10 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE December 20, 2002

eveningsout

Last minute gifts for rockin' around the Christmas tree

by Anthony Glassman

It's bright, it's early, and the pitter-patter of little and not-so-little feet storm down to the Christmas tree. What could possibly be in those brightly-wrapped parcels underneath?

Well, with any luck, it might be some music. For the sake of stereotype, let's assume the boys want dance music and the girls want folk, okay?

Boys

Electroblue's Pure Imagination features just four songs, one of them being a trance remake of Styx's "Come Sail Away," but eight additional remixes of “Sail" and "Pure Imagination." Featuring the production skills of DJ Julian Marsh, this should appeal to the club kid just bursting to get out. It's the perfect listening experience for when you want to go to the club, but there's six feet of snow in front of the door.

Featuring gay dance icons like Kevin Aviance, Taylor Dayne, Paul "Boom Boom" Lekakis and Lonnie Gordon, Circuit, the soundtrack for the film by Dirk Shafer, provides 19 diverse dance tracks to continue the experience of the film, available now on home video. Where the film takes one inside the circuit party scene, the album takes the experience of the circuit party's music into the home.

Another soundtrack-related CD is Alcazar's Casino. Fronted by openly gay Euro-studpuppy Andreas Lundstedt, this disco-inflected dancefest has sold over a million copies on the Continent, and their track "Crying at the Discoteque" was featured in the Queer as Folk first season soundtrack and albúm.

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For those into the darker dance music, there's Peaches' The Teaches of Peaches, perhaps the smuttiest dance album of the year. Peaches & Gonzales were quite smutty as a duo, but apparently Gonzales was the more sedate of the pair.

Gay industrial enfant terrible Virgo's Moderate Extremism should stuff the stocking of anyone who has ever listened to Nine Inch Nails and wished Trent Reznor were a little queerer. The skills are there, the songwriting is there and the album is absolutely perfect, even the incredibly depressing cover of the incredibly depressing song "Strange Fruit," about racist lynchings in the South.

Girls

Ellis' album Everything That's Real shows how someone who takes a pretty traditional approach to women-oriented folk music can do everything right. Occasional infusions of funky jazz riffs combine nicely with the sharpness of Ellis' voice, fusing into a well-rounded whole.

Commonbond's Chasing Solace also illustrates the wonder of traditional women's folk, continuing the same vein established on their earlier efforts, included last year's A Commonbond Christmas. Deep and soulful songs, harmonies reminiscent of the Indigo Girls, deft guitar strumming all meld together into one of the best folk albums out today.

At the other end of the folk spectrum is Toronto virtuoso Ember Swift's latest offering, Stiltwalking. Swift, Lyndell Montgomery and Michelle Josef are a formidable trio, and the backing musicians are well-chosen. Montgomery has done things with a guitar that should earn her a spot with the axe greats like Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix; it sounds like hyperbole, but it's absolutely true. Swift's voice always has a tone in it indicating that she really loves what she's doing, and it comes through in every song.

Finally, Freckles' Does it Really Matter proves that there's more to lesbian musicians

being

STILT WALKING

ROCKS ALCAZAR

than folk, or even rock. Freckles is, according to her press, the first openly lesbian R&B singer. Assuming one doesn't count Me'shell Ndegeocello, since she's bisexual and more a bassist than a vocalist, Freckles takes it. And boy, does she take it! With a bit of promotion, perhaps the notice of a big-name producer, Freckles could be taking her place next to Toni Braxton and Whitney Houston in the pantheon of women in R&B. She turns out funky, fun tracks full of joie de vivre that cannot be suppressed.

Both

Finally, for an album covering all the bases and benefiting a good cause, there's

Being Out Rocks, released for National Coming Out Day with proceeds going to the Human Rights Campaign.

The album features a little of everything, from the aforementioned Kevin Aviance and Taylor Dayne to Harvey Fierstein, Ani DiFranco, Bob Mould and the B-52s, although without any of the completely incongruous pairings that could have emerged in this album. Jade Esteban Estrada does not combine his Latin music with Sarah McLachlan's soulfulness, k.d. lang does not punk out with the Butchies, it's just each and every one of the 21 performers giving their time to a good cause.

Love blooms in Tiananmen Square

by Kaizaad Kotwal

Stanley Kwan's Lan Yu is a haunting film that breaks through many taboos. It was made very secretively, without the government's permission. It is based on the anonymous internet novel Beijing Story, written by "Beijing Comrade."

The story takes the audience to Beijing in 1988 when Chen Handong (Hu Jun), a very successful man, finds himself on the cusp of middle age. Handong's secret, though, is that he likes men.

Enter Lan Yu (Liu Le), a country lad, newly arrived in Beijing to study architecture. Lan Yu is short on money and is willing to try anything to earn a few extra bucks. An acquaintance suggests that he prostitute himself to a gay pool-hall and bar owner. Lan Yu agrees, but as he is sealing the deal, Handong nixes it and takes Lan Yu home himself.

Handong initiates Lan Yu into a world of sexual intimacy. They meet often. Handong lavishes the boy with expensive gifts and is upfront: all he wants is a playmate, not a lifelong companion. Lan Yu, however, falls in love with the older man and is undeterred by Handong's pragmatism and emotional aloofness. He pursues Handong until he catches Handong with another boy.

On the night of June 4, 1989, Handong goes looking for Lan Yu, worried that the young student might have been brutalized by the military in Tiananmen Square on that fateful day. Handong and Lan Yu reunite and Handong gives Lan Yu his most lavish gifts yet-a villa on the outskirts of Beijing and a fancy car.

Handong remains emotionally unavailable. Lan Yu finds himself adrift once again as Handong gets married to Jinping (Su Jin), a professional translator who works her wiles

Handong while they are doing business together. That relationship doesn't last long and Handong and Lan Yu once again come together.

In the last segment of their turbulent relationship, the story takes twists and turns that only fate can cruelly play on two lives so inexorably intertwined.

Director Kwan, himself gay, has created a mesmerizing film, both visually and in terms of its central characters' torrid relationship. While western audiences may not find the film's frankness (both sexually and politically) shocking, the film is groundbreaking because Chinese cinema has never told such a story before with such openness. The film includes some very explicit love sequences, something still very taboo in a lot of Asian cinema. Add to that the film's backdrop of the Tiananmen Square massacre and some of the political and business corruption endemic in China, and one can see why Lan Yu has been virtually unreleasable there.

From the gritty textures of the locales to the hurried pan shots, from the shadowy chiarascuro of the color palette to the intimacy of the performances, Lan Yu creates an atmosphere that builds beautifully towards a potent climax.

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Beijing Story

In the last decade, some of the most compelling world cinema has emerged from China and Iran, two of the most oppressive regimes. Issues of censorship, taboo material and a lack of resources has forced many Chinese and most Iranian filmmakers to create explosively daring and aesthetically groundbreaking pieces of cinema. Lan Yu is not the best to emerge from such a milieu, but it is definitely worth watching and contemplating.

Lan Yu will play at the Wexner Center in Columbus December 19 21 at 7:00 p.m. in the Film and Video Theatre. Call 614-292-3535 for tickets and information.

Lan Yu will also play on Wednesday and Friday, January 15 and 17, at 7 pm in the Cleveland Museum of Art's Gartner Auditorium. For more information, call 216-421-7350, or log onto www.clemusart.com. ✓