From the Nostalgia Beat: The New York Times (3/21) informs us that a Busby Berkeley DVD collection has been released. Berkeley takes the term ‘choreography’ and rams it into the stratosphere. His production numbers in such ’30s movies as 42nd Street evolved into abstractions that ‘… created … incredible illusions—vast nightclubs filled with tuxedoed dancers, endless chorus lines moving through complex geometrical patterns.’ High camp culcha!
How about real high culture? The Sunday Times (of London) Magazine (3/5) digs up a little dirt on Michelangelo in honor of a large show of his drawings opening at the British Museum. Our renaissance man was not above a little pornography—he has one of the putti (baby angels) on the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling flashing an obscene Italian hand gesture (a thumb-between-fingers thing that means ‘up yours’) but he also did an exquisite portrait of one of his students, Andrea Quaratesi, rumored to be his main (male) squeeze. The artist was also a poet. Here’s a bit to inspire those of you who think life’s over at 30: ‘False hopes and vain desires have kept me weeping, loving, burning.’ Mike of the Angels wrote that when he was 89.
Ready for another Truman Capote flick? The Chicago Sun-Times (2/22) reports director Douglas McGrath’s Infamous will be released, starring Toby Jones as Capote. This film will be more about the gay author’s high-profile social life but it does not skip his writing of In Cold Blood (and hints that he and killer Perry Smith were an item).
The Dutch have produced a film that will be shown to prospective immigrants to the Netherlands. The New York Times (3/16) says they’d better be ready for women sun-bathing topless and gay men kissing. The film announces that homosexuals have the same rights as heterosexuals and may marry. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born woman who is a member of the Dutch Parliament, compared the film to a consumer warning label. Potential new citizens will have to take an exam showing themselves to be aware of Dutch liberality.
In a hearing in Maryland regarding an attempt to prohibit gay marriage, a right-wing senator told Jamie Raskin, professor of law at American University, ‘Mr. Raskin, my Bible says that marriage shall occur only between a man and a woman. What do you have to say about that?’ According to the Chicago Tribune (3/22) Mr. Raskin answered, ‘Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.’ If a theologian had been present (s)he might’ve added something along these lines: In fact, the Bible says no such thing, not in the Abraham (and his several wives) section, not in the King Solomon (and his many wives) section nor anyplace else. There are, of course, numerous one-man/one-woman marriages mentioned. (Joseph and Mary come to mind.) But such a prohibitive description as the senator mentioned? Go ahead, find it.