In addition to Shariff (actually) stanning the Habs, Brass doing so out of manly obligation, and Rivette being a sleeper fanatic who has multiple jerseys and once in high school punched a beefy older man at a home game, Frank is an Avs fan, and now Matt is getting an incredible amount of real hockey spam after making the mistake of hearting an IG post or two of Connor Storrie. Kevin is the only one who's ever actually played hockey (through high school).
tl;dr: Thank you, Heated Rivalry cast and crew, for a huge slap in the face to homophobic politics and "AI" billionaires.
Wrote a novel under the cut.
In my late 30s, I don't consider myself a "queer elder," but I have consumed a massive quantity of male same-sex romance and erotica. I don't think there's a lot of any of it in a language I can read/comprehend that I haven't yet come across. M/M romance has very directly shaped my sense of self as a queer transmasculine adult (the fujoshi to ftm pipeline, as they say). In my teens, growing up in the US, it was hard to come by without clever use of eBay, sketchy download sites, and inter-library loans. When Brokeback Mountain appeared in theaters, I remember goggling at the film poster, shocked and secretly delighted that it looked like it might be gay. There was always something profoundly humane about queer sex and love in art as I knew it in my formative years, because it was so non-mainstream, most of the time, and even when it slid into fame like Brokeback did, everyone who participated in the creative process stood to lose money, fans, and become pigeonholed if not condemned for what they had created. Humans making and sharing art is not just an inherently human act, but also one of deep vulnerability, and homoeroticism on screen in particular (because of the immediacy and universality of the format) has been a supreme illustration of that vulnerability, which art audiences join if they fall in love with that piece of art.
There are many more options for male-male sex and love onscreen in 2025, but also a sense of escalating danger for us queers and everyone else as surveillance capitalism joins hands, inevitably, with surveillance states flying various political flags but united in their willingness to sacrifice universal human dignity if not humanity itself for the hallucination of endless profit. So-called AI is the latest and most galling example yet of where we are in late-stage capitalism: people who have hoarded mind-blowing resources for themselves worshipping the efficiency and productivity of a predictably flawed, faulty machine without asking what the efficiency and productivity is for, or whom and what it destroys. In my view, "AI" boosters have entirely lost sight of human beings and the world that allows us to live, by exhausting the land and air and water that, last I checked, we all do still need to survive, billionaires included, as much as some of them might want to become immortal brains in vats.
This is why I have watched Heated Rivalry with great enjoyment and excitement though I rarely consume television. It's lovingly made (the jersey designs alone show the amount of thought and care, but also winking cheekiness, poured into the production); it showcases truly virtuosic acting performances; it's longform, not delivered in tiny blips engineered to hook our dopamine systems; it's released in installations, uniting us over it in time.
But most importantly of all in 2025, it's a slap in the fucking face to several bundled assumptions that we should all struggle against while we still can. The first is that all kinds of people can't revel together in the joy of a work of art and would prefer only a algorithmically engineered IV drip to match their exact previous preferences. The second, that machines can "do art more efficiently" and therefore, better. The third, that men who want to love and fuck other men are unnatural, unlovable, a sign of decay, or can't draw audiences.
Don't use "AI" tools, or use them as little as you can help it. Keep making your art, whatever form it takes. Even if it's really scary and hard, share it with other people. What else is there to being alive, but that connection?
maybe i like pulling out my debit card instead of using apple pay. maybe i like untangling my wired headphones. maybe i like typing something into the search bar instead of using siri or whatever. maybe i like curating my own social media feeds over an algorithm. i just don’t think everything has to be perfectly streamlined and efficient i like it when things feel tethered to the real world.
If they advanced too much further technologically, those advances would inevitably intrude on their humanity. People wanted to walk. They wanted to take the bus that smells like cigarettes. They wanted those precious three minutes between asking a question and knowing the answer. [...] They found that they needed things to be just a little bit difficult once in a while. They needed to stub their toe and wait in line and see that Check Engine light. They decided to leave their existence just a little short of perfect, because they wanted to want.
— 17776 (aka the story that fundamentally altered my understanding of the human condition)
Currently watching: probably the Bad Hasbara podcast video stream (recommend!) or some other political podcast I also tune into via my ears
Sweet/savory/spicy: Savory + sweet 4 ever
Relationship status: Married <3_<3
Current obsession: Not sure I have one? Just burned through all the back eps of the Bad Gays podcast. Maybe dirtbag left podcasts. CTH. I also really like Matt Bernstein's A Bit Fruity.
Last google search: google map for the start line of a 10k I'm running tomorrow
The thing with Saltburn is i really don't care about the cum. I'm a lot more concerned about him slurping and licking around the bathtub drain because there is bound to be MOLD in there. Do you know how filthy drains are. There is probably old hair in there
I know as a writer I'm supposed to be eloquent, but truthfully the horror of everything that has been happening has stripped me of the ability to compose even the most basic sentences. For weeks I have barely been able to string two words together aloud, and now I can't even do it in writing. In fact, when I try to type my hands and forearms feel weak. These sentences took over 20 minutes to cobble together. There are no words that can convey this feeling.
I on the other hand have spilled a lot of words, as is my wont vs. my lovely spouse's. But the words are so hideously feeble.
There are so many other atrocities and grave injustices in this world, yes. And several of them that I care about passionately. But all of us marching and weeping and roaring know, this particular horror can be relieved by a few men with far too much power (never deserved) showing a sliver of actual courage, a crumb of actual moral clarity. But will they even deign to pretend to care about the people?
This part of the world is lovely. Citruses and olives, watermelon and grapes, rice and bread and fish perfumed by sumac and sesame. Everyone living there deserve to walk free and proud and unafraid. I have never been religious, but for that dream I pray.
Also, consider chipping in a few dollars if you can to nonbinary model/public figure/nonprofit organizer Rain Dove's on-the-ground aid efforts here.
The most DIRECT in hand aid possible for Gazan Palestinians both in Gaza & at border.
-Cash in hand to Gazan Palestinians who are trapped a
titsay
kaledo-art
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romaincrisis
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stormborns
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