Serving the LGBT communities since 1971
26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 3-9, 2012
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Artistic integrity by Jim Piechota The Collected Writings of Joe Brainard by Ron Padgett, Editor; The Library of America, $35
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ncredibly talented, gay American visual artist and writer Joe Brainard’s career of poetry, prose, and pictures has been collected in a new volume produced by his longtime friend Ron Padgett, a poet and biographer. In the opening introduction, popular writer Paul Auster offers a gushing, informative homage to Brainard, whose 1975 memoir I Remember was a unique, 138-page defining work of art and is reproduced in its entirety as the opening section of this book. The candidly autobiographical piece is comprised of recollections and random musings on everything Brainard found
interesting and revelatory from music, food, sex, and friends to jokes, private thoughts and intimate memories. Within the main “Self-Portrait” section, Padgett chronologically collects more than 90 short, highly personal glimpses into Brainard’s life and times. From a patchwork quilt of amusing, self-reflective, and introspective thought-pieces, readers will gain a new appreciation for this hyper-creative artist who came into power within the poetry and writers’ scenes of New York City in the 1960s and 70s. Comic strips and cigarette butt drawings demonstrate Brainard’s tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, along with his tributes to Andy Warhol and Nancy. Simplywritten, sensitive diary entries paint Brainard as vulnerable and thoughtful. Of sex, he likes it best when “it’s
fast and fun, or slow and beautiful,” and of dying, he muses “after you’re dead, you won’t even know it.” There are also mini-essays that cover every subject under the sun from grass and gravity to the concept of what he considers a “loser” to really be: “He was at the airport when his ship came in.” Throughout his life, Brainard, who died in 1994 of AIDS-related pneumonia, created a wide, richly varied body of work. Many pieces were unpublished or considered hard-to-find until the publication of this book, and all of them are impressively and respectfully captured here. At over 500 pages, this is an uncommonly comprehensive amalgam of art, life and history. Both an artistic and financial boon for the estate of Joe Brainard, the book closes with a pair of verbatim interviews with
the distinguished artist. One interview by Tim Dlugos becomes poignant at its conclusion when Brainard admits to “taking too much speed,” and discusses the dissolution of a major gay relationship with Kenward Elmslie, a fellow writer and performer. The other interview by Anne Waldman is radically shorter, but by no means limits this amazingly overlooked artist’s power to effortlessly entertain and influence others, even posthumously.▼
DVD>>
Feeling jittery by David Lamble
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hat’s what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, and they stay the same age.” Who’d have thought Matthew McConaughey’s iconic wisecrack from Richard Linklater’s seminal 1993 Texas teen comedy Dazed and Confused could become the perfect pretext for two skinny Icelandic teens to share a passionate kiss under a tree one beer-fueled night? It’s the last night of a three-week student exchange program in England. At first in Jitters (TLA Releasing), our hero Gabriel (Atli Oskar Fjalarsson) isn’t sure he likes this party animal, the aspiring hairdresser Markus (Haraldur Ari Stefansson). The boys are forced to room together by their teacher chaperones, and Markus irritates the hell out of the more studious Gabriel. But then, as Gabriel confesses to a female confidant, “One night we just kissed. We were drunk, and then everything changed.” “What do you mean?” “For the first time, I felt these jitters that everyone talks about, but at the same time I didn’t want to believe I was gay. I kind of wished that it wasn’t true.” “This is great, really.” “Then I saw him with some girl at a party.” “Is he bi, or what?” “I don’t know.” Not merely a randy gay-boy romp, Jitters is more a queerfriendly Icelandic take on the pulp teen formula concocted for Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, with Gabriel taking on Michael Cera’s infatuated leader of the pack. Fjalarsson exudes Cera’s weary, middle-aged kid vibe, just the teen many parents would want for a designated driver, almost too good to be true. Jitters overflows with the puppy-love misadventures of Gabriel’s friends, although one subplot, involving a girl with a religious, bigoted grandmother who objects to her Russian boyfriend, goes over to the dark side of teen suicide and an older generation’s antiforeigner paranoia. But Gabriel and Markus overcome every melodramatic contrivance, including Markus’ cheating heart.
“What were you thinking?” “I don’t know.” “Why were you with her?” “I was just drunk and stupid.” “I just wasn’t sure about this. You’re the first guy I’ve kissed.” “You’re also my first.” “I know.” “What happens next?” “I don’t know.” I was frustrated that the filmmakers didn’t spend more screentime focused on the stations-of-the-cross torture teen boys suffer. But when queer wet-dreams find a scary, reciprocating object of desire, Gabriel is a very positive take on a popular boy, one the other teens admire, who finally musters the courage to kiss his lover in front of a set of parents. While not the sharpest tool in the teen-comedy shed – the adult characters are particularly obtuse and unhelpful, and you get strong hints as to why drinking is so huge a part of adult life on this island nation, with a population smaller than Oakland – Jitters is refreshingly candid about the fickle nature of young love. It has a large, frisky cast, including Gabriel’s loutish best friend Tedd (Elias Helgi Kofoed-Hanson) – this movie really caters to fans of blonde Nordic skinny-boys – who can be counted on to playfully gaybait his buddy at the worst possible moments while still remaining a warm-hearted, hunky, womanizing lug. Special feature: a behind-thescenes featurette, which is basically a dialogue-free party film about shooting a party film. In Icelandic, with English subtitles.▼