Leonard Berstein, Aaron the Rabbi's Son, and a poem about masks on the verge of coming out

  

Link to the n*de photos

Sorry for two autobiographical stories in a row, but I'm trying to build up my Fiction/Travel Index, and there aren't many tv programs around in the summertime to review.

When I was a kid, my church had no problem with classical music, but my parents hated "that longhair stuff," so there was none in the house.  My first exposure to Bach, Berlioz, Beethoven, and Mozart came through a series of Young People's Concerts (1958-72) which appeared occasionally on Sunday afternoons, hosted by famous composer Leonard Bernstein.

Later, when I joined the school orchestra, I learned more about Leonard Bernstein.

I saw his gay symbolism-heavy musicals, On the Town (1949), starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, and West Side Story (1961), starring gay actor George Chakiris and assorted high-stepping hunks.

And his Symphony #3, Kaddish, named after the Jewish prayer for the dead.

He appeared on tv, conducting Gershwin in 1974, Mahler in 1975, and Beethoven in 1982.

No one ever mentioned that he was gay.  His works revealed nothing, except maybe the Serenade for Solo Violin, Strings, Harp, and Percussion, after Plato's Symposium (1954).  The Symposium contains Plato's famous defense of same-sex love.

In the spring of my senior year, Aaron, the rabbi's son who was gay (but didn't know it yet), invited me to a performance of Bernstein's Mass, a musical theater piece based on the Latin Mass.  

"Wait -- isn't Bernstein Jewish?"

He nodded.  "That's what makes it interesting."

Nazarenes weren't supposed to associate with Catholics, or have anything to do with Catholic music, so of course I wanted to go.

There are three acts.

Act 1: Devotion and Celebration.  The celebrant invites the congregants to worship.  They begin authentically, but then doubt creeps in.  Nazarenes were told that it was a sin to doubt the existence of God, the inerrancy of the Bible, or the fundamental beliefs like the Virgin Birth: the Devil's primary temptation was not to do bad things, but to doubt. But here it is celebrated as part of the worship experience.  How can God be with us when there is so much suffering in the world?

Originally the congregants mentioned war, but in more recent versions, they mention racism and homophobia.

Act 2:  Crisis and Collapse: The anxieties and doubts of the congregants take their toll on the celebrant, who has a spiritual collapse, breaks the sacred objects, and screams in rage against God.

What  I say -- I don't feel.
What I feel -- I can't show.
What I show -- isn't real.
What is real?  Oh Lord, I don't know.

Suddenly I realized that he was mirroring the interrogation that I received constantly from parents, friends, teachers, my brother, the preacher at church,  "What girl do you like?  What girl?  What girl?  What girl?" 

Every boy has discovered girls at your age.  Every boy has experienced True Love, that fills "the hearts of boy and girl with mutual flame."  If you haven't, you must pretend.  Smile, grin, flirt, talk about how much you long for feminine smiles, every day, every hour, for the rest of your life.

In the third act, Resolution, a boy emerges from the congregation and sings "I will lift up my eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help," offering hope in the midst of despair.  The celebrant is restored, and the Mass continues.

But I wasn't paying attention.

More after the break

Akuma Kun: The Chosen One and his half-demon sidekick roam a soggy, decaying world. Are they boyfriends, buddies, or too-soon-to-tell?

 

Akuma Kun (2023), on Netflix, drew my interest because of its excellent animation, all soggy, decaying opulence, and because of it's blatant buddy bond between paranormal investigators.  Most of the anime we see on streaming services expect you to have known and loved the characters throughout your life, after buying the hundreds of manga, video games, comic strips, and tie-in toys and going to fan conventions to meet the stars of the live-action movies, but I'm going in fresh, with no research.  Episode 1.1: "Demons."

Scene 1:  A shabby office full of old furniture, books, papers, and weird bricabrac.  A big-headed boy named Mephisto complains that a lanky, gray-haired boy summoned him to deal with a toilet clog, and then ate all of his ramen! 

"It would have gotten soggy just sitting there, so I ate it," the boy responds, his nose stuck in a book. 

"If you want me to come over, why don't you call me on the telephone instead using a summoniing spell?"

"You come faster this way."

"But I'm half human, half demon, so I never cross over properly."  So Mephisto has been roped into becoming the Boy's servant, like a genie in a bottle?

 

The Boy is named Ichiro Umoregi, and titled Akuma Kun.  Akuma is translated "Demon," but it refers to any type of supernatural being, and Kun is a diminuitive used for close friends and little boys, so "Little Demon."  He is actually an adult -- everyone in this anime is drawn as a child.  He is voiced by Yuki Kaji, top photo in Japanese, Michael Johnston, left, in English, and Aidan Vallejo, below, in Spanish.  Both Michael and Aidan are gay.

Scene 2: Night.  A young college student walks down a dark, deserted street.  Suddenly a shadowy monster with glowing red eyes attacks!

Cut to a young woman named Hina walking toward the Millenarianism Research Institute.  So a cult?  Up a flight of wooden stairs to a courtyard with scary, ornate doors beyond.   She enters a drawing room cluttered with creeoy skeletons and skull candleholders. Mephisto enters from the kitchen, exclaims "We have a client!  We can pay the rent!", and changes into a purple suit with a top hat and magician's cane. 

So they live together?  Then why does the Boy need to summon Mephisto?

Hina's case:  Two of her college classmates died two nights ago, at exactly 2:23 am.  And she discovered that three other people in the Kamichoufu Sector also died at the same moment.  Also, she's been plagued by nightmares.

Scene 3: They arrive at Hina's house to conduct some research.  The Boy immediately goes to her bedroom, angering her mother: "You can't just barge into a lady's room!  It's rude!"  

"Is this how your partner usually behaves?" Hina asks.

"He is a once-in-10,000 years genius, but he's sort of lacking in social skills." I'd put him on the autism spectrum.  The English, French, and Spanish voice actors speak in a monotone.

Mom recovers from her shock and brings them tea, but the Boy demands hotcakes ( hottokēki), not pancakes (pankēki).  He needs the sugar to get his brain cells active.  "Ok...um...I'll make you some hotcakes, I guess."  Ok, a little research.  Hotcakes are thicker than Western pancakes, with a custard-like texture.

Scene 4: The Boy rates the hotcakes the 18th best that he's had.  We finally get his name: Ichiro Umoregi, also known as Akuma Kun.  

Mom is a professor of European history.  The Boy has read her book, Lives and Sins of Kings, and found her interpretation of the Medieval monarchy "banal."  Way to insult your hostess, kid.

Hina tells them that the murdered people were all college students, but some went to other universities, and one had just graduated.

While Mephisto tries to discuss payment with Hina, the Boy looks under the bed  and sees one of the red-eyed monsters.  No one else can see it.  He draws a mysterious Eye in the Pyramid on a scrap of paper and tells her to keep it close.  They'll be back tomorrow.

Scene 5: That night, while Hina is asleep, a red-eyed monster sneaks out from under the bed, but she holds up the Eye, and it vanishes.

Scene 6: Kamichoufou Odeon Cinema, a run-down theater near the Boy's office.  Hina tells him about the monster.  He suggests that someone is trying to keep them from investigating the case.

When he pinppoints the locations of the deaths on a map, it creates a pentagram.  So someone is trying to protect the person or thing in the center.  Hina recognizes the building: it's the home o fher friend Ichika. 

As they approach the house, Hina reveals that her friend didn't know any of the murder victims, except as faces in the cafeteria.  She belonged to a club with a "seedy" reputation. And she hasn't come to class in weeks.

The Boy suddenly decides not to go in. "Come by the Research Institute tomorrow."

That night the red-eyed monster appears again, but she has laminated the Eye and tied it to her wrist, so it can't attack. She doesn't even wake up.

More after the break

Dad throws away my Book of Cute Boys

Link to the photos of n*de dudes with books

I love books.  I love browsing through used bookstores, driving home from the mall with a Barnes and Noble bag beside me, checking my recommendations on Amazon.

And reading every night before turning out the light, unless I'm on a date.

Well, sometimes the guy I'm dating has a well-stocked bookcase that distracts me from the bedroom stuff.

I've been buying at least two books per week since college.  That adds up to nearly 5,000,  but actually I have only about 2,000.  Every time I move, I pare down my collection.

Where did this bibliomania start?  Maybe with my parents, who disapproved of books.  They were at best a waste of time, and more likely sinful.  The only way I could get away with reading was to claim that it was a school assignment (evidently my teachers assigned a lot of science fiction and fantasy novels).

Or maybe it's all due to a traumatic incident that happened when I was about four years old, when we were still living on Randolph Street in Garrett,  Indiana.

 I had a Little Golden Book  I couldn't read most of the words yet, but the front cover showed two boys hugging and waving.  So I called it my Book of Cute Boys.

I think it was a retelling of the Disney movie The Swiss Family Robinson (1960), starring James MacArthur (left) and Tommy Kirk. I would not see the movie or read the original novel for many years, but I could tell that it was about a family living in the jungle.

One day we were driving somewhere on a scary country road, and I was reading in the back seat (this was before car seats, or even seatbelts).  Dad yelled back, "Don't read in the car!"  

He was afraid that I would get carsick and throw up.  It happened once, but I was never allowed to read in the car again.

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