Another Queer Jewish Buddhist

Sunday morning gay cartoon: Guileless Guile

I remember seeing this at NewFest (NY's lgbt film festival) a while back. Loved it then. Obvious, but still fun. Enjoy:

Sunday morning cartoon: The UnGay

If you don't check in regularly at Mark Fiore's site to see his weekly animated political cartoons, you're really missing something. Like this for example:

Sunday Morning Cartoon: Under the stars...

The final frontier...

Sunday Morning Short Film: EZ Heeb

If you saw the hilarious gender-twisting, smart-alecky Fagette, you'll recognize Katz — the performer in this video, and the mind behind the mischievously named Athens Boys Choir. Here though, after playing with gender roles and identity in Fagette, Katz is playing with Jewish identity, continuity, cultural connection and of course, gender. For me, it's a not as successful than Fagette, but then, how many gender-deviant, multi-media, spoken-word/homo-hop, roller-skate fantasy date music videos do you get to see? And out of that rather miniscule list, how many make you smile? So smile, and enjoy:

By the way, that bell boy sure is a cutie...

Sunday Morning Cartoon: Happily Ever After - The Tale of a Boy Princess

Now this would be an interesting proposition for the rewrite of Shrek — maybe there can be a film about Shrek's queer son. Or not.

Sunday Morning Cartoon (sort of): Robot, Ninja & Gay Guy

How I have managed to miss this little internet oddity for several months I have no idea. The premise is explained very simply on their Facebook Fan Page:

"What happens when a gay guy needs new roommates and the only ones who respond to the Craigslist ad are a robot and a ninja? This..."

It's so geeky silly I just love it. Yes, I know it's not a cartoon, but it's about as cartoony as live action gets. And episode 5 takes place in a comic book store! The guys behind this have their own youtube channel with other regular video comedy postings, including a series called (and how I missed this is even more bizarre) Two Hot Guys in A Shower. Doesn't work as well for me. But what interests me is the way creativity and content continue to be democratized (though of course, the goal, you can be sure, for these guys is to "discovered" and make it big. So they can get their 8 million dollars a movie.

The fan page says that there are new episodes the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of every month. Since they started in August and we're in October, they aren't keeping to schedule otherwise there would be more than 5 episodes at this point. But I'm not arguing.

Sunday Morning Cartoon — Pulch: The good times

If Eugene Ionesco had discovered animation, perhaps he would have created this little oddity that I just had to share with you. It has so many great lines that are so random, it is the perfect inanity. Oh dear God, not Luxembourg!

Sunday Morning Cartoons: A different kind of love story / And give up ho biz?

Two cartoons for the price of one! And they range across the spectrum from grade school first love innocence to a sardonically funny (and NSFW) look a sex addict in denial.

First is A Different Kind of Love Story. I love the sentiment of the Dr. Seuss quote used as the theme of this cartoon: "Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

Unfortunately I feel like this short cartoon  cheats the viewer and then seems to suggest the feelings of one of the characters doesn't matter. But hey, this was made by a school kid for other school kids.  This little animation was an entry into the TVNZ 6 Schools Multimedia Challenge. There are different challenges in the contest, including a prize for animation, and this film was entered in that contest. Students from grades 1 thru 13 can enter. So while I have some problems with the story and the way it plays out, I have only praise for the student who made it, and for TVNZ 6 in New Zealand for helping to foster multimedia creativity in the schools. Who is doing that in the US? And what would happen if some 8th grader made this film here?

Next is an odd animation from Mike Diamond, the New York based comedian who appears on Logo TV's PopLab. His comedy, in this little cartoon and in his essay "Ho No Mo'" deals with the very real issue of sexual compulsion in the gay community with sardonic wit that is both tragic and funny. Diamond's videos can be seen not only on Logo but also on his own youtube channel. Here's "And give up ho biz?"

If this cartoon feels familiar, as in you live this, you might want to ask yourself these 20 questions.

Sunday Morning Film Preview: A Single Man

Tom Ford's film of Christopher Isherwood's novel, A Single Man just won honors at the Venice Film Festival, with Colin Firth, who plays the lead, winning a Lion for best actor. I'll go see any film with Julianne Moore, whether the subject matter is gay or not. Does that make me gay? Duh.

Here's the trailer:

Sunday Morning Short Film: Facing A New Age

For this the month of another birthday in my marvelously queer 50s, here's a sweet and smart little film that was presented in the Documentary Shorts section of NewFest this last June. If you like this film, be sure to join NewFest and come to events throughout the year as well as next year's lgbt film festival in NYC. As one of the founding members of Gay Youth of NY, it's interesting to reconnect with the alumni and watch each other grow old, those that us who have survived. And this film raises many important issues for us and our community.