WhyWhyZed

If someone had told me a few years ago I would one day consider living in Los Angeles, I would have thought they were crazy…  But with house prices in L.A. falling, and prices in the San Francisco Bay Area barely moving, my partner and I have started to look into buying in Pasadena next year.

We are looking for a bungalow, and were originally going to only look at Alameda.  We spent many years there, have a lot of friends living there, and love the Bay Area. However…

Prices on even so-so bungalows in Alameda are still close to $600,000… People who have put their houses on the market are in total denial about the housing slowdown…  Sure, their house might have good bones, but it’s still only 1100 square feet, and usually has a yard between 3,000 and 4,000 square feet.

Pasadena, on the other hand is filled with bungalows at the same price or lower which have yards between 5,000 and 10,000 square feet…. and better weather for gardening. or installing and using a pool.

The cons are that Pasadena is part of LA county, which means it’s really just part of LA - it’s only 10 miles or so from downtown LA - and the crime rate is higher than Alameda. Then again, the crime rate is probably higher in Peoria than Alameda…

So we’re off to LA/Palm Springs/Alameda/San Francisco next week to check out housing… After all, I’m graduating in less than a year, so my days in Toronto are numbered.   Next, I just need to find some kind of job in the film industry… I wonder if they ever make movies in L.A.?

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Tags: Alameda, Pasadena, Los Angeles, Housing Bubble, USA // Add Comment »

I’m amazed how Gays and Lesbians online seem to have a fatalistic view of the upcoming marriage referendum in California.  I check out many blogs every day, and invariably Gays and Lesbians  leave comments saying how we’re going to lose the fight in California in November. They go on and on about California having elected Reagan, and how conservative California really is.

It’s no wonder the right wing never stops attacking us - many of us believe we’re going to lose before the fight has even started. Who needs enemies when we’re ready to give up already?  Does anyone think the radical right sits around saying “Why bother, we’re going to lose.”  I hate to give them any credit, but we need to be more like the fundamentalist haters… STOP moaning and whining, and start giving money to Equality California, and talking with friends… Make sure all the straight people you know in California are on our side, and are going to vote to support Gay marriage.

It isn’t rocket science - we need to believe in our own rights and our own worth if we’re going to convince others to support us.  Stop listening to the haters and start listening to your heart - and get to work!

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Newsweek magazine online wrote a story about Larry King, the 15 year old kid in California who was killed for being Gay.  The article itself was so-so… A supposed in-depth piece talking about how “there’s more to the story than meets the eye”… i.e. - A way to blame a 15 year old for being openly Gay…

But the real problem is the comments section.  Newsweek seems to think it’s OK to have a free for all - with viscious, homophobic, disgusting comments from right-wing haters, and no-one seemingly moderating the comments… Gays are called pedophiles, sick, disgusting, deserving of death and more, and the comments are left up.  The whole comments section needs to be controlled - it’s no wonder Gays and Lesbians are murdered - organizations like Newsweek are encouraging hatred and murder.

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My first short was finished a couple of months ago, and I sent it to seven film festivals… So far, it’s been turned down by two, but I’m still hoping to hear that it got accepted by at least one…  I’ll let people know when it gets accepted…

Things have been really crazy for the last few months… After I finished my first year at film school, I suddenly found I had some free time… Which of course means nothing, since we’re now working on getting the house renovated and ready to go on the market in the fall.  Only one more winter filled with snow!!!  When school finishes next year, it looks like we’re moving to L.A….

Damn, film directing and moving to L.A…. Sounds impressive, doesn’t it?  Maybe I’ll finally be invited to cocktail parties where I can become a self-aggrandizing bore… (Actually, I’d be happy being invited to a party and actually talking about myself for more than 2 minutes… I always think it’s rude to go on and on about myself, so I’m horrible at small-talk…)

The funny thing is, the last place I’d want to work is at some studio in L.A… Although, maybe filming porn would be interesting… (Note to self - find out if porn companies need middle aged Gay men to direct film…)

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Tags: Los Angeles, Work, Toronto, Education, GLBT, Film, Canada // Add Comment »

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Tags: Film, GLBT, USA // Add Comment »

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Tags: Obama, Politics, USA // Add Comment »

I was just on  The Huffington Post, watching speeches given by Barak Obama and John McCain.  I wasn’t happy about Obama’s bringing in anti-Gay preachers on his tour, but I have to say, he’s an amazing orator.  He actually sends chills down my spine watching him.  I like Hillary, but there’s something just not right about her - she seems like “yesterday’s candidate” compared to Obama.  Every time I see him talk, I realize he is exactly what the U.S. needs right now.

John Edwards dropped out a week or so ago, which is too bad.  Of all the candidates, I think he is the most supportive of LGBT rights… and even though he certainly isn’t perfect (i.e. -marriage), he is willing to admit he needs to work on issues. The more I saw Edwards, the more I liked him… and his wife and daughter were amazing too.

What can I say about McCain?  The guy is a total slimeball.  The right wing loves to go on about Hillary - and how she’s a “poor example” of “family values”… I turned on Rush Limbaugh the other day to see what the reactionaries were going nuts about lately, and there was a caller who was going on about how Hillary was a “bad person” because she didn’t leave her husband when he fooled around, and she was going to support McCain.

I was actually surprised that Limbaugh’s response was that Hillary is a much better example of family values than McCain…. and then he explained McCain’s background… While McCain was a POW in Vietnam, his wife was hit by a car and injured badly.  She lost 4 inches in height and was permanently disabled… and yet she didn’t want to let McCain know until he was released - she felt it would be bad for his morale while he was a Prisoner of War.  When he returned, his wife was disabled, and had gained weight - and he dumped her after meeting his present wife.

He met his rich, thin, 17 year younger trophy wife at a party while still married, and monopolized her all night - and supposedly knew instantly that he “was in love”.  It didn’t seem to matter that he was still married to what sounds like an amazing woman…. Having a rich new wife whose father will pay for a political career in Arizona is more important.  Out with the old, in with the new…  Yeah, those are family values all right.  What a total scumbag.

I think hating McCain is the only thing the right wing and I have ever agreed on.

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Gus Van Sant and Sean Penn are in the Castro filming a new movie about Harvey Milk, and damn, I wish I was there to see the Castro made over into the 70’s… Harvey Milk was the first openly Gay San Francisco Supervisor who was shot and killed along with Mayor George Moscone by Dan White, another Supervisor.

If you haven’t seen it yet, make sure you see The Times of Harvey Milk - a documentary on the life (and death) of Harvey Milk.  I think I’ve probably seen it at least 5 times, and I still cry every time…   You don’t have to be from San Francisco to appreciate the movie - it really is universal.

The new movie is being shot in the Castro - and the Castro is being made over to look like it did in the 70’s.  Signs are being changed to bars and stores from the 70’s, and the Castro Theater Sign is being repainted and refurbished (finally!).  Those of you that are in the Castro, take plenty of photos, for those of us a little farther away

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Tags: The Castro, San Francisco, Film, GLBT // Add Comment »

We watched “13 Seconds: The Kent State Shootings” in my scriptwriting class today. What a powerful documentary - I swear if you aren’t tearing up by the end, you must be dead… I’ve seen a lot of documentaries, but never one as powerful as this one.

I’m in class with mostly 18 to 24 year olds, so Kent State shootings in 1970 were way before their time… In fact, considering I was 9 when Kent State occurred, you could say it was before my time too.

When the film began, there was the usual rustling of papers, kids typing on computers, texting on their cellphones, etc… By about the middle of the film, you could hear a pin drop in that room.

I highly recommend it.

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Tags: Documentary, The 60's, Activism, Politics, Film, USA // Add Comment »

My apologies… I know how frustrating it is to check out a blog and find out it hasn’t been updated in weeks/months… but those of you following my filmmaking will be happy to know that the reason I haven’t been on here is I am swamped with filmmaking assignments.

I’ve had to write/storyboard/film a short doumentary on a blind student at school, a short film assignment, and am now working on a 5 minute narrative… along with alot of work in ProTools, and getting myself up to speed on lighting…

The documentary on Gay Seniors is coming along… I’ve had some fascinating leads - including a Gay senior who used to be a porn star… At least I know he’d be comfortable in front of the camera!

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Tags: Aging, Documentary, Education, Film, GLBT, Canada // Add Comment »