Hot hot hot

Finally, the amazingly hot wave is gone. Things are back to normal. Things must have been back to normal, because now I am writing a blog again after a week long absence. Everything was so hot in the city. I felt like I was traveling in other parts of the world during a hot summer season. It’s surreal to feel this hot in San Francisco. Not only the air is hot, the city is boiling because of the spirit of the Pride month. The merchants are quickly cashing in as well on recent gay marriage ruling. One morning on my way to work, I passed a clothing store with two display windows. One window has two men in formal wear standing on a wedding cake. The other window has two women standing on a wedding cake. Only in San Francisco! The unusual warm weather brings out record number of people to the AT&T Ballpark on Friday for San Francisco Opera‘s fantastic Lucia di Lammermoor. The night just can’t be any more perfect. On the empty field, there were two little kids kept running around. When they didn’t, they sat quietly in the middle of the field, although just for a very brief moment. Then the little one got up running away again. The bigger one chased after. It was so cute. In the middle of the performance, the moon started to rise from the bay water. At first I thought it was some hot balloon rising from one of the boats in the bay enjoying the opera, because the bright object was unusually big. Indeed, it’s the moon. It rose gradually and set in the background of the ballpark. What’s even better that night is this. Next to the section we were sitting, Kevin was sitting there at the opera too! He didn’t dance though… I think the good things are still happening more than the bad things. Last Sunday evening, I was in a hurry to rush out to catch the bus. When I was locking the door, I dropped my wallet at my door step. Normally there was nobody in the hallway. But on that day, somehow, a Chinese guy passed my door right at that moment. After I realized that I dropped my wallet and returned back to my door in less than one minute, my wallet was gone. He saw me coming back to find the wallet at my door, and he disappeared quickly. Luckily there was only less than $25 cash in the wallet. However, I need to replace everything, including buying a new monthly bus pass. By now, that guy is probably already run over by a truck, because the bad karma he’s got for himself. It seems my wallet has been as hot as the weather lately! After I got a brand new wallet, a black guy was trying to steal it from me on a bus yesterday! He used his jacket to cover his hands, and then open my bag’s zipper, but he only got my business card holder instead of my wallet! WTF?! Nobody is gonna get my wallet ever again! Damnit! Of course, this is just a minor annoyance during the whole week. I was too busy to get upset about it. The hottest LGBT film festival in the world Frameline 32 opened on Thursday, and I have been attending a few films, including a delightful high school coming out film "Tru Loved" (a full review is on the way). At the opening night gala, there were so many people and I couldn’t get any drink due to the long lines. And it was super hot! I had some food and grabbed a Macy’s gift bag, then headed home. I feel funny that the gift bag only contains man’s underwear, but not woman’s. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a fetish to wear woman’s underwear. Considering so many female party goers, what are they gonna do with the man’s underwear? I know some lesbians are butch, but do they actually wear man’s underwear? However, I am not complaining. I’ve got one that I can wear, so I am happy. I need to get ready for the upcoming exciting new week full of parties and events. And yes, I will be on the #7 "San Francisco LGBT Pride Theme Float." Before I write another blog entry, let couple of my film reviews take up some space here. Tongzhi in Love (彼岸浮生) Director Ruby Yang’s (杨紫烨) heartbreaking documentary about devastating HIV/AIDS victims in China, "The Blood of Yingzhou District (颖州的孩子)" won the 2007 Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject. Build on this film’s success, Ruby Yang moved to China and worked on many public health related projects including anti-smoking and AIDS awareness campaign in China. Recently, Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon created public service announcements (PSAs) called "Life Is Too Good" to promote safe sex. Continuing on her worthy contributions, Ruby Yang’s new documentary "Tongzhi in Love" (彼岸浮生, China 2008, 30 min.), perhaps the first documentary about gays in China, examines gay men’s double lives in modern China—the freer city gay life versus the closet life being the only child who is responsible for producing an heir for the family. "Tongzi" (同志) originally means "comrade" in Chinese. However, since the early 90s, "Tongzhi" has become the term for "gay" in Chinese in the LGBT community, and it is a widely accepted term by the general public in Chinese speaking regions nowadays. Riding the waves of the rapid social and economical progress in China, many gays begin to enjoy a much more tolerate atmosphere in China and to taste their newly found gay freedom in big cities such as Beijing. However, most of them cannot come out to their parents and live a double life; because besides the conservative views toward gays, they also face the immense pressure uniquely to the Chinese culture based on confucian (儒家) teaching. One of the most prominent confucian scholar Mencius once said: "Among the three major offenses against filial piety, not producing an heir is the worst." (不孝有三无后为大.) More than two thousands years later, a billion Chinese people still take Mencius’s words close to the heart. Obviously, it creates bigger challenge to gay men, many of them are the only child in a family due the one child policy in modern China. "Tongzhi in Love" examines this complex scenario through three young gay men’s personal stories. Via candid testimonies and lively interviews, these three characters share their opinions, their struggle, their sacrifices, their sorrow, and most importantly, their love for their parents. The film captures the heavy burden in these Tongzhi’s mind and shows how they walk the thin line between pursing happiness and pleasing their parents, especially when the two cannot go hand in hand. These Tongzhi are in love, but not without pain. "Tongzhi in Love (彼岸浮生)" will be shown with "The Blood of Yingzhou District (颖州的孩子)" at next week’s Frameline 32. Fairytale of Kathmandu "Fairytale of Kathmandu" (Northern Ireland/Nepal 2007, 60 min.) is an interesting documentary about a gay Irish poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh‘s annual trip to Nepal. Perhaps everybody have heard "There are something can’t buy, for everything else, …" However, try tell that to a gay Irish poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh. With money in his pocket, and probably a MasterCard as well, Searcaigh travels to Nepal every year, and he can get boys as young as 16 years old to have sex with him. For him, there is nothing money can’t buy. Director Neasa Ní Chianáin was invited to join celebrated Cathal Ó Searcaigh traveling to Nepal to make a documentary about Searcaigh’s spiritual journey and his generous support to the poor people living there. However, after she observes that young boys are in and out Searcaigh’s bedroom, after they were given gifts and "scholarships" for college, Chianáin begins to make a film that tells a complete different story from what it was originally planned. Is Cathal Ó Searcaigh a generous person who gives financial support to those poor boys so they can attend school? Or is he a sex tourist and take advantage of his economical status upon those young boys? The answer is quite obvious to everybody, except Searcaigh himself, who denies that he gives those boy gifts because he wants to have sex with them. He does not think he is buying these boys; he believes that he is helping them out and doing them a favor. That makes him even worse than those Western sex tourists floating around in Asian countries. At least those sex predators are straightforward with their intention. But Searcaigh wants to present himself as a savor, if not a saint, to those boys and to the poor people in Nepal, and he regards his relationships with these young boys to be his inspiration of his work. "Fairytale of Kathmandu" is a very sad and disturbing documentary to watch, but it tells a story that must be told. This film will be screened at Frameline 32.