Netflix Streaming: Handsome Harry

OMG! It has been a long long time since I have seen a small independent gay movie with such spot on production. Too long! This film just stands alone in the current crowd as unique in that fact. Well done!

The film is about this rugged dashing older man who gets a call from an old Navy buddy who is dying. So they meet up and they discuss the terrible beating and maiming of one of their fellow Navy shipmates on their old ship. Seems the dying man wants some closure and maybe a little forgiveness. So off Handsome Harry goes to rediscover the truth of what he has forgotten about that night and see the old crew mates again and maybe see the victim David.

Handsome Harry came out in 2009 and the lead is the “very handsome” Jamey Sheridan who in my opinion pulls this whole melodramatic angst ridden mess of a flick through till the end. Many many way too many scenes survived strictly because he is so capable of acting out the brutish masculine emotions necessary here despite some utterly lame and frankly illogical writing.

For him alone you should check this film out. He worked his ass off!

I am still stuck with giving this film a big old C. Now I am sure many of you will wonder why but several key parts of this film just do not add up for me. Take the flashbacks that keep getting thrown in our face… Vietnam? Not only Vietnam, but Vietnam War and Jazz? If you had told me Korean War or World War 2 and Jazz no problem I would have been fine. But Vietnam War and Jazz? What happened to rock music and hookers? Robert Altman ring a bell? Robin Williams maybe?

Not just that though… The way the young guys are portrayed as “teenagers” or young men or whatever in 1973 is all off from the type of folks I knew back then. I mean for the early seventies they come across as prissy and stodgy even when their backgrounds might have suggested more rock music and t-shirts and jeans and pot smoking yet you end up seeing all of them as straight laced and repressive and pretty much innocent late teens like in a World War 2 movie. Sailors smoking in “Jazz clubs” and going to “whore houses” just strikes me as not very “seventies like” or Playboy Club. I kept getting stuck on this and I wonder if anyone else will.

It’s mainly because the flashbacks are the core of this film and they simply feel wrong to me is the reason that I am taking off so many points. As Erastes would say “historically inaccurate” but that is not the only thing glossed over in this film. The very end we finally meet DAVID. It’s big tears time and he comes across as one of my most hated gay stereotypes.

Can you guess which one that is? The gay saint! The Magic Queer! Oh fucking christ on a stick!

This guy who was crippled by his closet case “lover” and friends… Oops, that’s a small spoiler there but never mind. Anyway, David is just way too “saintly” and “all knowing” and overly conciliatory for me. You want to make me feel objectified then watch me squirm by making gay guys into these deeply moving, deeply loving, deeply understanding freaks from hell. Teenage freaks from hell no less.

When David says he has been keeping tabs on Harry and starts rattling off all these facts about his life that was not implying love to me. That was a pure stalker moment. Extreme OCD Playhouse! No getting over anything for this crowd. No maturing and moving on. No forgetting or forgiving anyone. Every single one of these characters has to stay emotionally distraught and stunted for the rest of their lives.

Oh and his hand injury was so pathetic and also over done. Did they burn his hand? Because my own father busted his hand and an arm and a leg while crawling around on helicopters in the Army and he still has use of his hand and his arm and leg. I can see not being a surgeon or a classical pianist after a severe bust but I am not so sure Jazz piano is all that demanding.

The over wrought twists of the ending was simply some of many aspects of this film I found difficult to swallow and taking all the various things that get fudged I came away feeling manipulated by the bad writing. Still hey, it’s a halfway decent gay movie with some good acting on Netflix so give it a look see. I liked Jamey Sheridan a lot and he needed more nude scenes as far as I was concerned. Maybe someone can build him an even better film to see him in all his glory.

Grade C but nice try.

Infamous 2

I really liked the first Infamous game. Despite it’s various flaws like it’s moral choice system and it’s generally dumb monster attacks and increasingly unbelievable one shot and you are dead enemy snipers it allowed you to roam around a sandbox style environment and play super hero. In fact to make the game even more enjoyable Sony was giving Infamous 1 away to make up for the recent network hack they suffered. That is a really great deal to me.

The problem here with the new Infamous 2 is even though it continues to sit on my machine waiting for me to force myself to play it. That’s the whole problem the forcing myself to play it part. I do not feel motivated at all. It is too similar to the last time around flaws and all. Despite the new plot and different voice acting I constantly feel like I already did this part and I already spent time getting some arbitrary achievement or that similar power etc etc.

So I guess if you have not played the first Infamous or followed the storyline found there then get it cheap or free right now and play the hell out of that one. If you really really liked the first one and want more of the same then buy Infamous 2 but understand it feels like they tacked on some more levels to the old game.

It’s not a horrible game at all it’s just a slight case of disappointment I am feeling here.

In all honesty I would not pay full price just to play some more of the same game only remixed ever so slightly. Wait to get it on sale or something. I am feeling meh about this one so Grade C but only if you have the first one already.

Dragon Age 2

JESUS CHRIST! This game is hard it’s really really glitchy and it is nothing for it to mess up and make you go back a whole chapter to start over again. Like I have done almost four times now.

This is bad guys. Even for an RPG. Because this is not a simple little walk through game it is a pretty complex storyline with several of the NPC characters that must be triggered for you to finish this game correctly and sometimes it even forgets to trigger them for you if you are not at the right time and place for them to happen. The story is cinematic but easy to lose track of without a walk through handy. You get all the way to Chapter 2 almost halfway through the game finally and you figure out the relic and Isabella happens to be missing from your story line and BAM!

You have to go back to an old save of the game and replay to get that character trigger.

Wow, This is bad guys. So even though I love the Man Love elements found here this is a hard game to recommend to anyone. It’s an incredibly hard game to say that anyone can just pick up and get into because it is so complex and so involved and you will be putting hours into this thing to get anything out of it.

Then I have to tell you about the unpatched glitches and the save game issues and the incredibly hard battle scenes the glitchy leveling system where you should not let it make all the choices for you because it sucks and crippled characters create even more problems and incredibly hard battle scenes that make no sense being as hard as they are and you have to prepare for in order to win some of them despite previous victories with similar baddies.

OMG! It really was not ready for prime time.

Listen, If you can handle the complexity of a game as involved or even more so than say your typical Fallout 3 or maybe the last Dragon Age game then try this one out since you might be able to handle it’s various and sundry problems but if you are a casual gamer then this will be the last thing you will want to spend any money on.

Grade C

Lynn Lorenz ~ Rougaroux Social Club: Bayou Dreams
From: Loose Id

Scott cleared his throat. “My name is Scott Dupree, and this is all my mother‟s fault.”

Ted stared, then laughed. “You‟re blaming your mother? Isn‟t that sort of clichéd?”

“Not for being gay. I‟m not gay. I told you that.”

“Right. So how did I taste? Want more?” Ted pushed the man, knowing he should just keep his mouth shut, but damn him, he wanted another kiss, another touch.

“No. She cast a spell.” He rolled his eyes.

“A spell? Like a voodoo spell?” Ted frowned. “I don‟t believe in that shit.”

“So how do you explain this?” Scott waved his hand back and forth between them.

He had him there. Ted didn‟t know how to explain it. But if Scott really wasn‟t gay…?

“You are straight.”

“Yes. That‟s what I‟ve been trying to tell you.” Scott‟s gaze begged Ted to believe him.

“I believe you.” He slumped. “I can‟t do this again. I can‟t fall for another straight man.” He bit his lip, winced, and looked out the window. “It‟ll kill me, this time.”

“This time?” Scott cocked his head. “This has happened to you before?”

“Not this. But back in New Orleans I fell for my patrol partner. Straight and married with kids.” Ted traced the line of the dashboard with his fingertip, unsure of the wisdom of telling his secrets to a complete stranger. “It didn‟t turn out well.”

“Merde. I would say I didn‟t believe in spells either, but here we are. And I just kissed a man.” He bumped his head against the headrest. “And it gets worse.”

“Worse? Than this?” Ted grunted. “Lay it on me.”

“You‟re my mate.” Scott closed his eyes.

Ted listened to the change in Scott‟s breathing, to the way the man‟s smell changed, wanting to do nothing more than lick his way over every inch of skin.

“Your mate?” Ted swallowed. It sounded weird, yet perfectly right. “I‟m your mate? What are we? Tarzan and Jane? ‟Cause I‟m telling you right now, you might be bigger than me, but I am not a bottom.”

“Forget it. Forget I said that.” Scott shook his head. “What are we going to do?”

“I don‟t know. I know what I want to do.” Ted groaned, praying Scott would

A long moment later, Scott whispered, “What do you want to do? To me.”

“I want to suck your dick. Take you in my mouth, taste you, lick your balls, make you say my name when you come, and swallow your cum down.” Ted looked Scott straight in the eye.

Scott stared back, then his gaze dropped to Ted‟s crotch, where the evidence of Ted‟s arousal strained against his jeans.

Ted found Scott‟s erection answering back.

“Ho-ly shit,” Scott whispered. He‟d never been so turned on, so hot and primed for sex in his life. Just the thought of Ted‟s mouth on his cock nearly set him off.

This was so fucking bad he wanted to cry.

“I think I can break the spell,” Scott said. “I think I can get my mother to reverse it.”

“Can she do that?” Ted looked hopeful, and something about that cut right into Scott‟s heart.

“I‟m not sure. This is some powerful stuff.”

“You‟re telling me. I‟ve been dreaming about you for months, man.” Ted ran his hand through his hair, and Scott resisted the urge to push back an escaped lock.

“I just need some time to talk to her and Mike.”

“Mike? Who‟s that?” Ted sat up, bristling as if threatened.

“Whoa! He‟s my best friend.” Scott put his hands out to halt the other man from getting his hackles up. Just like a wolf would.

“What‟s he know about this?”

Scott exhaled. “There‟s more.”

“More than we‟re under a voodoo spell? More than you saying I‟m your mate? What the hell else could there be?” Ted shouted.

“I‟m a werewolf.” Page ~ 54

I really liked the premise for this book. What if the Alpha’s wolf was gay but not the Alpha? Then one night the wolf decides to order out “2 piece & a biscuit”.

In fact I would have loved this whole story a whole hell of a lot more if someone had started laughing because the whole idea was just a real comedy gold mine.

Lynn plays this one “straight” though I guess you could say.

I even bought all the intensity of their meeting and the disbelief and difficulties of the situation and the building frustration of finally knowing who your mate is etc etc etc.

All up until Ted goes back to New Orleans.

Then suddenly he is getting attacked by goons for no reason, goons who work for a “werewolf judge?” for no reason, at least none I could figure out and Scott has to rescue him and suddenly Scott is fine with the idea of Ted being a man and Ted is not and…

The story started to fall apart like someone left this cake out in the rain.

I think the worst problem for me was Scott suddenly loses his trepidation over a male mate so Ted looks like a total ass when he keeps going back and forth about he loves Scott but he hates the idea of commitment blah blah blah just because that seemed to be the only way to drag this whole story out and this story my friends ends up dragging out for far too long after the natural stopping point is reached.

In fact even the dialog between Scott and Mike and Scott and Ted and Scott and the rest of the pack started to bother me like I kept thinking why they would say that to each other in that way. The familiarity of expression was not there when it should have been and there when it should not have been if you know what I mean.

“You found your mate? What the hell happened to the gay dude?” Mike sounded out of breath, as if he‟d just been running.

“It is the gay dude. It‟s Ted.” Now he had to gauge Mike‟s reaction.

“Cool. It‟s going to freak everyone out, you know.” Mike laughed. Scott should have known Mike would stand behind him, just like he‟d said.

“I got you behind me on this, right?” Scott had to ask.

“Right behind you. Like I told you before, better a gay mate than Wyatt for a boss. Merde, I hate that guy,” Mike cursed. “What are you going to do about everyone else?”

“I have no idea.”

“Look, I‟m going to talk to Sharie.”

“What for?”

“She‟s on a zillion committees with the other wives. She‟ll make some calls.”

“Thanks, I appreciate that.” Scott hung up.

“Mike‟s with us.” He exhaled. That was one. No wait, two, and maybe more, because the pack‟s mates would have the right to vote also. “He‟s going to get his wife Sharie to call around for more support from the women.”

“Great. Wives in motion. We‟re set.” Ted looked at Scott and then burst into laughter.

“Shut up.” Scott smacked him on the arm. “They might not be wolves, but they know how to handle them.”

Ted glanced at his watch. “We‟ve got three hours before the meeting. What should we do?”

Scott grinned.

“Besides that. Seriously, Scott. Mike‟s right. This is a political thing. You need to gather supporters. Walking into that place and not knowing where you stand is crazy.”

“You‟re right.”

“What about your deputies? The pack members on the force? Would they stand behind you?”

“I don‟t know.” Scott shrugged.

“Well, let‟s find out.” Ted pointed to the cell phone. “Call or go to the station?”

“I think I better make a personal appearance. You too.” Scott stood. “And after that, I should swing by the fire station and talk to those guys too, but that‟s where Wyatt works.”

“Maybe you should let Mike deal with that.” “Good plan.” He called Mike back.

“Hey, can you find out from your men if they‟ll support me in this?”

“Now you‟re talking like the Scott I know and love. None of that sad-sack shit. Let‟s get this party started!” Mike whooped and hung up.

“Mike‟s on it.” Scott nodded and offered Ted his hand.

Ted took it and got on his feet. “Great. Let‟s go.” Page ~ 155

Gee Darla, let’s get Spanky and Alfalfa and put on a play in the old barn!

This was all so sad because the first part of the book had obviously been worked on lovingly by the author and was solid and was based on such a great idea and I just wish the story had ended as tightly as it began.

Mommy, where have all the editors gone? Grade C

Finn Marlowe ~ A Thread Of Deepest Black
From: Samhain Publishing

“Begging already?”

“No, Killian.”

“Hush, then, and come here. I want you. I’m gonna kiss you senseless.” They met in the middle and
Killian was on him instantly, his mouth tasting, his hands roving, his body dominating. Bigger and stronger in human form, he covered Colton completely, taking full possession of his prize. Their hipbones rubbed together. Killian rubbed his erection against Colton’s belly and stimulated the man’s cock into a solid rod he liked very much, and he was almost sorry Colton would only be getting tonight, not giving. The only way Colton was getting a climax tonight was with Killian’s cock fully buried inside him. Then he could come all he wanted.

If he didn’t kiss Colton senseless, he certainly kissed him breathless. And kissing Colton breathless somewhat worked on himself, too. Killian was panting. A fine sweat prickled his chest where their bodies had been pressed tight together. The lesser thatch on Colton’s chest was damp and matted. His nipples were hard nubs and his lips so plump they looked ready to burst. If Killian wasn’t careful with himself, he’d end up rushing and ruining everything. You only got one opportunity to take someone’s virginity, and if he rushed, Colton wouldn’t beg, and begging was the best of all things.

Patience. He must be patient. A little small talk would be good. “I like it when you kiss me like that. When you apply yourself, you make a good job of it.”

It wasn’t that pretty pink blush, but his shy one was embarrassed. “I like it when you kiss me too,” Colton confessed. Freely confessed. Ah.

“Do I smell better now?”

“Yes.”

“Oh? No more burning matches?”

He shook his head. “Wood smoke—maybe.” ~ Page 43

I really liked the BDSM aspects mixed with the paranormal of a werewolf/shifter conflict found in the story here. I was also amazed the writer had not gone with the easy insta-love of the unexpected mate.

The progression of Killian seducing, or was it coercing (it’s so hard to tell these days), Colton into a Gay BDSM relationship was actually sort of fun in a paranormal “nothing is real, anything goes” sorta way because you are plainly outside any BDSM formalities in this type of fantasy.

I even was able to successfully ignore Killian wringing his hands with glee over how Colton was a “straight virgin” in his best Barbara Cartland hero moment. As shown in the above scene.

Listen people you are not doing anything new here you are simply switching one of the character’s gender and using standard 70s romance tropes and calling it “dark” however you please so take your beating and like it. But I am not a big old doody head so if you are making me believe werewolf and shifters and magic are real then I can go along with yet another “Straight To Gay/Gay For You” character suddenly discovering his inner queen.

I liked the characters for the most part although I thought Colton was a little overly dramatic and whiny (Not to mention suicidal but let’s consider that as a minor character flaw.) but luckily by the point he got annoying he was getting sufficiently abused by Killian. That’s when I REALLY liked the BDSM especially when Colton had his mouth full and Killian could not ask him anymore pointless questions he would spend pages of book time not answering. Hey it worked for me, and I was actually finding myself enjoying the whole simple but interesting storyline.

The first ten chapters showed the writer had spent a great deal of time carefully defining the progress of the relationship and making it work within the boundaries setup originally by the story. Then came Chapter Eleven… Yeah that “Lost Wages” thing. *sigh*

When the writer started elaborating and attempting world building outside those boundaries so well used in the first ten chapters things went down hill fast for me.

Scenes where I, as the reader, was shown something happening did not make any sense till we were able to get to yet another BDSM/sex scene where we got a tedious “after the fact” retelling of events to explain what had been going on.

That’s when it hit me that the only way these characters communicated is if they were in a BDSM/sex scene.

This got really silly when they went all the way to Europe to have yet another BDSM/sex scene where they carefully planned their assault on the evil empire or whatever. I was scratching my head about why we had to go all the way there for something that could have been done back at the ranch so to speak.

I think the most disappointing part for me was the wonderful magical whipping scene where Killian removes all the EVIL that has corrupted his shifter lover Colton which was honestly an outright touching BDSM scene because Colton had made such a big deal about how disgraced and dishonorable he had become.

Then after that scene when I was expecting a little more appreciation or even OMG! trust of Killian and his abilities to magically fix these deeply affecting issues that Colton assumed were unfixable… and nothing!

It was like there were more important things to focus on at that point in the story so why bother with any deep abiding appreciation or growing affection or maybe a romantic culmination for the obvious love being shown?

Anyway, in summary the issues I had were…

The romance between the characters became stagnant or at times secondary or worse.

Repetitive BDSM/sex scenes

Repetitive retelling and confessional scenes (Which actually were the same scenes as the repetitive BDSM/sex scenes.)

“Telling me” as a reader instead of “showing me” action scenes in a way that made sense.

Editing because I kept screaming “edit” after Chapter Eleven hit. Scenes could have been dropped or simply combined.

I did not hate the story because I appreciate the work I can see in the first ten chapters which rocked but I cannot say I loved the story because everything after that was… everything after that. So comparing this BDSM Werewolf Romance to Kim Dare ~ The Mark Of An Alpha I recently reviewed I have to give more credit to Kim for not just her great BDSM scenes but taking more time to sell me the romance.

In closing I think the elaboration of the plot is what hurt most here and it reminds me that my favorite Gay Romance is often the surprisingly simple “to the point” story line with just some really well developed characters. Maybe that’s just my bias or my opinion but that’s what works for me more often than not. Grade C

Fable 3 (Only on the XBOX 360)

I have been in a grind lately. Mostly work work work so that means being available at all these weird hours to do really boring stuff and hang around on phone calls. So what a more perfect time to try out Fable 3!

See, I liked Fable 2 a lot. I mean it had it’s various bugs when it first came out but by the time the “Platinum Hits” edition” hit the shelves “most” of the bad bugs had been patched right up. It still took a ton of time to get into the game being a fantasy RPG and you had to spend so much of it building a small real estate empire in order to get the more interesting weapons and so on.

That’s the big nasty problem with RPGs though in my opinion. More often then not they turn people off with what I call THE GRIND or what people mostly call OCD management. You have to get this item in order to do this quest and so you have to spend hours upon hours game time at some in game job in order to get the game item to do the dang things you bought the game for.

Most people find that outrageously boring and not what they want in a game and I hate to say it but they are for the most part correct. Menial tasks presented as video game entertainment pretty much suck unless the payoff is massive.

Fable 2 had these issues in spades but after everything was said and done I can best sum the game up in two words…
endearing and enduring.

It was endearing because of your dog buddy old pal who followed you through the game to the bitter bitter end (SOB!) and the artwork which is very much in the Disney realm of fantasy fun. The term enduring comes from the fact that honestly the game felt like it could be played any way you wanted with options galore on the side.

You could run through the main quest with the minimal amount of “Grinding” and still see most of the good stuff but still “win the game” in record time OR you could spend however much time building and investing your way through the game taking advantage of all the side quests and jobs and people to do all sorts of fun things.

Gay and straight characters of both genders were available to have sex with and marry and you could buy houses and wedding rings and have kids and and and… Basically if Fable 2 were a book it was even better than one of those “choose your own adventure” deals because you could fairly easily rewrite huge portions of game time without once going near the main quest meant to be followed by the author.

That was Fable 2… What about Fable 3 the new game? IS IT NOT BETTER?

NO!

Sad to say but after playing through Fable 3 twice now I have to tell you in no way is this sequel better. See the author wanted to not just tell a story but to push a moral or point of view and frankly his “point of view” sucks ass.

Fable 3 can be summarized in two sections. The beginning part (Where you lead your people to revolution) and the ending part (Where you have to be king). The first part which is a close if not exact copy of Fable 2 mechanics and style with some added on bits and stuff taken away but still it is basically Fable 2 with some better graphics.

Gone are the ever growing lists used in the inventory system of old Fable 2. Now in Fable 3 everything is done in this strange little sanctuary you pull up by pausing the game. All your weapons and clothes and everything you gather in the game is stored there.

Now the list inventory in Fable 2 sucked. Like if you had a huge pile of books they would show up on a “books and documents” list but they had no order, not even alphabetical order. Just this list of “books and documents” roughly arranged in the order you got them.

That hodgepodge list stuff was bad but in Fable 3 you now have to either wait for the game to decide to show you when you have to use an item or weapon in a d-pad type trigger or you have to pause the game and enter the sanctuary and shuffle through a few screens to find what you want to wear or use. The problem is they did this over simplification to other parts of the inventory too.

Like for example doing things with the characters you meet in the game. In Fable 2 you pulled up a menu that let you use the various expressions you learned on the people you met in the game to get them to react to you. Or you could use those same expressions on a whole crowd of people to get a reaction. Or you could try to use those expressions to seduce a person or marry them or get them to fight you etc etc. You had the freedom to choose.

In Fable 3 all that choice and freedom and fun has been dumbed down to being able to trigger maybe two of three expressions while talking to a person depending on when the game feels you should use them.

There is NO more freedom here.
No more surprises. No more exploration.

Um, actually that about sums up my feelings on Fable 3. That is the problem in essence… I liked only the parts of Fable 3 that allowed me to do the things I enjoyed doing in Fable 2. BUT it did not really let me do them all and those absences were way too noticeable despite all the new colorful graphics and stuff.

The second part of the game was this political based “now you are king what decisions do you make to save your people?” stuff. Unfortunately it is also overly simplified and a big gotcha to steer you into some made up drama of epic proportions. The big gotcha is you are given a huge national financial debt, a huge list of political promises you made, and a great big bunch of binary unrealistic “yes or no” decisions with no wiggle room created by the author to penalize you for choosing to do the right thing and keep your promises and go even further to make other choices for your people that make sense and would pay off if the game gave you the time to let them pay off. Sounds like a certain president I know. In fact I got through the game the first time by the skin of my teeth making some rough choices and basically trading off here and there while still losing close to half the country in the final war.

The key to Fable 3 and how I won the second time around was to enter the end game with as much personal finances as possible. 9 million or so to be exact. Once you have all that personal wealth to draw from you automatically win the game because you can privately fund keeping all your political promises and making the “right” choices for your people without sacrificing their lives or your respect.

The moral of Fable 3 was something that basically comes down to equating the lives 6.5 million people to how much money you have in the national bank. Not how well you could lead them into war or communicate the matter to them in an understandable way in order to rally them but how much money you stashed to pay off the military.

And that sucked in my opinion.

I don’t play games to win simply by being a good financial investor and/or accountant. Money alone is not how anyone wins a war that I can think of. Buy off an election maybe, but buy off an enemy? Nah! But any of the factual explanations for how governments actually win wars would be a far more complex answer than this game could handle. Thus proving to me maybe a simple video game fantasy RPG is the wrong setting for such discussions.

I say if you have not done so yet go buy Fable 2 (Platinum Hits Edition) with all the DLCs and patches and if you really like everything about Fable 2 then maybe when it is on sale sometime pick up Fable 3 but I warned you it’s a dumb dog barking up the wrong tree with lots and lots of fleas.

Grade C for leaving a real bad taste in my mouth when I figured out the moral the author wanted to tell.

Carlos García & François Peneaud ~ Brother To Dragons (Volume 1)
From: Class Comics

Alaï the horny farm boy (with two dots above his i) travels to the big city to see his not so horny cousin Rano and along the way just to keep his horny quotient going he gives a mysterious hairy coachman Jiki (with two red eyes) and a dragon tramp stamp a little sumtin sumtin…

Well, that’s about it. No, I don’t mean like I am trying not to give the plot away… that’s about all that goes on in this damn comic story wise. Besides tons of sex that is. I know it’s erotica but come on! The artwork by Carlos García is gor-jesus but I have to admit I have no clue what this story might even be about to tell you if it is any good. Honestly, I have gotten more plot information from reading the sales blurbs in the Samhain coming soon pages.

In the first few pages Alaï “meets” Jiki or should I say “meats” Jiki and we are off to a roll in the hay with convenient tag team by the suddenly appearing Inn Keeper and then with a couple of frames of Jiki walking away with mysterious “red eyes” we are smack dab in the big city. Which then leads to meeting Roni and having a huge flash back sex scene there. Then a slammed in random Jiki moment with three other guys having a sex showdown. Then wham we are in some church with Alaï and the blessing has to be given mouth to mouth if you get my drift.

The problem is between point A and point B there was not much point. Or story. Or explanation. Or even an occasional info dump. That advertisement above gives more information than is in this comic… “In a world where sex and magic are linked.” I did not see a lot of linking. Just lots of people doing “aha” looks, and bwahaha “he’ll do” looks in between sex scenes. Which frankly does not tell me what the hell is going on. Maybe it’s me, maybe I don’t understand how comic books work anymore. Maybe this is what customers expect them to be like at the beginning.

I don’t know. Maybe I am too old.

So based solely on the artwork and the potential it has to make this series special I will raise this thing to a Grade C against my better judgment. I spent money on something I frankly did not get a whole lot out of but promises of an actual story to come. My feeling is they should have probably handed this out for free because after all is said and done volume one comes across to me more like an exceedingly brief sales pitch than an actual story.

Carlos brought his game and it shows but François did not bother to even show up.

J.R. Ward ~ Dark Lover (Black Dagger Brotherhood 1)
From: Penguin

Comfort
Feed
Embrace
Love
And protect me
Ain’t that what I’m here for
You said you would die for me
Remember

How come it feels
So cold every time
You step into this room
Why does it feel so cold
I’m freezing
Junkie XL ~ Between These Walls

I swore to LBea a while ago to read these books and I did try. I bought the eBook read a bit but put it down. After starting and stopping Dark Lover twice in eBook format I decided to go out and get the first two in paperback. I will explain why later.

Well, finally LBea here is your review. So what did I think…

Mr. X took off Rid­dle’s stain­less- steel Rolex and then pulled the col­lar of the guy’s shirt open. He reached in­side, fol­low­ing the plat­inum chain Bil­ly wore around to the back. He re­leased the neck­lace, slid­ing the links free un­til he cap­tured them in his palm. The met­al was warm from ly­ing against skin.
“When you speak with your fa­ther, you will re­main calm no mat­ter what he says to you. You will re­as­sure him that your fu­ture is a promis­ing one and that you have been cho­sen out of many ap­pli­cants for a very im­por­tant role. You will tell him that he may al­ways reach you on your cell phone, but that it will be im­pos­si­ble for him to see you, as you will be trav­el­ing.”
Mr. X ran his hand over Bil­ly’s chest, feel­ing the pads of mus­cle, the warmth of life, the hum of youth. Such pow­er in this body, he thought. Such mar­velous force.
“You will not men­tion the acade­my. You will not re­veal my iden­ti­ty. And you will not tell him that you are com­ing to live with me.” Mr. X spoke right in­to Bil­ly’s ear. “You will tell your fa­ther that you are sor­ry for all the evil things you did. You will tell him that you love him. And then I will pick you up and take you away.”
As Bil­ly breathed deeply in peace­ful sur­ren­der, Mr. X re­mem­bered his own in­duc­tion cer­emo­ny. For a brief, pass­ing in­stant, he wished that he’d thought more care­ful­ly about the of­fer he’d ac­cept­ed decades ago.
J.R. Ward ~ Dark Lover

Well, first off I think Mr. X is a creepy chicken hawk of a villain is what I think. In fact the villain’s in this book were sorta Keystone Cops of the “Hannibal Lecter Hobby Kit” variety. I am getting ahead of myself here.

Beth Randall is a busy reporter for the Caldwell Courier Journal about to have a life changing event and find herself herself smack dab in the middle of a war between Vampires and Vampire Hunters. She will also be picking up a boyfriend by the name of Wrath thanks to a debt owed to a father she never knew. I think that about covers the story without giving too much away. Oh, I figure everybody here has read it already.

I would like to thank J.R. Ward for providing a prime example of a style of writing that sets my teeth on edge.

I have so much respect for authors like Josh Lanyon who can whip out an interesting story while maintaining a single “point of view” of the main character throughout. A single POV is intimate, you almost have a relationship with the character and you really get to know the hero/heroine and how they see the world and even catch occasional clues of how others might see things differently from various conversations. There is always room for discovery and learning something new. People can maintain a mask of behavior that might eventually be discovered to hide some thing or motive not realized by the main character. Which for a Mystery is a great idea.

In Romance I have gotten used to the dueling “point of view”. The hero/heroine or hero/hero both get equal time allowing the relationship to be explored. This helps me the reader accept the relationship even if it evolves at a rapid pace because I know what both people think and feel. I have even enjoyed books where they added a third constant “point of view” of the villain so we get to know why and what they are up to when not doing terrible things to the couple.

You can also run into the “one off” POV. The sudden use of another character to bring the reader up to speed on some piece of information without a lot of info dumping. J.R. Ward does that right at the beginning of Dark Lover where we see things form the “point of view” of Darius, Beth’s Vampire father. Which is cool because it is not like Darius is around for long after that so there is no chance we will come back to that POV again.

Unfortunately J.R. Ward goes way beyond the dueling “point of view”. Because she decided to have not one but two Romances go on with this book. We have Darius to begin with and then Beth and Wrath and then we add in Butch and then Mr. X, the villain. THEN to frost the cake even higher we add Marissa, the virginal debutant Vampire, and her brother Havers, the bitter wussy boy. I started losing count to be honest. It got to the point where I would read one chapter and put it down. I kept doing that so I went out and got the paperback to finish this thing.

Another thing I like in my Romances is balance. If you are going to have this super stud hero then is it too much to ask for an equally interesting mate? Beth just did not cut it for me there. Butch, the cop, was in your face great but poor Beth. In fact I had to wait till almost halfway through the book before Beth started coming to life as a character and only then by interacting with the Brothers Grim. I mean up till that point she was either editing stories or running an obstacle course of manly come-ons. In fact it seemed like every man she met wanted to bed her and yet she is this loner chick with no friends. Oh and Marissa, the virginal debutant Vampire, not knowing what a prostitute was… LOL! Did they lock her in the basement or something? Was she brain damaged?

OK is that enough slamming there? Sorry but this was some painful reading. In fact ignoring the dated hip-hop references and the slang was easy. In fact I barely noticed those issues.

J.R. Ward can do no wrong when it comes to her male characters though. Wrath, super stud god. Flawed, dark, sexy, all that and a bag of chips. Butch, was a funny, smart mouthed, good guy. Every one of the six Brothers Grim. Fascinating, highly dysfunctional, violent and you know because of that they will each get their time on stage.

I get why people love this series. I can see it’s plainly all about her male characters that you want to know what happens next and the world she built is full of surprises. I can also see why anyone itching to write a paranormal would grab this thing in a minute and start stripping it down to the core elements. Slice off the whole Havers story. Get rid of the parade of POV. Chop Marissa’s scenes down to nothing because Wrath or Butch witnessed anything worth reading about. Hell, get rid of her and let Vishous have Butch like LBea said.

My favorite scene in the whole book…

Butch flopped around, half-​awake. The bed wasn’t his. The thing was a twin, not a king. And the pillows weren’t his. They were supersoft, as if his head were on Wonder bread. Sheets were likewise way too fine.
But the snoring beside him really confirmed it. He was definitely not at home.
He opened his eyes. Thick draperies were down over the windows, but the glow from a light in the bathroom was enough for him to see some things. The room was decked out in high-​class everything. Antiques, paintings, fancy-​schmancy wallpaper.
He looked to the snoring. In the other twin bed, a man was sound asleep, dark head buried in a pillow, sheets and blankets pulled up to his chin.
Everything came back.
Vishous. His new buddy.
Fellow Red Sox fan. Wicked smart IT guy.
Fricking vampire.
Butch put a hand to his forehead. There’d been many times that he’d rolled over and been unnerved by who was next to him.
But this was a goddamned chart topper.
How’d they…That’s right. They’d crashed after kicking Tohr’s bottle of Scotch.
Tohr. Short for Tohrment.
God, he even knew their names. Rhage. Phury. And that scary-​ass Zsadist guy.
Yeah, no Tom, Dick, and Harry names for the vampire types.
But come on, could you actually imagine some lethal bloodsucker named Howard? Eugene?
Oh, no, Wallie, please don’t bite my—
Holy Christ, he was totally losing it.
What time was it?
“Yo, cop, what time is it?” Vishous asked, groggy.
Butch reached for the bedside table. Next to his watch was a Red Sox hat, a gold lighter, and a black driving glove.
“Five thirty.”
“Cool.” The vampire rolled away. “Don’t crack the drapes for another two hours. Or I’m up in flames and my brothers will leave you shitting in a bag.”
Butch smiled. Vampires or not, he understood these guys. They spoke his language. Related to the world like he did. He felt comfortable around them.
It was damn eerie.
“You’re smiling,” Vishous said.
“How’d you know?”
“I’m damn handy with emotions. You one of those annoying, cheerful-​in-​the-​morning types?”
“Hell, no. And this isn’t morning.”
“It is to me, cop.” Vishous turned onto his side and looked at Butch. “You know, you handled yourself last night. Don’t know many humans who would have taken on Rhage or me. Much less in front of all the brothers.”
“Ah, now, don’t get all mushy on me. We ain’t dating.” Except the truth was, Butch was kind of moved by the respect.
But then Vishous narrowed his eyes. His intellect was so fierce, getting assessed by him was like being plucked naked and sandblasted.
“You got one hell of a death wish.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yeah, maybe,” Butch said. He waited to be asked why. When the inquiry didn’t come, he was surprised.
“We all do,” Vishous murmured. “That’s why I’m not asking for details.”
They were silent for a moment.
Vishous’s eyes narrowed again. “You’re not going back to your old life, cop. You know that, right? Because you’ve seen too much of us. We wouldn’t be able to scrub your memories clean enough.”
“You telling me to pick out a casket?”
“Hope not. But it’s not my call. Depends a lot on you.” There was a pause. “You don’t have much to go back to, do you?”
Butch looked up at the ceiling.
When the brothers had let him check his messages this morning, there’d been only one. It had been the captain, telling him to come in for the re­sults of In­ter­nal’s in­ves­ti­ga­tion.
Yeah, like that was an ap­point­ment he need­ed to keep. He knew damn well what the out­come would be. He was go­ing to be fired and served up as a sac­ri­fi­cial lamb to com­bat the im­age of po­lice bru­tal­ity. Or he was go­ing to be put out to pas­ture at a desk job.
As for his fam­ily? Ma and Pop, bless them, were still in their row house in Southie, sur­round­ed by the sur­viv­ing sons and daugh­ters they loved so much. Though still mourn­ing Janie, they were hap­py in their re­tire­ment years. And Butch’s broth­ers and sis­ters were so busy hav­ing ba­bies, rais­ing ba­bies, and think­ing about hav­ing more ba­bies, that they were to­tal­ly tied up with their fam­ily obli­ga­tions. In the O’Neal clan, Butch was just a foot­note. The Dark One Who Had Failed to Pro­cre­ate.
Friends? José was the on­ly one he could even re­mote­ly con­sid­er a friend. Ab­by wasn’t even that. She was just a screw ev­ery now and again.
And af­ter meet­ing Maris­sa last night, he’d lost his in­ter­est in ca­su­al sex.
He glanced over at the vam­pire. “Naw, I don’t have any­thing.”
“I know what that feels like.” Vishous rus­tled around as if he were try­ing to get com­fort­able. When he set­tled on his back, he threw one heavy arm over his eyes.
Butch frowned as he caught sight of the vam­pire’s left hand. It was cov­ered with tat­toos, dense, in­tri­cate de­signs that ran down the back of it, on­to the palm, and around each fin­ger. It must have hurt like a bitch to have done.
“V?”
“Yeah?”
“What’s do­ing with the tats?”
“I didn’t pester you about your curse, cop.” Vishous put the arm away. “If I’m not up by eight, wake me, true?”
“Yeah. True.” Butch closed his eyes.
J.R. Ward ~ Dark Lover

Yeah, Butch and Vishous baby! Why can’t we have more dark and violent flawed heroes like this in Gay Romance?

So in the end I will go on to the next one but I have a feeling this series is not really for me. I give this a Grade C because I can see the draw the story would have but I can also see why this would not work for many people who like a simpler less confusing and jumbled Romance. Not to mention Beth is no Buffy that’s for sure.

Chris Packard ~ Queer Cowboys
From: Palgrave MacMillan

We loved each other in the way men do
And never spoke about it, Al and me,
But we both knowed, and knowin’ it so true
Was more than any woman’s kiss could be.
We knowed–and if the way was smooth or rough,
The weather shine or pour,
While I had him the rest seemed good enough–
But he ain’t here no more!

What is there out beyond the last divide?
Seems like that country must be cold and dim.
He’d miss the sunny range he used to ride,
And he’d miss me, the same as I do him.
It’s no use thinkin’–all I’d think or say
Could never make it clear.
Out that dim trail that only leads one way
He’s gone–and left me here!

The range is empty and the trails are blind,
And I don’t seem but half myself today.
I wait to hear him ridin’ up behind
And feel his knee rub mine the good old way
He’s dead–and what that means no man kin tell.
Some call it “gone before.”
Where? I don’t know, but God! I know so well
That he ain’t here no more!
Badger C. Clark ~ The Lost Pardner

Chris Packard took on a huge task with Queer Cowboys in not only showing that homoerotic elements were always part of the Western genre coded from the start of it’s inception but also through doing this he shows how it was never very “authentic” as far as when I hear people discussing if some Western Gay Romance seems to be “authentic” as a historical. One of the great things about this little book though is how most of it’s research is done with books easily attainable today through Project Gutenberg as Free eBooks that you are more than welcome to read yourself.

Chris pulls from from several different Classic Western Canon during the essay. Hell, without these books the entire genre would probably not have been created and I think his first couple of chapters are best at making his case…

That’s it—that’s just it. I am white—have a white heart and can’t, in reason, love a red-skinned maiden, who must have a red-skin heart and feelin’s. No, no, I’m sound enough in them partic’lars, and hope to remain so, at least till this war is over. I find my time too much taken up with Chingachgook’s affair, to wish to have one of my own on my hands afore that is settled.
James Fenimore Cooper ~ The Deerslayer

The first up is James Fenimore Cooper who wrote the five Leatherstocking Tales

The Deerslayer The Last Of The Mohicans The Pathfinder The Pioneers The Prairie

Chris shows even here in the very earliest Western was the presence of the idealized male couple far more attached to each other than to any women that might interfere with their pioneering ways. Also note as reported even by the earliest critics there is no reality in these characters despite whatever Cooper insists in his prefaces… General Lewis Cass, an Indian fighter, in 1828 says his Indians had “no living prototype in our forests,”. So much for historically authentic despite the fact this was contemporary to the Classic Western era. Now I know where the Lone Ranger and Tonto got their start.

James Fenimore Cooper’s influence, as I said at the beginning of this chapter, is difficult to overstate. The entire dime novel industry relied upon his formula to churn out thousands of paperbacks that were read by literally millions of Americans and immigrants during the 1860s to about 1880. Chris Packard ~ Queer Cowboys

One thing noted by Chris Packard was that during the era of the Pulp Western that the cowboy was always the one to ride off into the sunset with his pardner and it was not until Owen Wister ~ The Virginian that the whole “Romantic” Western is created complete with the ever convenient schoolmarm for the cowboy to marry at the end of the book. BUT! Owen Wister did edit out at the last minute the short cowboys together nude scene where The Virginian told about Hank’s Woman.

“Have yu’ studded much about marriage?” he now inquired. His serious eyes met mine as he lay stretched along the ground.

“Not much,” I said; “not very much.”

“Let’s swim,” he said. “They have changed their minds.”

Forthwith we shook off our boots and dropped our few clothes, and heedless of what fish we might now drive away, we went into the cool, slow, deep breadth of backwater which the bend makes just there. As he came up near me, shaking his head of black hair, the cowpuncher was smiling a little.

“Not that any number of baths,” he remarked, “would conceal a man’s objectionableness from an antelope—not even a she-one.”

Then he went under water, and came up again a long way off.

We dried before the fire, without haste. To need no clothes is better than purple and fine linen. Then he tossed the flap-jacks, and I served the trout, and after this we lay on our backs upon a buffalo-hide to smoke and watch the Tetons grow more solemn, as the large stars opened out over the sky.

“I don’t care if I never go home,” said I.

The Virginian nodded. “It gives all the peace o’ being asleep with all the pleasure o’ feeling the widest kind of awake,” said he. “Yu’ might say the whole year’s strength flows hearty in every waggle of your thumb.” We lay still for a while. “How many things surprise yu’ any more?” he next asked.
Owen Wister ~ Hank’s Woman

What was interesting to read about Owen Wister in Queer Cowboys was his long time association with a cowboy named George West who he visited with often and lent money to and based The Virginian on and there are mentioned letters between them describing their intimate friendship that went on for years. HEH! Reminds me of this scene in Brokeback Mountain I can’t make it on a coupla high-altitude fucks once or twice a year! You are too much for me Ennis, you sonofawhoreson bitch! I wish I knew how to quit you.

“No; hearts,” replied The Rebel. “I used to know a foreman up in DeWitt County,—’Honest’ John Glen they called him. He claimed the only chance he ever had to marry was a widow, and the reason he didn’t marry her was, he was too honest to take advantage of a dead man.”
Andy Adams ~ The Log Of A Cowboy

The last clearly shown example in my opinion really made Chris Packard’s case in Queer Cowboys was Andy Adams who is considered by many about as authentic in the Western genre as you are going to get and yet even Andy still underlines the whole “cowboys do not get married” concept promoted by the Pulp Western in the campfire scene here.

Chris goes on to discuss Walt Whitman and Mark Twain who I consider both to be predominate influences but I did not get anything out of final chapters 3 and 4 to be quite honest. I think the essay got sidetracked with the whole talk about American Satyriasis and Queer Men’s Clubs. Hell, Walt Whitman sounded like he just needed a good supply of porn or something. So no, this book has some obvious flaws and over emphasis in analysis I tend to find in Gay Studies. I do not buy that “all” cowboys were gay or all the writers were trying to discuss homosexuality or anything like that. Again, this is before the Kinsey Report most guys probably never thought of themselves as gay or anything like that and a lot of this could be explained as institutionalized homosexuality which stemmed from lack of available women and being dirt poor.

Even though I am giving this a Grade C for half the book feeling off topic I highly recommend it if you have an interest in where stories like Brokeback Mountain stemmed from. I think it makes it very clear that the Western genre is in essence homoerotic at it’s origins without having to bend over backwards to see it but it also points out that Westerns written to the standards of your typical Hollywood movie are not really any more or less “authentic” than the very first Western myths written to entertain and propagandize young male newspaper readers way back when on the ways of manly men.

Truth and authenticity is usually deadly boring and in this case hard to prove.

The Wolves Of Kromer
1998

Here is the reason I am loving the Netflix immediate viewing feature on the Sony PS3 and XBox 360. I was scanning through and saw this movie available and thought to myself… Gay Werewolves! Well, not really actually you find out these are just gay men who are “coming out” and are immediately treated as wolves by those around them. About the only thing they do differently is run around with fur jackets with a tail stuck on the back. Not very werewolf like at all. The filmmaker also skewers the whole Little Red Riding Hood fairytale into the mix. To sum it up the wolves are nice gay guys and the grannies are evil drunken killers.

So there is a central Gay Romance here between the new wolf and the studly older wolf with a past and commitment problems. BUT! Things do not end well so do not get too involved. There is this twisted old wolf in priest’s clothing running a church near by and he has a gun. These poor nice gay boys/wolves are done for in this Grimm Fairy Tale. If you smell my finger.

I did enjoy the fact without any real effort I was able to download this movie from Netflix which made watching it on my Sony PS3 fit how light the movie came off but the filmmaker seriously needs to work on trying to put some more meat into his storyline because the hour or so wandered all over the place and quit padding every corner of the film with side nonsense. I was losing track of what the film was about in the first place. I thought the whole wolf=gay was thought provoking and gave the film something to focus on which it needed. Especially when Little Red Riding Hood turns out to be a teenage seductress who does her best to “domesticate” the new wolf and almost succeeds in about the only real sex scene you get in this flick. Too bad about the ending though or we might have gotten a great romantic finish there but I guess the filmmaker wanted to give the movie some bite. *yeah, I know bad pun*

Anyway, If you happen to be clicking around on Netflix on your new XBox 360 or PS3 give this one a download you might like it.
Grade C but could be a B on the right occasion.