"i could show you my favorite obsession....."

Well, I haven't been making a man with blond hair and a tan (sorry...  guys = not how i swing) but i can definitely say that i have found a new obsession. About a month ago, a friend of  mine showed me the movie Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Well it was love at first sight. I have a special place in my heart for film/literature with characters whose lives might seem a little strange, but who are really just searching for themselves. Also, anything that resembles RHPS is instantly a love in my book. 

Hedwig & The Angry Inch is punk rock musical about the "slip of a girly boy from communist East Berlin become[s] the internationally ignored song stylist barely standing before you?" The story of Hansel Schmidt who, after a botched sex change operation (leaving her with a "barbie doll crotch) becomes Hedwig and moves to America where she befriends Tommy Speck, a young christian rock wannabe. Together they write songs and Hedwig helps Tommy to develop his rock persona. Unable to deal with her unconventional sexuality,Tommy leaves Hedwig, becomes a star singing all of her songs. Hedwig starts to stalk his band with her own, The Angry Inch, playing in small strip malls near his big concerts. Ultimately though, the movie the story of love and self acceptance. Hedwig's song, "The Origin Of Love" is based off Plato's Symposium and hypothesizes that we all have someone out there who completes us. Hedwig, unsure of who/what she is, is just searching for love. 

(OF COURSE MY PLOT SUMMARY DOES NOT DO THE SHOW ANY JUSTICE) I love Hedwig because it is such an emotional trip, funny, sad, and comforting all at once. And alot of the songs have become popular beyond just Hedwig. Rufus Wainright does a copy of Orgin of love and Dar Williams has sung Midnight Radio. The lyrics are all beautiful, as well as the cinematography, and John Cameron Mitchell (writer, director, star) does a wonderful job! 

This, of course, brings me to the origin of my obsession --> John Cameron Mitchell (JCM). Now I'm not saying I have some sort of be-careful-John-cause-you-are-in-danger-of-being-kidnapped/stalked/rapped type of obsession, only that he has created 2 very beautiful films and his philosophy on life speaks very clearly to me. 

Now I've said 2 films, the 2nd of these is Shortbus. Again, Mitchell is dealing with an exploration of love and self, but in a different context than Hedwig. Shortbus is a beautiful and emotive story of Sofia the pre-orgasmic sex therapist who is on a quest of self discovery because she has never had an orgasm. Her clients (the adorable couple Jamie/James) lead her to Shortbus: the sexual salon where anything and everything goes. But what is so amazing about the movie is the way that JCM uses sex in the movie. Shortbus is a highly graphic movie (it didn't have extras in its scenes, it had "sextras") but the movie isn't about sex, its about love. In the first part of the film, the sex scenes are from far away, but as the movie progresses and you follow Sofia, the Jamies, Severin the dominatrix, Ceth, and Caleb the stalker... it becomes less about the sex (in fact the ending sex scenes are mostly just head shots) and more about the emotions. The film is rawr and literally takes you from laughing one moment to crying the the next. And i just can't get enough of it.

JMC's films have the power to speak to everyone (unless you are Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck). The emotions and I can tell you that even after watching them 4x in a row, they dont get old!

So yeah... idk. I felt like i had to rant about this since literally in my state of not sleeping for like 3 days this is what i've pretty much been up to. 

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Some Hedwig lyrics.....

-From THE ORGIN OF LOVE

Last time I saw you
We had just split in two.
You were looking at me.
I was looking at you.
You had a way so familiar,
But I could not recognize,
Cause you had blood on your face;
I had blood in my eyes.
But I could swear by your expression
That the pain down in your soul
Was the same as the one down in mine. 
That's the pain,
Cuts a straight line
Down through the heart;
We called it love.