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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 4, 2003)
42 J "* * ■ «* • My 4.2003 F IL M eatingout eatingout catingout eatlngout ........... w ............ A dip in the Poole FINE D I N I N G F R O M T H E SEA 3520 NE 4 2 N D A T F R E M O N T 503-249-8486 C lassic p o r n co lle ctio n re le a se d o n D V D by G a r y M o r r is WINTFRBORN D I N N E R S F R O M 5 30 T O 9 30 W ED N ESD AY - SATURDAY y z z z z> prz and 'Dinner, Warfare and cocCftaiCs Weekend breakfast CCosed Tuesday evenings r he Red Vel l I otinq^ > 2411 SE Belmont Portland 503.232.4458 (¡afa, (¡aid & Oirnk dwmm ! Contact Lastly, MastJdt o't Erin át 5 0 3 -2 3 6 -1 2 5 3 (ot detaih on ota ncu coit-tfkctu/c L ite - S ttc i mtcuvuud cuk. Coming itc Januastg tv a J u lt O u t neafi you! Breakfast Daily Starting Sooni DON'T YOU JUST CRAVE A . HOME-COOKED MEAL? r t Som r irndrr pot roast & mashed potatoes or old-lashtoned chicken 8 dumplings^ O r maybe a delicious soup, fresh-baked pie or »arm fruit crispé When you are dying for authentic home-style, slow-cooked lood, come to Mother s. ÍBiuy R eed ’ s R e s t a u r a n t A B ar jT tX Food like mother used to make, when she had time. In the heart o f downtown Portland. "Restaurant of Year" 2000 - - i Wilhmtttt Href "Am erica's Top Restaurant Bargains" - food8 BineMagt;mr "Best Comfort Food’ 8 "Best Lunch Spot" - Cilywonrk Hot Nights on the Potto! Bring th is ad in f o r $ 5 o f f a purchase o f $ 2 0 or more 2 8 0 8 N E AALK J r . B lv d 503-493-8127 www b i l l y r e e d s . c o m pttiwr o f pwrklwf a n i t y haw ith today's mostly clinical, assembly- line porn, populat ed by unnaturally buff gym bods (presumably a backlash to the image of queer bodies ravaged by AIDS), it’s hard to imagine it was only three decades ago that Wakefield Pixde’s films presented a quite differ ent vision of a queer erotic utopia starring cute homy “regular guys" fucking their way through gorgeous dream- scapes. Or as the director himself put it in Dirty Poole: The Autobiography of a Gay Pom Pioneer, “high-profile homosexuality with no guilt." Pcxile, bom in 1936, was indeed a guilt-free homo (and occasional bisexual, even mar ried once), dabbling in all the rituals of the with-it modem queer in New York City during the late 1960s and early 70s. This included visits to the lix:al pom theater, where the lousy, grainy, guilt-ridden movies inspired him to do better. A new six-hour, two-DVD package, The Wakefield Poole Collection, offers a welcome chance to reassess how well Pixile did. Included are three fea tures: 1971’s Boys in the Sand, 1972s Bijou and 1986’s Boys in the Sand II, all with running commentary by the director, along with five bonus shorts, two image galleries and an inter view with Poole by fellow gay pom pioneer Jerry Douglas (The Back Row). Boys in the Sand is a happy, if occasionally dated, marriage of lyrical imagery and sweaty sex starring pom legend Casey Donovan (aka Cal Culver). Donovan was an ideal choice. His face, said the director, was “perfect—the type you see in magazine ads, not porno movies." The film opens with a riff on Venus Rising, with l\inovan running through the wcxxJs in hell bottoms (period couture freaks, take note) and resting naked on a beach. Peter Fisk (the director’s boyfriend at the time) rises out of the water to join Donovan for some sexual gymnastics. Poole doesn’t stint on the hard core action, hut infuses it with artful shots of ocean waves and abstract leaf patterns that give it a sense of poetry. These give the film a mystical feel hut must have sent some viewers, anxious for that quick, charged orgasm, screaming toward the exit. Parts two and three are variations on the theme of hedonism and sexual freedom, with a happily fluid sense of sexuality. Poole’s sim ple direction to the actors said it all: “No top, no bottom, just two men discovering each other.” Boys in the Sand (nee Boys in the Band) was purportedly the first “all-male” movie reviewed in Variety and the first to gamer a recurring ad in the stuffy New York Times. All this on a budget of less than $5,000—though, as P(X)le told me during an interview, “This was at the height of my dnig use, so don't hold me to it!” His next film, Bijou, would cost almost six times that much, despite its being shot almost entirely in an empty apartment— though “empty" is hardly the word for this entrancing netherworld replete with strobe lights, multiple screens, black velvet drap- ings, neon signs (“Remove Clothes”) and pervasive shadows. P(X)le conjures a sensual utopia of narcissis tic lust, complete with fun-house atmosphere and endless mirrors that reflect and obscure the action. Star Bill Harrison, whose dick is long enough to bounce off his kneecaps, finds a ticket to the “Bijou,” a mysterious theater set up in a New York hrownstone. Once inside, he explores all manner of sex ual fantasies. Nominally straight, the charac ter dives into a variety of hunks seen in half- light or almost no light. Poole drenches the action in psychedelic effects, all created— in the best indie style—within the camera to save money. This "Bijou" is an artful reimagining of the pleasures of the baths, where time stops and anonymity inspires endless sensual scenarios, however brief. It’s also Poole’s most searching vision of the pleasurable future that was sup posed to follow sexual liberation. Boys in the Sand II also stars Casey Dono van and follows him as he screws his way across beaches and meadows and glamorous apartments. Fifteen years later the conceit seems tired, as does Donovan (who would die of AIDS complications a year after the film’s release), and Boys in the Sand II is an un distinguished work. Better are the shorts, including rare fmtage from a 1974 Gay Pride parade in San Francis co; Andy, a tribute to the master of pop art; and Roger, Poole’s stylized loop of one of gay pom's gorgeous early superstars, oiled to the tits and masturbating against a black background. Self- worship never ltx>ked so g<xxJ. JH G ary M o r r is is a Portland free-lance water
