This song makes me feel happy. This movie made me feel a little dirty --- and a little sad, too.

I came across this clip on Youtube a couple weeks ago and it inspired me to put "Shortbus" on my Netflix queue for a re-watch.

This was that "I can't believe they showed it in Hamilton County movie" with all the real sex acts. They aimed for a notoriety and lived up to the reputation. Every sort of polymorphous perversity, god love it, is thrown up there on the screen. They get enough out and up on the screen in the beginning to give you a good shock so you can then settle into it.

Anyhow, the first time I watched "Shortbus" I wound up touched by it -and no, I don't mean in a fondle-y way. There are parts that are glaringly, self-consciously... amateur. The characters are people with some fairly self-absorbed problems, and then you get to see fluids.

But, in the end, the story is about connection to others. For all the awkward parts, there are others that make you catch your breath.

I was going to snark and be all "They're trying to talk about isolation through explicit contact and it's all well-intentioned art" but in the rewatching something hit me.

It starts with the "oh look, nudity and penetration, isn't that smart?" It moves to "oh lord, could they be more actor-y and contrived?" There's also a big scoop of "Gee, I wanna go to that party."

But, by the end, you're rather engaged. You wind up happy one character learns to let love in, both literally and metaphorically, and you're rooting for another to find her damn orgasm already. That said, what I realized is that the more you relate to it, the more you see parts of yourself in it. You have to say you can find it difficult to connect with others, or let them in - metaphorically or otherwise.

You can see that it's a piece that uses the explicitness of the physical connections as the bait-and-switch to get you thinking about the emotional ones. They show you the orgy to say you can be alone, unconnected (unknown), and lost in a city of millions all packed in together like sardines. It's universal, and a "False Epiphany," but you can get suckered in and say "hey, that's me."

That's a hard thing to fess up to. It surprised me to let that one sink in for a little bit. I'm choosing to think that if you click with "Shortbus," maybe it means that, sure, you're a little lonely; and you still have hope.

I think it's message is just really about how hard it is to connect with other people and that's why I so enjoy this final song in the film. It struck me as one of the best uses I have ever seen of a movie using a song to really sum up what the "feeling" of it is -- and "Shortbus" is a film with brilliant music choices. It's one of the few where the moment I saw it I filed away in my mental to-do list "Get Soundtrack. ASAP"

The moment is quiet- everyone is in one way or another spent - and the city finally has the blackout that threatens to break on occasion throughout the whole film. So it's dark, there's no distractions of civilization, and the song so calm it's practically be a funeral dirge... and then they turn it into a Souza march and a happy ending... literally and metaphorically.

If you've never seen the movie, watch it. You may be offended, but you probably won't be sorry... if you relate to it.

Again with the "Better Late Than Nevers"

Dance with me, originally uploaded by JayKulpa.

I just put up my pictures from the 2007 Northside 4th of July parade over at The Jayboy Mansion. As I just captioned 252 pictures with cute titles, the least you can do is go look at it!

Better Late than Never

Fire Dancing 21, originally uploaded by JayKulpa.

My July 3rd Northside party in Hoffner Park photos are up at The Jayboy Mansion. My digital camera made it possible to get some really amazing photos of blurs and sworls of fire. Check 'em out.

"I thought hell is bound to be a livlier place."

Gore Vidal just had a new collection of his essays come out. I've always been a fan of his as he usually winds up being proved right on issues of social mores and honest, if not a bit paranoid, on observing that America is truly an "Empire." He comes out against war, hypocrisy, and illiteracy with a stylish turn of phrase and I've always been a sucker for it. Yes, he can be a complete gasbag at times, too, but still more magnetic and informative to listen to than 99% of the talking heads you'll see on television offering opinions on the same subjects.

Check out this feisty interview (he's really rude to the reporter, frankly) where he mocks reviewers of his novels ("That's because they don't know how to read"), John McCain ("Who started this rumor that he was a war hero?"), and William F. Buckley ("I thought hell is bound to be a livelier place."). Okay, the novel observations I'll give them. I've only read 4 or 5 of them, including the under-appreciated "Myron," with the wonderful (albeit childish) conceit of replacing all the swear words with the names of Supreme Court justices to protest a ruling on obscenity that had come down around the time he was writing it. I'm not sure he's ever turned out a classic novel besides "Myra Breckenridge," but I plan to read more of them before I come to a decision. The essays, however, are classics. Pick up the new collection or go ahead and dive into the giant "United States" collection (which collected about 1/3rd of all essays he'd published between '42 to '92 in about 1300 pages). I've read probably 6 or 7 collections of his essays and still slowly chip my way through "United States." Always entertaining and informative. He's worth a read.

Beyond Gratuitous

I always come late to the party, and this joke is easily a year old if not more, but HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE THIS? I really think it needs to be on a t-shirt...