I Resolve

Just back from three weeks in the U.S., I'm enjoying a delicious case of jet-lag, chomping on the last pretzel I picked up during my layover in Deutschland, neither doing what I should be (sleeping) nor what I'm tempted to (going out to hear music), but instead Skyping with The Pirate back in Berlin. Flying on New Year's Eve is the very best way I know to avoid all the hype and The Director posed an interesting question. Leaving SFO at 2:30 PM on a polar flight to Frankfurt, exactly where and when would I hit 2010? I calculated it must have happened somewhere in the North Atlantic, probably between Canada and Greenland, roughly four and a half hours out from SFO. By then I had drugged myself for the flight, thus skirting the whole issue entirely.

Well then, the Skype exchange was interesting enough to convert into a blog post... It relates to my New Year's resolution for 2010, something I've sworn to do for years now: to list every film I see for a year. I'm still clean for 2010, as Lufthansa's transatlantic offerings were so bad as to not bear contemplating. Musing on great film that was foundational in my life, I somehow ended up listing my top 5 erotic films (not in any particular order). Hanif Kureishi´s earlier work scores an amazing two in my top five: Samey and Rosie Get Laid (1987) and My Beautiful Laundrette (1985). Then there´s A Crying Game (1992), Body Heat (1981) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969, which I had to have seen sometime later). What, dear reader, you were expecting Behind the Green Door and The Devil in Miss Jones? That's not exactly what I'm on about. It's no coincidence that the movies I've listed were ones that I saw decades ago. Some of them I revisited later, in my 30s, and was disconcerted to find I'd preserved a completely different memory of what happened. There was, however, some special image or idea I'd taken from each of them that resonated in my young impressionable mind, deeply affecting my notions of masculine and feminine sexuality. It´s interesting to speculate where our peculiar individual behaviors and turn-ons come from. Not surprisingly, I suppose, in the case of this addict, they come from film. That and the Catholic Church, naturally.

But yes, the titles I just listed are two favorites of mine from the golden age of porn and yes, some women do enjoy a certain type of porn, don't think it's dirty or misogynist, and even (gasp) enjoy the idea of men watching porn. However, I will always maintain that Deep Throat really sucks. Now, aren't we glad we got that out in the open?!? Happy New Year, all!