Listen, Please

The best kick-ass rock song nobody's ever heard: "Oh Yeah" by the Cliks. If there's such a thing as soulful androgyny, it's encapsulated in Lucas Silveira's voice. He's like knuckles tripping down your back, chilling and warming at the same time. Of course, he does have an advantage, range-wise: He used to be a she. But if you can get past the transgendered thing, "Oh Yeah" is rock at its grittiest best. 

(And, yes, I realize that I'm pretty much talking into empty cyberspace until -- unless? -- my livejournal friends find me.)

He Poops Live?

Yes, he poops live. “He” is a college kid on blogtv, his site is called “EdwinsGeneration,” and for pure, spontaneous entertainment value, it blows away network television. It also opens an uncensored window into the often cringe-inducing world of teenage America, where “PC” definitely signifies nothing but a computer. Words that would be considered racial slurs in grownup society are as common as the underlying sexual tension that permeates Edwin’s site -- and all livecam sites, it seems. The n-word, in its various forms, is common here. Edwin, himself a 19-year-old Mexican-American who lives in Arizona, playfully calls his mixed-Asian girlfriend “Chink” and “Half-chink” (she is his gf, so he gets a pass). All of which raises a question: Are these kids bigoted, or are they postracial? Are they prejudiced, or are they subconsciously mocking racism? My instincts tell me that teenagers today live in such a polyglot world that colors mean nothing more than just that -- black, brown, white. Which, I hope, makes their seeming slurs innocent, if ignorant and immature.

One thing’s for sure, judging from EdwinsGeneration: Kids are absolutely obsessed with h-o-m-o-s-e-x-u-a-l-s. One of the ultimate putdowns -- and one seen continually -- is to call somebody or something “gay.” Also, not surprisingly, there is much speculation on whether particular viewers are queer. Why the obsession? Slipping back into pop psychologist mode, I think lots of the posters are still so young (I'm guessing many are middle school and high school students) that they’re intent on proving their heterosexuality by slamming gays whenever possible. Benignly slamming, I might add, but slamming nonetheless. Because, as the Supreme Court pointed out in Brown v. Board of Education (which banned segregated schools five decades ago), when you single out people as different, based simply on genetics, you marginalize them.

Edwin, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to give a shit about his viewers’ orientation. The boy’s a showman, first and foremost, and if his audience is mixed, that’s fine. The more people the better. He thrives on interaction with viewers, flirting with brilliance during his “live shows,” which simply consist of Edwin taking center stage and spraying his huge personality into cyberspace. When his mom burst into his room one evening to tell him to be less noisy -- yes, he lives at home -- Edwin responded by turning out the lights and whispering maniacally for the rest of the night. His energy level is off the charts. He and seven other blogtv guys organized a charity competition called “XmasInsomniax.” Not surprisingly -- given his metabolism -- Edwin won, staying awake (and on camera) for about 48 hours (I kicked in $20 twice, the second time because it was actually inspirational seeing him fighting off sleep to win). His share of the proceeds went to help the Invisible Children of Uganda (check out his excellent youtube video). Obviously, he’s a smart, cool kid. His personality is infectious, and -- except for the haters -- he treats his viewers (usually 20-40 at any given time) with respect and/or humor, rarely kicking or banning people. Plus -- and this is crucial, of course -- the camera licks him like a sweet lollipop.

Although he doesn't take on political or social issues, Edwin does share at least some DNA with Lenny Bruce, the iconic no-holds-barred comedian whose 1962 performance at Carnegie Hall in NYC was immortalized by critic Albert Goldman:

This was the moment that an obscure yet rapidly rising young comedian named Lenny Bruce chose to give one of the greatest performances of his career. ... The performance contained in this album is that of a child of the jazz age. Lenny worshipped the gods of Spontaneity, Candor and Free Association. He fancied himself an oral jazzman. His ideal was to walk out there like Charlie Parker, take that mike in his hand like a horn and blow, blow, blow everything that came into his head just as it came into his head with nothing censored, nothing translated, nothing mediated, until he was pure mind, pure head sending out brainwaves like radio waves into the heads of every man and woman seated in that vast hall. Sending, sending, sending, he would finally reach a point of clairvoyance where he was no longer a performer but rather a medium transmitting messages that just came to him from out there -- from recall, fantasy, prophecy. A point at which, like the practitioners of automatic writing, his tongue would outrun his mind and he would be saying things he didn't plan to say, things that surprised, delighted him, cracked him up -- as if he were a spectator at his own performance!

In a general sense, that's Edwin.

I first started watching EdwinsGeneration a few weeks ago, shortly after reading about the kid who committed suicide live on Justin TV. I’d never heard of either JTV or blogTV (though an on-line friend had acquainted me with Stickam). What I found was a cyber society of people sitting in front of their computers, or talking on the phone, or lying on their beds, or getting drunk, or sleeping, or dancing in their rooms, or jacking off, or getting high, or just talking about any topic (especially the mundane details of their lives) in front of whomever on the globe decides to visit. There’s a guy in Tokyo who takes his cam to work, to McDonald’s, to his kitchen. A college kid at the California Maritime Academy leaves his cam on in his dorm room, allowing people to listen to the smack talk among the cadets. And did I mention sexual tension? It’s HUGE. Shirtless blogging is popular, and guests are often trying to cyberly strip their hosts. Edwin isn’t the least bit shy, teasing guests with sex-charged banter, always with a huge smile, or running around in his undershorts.

And, again, he does poop live. And he pees live. And he showers live. All with the camera strategically placed to maintain a PG rating. Someday, I’m going to interview Edwin. Because, as you might have noticed, this phenomenon abso-fuckin-lutely fascinates me.

Oh Holy Fight

A fat 82 percent of Americans like the way Barack Obama is handling his transition to the presidency, according to a CNN poll. Surprising? Not at all. Since his election, Obama has turned into Middle America’s sexiest suitor. He’s made overtures to everybody from dog lovers to the military to big business -- while keeping his liberal base reasonably happy. Well, most of his liberal base.

The big exception: gay leaders. Many of them are upset that Obama chose Rick Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration. Warren, of course, opposes gay marriage -- a litmus test for some in our community.

As a run-of-the-mill rank-and-file gay guy, I’m OK with the invitation to Warren for three reasons.

First, Warren is not a hater. He doesn’t condemn gays as people, and he actually seems comfortable around us. He also made a point recently to say he doesn’t equate homosexuality with incest and pedophilia, as he seemed to indicate in an earlier interview. On the other hand, his mega-church in suburban L.A. will not accept sexually active gays as members. (Yeah, that’s smart: Tell gays never to have sex. That’ll make them well-adjusted human beings, don’t you think?) Still, overall, he’s friendly toward gays as people. It’s just the abstract that freaks him out.

Second, Warren does not oppose civil unions for gay people. I think churches have the right to forbid single-sex marriages, though they’re being bigoted and myopic in doing so. But the government doesn’t have a moral right to deny legal unions to any adults who seek them.

Third, we all should have learned many lessons from George Bush’s presidency. One is that, in a nation as diverse as ours, you cannot rule as an ideologue. You have to embrace folks of all shades, except for racists and other extremely hateful people. Otherwise, we become starkly polarized, and nothing gets done. Obama said from the beginning that he would try to erase Blue and Red from our maps. Inviting Warren reaches out to evangelical Christians who feel disenfranchised by liberal Democrats. Hopefully, by meshing all viewpoints, Obama can persuade everyone to be more accepting of others.