Oscar Wilde’s only published novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, is due for a film adaptation. Dorian Gray will be released in September, 2009.

Wilde’s sexuality has been much discussed —he was definitely not heterosexual, and the hedenostic protagonist of his creation, Dorian Gray, follows suit.

For those unfamiliar with this story, here is a brief recap; Dorian Gray is a beautiful socialite, who trades his soul to keep his looks. Though he remains perfect looking, his nature becomes more vicious and evil. In contrast, a portrait of Dorian in the attic slowly gets older and uglier, reflecting the soulless monster he becomes.

The trailer looks rather faithful to the book (some parts even look like little salutes to previous film adaptations).

The film director, Oliver Parker, has suggested that the once subversive novel is nowadays more a part of tradition, and he wants to “blow off the dust”. Will this Dorian Gray really remain “the very portrait of modernity”? From the trailer, I’m not entirely convinced, but I’ll have to wait till September to say.

Meanwhile, I introduce you to what looks like (to me) an effective adaptation of Dorian Gray.

Wilde was a person of words; witty, pithy, and memorable. That this adaptation is a dance (without words), is quite a skillful switch of languages to me, from spoken, to physical:

It is choreographer/director Matthew Bourne’s Dorian Gray. In this modernised version, Dorian Gray is immortalised in billboards as the face of a new perfume. Dorian Gray is a celebrity, serial killer, and from the looks of it, a rakish devil.

Those who will like to watch more of Matthew Bourne’s Dorian Gray should click here (and wait for 1:50).

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As an aside, I am currently collecting stories of people who went for KL Pride poolside party. If you’ve not heard, Harian Metro sent a female journalist undercover to the party, and she wrote something one would expect from the tabloid that is HM.

It’s a nasty piece of work, that article, and I am angered at the parties responsible. If you, or your family, are regular readers of HM, I suggest not giving them any more business.

Apparently all kinds of scandalous things happened at the party. For one thing, how dare lesbians dance without shame? Everyone knows homosexuals are only allowed to dance with a cower in their footsteps. And….kissing? Are you mocking the hate-rag that is Harian Metro, even though they had no bloody business being there?

[ To those who hooked up, picked up, and got their rocks off that night, good on ya ]

Well, I’m glad it sounds like you all had some fun at the party; I’m sorry about the crap that HM published. Fuck what Harian Metro had to say, their version of the party was crap, and let’s face it, written to sensationalise everything. Like you wouldn’t get the same stuff in different events.

I didn’t go for the party (I’m currently not in the country). I don’t want the only thing I know about the party to be from the scummy article I read, and I’m sure there are others who would prefer we reclaim what happened that night.

I want to hear from you.

How did the party go? Did you find it friendly?

What outfit did you pick? Did you meet any new people (you hung out with your cliques, kan? )?

Did you go into the pool? Were there any interesting people?

Were you the last one standing? How many girls were wearing boybeaters?

Who had an awkward bump-in with their ex, and their ex’s ex, who is now hitting on the same straight girl as you? How was the DJ?

If you have an anecdote on how the party went, please do email lainieyeoh@gmail.com soon (really soon), I’d like to hear from you. Anything. Save me from the crap memory that came from Harian Metro.

This year, with the theme “Our Bodies, Our Rights”, the festival is focusing on issues that affect everyone, such as privacy, moral policing and human rights. We speak with co-organiser and feminist activist Jac SM Kee to find out more.

Jac SM Kee is is a feminist writer, activist, poet and occasional painter. She has written column pieces for several Malaysian newspapers, and numerous articles for both online and offline journals.

from PopTeeVee.net

PopTeeVee interviews Jac SM Kee, one of the co-organisers of Seksualiti Merdeka, about spaces and internet censorship.

I don’t know about you, but Youtube is a wonderful source of procrastination for me. Each time I can’t get work done, I head there and preload videos as an incentive to meet (or miss) my deadlines.

Lately, I’ve been on a binge of poetry videos, and I thought I’d mix some up here to share with you.

My suggestion: If you are uncomfortable with performances that contain queer references blasting out of your speakers……use headphones.

That was Dakota Camacho — on Myspace and Youtube.

Marty McConnell questions the revolution on a very popular poetry tv show. If you like what you see/hear, plenty more available here. I like the videos of female figureheads(?) who have passed away, speaking to contemporary pop culture stars. Or, start here, a poem about gay domestic violence.

Followed by Paul Mabon (very into audience participation, this one).

Regie Cabico, who also gets a bit angry about the kind of guys who are attracted to him.

Digression: If “You bring out the [noun] in me” sounds like a familiar sentence in poetry by now, it might be due to Sandra Cisneros’ “You Bring Out the Mexican in Me“.

For other examples, check out Bao Phi’s You bring out the Vietnamese in me; or queer poet Maiana Minahal’s You bring out the Filipina in me.

For poetry somehow a bit closer to home, Sharanya Manivannan’s You bring out the Sri Lankan in me (she performed regularly in KL, before moving to Madras and helping to organise the first Chennai LGBT pride parade).

A court in India recently overturned a law used to criminalise same sex relationships, by the way.

Skim, on the damages of hate. For more of Skim, I found another video here, a Myspace account, a new blog and a Facebook page.

Sarah Dopp, who also engagingly discusses queer identities, andgender, sexuality and mom. Sarah Dopp also runs a wonderful website called Genderfork. I’m personally very attracted to the Profiles section, because I get to check other people out (ie: almost be a creepy internet perve, but it doesn’t count if you don’t google anybody!).

And finally, for those with a Youtube account (and who are older than 18), you can watch Ernesto Sarewale perform in the buff, waxing poetic about Her Penis.

If you love burlesque shows, and those talented beauties who can sing, dance, and act onstage: you need to know about Broadway Bares.

As a part of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the theatre community gives back to society by putting up an extravagant burlesque show. Lots of skin in the name of charity!

A mix of genders may perform, but men are the ones who shine in this show. Watch Daniel Robinson get it on in Broadway Bares 2009 — Tight End:

I would usually warn that the video is NSFW, but with that video preview, it seems relatively self-explanatory.

More videos available from Youtube: BroadwayBares2008.

The showstopper from 2008 was apparently Matthew Morrison’s Humpty performance, which you can watch here:

You may recognise him as Sir Harry in the latest film rendition of Once Upon a Mattress. If you think he’s dreamy, look out for his cameo in musical theatre comedy series on Youtube, The Battery’s Down.

Catch more of Broadway Bares from the official website (hint: Media, Videos section).

Perhaps Dizzy’s commentary already contains everything you need to know about James Dean and Paul Newman’s smouldering exchange:

James Dean & Paul Newman had such explosive chemistry. Damn. Video repeats the first 18 seconds, but I seriously do not mind.Am not sure which moment made me sweat the most:

• Off-screen: What do you think of each other?
  Paul Newman: Wow —- Well, we can’t print that. *intense burning looks*
• James Dean: (bites lip) Kiss me.
  Paul Newman: Can’t here.
• OR come to think of it, the looks exchanged behind the clapper in the very beginning.

And the cherry on the icing;
“Well, I’m certainly not going through life with one hand tied behind my back”
— James Dean

(From that east of eden screentest, via DZZYFRFLY.)

Delivered to you by your lazy copy-pasting scribe, Lainie.

Great talk on self by Sarah Jones in one of the TED talk series. Her characters just blew me away. One of them talked about dealing with her daughter coming out. Check the video out

Thai students covering the Wonder Girls dance for the song Nobody. Apparently, this song was popular in Korea when my friend visited. You can see the five of them are having a lot of fun with this:

It’s hard to imagine this dance happening in my school, we had embedded Western definitions of masculinity within ourselves. I wish we could have pulled off something so gender-bending and fun. That’d be a keeper for the photo album.

Wait. I went to an all-girls school. Never mind then. Didn’t have boys, much less those inclined to perform dances originally choreographed for female Korean pop stars.

Still, now that I’m past my eagerness to be a Thai gender bender performer in my days of youth, I’ll no longer wish my 16-year-old (debating, choral speaking, tennis racquet swinging) girl self this dance.

(look out for the Wonder Gay shoutout at the end)

Hilarous yet educational! Enjoy. Love the bit on how the female stumped tail macaque has been observed to have the trademark “ejaculation” facial expression ONLY from mounting another female

About this talk
“Bonk” author Mary Roach delves into obscure scientific research, some of it centuries old, to make 10 surprising claims about sexual climax, ranging from the bizarre to the hilarious. (This talk is aimed at adults. Viewer discretion advised.)

About Mary Roach
Death, the afterlife, and now sex — Mary Roach tackles the most pondered and least understood conundrums that have baffled humans for centuries. (She’s funny, too.) Full bio and more links

R&B music usually falls outside my radar. Still, I am a bit familiar with “Single Ladies”, a video by Beyonce. Or rather, its effect of making certain famous lads don leotards and high heels to gyrate for the camera.

The first, and quite infamous, video that I discovered belongs to SNL, where you have Beyonce leading some lads as her back-up dancers to “Single Ladies”. Look at Justin Timberlake go!

[ Embedding for video disabled, trust me when I say click here to watch it ]

And now, perhaps with slightly less grace, but a generous amount of enthusiasm, elbow angles, and flippy hair….Joe Jonas of Jonas Brothers takes on the role of dancer for Single Ladies.

Joe Jonas – Single Ladies

If this is his first time dancing in high heels, he’s not doing too badly — considering some people can’t even balance enough to walk for the first two minutes. Still needs to work on it though .

Yknow, I’d never heard of the Jonas Brothers before this, so it was certainly an interesting introduction.

I sometimes find videos of crossdressing for comedies to be executed in very bad taste, but I reckon the two videos have a certain balance to them beyond the semi-tottering on high heels

Celebrities aren’t the only one getting down to Single Ladies on Youtube. You do get other varieties like Tyrone Jone’s:

Tyrone Jones – Single Ladies

To end the videos of lads dancing, I think you can’t go wrong with Paul Rudd. He was in the SNL skit above (as the host), and he’ll be in the bromance “I Love You, Man”, coming to theatres soon. No, he’s not dancing to Single Ladies, nor is he getting intimate with another man (sorry)…but look how zippy he gets on the dancefloor:

Youtube: Paul Rudd dancing

You know you want to dance with Paul Rudd.

Enjoy trawling the internets, I’ll get back to you all next week. I’m off camping at The Grampians for the weekend (my bff mistook my meaning when I said “I like campy men”), so ta!

Let me know what you thought of the videos, I’ve put links under each of them in case you have trouble loading all of them in this page.