I expect simple behaviours here. Friendship, and love. Any advice should be from the perspective of the person asking, not the person giving! We have had to make new membership moderated to combat the huge number of spammers who register
Location: Canada
Registered: December 2003
Messages: 869
... since first release of a tune (followed a year later with the vidéo) from the Islandic (for want of a better term) "New Wave" band Sigur Rós entitled "Viõrar Vel Til Loftárása".
To reacquaint yourself with this seminal, and to many a defining, moment in their lives, I give you, courtesy of MCA/Fatcat/PIAS Recordings, the "Official" release, re-issued 2008 both on their web-site, and on their Channel at YouTube in both standard and HD modes:
VIÕRAR VEL TIL LOFTÁRÁSA [aka Good weather for air strikes] (Iceland, 2001, Directed by Stefán Árni Þorgeirsson and Sigurður Kjartansson, 7:05 min.)
The title of the track, released initially on the album Ágatis Byrjun in 1999, and re-issued for the vidéo on the album Svefn-g-englar in 2001 by the Islandic New Wave/Alternative post-rock band Sigur Rós, translates "Good weather for air strikes", and apparently originates from a local Islandic weatherman's penchant for declaring good weather days, during the war in Kosovo, to be ironically: "I dag viõrar vel til loftárasa" (or namely, "Today is good weather for an air strike"). Sigur Rós named the song after this pop-culture anomaly.
The visuals, and lyrics, capture the story of 2 pre-pubescent boys in a very religious 1950's era Islandic community who seemingly have decided to declare their homosexuality, coming out through their sharing a kiss during a local football match. The song if you can find a good translation (Icelandic to English) is all about their struggle and how someday they will be together.
"Viðrar vel til loftárása" which spawned both a cinematic and music industry controversy features all band members in cameo roles in the music vidéo: Jónsi is the soccer team coach, Orri is the scorekeeper, Georg is the referee, and Kjartan is one of the spectators. Moreover, the fetus design from the Ágætis byrjun album cover is shown on a bottle from which one of the boys drinks.
Production for the vidéo began in the autumn of 2001. A general casting call was held in the town of Reykjavík, Iceland, which was also the place of principal photography. Directed by Arni & Kinski, Icelandic directors Stefán Árni Þorgeirsson and Sigurður Kjartansson (Siggi Kinski), the vidéo has won an Icelandic Music Award for "Best Video" in 2002.
I remember well, how many here (and all over the World, or so it seemed) queued early into the mornings to download the vidéo from Sigur Rós's web-site (these were back in the day of likely at best 56 Kbps and at worst 28 Kbps dial-up connectivity, with broadband only a dream for the majority of us) shortly after its' release.
I remember too, the controversy that ensued, and the well-spring of support the band received from the gay fraternity.
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Man oh man, that kiss!
I have to wonder some, and I ramble here (I've been doing a lot of that lately, haven't I?), why something so innocent, so tender, so giving ... could have caused so much grief in the hearts and minds of so many world-wide?
There have been many others too, both before, and since. These too helped define who we are as a society, a culture and a "special-interest" group. Likely the most famous of these being when Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal puckered up and took that fateful first plunge in 2005's "Brokeback Mountain".
Before that were Jamie and Ste, from the 1994's "Beautiful Thing" cavorting in the Thamesmeade Wood with their almost surreal coupling; not to mention, that loving embrace captured (and frozen for all-time as the credits rolled) in all its' heart-stopping splendor in the final moments of the film when they take one another in their arms and very publicly dance to the sultry tune-smithing of Mama Cass and her rendition of the 1930's show-tune "Dream A Little Dream Of Me".
Then too, we'd enjoyed Ben Silverstone and Brad Gorton swapping saliva and swimming tips in 1998's "Get Real"; and Steve Bell and Ian Rose sharing oh so much more than lib-balm bent over that punt riverside in one of the most candid portrayals of the ultimate surrender given truly out of love seen either before or since in 1998's "Like It Is".
Have you been, or are you, affected by such imagery?
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Lastly, for nostalgia buffs, another of those truly defining, and most memorable, cinematic moments simply has to be the pairing of Montgomery Clift and John Ireland as wranglers in 1948's "Red River", which although not considered to be even remotely homosexual, their "That's a good looking gun you were about to use back there, can I see it? ... Maybe you'd like to see mine?" scene, plainly crackles with overt sexuality and testosterone.
Warren C. E. Austin
The Gay Deceiver
Toronto, Canada
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