From This Moment

When I was a youngster, one of my best friends was a shy (but wickedly funny) little blonde girl named Melissa. When I first met Melissa's family, around age 10, she was the youngest of four in a newly-blended family: her mom, her and her sister had moved in with her new step-dad, step-sister and step-brother.

After a few years a little bundle came along to join the family, and that little bundle was named Kevin. Melissa and I were 13 when Kevin was born, and he was our little doll. He was adorable and bright, and always cracked us up. When he was about two I remember him having trouble pronouncing "tr" - he substituted an "f" instead. We got him to say "truck" over and over...LOL.

When I was 18 I left the religion where both our families worshipped, and lost touch with Melissa, Kevin and the rest of her family. A few years ago, thanks to Facebook, I reconnected with Kevin - who informed me he, too, had left the religion of our birth, and was making a new, independent life...and he told me he was gay.

Understand that our former religion is in no way supportive of homosexuality, and so it was both a surprise and a source of inspiration to me to realize what Kevin had gone through as he realized his sexuality. He was fortunate, however, in that he had someone to love and support him: his boyfriend Andrew.

Today Kevin and Andrew got married - legally, of course, as we live in Canada. I am a little choked up thinking back to little Kevin, who is now a brave man who has refused to settle for anything less than brilliant happiness. So this blog post is dedicated with much love and support to Kevin and Andrew. May you share a lifetime of love. xoxo

30 Days of Music: Day Twenty-Nine

A Song From Your Childhood

"Daniel", by Elton John (yes, that's me as a little tyke)

30 Days of Music: Day Twenty-Eight

A Song That Makes You Feel Guilty

"Beautiful Goodbye", by Amanda Marshall

30 Days of Music: Day Twenty-Seven

A Song You Wish You Could Play

"Wonder (Acoustic)", Natalie Merchant

30 Days of Music: Day Twenty-Six

A Song You Can Play on an Instrument

"Moonlight Sonata", by Beethoven

30 Days of Music: Day Twenty-Five

A Song that Makes You Laugh

"Trapped in the Drive-Thru", by Weird Al Yankovic

30 Days of Music: Day Twenty-Four

A Song You Want Played at Your Funeral

"The Long Day is Over", by Norah Jones

30 Days of Music: Day Twenty-Three

A Song You Want to Play at Your Wedding

"Always With Me, Always With You", by Joe Satriani, which was played at my wedding in October, 1994

30 Days of Music: Day Twenty-Two

A Song You Listen to When You're Sad

"River", by Joni Mitchell

30 Days of Music: Day Twenty-One

A Song You Listen to When You're Happy

"Go", by Moby

30 Days of Music: Day Twenty

A Song You Listen to When You're Angry

I don't. I couldn't think of anything and then realized that when I'm truly PO'd, music only irritates me. So this doesn't have an answer, which I thought was a better answer than making something up.

30 Days of Music: Day Nineteen

A Song From Your Favourite Album

"Old Friends", by Simon & Garfunkel

30 Days of Music: Day Eighteen

A Song You Wish You Heard on the Radio

"Wonder", by Natalie Merchant (acoustic version)

30 Days of Music: Day Seventeen

A Song You Hear Often on the Radio

"Down by the Water", by the Decemberists

30 Days of Music: Day Sixteen

A Song You Used to Love But Now Hate

"Baby Don't Forget My Number", by Milli Vanilli

30 Days of Music: Day Fifteen

A Song That Describes You

"Hard Road", by Sam Roberts

30 Days of Music: Day Fourteen

A Song No One Would Expect You to Love

"Love Story", by Taylor Swift

30 Days of Music: Day Thirteen

A Song That's a Guilty Pleasure

"You Should be Dancing", by the Bee Gees

30 Days of Music: Day Twelve

A Song from a Band You Hate

"If Everyone Cared", by Nickelback

30 Days of Music: Day Eleven

A Song by Your Favourite Band

"Nicotina", by Big Sugar

Movie Monday: Bedrooms and Hallways

We're back to Movie Monday after a week's hiatus. Today's movie Bedrooms and Hallways was recommended to me by a twitter friend, Lisa, who told me it was a cute, British gay movie - three of my favourite things. :)

Leo, an out gay man on the cusp of his 30th birthday, develops feelings for Brendan, a straight man in his men's therapy group. It leads to an affair between the two men, which is later complicated by the fact that Brendan still lives and works with his ex-girlfriend...who turns out to have been Leo's best friend when they were in high school.

Leo is played by Kevin McKidd, which was more than enough to get me to check it out - I'm a huge fan. As the movie went on, though, I saw more familiar faces - James Purefoy, Simon Callow (who is, by law, in every movie made in England since, like, 1985), Tom Hollander who is an absolute scream in every role I've seen, Jennifer Ehle, and Hugo Weaving who was in a couple little movie franchises, sort of obscure, The Matrix and Lord of the Rings.

Some of the moments are completely hysterical - the men's therapy group in particular, which is woven throughout the movie, had me laughing out loud. Other parts are a little sexy and touching, and some were less impressive. I have mixed feelings about the end - I didn't feel Leo's eventual actions were in keeping with what his character had seemed to be throughout the movie. However, it has lots in its favour, and I give it a 7/10.

Could not find a trailer on YouTube...instead I found the whole darn movie, broken up into sections. Here's Part 1.

30 Days of Music: Day Ten

A Song That Makes You Fall Asleep

"The Long Day is Over", by Norah Jones



(Illustration by Anubis Admirer)

30 Days of Music: Day Nine

A Song You Can Dance To

"Home for a Rest", by Spirit of the West

30 Days of Music: Day Eight

A Song You Know All the Words To

"There! Right There!", from Legally Blonde: The Musical

30 Days of Music: Day Seven

A Song that Reminds You of a Certain Event

"Under the Bridge", by the Red Hot Chili Peppers

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30 Days of Music: Day Six

A Song that Reminds You of Somewhere

"Ahead by a Century", by The Tragically Hip

30 Days of Music: Day Five

A Song That Reminds You of Someone

"Moon River, by Henry Mancini, His Orchestra and Chorus"

30 Days of Music: Day Four

A Song That Makes You Sad

When She Loved Me, by Sarah McLachlan

30 Days of Music: Day Three

A Song That Makes You Happy

Starry Eyed Surprise, by Paul Oakenfold ft. Shifty Shellshock

30 Days of Music: Day Two

Your Least Favourite Song

Two Out of Three Ain't Bad, by Meatloaf

30 Days of Music: Day One

Your Favourite Song

Take Me to the Riot, by Stars

30 Days of Music

I'm beginning a new meme I found on FB - my cousin's son was working on this during the month of March. Despite his deplorable taste in music - his favourite band is Nickelback - I liked the idea. :) This will fill the month of April. First post to follow shortly.