La Familia Brophy

Look Here

I saw X-Men 3 with my Dad last night. I thought it was great, my Dad not so much. I used to read my neighbor Arthur Milano’s X-Men collection for hours at a stretch back when we lived on Hemenway Street. I think that gives me a kind of mythical knowledge about the Marvel universe, so my mind fills in gaps and elaborates on subtle cues in the movie. If the movie fails to build up a rapport between the characters and the audience, I wouldn’t know because I already have that relationship.

The X-Men as a comic book in the 70s and 80s had a special appeal to people who feel like mutants in American society. Growing up in a Queer family makes you feel like one of the X-Men, misunderstood and reviled by the government, always under threat of attack by people who discover your secret. The whole part about the homo sapiens coming up a with a cure for mutants, and the mixed reactions that brought out in the mutant community, really resonated. My dad whispered that Magneto reminded him of Queer Nation during one of his speeches.

Today is “Blogging for LGBT Families Day” by the way, so you can see what others are saying on this topic as well. I blog on this topic every now and then, because there is still so much politicking going on around how the government wants to define what is and isn’t a family, that I think it’s important to remember that Queer families (by which I mean families with one or more LGBT parent) already exist, it’s not some new idea. My last post on the topic was around adoption laws.

Saw this list on the Roger Ebert’s site. It’s not supposed to be a list of the best movies, or anyone’s favorite movies, just the 102 you should see in order to talk about movies. Turns out of I’ve seen 80 out of 102. This is pretty almost entirely due to my father’s tutelage. Heck I was probably dragged kicking and screaming into at least 20 of those movies! But I appreciate having seen them (ok, I could have done without Breathless and I may have seen Rules of the Game but supressed the memory). Thanks, Dad.

What do you think, cinema-philes? Anything missing (Hello? Star Wars?) Are there any that i missed that I MUST see? Do you have any favorites from the list?

I marked the ones I’ve seen with a *

* 2001: A Space Odyssey
The 400 Blows
* 8 1/2
* Aguirre, the Wrath of God
* Alien
* All About Eve
* Annie Hall
* Apocalypse Now
* Bambi
* The Battleship Potemkin
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Big Red One
* The Bicycle Thief
* The Big Sleep
* Blade Runner
* Blowup
* Blue Velvet
* Bonnie and Clyde
* Breathless
* Bringing Up Baby
* Carrie
* Casablanca
* Un Chien Andalou
* Children of Paradise / Les Enfants du Paradis
* Chinatown
Citizen Kane
* A Clockwork Orange
* The Crying Game
* The Day the Earth Stood Still
Days of Heaven
Dirty Harry
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
* Do the Right Thing
* La Dolce Vita
* Double Indemnity
* Dr. Strangelove
* Duck Soup
* E.T. — The Extra-Terrestrial
* Easy Rider
* The Empire Strikes Back
* The Exorcist
* Fargo
* Fight Club
* Frankenstein
* The General
* The Godfather, The Godfather, Part II
* Gone With the Wind
* GoodFellas
* The Graduate
* Halloween
* A Hard Day’s Night
Intolerance
It’s a Gift
* It’s a Wonderful Life
* Jaws
* The Lady Eve
* Lawrence of Arabia
M
* Mad Max 2 / The Road Warrior
* The Maltese Falcon
* The Manchurian Candidate
Metropolis
* Modern Times
* Monty Python and the Holy Grail
* Nashville
The Night of the Hunter
* Night of the Living Dead
* North by Northwest
* Nosferatu
On the Waterfront
* Once Upon a Time in the West
* Out of the Past
Persona
* Pink Flamingos
* Psycho
* Pulp Fiction
* Rashomon
* Rear Window
* Rebel Without a Cause
Red River
Repulsion
The Rules of the Game
* Scarface
The Scarlet Empress
* Schindler’s List
The Searchers
* The Seven Samurai
* Singin’ in the Rain
* Some Like It Hot
A Star Is Born
* A Streetcar Named Desire
* Sunset Boulevard
* Taxi Driver
* The Third Man
* Tokyo Story
Touch of Evil
* The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
* Trouble in Paradise
* Vertigo
* West Side Story
* The Wild Bunch
* The Wizard of Oz

This article in USA Today - Drives to ban gay adoption heat up in 16 states - pains me in two ways.

I have a gay father, and having grown up living with my Mom, my Dad and Ernie and with very close family friendships with other gay men, I consider myself part of the gay community (I don’t think the gay community sees me as a part of it, but that’s another story). I take it quite personally when conservatives start going on about how children are harmed by living in families with gay parents. It’s just ridiculous. Children are harmed by living in families with bad parents, regardless of their sexual orientation or whether how many parents they have.

Second, I am pained because my son is adopted. How dare the conservative advocate leaving children in foster care or in orphanages rather than living with a family. With the number of children in need, how can they insist that there be fewer adoptions?

I guess I’m just writing this down, because I hope everyone that reads it understands how hurtful these ballot initiatives are to real people and real families.

This morning Nathan got mixed up he thought I was in the shower but then saw me in the kitchen and he said “Wo! I thought I had two Papis for a minute!” I said “Some kids have two Papis.” “I know,” he said. “And sometimes they have two mamas.” Totally matter of fact and taken for granted. One of his friends has two mamas. On the one hand that gives me hope for the future, but I also worry that our family is on one side of a widening cultural divide.

A while back I made a website for Caroline Hallisey, who is the daughter of a friend. Caroline is in the Olympics again, this is her third time. She is captain of the Short Track Speedskating Team. Here’s Caroline’s profile from the NBC olympic website. She skates next on my birthday. Go USA!

Update: Team USA came in fourth. Too bad about no medal, but it was a great showing nonetheless. Here’s some coverage of the event.

Boston.com is reporting that MIT and Cambridge have a announced a plan to provide free access to all of Cambridge. They are focusing first on housing development, so we might get early access since we are near the Putnam projects (and that’s a good thing for once!).

They say everyone will have access by the end of the year. The access is meant to be faster than dialup but slower than DSL, in order to blunt the phone companies complaints that this is unfair competition. Should still be nice.

The boston.com link now requires registration (so why bother linking to them). I can’t find confirmation on the MIT or Cambridge websites yet. Thanks, Dad here is an article from MIT’s largest and oldest newspaper, The Tech: MIT and City Collaborate To Provide Free Wireless

I recently subscribed to Senator Barack Obama’s podcast, and after listening to him as I walk home, I think I want this guy to president. He’s so much more believable and genuine and intelligent and understandable than the last couple of candidates the Democrats have fielded.

Nathan and I went for lunch at the Oriental de Cuba last Tuesday. We had a papaya drink, some empanandas and platanos. Yum. I was sad to read over someone’s should on the T that the restaurant was burned down, a case of arson. I love that place!

Tonight Lisa and I had dinner at Sophia’s Grotto in Roslindale. The people at the adjoining tables were discussing the case of El Oriental. Apparently the word at Doyle’s is that it was a disgruntled employee who threw a molotov cocktail through the restaurant’s window. Apparently the City of Boston is going to help the restaurant owners get the business going again. Man do I hope so.

Lisa, Nathan and I visited the Hi-Lo for some Colombian supplies this morning, so I stopped outside and snapped a photo of el Oriental - it’s looking like its going to be a little while before they reopen.

El Oriental de Cuba

From seeing Episode III, I just returned. Now, maybe if you asked me in a few days I’ll be all cool say it was corny, but now my immediate reaction is pretty happy. Definately the best feeling I’ve had froma Star Wars movie since Empire. A lot of was the intellectual thrill of seeing elements of the Episode IV (the original starwars) fall into place. Partly that’s because I saw Star Wars 50 times when i was young, and the repetition of the story was such that I knew it the way some might know the Ramayana - almost as a part of my unconscious.

So if you loved Star Wars, go see it. If you didn’t, don’t waste your time complaining to me about how cheesey this movie was. I liked it.

This is so funny. You need to have seen the movie to appreciate it, but read the text of this Bill in Idaho House of Reps.

Some favorites lines:

WHEREAS, the Preston High School administration and staff, particularly the cafeteria staff, have enjoyed notoriety and worldwide attention; and

WHEREAS, tater tots figure prominently in this film thus promoting Idaho’s most famous export; and

WHEREAS, Pedro’s efforts to bake a cake for Summer illustrate the positive connection between culinary skills to lifelong relationships; and

WHEREAS, any members of the House of Representatives or the Senate of the Legislature of the State of Idaho who choose to vote “Nay” on this concurrent resolution are “FREAKIN’ IDIOTS!” and run the risk of having the “Worst Day of Their Lives!”