Gay Passag om Moby Dick | Matt Trivisonno

Contents:

• MOBY: 'GAY MEN ARE SUPERR TO STRAIGHT MEN'
• IS MOBY GAY?
• BIG GAY FOLLOWG: MOBY
• GAY PASSAG OM MOBY DICK
• 6 MOBILE HOM FOR SALE NEAR GAYS, IL
• GAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSEGAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSE
• MOBY DICK, ONE OF THE OLST GAY BARS SF, FAC UNCERTA FUTURE
• MOBY DICK, MELVILLE - READ ALONG 10: ISHMAEL AND QUEEQUEG - LERATURE’S FIRST GAY MARRIAGE?

MOBY: 'GAY MEN ARE SUPERR TO STRAIGHT MEN'

" Turns out that the angry 8 Miler was wrong on both unts: Though an ultra-liberal vegan, Moby's not gay, and if the ternatnal succs of his crilly acclaimed CDs (particularly his 1999 pop breakthrough Play) is any ditn, electro club jams do have an dience. There were s of my life where I uld stay out until 6 the morng every night wh really no nsequenc, but I've found now that if I stay out until 5 or 6 o'clock the morng and even have jt four or five drks, the whole next day is kd of an ial night out New York volve gay clubs? In extreme s, they'll sleep until 6 the morng and go out at 6, but the ntrast is that if you walk to a club feelg bright-eyed and bhy-tailed, and everybody else there has been up for the last four days and looks like they've been ad for the last few years, then that's not so 've been such an ally to the gay muny that you've taken some heat for -- like when you stated an terview that gays were "superr to straight people.

IS MOBY GAY?

There are a lot of people the world who are vilently homophobic or misogynistic or anti-Semic, and what baffl me is that if you jt look at empirilly, gays, women, and Jews are certaly rponsible for far fewer vlent crim than straight whe guys. [Lghs] But general, and this has been the se for as long as I n remember, I'd much rather go to a really fun gay bar than some straight club where 's guys wh too much logne tryg to put date rape dgs secretari' jokgly suggted feedg extra soy k to a pregnant mother to ensure a gay child.

It was such an open time, wh Larry Levan beg the poster child for that celebratory eclecticism and tolerance: an Ain-Amerin gay DJ playg punk rock, hip-hop, and dis this a time of sexual experimentatn for you? I was a really uptight, straight-laced kid, so jt as I'd been really closed and nservative my personal habs before I was 30, om 30 to 40 I went to the other extreme to see what was out 've scribed yourself as "neher straight nor gay. It's a cliche to say this, but a perfect world, the dichotomo fn of straight and gay would probably rry ls Cameron Mchell, whose 2006 film Shortb you vted, once lled you "the perfect androgyne, wh all the lovelit quali of male and female.

The ways which people scribe beg love, I've never experienced for a man or a om the time that you were mistakenly "gay-bashed" Boston years ago, has beg labeled as gay ever annoyed you or ed you problems? Febary 22, 2001: Followg Emem and Elton John’s performance of “Stan” at the Grammys, Moby sound off the prs room to Rollg Stone about how he really felt regardg the former’s oft-homophobic and misogynistic lyrics: “He’s very good at what he do, but he’s also a misogynist and homophobe and racist and anti-Seme. That clip appears The Celluloid Closet, Rob Epste and Jefey Friedman’s documentary based on Vo Rso’s study of homosexualy the movi, along wh untls exampl of how gay characters showed up, per narrator Lily Toml, as “somethg to lgh at, or somethg to py, or even somethg to fear.

BIG GAY FOLLOWG: MOBY

Some have been documents of a moment or era of gay history, some have been ed as rrectiv to s of negative clichés, and others have simply celebrated the fact that the movi n be queer, they’re here, get ed to .

It is nowhere near a prehensive ndown of every great movie to feature out-and-proud hero and villas, or a queer sensibily, or even jt visible (and/or risible) exampl of gay life cema; we uld have easily ma this list twice as long. The performanc are staggerg: Al Paco as the ignom Roy Cohn; Jefey Wright is the sharp-wted gay nurse who tends to him; Mary-Louise Parker as a pill-poppg hoewife wed to a closeted Mormon; Emma Thompson as an imper (and sometim sassy) angel; and Meryl Streep four rol, cludg the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg. Yet the film remas one of the first ank big-stud treatments of uncloseted gay and bisexual men, as follows eight iends (and one htler) who’ve gathered a New York Cy apartment to celebrate a birthday party.

It was still nsired a bad reer move for a movie star to play a gay role 2005, and Hollywood’s track rerd was ls than stellar when me to treatg homosexual romanc wh the same pth as heterosexual on (if emed f to tackle such stori at all). A page-to-screen take on Vo Rso’s semal book regardg LGBTQ reprentatn (and misreprentatn) the movi, Rob Epste and Jefey Friedman’s documentary prents the perfect show-and-tell plement to the late scholar’s work — you n lerally see the evolutn of cematic homosexualy as progrs om punchle to social pundry, sikick-and-stock-villa fodr to queers beg the hero of their own stori. To say that William Friedk’s thriller about a serial killer targetg gay men New York was ntroversial would be puttg dly: Village Voice lumnist Arthur Bell (whose verage of murrs the Wt Village bar scene was a partial spiratn) lled the script “the worst possible nightmare of the most uptight straight”; tablishments that had agreed to operate sudnly whdrew their support; activists dispted filmg at every turn; theaters were picketed; and one massive prott led to a traffic-stoppg s- and arrts.

GAY PASSAG OM MOBY DICK

) But 40 years after Al Paco’s unrver p first stepped to the Mhaft, this lurid exploatn movie has been reclaimed by gay film crics such as Nathan Lee and Melissa Anrson, noticeably for the way prents the late ’70s leather-bar scene wh an almost véré-like sense of observatn. Mixg herage-drama aspects wh outré postmorn flourish and a heightened sense of homoeroticism, the movie prents the relatnship between the two men as a polil act as much as a romantic one; Edward’s army is refashned as ACT UP-style activists, and the behd-the-scene machatns of Edward’s wife, Isabella (longtime Jarman llaborator Tilda Swton), double as a crique of Bra’s opprsive, historilly strict anti-homosexual laws.

Set on the muddy, wdswept moors of Yorkshire, Francis Lee’s but feature follows Johnny (Josh O’Connor), a young gay man leadg a ad-end existence on his fay farm, and Ghehe (Alec Sereanu), a Romanian migrant worker who to help out durg lamb-birthg season. The HIV vis h the gay muny around the same time that the personal mrr h retail shelv — which is one reason David France’s Osr-nomated film about the formatn of activist anizatn groups ACT UP and TAG (Treat Actn Group) has such a shatterg impact.

Told bs and piec over 10 years — and chartg how Pl and Erik tersect and fall apart and tersect aga over time — this romantic drama is startlgly clear-eyed about the stggl of s gay characters to accept themselv as well as their partners. Blendg readgs of his work wh sequenc of geo men tuxedos dancg and cisg each other (or posg naked), the movie specifilly plac Hugh’ verse a homoerotic ntext; the work of fellow gay wrers Jam Baldw, Essex Hemphill, and Robert Bce Nugent also acpany black-and-whe scen of gay clubs, gay celebri (keep an eye out for Bronski Beat sger Jimmy Sommerville as an angel), gay inography, and gay love. Terence McNally, who died March om plitns related to COVID-19, adapted his own Tony-wng play for director Joe Mantello, and the film is the perfect remr that McNally was one of the great chroniclers of gay love, gay relatnships, and what meant to fd a chosen fay who would support you through good tim and bad.

6 MOBILE HOM FOR SALE NEAR GAYS, IL

And even though director Leonte Sagan and the film’s -wrer Christa Wsloe toned down some of the more-erotic overton om Wsloe’s play, was still explicly a story about homosexualy that honored the characters’ mutual attractn. A heartbreakgly gentle portra of a young man’s very rough life growg up gay Miami’s impoverished Liberty Cy neighborhood, Barry Jenks’ lyril send film, prented three acts, juxtapos moments of credible tenrns between men wh bursts of sual celty.

GAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSEGAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSE

“Gay-htler die” may now seem like a Sundance cliché, but until G Van Sant’s third feature dropped dienc to the sular world of Portland’s street culture, no one had ma a movie that addrsed the subject wh such a mix of poetry and blunt honty.

An experimental doc om the legendary filmmaker Barbara Hammer, this llage of personal ttimoni, gay and lbian ephemera, and a profilette of thor Willa Cather is a roundabout mediatn on, per s creator, “a reprsed and margalized history” of queer life the 20th century. And a ltle over an hour, she acplish all that and more — scen of timacy among elrly and biracial same-sex upl will sudnly give way to exploratns of homosexual persecutn Nazi Germany, or one woman’s oral history of tryg to mask her sexual preferenc durg her time the army durg World War II. Pedro Almodóvar’s filmography is filled wh gay characters, gay love, gay sex, and gay sensibili — you n see his punkish late-Seventi shorts, his mpy farc (Women on the Verge of a Nervo Breakdown), his Hchckian thrillers (Matador, Law of Dire), and his melodramas (Bad Edutn, All About My Mother).

MOBY DICK, ONE OF THE OLST GAY BARS SF, FAC UNCERTA FUTURE

The Spanish filmmaker’s latt work, however, don’t jt revolve around an agg, gay movie director (Anton Banras) reflectg on his life — ’s a highly tobgraphil look at s creator’s own relatnship wh cema, sire, and his inty as a queer artist. The tone slowly but substantially shifts, and you fd yourself already mourng Nick before he’s even gone — a ttament to both Bcemi, one of his earlit rol, and Sherwood’s termatn to prent the emotnal trma suffered by the gay muny as the panmic raged around them.

MOBY DICK, MELVILLE - READ ALONG 10: ISHMAEL AND QUEEQUEG - LERATURE’S FIRST GAY MARRIAGE?

The key movie of what would bee known as the “New Queer Cema” (see also Tom Kal’s Swoon and Gregg Araki’s The Livg End), Todd Hayn’ triptych giv the story of a child who murrs an aber and mysterly disappears (“Hero”), a Fifti-style monster movie about a scientist who turns to a hio creature after drkg a “sexualy” potn (“Horror”), and a bold adaptatn of Jean Ge’s love-among-nvicts tale The Miracle of the Rose (“Homo”). And like his fellow gay filmmakers who’d artistilly e of age a world of AIDS-related afflictn and activism, Hayn’ style of storytellg was nontatnal, somewhat nfsnal, and unabashedly queer, whether he was flirtg wh genre parodi, borrowg TV tabloid sensatnalism, or phg the envelope regardg pictns of same-sex eroticism.