Milk - a lesson needing to be relearned...

incredible movie!

do not miss it or wait until DVD comes out.

there were people in the audience really reacting to it. i went with my friends at Yorktown AMC theatres in the heart of the western Chicago suburbs. the crowd was mostly straight, though i could tell who wasn't. people were crying during the movie and there were parts where the entire audience was silent.

you know how people rush even before the credits start in order to to get to their cars or get out before the mob? it didn't happen here. everyone just sat in silence for a good 3 minutes before someone got up. they may have actually either been reading the credits or were too stunned by what they had seen. remember i said that this was primarily a straight audience. i think (hope) some people may have had an eye-opening moment.

i was a little teary-eyed at the end, but i completely lost it at another part. i will not tell you what part unless you have seen the movie. i was numb when the scene happened and had a hard time dealing with it. it struck a very sensitive nerve, though it was not related to anything that had personally happened to me in the past.

Sean Penn is not to be believed. i've never been a big fan, but if you've ever seen live film of Harvey Milk, within 30 seconds of seeing him on screen Penn was Harvey Milk. he had his mannerisms and speech patterns. it's amazing what he can do with just his face. my friend, Sharon, goes to a lot of movies and she said that Penn's performance was one of the best she has ever seen.

everyone in the movie is fantastic. Josh Brolin should also be nominated for supporting actor, but i doubt he'll win. Heath Ledger will probably get a sympathy vote. Emile Hirsch was in it. Sean Penn directed him in the movie Wilderness. in an interview Hirsch said it was really weird acting with Penn after having been directed by him. he kept wanting Penn to give him direction, insight, etc. like he did in Wilderness. he had a hard time shifting gears, he said.

i can see why James Franco was incessantly talking about kissing Penn in all those TV interviews. they always have their tongues down each other's throats! i think Franco may have actually enjoyed it.

the movie also is a love story between Milk and his partner Scott (Franco) and is portrayed as one of the most normal relationships i've ever on screen. Sharon told me that her friend, Ann, with whom she sometimes works in Berkeley and visits often, was a close friend of Scott's until he died in the late 90's. Ann didn't know Harvey though. he had already been killed when either she moved out there or met Scott.

a comment: it's too bad that the Prop 8 people hadn't seen the movie before the Nov 4th election. it could have made a big, big difference in the way they handled the fight against Prop 8. it's almost as if, not only did they not listen to what a lot of national LGBTQ leaders were trying to help them, but that they didn't even pay attention to their own history in California with the Briggs' Prop 6 that Milk fought and won. of course, like i said, they really didn't listen to anyone because they thought they knew what they were doing.

when you see the movie, even though we are still in a fight, you can see how far we've come in the battle. the line that Harvey Milk used when he started talking to a crowd - "My name is Harvey Milk and I want to recruit you." is iconic. as he said on the defeat of the 1978 Briggs Inititiative, also known as Proposition 6:

...to the gay community all over this state, my message to you is, so far a lot of people joined us and rejected Proposition 6, and we owe them something. We owe them to continue the education campaign that took place. We must destroy the myths once and for all, shatter them. We must continue to speak out, and most importantly, most importantly, every gay person must come out. As difficult as it is you must tell your immediate family, you must tell your relatives, you must tell your friends, if indeed they are your friends, you must tell your neighbors, you must tell the people you work with, you must tell the people in the stores you shop in (thunderous applause), and once they realize that we are indeed their children, that we are indeed everywhere, every myth, every lie, every innuendo will be destroyed once and for all. And once you do, you will feel so much better.

when you know one of us, you know us all --- and yourself...

mike/

coming out of the bushes?

i'll be explaining this as this site develops. the idea for this blog has been brewing in the back of my head for awhile now. i wasn't quite sure what i wanted to do with the idea or how i wanted to proceed. i searched for a formulation of what it was that i wanted to convey by doing this blog.

there was a false start back in June, but i couldn't take it anywhere. i really wasn't certain how i wanted to proceed. i think maybe i have a working idea now.

originally, what happened to jump-start my idea was viewing a program on WTTW11, the public television station in Chicago, entitled Out and Proud in Chicago.

it left me kind of cold.

there was a lot of factual and historical information in the documentary. for example, the Jane Addams and Mary Rozet Smith story. The tale of Albert D. J. Cashier who fought in the Civil War from Illinois but was actually born Jennie Irene Hodgers, living as a man until she died. Tony Jackson an African-American gay composer and pianist who shaped the world of music by bridging the gap between ragtime and jazz. they are all relevant; they were all benefactors to the world; and they all made lasting contributions.

it took me weeks to figure out what exactly gave me the reaction i had to the program. believe me, i am not trying to belittle the producers, directors, contributors, sponsors, etc. in their endeavor. i would imagine they were working under constraints of time, funding, depth, etc. the program was a start, and probably served a lot of people, lgbtq & straight, a great history of the community. but, as a member of the community, it left me unsatisfied, as i indicated.

what i realized was missing [again, for me] was the spirit of the proud part in the title.

there was no real explanation as to from where that came; when the community became self-aware; how the facts presented translate into the feelings, emotions, and courage that abounds today; and why lgbtq is so vibrant in the city, if not in the country and world because of what was happening.

from where did all of this come? with whom should the onus lie? when did the shift actually happen from hiding in the bushes, to trimming them down, and to coming out of them? there were, of course, the movers and shakers mentioned and interviewed in the program. they set the tone.

however, who did the leg work? did they know they were doing it? how did the community develop? was there a plan? evolutionary or revolutionary?

i'm not an expert, but i lived through the times. i'm not all knowing, but i have stories that represent what was going on during part of the history. i'm a little cog in the gears. i searched for my own way out of the bushes.

how did i do that? i went in to the bushes.


the first thing is to explain coming out of the bushes rather than out of the closet.

a lot of people are familiar with Boystown in Chicago on Halsted Street between Belmont and Addison Avenues. it is/was the gay section in the city starting in the late 1970's early 1980's. the bushes was a bar on the street. actually, it was the second gay bar on the street, but only by a few weeks. unknown to each other, the bushes and Little Jim's opened their doors. Little Jim's is still there, but the bushes isn't. of course, today there are many lgbtq bars on Halsted. there have been others that came and went and some, like Soundtrack and Roscoe's, that have had staying power.

many guys took there first steps coming out on Halsted. i did. in the bushes. hence, why the blog and the explanation of my coming out of the bushes rather than the closet.

what i hope to do is tell some stories of which i was either part or was told; to reflect on some of the things that happened and how they affected me; and to also write about current LGBTQ experiences, news, issues, etc. and maybe try connect them with my observations and thoughts of how they may make a difference and how the past 30 years could have lead up to where we are today.

we'll see what happens. if you stay with me through this excursion, great. of course, first some people need to find this place and their own way out of the bushes...

mike/