Planet Homo

Night of the Iguana

If you have never seen this 1964 classic black and white film by legendary director John Houston, rent it. The film is the stuff of legends: The movie featured a defrocked priest (Burton), bawdy widow (Ava Gardner), spinster artist (Deborah Kerr) and nymphet (Sue Lyon, fresh from Lolita). But Liz Taylor upstaged the entire 1964 film with her saucy shenanigans. Her passionate affair with the leading man – both were married to other partners – garnered headlines around the world. After the filming, the couple lingered in the idyllic tropical town. For her 32nd birthday, Burton gave her Casa Kimberly, a $57,000 villa linked to his own by an arched, cotton-candy-pink bridge, one story above the cobbled street. Also present were the peculiar playwright Tennessee Williams and rowdy, pistol-packing Mexican director-actor Emilio Fernandez. Once Huston reminisced: "The press gathered down there expecting something to happen with all these volatile personalities. They felt the lid would blow off and there would be fireworks. When there weren’t any, they were reduced to writing about Puerto Vallarta. And, I’m afraid, that was the beginning of its popularity, which was a mixed blessing." One only wonders if Williams had his way with the two very sexy Mexican servants, Pedro and Pepe, who literally shake their maracas throughout the movie. The film was made in 1963; while filming, President Kennedy was assassinated. Houston, fed up with America, would renounce his US citizenship. He would eventually retire to Puerto Vallarta. The film itself is extraordinary for its performances: Richard Burton casts a sexy, boyish charm to his defrocked priest. Ava Gardner plays Maxine, a kind of retired beat poet hostess who gets to keep the Mexican boys, but yearns for Burton. Deborah Kerr is the unsuspecting key to the movie. Clearly there was something going on (in character) with Burton and Kerr, and she gets to deliver the best Williams lines. Tennessee Williams certainly did have this themes, and one them was poetry. In this film, a 97 year old poet completes his final poem and dies. But there is poetry throughout this film, in that fascinating mood that only Tennessee Williams could create, which is a world where people speak in beautiful metaphors with lush prose that nearly borders the ridiculous, but manages to stay just on the side of reason.

Jet

 

We're taking a little hiatus from all the world as we head to the steamy tropics of Mexico. Tomorrow will be the Summer Solstice, the first day of Summer so it's an appropriate day to travel. We will be sending reports back between margaritas and guest bloggers will take up some of the space while we enjoy this sojourn.

Maybe, they just like Chicago?

Like the Twilight Zone episode, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", United Airlines employees at Chicago's O' Hare airport are reporting to witness a UFO, but the government and their bosses are not taking them seriously. On November 7th, at least 12 workers reported the incident to the airline. Said one employee, "I tend to be scientific by nature, and I don't understand why aliens would hover over a busy airport," a United mechanic who said he observed the metallic-looking object above Gate C17 told the Tribune. "But I know that what I saw and what a lot of other people saw stood out very clearly, and it definitely was not an [Earth] aircraft." The object, described as a saucerlike object left a hole in overcast skies after bolting through thick clouds with intense energy. But Union officials such as Craig Burzych have responded "To fly 7 million light years to O'Hare and then have to turn around and go home because your gate was occupied is simply unacceptable."
In a related incident, The French space agency, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales will be begin to place information on some 6,000 reports on UFO activity on line sometime early this year.

Gay Friendly Cities Survey Results

San Francisco is the gay friendliest town for travelers it was reported today in a survey conducted by the Travel Industry Association. Among the top ten are Key West, Fla.; New York City; Fire Island, which is part of Long Island in New York; Provincetown, Mass.; Los Angeles; Miami-South Beach, Fla.; Las Vegas; New Orleans, and Palm Springs-Palm Desert, Calif.

The survey was was national and was conducted online among 2,020 self-identified gay travelers 21 and older who have taken at least one leisure trip within the past 12 months. A place where gay men could hold hands was cited among more than half of the respondents.

Bob Witeck, CEO of Witeck-Combs Communications said the survey showed that gay and lesbian travelers are not looking for special treatment, but are simply "expecting consideration and equal respect given all customers."