It Gets Better

I confess. I've never watched any of these It Gets Better videos. Of course, I support the campaign, but I'm not the intended audience, and the whole confessional video thing isn't really my bag. That said, this clip above intrigued me, labeled as it is: "Muslim Gay Teen." This kid is just a kid. Let's state that from the outset. He still has that adolescent need to validate his own being by favorably interpreting doctrinaire religious beliefs. I mean, let's calm down, kid. The problem maybe isn't a willful misinterpretation of Shariah.  The problem might be Shariah, and that's okay. A religion formed in the 7th Century, that hasn't had the modernizing effects of a Reformation Period, propagated in some of the poorest countries in the world, the vast majority of which are former colonial states, well maybe that's the kind of setting in which retrograde, non-humanist ideas take hold. But let's put that aside. This kid is great. He is like the anti-John Boehner. If I could nominate someone to kick John Boehner in the face for being a cry baby piece of shit leathery fuckface, I would nominate this kid.

my brushes with fame

SO...big week for me here in new york, aside from being mauled at work.

anyway, i happened to see oprah-hating jonathan franzen at a book party the other night. which was featured on gawker, no less. i was gonna ask him about spring awakening, but his giant head (tucked away in a corner) intimidated me.

but the WAY more important news is that i went to see genesis last night- in new jersey, no less. hell yes, people. we had bad hair, bad denim and seriously bad dancing. i mean, c'mon, you really just can't dance to "invisible touch" no matter how many pyrotechnical feats are involved (and in case you were wondering, there definitely were pyrotechnics).

before i say anything more about the concert, i just want to assure people that i didn't start liking genesis out of some homage to bret easton ellis. no, i was just a really fucking cheesy kid. "hold on my heart" (which phil performed, seated, and even ridiculed himself thereafter for the song's sentimentality) and most of phil solo (e.g. "separate lives" or "one more night") really spoke to me as a 10 or 11-year-old. i know, i can't explain it either.

my love only deepened when i saw their behind the music. the departure of peter gabriel, the class differences between prep school preppies banks & rutherford vs. hoi polloi collins (which was underscored last night by the prep boys' smart blazers and collins's member's only jacket), collins's melodramatic separation from his first wife, etc. really great stuff.

so about the concert...yeah sure, they looked pretty old, although i loved tony banks. not fazed by anything, this guy. it was as if he put down the ny times crossword puzzle to rock out on the synth. while phil collins was going "crazy" in a very choreographed fashion with the tambourine, banks just played on, unperturbed. i mean, just look at that mug. you can trust your life to that guy.

i was pretty sad they didn't play "don't lose my number", "misunderstanding" or "illegal alien" among their many great hits, but you can check out here what the tour setlist is. what the setlist doesn't tell you is that there was a 15 minute drum solo between phil and that other drummer. so i guess a drum duo?