Mighty Aphrodite

Can't get you out of my head: World's No. 1 Kylie Minogue fan explains his trueobsession

Kylie, the goddess
Manuel Olivo in his Kylie Showgirl T-shirt
For Manuel's birthday, a Kylie cake, naturally
Manuel Olivo with friends in New York City for concert
In this 2008 photo Manuel in one of his favorite T-shirts

This story begins in 1990, at a club called Heaven. I was dancing the night away, when a video began playing on the screens next to the dance floor. A stunning woman was singing a Brit-pop song about stepping back in time. I stopped dancing, because I had to know who this singer was. I walked—no, ran—to the DJ and asked him who she was.

He said, “The song is ‘Step Back in Time’ by Kylie.”

"Kylie who?" I asked.

The DJ looked at me like I had just woken up from a coma.

"Minogue," he said.

And thus began my love for Kylie. It was "Love at First Sight." I went to Record Rack, the local import store, and bought everything she had released up until then.

My first Kylie concert was in London at Wembley Stadium for her KylieFever2002 tour. The concert was epic.

What is it about a Kylie concert that makes it an event? Kylie has at least as much fun at her shows as her audience, and she interacts with them. She requests that we do Mexican waves for her after, asking to have the lights turned on so that she can see her audience.

Her productions are amazing. Each time I see her on tour I wonder how she could possibly top her last one, and she never disappoints. Whether she makes her grand entrance (and they are always grand) in a Metropolis robot costume (for the KylieFever2002 tour), sings while doing the splits (Kylie "Showgirl" tour), or descends on a giant skull (KYLIEX2008 and Kylie For You, For Me tours), she always puts on a fantastic show … and it’s really obvious she loves performing, because she sings her concerts live.

Kylie’s zest for life was again obvious in the grace with which she handled her cancer diagnosis treatment. Her public discussion of her experiences gave permission to her fans and countless other women to talk openly about breast cancer. Five years after her diagnosis, she announced that she was cancer-free.

Kylie has also survived the fickle nature of the music industry. In the late '90s, the industry nearly wrote her off. She had just released her album Impossible Princess—ironically, a fanbase favorite. Kylie wrote and co-produced most of the songs herself. Unfortunately, the album was released the same week Princess Diana died in the car accident in Paris. The album was pulled and retitled Kylie Minogue.

The change hurt Kylie's career drastically. Her record label dropped her. No one would sign her. The Pet Shop Boys persuaded Parlophone to allow them to record a duet with her. "In Denial" was a massive hit and Parlophone offered Kylie a record deal. She released her first single "Spinning Around," which stayed on top of the charts for four weeks. With the release of her album Light Years, Kylie was back on her game. Not one track is filler. The album is pop perfection, boasting such classics as "On a Night like This," and the gay anthem "Your Disco Needs You."

Kylie’s On a Night Like This tour was a huge success—all tour dates sold out. She followed up with Fever, an album containing her biggest single yet: "Can't Get You Out Of My Head." The single remained on top of the charts in over 40 countries for weeks.

The tour to support the album, KylieFever2002, was the first one I attended. I have since traveled to the UK twice to see her, once in 2005 for Kylie Showgirl and again in for KYLIEX2008. I also flew to New York for her Kylie For You, For Me tour in 2009, her first ever tour in America, which immediately sold out.

This year Kylie brings Kylie Aphrodite Live 2011, her most elaborate tour yet, to Houston (Tuesday night, Verizon Wireless Theater.) With the title album, Aphrodite, she has again achieved pure pop perfection, and I am dying to see how she will yet again top her history of stellar grand entrances.

Following her ups and downs, her personal and professional tragedies, her recoveries and triumphs, it’s impossible not to love Kylie. Her love of people and performing is infectious. Her focus on others is obvious not only in her love for her fans but also in her humanitarian work, which she mostly does anonymously.

Call me a Kylie superfan … since 1990 and counting.

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Movie Review

Daniel Craig shines in Queer, an unapologetic tale of love and loss

Photo courtesy of A24

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer.

As recently as the late 2010s, if a movie was made about an LGBTQ+ character, it was more than likely about their coming out experience. Romance, if it existed, was typically chaste, and actual sex was almost completely out of the question. Things have changed dramatically in the 2020s, to the point that a major movie star has no issue starring in a film called Queer.

Based on the 1985 novella by William S. Burroughs, the film features William Lee (Daniel Craig), whom everyone calls just Lee, a writer living in 1950s-era Mexico City who spends most of his time haunting local bars with friends like fellow writer Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman) and hitting on younger men. His early interactions in the film seem to indicate that Lee has a bad reputation within the local gay community, as multiple people avoid him or give him odd looks.

Lee senses an opportunity when he encounters a newcomer, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Despite some awkward interactions, the two of them start spending time together, although Lee has much more invested in the relationship than Eugene does. Their hit-and-miss bond continues until Lee, who’s starting to get into drugs in addition to the booze, convinces Eugene to accompany him on a trip to South America.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes (making their second straight film together after Challengers), early on the film seems to be mostly about the divide between an older person who’s grown comfortable in his ways and a younger person who’s living a relatively carefree life. The introduction of drugs into the plot changes things, though, with Lee searching out more ways to open his eyes to what the world has to offer.

Guadagnino and his team use some interesting visual storytelling techniques to introduce ideas that may not be present in the actual script. The most successful, demonstrated in multiple scenes, is the superimposition of movements by Lee over what’s actually taking place in the scene. The subtle overlay gives the audience insight into Lee’s true feelings, showing what he can’t or won’t say out loud.

Music also plays a big part in how the plot is perceived, with the use of anachronistic songs from Nirvana and Prince serving to heighten certain moments. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is not as in-your-face as the one they did for Challengers, but it complements the film well, especially when the plot starts to get trippy in its final half hour.

Craig, who appears sweaty and disheveled for much of the film, is about as far from the suaveness of James Bond as you can get in this role. He takes multiple risks with his performance and almost all of them pay off. Starkey’s character is subdued by comparison, but still comes off well. Schwartzman and Lesley Manville are given showy roles, with both using altered appearances that make them nearly unrecognizable to deliver memorable performances.

Queer is not as accessible as Challengers was storytelling-wise, but the fact that it tells a story about gay men living their lives as they see fit with no interference or questions shows how far the film world has come in a short period of time. It also continues Guadagnino’s streak of making audacious films in a way that few other filmmakers are willing or able to approach.

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Queer is now playing in theaters.

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