About Rick Powell, The Cinesexual

The responsibility of being a gay film critic, then, to borrow a phrase from the great Robin Wood, is to be honest about your responses as an individualized viewer, and to balance questions around identity with a film’s aesthetic purpose, intent, and effect.

— Michael Koresky, Film Comment

I graduated from Southern Illinois U with a degree in Cinema & Photography.  My first Super-8 film was called The Way Love Moves. My senior film project was called Pictures of Maleness. I was naked in it. At the senior showing, some straight dude laughed as I tucked my balls between my legs, running away from the camera. The film also featured my straight roommate Janet in male drag. (No one noticed.) I lost all my films somewhere along the road.

I like movies. I was in and worked on one called Go Fish. Finnish documentary filmmaker Markku Heikkinen made a movie about me called Public Service.

I’ve been blogging for years. I wrote about my adventures in Prague in a blog called The Rent Boys of Prague. I’m currently reposting all my Prague blogs on Genet’s Bastard. I wrote almost a million words in diary form.

My last big project in Argentina was Juanele AR, a bilingual blog and non-profit org covering the arts and artists of Buenos Aires. I founded, wrote, edited, designed, art-directed, and photographed for Juanele. Lots of other cool folks did too. I hope to bring it back someday. You can find some of the old posts living on My Beautiful Air. (Open your eyes in Buenos Aires.)

I created this online literary journal about English-speaking life in Spanish-speaking countries but it turns out there aren’t very many good writers that I liked who wanted to get paid for that sort of thing.

I also founded the San Telmo Art Walk, a 3-hour walking tour of Buenos Aires’ oldest and most bohemian barrio. Later I sold it to another company and bought myself a MacBook Air, which I eventually had to sell to pay for a huge bar tab at a hostel. (BEER!) Not even kidding.

My current project and main source of income is Fascinating Monsters. I still make WordPress sites, but only for decent money. Otherwise, it’s too much trouble.

For about six months I ran a Tex-Mex kitchen out of a craft-beer bar in San Telmo, Buenos Aires. My most proud moment was when visiting folks from Guadalajara praised my food and ordered another plate of tacos. A quote about my hot sauce: A gringo made me cry!

Right now, I’m waiting out this pandemic in Mexico City. I was cooking for a living, but the virus shut that down. I’ve started teaching English online.

I’m also watching a lot of movies.

Buy from Amazon to help me out. There are many Amazon links strewn throughout this site. I receive a small commission if you then buy from Amazon.

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