Eine Kleine Nachtdenken: A Few Little Night-Thoughts

1. Not so very long ago, the SyncMoms were interviewed about Their Baby Boys. When I stumble across the link, it will go here. Meanwhile, these observations. If Mama Bass’s recollections of the budding Poofu aren’t the ultimate story of a good little gay boy’s growing up, I'll eat a Confederate kepi. And as for Karen Chasez’s reference to Shazam’s ‘questioning’ period....

2. I've been thinking about the level of subliminal (and not always subliminal) slashiness in vids: there’s a thesis topic for you kids, ‘The Semiotics of Male-Male Relationships in Boyband Videos’.... The following points have occurred to me.

A. There’re are all the business-related, Lou-related, and fan-pressure-related subtexts in the BBB (i.e., ’N Sync’s Bye, Bye, Bye) vid, but what is the primary theme? Running like hell from ‘scary’ [i.e., to Family members], sexually-mature-and-thus-threatening-and-predatory [again, to any gay guy] women. With your buds. To your bud. That’s what makes the whole Basez dynamic therein so powerful, with or without car chases.

B. For theme, then, BBB is possibly the second queerest boyband vid ever. Maybe first. Stay tuned.

C. TIPY (This I Promise You) is admittedly subtler. I will note that whilst everyone else, even Poofu, gets contextualized in a sexually ‘safe’ rural elysium of redwoods, Shazam gets set against a quick cut to the ultimate symbol of urban San Fran (and Rice-A-Roni), the cable cars. Why didn’t they just put in the long shot down Castro and be done with it?

D. There is now a challenger to BBB for Highest Queer Sensibility in a ‘declining the embraces of womankind in favor of male bonding, then running like hell from the Eternal Feminine when she shows up, pissed and stalking’ vid (there should be a specific category for this, really). That of course is the whole Howie-and-Hamhock sequence in The Call. I don't know how a director could possibly make Nick-ay and Thweet D look any gayer....

3. In one of my stories, I refer, deprecatingly, to Justin’s late 2001 ‘Tim McVeigh’ haircut. You can imagine the hell I caught for that one. Fine. But I’ll say this much. If Justy boy wants to avoid the ‘militia’ snarks and disses, he can at least stop wearing camo tees with a buzzcut.

Questions? Comments? Would anyone care for a mint?

- Ian the Overly Academic