Archive for: 2011
The first gay-positive movie ever
I’d read a bit about the very early homosexual rights movements in Europe, about Magnus Hirschfeld and some of the organisations that operated in the 1910′s and 1920′s. But I didn’t know anything about what they published, or how they made their case to the general population. Well, now I know a little bit more, thanks to Anders als die Andem (Different from the Others), a German silent film released in 1919. Banned a year afterwards, most copies were destroyed when the Nazis took over. Only fragments of this fascinating piece of gay history exist.
VGVA.com redesign: the frontend
Layout-wise, I made a few changes to VGVA.com. First, a much wider default width (from 800 to 1024 pixels) allowed me a second sidebar. After a lot of experimentation and feedback from the VGVA board, I displayed our sponsors in two cycling blocks (thank you, jQuery Cycle Plugin!), plus a separate block for new “official supplier sponsor” volleyballstuff.net. Team sponsors should be pleased, at least; their logos had previously been stuck below the footer.
VGVA.com redesign: the backend
The first and most obvious aspect of this redesign was moving from a few homebrewed PHP scripts to a proper CMS, namely WordPress. The advantages are obvious—revision history, a full text editor, taxonomies, etc… etc…—are obvious. But I needed a lot more than just a basic CMS for this site, and WordPress was ready:
The VGVA.com redesign
For several months, I’ve been hard at work redesigning the Vancouver Gay Volleyball Association website. Longtime readers will remember previous posts wherein I expressed my insecurities, then my excitement at tackling its redesign in 2008. Now in 2011 comes another redesign, even more extensive.
Content type descriptions in node/add
Most of my Drupal experience in the last year has been either purely back-end development, or superficial front-end stuff: JavaScript, AJAX, tweaking templates and styles, that sort of thing. But in the last couple of weeks, in two different projects, I’ve been digging more into theme development, menu management, and various other issues.
Walking Lions’ Gate Bridge
On Tuesday I did something I’d been thinking about for a while: walking over Lions’ Gate Bridge. I didn’t really plann it, I just got impatient waiting for the bus after work, then started walking along Marine Dr. The bus drove past as I was between stops, so I thought, fuck it. It was a nice evening, not too warm and not too cold, I had my camera with me and the light looked right for some good sunset shots. Why not?
How to disable individual fields in the node edit screen
Consider this problem: you want to disable a few fields on the node edit screen for particular node types. Let’s say the body, although this could apply to any and all fields. The reason for this is that for our client’s e-commerce system, the products are synched from an external POS system, and most fields should not be touched AT ALL… and certainly shouldn’t be overwritten with content copy-pasted from MS Word, which has happened a few times and prompted us to take preventative measures.
Sunset, Kits, Sunset on Kits
Last week I did something I hadn’t done in a while: bring my camera to work and take pictures from the SeaBus. Now that the days are getting shorter I can get some fine sunset pics—when the weather’s cooperating, as it was that day.
Snail’s Pace
It’s the little things, y’know?
On the way to work this morning I saw a snail crossing the sidewalk. It had a very pretty shell, pale yellow with a sharp black stripe. Right in the middle of the sidewalk it was, halfway between the bushes by the McD parking lot and the cool shady bushes by the side of the road.
Movie Review: The Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a gorgeous journey into the past, both inspirational and evocative. The film takes us on a tour of the Chauvet-Pont-D’Arc cave, filled with gorgeous neolithic cave paintings dating back 30,000 years. With the help of the researchers currently studying the cave, we attempt to understand the people who created and used these works of art, and the world they lived in.
Vancouver Queer Film Festival 2011: Final Thoughts
I wasn’t sure if I could do do the same festival marathon thing as last year; then, I was unemployed, so it was easy to see a couple movies, then blog about them the next day. But I have a day job now, and by the weekend I was getting seriously burned out. To the point that I hesitated to go to the closing gala film, after a whole afternoon playing volleyball in the hot sun. But I went, and I’m so glad I did. Next year I need to either pace myself better or take some time off.
Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: Different From Whom?
Different From Whom? / Diverso da Chi? is a wonderful Italian gay comedy, expertly mixing laughs with drama. With well-developed characters, beautiful scenery and an uplifting message, it is a fine conclusion to this year’s film festival.
Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: The Coast Is Queer
I had to cancel going to a barbecue for this, but fortunately The Coast Is Queer did not disappoint!
Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: Porn Start
Not a whole lot to say about this movie, really. It was goofy, silly, sexy fun. I’m only surprised nobody’s come up with a Twilight-themed gay porn before!
Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: Going Down in LA-LA Land
Casper Andreas’ critique of the Hollywood culture has a higher drama-to-comedy ratio than last year’s Violet Tendencies; it’s far more ambitious, with a more complex plot and message and stabs at character arcs. As a comedy, Going Down is excellent, with the same snappy lines and silly situations I’ve come to expect from Andreas. As a drama, though… not so much.
Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: Madame X
Madame X is hilarious fun, shamelessly hitting or subverting all sorts action-adventure, martial arts, superhero, and Magical Girl clichés in a delightful campy way.
Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: Grown Up Movie Star
Oh hey, there’s the angst I’ve missed so much!
This is not going to be an easy review to write. First, let me say that Grown Up Movie Star is brilliantly written, acted, and directed. Every detail is impeccably done and feels so authentic (I guess. I mean, what do I know about small-town Newfoundland?)
Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: Vancouver Visionaries
This retrospective showcase of Vancouver-made shorts had some good moments, but on the whole they kind of left me cold. Now that I think about it, I think all the rough and low-budget films might have suffered in comparison to Jamie Travis’ highly stylized and polished pieces. Not fair, I know, but there you go. Plus, if I’m being honest, it was late and I was dead tired. This whole festival marathon thing worked a lot better last year when I was unemployed.
Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: Jamie Travis Retrospective
I don’t think I’d heard of Jamie Travis before last night. My loss, because he’s absolutely brilliant! He’s got a sharp eye for visuals, lavishing bright colours juxtaposed with dark humour and creepy mind screws. You don’t watch his movies, you strap in and let yourself be taken on a tour of a delightfully quirky mind. Maybe it’ll make sense at the end and maybe not; either way, you’re in for a hell of a ride!
Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: Queer History Project Retrospective
For all the people (including me) who missed any of the Queer History Project films from past years! I’ve already reviewed the five shorts in Riffs on the Theme of Activism so I won’t cover them here, but it was lovely seeing them again. Given the choice I might have skipped them since it was almost midnight when I came out of the theatre, but I’m not complaining. Too much.
