my good friend conrad had his wallet and phone stolen from a bar last friday night and has been going through hell with the NYPD... his report still hasn't been "filed officially" and he needs to get a new license in time for travel he has scheduled for tomorrow... it's been hell, but it's all shaping up nicely...
him : NYPD still hasn't located my report; in my favorite recent development, someone at the Ninth Precinct actually instructed me to file a false report ("just don't tell them about the other report and file a report saying you just lost your license"). Genius. I did NOT take that advice, & instead just went down to the license express (deceptively named), paid the $8 which I would have saved if the NYPD hadn't lost my report, and got a new license. I am therefore DONE with the NYPD and frankly I don't care if they EVER find my report.
SATURDAY | 12.28.02 | 2:04pm | gay dad...
from today's new york times magazine Gay Dad
In his 90th birthday, the father of the modern gay movement [Harry Hay, b. 1912] was honored at the new Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center in San Francisco. The "campus" of the facility had recently been named for the late Chuck Holmes, the city's leading producer of gay male pornography -- an unapologetic pairing of sex and social justice that Harry Hay must have reveled in. For well over half a century, taking his cues from both Marx and Kinsey, he chased a dream of a "golden brotherhood," and that night, sporting an oxygen tube and a crown of purple pansies, the original pinko-Commie-queer seemed the very picture of a dream achieved as a man in naughty nurse drag wheeled him out to greet the crowd.
We remember him largely for the Mattachine Society, a group of seven gay men who began secretly assembling in a Los Angeles basement about the time that "I Love Lucy" entered the American consciousness. Named for the medieval jesters who wore masks while stirring rebellion against the monarchy, the society was committed to the daring notion that "no boy or girl approaching the maelstrom of deviation need make that crossing alone." Its guiding precept -- Harry's precept -- was that homosexuals were not just lone degenerates without recourse but were a clearly definable minority capable of achieving change through solidarity.
Back then in California, it was illegal for more than two queers to gather in one place at the same time, so the original Mattachine members took an oath of secrecy that effectively remained unbroken for a quarter of a century. The society was modeled on a Communist cell, a unit that Harry knew well. In the mid-30's, he had fallen in love with a charismatic young actor named Will Geer and followed him into the party. But the man who would one day be known as television's Grandpa Walton just didn't understand his lover's growing obsession with homosexual organizing, and most of Harry's straight comrades were openly aghast at his shamelessness. They finally bullied him into choosing a bride, though neither she nor the children they adopted could turn the tide of Harry's desires. By mid-century he had parted ways with both family and party to pursue his oddball vision of men loving men without fear.
His chief ally in this was a new lover, Rudi Gernreich, a designer who would eventually give the 60's its most leeringly hetero novelty item: the topless swimsuit. Though the other five Mattachine members had been part of Harry's Marxist circle, egalitarianism seldom prevailed. Harry, in fact, seems to have been something of an autocrat, judging from a new documentary film about his life, in which Harry's fellow pioneers recall him as a "benevolent dictator" and "intellectual bully." No one, however, denied the power of his ideas or the feeling of safety and purpose afforded by their underground brotherhood.
It was not to last. As the Mattachine Society spread to other cities, younger members began to reject the secrecy and paranoia of the old order. What's more, the rise of McCarthyism had made Harry's Commie origins as embarrassing to these new queers as his queerness had been to the Commies. He was ousted from the Mattachines and once again set adrift in the world.
He would not find vindication until the late 60's, when groups like the Gay Liberation Front began to regard the Mattachines as weak-kneed traditionalists. By then, however, Harry was already seeking answers elsewhere. Living in New Mexico, he began to study berdachism, the Native American practice of raising "third gender" children as spiritual intermediaries between the sexes. By the 70's he had begun to wonder if all gay people weren't meant to serve such a purpose and if, in fact, the desperate new drive for assimilation wasn't missing the point entirely.
The result was the Radical Faeries, a group devoted to gay spirituality that Harry co-founded in 1979. At its first meeting, Harry, now in his late 60's, exhorted some 200 men to "throw off the ugly green frogskin of hetero-imitation to find the shining Faerie prince beneath." This sensual pagan regimen, characterized by mud baths and ecstatic dance rituals, would serve Harry well as his last Utopia. Several of his Faerie brothers were present when he died in San Francisco on Oct. 24. And that cranky but courtly bossiness never left him. "He had dying wishes," said Eric Slade, the director of the new film. "In fact, several guys received lists of instructions."
FRIDAY | 12.27.02 | 1:23am | we like the cars that go boom... it was late and i hadn't had any quality sleep in several days... i was just about to head off to bed when outside my apartment i hear "boom!"
what the hell??? i walk to my window... when i look out i see a huge fire and billowing black smoke pouring from the gas station across the street from my apartment... i woke up brian and told him that i thought it may be wise for us to leave the building... we throw on clothes, grab our phones and run out... by the time we got to the street the fire department had arrived and put out the fire... a car next to one of the pumps had exploded... we decided that we were safe so we went home... now i can't sleep... stupid fucking car explosions...
TUESDAY | 12.24.02 | 4:25pm | yule and shit... oh yeah... here's my christmas card for you... hope your tomorrow is a good one...
TUESDAY | 12.24.02 | 2:01am | yellow vulva wine wanted... i'm stealing this from aaron but i figure some of my readers may not read his site (you should, by the way)... go here now for fun fun fun...
MONDAY | 12.23.02 | 3:47pm | damn...
MONDAY | 12.23.02 | 2:59pm | one of those pointless updates... i saw three great movies last night and got some christmas presents from my friend charlie... they're all orange and fun... i haven't completed my gift-making craziness yet... maybe this year i'll be giving out "merry new year" presents... *sigh*
SUNDAY | 12.22.02 | 2:35pm | complaining about being broke (again) i've officially run out of clean winter clothes that i'd ever consider wearing in public... all that's left are sleeveless t-shirts and this weird glittery thermal top thing (where did this come from anyway?)... i haven't done laundry in a month... there are good reasons for that, too, mind you... *sigh* guess it's time to act straight and go sell some plasma...
SATURDAY | 12.21.02 | 5:18am | cap'n crunch decoder ring it's late... i'm drunk... just got home... perturbed...
you know, when you type a fake email address into a form on my site it makes it absolutely impossible to respond to you... (that's directed to "rien", who ever you may be...)
and to the beautiful wonderful guy in the derek jeter shirt that i danced with tonight (yeah, you know who you are): it's always so wonderful to spend time with you... wish it could happen as often as it used to... call me???
THURSDAY | 12.19.02 | 1:59am | 10 ways i'm so cliché upon request: what about you??? i'd like to collect 10 ways that you're so cliché and post my favorites... take a few minutes to fill out my nifty little form...
THURSDAY | 12.19.02 | 1:11am | yeah, i'm gay... went to an advanced screening of "the hours" and was absolutely blown away (along with the rest of the audience of which about 98% were homosexual gays)... every actor is superb and the three female leads (nicole kidman, julianne moore and meryl streep) are perfect... the writing is brilliant (i love david hare)... nicole kidman dons a prosthetic nose in lieu of any other makeup to play the role of virginia wolff... all three leads make out with another woman at some point in the film... the three stories (three different generations) are pieced together seamlessly... the movie as a whole is pretty much (as brian put it) "a wet dream"... i smell oscars... ::::::::::::::::::
was on the train with a friend tonight and he started talking about a job he was offered and has considered taking... the problem is that he's already got a job and would have to quit it... not necessarily a big deal except that he's sensitive and his current boss is pregnant... a perfect gay couple sitting next to us hasn't been listening to our conversation but happen to tune in as he says:
"i don't know, i just don't feel right leaving her right now... i mean, she's pregnant!!!"
i swear to god i saw their ears perk up and heard them gasp...
knowing they're now eavesdropping i reply to my friend, oh, come on!!! don't get trapped by that!!!
the guy sitting closest to us is staring with his mouth hanging open...
we arrive at our stop and exit the train as i say loudly, you know that the only reason that women get pregnant is so that men won't leave them... that's all that baby's are good for - tying guys down to things they would never honestly choose to be tied down to...
the doors close and the train starts to pull out... i turn and see them glaring at us through passing windows and seem to be saying, "you misogynistic assholes!!! we hope you burn in hell!!!"
SATURDAY | 12.14.02 | 9:07am | in the press!!! they're talking about MY design!!!
Don’t Blow Out Your Oy-Ring, Moishe American Jews have a very well-deserved reputation as one of the most broadminded, tolerant, liberal cultures in the world. So it’s always a bit of a surprise when you see some of them being as tight-assed and humorless as the most uptight Protestant bluenoses. There’s a group here in New York called Storahtelling, which describes itself and its mission as "a NYC-based performance group of artists and educators reclaiming Jewish rituals of sacred storytelling. Founded in 1998, Storahtelling is a non-profit organization committed to promoting and fostering informed, inclusive, and alternative Jewish culture through artistic events and educational programs." Sounds harmless, doesn’t it? For the holiday season, the group is doing a show with the cute title Oy to the World! A Jingle Ball. The promo for the show features a funny illo of a Christmas tree with a Star of David on top. Which seems to have upset some of the people on the group’s mailing list. An e-mail Storahtelling sent out yesterday, under the header "To Those Offended," begins: Oy. We have received feedback from several of you expressing outrage at the use of a Christmas tree with a Jewish star on the invitation for our December 24 event: "Oy to the World-A Jingle Ball." Reactions include "Do you promote Intermarriage?" "Are you Jews for Jesus"? and "Why is the UJC and the UJA funding your program?" To those of you offended - our sincere apologies. This event has been carefully planned and is intended to promote cross-cultural dialogue while offering the community a meaningful yet lighthearted solution to "The December Dilemma". Oy indeed. G-d forbid any group should "promote intermarriage"! Although how anyone leaped to that conclusion from what is clearly an ironic and humorous image is a mystery. Personally, I don’t see where "sincere apologies" were called for, though I’m sure it was the politic move. I’d say a "get a sense of humor, Joel" or "blow it out your tush, Golda" would be more appropriate. Damn, it’s so disappointing when people you expect to be openminded and get a joke turn out to be just as sphincter-clenching and humor-challenged as everyone else.
FRIDAY | 12.13.02 | 5:42pm | kinda whoa... i sat at home and watched MTV all day for the first time in a long time and happened to see the new christina aguilera video "beautiful"... i really hate her but it was refreshing to see not only a drag queen putting herself together but two hot guys making out (with tongue!!!)... oh yeah, and i did a little bit of redecorating around here... whaddya think??? [some images may be cached in your computer, so please click F5 now to update this page...]
THURSDAY | 12.12.02 | 6:35pm | support cheap sex!!! does anyone know of an affordable server that would support an "adult themed site" which isn't necessarily a porn site??? adult servers charge entirely too much money... (by the way, this is a work related question and not a personal inquiry...)
WEDNESDAY | 12.11.02 | 11:50pm | i hate that!!! it never fails... when i write a post and upload it without double-checking it online it never really makes it onto the web... it's like there's some evil internet elf that watches me and is mean to me that way... anyway, so sorry yesterday's post is a day late...
other than that there's absolutely nothing to report today...
TUESDAY | 12.10.02 | 12:50pm | god has left the building??? hehehe... i HAVE to see this!!! (review from new york times)...
It Ain't Over Till the Goth Vampire Sings
Where's a mask when you need one?
Michael Crawford, who sported a dashing half-mask for his Tony-winning performance in "The Phantom of the Opera" in 1988, would have done well to have donned a fuller version for his return to Broadway. Rigged up as a taxidermic variation on his Phantom persona, Mr. Crawford opened last night in a show called "Dance of the Vampires" at the Marquis Theater. It is an enterprise to be associated with only under the veil of anonymity.
Actually, some far from anonymous names, in addition to that of Mr. Crawford, spice the credits for this clueless musical adaptation of "The Fearless Vampire Killers," Roman Polanski's spoof horror movie of 1967. This is a production that inspires you to check your program open-mouthed at intermission to make you sure you didn't misread it.
Why, surely that can't be that suave trouper René Auberjonois hiding so uneasily behind a beard and mustache as a bumbling ghoul-hunting professor. Is it possible that John Rando, who won a Tony for his direction of "Urinetown," is responsible for the wit-free staging? Or that John Carrafa, who brought effortless charm to the dances in "Into the Woods," oversaw the thudding choreography?
Did David Ives, the author of the blissful "All in the Timing," truly collaborate on the light-as-lead book? And those funguslike sets that look so expensive and so cheap, that junior-prom lighting: they can't be the work of David Gallo and Ken Billington, can they?
It isn't, of course, just the undead who salivate at the smell of blood. Theater disaster cultists, a breed that makes Vlad the Impaler look small-time, have had their fangs at the ready ever since the early buzz began on "Vampires," which features songs by the rock composer Jim Steinman and was first presented in Vienna with a book and lyrics in German by Michael Kunze.
Hopes were high that this musical might be in the league of platinum-plated flops like "Carrie" and "Moose Murders." And it's true that there are moments that climb into the stratosphere of legendary badness.
No one, even after a quart of straight gin, would be able to erase the memory of Mr. Crawford as a blood-sucking aristocrat and Mandy Gonzalez as his toothsome prey, shrieking a revised version of Mr. Steinman's pop hit "Total Eclipse of the Heart." The scene is perfectly accessorized by a phalanx of pasty, hooded creatures, holding (I swear) what appear to be flashlights beneath their faces, like monsters in a homemade spook house.
For the most part, however, "Vampires" exudes the less exalted, simply embarrassed feeling of a costume party that everyone got all dressed up for and then decided wasn't such a good idea.
The show would appear to be trying to capture the spirit of "The Rocky Horror Show," the musical that brought high-heeled camp to electric rock.
But "Vampires," which is set in a dark and moldy place called Lower Belabartòkovich in the 1880's, doesn't have anything like the same sustained point of view. The original movie, while hardly top-drawer Polanski, was at least true to its goofy intentions, which brought to mind a post-sexual-liberation answer to "Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy."
This show, on the other hand, wants to be campy, preachy, lewd and romantically rhapsodic all at once. It careens through everything from a limp Gilbert and Sullivan-style patter song to a series of all-ghoul dance numbers that, with their tattered shroudlike costumes by Ann Hould-Ward, suggest a bunch of drunk high school kids trying to replicate Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video.
The overall effect is of a desperately protracted skit from a summer replacement variety show of the late 1960's, the kind on which second-tier celebrities showed up to make fun of themselves. Dialogue sample: When Mr. Auberjonois's character introduces his assistant (Max von Essen) as "my young factotum," a loutish inkeeper (Ron Orbach) says, "If that means what I think it does, those two can leave right now."
Mr. Crawford gets his share of such clunkers, including his opening line, made after his entrance from a skull-festooned black casket: "God has left the building." Perhaps he chose "Vampires" as his ticket back to Broadway because his role here does bear a resemblance to the diabolical but lonely Phantom. It even has its own version of "The Music of the Night," a lumbering ballad called "Come With Me."
Such parallels tend to blur memories of Mr. Crawford's genuinely haunting performance in "Phantom." Mr. Crawford, who has done time in Las Vegas, appears to have picked up a stylistic trick or two there.
With his swept-back lacquered hair and black-on-white contour makeup, he looks like a Goth version of Siegfried, Roy and Wayne Newton combined. Now that, you have to admit, is pretty scary.
MONDAY | 12.09.02 | 12:50pm | still here... i should be gone by now... i should be upstate in the mountains with the snow and stuff climbing and skiing my little heart away... i should be doing this until it gets dark outside at which time i should go into the cabin where i should be staying and help the kids i'm staying with make a meal... we should all gather around the fireplace and perhaps get a little freaky... this should all be happening to me today, but my ride isn't here yet... *sigh*
in the meantime, i'll tell you that it's really scary but not impossible to run around for hours trying to track down an evil john leguizamo when you've got five gunshot wounds to the back and you're dreaming... you can do that shit for hours!!!
SUNDAY | 12.08.02 | 6:43pm | fuck you in all these languages!!! i had a meeting last night with a new web client and we were brainstorming a name for the (risky?) site...
how about "cock" in some obscure language, like esperanto?
we found my new favorite site!!! (be sure to check out the swedish meaning of my new drag name "anustova")...
SATURDAY | 12.07.02 | 11:25am | hot guy from my ass... i was rolling around the blogs this morning and saw this on chris' site... you know me - the curious cat... this is what i was given:
revolution freedom |
FRIDAY | 12.06.02 | 1:27am | gee... except for the three seconds that i enjoyed today's (or, well, thursday's) snow, this month has pretty much sucked ass so far... please don't become as discouraged as i am... something exciting is bound to happen soon...
WEDNESDAY | 12.04.02 | 7:21pm | i agree... twenty-five years and my life is still
and so i cry sometimes thank you, linda...
TUESDAY | 12.03.02 | 8:48pm | better now... hadn't been blog-hopping in a while so i decided to do that tonight before heading to work... happened upon a lovely little haiku that kiera wrote for me upon our meeting last week...
MONDAY | 12.30.02 | 1:34pm | conversation with conrad
me : oh that's good
me : and i LOVE that the office (i guess it's the one on 34th and 8th???) is called License Express
me : because it is SO not
him : You can thank Sarah for talking sense into me . . . all of that sturm und drang for saving $8. Yes, the irony of the name does NOT escape me (although truthfully the whole process did only take me half an hour or so).
me : was it the office on 34th???
him : Yep . . . the one right at 8th Ave
me : was there this fabulous black diva there at the customer service counter???
him : You BET there was. "What do you need, honey?" was my greeting.
me : i LOVE her!!!
him : She made it slightly better.
him : She's not as good as mariachis at a Mexican restaurant in San Antonio, though
me : (i know that's true)
me : when i went in i had a steamed coconut crème in my hand from starbucks and she said, "OH! you brought me a warm drink!"
him : Well, I had nothing to offer her but a smile.
me : aw
me : well, i said, "sure did... hope you like milk..."
him : And did she?
me : she just smiled and said, "what you need, honey?"
him : That's my girl!
me : and i went to set my drink on the counter to explain to her my needs and she slapped my arm and yelled, "NOW DON'T YOU GO puttin' that on my desk, little man!"
me : then she smiled again...
him : "Little man"
him : I LOVE that.
me : it was great
me : she reminds me of me in fifteen years
him : Except for the race & gender thing.
me : *shrug* who knows???
him : And hopefully the job thing, too.
him : I feel pretty sure about this one.
me : science is always advancing
me : as is the level of pollutant in NYC's water supply
him : Yes, but I'm not sure that (a) this is a particular scientific advance you would choose to utilize and (b) water pollutants are not really relevant, now are they?
him : Little man. . . .
me : yeah, whatev...
by Armistead Maupin
By BEN BRANTLEY
"right, sugar, and i know how to say "cock" in esperanto..."
i'm sure it's on the web... let's look...
once daily a:
lovely little but
the world how cute!!! refers to
thank you Hot guy from
my ass
so looking forward
to next week... *
oh
my
lungs what's going on? and
i pray.every
single day for a
certain sex club tonight...
trying to get up that great big hill of hope
for a destination.
i realized quickly when i knew i should
that the world was made up of this brotherhood of man
for whatever that means.
when i'm lying in bed
just to get it all out
what's in my head
and i, i am feeling a little peculiar.
and so i wake in the morning
and i step outside
and i take a deep breath and i get real high
and i scream from the top of my lungs
"what's going on?"
and i try, oh my god do i try.
i try all the time, in this institution.
and i pray, oh my god do i pray.
i pray every single day
for a revolution.
Hot guy from the theater!!
i love our small world.
how cute!!! ('the theater' refers to a night out at de la guarda where he actually saw me as i was being flown around the room...) anyhow, thank you for the poem!!!
TUESDAY | 12.03.02 | 7:13pm | thrilling... the most exciting thing i did all day was change up the border image here a little... But the day isn't over and i still have work to do at a certain sex club tonight... (work, as in i go there as an employee and not a patron who is "working it")...
MONDAY | 12.02.02 | 1:21pm | sad... was supposed to go rock climbing today in new paltz but the plans were pushed back to next week... *sigh* and i was SO looking forward to freezing my ass off today and risking death... guess i'll just go walk around midtown instead...
