Born On This Day- November 30th... Gay Ally Elliott Blackstone

Our allies can come from the most unexpected places & change the daily lives of gay people through the dignity that they bring to the work they do.

Sgt. Blackstone was born in Montana on this day in1924. After finishing high school, he served in the Navy during World War II. He joined the San Francisco Police Department in 1949.

Sgt. Blackstone was a pioneer of community-based policing, once remarking that being a cop was like being "a social worker with a badge." In 1962, after the "gayola" scandal involving police demanding payoffs from gay bar owners, he was appointed the first SFPD liaison to the gay community. He was present during a police raid of a gay New Year's ball in 1965, where an officer shoved his wife, assuming she was a drag queen.

Asked why he, as a straight man, took such an active role on behalf of gay & transgender people, Sgt. Blackstone replied, "Because it was the right thing to do."

Blackstone was the 2006 San Francisco Pride Parade Grand Marshal. He also received commendations from the California State Senate, the California State Assembly, & the San Francisco Human Rights Commission.

He says he was just doing his job, although at the time police brass gave him no support.


Elliot Blackstone planted a seed to grow San Francisco into a city that was welcoming & a place that all people are treated equal. He became the first retired officer to receive a commendation from the Police Commission. Blackstone was the first police liaison to the GLBT community in 1962, after a bribery scandal involving gay bars & the police. At that time, the issue for gay rights at the department was different.

Blackstone: "They hated me. They thought it was wrong for a policeman to associate with these faggots, but they needed help, so I helped."


Blackstone worked with what were then called "homophile" organizations, such as the Mattachine Society & the Daughters of Bilitis, to end police entrapment of gay men in public bathrooms. He trained police recruits on how to handle the community by bringing in gays, lesbians & transgender people to talk about their lives.

He helped establish an anti-poverty office in the Tenderloin that employed transsexual workers. When the city was unwilling to pay for hormones for transgender people, Blackstone took up a donation at his church & distributed the drugs for free. He attended gay galas and was the face of the department for the community. He was a pioneer & somebody whose amazing accomplishments have been forgotten for too long.

Blackstone fought against prejudice & stigma at a time when the rights of gays were ignored, & helped to create a ripple of positive change.

Elliot Blackstone died in late October 2006 at the age of 82.

Messin' on a Monday

Dancing with the Stars/Bristol Lost!

Oh Yeah! Bristol lost on Dancing with the Stars! I was so glad to see that diva in training Bristol lose! When I heard Jennifer Grey and Derek Hough were the winners, I did a little dance of joy! Because from what I hear, Bristol's dumb as a bag of bricks mother Sarah was blocking up the phone lines by having people vote multiple times just for her sleazy daughter, who I may add, can't dance! What she NEEDS to be doing is be at home taking care of that little angel she brought into the world. Where was her mother when she was having sex and getting pregnant as a teenager? Her mother must have been up on her soapbox preaching about abstinence when she probably realized she had an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter. Enough about that! Jennifer Grey and Derek Hough won! I also heard about who is going to be on the next season of Dancing with the Stars, they are really running out of people. John Gosselin is supposed to be there, along with Rehab Rita aka Lindsay Lohan, hopefully she cleans up her act and gets out of rehab, because I really have hopes for her getting clean, I really think she can do it, and I think Paul McCartney would be an interesting person to see on Dancing with the Stars, along with people like Halle Berry or Denzel Washington or someone like that! Oh man, if Denzel Washington ever went on Dancing with the Stars, I'd be following that show religiously, I love him, he is a really cool actor and not to mention drop dead gorgeous! It would be interesting to see people like Halle or Denzel on there, or have musicians like Joe Perry or Paul McCartney go for it, that would be cool!


And if they ever had other people be on there, I think The Rolling Stones would be interesting to see on there, to see if Mick can ballroom dance or tango or see if Keith, Charlie or Ronnie can rock on the dance floor, omg, if they ever went on to Dancing with the Stars, I'd follow it religiously!

Facebook for Hire!

Yeah, the title should attract attention. While I was in class on Tuesday looking at different social networking sites, the teacher for the class informed us that some employers hire people based on what is on their Facebook account. Personally, this is ridiculous, no employer should hire someone based on what is on their Facebook account. What an employer should hire someone because of is how they work with others, their qualifications or something else, not a Facebook account. I mean, I have an account and if an employer were to look at mine, they'd see that I'm a music lover, because most of the stuff on my Facebook page have to do with music, like announcements for Rihanna going on tour, U2 going on tour, Paul McCartney going on tour, the Beatles releasing an album, etc. I personally think it's stupid that some employers would hire you because of what is on a social networking site that you use. Because when we looked at Facebook accounts, I'm pretty sure everyone in the world has seen mine and they pretty much know that I'm a  music lover because of all the music tour announcements, album releases, etc. But I just think it's stupid that some people would do that, it's almost an invasion of privacy, I mean, on Facebook, you can say just about anything and that some people who hire would look at one's account and see something like someone talking about partying or something, that might make the person hiring a little hesitant to hire.


What I think an employer SHOULD look at is what that person can bring to the table, their skills, if they can work well with others, their qualifications, what they can do, their interests or something, my dad has a friend who is a Graphic Designer and he told me he thought that it was ridiculous that some people hire based on what one has on a social networking site. He said that most should hire because of skills/qualifications. And if Denise reads this, I'm totally with her on the whole Facebook issue, no employer should hire a person based on what is on a social site like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.


Personally, If I'm going to look for a job, I'm just going to keep the same Facebook account that I currently have, if you ever see mine, there is never usually anything dirty on it, most of the stuff on my wall is stuff pertaining to the Breast Cancer Foundation, I'm a strong believer in there being a cure for breast cancer, it runs in my family, happy joy!, Shriner's Hospital is on my wall, I believe in kids getting miracles, a-lot of the stuff on my wall is charity and good stuff and music tour dates, music album releases, musician announcements, etc and just friends talking, but unfortunately, most of the friends I have on there like to talk dirty and I usually tell them I don't talk like that and they just keep on doing it!


Just thought I'd make my text green because of the rapidly approaching Christmas holidays. And thank the Good Lord I have my Christmas shopping done. I swear, I never knew shopping for family would be so hard, I have my sister taken care of, I bought her a blanket of this cartoon character she likes, called Invader Zim, and a book about this athlete she likes, Apolo Ohno, I bought my dad a movie,The Expendables, he loves all those exploding action movies, I bought my mom a book about the topic of Organized Crime, she finds in interesting, I bought my step-father a set of model race cars, he's a major fan of all those car races, like the Le Mans, Indy 500, etc. So hopefully, they love their gifts, I care about family and just wanted to give them something they like.

Born On This Day- November 26th... Artists & Friend George Segal

"I'm trying to be a human being. I used to idolize artists as demigods, I thought when I was younger that was one of the most magnificent ways a man could spend his life, I still think so, inspite of everything, I don't know why. But gradually it has dawned on me that that art is made by men, not gods or demigods, & ...I'm simply a man speaking to other people."

Straight but not narrow, what a perfect description of a gay rights ally, a casual, approachable man known for his sense of humor, George Segal worked for much of his career in a 300 foot long former chicken coop on his farm near South Brunswick, N.J. He applied Johnson & Johnson cotton bandages dipped in plaster to the faces & forms of family members, friends, neighbors, & friends in the art world. His wife, Helen, whom he married in 1946, was one of his most frequent subject models, having first sat for her husband in the 1940's & 1950's when he was still a painter. They remained together until his death at 76 in 2000.



I am a real fan of the ghostly sculptures that I have viewed in museums & as public art. George Segal was the most important pop sculptor of his time. I the monument he had created in Sheridan Park to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots.


Like so many of Segal's sculptures, Gay Liberation is unassuming, simple plaster casts of ordinary Americans: a pair of women sitting on a park bench & 2 men standing in front, the historic Stonewall Inn in the background. You might not notice anything unusual about the sculpture at first, but if you study it, there is something going on, something that takes a few moments to register: these are casts of gay couples in caring, romantic poses, the embraces of committed relationships, of deep love & companionship. A man firmly holds the shoulder of his lover; a woman has her arm on the lap of her partner, whose hand is resting on hers.

The couples in Gay Liberation are ordinary, designed to depict gay relationships as normal, a revolutionary statement for a mainstream artist when the 1st version of the sculpture was created in 1983. Segal's sculptures have always appeared to me as petrified remains of ancient Romans left in suspended animation after the explosion of Pompeii. Just like the volcanic dust in that ancient Italian city, they give the viewer imprecise, impressionistic figure. Physical gesture is often the main symbolic force in his work, & Gay Liberation is all about touch, & tender embrace.


Segal created sculptures of everyday American scenes & people: Walk, Don't Walk, depicts pedestrians, whitewashed, like a plaster leg cast, waiting to cross a street, & The Diner, with a man ordering a cup of coffee from a waitress, Segal was sort of the Norman Rockwell of pop sculpture for the 2nd half of the 20th century. It seems significant that in 1983 he had already sought to include gays as a part of his vision of the USA.

Gay Liberation brought protest. Segal: "Early on, local residents, mostly aging Italian Catholics, objected furiously to gays moving into their neighborhood, flouting their religious beliefs. I even got a letter threatening to blow up the sculpture when it was installed. Mayor Dinkins finally approved the installation. At the dedication on June 23, 1992, amazed at the lack of religious protest, I asked a local resident, how come? He laughed & said that the older protesters had mostly died; the younger ones were indifferent. But protests started pouring in from gays. What right did I, non-gay, have to make a sculpture on this subject? Why wasn't a black lesbian woman included in the sculpture? Why weren't all the gay groups consulted? The cacophony was shrill, & nowhere was there any mention of freedom of expression or any discussion of delicacy, restraint, regard for fellow human beings, and a long list of values important in my life."


Gay Liberation has had a a bit of a tough life. In 1994, a bunch of frat jocks at Stanford University decided to take out some frustration on an earlier cast of Gay Liberation, which has been installed on the campus since 1984. The vandals, including the championship football team's quarterback & linebacker, were at the center of a national scandal that, ironically, garnered more media attention than any real-life gay-bashing ,short of murder, ever could. The Stanford installation was the first public monument to gays in the USA, & the deeply embarrassed university took the attack seriously. For ramming the sculpture with a park bench & soaking it with paint, the men were prosecuted & sentenced to a year of probation & community service, which the judge suggested ought to include a gay studies class.


Segal: "The statement I tried to make in the sculpture is not a political one. It's rather a human one regarding our common humanity with homosexuals. I'm distressed that disagreement with the statement took this violent, brutal form." In 1987, someone spray-painted "AIDS" on the statue's male couple.


Segal's sculptures of gays, which are on view for the tourists, children & teenagers who visit Greenwich Village & Stanford University each year, are an important contribution to the mainstream works of art & literature that make an extra large affermation to the self esteem of young people who are discovering their sexuality.


Gay Liberation, with its subtly powerful embraces of gay couples, suggests that, rather than the classic stereotypes of loneliness & mental illness that have for too long been falsely associated with being homosexual, a normal, caring relationship with society is within reach. Thank you, George Segal, for your art & your humanity.

WHO DAT?

Bruno Tonioli Turns 55 On This Thanksgiving Day. I Know That I Am Thankful For Gay Italian Dance Judges.

 From the Give Up Clothes for Good campaign to raise money for cancer research.

For me, Dancing With The Stars (always a show that sought to stretch the very definition of the term- STAR) finally really jumped the shark this season. It was the Bristol factor, for sure. I was not happy to share a night of TV viewing with call-in fans who have no fear of celebrating mediocrity. Her mother has followers that support her because: “She is just a regular person. Sarah Palin is just like us.” Excuse me, but I want my leaders to be the brightest of the bright. I don’t want them to be anything like me. I want them to have studied Constitutional Law at Stanford, Yale, Princeton, or Harvard. I want them to have practical experience on many levels… & I want my finalists of DWTS "Stars" to be terrific dancers.



Bruno Tonioli makes the show really just sing out. His critiques make me laugh, but put out with the Italian accent, they reach a whole new sublime level of wit. He used that wit to beat his childhood bullies.


Toniolo was born in Ferrara, northern Italy, the only child of a poor bus & seamstress who also made car upholstery. The family lived with his paternal grandparents until Bruno was 12.


Toniolo: “Other babies learn to stand & then walk. I just danced. At the age of 3 I would leap on the table & dance if I heard music. It was something I had to do, as if my legs were moving for themselves. We didn’t have a television until I was seven but my father loved Fred Astaire & Gene Kelly. I used to watch Hollywood musicals at the cinema & in the evenings I would go to the ballroom & watch my parents dance.”


He also knew from an early age that he was gay, not so easy in macho Italy during the 1960s. Toniolo:“It was frightening. I really was the only gay in the village. Everyone was football mad but I just wanted to watch musicals & look at art. I was labelled ‘the queenie guy’ & ‘the queer’, which was the worst thing anyone could say in Italy in those days.”


Much of the bullying came from the fact that he studied dance. Toniolo: “The really good-looking girls liked to hang around with me because I always danced really well but this made some of the lads jealous. One night they chased me out of a club with a broken bottle & pinned me up against a wall. I managed to chat my way out of it with a bit of wit “imagination but I was very lucky. I realized then I had to reinvent myself. So I grew my hair, started smoking, always wore the latest gear & had the best looking girls as my friends & I became very popular just by putting on an act. Instead of being an object of derision I became an object of admiration so the bullies couldn’t attack me any more.”


He never discussed his sexuality with his parents: “It was not in the realm of things my parents could compute.” Years later they came to stay with him in London when he was living with partner Paul. They were together for 20 years but he now resides alone in North London.


Toniolo believes they knew: “I never had a girlfriend & there were always men hanging around the house. I don’t think they were ashamed but I do think they were worried about what people would think.”


In 1972, when the film version Cabaret was playing, Toniolo saw it many times & it helped him decided to be a performer. His parents refused to send him drama school, & left for Rome to study ballet, & at 18, he moved to Paris to dance with La Grande Eugene Company. 2 years later he moved to London.


In 1983 he appeared in the pop video for Elton John’s hit I’m Still Standing, dancing in a leotard & hot pants. He went on to become a choreographer & did the dancing for the film Absolute Beginners, a favorite of mine, & for music videos, stage shows, & tours for artists such as Tina Turner, Sting, Elton John, The Rolling Stones, Freddie Mercury, Boy George, Duran Dura, & Bananarama. Film credits: Ella Enchanted, The Gathering Storm, Little Voice, Dancin' thru the Dark, Enigma, The Parole Officer & What a Girl Wants.


You look like a crazy bear lost in a swamp.”


“The cha-cha-cha needs a slut.”


About Apolo Ono & Julianne Huff: “They made love on the dance floor!”


"Do you have extra batteries in your pants?”


“You look like you’re riding a bike.”


“Your rumba was so hot, I need an ice bucket.”


“I want you to be a dirty girl.”


 “I want you to push more on the sex and become more dirty.”


To Drew and Cheryl: “You 2 can ride each other like no other!”


“Kristi Yamalicious tonight!”

To Niecy Nash after shaking her stuff during her jive: "There was so much going on on the upper deck, it was hard to look anywhere else."


To Jake Pavelka after he put his pants back on about 2 seconds into his "Risky Business" cha cha: "Jake, you cheeky bugger! Why did you put your pants on?"


To Kate Gosselin on her uber-low energy during her foxtrot: "Dahling, I think Tony could have more life with a frock on a coat hanger."


Another Gosselin zinger (because one is simply not enough): "What you need is a postmortem, not a critique."


To Nicole Scherzinger after a tango (delivered with unbridled enthusiasm while standing up): "2 players at the top of their game! Riding the fine line between love & hate, bursting with sexual tension!"

Born On This Day- November 25th... John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr

The above photograph, torn from People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive 1998 issue, was on my fridge for half a decade before it tuned yellow & brittle. You see, I really loved him. I loved his father & his uncles. I adored his mother. I admire his sister. I do not believe in Monarchy, unless I end up to be the Monarch, but I was fascinated & drawn to our country's close-to-being-royalty. The entire big brood: Shrivers, Bouviers, Radziwills, Smiths, Lawfords. I like to think that most of them were honorable.

I watched him grow up, & then I watched him grow up. I started tearing out photos of him from magazines.

Back in the 1980s, as I saw it, there was a huge cosmic error that I didn't have John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. as my boyfriend. On that summer day in 11 years ago, his tragic death knocked the wind out me & at first I didn't believe it was true, & then I actually grieved, cried & felt sick.  He was a lawyer, a publisher & I pilot. He would have been 50 years old today. Can you even conceive of how hot he still would have been? Can you imagine what he might have achieved?

My Screen Goes Dark

I love reading other blogs & getting to know interesting, opinionated people from around the world. Even a decade ago, I never would have imagined a world like the one we live in today. We are all so connected & yet so hostile to anyone who is seen as different. Despite all the knowledge at our fingertips, we continue to live on a planet torn apart by religious fanaticism, fellow humans killing each other, passing laws & attempting to make life miserable for those that they find contrary.

I write these words as I agonize over the fact that my beloved laptop is dying. When I open the applications, the screen is often to0 dark to read or see the cursor. My 6 year old Dell XPS M1210 will finally open with a clear view about every 15th try. I tried not turning it off, but it will sometimes go dark while I am using it.

The Resume Photo Of Your Host a 25 Years Ago.

Composing & posting on Post Apocalyptic Bohemian gives me clarity, helps me work out my priorities & just plain makes me happy. That anyone reads it seems like a little miracle to me. I may soon loose the amazing device that opens the world to me. This scares & confuses your bohemian host. If I loose you for a while, dear readers, it is not by choice, I am not ignoring you, & I will miss reading you & I will miss you checking in on me. A new computer seems close to impossible at the moment, but I am always up for a miracle. They have touched me before.

Thankful

My tea's gone cold, I'm wondering why

I got out of bed at all

The morning rain clouds up my window

& I can't see at all

& even if I could it'd all be grey,

but your picture on my wall

It reminds me that it's not so bad,

it's not so bad

I drank too much last night, got bills to pay,

my head just feels in pain

I missed the bus & there'll be hell today,

I'm late for work again

& even if I'm there, they'll all imply

that I might not last the day

& then you call me & it's not so bad,

it's not so bad &

I want to thank you

for giving me the best day of my life

Oh just to be with you

is having the best day of my life

Push the door, I'm home at last

& I'm soaking through and through

Then you hand me a towel

& all I see is you

& even if my house falls down,

I wouldn't have a clue

Because you're near me &

I want to thank you

for giving me the best day of my life

Oh just to be with you

is having the best day of my life

Dido

 2001

Melina Velba Breast Milking

Alejandra Duarte: Consciousness released

The photographic work, "Portrait Collection" Alejandro Duarte, playing with that aura of truth that wraps the photographic image. Constantly plays with the image you want to offer herself. His portrait and the dream that we produced through the modification and manipulation, it seduces us while we distort you into believing that it encompasses everything we see.

Thanks to this game, subjectivity and objectivity has become pieces of construction / deconstruction of our reality. Our look is the way we measure is actually the way through which we establish close relationships and intimacy. We position ourselves emotionally to the image from the interpretation of our eyes makes it only stopped when we think that Alexandra is real.

His pictures tell stories that deal specifically with the inner state of being, is a work of introspection, to become aware of our body and mind as to the immensity of the universe. Alejandra takes us to a world of sensations, perceptions, tastes, smells, memories, childhood, desires, fantastic landscapes where each visitor is the protagonist of his own fantasies.

Duarte The photographic image is taken as a painter, in the end it is illusory, artificial, ie a mental recreation of the artist by virtue of its materialization photo also confronts us with the aesthetic criteria beauty and truth. Alejandra investigates the power of our mind, because without a doubt is what defines what is real to us, telling us what is important and which significantly changes the meaning of things. Thus, his work is more painterly than photographic urges us to see only what you really want to see.

" The picture I drew from the outset to be a medium that creates spaces, areas, relationships that would otherwise never exist. For me, a means to discover and explore both the visual and inner world of human beings around me, and of course mine, its continuous wave, changing landscapes, its contradictions ... I greatly enjoy doing portraits.

I have worked with all types of analog and digital cameras, from small to large format dark laboratory Partly, I learned to control all the way to the final copy and so I managed to materialize the images that pop into my mind . "

Ultimately, their work frees us and drags us into the inner world of feelings and emotions, the paradise of the subconscious, from which the real and unexpected impressions of our being. They are images that arise during the silence, moved by the sight of the diversity that surrounds us, in the search for self-consciousness, to understand what is real to us and what is not.

Melina Velba Breast Milking

Alejandra Duarte: Consciousness released

The photographic work, "Portrait Collection" Alejandro Duarte, playing with that aura of truth that wraps the photographic image. Constantly plays with the image you want to offer herself. His portrait and the dream that we produced through the modification and manipulation, it seduces us while we distort you into believing that it encompasses everything we see.

Thanks to this game, subjectivity and objectivity has become pieces of construction / deconstruction of our reality. Our look is the way we measure is actually the way through which we establish close relationships and intimacy. We position ourselves emotionally to the image from the interpretation of our eyes makes it only stopped when we think that Alexandra is real.

His pictures tell stories that deal specifically with the inner state of being, is a work of introspection, to become aware of our body and mind as to the immensity of the universe. Alejandra takes us to a world of sensations, perceptions, tastes, smells, memories, childhood, desires, fantastic landscapes where each visitor is the protagonist of his own fantasies.

Duarte The photographic image is taken as a painter, in the end it is illusory, artificial, ie a mental recreation of the artist by virtue of its materialization photo also confronts us with the aesthetic criteria beauty and truth. Alejandra investigates the power of our mind, because without a doubt is what defines what is real to us, telling us what is important and which significantly changes the meaning of things. Thus, his work is more painterly than photographic urges us to see only what you really want to see.

" The picture I drew from the outset to be a medium that creates spaces, areas, relationships that would otherwise never exist. For me, a means to discover and explore both the visual and inner world of human beings around me, and of course mine, its continuous wave, changing landscapes, its contradictions ... I greatly enjoy doing portraits.

I have worked with all types of analog and digital cameras, from small to large format dark laboratory Partly, I learned to control all the way to the final copy and so I managed to materialize the images that pop into my mind . "

Ultimately, their work frees us and drags us into the inner world of feelings and emotions, the paradise of the subconscious, from which the real and unexpected impressions of our being. They are images that arise during the silence, moved by the sight of the diversity that surrounds us, in the search for self-consciousness, to understand what is real to us and what is not.

Born On This Day- November 23rd... Bruce Vilanch

Large, Jewish, hairy & very funny, Bruce Vilanch has rarely been seen in public wearing anything more formal than blue jeans and one of his many smartass T-shirts. His own website calls himself- "the man who put F U in funny."

 

Vilanch's career as the man who writes funny things for funny people to say began when he was writing celebrity features for The Chicago Tribune, & schmoozing with whatever celebrities or semi-celebrities were in town. It was there that he met then-struggling nightclub singer Bette Midler, & the pair became fast friends. It was Vilanch who gave Midler some helpful career advice: "You’re pretty funny. You should talk more onstage". He wrote for Midler's 1974 Broadway show, Clams on the Half Shell, then moved to Los Angeles to write for The Brady Bunch Variety Hour. When that show ended, Vilanch wrote jokes for anyone who'd hire him, including Lily Tomlin, Billy Crystal, Roseanne Barr, Rosie O'Donnell, Paul Reiser, Elizabeth Taylor, & Robin Williams. He wrote Midler's Divine Madness act of 1980 & has been the Oscar Broadcast head writer, pulling off quips backstage, on the fly. Vilanch is a notable “script doctor”, who is brought in to punch up other writer’s screenplays. A prolific comedy writer, his resume includes classics like The Paul Lynde Halloween Special, The Star Wars Holiday Special & The Brady Bunch Hour, plus numerous awards shows, including several Emmy winning gigs with the Oscars.


He was head writer & a panelist on Hollywood Squares for 4 years, writing gags for the other panelists while his friend & client Whoopi Goldberg ran the show. Vilanch has also toured as Edna Turnblad in stage productions of Hairspray, shaving off his trademark 30 year old beard. A 1999 documentary, Get Bruce, chronicled Vilanch's day to day life. He has the amazing distinction of having acted in Mahogany & Ice Pirates. Vilanch works tirelessly for gay rights.

Break ins/Christmas

Yeah, the title explains it all. I figured combine 2 blogs into 1. Last night, me, my dad and sister were finishing the movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas and that's when we heard someone opening the screen door. And from living at the same house for 20 years, I've grown quite accustomed to the sounds of that door. And less than a minute later, I heard someone trying to break the door down! Nobody realizes how scary that is! Someone was actually trying to break in! My dad called the cops because he was concerned. 10 minutes later the cops show up and they take a statement from my dad. They also say that they have been getting numerous reports about people being seen in the woods behind me and my neighbor's houses, in fact one house up the street I have a neighbor who says he's missing quite a few power tools and he thinks someone broke into his house when no one was home and stole them. And I'm really worried about this. I mean, what if someone breaks into my house even if the doors are locked?


Ah yes, Christmas is once again approaching. It seems as though it gets here quicker and quicker every year. I'm happy because I'm able to buy something for my dad, sister, step-dad, and mom. But the thing I love knowing is that Christmas isn't about the gifts, or the decorations, or the bargain sales at the stores. For all the lovely church going people, here's something for you: you probably know this, but Christmas is about the birth of Christ for God's sake! It's not about how much you can spend, how many gifts you can buy, how much the gifts are worth, none of that matters. The thing that truly matters is being surrounded by family, sharing special moments. In past years, I've felt like "What's the point of celebrating Christmas when everyone is so completely consumed by greed?" I mean, it's hard to try and tell people what the true meaning is, but they just don't listen. And sometimes I hear on the news about how people will get trampled to death just because some parent was buying an expensive game system for their kid that probably deserves a good smack upside the head, do these kids realize we're in a depression? It's like the Great Depression 2010, people are losing their homes, people are losing their jobs, people can barely afford to put food on the table, support a family, or pay bills, but you got these families out there buying their kids expensive crap they don't need. If I were any of those kids' parents and they came to me saying "I want a Wii system" or "I want an ipod Nano", I'd simply tell them "You want that game system or ipod? Go out, get a job and pay for it yourself, because I'm not doing it." Because, I'm a young adult and I may not be a parent, but I know plenty of people who are parents and they would probably say something similar to this. I'm just tired of hearing about the so called Christmas Greed, all I hear kids say nowadays is "I want this" or "I want that". I'm really glad I'm not like this, if I want something, I go out, get a job and pay for it myself. If I do it that way, I'll appreciate it more, that's the magic of hard work.

Born On This Day- November 22nd... Composer Benjamin Britten

I do not have a driving passion for “serious” music, symphonic work, coral pieces or what is blanketed as “classical music. I am interested in Benjamin Britten, one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, because his story is also one of the great loves stories of the last 100 years & because he was working during a golden age of gay, mostly American & British compser who all knew & fed off of each others artistic energy: Aaaron Copeland, Virgil Thomas, Paul Bowles, Samual Barber, & Leonard Bernstein. Britten composed a series of masterpieces ranging from works for solo piano, oboe & cello, to pieces for chamber ensemble, to concertos & compositions for orchestras both tiny & monumental, even a full ballet. His vocal works encompass folksong arrangements to several song cycles setting poetry by Michelangelo, William Blake, W.H. Auden among others, to the great choral masterpiece, War Requiem. The form for which he is best known is opera: Peter Grimes is arguably one of the most powerful musical dramas of the last century, & he wrote at least 5 other landmark operas that are a part of the major Opera companies' repertory.

The extraordinary tenor- Peter Pears, was Britten's musical partner, life partner & muse. Britten wrote many of his greatest vocal works, from his song cycles to his finest operas, specifically for Pears & his unique & expressive voice. Pears seems a man who has found the acceptance that eluded Britten; in a way, the always present yearning that is a major defining element of Britten's music (he does yearning better than any composer since the also gay Tchaikovsky) is resolved in Pears's comfort with his life & Britten's death. Pears & Britten were understandably reticent to talk being gay, they had lived in a Britain where sodomy carried a career & life destroying prison sentence. It was an era where they were forced to hide their love.


Benjamin Britten visited North America in the spring 1939, & found more than he hoped for. He came from Britain to perform & present some of his compositions in Canada & the USA. It was planned as a relatively short trip, but ended up lasting several years. War broke out in Europe while he was away, & he not to come back to England. Britten was 26 years old, & he would have had to enlist in the military in some form (he returned to England in 1942 & claimed conscientious objector status).


During this visit, Britten & his traveling companion, the tenor Peter Pears, started the love affair that lasted 40+ years, until Britten died in 1976. There is a hotel room in Grand Rapids, MI, that is a place of pilgrimage for gay musicians, where they supposedly consummated their union. Pears wrote later: "I shall never forget a certain night in Grand Rapid. Ich liebe dich, io t’amo, jeg elske dyg, je t’aime, in fact, my little white-thighed beauty, I’m terribly in love with you." How mushy, but Britten was a Brit, & of course his legs were probably very white.

Pears with Britten at the piano

The Britten/ Pears had gay “marriage” that gave life to some of the most magnificent music of the century. Homosexuality was altogether prohibited in England at the time. Still, in a letter to Pears in 1943, Britten writes to a traveling Pears: "Think of all the other married couples who are separated for ever so much longer!" When Britten died, a decade after the repeal of the buggery laws, Queen Elizabeth sent condolences to Pears under the thinly veiled guise of sharing sympathy with "a representative of all who had worked with Lord Britten."


This prohibition of homosexuality is partly responsible for Britten's monument of the 20th century music, the opera Peter Grimes, whose conception started 2 years into the Britten/Pears relationship. It's during the US trip that George Crabbe's poem- The Borough, was pointed out to Britten, & became the inspiration for the opera. The libretto gives us a Grimes not as a murderer, but an outsider, alienated from the life of his fishing village which rejects him, as Britten's homosexuality had isolated him growing up in the conservative seaside.

Britten was recognized as a gifted composer all through his life. He won the only scholarship offered by the Royal College of Music in 1930, at 17. The following year he met W. H. Auden with whom he collaborated on the song cycle Our Hunting Fathers, radical both in politics & musical direction, & other works. Of more lasting importance was his meeting in 1936 with the tenor Peter Pears, who was to become his musical collaborator & inspiration as well as the partner with whom he was to spend the rest of his life. In early 1939, the pair followed Auden to the USA. There Britten composed Paul Bunyan, his 1st opera, with a libretto by Auden, as well as the 1st of many song cycles for Pears.


The Britten/Pears returned to England in 1942, Britten completing the choral works- Hymn to Saint Cecilia, his last collaboration with Auden, & A Ceremony of Carols during the long voyage. He had already begun work on his opera Peter Grimes, & the premiere at Sadler's Wells in 1945 was his greatest success so far. Britten was encountering opposition from sectors of the English musical establishment & he withdrew from the London scene, founding the English Opera Group in 1947 & the Aldeburgh Festival the following year, partly to showcase his own works.


Peter Grimes marked the start of a series of operas, including Billy Budd (1951) & The Turn of the Screw (1954). These operas share common themes, with the theme of the 'outsider' particularly prevalent. Most feature such a character, excluded or misunderstood by society.


In the last decade of his life, Britten suffered from  bad health & depression. His late works became progressively more sparse in texture,including the opera- Death in Venice (1973),


Having previously refused a knighthood, Britten accepted a life peerage in July 1976 as Baron Britten, of Aldeburgh in the County of Suffolk. A few months later he died of heart failure at his house in Aldeburgh. He is buried in the churchyard there.

Jeff Buckley doing Britten...

Racism

Yes, the title says it all. This blog is to see if anyone out there is against racism like I am. On Sunday, me, my dad and sister went to Traders World, that big flea market, to see a friend, she's this real nice black lady that I've known for all my life. She's the world's nicest person. Anyway, since we know her, every time we see her, we hug her and say it's good to see her. Well, obviously this didn't fly well with the countrified locals and this white guy gives me and my family a dirty look, he must have thought that it was a crime to hug someone of a different skin color. I thought we were all past the skin color issue. I mean, it's not 1950s anymore, it's 2010.


I'm the kind of person who looks past skin color, race, ethnicity, etc. I have friends who are of different ethnic groups and I look past that, I don't see them as Italian, black, Latino, etc. I see them as friends, buddies, etc. I just can't see what the big deal about having family/friends who are supposedly "different". I look at it this way-- having someone of another ethnic group/race exposes you to another of the fascinating cultures of our diverse world. I mean, I can barely stand it when I visit my aunt Lois and uncle Justin start talking bad about other people because of the way they look, their physical appearance,etc. And in high school, don't get me started. Guys wanting to be like the rap singers openly use the N word to describe friends, sorry but you don't use ethnic/racial slurs to describe friends, and when it comes to other words, teens today use the word Gay to say stupid. You don't use the word Gay to say that someone/something is stupid, it only makes yourself sound stupid. I hate when people turn things around to make something sound cooler to them, but makes them sound like they have no IQ. Because last time I checked, the term Gay meant someone who likes someone of the same sex, and homosexual is a less mean term.


If this were the 1950s, I'd be called a whole bunch of bad names because quite a few of my buddies are black, but I don't see it that way, hypothetically if someone were to ask me what it's like having black friends, I'd simply tell them, they're not my black friends, they're my friends. I don't see any of that racial/ethnic crap that some may see. You wonder how I got on this topic, the above mentioned event got me started, and plus, having an aunt who openly uses racial slurs is ridiculous. She doesn't like anyone, whenever she talks about someone, she almost puts them into a separate group, she doesn't like anyone of Italian descent, Asian descent, Latino descent, African descent. I try to put it into the least offensive way. But I can't just sit here and listen to people bad mouth others because of something simple as being of another ethnic group. If I see/hear someone insulting someone based on race in public, I will come right out and tell them it isn't right.


But it just isn't right, seeing people face injustice because of how they appear. I'm the kind of person who believes in treating everyone with respect and dignity and that means everyone, no matter how they appear. And I think Rodney King said this, "Why can't we all just get along?" And in the "I Have a Dream" speech, Martin Luther King believed in a world united, and somehow, he gets shot for believing in a world where blacks and whites and everyone lives together peacefully. I just don't understand the mindset of some people, how some people can be complete a--holes to people because of how they appear. Wake up people! It's 2010, not 1950s anymore. So just get over your racist attitudes and get over it!

Jake or Jake?

I am having a particularly lovely, low key Sunday. The Husband has watched A Summer Place & Hitchcock's Suspicion, leaving me to consider People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive Issue. Although I am a fan of Mr. Reynolds, to really appreciate his talents he needs to be showing his nipples. I find a variety of men, of different ages & body types, attractive & sexy. On this late autumn cold & rainy Sunday, I am trying to decide between my 2 favorite Jakes. Which Jake would you take? If you were forced to choose just one... Gyllenhaal or Shears?