Books and Movies

Yesterday was my gay culture day, decided to buy Ricky Martin's book and went to see a movie called "La Otra Familia". I'll tell you about the book once I read it but for now let's discuss the movie.


As not to give to much away I'll just quote the first paragraph of the movie's synopsis: "Abandoned for 3 days by his Crack addicted Mother, Hendrix, a 7 year old boy is rescued by a friend and given to a homosexual couple to take care of the child."


First off I'd advise people to go see it, it is a moving story that does touch several emotional strings and it's also an insightful look at the issues the gay community encounters when trying to become a family in todays society, that said, the movie has one big flaw, director Gustavo Loza in my humble opinion should have perhaps focused more on the main story of the child and his adoptive parents making the movie more concise and to the point, there is a side story of a lesbian couple that wants to become pregnant that simply get's lost within the script and takes some meaning away from the main story, I think that should be another movie altogether.


I doubt this movie will make it anytime soon to the US, but if it does and you are queer friendly, I'd ask you to go see it or perhaps wait till it comes out in Amazon or Netflix or something like that, there is an important message within the movie, a message that shows how sometimes the prejudice of certain people makes them assume things that are simply not true and in that assumption they pretty much can destroy people's lives without true knowledge of what is really happening.

Weird dreams

I've been having a lot of those lately, some of them a little too explicit or insightful to share them here, but I had a weird funny one yesterday, or was it today? I can't keep track of time with all this going about in planes, buses and the like.


Now this dream was of the 3rd person kind, meaning that I was an observer of what was happening but not involved in the dream. It was the set of "Saved by the Bell" which strangely resembled my living room and Zack was planning a sleep over / pajama party of sorts, he was acting all awkward and Screech and Albert didn't quite understand his behavior, Zack was nervous and acting a little effeminate, some idle conversation and a few funny comments after John Holmes (yes, the porn actor) comes into the set and begins to spill out in a standup comedian way how Zach has been lately having wet dreams about him and wants to do a pajama party so he can have full on gay sex with the three of them.


I'm usually pretty good at analyzing my own dreams and understanding where they come from, and I guess I did have a crush on Zack way back when (looking back, now I think he's kinda lame), but honestly I just find this dream ridiculously funny and can't make much more out of it.

esto fue un Miércoles

esto fue un Miércoles a photo by Yago Yago Yago on Flickr.

Pieles

Pieles a photo by Yago Yago Yago on Flickr.

Reflejo leopardo

Reflejo leopardo a photo by Yago Yago Yago on Flickr.

This one is just amazing

Atardecer

Atardecer a photo by Yago Yago Yago on Flickr.

I like the way the light reflects on our leggins

Suspiro

Suspiro a photo by Yago Yago Yago on Flickr.

Another shot from yago's album.

Breakfast

Breakfast a photo by Yago Yago Yago on Flickr.

So we had a Photo shoot with our friend/photographer Yago, (@yagoyagoyago on twitter) it was a lot of fun, these are some of the pictures he took, more to come soon.


Yes that is actually the breakfast we had earlier, Pedro cooked it for me, and yes our house is a mess at the moment.

Contigo

Contigo a photo by Yago Yago Yago on Flickr.

we had a lot of fun doing this set in our bedroom, there should be a couple more pictures that are pretty dynamic from this set, hope Yago works on them soon enough.

DPL

DPL a photo by Yago Yago Yago on Flickr.

Yago took this picture while Pedro was changing for another set of photos, I love it when pictures capture spontaneous moments like this.

A drawing of us

Close encounters of the homophobic kind

I've become accustomed to my quiet little life in Xalapa, for such a small city in a latin country I must say they are very open minded, both my boyfriend and I are quite free to roam about holding hands, being ourselves without much reproach from anyone, yes, we do get the occasional whistle from a construction worker but all in all they let us be, some strangers even seem to rejoice on the fact that we are openly gay and congratulate us as we pass by telling us how cute we look together, the same goes for Mexico city where people are even more accustomed to homosexual couples and where you can actually get married and adopt children if you choose to, so in a way I kinda forgot that I am still living in a Latin American country and today I was unfortunately reminded of the many obstacles we have to surpass to become rightfully accepted in this society.


Very early this morning Pedro and I began our journey from our wonderful home in Xalapa to the airport in Veracruz, it's a short bus ride of about an hour, we didn't sleep at all since we were up late fixing our luggage and such (we also had a few drinks with friends at a local bar) and our flight to Monterrey was supposed to be early that morning, thing is, being the both of us very absent minded, we made the awful mistake of thinking today was march 4th and so in fact we were a day early to our flight. Since the airport is by the beach and we were in fact very tired, we decided to book a hotel here and stay the night. After being charged way to much by a taxi for Mexican standards, booking a room in hotel by the beach and having a pretty nice breakfast included in the price of our room, we went to bed and slept till about 2 p.m., the largest mall in this town was right across the street so we went there to grab a bite to eat and walk thru the stores while we waited for our bellies to digest a hearty meal and then proceed to the pool afterwards. 


Things were going pretty good actually, we were both endeared by watching another gay couple holding hands as we crossed the walking bridge to get to the mall, our meal was pretty good considering that it was mall food, so far people treated us very nicely, even when we went to a store to get some nail polish, the store clerks behaved as if two guys shopping for "female products" was the most normal thing in the world, which is how it should be, so we were both very happy. 


Then we passed in front of Zara and decided to check it out, we usually walk the whole store, children's, men's and women's, since Pedro and I are both pretty petite men we can get away with any type of clothing, as a matter of fact, men's clothing is usually big for us, so we either have to buy women's or kids XL, we were being ourselves, behaving like boyfriends, nothing too sexually explicit, no kissing or anything like that, just holding hands, hugging each other, things you would see in any couple and don't give it a second thought, we were about to ask a clerk if they had a particular women's shirt we liked in large, we were both in a very good mood when a security officer approached us, she was an older woman and seemed a little shy to talk to us, but she gathered herself and told us that "management would like to request that you both please stop behaving that way in our store", my facial expression changed dramatically, I was obviously pissed, I dropped the shirt we liked and started walking out the store, Pedro, being a much lighter and brave soul than I am grabbed me quickly and firmly by the hand, looked me straight in the eyes, told me "never mind them" and started kissing me passionately as we both walked out the store while we kissed, these are the kind of things he does that make me fall so deeply in love with him, anyway, we behaved a little punkishly and gave the guards the finger as we walked out. 


Needles to say that store lost two clients but I guess from then on we entered this homophobic parallel reality, as we walked back  to the hotel holding hands on that very same bridge we saw the gay couple earlier I noticed how a guy looked at us in anger, probably out of fear of him having his own personal issues with homosexuality and a group of construction was being particularly obnoxious with us, one of them even spat at us from the ceiling they were working on, luckily he missed, I blew them a kiss to piss them off even further. 


Now we are both safe in our rooms hidden from the outside world, but I have to wander, what is it about homosexuality that makes people so afraid and on edge? Is gay the new black? and I don't mean that in fashion sense. When will we actually start to tolerate each other as human beings? I mean, isn't it funny how it is perfectly alright for people to go kill other people in foreign countries but it's quite horrendous to see to men holding hands in a mall.

Good morning

My feet are cold, my throat is itchy, my nose is snotty, yet I feel strangely happy, had a wonderful breakfast cooked by the man who loves me, he was cooking while I was cutting my hair in the bathroom, now we'll begin a photo shoot.

The Constitution Of The Human Spirit

NO, WE ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL! Understand this, we simply can't be, not biologically at least and there lies the whole beauty of it, the moment we stop being afraid of our differences and begin accepting our plurality, the moment our world will become a better place, all of us are here to experience life as individuals therefore trying to make us all equal is an attempt against our very nature.


On the other hand we are indeed all made of the same stuff, call it atoms, stardust, particles or strings, there is one basic element with which we are all drawn, and I strongly believe that there is a binding imperceptible  force linking all of the universe together and thus making us all one, but this is more the matter of the spirit and of the soul than of us human egos sharing this planet and trying to make a living here.


If you hate something, most likely it is because you are afraid of it and unwilling to understand it, most likely that which you hate is somewhere hidden deep inside of you as well, so whenever you feel hate or fear, take a moment to consider why and don't just burst in anger looking to destroy it.

Life, love and things

Since last April, my life, my love and other things have revolved around this man, he simply gets me, no questions asked, he gives me all the love I need and inspires me in ways I thought would never be possible.

Oh, in case you're wondering, I did draw that portrait with the help of my trusty iPad and a very nice little app called Brushes

So, who is Mister Casanova?

I was born Armando Figueredo Casanova, son of Carlos A. Figueredo and of Carlota E. Casanova, so the surname Casanova is within my blood. No, my dick is not huge nor am I a misogynist womanizer, on the contrary I'm gay and my best friends are in fact women, but I do love sex, as a matter of fact I think I'm addicted to it and I was at some point very promiscuous although at the moment I enjoy a seriously committed relationship with my boyfriend Pedro.


Why Mister Casanova? it came to me as an idea for an alias to my other musical and artistic projects, in my mind the entity Mr. Casanova has been brewing for sometime and now I think the time is ripe to have him come out to the world.


I will confess something though, I hate being defined, I believe that thinking I am this or I am that is a way that leads to stagnation and the death of the soul, one should be open to redefine one's self at any given moment and without hesitation, after all, life is not about who you are, it is about the experiences you have as you pass thru it, so please don't ask me to define myself and even though I did hint at the first paragraph that I'm gay, loving sex, and so forth, well, that is what I choose to be at this moment, not what I've always been and I surely have no idea who I will be tomorrow, what I intend to do is enjoy my life as I live it by whatever means possible and therefore I may in fact become a man of many contradictions.

Hello world

So yes, I'm another aspiring blogger publishing my thoughts for the world to see.


At some point I considered if anyone would actually be interested in what I have to say and while I wondered about this I never quite decided to begin a blog, but then I thought, what if I don't think of it as a blog and more like an open notebook where I can drop my ideas and whoever wants to read them is free to do so, so here I go, this is my notebook, feel free to read, feel free comment, or just continue on to your http of choice.