I almost forgot…
A friend of mine saw the ad below and gave kudos to putting a black man in the Jesus spot, since the chances that The Annointed One was the pasty faced Aryan of his typical portrayal in the west are pretty slim.
Entries Tagged as 'leather'
How Did I Ever Miss This?
In what should be a non-story, the Concerned Women of America (or is it for America) have some problems with the above image, an advertisement for the upcoming Folsom Street Fair this weekend. A number of blogs have picked up on this including the prolific Andrew Sullivan, Towleroad, Joe My God and postmodernbarney. Sullivan is brief, calling it an unnecessary provocation and “easy, cheap blasphemy”. I can understand the “unnecessary provocation” comment even if I don’t agree with it, but the blasphemy crack seems to touch a nerve or two of his.
What bothers me most is that Sullivan went on some time ago about not having the right to not be offended. (I attempted to search his archives for the entry, but there are way too many to look through. If I find it in the near future, I’ll update this.) It’s one of the few points we both agree on. Is Sullivan saying that this alleged blasphemy is the exception to this rule? I certainly hope not as this would compromise both free speech and freedom of religion.
Towleroad’s slightly longer entry is more of a news announcement with a slightly smarmy, buy well deserved, attitude toward CWA. Joe My God’s entry is similar, but states an opinion of the ad. He likes it! The more interesting parts of both these articles are the voluminous comments each have generated. It’s worth a read.
Postmodernbarney has the most well written and intelligently reasoned “so what” I’ve ever read. (I’ve followed the site for awhile and the man has talent.) OK, I don’t think Sullivan is that right-wing, but that’s just my opinion. He’s the only one to actually come out and say “be ourselves”, “stop changing your behavior for the sake others”, etc….
I would take this a little further. We need to condemn CWA’s call to political leaders. Asking them to condemn blasphemy represents a serious threat to everyone’s freedoms. Our constitution states the congress can make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibit its free exercise. The call by CWA is their attempt to elevate Christianity above other religions. If this were out of sense of fairness they would have asked members of congress to condemn religious right leaders who committed blasphemy by calling Islam satanic and Muhammad a pedophile. These are they people who call gay rights special rights, but want to put Christianity beyond anyone’s criticism. Talk about hypocritical.
I like the poster. It’s a clever and slick image. If you have a problem with it don’t look at it. You don’t have the right to eliminate the things that offend you but you do have the right to walk away from it. For everyone else, enjoy it!
Update: Check the comment below for a story in Time Magazine about Andrew Sullivan and his argument that you are not protected from offense. My thanks to the reader for his diligent research.
“One of these days this whole city is gonna explode”
The movie that taught the mainstream what that yellow hankie hanging out of that guys right rear pocket means was finally released on DVD. Despite direction by Academy Award winning William Friedkin, Academy Award winning actor Al Pacino in the lead role and the presence of several other actors of note, Cruising is no masterpiece.
History notes that the movie managed to anger everyone when it was released. I was too young to remember so I’ll need to take the many sources at their word. True, it portrays a culture that, even today, gets little respect outside the its own walls, but there is little sincerity beyond the grimy leather bars. Most of the bars I’ve been in look pretty much how they were depicted in the movie. Twenty-seven years after its release and the most relevant thing it portrays is that leather culture is stuck in time to a degree. Aside from the eighties porno haircuts, you can expect a bar to look like what you see here.
Performance-wise, this whole affair seems forced. Half the “native New Yorkers” don’t have anything approaching a New York accent in any of it’s multitudinous variations. Too many scenes sound like the dialog was re-recorded and the actors where half-asleep when they sat down for this task. A good deal of the dialog is over the top; most people who don’t suffer from megalomania or are about to audition for a play don’t talk like this. And Steve’s (Al Pacino) girlfriend has a HUGE apartment. Even back in 1980 such a young woman on her own should be living in a broom closet sized place. Even the whole murder plot seems rather implausible.
The only interesting thing is Steve’s descent from Average Joe cop to pervert. It’s a subtle journey that’s the real main story of this mess and it’s Pacino’s real triumph in this outing. There wasn’t much else for him to work with.
When all is said and done, this isn’t much more than a historical oddity. As one of the very few serious mainstream movies about leather culture it’s something to watch to “see how things were back then”. Throw it in the Netflix queue and be glad that those hairstyles are long out of fashion.