Glamwire

It is the overt gay sexuality of the film that I found intriguing. Director Gus Van Sant seems to be saying, if you don't like to see two men kissing, having sex and expressing love for each other in the same way as do heterosexuals, the "Exit" sign is lit up in the front of the theater. Use it... now back to our feature presentation ...

In short, Harvey Milk was the first openly gay person to run, win and hold an elected office in the State of California. Voted into the office of Supervisor and holding the office a brief 11 months, it was Milk's continuous string of election defeats, expert community organizing, bold personality and passionate political platform that made him famous. Having run for office under gerrymandered San Francisco districts that disempowered the gay community in the city's Castro section, Milk found it difficult to gain enough electoral support to win an election. Finally, the re-ordering of the city's district's which permitted both the Haight and the Castro to elect their own representative worked in Harvey Milk's favor. He was elected to the office of Supervisor in 1978.
The political intricacies of the city ordinances that discriminated against the gay community are well developed in the film. As well is the tension between the gay community and the police. Van Sant also incorporates old reels of Anita Bryant, the orange juice spokeswoman turned anti-gay Christian evangelist. But, what I thought was most thoughtful about the film was its willingness to permit his characters to express the varying perspectives of being out of the closet that many gay people face. The film deftly reveals the the painful political and social intricacies of "living straight" versus gay and the sacrifices inherent in both.

At the Producer's Guild of America's screening of the movie in New York City this past week, Van Sant told the audience of film industry professionals that one of his goals was not to make the movie about the specific decisions surrounding living a homosexual lifestyle. Instead, he sought to make such issues incidental to the larger political themes of Proposition 6 and the rise and fall of the Great Harvey Milk. He also brought a love story between Harvey Milk and his longtime partner Scott Smith, played incredibly thoughtfully by James Franco, worthy of Romeo and Juliet, to the fore in his film. The relationship themes were not obvious ones, propped up around a stilted view of being gay, but they were ones to which anyone with a heart can relate. When asked by a producer in the audience why the story of Harvey Milk had not been made sooner, Van Sant and other members of the cast mused that perhaps "Hollywood is not as comfortable with homosexuality as it pretends to be." And, that in the "not -so -back- in -the- day" past, his film would have received an X-rating or the dreaded NC-17, the kiss of death at the box office.

Historically, movies with gay themes between women have been more likely to receive an R-rating than those about male homosexuality. The film Henry and June (1990) was the first to receive an NC-17 rating, due to the sex scene between the two female leads. However, Kundera's book turned cult classic The Unbearable Lightness of Being, was one of the first films with openly gay sexual themes to receive an R-rating. But this was a foreign film and was regarded as art-house-y.

Regardless, I don't think that that any film to date has treated gay male sexuality with such joy and openness. The ridiculously fantastic acting and storyline were at play here, softening what was a particularly graphic portrayal of gay male intimacy asserted by the film. All for an R-rating, no less.

During the PGA's Q and A of the film's cast members and director, there was also an agreement that straight actor, Sean Penn, pushed the envelope on the film, with a real willingness to "go there" in terms of connecting with his co-stars sexually and intimately.

Overall, the R-rating on this film seems like an obstacle has been transcended. It conveys that there is likely some raised level of acceptance of homosexuality inside and outside Hollywood which would foster a movie rating that permits the film to generate revenue at the box office, the most important element of success these days. This can be positively construed as a message that all kinds of people will come out to see MILK, thereby making other movies in the future with similar themes that much more likely to get financed and distributed

M69: Um what are u an idiot? Do you read, Ny47 or whatever yourself these day?

Harry: I'm, Harry....nice to meet you M69.

M69: Okay fine…..Wait a minute, Harry, I’m running that information… We’re loading 647,867 results for "Quantum" alone right now….hold on a sec, Harry.

Harry: "Quantum of Solace" is probably the first movie in history in which two of the major words in the title are not readily definable to like close to 100 percent of the movie going audience.... that has gone on to gross over a hundred million clams worldwide in its first week .

M69: Daniel Craig is actually the best Bond since Sean Connery because toughness and ruggedness and non-political correctness are as much of what Bond has always been about as elegance and suavity.

Harry: This is a movie in which the only bad guy may be Bond. Quantum…the name of the new evil organization in this movie…is run by the evil Dominic Greene, played brilliantly by French actor Mathieu Amalric, who is evilly trying to….uh....become to sole water distributor in Bolivia….evil right?

M69: But he kills anyone willing to stand in his way, right?

Harry: Um, he may bot kill anyone….well, okay, someone..presumably on behalf of Green kills one HOT British agent and leaves her covered in oil in a hotel room…but Bond himself actually kills, like, 5 people by mistake that are supposed to be on his own side. Wzzp with that?

M69: In a world in which the current President of the United States, son of a president that was the head of the CIA and ab oilman who had loads of relationships in the Arab world, just created a war in which hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were murdered, millions lost their homes, and thousands of American soldiers were also murdered…all by an American President…..who wanted to go further than his dad and, you know, get Saddam…it's, I guess, hard to tell who the good guys are….so Daniel Craig as Bad Bond in really fun, a little bit poignant, definitely worth seeing. All the technology, all the action comes together really well in a totally entertaining package…and they beautifully work in Felix Leitier, the American CI A agent…who probably has appeared in every Bond film since 1962. (He’s played by Oscar winner Jeffery Wright). Go see it. Wait I’m getting it…

Harry: What?

M69: "Quantum of Solace" of means "A Quantity of Comfort."

Harry: Hmmmm….has a nice ring to it.

The both click off their pens.

Curtain

As soon as I get back on my feet, I'll start buying stocks, perhaps Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway.

I made progress on the job front again today, writing a sample valuation for a financial services firm in NYC and playing phone tag with a CEO from a car parts re-manufacturing company based in the U.K.

Meanwhile, my fame continues to spread in Hong Kong. I received the following email from a fellow MIT alumni based in HK:

Josh, saw your news front page on HK newspaper. As shown in this postcard, I believe that we are going though some tough snowstorm like times... remember those days at MIT when we had snowstorms, we used to go out and ski and throw snows when classes were on halt. We should take it lightly and try to weather through this storm with a small sense of humour just like what you did. Listen, I work for a Canadian Bank called Royal Bank of Canada and we are rather immune so if you would like to shoot me your resume, I maybe able to help. FYI, we are hiring especially in the far east!

I received the following email from a fellow MIT alumni:

I went to M.I.T.back in the '70s and am in a similar pickle: out of work. (I haven't tried your approach, but I am thinking about it.) Anyway, I thought I'd let you know (if you don't know already) that your picture with the sandwich board appeared in a Chinese newspaper, dated September 7. I'll be happy to send you the tear sheet, if you don't already have it. _Good luck on your job search. My heart goes out to you. I lost my position (as a speechwriter) last January....I am older than you and am having a very hard time.... _Best wishes ( out of work MIT grad)

For an upcoming interview, I was asked to provide the typical steps used to produce a valuation of a bank loan to a private company: 1. Gather and review financial and legal documentation. 2. Note key loan parameters, such as: interest rate, maturity date, type of loan (bullet or amortizing), first or second lien, financial covenants, up-front and other fees, pre-payment penalty. 3.. Note key financial performance parameters: EBITDA, income, margins, cash flow, balance sheet (historic, current, projected). 4. Analyze key financial ratios: leverage, interest coverage, loan to value. 5. Perform synthetic credit rating on company and DCF analysis on loan. 6.. Compare company to publicly traded similar companies. 7. Compare loan to publicly traded similar debt instruments. 8. If the company is distressed, determine the value of its assets. If the company is in bankruptcy, determine probability and timing of recoveries.