Impressionistic Men of the Musée d'Orsay

The de Young Museum in San Francisco just opened an exhibit called “Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay.” We went to it this last Tuesday. It was wonderful.

The Musée d’Orsay in Paris is undergoing renovation. Much of the artwork was sent on tour. This Impressionism exhibit presents nearly 100 magnificent works by the famous masters (Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cézanne, Sisley, and others) who called France their home during the mid- to late-19th century and from whose midst arose the recognizable artistic style: Impressionism.

The exhibition is here through September 6, 2010. Then on September 25th the second part of the d’Orsay show opens: Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne and Beyond (Sep 25, 2010—Jan 18, 2011).
Here are some of the interesting men in the current show:

The Floor Scrapers by Gustave Caillebotte (1875)


Portraits at the Stock Exchange by Edgar Degas (1878–1879)


The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian by Honoré Daumier (1849)


Bazille's Studio by Frédéric Bazille (1870) depicts a gathering of like-minded friends in the studio he shared with Pierre Auguste Renoir. At the left, seated on a table, Renoir looks up to talk to Émile Zola, who is on the stairs. In the center, Bazille shows Édouard Manet one of his recent works, while Claude Monet stands behind him. Bazille's close friend Edmond Maitre plays the piano at the right.


Jason and Medea by Gustave Moreau (1865)


Wrestlers by Alexandre Falguière (1875)


The Boy with the Cat by Pierre Auguste Renoir (1868)


A Studio at Les Batignolles by Henri Fantin-Latour (1870) A group portrait of a new generation of artists.Édouard Manet, seated at his easel, is painting a portrait of the artist and critic Zacharie Astruc. The tall figure standing behind Astruc's chair is Frederic Bazille; Claude Monet can be seen at the far right behind him. Pierre-Auguste Renoir stands in the center, and the critic Émile Zola is to his immediate left.


Stéphane Mallarmé by Edouard Manet (1876)


Frédéric Bazille by Pierre Auguste Renoir (1867)


Pierre Auguste Renoir by Frédéric Bazille (1867)

The painting that I hope will be in the next show:

Bathers by Paul Cézanne (1890)

One of the additional benefits of museum touring is people watching. One can see many good looking, sexy men visiting the galleries. My gaydar says that there is an abundance of gay singles and gay couples walking about the rooms. I have yet to see a museum gift shop market to this discerning audience. For example, there is never a box of cards of just men on them. I have seen flowers, still-lifes, landscapes, and women but no men. Who sends cards today in the mail other then gay men and older women?

Gay DVD Movies from Netflix

We have been subscribers of Netfiix since 2003. We were impressed and appreciative that one of their primary searchable genres was “gay & lesbian”. We set out to rent and watch as many gay themed DVDs as possible. There turned out to be a wide selection of videos to watch. It ranged from Hollywood mainstream, classics, foreign, independent films, TV shows, documentaries and concert/comedy specials.

My general film preferences are comedies, romances, and light dramas. The list includes a mix of English and foreign language films. Foreign films are often more interesting as they seem to have less hang-ups about sexuality in general.
Most of these gay themed films listed below I rated as 5 stars. I have also included a number of 4 star films because I thought they were important. Netflix’s cumulative rating is often lower than mine. Unfortunately, many of the Netflix customer reviews/rankings include a lot of homophobia in them.

Here is GuyDads’ list of best gay DVD films available on Netflix. We have seen about twice the number of gay-themed films listed here. And we still have over a 100 gay DVDs in our queue to view.

Gay Comedy:
3-Day Weekend
50 Ways of Saying Fabulous (New Zealand)
A Four Letter Word
Adam & Steve
Another Gay Movie (Graham Norton)

As Luck Would Have It (French)
BearCity
Bear Cub (Spanish)
Bedrooms and Hallways
Chef's Special (Spanish)
Cote d'Azur (French)
Dirty Laundry
Eating Out (Jim Verraros)
- Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds (Jim Verraros)
- Eating Out: All You Can Eat
Everyone

Fat Girls
Flawless (Robert DeNiro, Philip Seymour Hoffman)
Friends and Family
Get Your Stuff
Girls Will Be Girls (Coco Peru, Varla Jean Merman)
Guys and Balls (German)
Happy Endings
Hit and Runway
In & Out (Kevin Kline, Matt Dillion)
Jeffrey (Steven Weber)
Kinky Boots (British)
Kiss the Bride (Tori Spelling)
Km. 0 (Spanish)
La Cage aux Folles & II (French)
Love! Valour! Compassion! (Jason Alexander)
Make the Yuletide Gay
Mambo Italiano
Oh Happy Day (British)
Outing Riley
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Australian; Terrance Stamp)
Queens | Reinas (Spanish)
Regular Guys (German)
Relax ... It's Just Sex
Sordid Lives (Delta Burke, Beau Bridges, Leslie Jordan)
Straight-Jacket
Summer Storm (German)
The Big Tease (British; Craig Ferguson)
The Birdcage (Robin Williams, Nathan Lane)
The Curiosity of Chance
The Gay Deceivers
The Kids Are All Right (Julianne Moore, Annette Bening)
The Opposite of Sex (Christina Ricci, Johnny Galecki)
The Ritz (Jack Weston, Rita Moreno, Jerry Stiller)
The Sum of Us (Australian; Russell Crowe)
The Wedding Banquet (Chinese)
Times Have Been Better (French)
To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything (Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze)
Torch Song Trilogy (Harvey Fierstein, Matthew Broderick)
Touch of Pink
Unconditional Love (Kathy Bates, Rupert Everett, Dan Aykroyd)
Violet's Visit
Wedding Wars (John Stamos)
What's Cooking? (Joan Chen, Alfre Woodard)

Gay Documentary:
After Stonewall
All Aboard Rosie's Family Cruise
Before Stonewall
Chris & Don: A Love Story
For the Bible Tells Me So
Gay Sex in the '70s
Gay Weddings
Get Bruce!
Outrage
Pageant
Paragraph 175
Paternal Instinct
Sex Positive

Small Town Gay Bar
Tarnation
The Celluloid Closet
The Cockettes
The Times of Harvey Milk
Trembling Before G-d

Gay Drama:
A Home at the End of the World (Colin Farrell)
A Love to Hide (French)
A Single Man (Colin Firth, Julianne Moore)
A Very Serious Person (Charles Busch)
An Early Frost (Aidan Quinn)
And the Band Played On (Matthew Modine, Alan Alda, Ian McKellen)
Ang Lihim ni Antonio | Antonio's Secret (Filipino)
Angels in America (Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson)
Antarctica (Israeli)
Bad Education (Spanish; Gael Garcia Bernal)
Bent (British; Ian McKellen, Jude Law, Clive Owen)
Billy Elliot
Brother to Brother
Boy Culture
Carrington (Emma Thompson, Jonathan Pryce)
Cowboy Junction
C.R.A.Z.Y.
Cruising (Al Pacino, Karen Allen)
De-Lovely (Kevin Kline, Ashley Judd)
Dirty Pictures (James Woods)
Ethan Mao
FAQs
Far From Heaven (Dennis Quaid, Julianne Moore)
Fixing Frank
Food of Love (Spanish)
Gods and Monsters (Ian McKellen, Brendan Fraser)
Gone But Not Forgotten
Grande École (French)
HellBent
Hollywood, Je T'aime (Chad Allen)
Howl (James Franco)
Infamous (Toby Jones, Daniel Craig, Jeff Daniels, Sandra Bullock)
It's My Party (Eric Roberts, Gregory Harrison)
Jack (Ron Silver, Stockard Channing)
Kinsey (Liam Neeson, Peter Sarsgaard
Kiss of the Spider Woman (William Hurt)
La Mission (Benjamin Bratt)

Law of Desire (Spanish; Antonio Banderas)
Like a Brother (French)
Lilies
Little Ashes (Javier Beltran, Robert Pattinson)
Locked Up (German)
Longtime Companion (Bruce Davison)
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (Kevin Spacey, Jude Law)
Maurice (British; Hugh Grant)
Milk (Sean Penn, James Franco)
My Beautiful Laundrette (British; Daniel-Day Lewis)
My Own Private Idaho (River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves)
Mysterious Skin (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)
Nine Lives
No Regret (South Korean)
Pedro
Philadelphia (Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington)
Phoenix
Poster Boy
Prayers for Bobby (Sigourney Weaver)
Rock Haven
Running with Scissors (Annette Bening)
Saturday Night at the Baths
Schoolboy Crush (Japanese)
Shelter
Simon (Netherlands)
Shortbus
Stonewall
Streamers (Matthew Modine)
Sunday Bloody Sunday (British; Peter Finch, Murray Head)
Surveillance 24/7 (British; Simon Callow)
Testosterone (Antonio Sabato, Jr)
The Boys in the Band
The Deep End (Tilda Swinton)
The Dying Gaul (Peter Sarsgaard)
The Einstein of Sex (German)
The Hours (Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore)
The Houseboy
The Journey of Jared Price
The Laramie Project (Christina Ricci)
The Last Year
The Lost Language of Cranes (British)
The Naked Civil Servant (John Hurt)
The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me (David Drake)
The Trip
Twilight of the Golds (Brendan Fraser, Jennifer Beals)
Very Natural Thing
Victim (British)
You'll Get Over It (French)
Walk on Water (Israeli)
Watercolors
Whirlwind
Wilde (British; Stephen Fry)
WTC View

Gay Musical:
20 Centimeters (Spanish)
Camp
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (John Cameron Mitchell)
Love Songs | Les Chansons d'Amour (French)
Naked Boys Singing!
Rent (Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal)
The Big Gay Musical
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Tim Curry, Barry Bostwick)
Were the World Mine
Zero Patience

Gay Romance:
All Over the Guy
Beautiful Thing (British)
Big Eden
Breaking the Cycle
Brokeback Mountain (Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal)
East Side Story
Get Real
I Love You Phillip Morris (Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor)
Just a Question of Love (French)
Just Say Love
Kiss Me Guido
Latter Days (Steve Sandvoss)
Law of Desire (Thailand)
Leather Jacket Love Story
Making Love (Harry Hamlin)
Mulligans
Next Year in Jerusalem
No Regret (South Korean)
Slutty Summer
The Bubble (Israeli)
The Man I Love (French)
Trick (Coco Peru)
Under One Roof
Yossi & Jagger (Israeli)

Transgender:
Beautiful Boxer (Thailand)
Boys Don't Cry (Hilary Swank)
Breakfast on Pluto (Liam Neesom, Stephen Rea)
Ma Vie En Rose (Belgium)
Soldier's Girl
The Crying Game (Stephen Rea, Forest Whitaker)
The Iron Ladies (Thailand)
Transamerica (Felicity Hoffman)

Gay Television Shows:
Bob & Rose (British)
Dante's Cove
Donald Strachey mystery movies (Chad Allen)
- Third Man Out
- Shock to the System
- On the Other Hand, Death
- Ice Blues
Glee (Matthew Morrison, Chris Cofer)
Little Britain (British; Matt Lucas)
Metrosexuality (British)
Noah's Arc (Darryl Stephens)
Queer as Folk (Hal Sparks, Sharon Gless)
Rick & Steve (animated)
Six Feet Under (Michael C. Hall)
Tales of the City (Olympia Dukakis)
- More Tales of the City
- Further Tales of the City
The DL Chronicles
The Lair
The Line of Beauty (British)
Will & Grace (Eric McComack, Sean Hayes)

Gay Short Film:
Boys Briefs 2
He Likes Guys
The Art of Being Straight
Trevor

A list of mainstream, classic movies:
These mostly Hollywood films contain gay, lesbian or queer characters, or gay/homosexual thematic content or subtext. Check them out too (listed by year):

1920 & 1940 The Mark of Zorro - Drama
1929 The Broadway Melody of 1929 - Musical
1930 Way Out West - Comedy
1930 Morocco - Drama
1931 Little Ceasar - Crime Drama
1933 Queen Christina - Drama
1934 The Gay Divorcee - Musical
1940 Rebecca - Thriller
1941 The Maltese Falcon - Crime drama
1945 The Picture of Dorian Gray - Drama
1948 Red River - Drama
1948 Rope - Crime drama
1951 Strangers on a Train - Drama
1955 Rebel Without a Cause - Drama
1956 Tea and Sympathy - Drama
1957 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - Drama
1959 Pillow Talk - Comedy
1959 Some Like It Hot - Comedy
1959 Ben-Hur - Action drama
1959 Suddenly, Last Summer - Drama
1961 The Children's Hour - Drama
1962 Advise and Consent - Drama
1962 Touch of Mink - Comedy
1964 The Night of the Iguana - Drama
1968 The Killing of Sister George - Drama
1968 The Lion in Winter - Historical drama
1968 The Producers - Comedy
1969 Midnight Cowboy - Drama
1972 Cabaret – Musical Drama
1975 Dog Day Afternoon - Crime drama
1980 Fame – Musical drama
1980 Can't Stop the Music - Musical comedy
1981 Zorro, The Gay Blade - Comedy
1982 Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean - Comic drama
1982 Deathtrap - Mystery thriller
1982 Personal Best - Drama
1982 Victor Victoria – Musical comedy
1982 The World According to Garp - Romantic comic drama
1983 Silkwood - Drama
1983 Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence -War drama
1984 Dune - Science fiction
1984 The Hotel New Hampshire - Comic drama
1985 The Color Purple - Drama
1985 A Chorus Line - Musical
1985 A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge - Horror
1990 Henry & June - Drama
1991 Fried Green Tomatoes - Comic drama
1992 Basic Instinct - Mystery thriller
1993 Six Degrees of Separation - Drama
1993 Even Cowgirls Get the Blues - Comedy
1994 Reality Bites - Comedy
1994 Four Weddings and a Funeral - Comic drama
1994 Ed Wood - Comic drama
1995 Showgirls - Drama
1997 The Full Monty - Comedy
1997 Boogie Nights - Drama
1999 Being John Malkovich - Fantasy drama
2001 Gosford Park - Crime mystery
2001 Kissing Jessica Stein - Comedy
2001 Mulholland Drive - Drama
2004 Saved! - Comedy
2006 Little Miss Sunshine - Comedy
2006 The History Boys - Drama
2006 Quinceañera - Drama
2008 Garden Party - Drama
2009 Taking Woodstock - Comic drama
2010 Black Swan - Thriller
2010 Burlesque - Musical

Finally, a Wikipedia list of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender-related films:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_movies

Dustin Lance Black for Harvey Milk Day

Saturday, May 22, 2010 is Harvey Milk Day in California. A call for action from screenwriter Dustin Lance Black:

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWrIVd5OEGM

The Progressive Jewish Alliance describes the day as:
The Intersection of Hope & Action: Celebrating Harvey Milk Day

Who was Harvey Milk?
Harvey Milk was an activist who stood for inclusion, equality and economic Justice. As an out Gay and Jewish San Franciscan, Milk ran for political office, winning a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Tragically assassinated just 11 months into office, Harvey Milk, may his memory be a blessing, embodied the type of hope and commitment to social change we work towards every day.

You gotta give 'em hope.
-Harvey Milk

Until There Is a Cure

Saturday we were at the Giants baseball game. It was their 17^th annual “Until There Is a Cure” Day. It is a day that the SF Giants help raise awareness and funds for HIV/AIDS. This year’s grant recipients through the Giants Community Fund include Central Coast HIV/AIDS Services, Face to Face, the Marin AIDS Project, and the New Conservatory Theatre Center.

Eddie was at the first “Until There Is a Cure Day”. In the picture of us he is wearing the t-shirt from them. For the first UTIC Day, Eddie says the Giants had sections of the AIDS Quilt displayed on the field. He said it was a very moving event.

The Giants beat the Huston Astros in a close game (2-1). Pitcher and two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum had a rough day on the mound. Closing pitcher, Brian Wilson, also kept the suspense going by loading the bases before last out of the game.

Colon Update

It has been about 3 ½ weeks since my last surgery. My digestive track (colon) has been reconnected minus the cancerous rectum. The good news is: I have not had any complications from the surgery. The scars are healing over nicely. I have had almost no pain. I am not taking any pain pills. I am sleeping well. I have started going for a daily walk. My genitals are working fine.

Sounds like everything is great, right? Far from it. Without a rectum I have no holding area for poop. I am running to the bathroom 30 to 40 times a day. The doctor says things will eventually calm down. My body will adapt to the change. Until then I am working on a diet regimen that includes Metamucil and Imodium.