Art by Man Luo
by Alex Stoddard
"Both pictures taken at the same time in the same spot, just from opposite sides of the creek. A testament to the power of changing your perspective."
okay but saying “i wish i had known you sooner” — like the love in my heart is growing so big and fast for you that i wish i had the opportunity to have you way earlier by my side, because i want to love you longer than i can do now. my love for you reaches my past and makes a place for you.
i’m working on a play about 65-year-old lesbians, and my dramaturg is an older gay man who has been helping me with historical context and research, and also just in general giving me advice based on his own personal experiences.
fav thing he told me so far, said with a lot of love: “dyke drama was specific. it was always so specific. it was precise and narrowed and pointed. and also so dumb.”
also spoke to an older lesbian professor. i was asking her all these questions about marches and protests and summits and infighting and rallies and “what was it like what did this mean to you what was it like to experience that?”
and she kinda stared at me for a bit and said, “you know, it was a lot. and it was big and it did feel revolutionary. but also at that time i was mainly focused on getting my heart broken in a bar.”
and like. yeah.
another thing my dramaturg told me, from the perspective of a gay man who lived through the 80’s, was that whenever a young gay person asks him what the dating and play scene used to be like, he answers:
“we went to rallies and funerals.”
our persistence in our continued existence is big and scary and revolutionary, and the grief stretches on and the losses hit hard.
and because of that, i think it’s important to remember the dumb drama, and the first loves, and the first heartbreaks over beer. i think it’s important to go to rallies and vigils, and also dive bars and game nights.
it’s all so big and so small.
[ID: A photo of an office with classical paintings edited in so ancient women are sitting at the desks, looking bored and some wearing earbuds or using the computer. Their poses all fit the space, and the editing looks natural. God’s hand from The Creation of Adam is also reaching for a phone from the side. End ID]
David Foster Wallace correctly predicts Netflix binging in 1996.
Everyone’s experience of this sort of thing is different. But for myself, I have found that since I emerged from the internet-based hibernation of my 20s and replaced a lot of my TV and video game consumption with live theatre and dance and city exploration and concerts and burlesque and parties, I am happier and more satisfied with existence than I have ever been in my life.