Why mainstream LGBT movies are relevant today.

If you are asking yourself "Who Cares?" read on...

So, at this stage, anyone who has seen my online presence since last December will be aware of the movie Love, Simon or the book it is based upon Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda. If you keep up-to-date with award winning movies you’ve also heard of (or even seen) Call me by Your Name based on the book of the same name.

But lots of people, gay or straight might read my blogs (& other posts) and say to themselves...Who Cares? 

The Marriage Equality referendum in Ireland in May 2015 did one amazing thing. It gave LGBT people of all ages and backgrounds the opportunity to talk their family and friends. It allowed them, sometimes to verbalise for the first time, “Well, actually, I am Gay and it’s really important you support me and everyone else’s right to marry”. I loved the #RingYourGranny campaign. 

This movie is a conversation starter and LGBT people all around the World are using it to breath for the first time. As Simon’s mother says to him when he comes out:

Lots of people have used the movie to start the conversation and if you search #LoveSimon on twitter you will see a great selection of comments.

This movie can also help straight people, friends, family members, parents and grandparents understand the LGBT person they know. If you are connected to the facebook or twitterverse you might have seen posts and tweets all around the World with amazing messages. Apart from the messages themselves being an affirmation and positive thing to others, the content brings a tear also...

Whilst Love, Simon is a happily-ever-after story it’s a story that needs to be told. As one of the taglines says “Everyone deserves a love story”. Hitherto fore, we have only been given LGBT characters that are either supporting or nearly in the background. They have mostly been portrayed with negative storylines such as bullying, harassment, suicide, murder, loneliness, heartbreak and finally AIDS and death. With every other LGBT movie you are watching them with a knot in your stomach, a dread, you are waiting for the inevitable to happen and the gut wrenching punchline where the LGBT character is dead, forgotten or sidelined. The movie that springs to mind is “Boys Don’t Cry”. Even if you think of the acclaimed Brookback Mountain, we don’t even come close to a happy ending. It is so important for people to see a movie that has a happy ending.

Having director and actors who care about their art is vital for a good movie. Whether that movie is a mainstream teen romance like Love, Simon or a little more serious venture like Call me by Your Name of a young man exploring his sexuality; to see a movie with high production values and skilled artists at work is a joy. Think of the OCD detail that Kubrick gives us, the stunning seamless special effects from Spielberg and the all compelling story from Eastwood.  You might not like the subject matter of Million Dollar Baby but it is a compelling story, Hilary Swank is amazing in it and it’s a movie you have to watch to the very end. (Swank was also amazing in Boys Don’t Cry of course)

People are complaining that Simon is too normal and good looking. That he can “pass” as straight and doesn’t represent gay people. This is bullcrap. There are lots of gay people who do not fit into the pigeon hole perception of the effeminate, finger clicking, flamboyant gay. 

People are also complaining that this is just another rubbish teen rom-com with the story skewed a little. This is also bull crap. That’s the whole point of the movie (and book). Simon is normal. He is normal in every way, just like his peers. He has an idyllic life, great parents, a car, great friends etc. Even most of the school (except 2 jocks) accept him. Yes, this is a little fairytale like, but I like to think of it is aspirational. There is nothing wrong with presenting an idyllic World where everyone has a happy ending. Every other rom-com does this so why shouldn’t Simon have the same. These are two important messages that need to be told. Again...everyone deserves a love story.

Finally, COMING OUT. If you are straight and hetronormative you just don’t get it. Struggling with your sexual identity, eventually owning it and then telling the World is a personal and daunting task. At the end of Summer 2001 I remember sitting in Robertino’s, a restaurant in Wexford with my two best friends. First one, then the other came out. The first person, well everyone knew. The second was a bit of a surprise. I then came out. That was one hell of a dinner. The first person that came out, we met in school in September of 1989. We are still great friends. The second person that came out, well we met in or around 1984 or 85. He will remember exactly when. We are still great friends. I was and am so lucky to have such amazing friends.

Whilst the movie is mostly a nice teen rom-com, Simon is outed by a vindictive little shit. This brings the movie back to earth and away from its fairytale. Coming out is a personal thing, how you do it, to whom and the time scale should always be owned by that person. Most people don’t come out to the World and their dog at the same time. It’s normally done in baby steps, your best friends first, then your siblings, parents and wider World. At some stage you don’t bother telling anyone else as it doesn’t matter. Having a movie depicting this turmoil is fantastic, it tells a young LGBT person they are not alone and it goes some way to explain to straight people the horror it can be.

Check out this amazing story also for some more inspiration.

I just want to finish with this beautiful scene, WHY?...Well until every parents reaction is like this we need movies like Love, Simon.

Fini

John The Captain Ryan

Chemical Warfare in Syria, a commentary.

"I know that tit for tat revenge killings, “measured responses” & bombings never work...I simply cannot believe that any God or parent wants this to continue"

Before you go any further, there are very disturbing photos in this blog. Don’t scroll down and then give out to me. You have been warned.

I don’t even pretend to understand the dynamics going on in Syria at the moment. To delve into and understand the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is even a bigger can of worms. Of course, they are all linked on many levels. With fake news, falsified reports and doctored photographs it’s hard to tell.

What we know. The place: Douma in Syria. The date: 6^th & 7^th April 2018.

·       Dozens of Syrians choked to death after a suspected chemical attack struck the rebel-held suburb of Douma, east of Damascus, with aid groups on Sunday blaming President Bashar al-Assad’s government for the assault. (NYTimes)

·       A stream of patients with burning eyes and breathing problems were rushed to clinics after the attack at dusk on Saturday, medical and rescue groups said. (NYTimes)

·       Most of them were going to die’: Syria aid workers tell of apocalyptic scenes (Guardian)

·       The attack, the victims of which exhibited symptoms that doctors say are consistent with exposure to organophosphorus (Guardian)

·       Rescue workers said victims showed symptoms that included suffocation, central cyanosis – a blueish discolouration of the skin – foaming, corneal burns and the emission of a chlorine-like odour (Guardian)

Sources - NYTimes & Guardian.

We also know this is not the first time chemical weapons have been used, in 2013 the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Civil War has been confirmed by the United Nations and one year ago 70 people were killed in Khan Sheikhun by the use of Sarin gas. 

What is clear is that a war is being fought and innocent children are being hurt and killed. We know that Russia and America are involved.

This is wrong. I know it. I don’t understand everything going on, but, I am 100% positive that this is wrong. Parents should not have to watch their children going through this. I also know that tit for tat revenge killings, “measured responses” & bombings never work. I know this because our own country had many years of it and eventually both sides decided to end the violence. Whichever side of the conflict you support and whoever you decide to believe, we should all agree that scenes like these are EVIL and WRONG. I simply cannot believe that any God or parent wants this to continue.

Enough of me preaching; look at these photos and you decide how this can be justified.

A just war my arse. A holy war my bollix. This is plain and simple. It's EVIL and WRONG.

Here endeth the lesson.

Sekhet by Karen. K. Weakley (Book review).

“with a compelling story and interesting characters...(Weakley’s) effortless style is quite simply a joy to read"

             

I was delighted to get an advance preview of a book by another amazing Wexford author. Working in the library, I went to the shelves to find Karen’s other book that I knew of, Daughter of Arella and was astounded by what is on offer from Wexford authors. To my left I can see John Banville, (also writes as Benjamin Black) & Eoin Colfer. On the same shelf I see amazing female authors Margaret Hawkins & Cat Hogan and then to my right I see Colm Toibin. Imagine that, how daunting would it be to put one’s self out there amongst an ocean of fantastic authors, AND, I’m delighted to say that Karen does Wexford proud with her latest creation.  

iPad, tea and thoughts gathered I need to start with how surreal this is, reviewing a book written by someone who used to live less than 100 meters away from me that now lives some 7,270km away. How mad is that. For those Americans reading this, it’s Wexford in Ireland BTW, not Wexford in Pennsylvania.

I got to read the first 10% of the book and cannot wait to get my hands on the rest of it. The prologue quickly introduces us to a World of witchcraft, horror and intrigue and a battle of wills between Sekhet & the inexperience Molly who has opened up a World of hurt. I can’t wait to see how this part of the story intertwines with that of Victor Wright, a respectful Seattle Homicide Detective who has a gift (or curse) for communing with trapped souls. By day he is a detective, by night a necromancer. It has helped him on his meteoric rise in the department, his friend Molly is the only person that knows and understands his powers. His partner Joe (who fancies Molly something awful) has some idea of his powers, but doesn’t really believe in the whole thing.

We follow the trio through snow covered mountains on a hike and are introduced to Lily Davis, she is annoying Victor, she knows she is a ghost and wants his help. She doesn’t know who brutally murdered her but thinks her husband (Frankie) is going to kill someone. This cuts the hiking holiday short and they have to return to Seattle to investigate. Victor also has another really disturbing case to investigate, that of the “brutal assault, choking, and finally, a knife laceration which had caused her to bleed out” of Emily, a 6 year old. She didn’t even know she was dead, yes, this one was going to haunt him until he solved it.

Weakley’s descriptions are evocative and sensual. I love her easy flowing, descriptive style of writing. I’m an avid reader and jump from many authors, styles and genres. When I sit down to read Stephen King I know it’s going to be challenging. The element of Weakley’s writing that has stayed with me is how well she writes, how much of a page-turner and joy her work is to read. The best comparison I can think of is the style of John Grisham. On first glance an easy, quick read, but on further reflection a style that in fact is not easy to get right with a compelling story and interesting characters. This effortless style is quite simply a joy to read.

It’s strange when you know the author and where they are from; Weakley describes a church that:

“reeked of long-standing, forgotten candles, burnt to their wicks...Frankie sat quietly, eyes closed, but as tears began to sting his eyes and wet his cheeks, he threw his head back, toward the decorated ceiling”

My mind automatically went to Rowe Street church which is just around the corner from where we both lived.

(interior of Rowe Street church by Pat Sheridan)

Straight away, I know this book is ticking lots of boxes for me; witchcraft, horror, detective story and visceral violence (Karen Rose fans take note). 

Karen has recently started blogging herself and you can learn more about her HERE, you can also find her on all the normal channels: TWITTER  FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM. She comes from a family of musicians and artists; she is a doting wife, mother and most importantly a dog lover.

From the preview, I give this book an 8/10 rating for now and cannot wait to read the whole thing.

John The Captain Ryan

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan (Book Review)

"The book takes us on the usual journey for teens; that of love, lost love and love found again only of course this time it’s two boys"

Openly gay sophomore Paul lives in a gay-friendly small town in New Jersey, where homosexuality, bisexuality, and being transgender is accepted and embraced. His best friends at this stage are Joni, who he has been best friends with since early childhood and who he came out to in second grade, and Tony, who is also gay and who lives in the (much less accepting) next town over with his strict religious parents. The book takes us on the usual journey for teens; that of love, lost love and love found again only of course this time it’s two boys. Joni is also in a relationship but it turns out that her new boyfriend is demanding and controlling. Another great storyline to be tackling.

Noah, the new love interest for Paul who has been to several schools in the last few years throws Paul's life upside down. He (Paul) at first blows it but then figures things out. There is an interesting side story of how Paul and his ex (Kyle) figure out how to exist as "only" friends. Unfortunately, there is one huge problem with this book. The town is just TOO gay friendly. The cheerleaders ride Harleys, the homecoming queen used to be a guy named Daryl (she now prefers Infinite Darlene and is also the star quarterback), and the gay-straight alliance was formed to help the straight kids learn how to dance. Whilst I love reading fantasy books, well this is just a little too far. I cannot see any small town with a high-heel wearing quarterback that is allowed (with very little homophobia) to dress as a female, act a complete drama queen/bitch and then put on the football uniform and line out. Just NO. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see it happen but it’s not happening anytime soon.

In saying that, I loved how the book draws attention to the exclusion of people who are openly gay from the Boy Scouts of America and to highlight how gay-friendly the nature of Paul's hometown is, the town has exclude the organization; instead they have "Joy Scouts". This is a great commentary and response to what was a real-life situation in “Murica”.

Since the release of the book in 2003 , “Thank God” in 2013 this has changed and as of January 2017 transgender children are also allowed (read HERE) 

The story travels along a predictable route of friends pulling apart, fighting and then getting back together. It’s a really nice enjoyable read but couple this with the fantasy World of this uber gay friendly town and it’s just too unrealistic. Surely something has to end up going wrong. But it doesn’t. It’s a perfect, everyone living happily ever after story. And I’m not just being a 40 year old Grinch about this, yes the book is aimed at young adults but they shouldn’t be patronised. This is the real World and something has to go awry.

  

In saying that, I really liked the story of Tony with the ultra strict parents. This is in fact a realistic plot but it’s nice to see how his friends help and support him. Tony’s story is the one I would like to see developed more and a sequel about his life would be really interesting. How his friends help him is a great template for how straight friends can help their BFF’s when they come out. His story is the one that classes should discuss and debate.

I will be reading more of David Levithans work, I really enjoyed this book and he has written several young adult books about LGBT relationship. He is now considered one of the most important voices in YA literature, you can learn more about him and see a list of his titles on his website HERE. The book is well written and a page turner.

I give this book a 7 out of 10 planets. It loses points because I want to learn more about Tony, I want the book to be a little more realistic and not so predictable.

Other LGBT books I have reviewed are

Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde HERE

When Everything Feels Like the Movies by Raziel Reid HERE

Noah Can't Even by Simon James Green HERE

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli HERE 

 

John the Captain Ryan

Rudai23 - 23 Things for information Skills - A Summary

I’ve just finished a great course ran by the members of the Western Regional Section of the Library Association of Ireland, I’d recommend anyone to do it...

I must say, I really enjoyed doing this course. There was a nice balance of revisiting old skills and knowledge with new material. It was a great opportunity to marry some 25 years worth of experience with exploring new applications and programs. The whole area of developing your online presence and corporate identity was fascinating and could be a separate course all on its own. Huge thanks to the whole team and all the people who wrote the different exercises. Special thanks to Michelle Breen, my course supporter who put up with me pestering her all the time.

For those just starting out, there were 22 different exercises to cover, after each one you wrote a blog post detailing your experience. For most people they have to set up a new blog for the very first time. To some, this can seem a daunting task but the advice I would give is just go for it, don’t worry too much about the content and appearance of your blog, these are all things you will work on during the course and tweak until you get to your liking. The most important thing is to just get going. If you are just starting the course, I hope this blog will give you an idea of what you are getting yourself into. Sometimes, if I was stuck, I would look to see how others approached the exercise so maybe this might help you in this way also. For me, this blog will act as a reminder of everything covered and allow me to reflect on the whole experience.  

At intervals you do a reflective exercise on the section just complete and blog about that also. When you’ve completed these reflective blogs you are awarded badges which detail what you have covered. 

So, here’s how it all went down. (If you want to just browse my blog, the best way to find the Rudai23 posts is to scroll down on the left until you come to labels. Then click on Rudai23 and you will find all the posts about the course)

Thing 1 – Setting up a blog.

The first exercise was to look at the different programs one can use to blog with. I chose Blogger which is owned by Google purely because I already had a Gmail account so it’s easier to cross-share your content. Set-up during the first week of September 2017, I already had an idea of what I wanted to do and the appearance of my page.  I played around with the templates and settings and went with the name of John The Captain Ryan. My Blog website is https://johnthecaptainryan.blogspot.ie but .COM also works.       

             

Thing 2 - Write Your First Blog Post             

Posted on 12th September with a title of: The Girl with all the gifts, the link is HERE. Apart from doing the course, I also wanted to blog about the things I love so I planned on doing book, movie and TV series reviews and Scrabble. I went with a movie review for my first blog.         

Thing 3 – Image Banks            

Posted on 21st September with a title of: Copy Right or Wrong, the link is HERE. This was an interesting exercise exploring the use of images and understanding the use and sharing of images. A lot of the time now, I try to do my own artwork.             

  

Thing 4 - Communicating Visually            

Posted on 2nd October with a title of: Communication Visually, the link is HERE. This was great fun and something I will use again. 

Thing 5 - Video Presentations             

Posted on 5th October with a title of: Video Presentation, the link is HERE. I did my first ever screen capture video and learnt loads. Be well prepared before you start!

Thing 6 - Reflective Practice            

Posted on 10th October with a title of: My Journey So Far Doing the Rudai 23 Course, the link is HERE.

At the same time you learn how to create an account with Open Badge Passport, how to use the application and get this sample badge:

Thing 7.1 - Online Exhibitions         

Posted on 11th October with a title of: Online Exhibition (part 1), the link is HERE. This was also interesting, with lots of options to examine.

Thing 7.2 - Online Exhibitions         

Posted on 16th October with a title of: Tintern Abbey Exhibition (part 2), the link is HERE. 

During blogging over the previous few months I had noticed that sometimes images were disappearing from my blog. This was not ideal when an exhibition blog was all about images. After asking my course tutor for advice and searching the internet for solutions, I eventually found one so blogged about it, titled Fixing Broken Images in Blogger - HERE

Thing 8.1 - Infographics          

Posted on 23rd October with a title of: Be Aware LGBT, the link is HERE

Thing 8.2 - Infographics         

Posted on 31st October with a title of: King is King, I redid Thing 8 and the link is HERE. My first attempt was dreadful because I hadn’t prepared my information and honed my message well enough. This is the reason I redid this exercise.

Thing 9 - Reflective Practice            

Posted on 31st October with a title of: Reflective Post, the link is HERE

After a couple of days, if successful you will get your first badge titled “Visual Communicator” (based on your Thing 9 reflective post) which looks like this:

During the course, I found the reflective practices difficult but they were interesting.

Thing 10 - Networking Tools            

Posted on 16th November with a title of: Networking Tools, the link is HERE. This was the first exercise where we were setting-up social media accounts (if you didn’t already have some).

Thing 11 - Your Professional Brand            

Posted on 4th December with a title of: From Aardvarks to Anoraks..., the link is HERE. This is a fascinating exercise which gets you to examine your online presence and create a cohesive online profile for yourself.

Thing 12 - Collaborative Tools            

Posted on 8th December with a title of: Collaborating, the link is HERE. We looked at different ways of collaborating with colleagues but for me face-to-face is still the best way to work as long as everyone is well prepared beforehand.

Thing 13 - Reflective Practice            

Posted on 8th December with a title of: Reflective Blog, the link is HERE. This exercise is based the experience of Things 10, 11 & 12. I also did an overview of my blogging experience to date.

I concluded with the following: “I’m really happy with where by blogging is going and my ever developing online presence.  My blog has now over 3350 views with a massive amount of that traffic coming from Facebook.  I will need to use Twitter and Instagram a little more in the future so all my eggs are not in the one basket and hope to help others shares their blogs too.  A great way to get a blog noticed is cross promotion between other bloggers so I will be looking for a few other bloggers to do this with.”

This is the next badge you get after completing Thing 13 titled Online Networker.

We took a much needed break after this and restarted in the New Year. I was really enjoying blogging and couldn’t wait to get going again. Over the next couple of weeks I had a good look at my blog, wrote a couple of summary blogs, tweaked the appearance and installed a couple of new gadgets.

Thing 14 – Personal Information Management

Posted on 16^th January with a title of: Personal Information Management, the link is HERE, this is massive and after the Cambridge Analytic & Facebook mess even more important.

Thing 15 – Evaluation information.

Posted on 25th January with a title of: Wikipedia - What is it all about, the link is HERE. You explore and are given the opportunity to evaluate and correct information in Wikipedia. Wikipedia want groups of volunteers to update and create new content for their website. I think Wikipedia should instead pay Library Professionals to do the job. This is the best way for Wikipedia to become a resource of repute.

Thing 16 – Your Digital Footprint

Posted on 31^st January with a title of: Your Digital Footprint, the link is HERE, this exercise gets you to evaluate your online presence and think about your online security.

Thing 17 – Sharing Your Work

Posted on 13^th February with a title of: Reflective Blog, the link is HERE . I had no previous presentation to share so had to create one.

Thing 18 – Reflective Practice

Posted on 19^th February with a title of: Reflective Blog, the link is HERE. This exercise is a reflection based on Things 14, 15, 16 & 17. Following completion you get this badge for Critical Thinker:

Thing 19 - Podcasts

Posted on 22^nd February with a title of: Podcasting, the link is HERE. This was awesome and I will be doing more podcasts.

Thing 20 – Advocacy and Engagement

Posted on 27^th February with a title of: Advocacy in the Library, the link is HERE. This was interesting and something I have never done for the library, but I have extensive experience advocating for the LGBT community.              

Thing 21 – Professional Groups

Posted on 27^th February with a title of: Library Professional Groups, the link is HERE. This is all about connecting with Library professional groups around the World.  

Thing 22 – Reflective Practice

Posted on 6^th March with a title of: Reflective Practice, the link is HERE. This brings together your experience of Things 19, 20 & 21.

You get the 5th badge following completion of Thing 22 titled Engaged Professional.

I thought it would have been interesting to do a reflective post of the whole experience so that’s mine. As I move forward with blogging, I have to look into backing-up my blog and perhaps hosting my page as I don’t want to leave everything in the hands of Google. I’ve read some nightmare stories of, when a blog is reported for breach of conditions Google just closes down the page and people lose everything. Saying that, I don’t intend breaching any conditions, but, if someone reported my page because they don’t like the content, (e.g. an extreme right wing keyboard warrior complaining about my LGBT content) I’d hate to lose it all.

Picking up from my mid-course conclusion, I’m still enjoying blogging and since the 8^th December when I had 3350 page views it’s now jumped to 16,390 page views so something is working.

Huge thanks to the Rudai23 team who started me on my blogging experience.

Blog On Peeps.

John the Captain Ryan