Coming soon: DVD: 7/6: A Single Man – a must see for Colin Firth’s Oscar nominated performance; Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin documentary feature. 

Books: now in stores: The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham by Selina Hastings.  At the movies: 7/9: acclaimed comedy The Kids Are Alright starring Annette Bening and Julianne Moore.

Congratulations: Openly gay Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul won the Palm d’Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.  The Tony Awards: Gay dramatist John Logan won Best Play honors for his drama Red.  Best Musical – Memphis, Best Play Revival – Fences by August Wilson, Best Musical Revival – La Cage aux Folles (Douglas Hodge as Albin aka Zaza won Best Actor).  Out choreographer Bill T. Jones won his second Tony for Fela!

DVD review: David Hockney: A Bigger Picture a documentary by Bruno Wollheim -  Loving feature length documentary about the great artist and his return to Yorkshire to paint landscapes, including his masterpiece “Bigger Trees Near Warter” (a permanent gift to the Royal Academy).  

The film focuses mainly on the artist at work, but does acknowledge past accomplishments, as well as giving brief glimpses into his personal life.  Interview footage is plentiful and quite illuminating.  The DVD features more than an hour of bonus material (all well worth watching).  A Bigger Picture is a truly fascinating, thoroughly engrossing look at the creative process and one of the most prominent painters of the past half century.

Television review:  True Blood season three (HBO).  Alan Ball’s twisted, sexy, scary adaptation of the Sookie Stackhouse novels is back for a third season, and with only two episodes in, it’s already a vast improvement on season two [I wasn’t thrilled with the whole Maenad story thread – give me vampires, werewolves, witches and zombies, but you can keep that devil shit].  All our favorite characters are back, plus Kevin Alejandro as Lafayette’s boyfriend, a pack of werewolves (who turn back into naked men), some Nazis, a brother for Sam (who had a pretty sexy dream about showering with vampire Bill – steamed my glasses!), and out actor Denis O’Hare as the gay vampire King of Mississippi.  If these first two episodes are any indication, season three could prove the best yet.