Glee 1:21 "Funk" (open spoilers)

Cafe Society
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The vibe I get from him is a young guy who’s probably gay but so far in the closet he doesn’t see the fabulous fashions hanging from the bar. There are (or were, back in the stone age when I was in show choir) a LOT of these guys in show choir, and it’s not unusual for them to date the leading lady, even so far as to have sex with or think he’s in love with her…until his male best friend is suddenly more appealing. (Ask me how I know ;)). He’s not in love with Rachel, he’s in love with The Theatre[sup]TM[/sup], in a way straight guys of that age just aren’t. She’s just the projection of his love for drama and flash and all things Broadway. I honestly don’t think Jesse knows he’s gay, which is why I thought his growing awareness/coming out would have been a fun (if obvious) character development.

Heh. Not in my day, we didn’t. Of course, I graduated high school in 1992, so mores and dance styles have changed a bit, but still…

My show choir didn’t compete, because there were no competitions back then in our region. We spent most of our performances in front of elementary school kids or at nursing homes, singing Beatles medleys and tunes from Showboat and the like. Our girls only show choir did have costumes that looked a whole lot like Columbia’s from Rocky Horror Picture Show (red sequin tube tops, red satin tap shorts and white tuxedo jackets) but our dancing was not at all allowed to be sexy or suggestive. When they decided to put boys in the group, our costumes were changed, and nearly Victorian in their modestness (long sleeved black velvet shirts with long gold lamé skirts.) But again, times they have a changed. I know Poms and Cheerleading are a lot more sexed up than they used to be, perhaps Show Choir is as well.

Actually the biggest problem with suspension of disbelief I have on this show are the performances on stage. I can get behind the fantasy sequences and bizarre number of musicians of all ages who seem to neither teach nor attend class. But show choir music always placed great emphasis on the CHOIR part. Dancing was a part of it, but it wasn’t nearly so advanced, and the emphasis was always on sound, not flash. And the biggest part of the sound was *choral *singing. Singing in groups. Harmonies and polyphony. These numbers with extended solos, or basically solo numbers with back up dancers? Not show choir. It’s fun, but it ain’t show choir. In a 30 minute show, we had less than 2 minutes of solo singing, generally limited to no more than one verse in each song. In competition, solos = suicide. The judges want to see how you work together as a group, not a star making opportunity.

Not really. Maybe if they were already professional dancers, but they seemed way too flexible and steady of balance to me. At 8 months (which is what most of them looked to me), your center of gravity is all wonky, and flowing undulations are not really in the repertoire.

(And, on preview, I’m now imagining a Terri/Finn/Kurt threesome. It ain’t pretty.)

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I didn’t get much chemistry there either, but I’m okay with that because it doesn’t seem like there’s going to be any lingering sexual tension there. Will was just trying to manipulate and hurt Sue, and by the end of the episode Sue got over whatever below-the-neck feelings she might have had. It would have been better if there’d been more of a “spark” between them, but I can believe that Sue is both horny and willing to have sex with a man she doesn’t like or respect. She also has a high enough opinion of herself that I can see her accepting that Will had fallen for her. (And she probably doesn’t think Will is smart enough to trick her!)

What I had a bit more trouble believing was that Will would really risk giving Sue a personal reason to want to destroy him! I’d be terrified of having Sue go all “Hell hath no fury” on me.

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Another favorite line from last night was Sue with Kurt at Nationals:

“I’m all about taking a freakish depressed kid and showing them what winning means!”

(My understanding is that Sue and Chris Colfer are close in real life.)

Speaking of Harry Shum, Jr., check out his danceat the Glee Live show.

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His eternal “My God what’s happening/I’m about to cry” expression would reach new heights.

[QUOTE=Tangent]
Also good to see Sandy Ryerson again.
[/QUOTE]

He totally made the Run Joey Run video as Rachel’s father (her third gay dad?).

I’ve Netflixed a movie that actor’s in called Stephen Tobolowsky’s Birthday Party that comes recommended. It’s basically the actor as himself telling various stories from his career. Has anybody seen it?

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It was nice to see Terri again as well as the ex choir director guy. Anyone else we’re missing?

She’s older, and not as conventionally pretty. I could totally see her falling for him, visually anyway, but him not being attracted to her. It’s not a gay thing. It’s kind of a butch thing though - she has short hair, is a bully, and age has affected her conventional beauty. Plus, she’s the villain! Yeah she could get caught up in his prettiness and charm and the passion of her hatred turned to passion for the nether regions, temporarily, but he could never go for her as long as she’s batting for the dark side of the force.

I don’t have a problem with him. He’s not femme like Kurt, he’s just a theatre geek. All geeks and nerds past a certain threshold of geekiness start to acquire a slight aura of fagginess. And as we all know there’s all manner of metrosexual straight guys and super butch gay guys. He’s just really into theatre.

I was wondering the same thing. I suspect the next episode will have her undulations during regionals lead to breaking of water…

I was surprised to hear him say he’s 16. But I guess it makes sense for them to want to keep the characters in high school as long as possible.

I missed what they had him do exactly. Something very long and in French?

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Wasn’t the other guy at Terri’s store a member of the trio with Will and the gym teacher at the beginning of the season?

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That’s the vibe I get from him. I’m buying that Jesse could like girls, but that he’s a theater stud. When I was in high school, there were a couple guys who were big into music and theater, who were also ladies men. And they were just like Jesse. Dramaqueer on stage, straight as an arrow off. There were a few more like Kurt, who have since come out (if they hadn’t then), but there were guys like Jesse who were (and are) straight.

Yeah. Celine Dion for, like, 18 minutes… in French.

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Re: Kurt at nationals, it was a 14-minute Celine Dion medley, I believe. (what that has to do with cheerleading is anyone’s guess.)

Another great line from the episode:
Artie, saying what we were all thinking: “This is offensive.”

ETA: yes, I believe “howard bamboo” (where do they get these awesome character names?) was in Acafellas…

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HOMOPHOBE!

But yeah, I’m with you. Some of his mannerisms (off-stage) are tellingly swishy, and I noticed it before I knew the actor’s orientation.

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My favorite part of the whole Quinn song selection was that “It’s a Man’s World” isn’t anywhere close to being funk. And then it dawned on me - Quinn’s *IN *a funk, and this is the song that she thinks fits best in that.

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I totally buy Rachel and Jesse, largely because I’m a big fan of Spring Awakening, in which they had simulated sex on stage 8 times a week.

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And even more during the play.

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heh…

random youtube hopping from Sampiro’s link led me to this rather boring interview with Harry Shum Jr…

but the highlight: during downtime, the cast plays Mafia. :slight_smile:

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I, for one, would be terrified of death by “Shue Sue snoo snoo”.

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Missed the edit window, but… for sheer hilarity, try saying “Sue Shue snoo snoo” five times fast.

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AHAHAHAHA!!!

I grew up about 40 minutes from the real Lima, Ohio. This is corn country, the suspenders clipped onto the Bible belt to keep your faith from slipping real honest to God place Jebus will want to build a summer home when He returns on that Gha-lorious Day, kind of area.

The biggest nearby city, Ft. Wayne, Indiana, actually banned George Michael’s, “I Want Your Sex,” from radio play. Christian evangelical groups routinely are invited to host school assemblies.

Case in point: When I was in show choir we did Three Dog Night’s, “Joy to the World.” After a couple of parents complained, we had to change the, “I helped him a-drinkin’ his wine. Yes, he always had some mighty fine wine,” to, “I helped him a-spending his time. Yes we always had a mighty fine time.” Also, “Make sweet love to you,” had to be changed to, “Spend some time with you.”

As to dancing, no contact more provocative than you would find at a square dance was allowed.

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Does anybody know if Harry Shum, Jr., is the son of Harry Shum, the MS executive? The reason I’ve wondered is because other than Glee H.S.Jr. is most famous for an ipod commercial which, if he is, must cause his father “no little embarrassment”.

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I can’t find anything to indicate that they’re related. Junior was born in Costa Rica in 1982, per IMDB, so unless the other Asian was there on an assignment, it’s unlikely.

Also, I’m fairly sure that MS holds a stake in Apple, so it wouldn’t be as embarrassing as you might think.

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I meant to respond to this earlier but didn’t:

I’d actually have little problem with the infamous Newsweek column if he’d left it at those two actors- Hayes and Groff. With Hayes it isn’t necessarily a lack of acting talent but typecasting: he got rich and famous for playing a histrionic queen on Will & Grace and now it’s next to impossible not to see him as Jack, just Jack when he’s in another vehicle; the same would be true of Eric McCormack or David Schwimmer or Kelsey Grammer- they’re typecast. With Groff it’s his swishiness- the way he walks, his expressions, etc., all of which may be less noticeable onstage but up close and magnified by the camera it’s different.
I don’t agree that “no out-and-known gay actors can play straight”- NPH is just fine at it and so are Ian McKellan and Richard Chamberlain and a number of others- but it’s just self delusion to say that some actors aren’t just too gay seeming to be convincing as horndogs. Cheyenne Jackson on 30 Rock comes to mind: I didn’t even know who he was when he first appeared on the show but thought “that guy’s gay”, which he is, and the episode where he’s shagging Liz just seemed like Liz was shagging a gay guy (not for the first or 18th time).
It’s similar to when Halle Berry played Queen, a character who passed as white. It’s not racist to say that Halle Berry could never have actually passed for white in a place as racially paranoid as the Jim Crow South and it was distracting to the performance. It would be like Kathy Bates trying to play Queen Elizabeth II or overweight middle aged blonde and blue eyed me trying to play 17 to 24 year old Che Guevara in Evita- it’s not so much lack of talent as just really bad miscasting.

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This behind the scenes look of the finale from Jonathan Groff isn’t exactly making him look any less “swishy”, with those pink shirts and doing a Queen number. It’s mostly of the preparations for Vocal Adrenaline’s Regionals performance, which looks amazing, with only a little bit of the main characters. You can see what New Directions’ costumes are, but they don’t say what the song is.