"Sun...Sex...Sin", Part II

[scienceguy]

FADE IN: (You want more Triumph from the Conan show? OK, here he is, cigar and all, responding
to a snub by the Golden Collar Awards.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4l8jp2e_iM

Simon Amstell's embarrassing moment on Never Mind The Buzzcocks - BBC Two

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk7-ShK156U

Eric Forman gets the keys to the Vista Cruiser, but with a First Stoner Circle Hangover:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz7ElOc6uLQ

This will serve as a reminder that Part I should be read first and that the advisement in red thereto
applies to Part II, even more so, as the content in this part delves more deeply, more incisively, more
personally, and more physically into the twin subjects of this post: sex and sin.

So, if you're sure you want to climb aboard, let's go!

3. Enter the opportunists. Sex is a commodity to be bought and sold. Is that a sin? In 1969, it seems
like Joe Buck (Jon Voight) and Enrico Salvatore 'Ratso' Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) ("You know, with
proper management, you could be takin' home fifty, maybe a hundred dollars a day, easy.") didn't
think so. When John Schlesinger brought "Midnight Cowboy" to the silver screen, my colleagues
were horrified, especially the women; I was delighted and not just for the show's popular song you'll
hear on this clip ("Midnight Cowboy" - Harry Nilsson- "Everybody's Talkin"):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zHVFXorF38

The 'madcap Prince Hal' is "... the standard term used in literary criticism to refer to Shakespeare's
portrayal of the young Henry V of England as a prince before his accession to the throne, taken from
the diminutive form of his name used in the plays almost exclusively by Falstaff. Henry is called
"Prince Hal" in critical commentary on his character in Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2.
Hal is portrayed as a wayward youth who enjoys the society of petty criminals and wastrels, a
depiction which draws on exaggerations of the historical Prince Henry's supposed youthful
behaviour." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Hal

The movie "My Own Private Idaho" has been likened to the Henry V plays. Gus Van Sant, who,
after showing the potentially career-ending script to Keanu Reeves (Scott Favor, a junkie rent-boy)
and River Phoenix (narcoleptic Michael Waters), finally distributed the film in 1991. IMDb describes
the film in the following way: "Two best friends living on the streets of Portland as hustlers embark
on a journey of self discovery and find their relationship stumbling along the way."

Pointedly, the film asks if having sex for money precludes having sex as an expression of love, in
particular between two boys. The trailer provides a first glimpse into the lives of Scott and Mike on
the streets of Portland:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQbq2kl-P-4

In this adaptation scene, two young men, not Keanu or River, begin to wrestle with the question
posed above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GePgCmwp3A

And the question is finally answered in the 'Campfire Scene' between Scott and Mike. That and a
particularly beautiful clip serving this purpose I am reluctant to post in this forum. However, the
following, rather gritty, clip will still give you a good idea of how it went.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zydG6RuIhVY

Two views of the film: scholarly, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Own_Private_Idaho ; and one that makes sense to the LGBTQ community,
https://www.theringer.com/2016/9/29/160 ... 20b847ed1f


Neil Tennant himself has this to say about "Rent" (songwriters Tennant/Lowe, first released in 1987
on the album Actually):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lZtw_usldg

I heard this clip a few times for sound checks, but I see I wasn't really listening to it, particularly
when Neil comments about the hard and soft. I think now I can see why scienceguy, as Tractor Boy,
experienced the response reported (see "These Magic Moments, Part II", "One More Chance"). The
dissection makes more sense to me now, and it should to returning readers.

A "rent-boy" is a "rent-boy", no matter what the sexual orientation or persuasion might be. Wayne
Suder, meanwhile, has said this: "Commonly viewed as a narrative by a "rent boy" (British slang for a
male prostitute), Neil has directly denied this interpretation, stating that he wrote the lyrics from a
female viewpoint. Whatever the case, the lyrics focus on the narrator's mixed feelings about being
"kept" by the person with whom s/he is in love. Alternatingly mercenary and tender, the song invites
the listener to share these mixed feelings, blurring the moral lines between sexual and financial
arrangements." http://www.geowayne.com/newDesign/actually/rent.htm

"And look at the two of us in sympathy
with everything we see
I never want anything, it's easy
you buy whatever I need
But look at my hopes, look at my dreams
the currency we've spent
I love you, you pay my rent
I love you, you pay my rent"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS9pBUllg6E

4. FADE IN: ("The Blue Lagoon", theatrically released on June 20, 1980 by Columbia Pictures, is
one of the first pictures to receive an R rating for explicit sex scenes. Stars Brooke Shields and
Christopher Atkins in what is loosely described as "two children ... shipwrecked on a tropical island
in the South Pacific. With no adults to guide them, the two make a simple life together, unaware that
sexual maturity will eventually intervene." (The Awakening ~ Love u better)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMMW-FvCcEM

So, the Yanks have this thing about the pursuit of happiness and how it should pertain to every man
and woman, and in the film clips and songs that follow, we're going to see how that idea plays out in
the context of sex and sin, or, in my view, how sometimes it just feels good to be bad.

First, then, we have the anti-Visconti in Italian director Luca Guadagnino's "Call Me By Your
Name" (2017), starring Armie Hammer as Oliver and Timothée Chalamet as Elio. Where Visconti
steps back from the brink, Guadagnino goes in for the kill: desire, seduction and full-on physicality. A
synopsis of the story goes as follows:

"CALL ME BY YOUR NAME [and I'll call you by mine], the new film by Luca Guadagnino, is a
sensual and transcendent tale of first love, based on the acclaimed novel by André Aciman. It's the
summer of 1983 in the north of Italy, and Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet), a precocious 17-year-
old [Jewish] American-Italian boy, spends his days in his family's 17th century villa transcribing and
playing classical music, and flirting with his friend Marzia (Esther Garrel). One day, Oliver (Armie
Hammer), a charming [Jewish] American scholar working on his doctorate, arrives as the annual
summer intern tasked with helping Elio's father. Amid the sun-drenched splendor of the setting, Elio
and Oliver discover the heady beauty of awakening desire over the course of a summer that will alter
their lives forever." https://filmjabber.com/movie-synopsis/c ... -name.html

In these three short clips, we can follow the course of that summer and understand how Elio's
deepest happiness depends on his ever-growing infatuation and then love for Oliver. He's seventeen
and testing the waters of coming out. In this first clip, "You Know What Things", Elio's desires are
revealed, but so is Oliver's reluctance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ynv-EC8O0AI

At first I chose a clip that, shall we say, was self-serving. But it proved to be explicit in ways that
probably do not honor the promise of omnisexuality. Still, the clip that follows gets the job done in a
beautiful way that is narrated in retrospect and tells you all you need to know, as Elio manages to
seduce Oliver, and the two slip precipitously from infatuation into a dangerous, irreversible love
affair, but this is what the pursuit of happiness looks, sounds, and feels like to a boy who turns the
corner from which there is no return:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2qOGMPeJYg

This Elio and Oliver Goodbye Scene shows how the truncated love affair affects Elio, and it is hard
no watch, no matter your persuasion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooz9t4XHVd0

IMDb describes "The Summer of 42" (1971, directed by Robert Mulligan and starring Jennifer
O'Neill (Dorothy), Gary Grimes (Hermie), and Jerry Houser) this way: "During his summer vacation
on Nantucket Island in 1942, a youth eagerly awaiting his first sexual encounter finds himself
developing an innocent love for a young woman awaiting news on her soldier husband's fate in
WWII." Will 15-year-old Hermie survive his brush with the sweet fruits of life? You decide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSyY_nGpd90

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXFp884q2y0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRM7QO2xE6A

When I listen to "The Sodom and Gomorrah Show" (Songwriters Tennant/Lowe, introduced in the
2006 Fundamental album), I feel unchained, liberated, unshackled, and I view this as a celebration.
Again, citing Wayne Studer, "Neil has also acknowledged that this song could very easily be
interpreted as a metaphor for "coming out," but he points out that it has much broader implications.
'People of any sexual orientation can try to shield themselves from the world or expose themselves to
its "sun, sex, sin, divine intervention, death, and destruction." It would be extremely unfortunate if
listeners were to zero in on the "Sodom" reference and think that this is purely a "gay" song.''' Going
further with his own interpretation, Studer says, "...you have to be brave and take chances if you're
to get the most out of life. A cloistered life of innocence is hardly life at all. It's in the fullness of life
that one finds the meaning of life—which is, in the words of the song, a 'once-in-a-lifetime
production.'" Here I would agree, but "coming out" is, like it or not, a condition precedent for
"fullness." http://www.geowayne.com/newDesign/fundamental/sodom.htm

As a listener, I'm going to preserve and enjoy my own feelings toward this song, as we listen to it
again from the 2014 Mexico City Cubism tour (see my post "Ingenuity of Cubes", this forum), and it
is worth noting that the clash between soft and hard brings a powerful dynamic right from the very
beginning:

"I think it's true to say
my life was changed that night
In the liberated
atmosphere
all around me
Someone found me
whispered in my ear

'Are you gonna go
to the Sodom and Gomorrah Show?
It's got everything you need for your complete
entertainment and instruction
Sun, sex, sin, divine intervention,
death and destruction
The Sodom and Gomorrah show
is a once-in-a-lifetime production"'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6cL8KrIx18

Song artist Olly Alexander (Years & Years) spoke to Songfacts about "Sanctify" from the 2018
album Palo Santo. "This dark synth pop ballad is the first track to be released from Years & Years'
second album. It finds lead singer Olly Alexander encouraging another man to give in to his most
sinful desires. Alexander feels both guilty and good about hooking up with a straight man.

"So don't break (break)
Sanctify my body with pain (pain)
Sanctify the love that you crave (crave)
Oh, and I won't, and I won't, and I won't be ashamed"

He explained to Nylon:

'There's so much that goes on in an experience like that. On the one hand, the guy is struggling with
his sexuality and feeling unable to express himself as anything other than straight while also desiring
me. I'm on the other side feeling like both a sinner and saint or a devil and angel, leading this guy
down a path of 'sinfulness' while, at the same time, helping him explore his sexuality.' "Sanctify"
characterises gay sex as a sacred act. 'I was always aware that, in the bible, homosexuality was
viewed as sinful and that's always stayed with me,' Olly Alexander told the BBC. 'But I really love
religious iconography and religious language because it's so powerful and so evocative... so now I
love to play around with that and subvert it."'

"You don't have to be straight with me
I see what's underneath your mask
I'm a man like you, I breathe the rituals of the dancer's dance
Oh, oh

And there's fire in you
And you know it's gonna hurt, being cut in two
And afraid..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37lXjnflt9M

DOUBLE FADE OUT: Both song artists confront sex and sin in different, but still comfortably
equal, ways.

"It's a Sin" (Neil Tennant; LIVE@EXIT Festival 2014)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkaP3XwQqrY

(Madonna, "Girl Gone Wild" (MDNA album 2012), but here on the Live MDNA Tour; "Girls, they
just wanna have some fun/Get fired up like a smokin' gun")

"Oh, my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee
And I detest all my sins
Because I dread the loss of heaven, and the pains of hell
But most of all because I love Thee,
And I want so badly to be good

It's so hypnotic
The way he pulls on me
It's like the force of gravity
Right up under my feet
It's so erotic
This feeling can't be beat
It's coursing through my whole body
Feel the heat"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua7L0g2SBuE

[Den]

YES!

[y3potential]

Oh f*ck. This annoying fruit loop is back and clearly ignoring polite requests to cease with these utterly nonsensical posts. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE... STOP..!!!! I'm no expert but it seems you may need some kind of professional help. I respectfully suggest you seek that help, sooner rather than later...

[PopKid78]

Well with the last one being part one, we can’t say we wasn’t warned that part two was coming!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[daveid]

Rimmer-and-Mr-Flibble-red-dwarf-922967_717_426.jpg

Well, we know what to get you for Christmas - a double lobotomy and ten sheets of rubber wallpaper.

[leesmapman]

Finally, I was waiting for part 2

[Patrick Bateman]

FADE IN:
"Fingermouse, Fingermouse
The never stop to think a mouse
The always on the brink a mouse
Fingermouse, that's me
I am the mouse called Fingermouse
The mouse with guts and verve
I get past cats so easily with my famous body swerve
Fingermouse, Fingermouse
I'm a sort of wonder mouse
A hit, a miss, a blunder mouse
Fingermouse, that's me"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sBCJ7KQ7I0

[Bulldog]

Enough's enough... God bless foes option.

[le petit corbusier]

I think this is Neil, actually.

[Marie loves PSB]

I think this is Neil, actually.

This would not surprise me Le Petit Corbusier!