I've had the most lovely weekend so far. On friday night, I went to my first movie of the film festival, along with Hunter, Jimmy and Jaxon. It was an early evening showing at the musty, decaying, magnificent old Castro Theater. It had been a warm day, and it was hot and humid inside as we squirmed in our faded velvet seats, trying to find a comfortable spot for our buns amidst the bad springs in the cushions. But an evening movie at the Castro is always a scene, particularly in the Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.

Last night, a very animated crowd of a couple of thousand guys, and a few girls, had turned out to see "Borstal Boy". I'd picked my movies a few weeks ago, so I didn't quite recall the plot, and had no idea what to expect, beyond what was connoted by the movie's title. In case you don't know, a borstal is the British word for a kind of remand home for delinquent boys. The movie was set in wartime England, and followed an Irish teenager, the real-life poet Brendan Behan, who was placed in borstal on account of his political and pseudo-military activities with the IRA.

Although the movie was predictable at times, there was a beautiful friendship between Brendan, and a gay English sailor. The look of longing in the sailor's eyes was returned by Brendan, but ultimately, Brendan was more or less straight, and couldn't give his friend everything he wanted. What made the movie particularly interesting for me was how it explored relations between the various nationalities that make up the British Isles - it's not a subject you see portrayed very often; movies from the British Isles tend to be either Welsh, English, Scottish or Irish.

You'll almost certainly see this movie released, so I advise you to watch for it. If you're a big softy at heart, like me, take some tissues with you :)

Afterwards, we hung out at the Red Grill, on 18th Street, which is a new thing in San Francisco gay nightlife - a stylish pub/restaurant. It's about time we had some class in the Castro!

Tonight, I even went back to the Red Grill, this time for dinner with Brett. We sat in the upstairs window, during the early evening, and ate our steak looking out at the guys passing by below. It was a very warm evening, and there were quite a few delicious fashion faux-pas to be seen, like the heavy, hairy guy wearing nothing but short shorts and construction boots, or the man wearing long braids and a girl scout outfit. And not to mention the cross-dressing vagrant with the Santa Claus hat. San Francisco doesn't change much, I'm glad to say.

We later drove over to the precarious 16th and Mission intersection, to park near the Victoria Theater for our movie. It's not a neighborhood I'm keen on. There are too many lost-looking people standing in the middle of the street, doing nothing, looking completely dazed. It seems almost from another era. No wonder it was easy to find a parking spot.

Our movie tonight was called "Drift". I made the mistake of reading the capsule review in the SF Weekly while we were standing in line, which said that the movie was interminable, and utterly banal. In the end, though, that review was completely unfair. There was an awful lot of talking in the movie, but it was a heartfelt, honest exploration of the drive people have to find that real connection with somebody. The main character, played by a gorgeous, hunky asian actor named R.T. Lee, found that connection with a guy who ... wasn't his boyfriend. And those searching moments as their yearning moved towards physical intimacy reminded me of similar moments in my own life. The moment of real urgency where you feel that you're transcending, for a moment, the barriers between yourself and the other. It almost tricked me, for a moment, into that old wish to experience such feelings again. But I know that in reality, I'm passed such a need. Those few moments of real linking are what we're socialized to aim for; yet the reality is that they form such a tiny part of a real relationship. The meat and potatoes are far less glamorous and intense. Not that you can't aim for the meat and potatoes, mind you.

Besides, I was seeing the movie with my best friend beside me, a guy I love and who makes life much more worth living. That's the kind of permanent, long-lasting connection I really value.