Posts from — July 2009

I used to be in a mixtape club with my friends. We had lots of esoteric rules and lots of weird themes. My breakup mixtape, however, is the best mixtape I’ve ever made. And that was before the club. What’s funny is that the breakup wasn’t even for a serious relationship. My mixtape for my biggest breakup isn’t that good. This mixtape started in November 2007, and I’ve been editing it up until now. So here is my quasi-finished product. It is in three sides, each 35 minutes long. Sides 1 and 2 are about the initial shock of the breakup, and side 3 is about the long-term: getting over the person, getting into a new relationship, and watching that one crumble.

Here’s the list:

Side 1:
Black Like Me—Spoon
Star Of Wonder—Sufjan Stevens
My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion—The Flaming Lips
Norwegian Wood—The Beatles
Something About Us—Daft Punk
Whistle For The Choir—The Fratellis
A Minor Incident—Badly Drawn Boy
Nothing Better (Styrofoam Remix)—The Postal Service, Remix by Styrofoam
If You Fall—Azure Ray

Side 2:
I’m a Cuckoo—Belle & Sebastian
Ragas In Minor Scale—Ravi Shankar & Philip Glass
Wouldn’t It Be Nice—The Beach Boys
Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)—Billy Joel
Guilty—Amelie: Original Soundtrack Recording
Dearly Departed—DeVotchKa
Brian Boru’s March—Ceol Cridhe

Side 3:
Viz—Le Tigre
Lonely Holiday—Old 97′s
I Don’t Even Know Myself—The Who (Who’s Next Remastered)
Charu’s Theme” From Satyajit Ray’s Film Charulata—Satyajit Ray
Here Comes the Sun—The Beatles
I wanna be your Boyfriend—The Ramones
Ec-Stacy—Jess Stacy
Take On Me—The Shins
Our Love Was—Petra Haden, covering the Who
Blessing in Disguise—DeVotchKa

Each side I have mixed together, with cross fades and some trimming of the music. I have provided the files below for you to download:

Side 1
Side 2
Side 3

I shall preface this review with a caveat: I went into Brüno expecting to dislike it, and very likely formed my opinion before actually seeing the film.

I was dining with a friend a few weeks before Brüno debuted, when he said something along the lines of “can you believe what those gay activists are complaining about with Brüno?” I asked him to elaborate; he said that they did not understand that it was a satire. It appeared that, no matter what protestation I presented, his opinion of their opinion was unswayable; he could simply not understand why on earth someone could be offended by a negative portrayal of them, even if it was satirical in nature. Here are but a few of my defenses, conceived after viewing the movie, for my point of view:

In the beginning scenes of the movie, Brüno and his partner are shown having sex. They are both in full-body jumpsuits with zippers to reveal selective parts of the body. Their sex is depicted as wild—involving slingshots, anal insertion of champagne bottles, and an exercise machine rigged to operate a dildo. None of this is played against any bigots, there is no revelation of Americans’ prejudice here, except perhaps with the audience. The entire time the theatre was a chorus of laughter. Not only does the film present gay sexual behavior as deviant and eccentric, but it plays it off for laughter. (An aside—the screen is filled with a penis later on in the film. Once again, there was a chorus of laughter, which began before the ‘penis dance’ began. Why can an audience not take a penis seriously?)

A couple of scenes in the movie deal with Brüno adopting a child, and having his child be forcefully taken away by the state after he is shown to be an unfit parent. The kid is taken into custody to a chorus of cheers while Brüno tears at the security officers holding him back. This is perhaps the most disturbing part of the movie. This scene, like the rest of the movie, was played off for laughs. This is, however, an incredibly serious and very unfunny issue. The state in which I live, and have been for my entire life a citizen, currently forbids adoption by same-sex couples. If my boyfriend and I were to decided that we wanted to start a family, we would be unable to. Furthermore, if my partner had a child, and he were to pass away, I could not care for this child. I would be in the same situation as Brüno—my adopted child would be forcefully taken away from me. Hilarious, right?

The same applies to the marriage scene at the end of the film—Brüno’s partner dresses as a woman to attempt a marriage. This of course fails, to the raucous laughter of the audience. Again, someone please tell me what is hilarious about being stripped of one’s right by a vote of one’s peers.

Furthermore, the character of Brüno encapsulates a completely irreverent picture of gay men. I fully understand that the character is a parody of gay fashionistas. The problem is that I do not see this undoing any stereotypes. The Alabaman hunters, for instance, have only had their prejudices against gays reinforced by his actions toward them, and his behavior during the ex-gay church scenes completely passes over how psychologically damaging such programs can be. I can easily imagine being a closeted high school student basing some of my ideas on what a gay man should be on Brüno, and forming an identity based on a complete stereotype. I was once told that I was “an insult to homosexuality” because of how un-gay my behavior was. I was peer pressured into acting gayer. In addition, I can just as easily imagine a somewhat feminine but otherwise self-actualized high school student who has had the courage to come out be taunted by bigoted class mates for whatever traits he might have in common with Brüno.

In closing to my disjointed review, I simply wish to say this:
For those who say that I have been too easily offended, I want you to imagine that, instead of pretending to be gay, Sacha Baron Cohen had instead donned blackface and highlighted continuing racial tensions in America while attempting to play off the discrimination encountered by African-Americans for laughs.

This past April, I was diagnosed with Infectious Mononucleosis. And let me tell you, it’s no fun. Unfortunately, my case of mono was incredibly bad, and I developed hepatitis (hepatitis means inflammation of the liver; I do not have one of the life-long diseases like A, B, or C). This was an incredibly painful event for me—my liver stopped producing bile, and I could not digest food. When I ate, I would vomit the food up, 15 hours later, completely undigested. My urine was dark, dark yellow. My skin itched everywhere. My stomach swelled up and was painful in any position. I lost 12 pounds in one week. And all of this was during finals; I took them, but blacked out during one, and had to go to the student health center to get on an IV.

During all of this, I was seeing my doctor at the health center once a week, and getting blood tests all of the time. This wasn’t a choice for me—they were necessary to monitor the condition of my liver and to see if hospitalization would be required. I lost count, although I think I got up to 8 or 9 different blood tests.

The health center was wonderful for this throughout my entire sickness—the staff was kind, my doctor was kind, and, best of all, my student health fee paid for all of it. Right?

Not exactly. My student health fee paid for the visits. Here’s what it didn’t pay for:

All of that was billed to my insurance. As I am a college student with demonstrably good grades and full-time enrollment, I am still on my parents’ insurance plan. However, all of my health fees were either part of my deductible or were, for reasons I do not understand, flat-out denied. The charges were returned to the health center, who, in turn, placed a more than $500 charge to my student account. If that goes unpaid past the end of July, I get a financial hold placed on my student account that prevents me from doing any business with the University until my fees are paid.

I’m lucky. I don’t have $500, but I have parents who can help. And even if they don’t help me, that money can conceivably come out of my scholarship this August. But what if I weren’t so lucky? What if I didn’t have $500, I didn’t have parents who could help, and I didn’t have a big scholarship? And what if I were maxed-out on loans and scraping to pull by as is? This could seemingly terminate my career as a student.

I did not abuse the health center—I didn’t ask for mono (and have no idea how I got it), and I certainly didn’t seek out hepatitis. There were points in my sickness when I honestly feared dying. I did what I could, and got healthy again. But my charges caught up with me in a way that could end up with me not being able to register for classes or reap any benefit from my education.

This whole incident has me outraged. I have never understood the idea of a copay—don’t we already pay insurance so we don’t have to pay at the doctor? Isn’t the idea of insurance to insure that we will be safe during time of sickness? A conservative once explained to me that the copay was to make sure that you don’t abuse your insurance, and that it is highly desirable for people as young as me, because we hardly ever have health issues, and a high copay with limited care is the most cost-effective option for me.

Well, I sure as hell can’t pay my charge. And what’s even more ironic is that the disease that could very well end up derailing my educational career I almost certainly caught in my residence hall. It’s time to fix the system.