HIV Shouts and Whispers; "A Cold Glitter of Souls"

I'm not at all sure what I'm watching? It's a Brit flic on HBO Signature and seems to be about dancing, HIV, sex and fudge ice cream. A tall dancer who looks like a young Tom Baker meets an older therapist who looks like Bob Hoskins. The on-screen guide sez "Alive and Kicking," but it mentions Lenny Henry. And as wonderful as Mr. Henry is, he is not in this film. Maybe IMDB will tell me something.

And I don't know what to think of it? Too facile? Too heavy-handed? What is the "proper" way to do an AIDS film? Does one deal with HIV with shouts or whispers?

The dead do not people my dreams. Yet, there are those I miss greatly. Mike from a small town in Pennsylvania was so alive and intelligent and funny. We kissed only once on the night he left to return home, and I never saw him again. Jim and I joined MCC at the same time. And I remember seeing him several years ago at a New Year's Eve party and recognized that pale, gray look that I had seen too many times before. I knew Jeff primarily as a waiter at Ruby Tuesday. We would speak briefly at the bar. But then I opened the paper one day, and there his name was in the obituaries. I could not stop crying.

As I left work after 7, the world was dark, and the temperature was dropping. I walked across the dimly-lit parking lot and into a small glade between the lot and one of the drives. In the drive I glanced up by accident and saw one brilliant, blue-green star almost directly above. It made me think of beings placed in the heavens by ancient gods. Beings who offer glimmering, radiant light from years in the past. Stars for wishing. Pinpricks in the black canopy. "A cold glitter of souls."

PAX!