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batmanisagatewaydrug · 1 year

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reading update: june 2023

as promised (to myself) I spent all of gay months reading books by and/or about the gays, no exceptions! (unless you count the heaps of old Batman comics I was reading, but come on. it's all pretty fruity.) the trend will be continuing into July as well because I overshot and still have book I need to finish, so in the immortal words of Janelle Monáe: happy pride forever!

anyway, what have I actually been reading?

Empress of Forever (Max Gladstone, 2019) - man, I've been meaning to read this FOREVER! and I'm glad I finally did. Gladstone's space opera follows ultrawealthy tech genius Vivian Liao, a sort of dykey Lex Luthor who's CERTAIN that she's the good guy. okay, yes, she's trying to get control of the nukes, but she's not going to use them. it's just that the world's a mess and she needs to be in charge. unfortunately our girl Vivian doesn't get far in her master plan before she's transported across the galaxy and finds herself on the run from the all-powerful Empress in the company of a cybernetic monk named Hong and the legendary space pirate Zanj, the Empress' greatest enemy. from there our heroes are off on a slow, messy quest across the galaxy as they make new friends, grow as people, and strive to bring the Empress down. it's a very long book and can feel slow in places, but all of the time devoted to fleshing out the characters ultimately pays off as their stories converge into a resonant narrative about the notion of identity and what it means to be yourself. if you like Becky Chambers' Wayfarer books of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, get on this shit.

also hey listen Max Gladstone is having a bit of a Moment rn; the book he coauthored with Amal El-Mohtar, This Is How You Lose the Time War, is getting a huge boost thanks to the Trigun (????) fandom??? over on Twitter, and you should definitely go check it out

Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men (Jane Ward, 2016) - Ward is a brilliant queer feminist writer; rigorous and insightful while keeping her work imminently readable. while the title may sound facetious, Ward actually takes entirely at face value that there are men having sex with each other an engaging in otherwise homoerotic activities - mutual jerkoffs, hazing rituals that involve anal penetration - that sincerely aren't stemming from a place of gay desire and asks us what the fuck we're supposed to make of that. what results is a fascinating look at masculinity and the intricate rituals that both subvert and maintain it. shockingly thought provoking for a book that contains so many transcribed craigslist posts of men looking for straight guys to have totally normal hetero dudesex with!

The Latinos of Asia: How Filipinos Break the Rules of Race (Anthony Christian Ocampo, 2016) - I was lucky enough to get to see Ocampo (who is gay) speaking at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity this year, and naturally I had to buy one of his books while I was there. I strongly suspect he's about to become one of my new favorite nonfiction writers, because the Latinos of Asia was a brilliant read that I really couldn't put down. Ocampo (who's also Filipino!) delves into the formation of Filipino-Americans' racial identity, and finds that many feel caught between the most conventionally accepted racial categories - feeling alienated from the idea of Asian identity, which is often perceived as pertaining to East Asians like Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans, and instead relating much more firmly to Mexican-Americans and other Latinos. it's a FASCINATING study on race and one (of many!) loopholes that exists in this very large, messy, totally made up construct of race.

A Lady for a Duke (Alexis Hall, 2022) - for my pride month romance novel I wanted to read something that I might actually like. I've previously adored Hall's genre-fucking ultra-queer Sherlock Holmes pastiche, the Affair of the Mysterious Letter, and Lady for a Duke was really well-reviewed, so my hopes were high! and you know what? I fucking loved this. it was like cotton candy, perfectly sweet and made to be inhaled without a second thought. Our Heroine Viola was the heir to an estate who faked her death at Waterloo so that she could run away and be herself - that's right baby, this is a 19th century trans lady romance! she reconnects with her old BFF the Duke of Gracewood, who's been catatonically depressed since losing his best friend in the war, and reader, you will not believe what happens next. just kidding, you totally will: they want to kiss each other so bad! they're yearning so bad and it's great. it's a very silly book and Gracewood is the most unexpectedly forward-thinking 19th century duke EVER who is instantly down to accept Viola entirely as a woman and thinks that having biological children is overrated, and you know what? that rules. I'm not reading this book for historical accuracy I'm reading it to watch a man beg his girlfriend to fuck him tenderly in the ass. and she does!!! if I'm being honest everything after they finally hook up is kind of nonsense and the book probably is too long, but god it's a delightful time.

Chlorine (Jade Song, 2023) - back in the days of twitter I started following Jade Song as soon as they announced selling this book, the story of a competitive high school swimmer succumbing to obsession as she fantasizes about becoming a mermaid. finally getting to pick up the book from the library and actually read it felt crazy after existing in potentia for so long! while Song's novel is a little rough in some places in exactly the way I expect from a debut, it's still gripping and visceral. our protagonist lives in an intense and demanding world, striving to please an overly handsy coach, wanting to please the immigrant parents she can barely speak to, stumbling through sex with boys on her team while longing for her female best friend. through it all she fixates on mermaids, and the story is told in flashbacks building up to a drastic act of self-mutilation at a swim meet. it's definitely not the right book for the faint of heart or anyone looking for feel-good fluff, but it's harrowing in the best way.

Vagabonds! (Eloghosa Osunde, 2022) - gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous! Osunde celebrates queer life - those called vagabonds, society's outliers - in Lagos, Nigeria, slipping between the real world of social stigma, oppressive religion, judgmental family, and dangerous politics, and the world of magic, gods, and the unreal, blending the two together in an effortlessly dizzying effect. the ultrawealthy hide behind layers of flawless masks to conceal their identities, a lonely woman dying of cancer summons up a daughter than only she can see, and a young man channels the devil to raise his murdered lover. while the stories start bleak, firmly establishing the danger of life on the margins, they gather speed with increasing warmth and love as the story progresses, eventually bringing all of our protagonists together in glorious, life-affirming celebration of vagabonds and all who love them. Nigeria, in Osunde's hands, reads much like family - imperfect, sometimes even awful, but also capable of harboring tremendous love, surprising tenderness, and still worth holding out hope for. I think measuring books in terms of relatability is a fool's game, but as an American queer watching more and more legislation and persecution roll out against my people each day, it was hard not to feel a cord being struck. Vagabonds! is a beautiful reminder that queer resilience is eternal, and reader, I did cry.

Quietly Hostile (Samantha Irby, 2023) - I was a ride or die bitch for Sam Irby even before she picked up and moved to my small Michigan city, effectively becoming my neighbor. (not really, but she is married to the mother of a friend of a friend, so.) despite this, I will freely admit that I was a little underwhelmed by her last release, 2020's Wow, No Thank You. it's possible that WNTY was damned by its March 2020 release, putting it in the awkward position of being a humorous essay collection creeping out into the world at a time when everyone was paranoid and nothing was funny; maybe on a reread I would receive it a bit more warmly. Quietly Hostile, on the other hand, is just stupid funny right out of the gate. Sam Irby is old (see: in her early 40s) and going downhill, writing candidly about peeing her pants everywhere, adopting a rancid little dog, getting sent to the hospital with a severe allergic reaction, and jacking off to plot-heavy porn of elderly lesbian nuns. it takes a little bit of work to get me to actually laugh out loud at a book but man, I was chortling. if you don't already know her work, this is a sign from god (me) to check Samantha Irby out now.

what am I reading now?

Black Water Sister (Zen Cho, 2021) - the was one of the oldest queer novels(TM) on my list and I really wanted to knock it out for pride month. the Malaysian setting and culture is a welcome addition to contemporary urban fantasy, but I'm not sure I'm crazy about the story overall. and yet, I'm over 200 pages deep and don't want to give up, so ? I guess I'm persisting.

Giovanni's Room (James Baldwin, 1956) - my local library lost their copy just in time for pride month, so I bought one on ebay for all of nine dollars. haven't started yet, but I'm really excited to finally pop that proverbial Baldwin cherry!

#bookblr #reading updates

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ncisfranchise-source · 11 months

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Acamera sweeps under Sydney Harbour Bridge, to the right is the Opera House and then we’re at Fleet Base East in Woolloomooloo. It could be an ad for Tourism Australia, except soon there’s a dead US sailor floating in the water. It’s not so much, “Where bloody hell are we?” more “What the bloody hell is going on?”

Now, it’s here. And for that, you can thank AUKUS, the contentious nuclear submarine deal between Australia, the US and the UK, which provides a great excuse for getting NCIS agents on Australian soil.

“That’s what the show is piggybacking off,” says Todd Lasance, who plays Australian Federal Police agent Sergeant Jim “JD” Dempsey who is called in to investigate the sailor’s death. The catch? Because the sailor was a US citizen, NCIS also has jurisdiction over the investigation.

Mackey (Swann) and JD (Lasance) face off over who gets to investigate the death of a US sailor in NCIS: Sydney.

Enter Olivia Swann, who plays NCIS Special Agent Michelle Mackey. “She’s a very straightforward woman, she’s here to get a job done,” says Swann. “She’s here to do things her own way, she follows her own rules. So having to join forces with these larrikin, laid-back Aussies is not her ideal way of working.”

It’s a big swing and one I have been so curious about since the show was announced last year. Back then, it seemed ludicrous – how could NCIS even operate here? Would every dead body have a major tourism landmark in the background? How many times can they visit Bondi? Would they throw another shrimp on the barbie?

NCIS: Sydney is a throwback to the kind of police dramas we used to do so well, such as Rush, starring Jolene Anderson, Rodger Corser and Callan Mulvey.

But, you know what? It works, it really does. It’s zippy and light on its feet, with a distinctive Australian twang. It’s a throwback to the type of police action dramas we used to do – Police Rescue, Water Rats and Rush. Yes, it’s still slightly absurd that the AFP would team up with the NCIS crew and that AUKUS would be the catalyst, but it’s the back end of a rank 2023, so let’s go with it.

“With NCIS, the audience comes for the crime, but stays for the characters and chemistry,” says Lasance. “And that is very true for our series. It centres around interesting and well-rounded and nuanced characters, and when they come together, it’s just exciting stuff. They’re flawed people, but also so lovable.”

‘I wonder why they haven’t done this?’

Part of the enduring popularity of NCIS is that it’s the opposite of every cult, word-of-mouth, zeitgeisty show ever made. It’s easygoing, almost daggy TV. Everyone knows how it works – mysterious death in the first five minutes, some office banter, investigation of said death, a scene or two in the autopsy room or forensic lab, a red herring, then a chase, suspect is caught, more banter and cue credits. And repeat.

“My very first reaction was: I wonder why they haven’t done this already?” says O’Neill, who created the ABC series Les Norton.

So he watched a lot of NCIS – the Washington original, plus the Los Angeles, New Orleans and Hawaii spin-offs – and realised that far from creating a carbon copy of the “mothership”, each spin-off worked because it had its own identity.

“They expanded the universe, but they never made the same show twice,” says O’Neill. “So the original show, which is now in its 20th year, is a really unique show. It has its own swagger, its own tempo, its own tonality. But when they came to make NCIS: LA, it wasn’t the same show. They really took a step to the side and a couple of steps in a different direction to make sure that it stood out as a distinctive version of a show that shares a lot of DNA, but isn’t the same.”

And while these building blocks may seem creatively restrictive, O’Neill found them liberating.

“There is an expectation from the audience that this is going to be a quirky family, where you have these archetypes that exist within it,” says O’Neill. “Fortunately, we have those archetypes in Australia, and they’re not really the same as the ones that America has.

The other ingredient O’Neill wanted was humour. Whereas the US versions are cheesy, at best – Mark Harmon couldn’t crack a smile if he tried – NCIS: Sydney burrows into the culture clash between the US and Australia. The slang for yanks, “septic”, has to be explained, as does our coffee. There’s drag queens at Bondi and mustachioed hipsters in Marrickville, while a chase through a narrow terrace house is one you won’t find in Los Angeles.

“What I think makes this show such a behemoth – someone was telling me they reckon there’s four and a quarter trillion minutes of this show that has been viewed around the world since its inception – is that at the core of its success is the fact it’s fun. There’s a wink to it, there’s a twinkle in its eye,” says O’Neill.

‘Just be still’

One of the other main building blocks of NCIS is that each episode opens with a death – the sillier the better (one recent one had hairy body chunks falling from the sky onto a child’s birthday party). But what I want to know is, how do you play a dead body?

“You know, I had the same question,” says Michael Jupp, a stunt performer who was asked to, well, play dead. “I’ve done my fair share of acting and stunt work, but I’ve never played a dead body. So the first place you go, as anyone, is Google, to have a little look at the experiences of other people. I asked a few of my actor friends, and they’re like, ‘Just be still’.”

Jupp’s character has a fairly pedestrian death by NCIS standards – a drug-induced heart attack – but it required him to stagger while running before eventually collapsing. He then had to lie on the ground for a few hours while filming carried on around him.

“You’re just still and you try not to breathe with your chest, so you don’t look alive,” he says. “And if you do need to take a breath, go deep in the belly.”

Jupp also spent a couple of days on the autopsy table. “They make you super pale, with purpley dark bits under your eyes to make you look a bit lifeless,” says Jupp. “Then, because it was an investigative autopsy, they had to put prosthetics on my chest. The first thing we did was the sewn-up version, with the big Y-shape and stitches.

“Then there was a prosthetic change, where they put the open chest on. And that was like a massive build, from hip to shoulder. I couldn’t move at all, they were like: ‘If you move, it’ll break the seams and we’ll have to start again’.”

And the best thing about being a dead body? “It was a lot of getting paid to lie down,” says Jupp.

‘All sorts of sticky situations’

If O’Neill has his way, there’ll be plenty more opportunities for actors to play dead. “I can imagine a couple of [future] episodes shot up in Darwin,” he says. “There’s a huge port up in Darwin that houses a continual marine rotation unit, of anywhere between 3000 and 4000 Marines who get in all sorts of sticky situations up there.”

What about other US TV franchises, does O’Neill see a future with Law and Order: Melbourne perhaps?

“Melbourne can have Law and Order and then we can keep NCIS: Sydney and we can just co-exist,” he says. “The world is in a pretty dark place right now. I was just talking to one of my story producers and she said it’s actually good to come to work and be thinking of stories that are slightly escapist, where you can tell a story and wrap it up and actually love the people for what they’re doing. And I hope audiences feel that.”

NCIS: Sydney streams on Paramount+ from November 10.

#ncis sydney

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