July 22, Six Months On

22 Jan

I’ve been trying to write this for months now, and wanting to do so for even longer. But today – the sixth-month-anniversary of the horrific acts of July 22 – seemed like the right time. We all have our individual stories of what we did that dark day – and since I was not there but lost a great friend that day – my experiences pale in comparison to do those of survivors and relative of the people who were so brutally torn away from us. And still, the grief is always there, for ever and no matter our experiences. So what do say on a day like today? Continue reading →

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My Favorite Movies of 2011: Chasing Imperfection

21 Jan

Was 2011 a good year for movies? For me, there are to ways to answer this question. The short answer is I don’t know yet. As always, the expected Oscar contenders mostly have not premiered in Norway yet, and assuming that at least some of them (Hugo, maybe, or Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, or The Descendants) will be worth waiting for, the following list of favorite movies of 2011 should be considered little more than a working draft. The other side of that coin, however, is that 2011 gave me a more complete view of the glorious movie year that was 2010. If my 2011 list feels even more stale and safe than unusual it is probably due to the fact that it contains several great movies which premiered in the US a long time ago. It may also say something about a more meager harvest from the festival crop than in recent years. Continue reading →

Anderson Cooper Saves CNN From Itself

8 Jan

It’s been 2012 for a week already and this blog has roundup duties to take care of, but I just gott sneak this in before the Republican presidential freakshow exhibit moves on from New Hampshire and thus renders the results from Iowa even less significant: Is there a better reason to watch election night coverage than to see the elegant and sensible Anderson Cooper make fun of the inanity of his CNN colleagues’ so-called “analysis” (oh, the sanctimoniousness of self-described centrists!), and the network’s grating hangup on slick-looking but ultimately useless digital data-collection tools? Well, no. (Fortunately, Wolf Blitzer doesn’t invoke the phrase the best political team on television nearly as often as he did four years ago. Good on him, since the core of that team still is David Gergen, probably the dullest and most risk-averse pundit in the history of televised punditry.) Continue reading →

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Never Forget

25 Dec

I approach the end of 2011 with mixed feelings: On the one hand, I can’t wait for it to be over. It’s been a terrible year. I lost one of my best friends in the terror attacks in Oslo this July, and several of my friends are what the media now calls “survivors”. Even for someone like me, who didn’t experience the terror, only the loss and grief that came with it, these last five months have been tough to get through. Late in the year, I also had some health problems that tore my already shaky psychol0gical defenses down further. On the other hand, I’m almost afraid to let go of 2011. Continue reading →

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Early Gay Crushes: Adam Brody

16 Oct

It’s been a while since I’ve done this, but the last installment in this series was on Jesse Eisenberg around two years ago. Back then, I wrote about how my Eisenberg crush was as much based on my wish to be (like) him as was about a desire to be with him. It’s not like a would have turned him down or anything, but my attraction to him has always been at least as much about a sense of personal chemistry as physical attraction. From the first time I saw him on screen, in Dylan Kidd’s Roger Dodger (2003), I fond his neurotic cuteness and intelligence extremely appealing. In that sense, it’s only natural that he’s succeded on EGC by Adam Brody, who made a name for himself by possessing the same qualities. Continue reading →

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Logan Lerman Is Still Beautiful

18 Sep

For a while after the terrifying events of this summer, I’ve been struggling to write anything at all. I was unable to express precisely what I was feeling, apart from an immediate reaction of sadness, gratefulness and determination, but  it was more than that. If I couldn’t write about what had just happened, what could I write about? Everything that didn’t have to do with the terror attacks felt insignificant, and writing about something else felt almost improper. Now it’s been nearly two months, and while it still doesn’t go one day when I don’t think about and miss my friends, I wanted to see if I could try and write about something light and insignificant again. Continue reading →

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The Annual Re-Post

7 Aug

Traditionally, August 7 has been my gayest day of the year. It’s the day I celebrate my anniversary for coming out for the first time, to my father. I will honor the tradition on this my fifth gay anniversary, but I’m not feeling gay today, just incredibly sad. The aftermath of the terror attacks in Norway is just beginning to sink in, and the full consequences will not be clear until much later. It’s is with great sorrow and gratefulness for the inspiration he was for me and so many others, that I dedicate this post to the memory of my great friend Tore Eikeland (1990-2011), who was killed on July 22. One of the last times I met him, we marched together for LGBT rights. Among many, many other things, he made me a prouder gay. Continue reading →

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Sad. Grateful. Determined.

29 Jul

Today, it’s been a week since the terror attacks in Norway. A very close friend of mine was killed at Utøya, and a handful of my friends were among the survivors. I wasn’t on the island myself, but I am a member of the youth organization that was attacked, and I have been to the summer camp there six before, between 2001 and 2007. On Monday, I tried to formulate my thoughts over at Chris Baxter’s blog. I still feel the same way Continue reading →

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My 25 Favorite Bruce Springsteen Songs

21 Jul

The death last month of Clarence Clemons, the iconic sax player of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, has affected me even more than I appreciated at the time. To sit down and listen intensely to Springsteen records wasn’t that much of a change from what I usually do – I usually play some Springsteen record on my Ipod every other day, anway – but still, it felt different now. Like I tried to articulate in my obituary, Clemons in many ways personified the energy and attitude of Bruce Springsteen’s entire act, and letting myself get immersed in those classic records to an even greater extent than usual, I was suddenly struck by a sense of loss that extended beyond that of losing an iconic sax player. It felt like I was bidding audieu to the very idea that Springsteen could ever again strive for the greatness that he captured with the E Street Band. Continue reading →

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My Favorite Pop Culture Podcasts

8 Jul

Last year, I named my favorite political pundits, both as a matter of transparency (so that you would know a little bit about who shapes my opinions on American politics), and as a way to endorse their work. Now, I feel like the time has come to do the same for the pop cultural sphere. I listen to a number of culture podcasts every week, and ideas, provocations, news and views from them inform much of what I write on this blog, and often more than I remember to give them credit for. Maybe this list of five absolutely brilliant podcasts could be a start a first down-payment on my debt of gratitude. Neither of the podcasts mentioned are obscure, and you should be able to enjoy them thoroughly without prior knowledge of their dynamics, but in each case I certainly encourage you to check out their archives. They’re all golden. Continue reading →

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