Cool children who also exist

[imomus]

I really liked these images from the Gay Kids (subtitled "cool children who also exist") exhibition in Oslo. I suppose what they make me ask is, are kids who grow up to be gay totally distinctive or "just the same as everyone else"?



Is the way these kids look determined more by their being Norwegian, by the decade they were photographed in, or by their future (or present) gayness?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

this is an april fools' thing, isn't it? these kids are neither norwegian nor gay!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

They're gay and they're Norwegian and they're cool... and they also exist!

[(Anonymous)]

What! no boys with dolls or strutting around in high heels, how restrained. I imagined you played out more with girls than boys as a child Momus, bet you were good at elastics. Or maybe you stayed home writing lists, alone. What did these kids grow up to be apart from gay? Does the exhibit enlighten one any further?

[(Anonymous)]

"Are kids who grow up to be gay totally distinctive or "just the same as everyone else"?

Some are, of course, and some aren't. Straights often forget that some gays came be the boringest people around (probably myself included).

Thanks for investigating this, Momus. Imagine the protests if this exhibition were to be shown in certain parts of America! My friends who wrote the "gay penguins" book are still regularly on TV defending their right to postulate that animals can be homosexual, too.

D.

[bugpowered.livejournal.com]

Some are, of course, and some aren't. Straights often forget that some gays came be the boringest people around

Nonsense. The first Anon. reminds us of that all the time.

[mitchco.livejournal.com]

These are wonderful! Very sweet and have that lovely haphazard found quality about them. I would love to see this exhibit. And thank you for putting them under a cut.

[varinobo.livejournal.com]

Momus putting things under an lj cut? Madness!

love it

[(Anonymous)]

haha so cute. the description makes it sound like these kids are already gay and know it when the photo is taken. this means they discovered their sexuality WAY before most other kids and in turn deserve to be rewarded and celebrated for their enlightenment. (and coolness and existing) did you just happen to choose more female images than male are there more little lesbians in the show than little queens? that is interesting...

Character and Calling

[(Anonymous)]

Psychologist James Hillman talks about reading a life backwards, about how you are yourself in every moment inasmuch as your soul, or daimon, is ever present and never-changing. And I guess in looking at these kids through the lens of 'they are now gay,' and looking for the hint of this in them, we are kind of reading their lives backwards.

But also, perhaps it's the character of their daimon that is truly defining their look, rather than their homosexuality (unless that is the character of their daimon!). Or maybe their parents are to blame ..

I enjoyed looking at the photos, thanks for the post!

Leigh
www.foreverbecoming.com

(I'm afraid I don't have a good Hillman quote on this subject at hand, but this one is semi-related and quite interesting:
http://www.foreverbecoming.com/2009/03/imagine-better-life.html)

Jacques Brel Tribute Concert Request?

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Nick Currie
My name is David Coulter I directed a live concert version of Artangel's Plague Songs in 2007 and last year's Twisted Christmas for Bryn Ormrod, Music Programmer at the Barbican. I have also worked as Tom Waits's MD on Black Rider, Damon Albarn's MD on Gorilla and Monkey and currently as Marianne Faithfull's new MD and bandleader. Our paths have crossed in the past.

I am a big fan of yours and as I have been asked to direct a show celebrating the 80th anniversary of Jacques Brel's birth I am fortunately in a position to ask you if you would be interested in performing as part of the evening - doing about 3 or 4 Brel songs either with the house band/ orchestra (comprising some very cool players indeed including drummer Seb Rochford, bass player Tom Herbert, Leo Abrahams, Roger Eno, hopefully Marc Ribot, Thomas Bloch on Ondes Martenot,Cristal Baschet and Glass Harmonica, brass section and strings and myself on a variety of bits and bobs). I am inviting a variety of other perfomers who have association's with Brel's work but felt that you were a very obvious contender. I remember being very moved by your versions of his songs when we shared a bill at Albany Empire (at the time I was simultaneously a member of The Band Of Holy Joy and Test Dept!)

If you would be interested then please get back to me as soon as possible so we can talk further. I'd be grateful for a contact even if the response is negative.

Thanks hugely.

My email is dcnoise@hotmail.com

I hope to hear back from you.

Excuse the eccentric way of making contact!

Best wishes, David Coulter

PS I'm really enjoying Joemus at moment and was wondering whether you might even be prepared to explore a more 'contemporary' approach to revisiting Brel's oeuvre? Anything is possible. DC

Re: Jacques Brel Tribute Concert Request?

[(Anonymous)]

The scheduled performance date at Barbican is 22 October 2009 and we would rehears at some point during the 3 days prior to that. Bests, DC

Re: Jacques Brel Tribute Concert Request?

[zooportj.livejournal.com]

Momus will do this concert so long as you can confirm that he can duet with Marc Almond (a duet I've always felt would work well), and would work well at a Jacques Brel Tribute Concert, non?

Re: Jacques Brel Tribute Concert Request?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Hey, dude, quit being my manager, I don't even know you!

I'll duet with the ghost of Jacques, or no one.

Re: Jacques Brel Tribute Concert Request?

[count-vronsky.livejournal.com]

Marianne Faithful was on Letterman last night. Are you in the video? Just curious.



Those kids -- straight, gay, bi or whatever -- are adorable. They make me happy to be human. I want the outfit the kid in the last photo is wearing, and the boy about halfway down the page, hunched over his notebook, looks like a young momus.

[dogsolitude-v2.livejournal.com]

Aside from the second-to-last child being absolutely huge, they all look like kids to me.

I often find that seeing a picture of someone as a child engenders a sort of sympathy with that person - I wonder if such an exhibition would do anything to help ease the still-knocking-around problem of homophobia?

[(Anonymous)]

I guess there are no pictures of how these kids look now in the exhibition? The third girl after the cut must have grown to become the most beautiful woman.

-r

[zazie-metro.livejournal.com]

I so, so love these pictures. Found myself jacking up my gaydar, but doubted all the signs I saw because someone else already called them gay. Really nice.

love

[(Anonymous)]

sorry I'm breaking the thread maybe but in ashes to ashes, the line 'i've loved all i needed to love', where did he get that from?
gay kids btw, got to have one first before you can comment on it, ne c'est pas?

Re: love

[imomus.livejournal.com]

where did he get that from

Sordid details following...

...

Can you hear me, Major Tom? Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong!

[(Anonymous)]

If the only meaning we can find in life is to strive for total social equality, shouldn't we consider just hanging it up? I mean, what are we doing here? What a waste of time.

[(Anonymous)]

^^^^ Homo.

[jermynsavile.livejournal.com]

Catching up on this and a number of other posts after a week away. Some interesting things in the other posts of the week, but I find the whole idea of this exhibition slightly depressing.

Firstly, because it's the kind of thing that only wishes to preach to the converted; no nuance, no challenge. So, kids who grow up gay look the same as kids who don't? Is that really surprising? They probably don't look any different now either. Is that in any way illuminating? A collection of pictures of serial killers, members of the police force, religious converts, accountants or herpetologists would probably look much the same.

Secondly, because the thought that in our decadence we still reduce our definition of people to what they choose to do with their genitals seems as much part of the problem as the solution. It tells us nothing about how these people developed or what life has done to them. Are we meant to be assuming that they're all just one big family of happy gayness? Surely we wouldn't make such a fatuous observation about heterosexuals, treating everyone as being part of some kind of homogenous club?

I don't doubt that it's all well meant, but it seems just so bloody "right on" as to be almost beyond parody. Or am I (as frequently happens) missing the bloody point?