Will we buy in to "Love Monkey"?

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
  I bet Matthew Shephard wishes he had hid his gayness. Many people don't live in liberal urban centers.
 
   

Look at what I said - I clearly made a distinction between urban centers and the suburbs, and, had you watched the show, you would have seen that they were making a big deal about what it's like to live a single male life in NY, which is clearly a liberal urban center.
 
 So I don't get your point....

[ratioci nation]

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
 Of course, Tom's idea of hip is utterly square. He makes an idealistic speech about seeking power and originality over schlock then tries to woo Wayne, a marketable teen heartthrob played by Columbia Records' latest product, Teddy Geiger. Instead of satirizing the hypocrisy of the rock world or exploring the inner workings of the decrepit music industry, Love Monkey pursues a retarded idea of rock 'n' roll authenticity, spouting earnest references to Dylan and the Chelsea Hotel at every turn. "You're Wayne and we will try to keep your Wayneness," Tom promises sincerely, damning Love Monkey to the crapper, another failed attempt to use rock as the backdrop for an insipid sitcom.

the bits where they show that kid and "ed" talking to him in the commercial is what made me promise myself I would never watch the show, judging a book by its cover? sure, but its a stupid fucking cover

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

Honestly, I didn't watch the show, so can't comment on the show, but...
 
 I'm willing to bet there are plenty of gay men in NYC or other urban centers who don't go around advertising their homosexuality.
 
 

Originally posted by vansmack:
   

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
  I bet Matthew Shephard wishes he had hid his gayness. Many people don't live in liberal urban centers.
 
   

Look at what I said - I clearly made a distinction between urban centers and the suburbs, and, had you watched the show, you would have seen that they were making a big deal about what it's like to live a single male life in NY, which is clearly a liberal urban center.
 
 So I don't get your point.... [/b]

[nkotb]

I don't know.  While I'm sure there are still gay men hiding their sexuality in those areas, I can speak from experience that it's almost painfully open in NYC.  Anytime I've hung out with my brother (who is gay) or my wife's NY work friends (who are ALL gay...god bless the fasion industry), it reminds me of this article:
 
 Newly Out Gay Man Overdoing It
 
 

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
  I'm willing to bet there are plenty of gay men in NYC or other urban centers who don't go around advertising their homosexuality.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
  I'm willing to bet there are plenty of gay men in NYC or other urban centers who don't go around advertising their homosexuality.
 
   

See, now why didn't you just say that the first time because that is a valid point?  Making the Matthew Shepard reference was completely missing the point.  We're not talking about Wisconsin, we're talking about NYC.  
 
 I agree, not everybody is "out of the closet" so to speak.  But I think the key point you made is similar to my point - "advertise it."  While most gays do not advertise the fact, but your closest friends would/could/should know.  Sometimes I'm still surprised when an acquantance tells me that they're gay when I didn't know before, but they tell me or it comes up in conversation, mostly because they don't advertise it and rightly so.  Maybe SF has watered me down a bit, but I think it actually does a disservice to make a character like the character in Love Monkey live in an urban center like NY and hide his sexual orientation when that has become the exception and not the rule in 2006.

[ratioci nation]

Originally posted by vansmack:
   We're not talking about Wisconsin, we're talking about NYC.

COASTAL BIAS ALERT
 
 Not all states in the middle are the same
     
 
 That would by WYOMING

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

Why is it obvious that it has become the exception rather than the rule? Do your own personal life experiences really give you that much confidence such that you can comment for all of urbania? How do you know that for every guy out of the closet, there's not three more who are in the closet?
 
 
 

Originally posted by vansmack:
   

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
  I'm willing to bet there are plenty of gay men in NYC or other urban centers who don't go around advertising their homosexuality.
 
   

See, now why didn't you just say that the first time because that is a valid point?  Making the Matthew Shepard reference was completely missing the point.  We're not talking about Wisconsin, we're talking about NYC.  
 
 I agree, not everybody is "out of the closet" so to speak.  But I think the key point you made is similar to my point - "advertise it."  While most gays do not advertise the fact, but your closest friends would/could/should know.  Sometimes I'm still surprised when an acquantance tells me that they're gay when I didn't know before, but they tell me or it comes up in conversation, mostly because they don't advertise it and rightly so.  Maybe SF has watered me down a bit, but I think it actually does a disservice to make a character like the character in Love Monkey live in an urban center like NY and hide his sexual orientation when that has become the exception and not the rule in 2006. [/b]

[vansmack]

Originally posted by pdx pollard:
  COASTAL BIAS ALERT

Yes, I do have a coastal bias.
 
 

Originally posted by pdx pollard:
 
 Not all states in the middle are the same
     

Yes they are.
 
 

Originally posted by pdx pollard:
 
 That would by WYOMING

And I stand corrected.  It was the other W state in the middle of the country - Wyoming.  Thanks for catching that.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
  Why is it obvious that it has become the exception rather than the rule?  Do your own personal life experiences really give you that much confidence such that you can comment for all of urbania? How do you know that for every guy out of the closet, there's not three more who are in the closet?
 

I was the first to classify my opions by stating that perhaps SF has skewed my view, but I don't think I'll be alone in stating that being openly gay in NY is no longer a rare occurence.  
 
 But remember what I'm talking about here - close friends.  While in a professional setting it may not be as obvious, I think it's even more rare among close friends.  We're not talking about someone who hasn't realized he's gay, (again, had you seen the show) we're talking about someone who is going to painstaking measures to hide his sexual orientation from his close friends and as far as we can tell has told a female friend he doesn't appear to be as close he is to his male friends.  I, personally, feel this is TV distorting reality for the sake of a story that has been beaten to death and it goes hand in hand with the many other weaknesses of the writers of the show that I pointed out.
 
 You can pick it apart with a fine toothed comb all you want because you're bored on a Friday afternoon, but I'll comment with authority on urbania all day long and leave suburbia to you.

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

So you're saying that every fictional tv character must fit (your perception of) reality in order to make the show strong? Whatever happened to depicting characters that don't fit the norm or match the stereotype?
 
 I mean, it's a fictional tv show. I watch and love Lost, but no way do I think that there would be a host of survivors if a plane crashed in the manner that the plane on Lost did.
 
 

Originally posted by vansmack:
   

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
  Why is it obvious that it has become the exception rather than the rule?  Do your own personal life experiences really give you that much confidence such that you can comment for all of urbania? How do you know that for every guy out of the closet, there's not three more who are in the closet?
 

I was the first to classify my opions by stating that perhaps SF has skewed my view, but I don't think I'll be alone in stating that being openly gay in NY is no longer a rare occurence.  
 
 But remember what I'm talking about here - close friends.  While in a professional setting it may not be as obvious, I think it's even more rare among close friends.  We're not talking about someone who hasn't realized he's gay, (again, had you seen the show) we're talking about someone who is going to painstaking measures to hide his sexual orientation from his close friends and as far as we can tell has told a female friend he doesn't appear to be as close he is to his male friends.  I, personally, feel this is TV distorting reality for the sake of a story that has been beaten to death and it goes hand in hand with the many other weaknesses of the writers of the show that I pointed out.
 
 You can pick it apart with a fine toothed comb all you want because you're bored on a Friday afternoon, but I'll comment with authority on urbania all day long and leave suburbia to you. [/b]

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
  So you're saying that every fictional tv character must fit (your perception of) reality in order to make the show strong? Whatever happened to depicting characters that don't fit the norm or match the stereotype?
 
 I mean, it's a fictional tv show. I watch and love Lost, but no way do I think that there would be a host of survivors if a plane crashed in the manner that the plane on Lost did.

Lost doesn't pretend to be hip.
 
 If you're going to pretend to be hip, then know what's going on and actually be hip.  Don't do the 90's stereotype, do the 06 stereotype that doesn't actually exist yet.

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

I would have figured that any show co-starring Jason Priestly would automatically be totally unhip, and would be smart enough to not even attempt to pretend to be hip. But I guess I would have figured wrong.
 
 

Originally posted by vansmack:
   

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
  So you're saying that every fictional tv character must fit (your perception of) reality in order to make the show strong? Whatever happened to depicting characters that don't fit the norm or match the stereotype?
 
 I mean, it's a fictional tv show. I watch and love Lost, but no way do I think that there would be a host of survivors if a plane crashed in the manner that the plane on Lost did.

Lost doesn't pretend to be hip.
 
 If you're going to pretend to be hip, then know what's going on and actually be hip.  Don't do the 90's stereotype, do the 06 stereotype that doesn't actually exist yet. [/b]

[Mobius]

You know what would have actually made this an interesting show?  If the main character quit his corporate job to open a music venue (like 9:30 or Black Cat or smaller, whatever).  The record industry just isn't cool or interesting right now.  Recorded music is more and more being turned into a commodity, rather than art. But live music remains cool.  Someone should have pitched the show about "a young Seth Hurwitz."

[PigIron]

Stop it.  You boys just stop it now, immediately.  I've always respected the opinions shown on this board.  But Jesus-rollerskating-Christ, I DO NOT want to see (what seems to be) educated, respectable  music fans analyzing a cheesy-ass network sitcom called "Love Monkey".  Its retarded.  Its not like I'm some anti-social freak who refuses to watch TV out of respect for some hip moral code.  But "Love Monkey" is exactly the reason why 99.9% of television is so embarrassingly bad.  And to be honest, I haven't even seen it.  But the ads that I saw for this show (and I saw loads last weekend during a three hour span) were so mindblowingly grueling to get through that I can come to the conclusion that  I'd rather shove the remote control up my ass than sit through thirty seconds of it.

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

If 99.9% of tv is embarassingly bad, how did you manage to sit there and watch it for three straight hours?
 
 

Originally posted by PigIron:
  Stop it.  You boys just stop it now, immediately.  I've always respected the opinions shown on this board.  But Jesus-rollerskating-Christ, I DO NOT want to see (what seems to be) educated, respectable  music fans analyzing a cheesy-ass network sitcom called "Love Monkey".  Its retarded.  Its not like I'm some anti-social freak who refuses to watch TV out of respect for some hip moral code.  But "Love Monkey" is exactly the reason why 99.9% of television is so embarrassingly bad.  And to be honest, I haven't even seen it.  But the ads that I saw for this show (and I saw loads last weekend during a three hour span) were so mindblowingly grueling to get through that I can come to the conclusion that  I'd rather shove the remote control up my ass than sit through thirty seconds of it.