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.

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)

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.

A short documentary offering a glimpse into the lives of four transgenders in the United States, and their stories.

Alishia is a firefighter. Enoch is a university professor. Dana is a software engineer. Jesse is an HIV prevention educator. Each makes invaluable contributions in the work place and in the community. And each faces the threat of losing a job, being denied housing or health care, and suffering violence and harassment simply for being transgender.

In Everyone Matters: Dignity and Safety for Transgender People – a new video produced by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders(GLAD) Transgender Rights Proejct, Massachusetts Transgender Political Coaltion (MTPC), and MassEquality – Alishia, Enoch, Dana, and Jesse talk about their jobs, their family, their hopes, and their worries. Framed by hope and optimism, their stories nevertheless show how vulnerable transgender people still are, and highlight the need for comprehensive laws to ensure that people can obtain and retain employment, remain safe on the streets, and have access to health care and housing.

Everyone Matters allows the viewer to hear from transgender people first-hand about their lives, and makes a powerful case for the passage of transgender-inclusive anti-discrimination and hate crimes laws in Massachusetts and beyond.

Please support the passage of transgender-inclusive non-discrimination and hate crimes legislation. For more information visit http://www.glaad.org

Hat-tip: Helen G (Bird Of Paradox)

Image from www.glad.org

Hi, how’s everyone doing? I have a video to share with you all, but first, an introduction:

screencap of “I’m F**king Matt Damon”

I don’t know if you people caught a particular episode of Jimmy Kimmel’s talkshow, in conjunction with his 5-year anniversary with girlfriend Sarah Silverman. They screen a duet Silverman performs with Matt Damon, called “I’m F**king Matt Damon“. The title sums it up, really.

So what does Jimmy Kimmel do? Why, get even.

screencap of “I’m F**king Ben Affleck”

With multitude gay references, this is Jimmy Kimmel and Friends with “I’m F*$king Ben Affleck”. Everyone, this is a list of Hollywood stars winking at you (with a clip of Silverman’s “I’m F**king Matt Damon” in the beginning):

Spot the celebrity cameos singing! Stop reading and just watch the video if you like to identify your own celebs!

There’s Brad Pitt as the Fedex guy, Perry Ferrell (of Jane’s Addiction!), the Madden brothers, Josh Groban, Macy Gray, Robin Williams, Cameron Diaz, Joan Jett(!), Harrison Ford, Christina Applegate, Lance Bass, Huey Lewis and of course, Ben Affleck. Identify the rest of them yourself, it’s quite fun.

Also, words cannot describe how surreal it is to have Josh Groban bellow that Jimmy Kimmel is …er, shtupping…Ben Affleck.

A line of dancers having a whole lot of fun to (unless my ears deceive me) Relient K’s “12 days of Christmas”.

I’m a bit early, but Merry Christmas

I may be spending too much time on Youtube, I know. I do love the shows available there though, from geek haven The Guild, to wacky Japanese talent shows. The sheer volume of content online means you can find queer-friendly content (or plenty more videos not related to sexuality). 

Right now, I have two videos I find hilarious, about people who are adamantly not gay.

This is a song by Ukulady, called “If I was gay”, written specially for (her Myspace friend?) Bridget McManus on her show. I think plenty of lesbians have been through some of these (or will be!) and can laugh at the cliches that get thrown in here.

If I was gay I’d totally make out with you

I’d touch your cooter and your boobies through your clothes

By the second date I might go below your skirt

But first we’d show each other photos of our cats

We’ll get matching tribal tattoos on our backs

And you’ll show me how to strap on that equipment

And we’ll giggle about my late gay development

(want to hear that second verse?)

 

If I was gay I’d totally make out with you

I’d make you mixed cds and text you all the time

And we’ll drink expensive wine and I’ll move in within a week

And all the lesbians will warn you that I’m straight

But we’ll ignore them because the sex will be great

And we’ll argue about adoption or the turkey baster

And my gay men will be so jealous

And my boyfriend will want to watch us 

 

If I was gay I’d totally make out with you

But since I’m not let’s just be best girlfriends

And I’ll hold your hair back when you barf on New Years Eve

And I’ll set you up with dykes that I keep up my sleeve

And there’ll always be a bit of sexual tension

Cause both of us love the extra attention

(cause we’re comedy whores)

Extra bolded sentences are from me, yes. *whistles*.

The next one is a series on Youtube. It’s brought to you by C Spot (also responsible for the awesome Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine show. I’ve just started watching it, so I can’t comment too much – this is what the website says:

Gaytown – great for gays, sucks for Owen. As a straight man living in a town where gay is normal, how can Owen fit in? He’s quest for acceptance begins in this first episode

Looks promising so far. To produce content like this, and the Ukulady’s song, you need a fair bit of exposure to some of the queer community’s quirks (and I talk as if we’re so different and share One Queer Hive Mind, my bad, I know).

Can you see why I’m on Youtube too much?

[ I may be developing a little, tiny, itty bitty, VERY HUGE crush on Bridget McManus :") ]