spending my days writing and my nights seeing everything on and off Broadway, going to gallery openings, nightclubs, and attending parties of the sort where Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer are having a fistfight in one room while Truman Capote holds court in another.

I won't even begin to describe my impossible fantasies of life in London or Paris!

But, in spite of the fact that I know life in New York would never be close to what I've always imagined from afar, I still plan to experience it one of these days. Even the title of my blog is a wistful nod in the direction of a possible future.

All of which is an elaborate build up on my part to say the following: AfterElton has given me 37 more reasons to want to live in NYC, with their list of the 37 Hottest Guys in Theatre.

They limited their list to guys who have been active in the last few years and have had one or two major roles in that time. Now, I'm obviously biased, but I would have included Van Hansis on the list, given his roles in Die Mommie Die and Dance Dance Revolution. Granted, he's still mostly a TV actor at the moment, but he's clearly devoted to the stage nonetheless.

Still, in spite of the lack of Van, it's a great list full of some truly hot men. There are also three guys on the list with a connection to Van, and strangely enough they all have the same first name!

The first two are Matt Cavenaugh & Matthew Morrison, who have both been on As the World Turns in the last couple of years with Van, each playing the same role: the troubled Adam Hughes.

Matthew had the role first, and was only there for a month before he departed abruptly, but he instantly made a fan of me. He was so intense in the role and he had the most beautiful eyes! I was eagerly anticipating the standard soap opera hunk shirtless scene before he left, but alas we never got one! Below is a picture of Matthew with Van. (Don't ask me what's up with Van's hair, I'm not sure if he was caught in a rainstorm or if he was just trying out the wet look that day! Either way, you know what? Still hot!)

Matt Cavenaugh took over the role immediately after Matthew's departure and had a shirtless scene right away, of course, which made me think that if Matthew had just held on for another day or two...! Still, Matt well deserves his place on AfterElton's list, as you can see below in a few screen caps from his time on ATWT.

Matt's version of Adam was very different and hard to adjust to after Matthew's brief run. I liked Matt, and he's certainly a hottie, but his manner of speaking made me feel like I was watching a 1940's movie star doing a soap. If he'd played the role first, I probably wouldn't have been bothered by this, but it was just such an abrupt switch from Matthew's Adam.

Of course, it also didn't help that the show had no idea what they were doing with his character and turned him into a would be rapist for no logical reason before having him skip town.

It's worth noting, by the way, that Matt previously played Mark Solomon, a gay character, on One Life to Live. He was the lover of the closeted, married character who was murdering people to keep his sexual orientation a secret.

Anyway, Matt has most recently had Broadway roles in Grey Gardens and A Catered Affair and will be returning to Broadway this spring as Tony in West Side Story.

The third person on the list with a connection to Van is his friend and former classmate Matthew Risch, with whom he attended the recent opening of Hedda Gabler, and who is currently starring in Pal Joey.

Anyway, check out the full list because there are so many hot guys on the stage these days!

All About Sports

Well, the look on his face says it all. My guy Andy Roddick lost in the semi-finals of the Australian Open, to Roger Federer. At least he made it to the semi-finals this year, though, and not surprisingly he managed to remain hot while doing so!

Speaking of athletes, openly gay Olympic Gold Medalist Matthew Mitcham is the subject of the cover story in the next issue of The Advocate, and Towelroad has a preview that includes a shot of the cover:
Wow! If you'll recall, I chose Matthew as my Hottest Athlete of 2008 and this certainly puts him in the running for 2009 as well!

I think it's amazing that Matthew is completely open and honest about being gay in the world of sports, something that certainly puts him in the minority among LGBT athletes.

Meanwhile, another Australian Olympic Gold medalist, Ian Thorpe, has officially denied that he's gay for like the 94th time, or something close to that number. The latest denial was prompted when pictures of him and his roommate of three years, Brazilian swimmer Daniel Mendes, were published, the insinuation being that the two- who also travel together, including spending a month in Brazil with Daniel's family for Christmas- are more than just friends.

Here's part of what Thorpe had to say:

"I have only commented on this issue at this time because I draw a line when innuendo implicates people like my family and my friends.

"I find this kind of inaccurate speculation tiresome and I am annoyed by the hurt it has caused those closest to me."

This irritates me, because he makes it sound like they're being accused of something that's bad rather than of being in love.

It might help, Ian, if you didn't play the old telltale pronoun game. Last summer he told an Australian newspaper that he was dating 'someone special' but that "they don't live in this country." They, not she. Not surprisingly, that caused an increase in speculation about his sexuality, so he later clarified in another interview that it was a she.

If there were more athletes like Matthew Mitcham around, we could pay less attention to the Ian Thorpes of the sporting world. He could frolic on the beach with his long term roommate all he wanted and no one would even care if he was gay or straight, not if there were plenty of other out role models for aspiring LGBT athletes to look up to.

Soap Update

Well, after two long weeks offscreen, Luke was back on As the World Turns today, though Noah was no where in sight. Instead, Luke was doing what people in happy relationships on soaps typically spend their time doing: getting involved in other people's storylines.

Today, Luke was there to listen to his cousin Jade's feelings about her newly discovered father who wants nothing to do with her, and her lack of direction in life. He even played career counselor, getting her to check Craig's List for job openings.

Once Jade was off to her instant job interview, Luke found the time to go catch up with his friend Alison and to try and play matchmaker for her & Casey, just as they did for him & Noah a few weeks back. Of course, Jade's new job: keeping Alison & Casey apart, for which she's being paid by Alison's sister Emily, who is also Casey's ex. Nice work if you can get it! Why do none of my job interviews end with people paying me to seduce hunky men away from their potential love interests?!

So, that just about sums it up for Luke today. I was really glad to see him being happy and relaxed for a change after seeing him in so much misery for so long. I'm not too worried about the lack of story, either, because I know there is more coming up for him & Noah in the near future.

I avoid spoilers like the plague, but I do know that Luke's biological father Damian is coming back to town in March. Considering how things were left between them after the last time Damian was in town, there's certainly a lot of drama to be mined between the two of them, especially when you throw Noah into the mix. Damian had enough trouble with his son being gay before there was a boyfriend in the picture to make it even more of a reality.

As for Guiding Light's potential LGBT story, I'm still not sure if it's really going anywhere. In the time since I wrote last, Olivia has found out that her physical therapist also assumed that she & Natalia were a couple and while reassuring the therapist that she was very happy that Natalia was dating a guy, Olivia sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than anyone else.

When Alan Spaulding, the paternal Grandfather of Olivia's daughter Emma, saw the My Two Mommies school report online, he began to make noise about what kind of environment his grandchild was growing up in. Because, God forbid a child have a home with two loving parental figures if they're both the same gender!

Natalia worried that Alan could try and take Emma from Olivia and suggested that maybe she should move out for Emma's sake, but Olivia was furious at the idea and shot it down.

Alan came to check on his granddaughter in person and then told the two women that since he knows the two of them (which he should: in addition to being the mother of his granddaughter, Olivia is also one of his ex-wives and Natalia is apparently the mother of his grandson! Only on soaps!) he knows they're not together, but other people who don't know them will talk and be cruel and he feels it would be better for Emma if they stopped living together.

Olivia & Natalia rejected the request and then had one of those ominous soap moments afterwards when they basically tempted fate by saying the fall out from the My Two Mommies thing is behind them.

Since I'm really not sure if the show is going to go anywhere with these two, I probably won't be mentioning them again unless/until something more conclusive happens between them.

I'm still way behind and trying to catch up on All My Children's Bianca & Reese, so I don't have anything to say about them. Hopefully there will be time this weekend to get caught up on YouTube.

Speaking of YouTube, I practically did a happy dance yesterday when I got to see Olli return to Verboten Liebe after two long months away! His portrayer, Jo Weil, was off doing a play during that time, so the show sent Olli to Ibiza on a working vacation while his lonely boyfriend Christian remained behind in Dusseldorf, listening to the relationship woes of their roommate Judith and trying to help his brother Gregor through an early midlife crisis.

Olli's return was celebrated by all their friends and family and it was just really great to see him and Christian reunited, kissing and dancing and hanging out at the welcome home party just long enough to not be rude before slipping away to be alone together.

The two of them have such incredible chemistry! I hope the show has a good story planned out for them now that Olli is back.

Secretary of LGBT Affairs?

Here's something interesting. I just read that Equal Rep, the LGBT rights group that was advocating for Mary Beth Maxwell to be named Secretary of Labor and Fred Hochberg to be named Secretary of Commerce, is now calling for President Obama to create a new Cabinet position, a Secretary of LGBT Affairs.

I'm not really sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, the intentions are clearly good and they're right to point out in their press release that:

“We are a minority group that has outright discriminatory laws against us. We can’t marry in 48 states, if we join the military we are required to lie or hide our sexual orientation lest we be discharged, and we are denied all federal recognition that we even exist just to name a few laws."

On the other hand, though, creating a new cabinet position (not to mention the department that would come along with it) for one segment of the population seems a bit over the top. I'd much sooner see a Secretary of Minority Affairs, dealing with issues relating to all minority groups. This would avoid angering other groups of minority citizens who'd be well within their rights to demand equal Cabinet representation.

Still, it's an interesting idea and you can follow the link to Equal Rep to join in the call for an LGBT Cabinet position if you'd like.

A Bit of This, A Dash of That

Just a couple of random things tonight.

Sam Adams, the openly gay Mayor of Portland, Oregon, has decided to remain in office. This may have had something to do with the large rally of supporters who gathered this weekend to encourage Sam not to resign.

Beau Breedlove, the former intern who was Adams' lover three years ago, has maintained that they did not begin a sexual relationship until a few weeks after Breedlove's 18th birthday. He has revealed that they did kiss twice while he was still 17, though.

My opinion on this hasn't changed. As long as Breedlove was legal, I see no reason for Adams to be forced to resign, any more than I saw a reason for Bill Clinton to resign from office during the whole Lewinsky fiasco. It's very disappointing that Adams felt the need to lie, no question about that, but I think the outrage is largely based on the age difference between the two men, which is nobody's business. I'm sure a lot of the outcry we're seeing also comes from those disgusted by the fact that this happened between two men, period.

Speaking of gay public officials, GayPolitics has a complete list of the 16 openly LGBT appointees that have been tapped for positions in the Obama administration so far.

Another thing that caught my attention today is that Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin has announced that he will be introducing a Constitutional Amendment to require special elections when a vacancy occurs in the United States Senate. This is how they're already required to do things in the U.S. House of Representatives, but most Senate vacancies are filled through appointment by the state's Governor, as we've seen demonstrated so disastrously in the last few months.

It's ridiculous that things aren't already done that way, to be honest, but then we have to remember that it has been less than a hundred years since Senators were selected by state legislators and never had to face the voters. This way of doing things is just the last remaining remnant of that practice.

Of course, it is not an easy process to amend the U.S. Constitution. I think if Feingold's amendment ever had a chance, though, it would be right now, with the mess in Illinois still fresh on everyone's mind.

Finally, to close on a completely different subject, I just wanted to post this picture I just saw on AfterElton of the very sexy Van Hansis (better known as Luke on As the World Turns, of course!) attending the recent opening of Hedda Gabler on Broadway with his former classmate, openly gay Broadway actor Matt Risch, best known from the musical Legally Blonde.

Van looks fantastic when he lets his face get a bit scruffy! Then again, I've never seen Van look anything less than fantastic.

Penn Wins SAG Award

I'm running way behind schedule tonight, so I'm not going to blather on about anything in particular. I just wanted to note that Sean Penn won a Screen Actors Guild award tonight for his performance as Harvey Milk in the film Milk.

Here's part of what Penn had to say during his acceptance speech:

“As actors we don’t play gay/straight … we play human beings, and this movie is something that we are, all of us involved, are so proud of and I, we are so appreciative of this kind of acknowledgement because this is a story about equal rights for all human beings.’’

Completely awesome. Let's hope he gets to give a similar speech at the Oscars next month!

The Reasons I Love Tennis

Since I mentioned fantasy gym teachers in my earlier post, I thought it was the perfect time to talk sports. Specifically, about Tennis, since the Australian Open is going on right now.

Okay, let's be honest, I don't really want to talk about tennis (though it is the only sport I enjoy watching), but rather about the guys who play tennis.

In fact, I don't even think it's necessary to talk. Let's just look at some pictures of what makes Tennis the hottest sport ever.

First, my own personal favorite and the man I always root for, Andy Roddick:
Second, probably the greatest player in Tennis at the moment, Roger Federer:

Next, hottie Novak Djokovic:
The very sexy Marat Safin:

Chile's hunky Fernando Gonzales:

Finally, Rafael Nadal:

Do you see why I love tennis?

TV Talk

First off, since I complained so much about last week's episode of Supernatural, I thought I should say that this week the show was back in fine form. The episode was well written and furthered the overall story arc nicely.

On top of that, there was a scene that could totally have been created for (or by!) the writers of Supernatural slash fiction, where Dean followed a fake lead and ended up alone in a building with a dominating leather daddy who asked Dean to tell him what his safe word was before they 'got started'! Interestingly enough, that's where the scene ended, leaving what happened next completely up to the viewers imaginations.

Next week's episode looks even better, in fact, with Jensen Ackles dressed as every gay boy's fantasy of the hot gym teacher they wish they'd had! In fact, I have to include a visual aide on that:

Somehow, I doubt I'll have any complaints after seeing that episode!

Another thing I mentioned this past week was the potential new LGBT soap couple, Guiding Light's Olivia & Natalia. Things are still up in the air as to whether there will be anything between them or not, but I thought I'd follow up on what happened after their kiss.

Basically, Natalia was shocked that anyone would think that of them and then asked a very logical question: why did Olivia kiss her? A flustered Olivia said something about actions speaking louder than words as far as getting her point across to Natalia about what people were thinking after the My Two Mommies school presentation.

In a complete role reversal from the episode before, Olivia suddenly wanted to act like what people thought was no big deal, but the newly enlightened Natalia was freaking out and insisted they get little Emma's teacher to meet them back at the school to set things straight (yes, pun intended!)

Olivia seemed hurt that Natalia was in such a rush to deny there was anything between them (despite feeling the same way herself, pre-kiss) and listened on, clearly hurt, as Natalia explained to the teacher that they were just roommates.

Then, there was this big meant-to-be-touching moment where Natalia took it back and explained that no, they weren't just roommates. They were a family, just a different sort of family from what everyone thought after Emma's presentation.

That seemed to be the end of it and I had to wonder if the whole thing was leading up to nothing more than that, just a recognition that they were an unconventional family and not a first step to something more between Olivia & Natalia.

That changed, though, when Olivia started talking about their dinner plans for the night and Natalia revealed she had a date. The episode ended with Olivia home alone, eating dinner by herself and clearly feeling something more than friendship for her absent friend.

They're still at a place where they could easily go another way and have nothing come from all of this, but hopefully the show will take things in the more interesting direction.

Meanwhile, over on As the World Turns, this was the first completely Nuke free week we've had in awhile and I think I'm developing withdrawal symptoms already!

The Newest Senator

The Governor of New York announced today that the newest United States Senator, filling Hillary Rodham Clinton's vacated seat, will be Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand. As you know, I was excited about the prospect of Caroline Kennedy being the next Senator from New York (not that I should really have a say, since I don't even live in the state!), but that clearly didn't pan out.

My second choice was Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who'd been endorsed by the National Organization for Women.

So who is Senator Gillibrand? Apparently, she's rather right wing when it comes to immigration and gun control issues, earning herself an A rating from the NRA. Here's a bit on that from a Bloomberg article:

Last Sept. 17, Gillibrand was one of 85 Democrats who voted to repeal Washington, D.C.’s restrictions on gun ownership. She originally sponsored a bill that would have permitted assault weapons in Washington, said Jackie Hilly, executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence. Lawmakers revised the measure after law enforcement groups opposed it, Hilly said.

Even before her selection was official, U.S. Representative Carolyn McCarthy, whose husband was shot to death 15 years ago on a Long Island Railroad train, vowed to challenge Gillibrand in a primary election, calling her record on gun control “awful.”

At the same time, though, the new Senator has a 100% rating from the American Civil Liberties Union, completely supports a woman's right to choose, and has just changed her position on gay marriage. Previously, she supported Civil Unions (as did Senator Clinton) but now she has made it clear that she is supporting full marriage rights for the LGBT community. She will also back the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act and of the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.

So, it sounds like the new Senator will be very strong on LGBT issues, which is a very good thing. I do wish the Governor had chosen someone who had those positions but wasn't also going to be the NRA's darling at the same time. I'm a lot less nervous now, though, than I was when I first read that Gillibrand was considered a centrist Democrat who'd won election in a Republican district.

Milk Gets Multiple Oscar Noms

I was just looking over the list of Oscar nominations, which were announced today, and I'm thrilled to see that Milk was nominated for eight awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor for Sean Penn and Best Supporting Actor for Josh Brolin. After the film's nearly complete shut out for Golden Globe nominations, this is certainly great news!

It's very exciting, though I STILL have not been able to see the film! Maybe now that it's a multiple nominee it will play in my area? I'm honestly quite surprised that it hasn't been here before this since I don't exactly live in some backwoods area that avoids films with gay themes.

From what I've heard about the movie, it sounded like James Franco deserved a nomination for Best Supporting Actor as well. Overall, though, the film did very well today and I think we can all be very excited about that.

Looking over the rest of the nominees, there are only three performances that I've actually seen this year: Richard Jenkins, nominated for Best Actor in The Visitor; Anne Hathaway, up for Best Actress in Rachel Getting Married, and of course Heath Ledger, posthumously nominated for Best Supporting Actor in The Dark Knight.

All three were very memorable performances, in very different ways. Jenkins, a character actor probably best known for his work as the dead father on Six Feet Under impressed me so much with his quiet but powerful performance. If he wasn't nominated against Sean Penn, I'd be rooting for him. I think I am rooting for Hathaway, who really surprised me with her work.

What can I even say about Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker? I still believe that he was completely robbed of a much deserved win in Brokeback Mountain and if he does win the Oscar next month, I think I'll see it as much as being for that film as for The Dark Knight.

I'm of course rooting for Milk to win everything for which it is nominated, no question. Maybe I'll have a chance to see some of the other performances and nominees before the awards are given out and can form some sort of an informed opinion of who should win all the other awards.

Mayor Adams Joins the Ever Growing List of Politicians Who Lie About Sex

I had kind of a bad day at work and having to write about how incredibly disappointed I am in Sam Adams (Portland, Oregon's new openly gay Mayor) fits with the overall tone of my day perfectly.

If you hadn't heard, Adams has admitted to having an affair with an 18 year old intern back in 2005. Now, I couldn't care less about that. America in general is so incredibly puritanical about sex, but I honestly feel that as long as everyone involved consents and is of legal age, they're free to do whatever they like. It's none of my business and it shouldn't matter to anyone else, either.

What disappoints me so much about Mayor Adams is that he lied when this issue came up during the campaign and he got his former lover to lie as well.

Now, granted, he probably wouldn't have felt the need to lie if Americans weren't so uptight about things like this to begin with. But that's really not an excuse. I would have had a lot of respect for him if he'd just addressed this whole thing frankly and honestly from the beginning.

The question of the moment seems to be if Adams will resign from office. Personally, as disappointed as I am with him, I think the decision is entirely up to him and should be based on his own conscience. Adams didn't lie under oath or break the law, as long as he's being truthful about when the sexual relationship started, so I think those calling for him to resign don't have much of a case to go on.

He's come clean and apologized, and as long as he's telling the truth about everything else, I think that should be enough. Lying about legal sex shouldn't disqualify anyone from office.

That Adams is telling the truth about when the affair started is something the police don't want to just take his word on, apparently, since they've asked the state Attorney General to investigate the affair.

What a mess. I was so excited about Adams being the first openly gay person elected as Mayor of a major city. What really upsets me most is that those who are homophobic will do what they always do: jump on this one person's mistake and use it to 'prove' that all gays are after teenagers, promiscuous, liars, etc, etc.

This is so infuriating. A few years back, it was reveled that former Secretary of Transportation, Oregon Governor, and Portland Mayor Neil Goldschmidt had carried on a sexual relationship with a 14 year old girl while he was Mayor of Portland. No one said "See, all heterosexual males are sexual predators after little girls!" at that time, but you can bet that certain people won't hesitate to say it about gay men (politicians or otherwise) and use Adams as an example, even though Adams' lover was of age!

I can't stand double standards like this.

Thoughts on the Inauguration

This has been a truly amazing day for Americans. Watching such a peaceful transfer of so much power is always an awe inspiring thing, but this year the Inauguration had even more meaning for us all. It was a chance to put the horrors of government sanctioned racism and discrimination even further into the past, to show that as a country we've come such a long way in the last half century, no matter the distance still to go.

It was also an incredible day because it meant an end, at long last, to the worst and most dangerous administration in United States history. It came over me slowly, as I watched President Obama being sworn in and then began to listen to his incredible Inaugural address: Pride. Pride, first of all, that we once again have a President who can actually speak eloquently. The feeling went far beyond that, though. I realized that while I've never stopped loving this country and being grateful to be an American, I've been truly, deeply ashamed of our Government and their actions for such a long time now.

To suddenly feel such a sense of pride again felt beyond amazing. To see Bush & Cheney heading out of town and to know that they're no longer in a position to try and destroy the Constitution felt even better.

Obama still has to prove himself to me as President. I'm not going to give him a free pass just because he's a Democrat and isn't George W. Bush. But today, I am proud. Today, the President of the United States is a man I respect and not a man I think should be tried for war crimes. Amazing!

It makes it even better to read that just seconds after Obama was sworn in, the official White House web site was updated to include a list of his commitments to LGBT rights!

What else is there to say, except that this was truly a day of change and of hope? As much as those words have been thrown around by the campaigns and the media in the past year, today truly brought them to life for me.

A New LGBT Soap Couple?

Today's Guiding Light featured a kiss between two female characters and what may be the start of a new romance. The characters are Olivia & Natalia, two friends who live together, work together, and are raising Olivia's daughter together.

Guiding Light has never been a soap I've really followed, though I've checked in from time to time. I know that Olivia is a character that has been on the show for years and has always been written thus far as heterosexual. Natalia is not a character I remember from the last time I checked in with the show, but it looks like she's been there nearly two years. From what I've read, she has been written as heterosexual up to this point as well.

Fans, though, have apparently been commenting on the close relationship between these characters for some time, to the point where Proctor & Gamble (the company that produces both Guiding Light and As the World Turns) denied there would be anything romantic happening between the two.

On today's show, though, Olivia & Natalia attended daughter Emma's elementary school presentation on her family, in which she spoke about her two mommies. Olivia became increasingly uncomfortable as she realized that Emma was making her & Natalia sound like a couple, while Natalia seemed either to be oblivious or to just not care.

After the presentation, Olivia quickly tried to let the teacher know that she wasn't a lesbian, but the teacher was too busy telling her how much the school values diversity and how her own gay cousin Todd just married his partner Michael in Connecticut.

Apparently, even the suggestion that she was into women bothered Olivia enough that she went to a bar afterwards and both visually and verbally ogled the male clientele, declaring out loud within earshot of a guy "Now that's a good butt."

When Natalia returned home, Olivia not only told her about checking out the guys, she also suggested that Natalia come along next time and basically all but demanded that Natalia go pick up a guy as soon as possible.

Clearly, Olivia was protesting a bit too much, and when Natalia asked her what was wrong, Olivia tried to tell her what everyone at school thought they were. Olivia didn't seem to be able to bring herself to use phrases like 'lesbians' or 'a couple' or 'lovers', and the more she danced around the subject, the less Natalia seemed to understand what she was trying to say.

Finally, Olivia asked "Do I have to hit you over the head with it?!" and kissed her friend full on the mouth to show her just what people were mistakenly thinking about them.

I'm not sure where things will go from here. It certainly seemed like Olivia, at least, has some issues with her own sexuality, so I doubt this will prove to be an isolated incident.

It's so great, though, that daytime can now show same sex kisses and have it be no big deal. I mean, just a year ago at this time, we were in the middle of the Kissing Ban with Luke & Noah on As the World Turns but things really seem to have moved on from that.

If Olivia & Natalia do end up becoming involved, they'd bring the number of LGBT characters currently on soaps up to six (or seven, if Brian returns to ATWT and sticks around), which is certainly a record high.

It would also be interesting to have long established characters experience something like this, rather than always introducing new characters to tell an LGBT story about. Clearly, if Olivia and Natalia do become involved they'd have to be considered bisexual, which would be a first as well. Daytime has really avoided bisexuality up to this point.

One Bad Episode in Four Seasons, and I'm Whining!

Okay, just a warning here at the start. If you're a fan of Supernatural and you haven't watched last Thursday's episode yet, don't read any more of this! Unless, of course, you don't mind spoilers.

Now, I love the show and I think it's having the strongest season it has ever had, creatively as well as in the ratings. Maybe that's why I was so disappointed and irritated by this latest episode. I think, though, that the poor quality of this episode would stand out starkly against anything this show has ever done before.

Supernatural has always been a show that is well written. Both the long term story arcs and the stand alone episodes always satisfy everything I'm looking for from the show, which is basically that the long term story arcs are essentially about the bond between these two brothers and the lengths they'll go to for each other, and the stand alone episodes are well written and usually provide at least one good scare or creepy moment.

This week, the show returned from a nearly two month hiatus and gave us a very poorly written episode. It started out fine: a creepy farmhouse, a ghost appearing from a closet in the teaser and killing the owner in a locked room. Sam & Dean show up to investigate just as a new family are about to move in.

So far, so good. Sam & Dean try and get the family out of the place until they can figure out who the spirit is and how to get rid of it, but the new owners prove obstinate and move in anyway. Next thing you know, the son is playing catch in his closet with 'the girl in the walls' and someone has written GO on the living room wall in crayon.

There were some really great creepy moments in this episode, I have to give it that. The best was when the teenage daughter is lying in bed and thinks the family dog is licking her hand, only to have the dog walk through the door. She slowly starts to turn her head towards the mystery licker, just in time for her closet door to slam shut.

Long story short, the Girl in the Walls tells the son that he can stay, but the rest of the family must go. Sam & Dean return in time for the dog to go missing and then to be discovered killed, with the words Too Late written above it in blood .

Here's where my problem with the episode started. It turned out that the Girl in the Walls wasn't a ghost at all. She was the child of the murdered former owner and his own daughter, who'd committed suicide, and she'd been thrown down in an old dumbwaiter shaft to hide the awful truth of her existence. She'd grown up in the shaft, never knowing sunlight or human contact and was basically an animal. In another twist, it turned out she had a brother down there with her in the same condition.

Um, okay. So, how did these two who are stated by Sam & Dean to basically be wild animals defending their territory and who have never had human contact, know how to read and write? I mean, they did manage to write out the words Go and Too Late quite perfectly. The girl knew what a baseball was for. They also knew that slashing all the tires on the vehicles would keep the family (and Sam & Dean) trapped there and at their mercy.

It just didn't make any sense once it turned out that they weren't ghosts. It was just a very badly written episode, with more attention paid to big twists for the sake of having big twists- She's not a Ghost! She's got a Brother!- than of making any sense plot wise. I suppose the tires and baseball could be explained at a stretch by saying they'd seen some TV through the cracks in the walls or something, but no way could they have learned to write!

You know I'll watch just about anything with Jared Padalecki in it, so I probably shouldn't complain about a few gaping plot holes in an otherwise well written series. It's just that I go into those other things anticipating that they'll be bad, but with Supernatural, I'm used to far better.

I looked up the writer for this particular episode, wondering if it was someone new that they hadn't used before, and was surprised to see that it was someone who has written a few really good episodes before this, including one of my favorites from last season, The Mystery Spot.

So, maybe we should just chalk it up to a fluke thing. I mean, every series has a bad episode now and then. Plus, as I said, this one did at least offer some good creepy moments. And, let's face it, I'd be lying if I said that I wouldn't tune in just to watch Jared & Jensen read from the phone book, so who am I kidding, really?

Okay, I think I'm done whining like a fanboy scorned! For now.

Coming Soon: A Gay Superhero

I heard some news awhile back that I've been meaning to write about for a long time now. Showtime is turning Perry Moore's novel, Hero, into a series. This reason this is big news is that the novel happens to be about a gay teen superhero named Thom Creed.

I've long hoped that Heroes would add a gay hero to their roster of characters, though the debacle with the character of Zach (Claire's friend from season one, intended to be gay but made into a straight character after the fact) dimmed any serious expectations I may have had there.

This, though, is far better. Not only will the series have a gay hero, he'll actually be the lead. Perry Moore is writing the script for the show, which legendary comic book writer Stan Lee is developing. In fact, the media has started trumpeting the fact that the creator of Spider Man is bringing us a gay superhero.

I read the book last fall after hearing a lot of very good things about it. It was an engaging story and I think it will work really well onscreen, especially from the cable network that brought us Queer as Folk and clearly isn't afraid to showcase gay characters.

Not to give too much away, but if the series does stay true to the book, there will eventually be two gay superhero characters on the show, and that would be even more amazing.

I just wish it was starting soon and not still just in the development phase!

Comments

By the way, I've decided to allow readers to post comments from now on. They will be moderated (not for content: feel free to disagree with me!), but just to make sure no one gets too negative or abusive.

Clinton on LGBT Rights at State Department

GayPolitics has an article on Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's recent confirmation hearing, in which Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin raised the issue of LGBT rights in the State department.

Feingold: ...There’s widespread recognition of the need to build a more robust and effective diplomatic and development corps. And as a part of that effort, it, of course, makes sense to consider ways to address challenges faced by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees, particularly relating to domestic partner benefits and State Department policies that make it difficult for the partners of foreign service officers to travel and live at overseas posts. What would you do as secretary of state to address these concerns? Will you support changes to existing personnel policy in order to ensure that LGBT staff at State and USAID receive equal benefits and support?

Clinton: Senator, this issue was brought to my attention during the transition. I’ve asked to have more briefing on it because I think that we should take a hard look at the existing policy. As I understand it, but don’t hold me to it because I don’t have the full briefing material, but my understanding is other nations have moved to extend that partnership benefit. And we will come back to you to inform you of decisions we make going forward.

First off, I'm very glad Senator Feingold, one of the most progressive members of the Senate, raised the issue with the (presumed) future Secretary of State.

Clinton's rather vague non-answer does at least acknowledge that other nations are ahead of us on this issue and implies that a change is needed. I do wish she'd been more direct in rejecting this blatant discrimination. I'm hopeful, though, that once she's Secretary of State the policy, which outgoing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has supported, will be thrown out.