2002-07-15 | 7:09 p.m.

corduroy licorice's back was to the wall. he liked to lean into architecture.

***

i took a two-hour vacation to a mediterranean island this weekend thanks to the beautiful spanish movie sex and lucia.

while "sex" takes up half of the title and about a third of the movie, the film has a romantic brain to go with that luscious body.

the story revolves around a novelist named lorenzo (the ridiculously charming tristan ulloa) and his number one fan and lady love, lucia (played by the ridiculously gorgeous paz vega). as lorenzo's personal life grows more inspired than his fiction, he begins to lead a bit of a double life...bringing about a bittersweet tale interwoven with true beauty and true pain.

this movie claims a spot in my top 3 of the year (at the halfway point), along with two other foreign films: what time is it there? and late marriage. so far, 2002 is shaping up nicely cinema-wise thanks to dem foreigner types.

***

the rest of my weekend included a tasty mexican feast at a hole-in-the-wall in the hood with c-girl and s-girl, where the sweet waitress calls us "girls" and keeps the fresh strawberry juice coming.

after having my fill of pico de gallo, i was off to attend a story-reading event with p-girl. while there were a lot of talented, award-winning types who read perfectly great stories, one fella stole the show.

his name is luis alfaro, and he is one gifted mo fo.

p-girl and i had seen him tell stories twice before and he had us at word one. he tells stories about growing up poor and gay in downtown l.a. and he fills his performances with an amazing energy, seductive rhythm and powerful refrains. the story he told on sunday--"how minnie riperton changed my life"--was his best yet. he swept everyone in the crowd into the world of this preteen latino boy with a deep, abiding love for soul music. he grabbed our hearts and minds. he hollered and swayed and sang refrains. he was like a southern baptist preacher doing the best sermon of his career.

when he left the stage to cheers and applause, p-girl and i were woozy. the only thing i can compare it to is a sexual experience in which no clothing was removed. i felt like he had "taken me" emotionally. i was awestruck.

so yes, all the neurotic, witty white folk who read were entertaining and noteworthy, too, but it was a paunchy "queer" boy in a huge hawaiian shirt who brought the house down and our hearts up where they belonged.

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