So Enrique’s hitting Florida to find hot models. I’d wish him well, but that’s like hoping a kid gets what he wants with a free pass to a candy store in his pocket. In other words, I think he’ll do just fine.

Truth is, I miss the Florida guys. It’s hot down there, y’all, so shirts and a lot else comes off pretty fast. And, with that steamy weather, even the straightest guys feel the need to strip off and get what they can. There was a video arcade in West Palm Beach I remember (I was there doing research. That’s right - research). A skinny guy came down the aisle, scoping out those of us wanking - sorry, doing research - in our open booths before taking his seat at the only ‘room’ available. Where he proceeded to watch his chick-on-chick vid and haul out what had to be an eleven-inch cock.

Did he know he was driving us crazy? I think he must have, as we waved hard dick behind him, drooling. Then he’d make a show of being all pissed off and try to shove that monster back in his pants. Until we left: then, he’d look around, wondering where his fans went…

Gotta go. Must check airlines, catch a flight.

- Jack X, a Florida boy still

It’s good - actually, it’s better than good - to hear that Enrique may delve into indie territory. I can’t be sure, of course, that the project he’s contemplating would be gay-based. But he was a serious film student; he was and is a gay porn industry; and the dots should connect (if he pursues this) in a way to finally, finally break down the celluloid barriers.

‘Brokeback’ didn’t do it, although in all fairness no single film centered on a gay relationship can. It took me some time to see it myself, chiefly because the extraordinary hoopla surrounding it perversely hurt the thing in my eyes. Then, I rather wish the protagonists had not been played by such adorable menfolk. If you read the Proulx story it’s based on, Jack and Ennis are not beautiful men. Also: if you’re like me and you read the story, you find it just too damn sad to want to see in movie form.

Now, there’s been a truckload of gay independent stuff, most of which I’m not familiar with. What resonates with me? ‘Maurice’, the Forster tale set in jolly old England and recounting the scary love of the hero for the stable boy, actually triumphs. There’s no happy ending but the validity of what passes between the men rises above.  And, on a cheesier level, I adored the ’70’s B flick called, ‘a Different Story’. As politically offensive as it could well be seen, it boasted the amazingly beautiful Perry King, the wasted talent of Meg Foster, and a story that seems more reasonable to me as I get older; that a loving friendship may overshadow the urges of sexualities. (OK, I’m being too easy on it. Again, though, there was Perry King in a fucking towel.)

I suppose the reality is that films based on gay storylines must go the route of all genres. That is, there simply needs to be a lot of them, that the subject matter becomes secondary to the way the story is told. It’s hard to judge any gay movie properly because, still, the gayness stars.  As soon as that element becomes less noteworthy, more and more possibilities open up to both filmmaker and audience. And we can be seen as people, enmeshed in the messes of life, worthy of two hours of ass-time in a cinema because of something other than who we fuck.

Get to work, EC.

- Jack X

by Enrique Cruz

Every Friday afternoon that I’m in town I usually pop over to watch the latest Flick-of-the-week at the local Movie Theater here in Jersey! — except this weak’s offerings of Sandler’s “Chuck and Larry,” or the snoozer musical: “Hairspray,” didn’t didn’t seem like too much fun. And, as a former film student, I’m usually up for anything in a dark theater….almost anything I guess.

Instead, I spent some of the weekend catching up on movies at home — ‘finally saw “Quinceanera,” which I really liked.

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