Camping

Though Todd Graff’s film took a beating (and some of it not undeserved) from the critics, I have to confess that I thoroughly enjoyed Camp the first time I saw it in a theatre. I rewatched it this weekend on DVD and probably enjoyed it even more the second time. Despite some obvious script flaws (incomplete story arcs, underdeveloped characters), the heart and message of the film shine brightly. The musical numbers are terrific, with a mix of standard show tunes and original compositions from Stephen Trask (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), Michael Gore (Fame) and Lynn Ahrens (Ragtime, Seussical the Musical). If you don’t own the soundtrack, it’s a must-have. I also have to confess to being completely won-over by the lead actors: Daniel Letterle and Joanna Chilcoat.

THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMM…
While doing some research this weekend, I came across an interesting abstract entitled ‘Strange Customs, Familiar Lives: Homosexualities in Other Cultures‘ by Walter L. Williams and James D. Weinrich. One of the most interesting ideas in the piece was a contrasting of religious choice and sexual choice. To summarize:

The terms sexual orientation and sexual preference are sometimes used interchangeably and at other times hotly debated. When debated, it is usually over the issue of choice. Orientation is used more often by those who think there is little choice involved, and preference is used by those who think choice is important. The element of choice can be highlighted by comparing it with religion. At some level, people can choose to be Catholic, say, or Anglican, or Islamic, and a society can choose to make Catholicism or Anglicanism or Islam a state religion. Of course, most people choose to believe what the state has mandated. Of course, there is social value in announcing one’s conformity in such a society, and in some sense there is a de facto enshrining of heterosexuality in modern Western societies as if it were the state sexual preference. Thomas Szasz (1970), for example, compares homosexuality and heresy, homosexuals in his view having the role of sexual heretics dissenting from the heterosexuality mandated by the state. This is an argument that helps fight antigay prejudice in a culture that takes religious pluralism seriously.