"Love and Anarchy": A prank war at a Stockholm publishing house, with two gay teases and male nudity

 Love and Anarchy appeared on my Netflix recommendations.  I clicked to see what it was about, forgetting that on Netflix, "click" means "start."  And since I was eating a bowl of Cheerios, I let it continue.

Link to the n*de photos

Scene 1: A harried middle-aged man and woman in a fancy house coordinating their calendars and telling their preteen son "No gaming at the breakfast table."  Dad is played by Johannes Bah Kuhnke, sweating below.

The woman chugs some espresso, talking about how this is her first day on the job. Teenage daughter comes in, not wearing the coat Dad bought for her.  This causes a crisis. Nuclear family squabbles.  Yawn. 

The woman goes upstairs, locks herself in the bathroom, and masturbates to porn on her cell phone.  Are we supposed to be titilated or judgmental, or are we to assume that she's having marital problems?  Everybody masturbates, but nobody admits that they do.

Scene 2: She is walking through a square in downtown Stockholm, at dusk or pre-dawn, checking her cell phone.  An older guy welcomes her to his publishing house.   He shows her to her new office, which is a disaster-area of books and manuscripts: the former senior editor was a bit of a hoarder.  

The older guy may be Ronni, the Publishing Company CEO, played by Bjorn Kjellman. He didn't have much of a physique in the 1990s, but he was rather well hung.

Scene 3: The woman -- Sofie -- giving a speech to the staff.  She's an independent consultant who saves publishing companies from bankruptcy by pushing them into the digital age, whether they like it or not. As she is ignoring a question about layoffs, a hot young guy comes in late and accidentally spills his drink over his crotch.  While he is dabbing at his bulge with a napkin, Sofie stares, mesmerized.

Scene 4: Sofie in her office, grimacing at the clutter.  Books --- ugh -- they might as well be stone tablets! As someone with a library of about 4,000 books, I am not amused.

 She piles some armloads of the relics outside her door to be trashed, and sees the hot young guy (Bjorn Mosten, top photo, left, and below) on a ladder drilling (and drilling...and drilling).  Receptionist tells her that he's Max, the IT Guy.  

"He doesn't usually do much drilling." 

 "Well, tell him to drill quietly!"

Max scoffs.  "How am I supposed to do my job?"  Receptionist doesn't answer; she's staring at his butt.  He storms out.

Scene 5: A publication meeting.  We are introduced to the Literary Drector (elderly guy) and the PR director (young woman), plus the intern who handles the social media presence (5000 followers on Instagram!).  PR Director wants to publish a novel "full of gay sex and drugs at an ayahuasca retreat," while Literary Director wants to publish a book of poetry about fir trees.   

Sofie suggests skipping the fir tree poems and tweaking the "gay sex and drugs" novel to draw the interest of heterosexual men. Heterosexist enabler!

Scene 5:  Dinner with the family.  Sofie complaining about how old-fashioned her clients are.  They don't even have digital book contracts!   Suddenly she gets a phone call and rushes upstairs, annoying her husband: "We're eating!"

It's a subplot about her elderly father, complaining about the working class unionizing.  She tells him to stop watching the news; it's upsetting and useless.

Scene 6:  Sofie in bed, reading a book while Husband snores.  Hey, I thought she hated books!  She sneaks into the bathroom to masturbate. 

Scene 7:  At work, they are signing the contract with the woman who wrote the "gay sex and drugs" novel. they just want some final revisions.  While Literary Director is trying to figure out how to take her photo with one of those newfangled cell phones, a Famous Author walks by, and he rushes out to hun: "I didn't see you at the club!"  Is Literary Director gay? 

Nope -- it was just a gay tease. 

It appears that the Famos Author sent the Gay-Sex-and-Drugs Author a dick pic (how did they even meet?), so PR Director wants to dump him, even though he's been their biggest moneymaker for 30 years. Literary Director asks what his dick has to do with his writing talent.  All literary geniuses have scandals.

Scene 8: Sofie reading reports.  Max starts drilling again. Drilling, drilling...She rushes out in a huff and demands that he not drill during work hours.  He says "What a bitch!" and storms off.  They'll be screwing by Episode 3. 

Scene 9:  Night.  Sofie still in the office, working.  Husband Johan is filming, so she calls the sitter to say that she'll be late, and please put the kids to bed.

Everyone's gone, so why not masturbate?   In an office with the blinds open, so anyone who comes into the main suite can see her?  At least close the blinds!

At that moment Max comes in -- she said don't drill during working hours -- and sees her.  He snaps a photo and leaves.

More Max after the break

Melvin Mellblom: Sad Swedish-Thai model with muscles, a constantly changing hair color, and a backside. With Peebles and Algerian d*cks

  

Link to the n*de photos

I was drawn to Melvin Mellblom on the teen idol website because he posts a blurry muscle photo.  Who would do that?  

And because of his name.  When I was in high school, bullies used "Melvin" to disparage kids that they considered clumsy, awkward, or book-smart. And God help you if that was really your name!  

Most actors saddled with the name Melvin change it to Mel.  Google lists only three who didn't: Melvin van Peebles (n*de on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends), Bonez Estivez, and Gregg (left). So why didn't this Mellblom fellow avoid the giggling and change it to Mel?

Melvin (really?  not Mel?) was born in Sweden, but moved to Thailand at age three, so he speaks Swedish, Thai, and English.   His Instagram and Facebook pages say that he is an actor, model, and social media influencer, but there are no acting roles listed on the IMDB, and only two on his professional resume:

The music video Without You (2016), by Marcus & Martinus, a Norwegian dance pop duo.  A boy wanders around some temples and historic sites in Thailand, being sad, crying, screaming, and looking at photos of his ex-girlfriend. 

Is it over? I just gotta know
Cause I'm reaching, but where did you go?
Tears are falling, while I'm calling
Can't make it alone, no

I don't like where this research is heading.

And a short, The Gold Star Kid (2017): A boy living in Thailand finds a 20 Euro note, and uses it to pay the restaurant bill of a soldier who reminds him of his dead father  (Algerian actor Rachid Oumakhlouf, n*de on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends).

The IMDB says that the boy is played by Nils Bento Connault.

Melvin's Instagram and Facebook pages begin in 2017, with a lot of modeling photos.  He looks sad in most of them.  No girl-hugging, but he posts "Sorry boys, I like girls," to clear up any misconceptions.

Bummer. 

In February 2020, he posts to fans from bed (on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends).  Some guys comment on his hotness.  So, did you change your mind about liking boys, Mel Baby?

In April 2020, he poses wearing a Sylvester Stallone t-shirt, and gets purple hair.  A pride color?

More after the break.  Caution: Explicit

Dad buys me a n*ked man for Christmas

  

Link to the n*de photos

Not a real n*ked man, of course.

When I was a kid in Rock Island, three local celebrities were praised in the media, advertized in bookstores, and assigned by teachers: 

1. Jazz musician Bix Beiderbecke

2. Poet Carl Sandburg

3. Sculptor Isabel Bloom.

Born Isabel Scherer in 1908, she grew up in Davenport, across the river in Iowa, and studied at Grant Wood's Stone City Art Colony, where she met and married fellow artist John Bloom.  In the 1950s, she began producing distinctive sculptures carved out of Mississippi River stone or molded of mud mixed with concrete.  

They were absolutely atrocious. Angels, fairies, hugging children, mothers hugging babies, cats, doves, bridal couples, snowmen, Santa Clauses, the most maudlin, sentimental, and heteronormative dreck ever imagined.

But everyone in the Quad Cities loved them.  My parents loved them.There were two or three in every room.  Dozens more crossed the state with us to give to our Indiana relatives for Christmas presents.  When an out-of-town friend visited, they always went home with a Isabel Bloom fairy or hugging child.

So I should have anticipated what would happen.

I had just discovered Greek art -- rather, statues of muscular Greek gods, so for Christmas in ninth grade, I  asked for "a statue."  

I meant a desk-sized statue of a n*ked god, like the Belvedere Apollo, but Dad said, "Sure -- let's go down to Isabel Bloom's, and you can pick out the one you want."

I couldn't tell him "No, no...I wanted a naked Greek god, not some stupid boy holding a frog!", so my boyfriend Dan and I had to fake-grin our way through a mid-December visit to the crowded studio in the Village of West Davenport, as we sorted through Angel with Wreath, Unconditional Love, Lovebirds, Boy with Flag...

Eventually Dan wandered off, but my torture continued: Girl with Pumpkin, Newlyweds, Boy Offering Girl Flowers, Baby in Crib, Sleeping Cat...  

Then Dan came running excitedly from a side studio.  "Hey, what about this one?"  It was a n*de male figure, seated, his arms around his knees.   Stylized, not muscular, but a heck of a lot better than the other stuff.

"John's Thinker, " he read from the bottom. 

"Must be a statue of her husband," I said, carefully taking it from his hands.  It felt warm to the touch.  It was thrilling to think that I might be holding an exact likeness of a real n*ked man.

"No, she didn't do this statue, her husband John did," Dad said, frowning.  "It's not a real Isabel Bloom."

"That's ok.  It's different from the others.  I'll take it." 

He looked at me oddly.  "The others are lots nicer ones.  How about First Kiss?"  He held out a statue of a little boy kissing an embarrassed little girl on the cheek.

"I don't want any statues of girls."

"It's a boy and a girl.  That's like two statues for the price of one!"

Was he objecting to the price of John's Thinker?  No, First Kiss cost twice as much.  "This one's cheaper."  

"But..you could use it as a kind of model, you know.  When you want a girl to let you kiss her, just show her the statue."

"Gross!" Dan exclaimed.

"After you discover girls, I mean."

"John's Thinker, please," I said firmly.

Dad shrugged.  "Well, if you're sure that's the one you want.  But I don't know what you're going to do with it, Skeezix." 

 Later I figured out that he always called me Skeezix, after a character in the old Gasoline Alley comic strip, when I expressed same-sex desire, something bizarre and beyond imagining at the time.

I still have the statue.  And someone put an Isabel Bloom angel and cat on my father's grave.

More after the break

Aaron Tobey: The gay boy who wrote the 4th Amendment on his chest

  On December 30, 2011, this became the most famous photo on the internet.  Not only because the guy has an impressive physique, because he wrote the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on his chest.

21-year old architectural student Aaron Tobey was grieving: his grandfather had just died, and he had to fly to Wisconsin for his funeral -- at the busiest time of the year.   He was sick of those invasive scanning machines, so he had a friend write the 4th Amendment on his chest: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated."

When he got to the scanner, he stripped down to his jogging shorts.  The TSA officer immediately called the police, who handcuffed him and dragged him to the airport lockup. After questioning him for an hour, they were satisfied that he wasn't a terrorist (because he knows the Constitution?), and issued him a summons for disorderly conduct.  They also confiscated his luggage.

Left: At the airport.

Aaron put on his clothes, took a later flight (after going through the scanner the ordinary way), went to the funeral, and sued two TSA screeners for violation of his First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment Rights (freedom of speech, freedom to avoid unnecessary searches, and due process in criminal proceedings).  A lower court found in his favor, so the TSA went to appeal.  The Apellate court found that the the screeners did violate the First Amendment in arresting him for a text that was not inflammatory or obscene.  Who cares that he had it written on his chest?

Besides, he was just giving them what they wanted.  Those screeners (since discontinued) showed a lot more of your front and back parts than Aaron was showing.

Unfortunately, that was all of the notoriety (and beefcake) that we got from Aaron.  He completed his M.Arch from the Rhode Island School of Design and Ph.D. in Architectural History from Yale University, and is now an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Wisconson, Milwaukee.  

His research interests include the hsitory of twentieth century architecture, technology, and organizations with a focus on the intersection of histories of computing, management, and postmodernism in a global context.

More shirtless Aaron after the break

Jake Rory: The Shropshire Lad plays gay-vague on EastEnders, falls in love with Mercutio, gets n*ked in third of his on-screen roles.

  

Link to the n*de photos

The media calls Jake Rory  a Shropshire Lad, reflecting the book of poetry by A.E. Housman, who was terrified of acknowledging his love for men:

Look not in my eyes, for fear
  They mirror true the sight I see,
And there you find your face too clear
  And love it and be lost like me.

He grew up in Maesbury, Shropshire, near the Welsh border; his Mum ran the Talbot Pub across the border in Welshpool.  After secondary school at The Hammond, he attended ArtsEd, a "world-renowned" drama school in London:

There Jake appeared in:

The Cherry Orchard (who hasn't?)

 Orpheus Descending, by Tennessee Williams.  Bi actor Marlon Brando starred in the movie version.

Macbeth

And The Voysey Inheritance: Desire and social obligation, by the heavily closeted Harley Granville-Barker.

He also had a minor role in the short Renters (2024): a lesbian couple in Auckland are looking for a flat.  One seems too good to be true, until... 

Jake graduated with a B.A. in Acting in 2024, and was immediately cast in a modernized version of Oedipus on the West End (October 2024-January 2025).  Mark Strong played Oedipus. Jake was in the ensemble, and understudied the roles of Eteocles, Polyneices, and Lichas (Oedipus' son, brother, and assistant).

In 2025, Jake and Connor Monroe wrote and performed in Mercutio,  a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet, at the Camden Fringe Festival.  A review mentions an "unexpected romantic subtext," but of course the gay-subtext romance betwween Mercutio and Romeo is well known.  

Connor Monroe is apparently gay.  A woman posts on "Love Is All That Matters" about her "gay brother Connor Monroe," and someone by that name mentions having a husband. 

Jake also began television work in 2025.  In Episode 1.8 of The Agency, Martian (Michael Fassbinder), a CIA agent working undercover, walks in on his daughter  Poppy and her boyfriend Daniel (Jake), both unclothed.  Danny Boy strikes a pose, planning to fight the "intruder"; but upon realizing that it's just Dad, he settles for covering up.

Martian is nonchalant about his daughter getting busy.  Later he praises her for growing into a "cool person."

More after the break

Rooster, Episode 1.8: Are Rooster and Tommy boyfriends or father-son? Is Eli having a gay romance with a girl? With Jonah's backside and Noah's d*ck

 

Link to the n*de dudes

I've been watching Rooster on MAX, with Steve Carrel (left) as a trashy novelist who becomes Writer in Residence at a snooty private college -- to see if there's any development in the gay-subtext buddy bond between Rooster and his writing student, Tommy (Maximo Salas, right) 

And any more appearances from the extremely cute Eli (Jonah Beckett, n*de on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends).   

I'm reviewing Episode 1.8, "Nobody Spook It," which is not about Halloween.  But I'll skip the numerous plot threads that aren't about hot guys.

Scene 1: Rooster and Daughter watching tv.  She starts crying because the show is so sad -- it's Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  

Back Story: She was up for tenure in art history, until she was fired for accidentally burned down the house of her boyfriend Archie, a professor of Russian Literature, when he dumped her for a student, who turned out to be pregnant.  It goes on like that.

Cut to the President asking Rooster about his Thanksgiving.  "My Daughter was sad about something, but she wouldn't tell me what it was."  You watched a friggin' Christmas movie. Of course she was sad. 

Next up: the Dean's Secretary, Sidekick Tommy's mother, whom Rooster had an affair with, to the discomfort of all parties.  She's quitting, but she has a list of rules to endure their last eight days together: "no tight-fitting khakis," and so on.  His bulge would be too tempting?

Scene 2: In creative writing class, Rooster complains that his students' rough drafts aren't "page turners."  As an example, he cites a letter the fictional Rooster receives from an old flame.  They scoff: "Who writes letters these days?"  

Sidekick Tommy has returned after dropping out due to the trauma of discovering Rooster dating his mom. "My therapist is helping me imagine you with no stuff down there."  Yes, that would work to decrease your attraction to him.  

Wait -- a c*ck is a male chicken, a rooster.  I just got it.  The guy is named after his p*nis! No wonder Tommy likes him so much!  (Technically Rooster is the name of the character, but that's how Tommy always refers to him).

After class, Rooster offers to help Sidekick Tommy get back up to speed with his other classes.  "My office, 3:00 pm sharp?"  

It's very difficult to get screenshots of these two.  They're always separated by a vast blank space.  Maybe to highlight their trouble making an emotional connection?  After all, you meet a guy through a discussion of doing bedroom stuff with him, move in, and suddenly he starts seeing your Mom.  That's bound to raise issues. 

Wait -- Tommy's chapter is covered with red marks and statements: "Explore further.  Do more with this." And no grade.  His buddy got a check plus.  Why is Rooster so critical of his work?

Scene 3: At the President's sauna.  No beefcake.  He's advising the Pregnant Ex-Girlfriend that if the dad doesn't want to be invested in their baby's life, she should take the job at Biotech and move away.  

Cut to hockey player JD (Noah Grismer, not shown) telling his buds, Spooner (Evan Jachelski, left) and George (Xavier Beloved, right) that they should all wear bucket hats.  It could be their thing. 

They see through his obvious attempt to get them to drop the nickname Pig T*ts (because he has extra nipples).  No dice: "You'll always be Pig T*ts to us."

Rooster drops by to ask where Sidekick Tommy went.  He didn't make their 3:00 meeting, and he skipped Econ.  They don't know.

Scene 4: A lady who teaches the gay poet Garcia Lorca wants to talk to Eli's Girlfriend about her poem, "Cherry Pop."  She explains: "Eli is the cherry, and I'm the one who popped..."  

Whoops, Eli is right there. "You don't need to tell everyone that I was a virgin before you pegged me" (topped him).  She orders him to wait outside.

Lorca Lady loves the poem, and wants to publish it in The Review.  "It just needs a little tweaking."

"Sure, I'll go microdose my balls off and get busy."  You got metaphorical balls, and you're a top.  That's quite a homo*rotic relationship, for a boy and a girl.

More after the break

Skeezix of Gasoline Alley: 1930s Gay Icon

When I was a kid, Dad would call me Skeezix when I misbehaved:
"Put down that comic book and clean your room, Skeezix!"

Particularly when my misbehaving had some connection to same-sex desire, like when Bill and I became a "mama and a papa", when I was disappointed at the lack of muscles at A Little Bit O'Heaven., or when I asked for a statue of a naked man for Christmas.

He never used that name on my brother or sister, just me.  I had no idea why.

One day I stumbled upon a book in my Aunt Nora's attic, starring a boy named Skeezix.  Turns out that he was from the long-running comic strip Gasoline Alley (1918-).  Originally about four buddies who hung around in an alley to talk about cars, it took a domestic turn on February 14, 1921, when Walt Wallet found a baby on his doorstep, and named him Skeezix.

The strips were now about a single dad raising a small child -- who aged in real time. Every day in the strip corresponded to a day in real life.

By the late 1930s, when my father was a kid, Skeezix was a teenager, and the undeniable star of the comic strip.  You could buy Skeezix toys, clothes, shoes, ice cream, coloring books, pin-backs, sheet music, and a full line of big little books.

He starred in three radio series and two movies (played by Jimmy Lyndon of Tom Brown's School Days fame, 

The strip was not known for beefcake -- Walt was rather pudgy -- but Skeezix got some shirtless and underwear shots, and displayed a nice physique.

And he had a buddy to bond with, Spud, who accompanied him on the adventures Skeezix in Africa (1934) and Skeezix at the Military Academy (1938).

So my father connected my homoerotic hijinks to the  shirtless, buddy-bonding, arguably gay Skeezix of his childhood.

The gay symbolism didn't last.  Skeezix got a girlfriend, Nina Clock (pronounced Nine-a).

He graduated from high school, served in World War II, and returned to run the gas station.  He married Nina, and had two kids: Chipper and Clovia.

Left: The bisexual Scotty Beckett played Skeezix's brother in Gasoline Alley (1951).

Chipper served in the Vietnam War, and became a physician's assistant as the job was just starting out.  He met his wife through a computer dating service.

Clovia grew up, managed the gas station after Skeezix retired, and married Slim Skinner.  They had two kids: Gretchen and Rover (born in 1978).

Rover grew up, graduated from high school, and married Hoogy Boogle.  They had a son, Boog, in 2004.  As of 2022, he is 18 years old, and has a girlfriend, Polly. 

The first and second generations don't appear much anymore, since Walt Wallet is over 120 years old, and Skeezix over 100, but none of the cartoonists want to mention iconic characters dying.

Six generations of Wallets, Skinners, Boggles, and Bumps, and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone in  who isn't involved in a hetero-romance.  There are no confirmed bachelor uncles or maiden aunts anywhere to provide queer subtexts (except for the outsider characters Rufus and Joel).  Gasoline Alley remains a holdout from the time when gay people were assumed not to exist.

Yet for kids growing up in the 1930s, there was Skeezix.

See also:  Dad buys me a n*ked man for Christmas

Rufus and Joel, the gay couple of Gasoline Alley

Tom Brown's School Days

The Life of Riley: Bullying Boys into Girl Craziness.  

Midnight Gospel: A gay teenager in the afterlife

Pendleton Ward's Midnight Gospel, on Netflix, is advertised as an adult Adventure Time.  There are certainly similarities in animation style and tone, but Clancy is no Finn.  Or Jake.

An amiable young man with pink skin and anime-eyes, shirtless, usually wearing a purple wizard's hat, Clancy (Duncan Trussell) lives in self-imposed exile in a virtual world called the Ribbon. We don't learn why, although there are a few hints:

His friends and older brother call to say how much they miss him. 

He encounters abusive fathers everywhere.

One friend ominously warns Clancy that someone is coming to kill him. .

His sister calls and begs him to come home, and he angrily hangs up.

He orders a pie online, but when it arrives, it is horribly decayed.

His mother visits, and we learn that she is dying of cancer.  She takes him through his whole life, from birth to death, and then he gives birth to her and goes through her life, from birth to death again.

I'm guessing that Clancy is dead, or else is so traumatized by abuse and his mom's imminent death that he has retreated into an inner world.  Clancy himself doesn't seem to know which it is.  

He passes the time by visiting various virtual worlds and interviewing the inhabitants for his "spacecast" (like a podcast, but beamed into space).  The dialogue consists primarily of the interviews, laconic late-night-talk-show discussions of conspiracy theories and wacko holistic healing techniques.  Meanwhile, on screen, Clancy and his friends are having bizarre, trippy adventures. 

For instance, he visits a world overrun by zombies, and must help the President of the U.S. escape from a besieged White House.  Meanwhile they discuss the merits of medicinal marijuana (for cancer patients, Clancy?). 

In a Medieval world, he helps a warrior re-animate her murdered boyfriend, and learns about forgiveness.  

In another episode, Clancy interviews Death  (he's not a ghost: his avatar is made of cream).  She talks about how the funeral industry makes us spend thousands of dollars to embalm our dead loved ones and make them look nice, when it is absolutely unnecessary: corpses are usually safe, and if you have the funeral within a few days, they won't decay enough to notice.  Death advocates washing and dressing your dead loved one at home, as a way of saying goodbye. 

Meanwhile, they travel across a weird Bosch-inspired landscape, fighting various monsters, including ghouls who jump out of mirrors. Death tells him that they are Regrets, and he can vanquish them by forgiving himself.  The Archangel Michael and a chubby demon join the team.

Watch with the sound turned off, and again with dialogue only, and you get two completely different shows.

I've never made it through an entire episode without fast-forwarding.  The interviews are bizarre, and we never get a sense that Clancy needs to hear them in order to move on.   We really don't learn much about what he wants or needs.

But we do learn something very important. Clancy experiences sexual desire -- he tries to visit a planet of orgies (and water slides) -- but he is not interested in women.  He never gets a girlfriend, or expresses an interest in getting one.  However, he does buddy bond with several of the male being he interviews, and all of the friends who call him are male.  

My verdict:  Clancy is gay.

See also: Adventure Time

OMG, some jaw-dropping queer codes on "Chad Powers." Russ and Danny are in love! With Zahn backside, Clayne d*ck, and some random Tennessee dudes

  

Link to the n*de dudes

This is huge.  This is Glenn and Zy holding hands on Solar Opposites,  Finn on a date with a boy in Unprisoned, Scotty telling Gideon "You knock me out" on The Righteous Gemstones. 

This is Kurt Russell smiling at Patrick Dawson on a dreary November night many years ago, the smile that gave me the first clue that two boys can fall in love. 

 A few weeks ago, I reviewed Episode 1.2 of the Hulu sports series Chad Powers: several years after he was cancelled for being an a-hole, footballer Russ (Glen Powell) tries to get into the game by pretending to be high school superstar Chad Powers and playing for  he South Georgia State College Catfish.  

He is assisted by Danny (Frankie Rodriguez), the team mascot, who gives him a place to stay, provides his prosthetic cheeks, and makes sure that the back story details he ad-libs are consistent.

They aren't at all consistent,  but Coach Hudson (Steve Zahn) is desperate for a winning season, so he doesn't dig too deeply.

Danny displays a few queer codes, but doesn't express any same-sex interest.  Frankie Rodriguez stated in an interview that it's nice to play a gay character where being gay is not the main thing about him, but I wasn't happy.  Most viewers won't notice, or will dismiss the queer codes with "Straight guys do that.  It doesn't make him gay."

Then came Episode 1.4.  I'll do a brief synopsis to get to the jaw-dropping part.

Scene 1: On the bus en route to an away game in Knoxville, the Coach presumes that Chad/Russ and Danny are boyfriends, even though they aren't sitting together.  He personally doesn't care, but they will in Tennessee, so keep it closeted.  

Chad/Russ claims that they're not boyfriends, they're brothers: Danny's family fostered him for a few years, and then Chad/Russ's family fostered Danny.  This makes no sense, and doesn't fit the established back story at all, but the Coach just shrugs.  Whatever, he's a good player.

Scene 2: At the hotel, Assistant Coach Dobbs (Clayne Crawford, right) cautions the players to not "spread any cheeks" tonight, so they'll be rested for the big game (while looking directly at Chad/Russ, also assuming that he and Danny are boyfriends). 

Bedtime is 11:00 pm.  If you're not in your room by bed check, you don't play tomorrow. 

Scene 3: Problem: someone left the cap off the glue, so there's no way to affix Russ's prosthetic cheeks.  The ones he is wearing will fall apart by morning.  What to do?

"There must be prosthetic glue somewhere in Knoxville," Russ suggests. 

The other players have invited some fans, including Mean Girl Sasha, to a pre-bedtime party in their room. Russ and Danny steal her car keys so they can drive to a Halloween store.

Noticing the messiness of Mean Girl Sasha's car, Russ exclaims "Girls are gross!" 

"But not Assistant Coach Ricky?  Don't you have a crush on her?"

"Heck, no.  She's just nice, that's all."  So you don't like girls, Russ?  I did notice that you brought a dude to the club in Episode 1.   "And she's being nice to Chad, not Russ."

"Yeah, she'd hate Russ.  She's not into f*kboys." A f*kboy is someone who treats his partners like objects.  So Danny doesn't think of Russ as a potential partner because he wants something more meaningful?

Scene 3: At the Halloween store, Russ notices his face on a Halloween costume: "A-Hole Quarterback."  He's depressed, but Danny tries to console him by suggesting that the model was another a-hole "with frosted tips and a cubic zirconia ear stud."  

A big guy bought the last bottle of glue, and is using it to apply a mask.  Russ wants Danny to ask him for the glue, but he refuses: "Bears are not my type."  What about A-hole quarterbacks?

So Russ approaches and starts a conversation.  It's a mask of the rival team; he's planning to wear it to the game tomorrow in honor of his dad.  

While they are talking, Danny steals the glue.  That's a lot of theft, buddy. Aren't you supposed to be encouraging Russ to become a better person?  

Scene 4: The Bear notices and chases them out of the store. 

Another problem: Someone broke into the car and stole their stuff, including Danny's $180 airpods and the prosthetic cheeks! 

They track down the guy,  but he starts shooting, so they run away.  And Russ cut his hand on the broken glass in the car! 

Scene 5: The wait at the ER is too long --bed check is in an hour -- so Russ orders Danny to find some bandages.  He'll take care of his injury himself.

Danny: "You can't order me around. Am I your employee?"

Russ: "I don't wanna litigate the nature of our...whatever this is...right now."  It's a friendship.  Why is it so hard to define?  Unless....

 Danny is incensed over his refusal to name their relationship "Our whatever? I save your *ss again and again and again..."

Russ:  "You're just hanging out with me because of Chad.  Chad makes you relevant." 

More arguing.  Each accuses the other of using him, not really loving...I mean caring about him, and finally Russ orders Danny to leave.  

"Ok, if you don't need anyone, get your own goddam glue."  He dumps the glue out onto the floor and storms out.

Russ sits there for awhile, upset over the breakup.  Back to his problem: they use medical adhesive in hospitals.  He steals some, bandages his hurt hand, and rushes back to the hotel.  

The jaw-dropping scene after the break.  

The Witch: A family in Colonial New England is bedeviled, with beefcake and gay symbolism. Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?

 

Around 1630, William (Ralph Ineson) and his family are exiled from Plimoth Plantation, the first Puritan colony in the New World, for espousing religious heresy.  We're not told what the heresy is, but it may have to do with the need to earn your salvation.  The Puritans were Calvinists: you are born saved or damned, and there is nothing you can do about it.  Your good or evil works are just evidence that you were "born that way."

But working for your salvation is even worse, because no matter how many good works you do, one sin will cast it all aside  When I was growing up, it was the same: the Nazarene Church taught Christian perfection.  You could be totally holy for every moment of your life, except for one moment of doubt that you forgot to repent for, and that was enough to spend eternity in the Lake of Fire.  

Back to my childhood...um. I mean the Puritans.  They try to start a farm, but William is no good at farming, or hunting, or building things, or...well, anything but chopping wood, which he does obsessively.  He's also not a great role model: he steals his wife's heirloom silver cup, then blames his teenage  daughter, Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy).  He decides to sell her to another family, to make ends meet.

He tells his son Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw) to lie about their failed hunting trip, and gets angry when he asks whether unbaptized babies go to heaven.  

When their infant son vanishes, we see that a witch has grabbed him to use his blood for a flying spell, but the family blames Thomasin for not keeping an eye on him.  

Meanwhile, the twins are tormenting their goat, named Black Phillip, and claim that he talks to them.  The family blames Thomasin for that, too. 

Then Caleb, who has been sneaking peeks at his sister's bosom, disappears.  We see that he has been lured to the witche's hut: she appeared as an attractive woman with a large bosom, and kissed him before reverting to her true form.   He returns to the farm the next daked and babbling.  The family thinks he is being bedeviled by the witch, and try to pray: but the twins have forgotten their prayer!  They claim that Thomasin used witchcraft to keep their mouths shut, and she claims that they are witches, so of course they cannot pray.  After a moment of ecstatic lucidity, where he claims that he sees Jesus, Caleb dies.

Thomasin angrily confronts William over his many misdeeds, but insists that she is not the witch.  He can't decide, so he locks her and the twins in the goat house. 

During the night, things go wrong.  Mom gets a vision of her two dead sons, and ends up nursing a crow.  Black Peter head-butts William, knocking him into his two-story tall pile of logs and killing him.  Then the ram kills the twins.

Mom concludes that Thomasin is responsible for the murders, and attacks; Thomasin must kill her in self-defense.  

Sh asks Black Peter to speak to her. He asks: "Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?"

Yeah, that sounds cool.

Taking the form of a man (Daniel Malik), he asks her to write her name in a book, then leads her into the forest, where she joins a coven of witches in their ecstatic gyrating around a fire.  They all start to levitate.

Several reviews have found queer codes in the outsiders lurking in the woods, the Others who threaten the heterosexual nuclear family, when someone inside the family may be one of them as well.

The witches are evil, of course, murdering people either tu use in spells or to please Black Peter; but they also provide a queer space.  Black Phillip offers Thomasin the opportunity to "don't dream it, be it," to embrace her lesbian identity.

More after the break

Ibrahim Eloouhabi: The "I Killed a Kid" kid tells us his pronouns, models some Liberace outfits. Is that enough? With n*de Costner and Moroccan dudes

 

Link to the n*de dudes

I felt like I should profile one of the actors from In the Hand of Dante, to get something of value from it (other than picking up my bilingual edition of The Inferno again).  So  I checked the actors who played teenage Dante, the murdered Bartender, the guy who killed his father, the boy with the big knife (who was killed), and Mephistopheles, but none of them were suitable.  How about the boy who tells his uncle, "I just killed a kid"?  It's not clear in the movie (nothing is), but he grows up to be focus character Nick (Oscar Isaacs, below).

Ibrahim Elouahabi gives his pronouns (he/his), and speaks Arabic.  That's enough for a profile. 

Not just Arabic.  He also speaks Turkish and Darija (Moroccan Arabic) and he is studying French. 

N*de Moroccan guy on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends

Darija is not intelligible with Modern Standard Arabic: it has reduced the number of vowels, adapted its grammar to Tamazight (Berber), and borrowed much of its vocabulary from French: forshita (fork), tabla (table), boulis (police).

Ibrahim's family is from Morocco, but he was born "on the vibrant streets of Brooklyn," according to his hyperbolic IMDB bio.  He began his career in 2019, as a fashion model for Zara, Nike, and Macy's.  Soon he was performing in commercials for Brawny paper towels, Magic Spoon (upscale cereal), and Marriot Vacation Club.

His on-screen performances begin with two shorts, The Prescription (2020), no description available, and Roque (2022), about Salvadorean poet Roque Dalton.  Ibrahim plays Roque as a boy, and Jaden McKnew (left) as an adult.

Next came a small role in Audrey's Children (2024), a biopic of Dr. Audrey Evans, who developed "revolutionary treatments" for sick children.

In Ebenezer the Traveler (2024), the ghosts of Scrooge, his sister, Jacob Marley, and a grown-up Tiny Tim are assigned to help an aspiring singer in modern-day Oklahoma.  I think Ibrahim plays her son.

More after the break