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Rane Arroyo's Interests
General
Writing is my passion--and pop culture too.
Music
March-mid April songs: OK I am being honest: 1). Handcuff My Soul by Levi Kreis 2). Always Be My Baby by David Cook (yup, American Idol 2 minutes) 3. Clumsy by Fergie 4). 4 Minutes by Madonna (so happy she is back) 5) Messing With My head by Josh Pride (a major talent who deserves fame).
Enjoy and savor these videos: 1. Yonatan, "On A Hot Summer Night" 2. Tina Turner--just because I miss her! 3. Waz's great video "She's Gone" from The Sweet Bye and Bye. 4. Come On get Higher by Matt Nathanson (a new video but it was my #2 song of the year last year!!!! I know what I know.)5. David Cook's brillianrt rendition Mariah carey's "Always be My baby." Ok, I'm lame, but also smart and know the real deal. Or you wouldn't be my friend.
On a hot summer night-Yonatan .. Add to My Profile | More VideosWhat's Love Got TO Do With It - Tina Turner .. Add to My Profile | More Videos
Movies
Here's my latest version of favorite films
1. Lord of The Rings (2001-03),
2. The Wizard Of Oz (1939),
3. Shampoo (1975),
4. Citizen Kane (1941),
5. Dr. Zhivago (1965),
6. Cabaret (1972),
7. The Adventures of Priscilla--Queen of the Desert (1994),
8. My Beautiful Laundrette (1986),
9. Latter Days (2003)
10. Brokeback Mountain
The following clip is from Latter Days and the context is that the two potential lovers are apart and, in a way, reunited by a song inspired by the California gay that brings the Mormon guy to him while Julie has to admit some of the lyrics are from the California guy's poem she read. 3 AM is a magic hour (think Matchbox 20).
Television
This season it's tough but my favorite are The Tudors, sometimes American Idol, Torchwood. Also, I've been watching the soap opera, One Life To Live for over 30 years--and still do (I miss you, Tina Lord!). Here is a clip from Grey's Anatomy, a show that I honestly don't watch often, but this powerful storyline may make it clear to hetersexuals how gay men and women and others aren't allowed to grieve or love or so much more. Yes, this is a sermon of some knd--love us, love each other.
Books
Hardy Boys & Nancy Drew mysteries, Reinaldo Arenas, Italo Calvino, Yukio Mishima, Seamus Heaney, Pablo Neruda, for a start.) Just found a video of Reinaldo Arenas' film bio (poem is in Spanish from the Film Before Night Falls--but listen to the sounds even if you don't speak Spanish, see the images--he is one of my heroes). Here also is a video of James Baldwin, one of my largest influences to become a writer.
James Baldwin
Artists. Anyone who is himself or herself.
I DO NOT have permission to post this amazing blog entry y John Mayer but feel it is necessary and will of course honor any request to take it down. I wanted to make it a link but this mut be read, especially by the young:
THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2008
FROM THE HEART....
I need to write this.
I've been traveling alone in Japan for the better part of three weeks now, and It's been so remarkable an experience for me that I can't book a ticket home yet. I haven't spoken very much out loud these days, but I've been thinking to myself in what feels like surround sound. I can see so many things clearly, and feel so connected to myself and the world around me that I need to share the perspective with you.
I'm already aware that when I sing, say or write anything, 50 percent of the response will be in support of it and the other 50 will want to discount it. This blog, though, is directed to 100 percent of people reading it. If my blog truly does have any cultural effect, then it should be used for more than just pictures of sneakers and funny youtube videos. (If you don't think my blog has any effect, than you can't by definition be reading this right now and therefore don't have to respond to it in any way. Isn't that tidy?)
What I'm about to write isn't about fame or success or celebrity or the media. That's my business.
This is about us all.
This is about a level of self consciousness so high in my generation, that it's actually toxic.
This is about the girl in her bedroom who poses in front of the camera she's awkwardly holding in her outstretched hand. She'll take a hundred photos until coming up with one she's happy with, which inevitably looks nothing like her, and after she's done poring over images of herself, will post one on her myspace page and then write something like " I don't give a f*ck what you think about me. "
This is about the person trying out for American Idol, who while going off about how confident they are that they were born ready to sing in front of the world, are trembling so badly they can hardly breathe.
This is about me, the guy who walks through a throng of photographers into a restaurant like he's Paul Newman, but who leaves a "reject" pile of clothes in his closet so high that his cleaning lady can't figure out how one man can step into so many pairs of pants in a week.
This is about a young guy who maintains a celebrity blog that subsists on tearing other people down but who has wrestled with a lifelong battle for acceptance as a gay man.
This is about us all. Every one of us. Who all seem to know deep down that it's incredibly hard to be alive and interact with the world around us but will try and cover it up at any cost. For as badass and unaffected as we try to come off, we're all just one sentence away from being brought to the edge of tears, if only it was worded right. And I don't want to act immune to that anymore. I took the biggest detour from myself over the past year, since I decided that I wasn't going to care about what people thought about me. I got to the point where I had so much padding on that, sure, I couldn't feel the negativity, but that's because I couldn't feel much of anything. And I think I'm done with that.
I'm not the first person to admit we're all self conscious, Kanye was. But what I want to do is to shed a little light on why we're all in the same boat, no matter the shape of the life we lead: because every one of us were told since birth that we were special. We were spoken to by name through a television. We were promised we could be anything that we wanted to be, if only we believed it and then, faster than we saw coming, we were set loose into the world to shake hands with the millions of other people who were told the exact same thing.
And really? Really? It turns out we're just not all that special, when you break it down. Beautifully unspectacular, actually. And that truth is going to catch up with us whether we want to run from it or not. The paparazzo following me to the gym ain't gonna be Herb Ritts and the guy he's following ain't gonna be Bob Dylan. It's just a matter of how old you are once you embrace that fact. And for me, 30 sounds about right.
What now, then? I can only really say for myself: Enjoy who I am, the talents and the liabilities. Stop acting careless. In fact, care more. Be vulnerable but stay away from where it hurts. Read. See more shows. Of any kind. Rock shows, art shows, boat shows. Create more art. Wear hoodies to dinner. Carry a notebook and hand it to people when they passionately recommend something and ask them to write it down for me.
Root for others.
Give more and expect the same in return, but over time.
Act nervous when I'm nervous, puzzled when I don't know what the hell to do, and smile when it all goes my way. And never in any other order than that.
And when it's all over, whether at the end of this fabulous career or of this life, which I hope takes place at the same time, I should look back and say that I had it good and I made the most of it while I was able. And so should you.
I'm going quiet now.
John
About me: Visit me at www.ranearroyo.com. I'm Gay, Puerto Rican and Midwest writer--with a special love for poetry. New poetry book (The Roswell Poems---www.roswellpoems.com)and first all-gay poetry book, Same-Sex Seances is at www.newsinspress.com. Information requested about some writing awards: John Ciardi Poetry Prize, Pushcart Prize, Carl Sandburg Prize in Poetry, Ohio Arts Council Excellence Poetry Award, Hart Crane Prize, Stonewall Books Prize. Poems also appear in the Heath Anthology and I was the 2006 Cesar Chavez Visiting Writer. Some references: 1) Poetry: The Portable Famine (John Ciardi Poetry Prize Winner, ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Finalist in Poetry, USABookNews.com Best Books of 2006 Finalist in Poetry. "Experience an incisive, original mind exploring “the square roots of restlessness.” — Robin Becker, Judge, John Ciardi Prize for Poetry. 2. Book of gay short stories: How To Name A Hurricane. Multicultural Review: An entertaining, intriguing, fascinating, and eye-opening collection of works. Bloomsbury Review: By penetrating to the I’s of narrative hurricanes, these stories honor the survivors of our ongoing cultural storms. Other new book soon is The Buried Sea: New & Selected Poems.
Who I'd like to meet: Friends, fellow adventurers, writers, visual artists, experimental artists, people with positive energy. And I don't care what people think, J-Lo is a free spirit who speaks success in a capitalist country: why not thrive, isn't that the best of all revolutions, thrive! Examples of interesting people, well, here on this page are videos that I love, or at least, singers that I love:
So strange...you are appearing in dreams across America.
I dreamed of you last night. We were in a mall, and you were wearing a feathered beret and sunglasses and a brilliant smile. (and clothes, of course). I was ice skating. On the mall floor. You were clapping and cheering me on. It was fun to see you.
Thanks for the add and it is nice to meet you.. Sorta meet you.. Lol.. Have a great day and if you like poetry I like to play around and write it .. I post it on my blog.. Blessings, Deb
well ....in my dream I was trying to get you to sign my books but someone stole them and I was very upset. And for some reason you were doing a signing in a flashy disco bar. It was weird. I just remember being upset that my books were stolen.
Wow, so I'm not even in your top friends anymore?? Gee, my feelings aren't hurt or anything lol teasing love ya!!! My insane semester is almost over, thankfully!!!!!!
