Mouths Wide Shut

Eyes Wide Shut is the perfect pandemic movie—since it’s such a creature of fantasy. Dreams can become both vivid and tangled in a period of isolation and social-distancing. But the real title of the sequel could be Mouths Wide Shut since everyone has something to say, particularly if they’re talking to themselves, while being forced to wear a mask. Imagine the famous scene with Tom Cruise in the sex club, only in this case you’d see everyone’s eyes, but not their lips which would have to be covered due to CDC recommendations. The silver lining of the coronavirus has actually been the fact that people shut up. It’s tiring to speak with a mask on and infuriating when you’re on the phone wearing your mask and your significant other is constantly barking “I can’t hear a thing you’re saying” to which you’re forced to remind them, “the mask mandate is again in effect,” with your counterpart countering “I still can’t hear you.” The sex club scene is going to be hard to shoot with the typical N or KN95, since the mouth is an orifice that often comes into play in orgies. On the other hand the human body is resilient and quick to compensate for the loss of one function or another. Anecdotally there have been reports of greater frequency of purely genital sex since January, 2020 when the disease first hit these shores.

Read "Sperm Count: Speaking of Erections" by Francis Levy, HuffPost

and listen to "Sex Machine" by James Brown