Born On This Day- March 31st... America's Only Left-Handed, Gay, Jewish Congressman

I love him for his ire & for his wit. I think he is a true American Hero. For the 1st time in 40 years, Barney Frank yields real power now & he is wielding it in a characteristically idiosyncratic manner. He remains a national symbol of outré sexuality as well as a rare wit in humor deficient Washington.

Barney Frank on being harassed by Tea Party members: ''More than one. My partner, Jim, & I were walking from… it was a nice day! We walked from one House office building to another. There was a great deal of shouting, you know, waving of fists & signs, & sort of people getting very close & yelling. & a number of the comments were homophobic... really, sadness. As Jim said, we're adults… I haven't really got a lot of respect for these people, to be honest. So, who cares what they say to me? But you do have to think about it. I'm serious about this, this bullying in junior & high school. It's a big problem. What occurs to me is, there are kids all over the country watching this, not as a game but as real life. Watching so-called respectable politicians cheering them on, & that was just discouraging, that at this point in our history, we couldn't have a rational debate with these kind of thug tactics that were being used.''


On coming out to himself, Frank says he realized he was gay when he was 13 years old: "I was aware when I was 11 and 12 that my sexual feelings were different than the other guys'. But I thought I was just a little slow to get those feelings. & then it just hit me like a thunderbolt one day. It was terrifying and emotionally very devastating."


Frank attended Harvard, & graduated in 1962. he then taught undergraduates while pursuing a Ph.D. He left in 1968 before completing the degree in order to work as Boston Mayor Kevin White's chief assistant. In 1972, Frank won a seat in the State Legislature. The following year, he introduced the state's first two gay rights bills.


In 1980, Pope John Paul II ordered all Roman Catholic priests to withdraw from electoral politics. Father Robert Drinan, who represented the Fourth Congressional District in Massachusetts, complied. More than a dozen local politicians eyed the seat. Frank narrowly won the election. His slogan was "Neatness Isn't Everything," a reference to his rumpled wardrobe.


In 1987, Frank became the first congressman to voluntarily announce his homosexuality publicly.


In 1989, Frank found himself in a major scandal. Four years earlier, Frank had engaged the services of a male escort named Stephen Gobie. Frank later hired Gobie as a driver despite knowing that he was on probation. Frank also used his House privileges to waive Gobie's parking tickets. When Frank discovered that Gobie was running a prostitution service out of his Capitol Hill apartment, he fired him. Gobie responded by telling his story to the news media. Attempts to expel or censure Frank, led by members of the House Ethics Committee who included Rep. Larry Craig, failed. Frank initially decided not to seek reelection in 1990; however, he changed his mind & would win with 66 percent of the vote. He won reelection in 2008 with 70% f the vote.

Frank resides in a studio apartment in Newton, Massachusetts. His partner, Jim Ready, is a surfing enthusiast whom Frank met during a gay political fundraiser in Maine, where Ready still lives.

You're So Vein

I have always admired actors who play doctors on TV shows. They are required to create an engaging character while spewing medical jargon. George Clooney claimed that on ER, he would learn entire paragraphs phonetically & wouldn't actually know what his character was talking about. Mr. Clooney, great & charismatic leading man that he is, seems to not be a method actor intent on doing his “homework”. I say good for him.


I learned some new terms today, including this whopper- "MASSIVE DEEP VENOUS THROMBOSIS: a large blood clot in a major vein. Small pieces of the blood clot can break off & travel to the lungs, causing breathing problems, or to the heart, causing arrhythmia." Sweet!

It started several weeks ago, with Ryan Reynolds finding a thumb size lump on the back of my left calf, while he was taking my pants off; although it is difficult to remember the details through my Vicodin haze.

On Saturday morning I had trouble negotiating the 2 block walk from the MAX train stop to my job. By Sunday I was in profound pain (7.5 out of 10 on the Steve Scream & Whimper Scale). Monday morning, I was no longer capable of walking & I finally went to a physician. She ordered an MRI & an ultrasound, both scheduled for later in the week. I couldn’t make it. This morning the pain was even more intense & my left leg was twice the size of normal, & the Husband whisks me off to the ER. He dropped me off & went off to do some important errands as I worked my way through the labyrinth of paper work, medical history & insurance questions... when does this new Socialized Medicine thing kick in?


Dr. Vincent Torres, late 20s, short, handsome, Latin...a dreamboat, gave me the diagnosis & the bad news about the treatment: “I am immediately putting you on blood thinners to stop the clotting. You will need to give yourself an injection in your stomach for the next 10 days, but Colleen (who drew my blood earlier) says this might be a bit of a problem for you."

I was equal parts frightened & dumbstruck. I have lived into my mid-50s with a lifelong profound phobia of syringes & hypodermic needles. I can watch someone get their head cut off by a chainsaw in a film & not flinch, but I can not be in the same room with a needle/syringe & not pass out. It always embarrassed my mother, who is a medical professional. It has embarrassed the Husband who has been witness to this horror, having once been summoned from the waiting room by a doctor after I slid off a gurney & into an unconscious puddle of neurosis on the hallway floor of a clinic, after receiving a flu shot. I even embarrassed myself when the vet sat a syringe on the counter & then left the room while my dog was getting vaccinated. The animal doc returned to the small room to find a Jack Russell licking an unconscious daddy who had caught a glance of the offending needle.

Dr. Torres, he of the flashing dark brown eyes, suggested a 1 week hospital stay when I explained that giving myself an injection was not a possibility. I answered that I found it doubtful that my insurance would pay for time in the hospital, especially when we would have to factor in the private room, morphine drip &, movies on demand, & the pizza deliveries. The doctor asked if there was anyone in my life that could possibly do the twice daily shots, & I thought- “hmmm, isn't that what husbands are for?”


Me: “He should be in the ER waiting room, Dr. Yummy. He is my Husband & he would be the tall, thin one with silver hair… & he is handsome." 3 minutes later the good doctor returns with the Husband, although I would have settled for anyone with that description. The Husband was given my diagnosis by Dr. Torres, although I suspected that he was making note the young physician’s tight little body in his scrubs.


We were made to watch a video on the drug & how to give the injections. My head started spinning during the 3rd minute of the gruesome video. We were finally sent home with a pile of discharge papers with language that would flummox even the Cary Grant of our era- Mr. George Clooney.

Just as many botanical names now trip me up, I am going to use the common name, & admit to suffering from a large blood clot in my left leg.  A week + of hanging out & eating pain killers might seem like just my sort of time off… but I am not happy &  I am just a little scared. The Husband seems just a little too gleeful about giving me those 2 shots a day.

Chapter One of my Movie Idea for James Cameron.

I think it'll really tickle his fancy.

Once upon a time there was a tall guy who was a waiter but also he could fly. Sometimes on days when the restaurant was super devilishly busy, he would fly just a little bit- like an inch high or something- so that he could get the food to the people who wanted the food really fast but nobody saw him flying not even his parents. Then he got good tips.

Except once when a very ugly girl saw him hovering auspiciously and she said, "Hey waiter! You are flying! How are you doing that? Also, I want some deep fried pickles and hey, maybe a strawberry milkshake." Because after all, she was there for lunch. So he said, "Hey, I don't know what you're talking about, I'm not even able to fly because that would be impossible to the laws of physics and biotic sciences, but I will get you those pickles faster than a bolt of thunder from a storm of speed" but he was lying because he really was secretly flying before but then just landed when the girl said that she saw him (to throw her off his trail) and sometimes he had to lie to protect his hidden identity of someone who can also fly besides being a great waiter. Sometimes also, he flew in front of people a little bit, but then just said he was faking it like Kris Angel.

So then the girl told her best friend who was there too for a while, that that guy was flying food around before and her friend, Jan-eese, said that she didn't believe her wanton claim of flying waiters. The gril was very frustrated because she deeply believed in what she saw. It was truer to her than a million suns of roasting heat, burnishing in her soul.

Then she went up to the flying waiter and said secretly to him that she knew he could fly and that she wouldn't tell anyone else and besides, Jan-eese didn't even believe her and now they were not even best friends anymore because true friends belive there friends no matter what. His mind was shcoaked and awed by her compassionate words of astute tenderness. Nobody ever told him that they would keep it a secret before and he knew he could trust her because of the deep pools of applicable truth he saw deep deep deep in her feminine eyes.

She took off her glasses and shook her head until her golden summery hair fell out of its updo and unbuttoned her shirt two buttons and hiked up her skirt a little, slipping into high heels instead of boring sneakers and then he finally saw that she was suddenly more attractive because he hadn't seen it before because of all the glasses and things disguising her beauty like a hidden leprechaun of winsomeness.


He held her in his brawny, tanned, shirtless arms and said, "It's just us now."
"We're in this together", she said back.
"Forever.", he said after she said her line.
"Always.", she said breathlessly and luridly. And then she gave him an orange that she had.
"Until all the eternal forests fall from the firey death of silver sorrow" He said right into her face.
"Until all deserts fade from the views of winged eagles", she said

Then Meatloaf burst through the wall on his gallant motorcyle and sang, "I would do anything for love" and they slowdanced, ignoring the whole world and all the customers except for Meatloaf. Then he stayed and actually ate some real meatloaf because it was the special of the day.

The mysterious and tall waiter grabbed her face tenderly like a horse-master lovingly stirs toward the face of his prized horse and told her....

"Come with me, I want to show you something." And then they went to the closet at the restaurant and she said, "Wait, are you going to show me your crotch?" and he said no so she said ok. Then he lifted a mysterious bottle of ketchup and the roof in the closet opened and they could fly away in protected secrecy. He gripped her arm and they flew up to the clouds of wondrous strangement and she wasn't even heavy.

"How are you doing this?", she yelled because it was windy and loud and she had to speak up.
"WHAT?" he said because she still couldn't hear her.
"WHY CAN YOU FLY?", she yelled right into his ear so that he could hear her this time. Then he said he didn't know but that her hair was so jaw droppingly windblown and he always wanted to make out with someone with windblown tendrils of blonden locks.

Then he was only wearing skintight jeans, so then she was like, "O.K." and then when they were over the pearly waves of the ocean, they made out passionately and then they saw dolphins jump into heart formations with the spray from their dolphin blowholes spraying into their faces and their wind blown and tangled hair tangling together in tangles of fervish ferver and then she said that she never made out with anyone like that before and he said he knew that. He didn't really know it for sure but it seemed true, he didn't want to hurt his new girlfriend's feelings so he agreed to himself to just let it go. Also his name was Justyn. Then they fed the dolphins some fish that they remembered to bring from the restaurant.

Then they combed out their tangles while they sat on a rock on an island in the ocean that nobody could get to unless they could fly or had access to a helicopter or were really good at parachute landing and decided that they should have a picnic on top of the Eiffle tower the next night. So then he said to meet him in this very spot at 5 pm and they would go so she said ok after they argued about who had to make the picnic. And then they had to go back to their fake lives for the rest of the day.

Then at five o clock, he waited on the rock. He waited and waited but she never showed up. He thought that she must have changed her mind about their love and his heart broke and he said, "Cruel fate! You've taken my love from me. You're forced me into the dark crevice of headlong despair! WHY? WHY was I so selfish about her making the picnic??!? I must throw my body against the rocks of time!" and then he threw himself into the ocean where an octopus ate his legs off, which it turns out he needed for balance when he was flying after all. But really she didn't show up because they forgot that she needed to be able to fly to even get there.

Poor Arlene (That's the girl's name. Arlene.) watched helplessly from the shore, unable to get his attention because she caught tonsillitis that afternoon and couldn't yell loud enough. She ran home as fast as she could and got her seadoo and jumped into the ocean and saved Justyn's life. "I'm sure you'll be able to fly again! They can make a prosthetic jetpack... we'll invent a hover wheelchair" she said. But he just flopped around cermonically unable to find his center. Finally he looked deeply into her eyes and stroked her cheek with his looooooong fingers and said, "Arlene, you are the apple of my life. I will... never.... forget..." and he slipped into a mysterious and dark coma. Then the octopus that ate Justyn's legs tried to jump on her and eat her legs too because he'd been introduced to the fleshy taste of human legs and he LIKED it. So she punched him and all of the sudden she had super strength from being traumatized. That's how it worked, the shock of seeing her flightman crash against the waves released the secret brain chemical into her blood system that gave her super strength and the octopus flew a hundred miles, landing on the deck of the cantankerous Captain Conjuction (to be played by James Woods).....

To be ctd. in Chapter Two where they escape to the Alaskan wilderness and she decides to give Justyn her very own legs.

Yeah. I don't know why you read this , either.

Every Day Is Like Sunday

1. I sent an email to the husband dripping with irony. This message was interpreted very badly & was replied to with incredible frustration by the Husband. This makes me feel guilty & sad.


2. I have a lump on the back of my left calf the size a thumb. Not only does it hurt to walk, but I am experiencing numbing pain almost constantly. This makes me worry.


3. I can’t get in to see my physician until May 6th. The closest Urgent Care clinics covered by my insurance are in another state or another county, with a deductible of $125, which when you are broke is as big an “ouch” as the leg. This makes me feel helpless.


4. While giving my canine- Larry a massage this morning, I found him to be riddled with lumps & fatty tumors. Like all my dogs, Larry is a rescue animal & we don’t really know his true age; he is very possible 14/15 years old. Under the new austerity program, we can’t really do a lot for him. This makes me impossibly sad.


5. Yesterday was 65 & sunny & full of hope. Today is cold & rainy & I feel like I am holding on by a thread. This makes me feel blue.


6. Sunday is usually a day off for me. I am working 10 hours. This makes me feel grouchy.


7. After 9 years with my company, I had my first disagreement & tough words with my boss on Wednesday. This makes me feel queasy.


8. I have lost my appetite of late. I can only eat the smallest amounts of food before feeling that food is yucky. This makes me happy, but concerned.


9. I feel I will run out of ideas for posts on Post Apocalyptic Bohemian. This freaks me out.


10. My friend & fellow blogger- mrpennee  has received news that his spouse- R Man has a tumor on his lung. This makes me feel helpless to cheer him up, especially when I am being such a downer on this rainy Sunday.


Some standards meant to cheer a guy up, hey… it wasn’t called the great depression for nothin’:
Happy Days Are Here Again

Looking on the Bright Side
Lucky Day
Sunshine
Best Things in Life Are Free
My Blackbirds Are Bluebirds Now
Spread a Little Happiness
Singin' in the Rain
Painting the Clouds With Sunshine
Keep Your Sunny Side Up
On the Sunny Side of the Street
Happy Feet
Sunny Days
Smile, Darn Ya, Smile
Today I Feel So Happy
Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries
Clouds Will Soon Roll By,
Letting in the Sunshine
There's a New Day Coming
When You've Got a Little Springtime in Your Heart
Pennies from Heaven
Things Are Looking Up
With a Smile and a Song
Look for the Silver Lining

Happy Birthday To Lady Gaga!

“Bless God & bless the gays"

Freddie Mercury & Madonna had a love child & they named her Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. She spent summers with her Aunties- David Bowie & Elton John & the Holidays with her Grandma Cher. She attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart, & New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied the fine art of media buzz, how to give gay men something to talk about & how to produce hard to resist dance music. She took her moniker from the Queen song- Radio Gaga. She is the 1st great Dadist of the 21st century... She is Gaga & she is Dada. Not everyone on my circle agrees with me, but I think she is super talented; I find that it is quite fine for a musical artist to be a great showman & entertainer. I am after all, a Liberace fan! Lady Gaga turns an astonishing 24 years old today.



"The turning point for me was the gay community. I've got so many gay fans & they're so loyal to me & they really lifted me up. They'll always stand by me & I'll always stand by them. It's not an easy thing to create a fanbase… I love you so much. You were my first heartbeat, & your support & brilliance means the world to me. I will always fight with the gay community hand in hand”

You Gotta Have Friends

I rarely mention my job on Post Apocalyptic Bohemian. I am the store director for a Portland institution- a deluxe gourmet food-to-go emporium, now in its 31st year. I do the hiring, training, & maintaining of a staff of fifteen 20-30 year olds, & I buy the candy & wine. I love my work, but on occasion, it becomes “the job that ate my life”.

Even while working 25 hours during the 2 weekend days, I was still able to thoroughly enjoy a visit from my friend MGC.


MGC & I have been friends for 36+ years. We attended college together, & with no planning (& not because of each other), we have lived in 3 different cities together at the same time. In all that time, including living together at one point, & despite having once been in love with the same man at the same time, MGC & I have never had a fight, disagreement or intrigue. We will go a while, even a couple of years, without communicating, but we always come back to each other. He is handsome, lovely of disposition, a bit reticent around other people, keen, spiritual, & possesses extraordinarily beautiful penmanship & housekeeping skills. He has a great sense of adventure while also being a man of restraint & moderation. In many ways… he is my opposite. Is that why we stay friends? Does a modest man need a hedonist for some balance?

MGC had met a member of the Portland band- Sneakin’ Out at a social function in Seattle & wanted to see them perform. This outrageously talented musical outfit often plays at a venue in walking distance of Post Apocalyptic Bohemia. The Husband & I have seen them perform, including an amazing gig opening for k.d. lang, playing Rhapsody In Blue with Thomas Lauderdale (of Pink Martini) on piano, & the band playing the orchestra’s part on mandolin, bass & wood blocks, typewriter, children’s xylophone & assorted other objects. Sneakin’ Out combines astounding musicianship paired with a really nutty sense of humor. Among the cover versions at Friday night’s show were the Green Hornet Theme & Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb. They seem to specialize in Beatle covers, including doing Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in its entirety. I have always really dig their lush sound, but now I am determined to become a groupie, & not just because they are so sexy.

Junior looking for his Daddy to come home. Photo by MGC

This morning, MGC sent me this photo from his Iphone, a device that MGC seems to think is of more use & more fun than a boyfriend. He loved showing it off, & I have to admit to having a bit of a crush on it myself. The Iphone can identify music playing in public place, give real time MAX train arrivals, scan bar codes for consumer info, cruise the internet, link to email accounts, take photos & videos, & fart. The only “ap” it seems to be missing is kissing & oral sex.

Saturdays

Come Saturday morning

I'm going away with my friend

We'll Saturday-spend 'til the end of the day

Just me & my friend

We'll travel for miles in our Saturday smiles

& then we'll move on

But we will remember

Long after Saturday's gone

Come Saturday morning

I'm going away with my friend

We’ll Saturday-laugh more than half of the day

Just me & my friend

Dressed up in our rings & our Saturday things

& then we'll move on

But we will remember

Long after Saturday's gone

Dorey Previn

From The Sterile Cuckoo

1970

From The Post Apocalyptic Archives

Saturday Birthday Role Call: 2 American Classics Share A Birthday

"Nobody gets anything for nothing."

Gloria Josephine May Swanson made her film debut was in 1915, as an extra in The Fable of Elvira & Farina & the Meal Ticket. Her last acting role was in the television horror film- Killer Bees (1974,) although she also appeared as herself in the groundbreaking film- Airport 1975; in between Gloria Swanson signed with Cecil B. DeMille in 1919, & he turned her into a romantic lead. In 1922, she was paired with Rudolph Valentino in Beyond the Rocks. Swanson's 1929 film Queen Kelly, was directed by Erich von Stroheim & produced by her lover Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., the father of President John F. Kennedy.

When Swanson starred in the 1950 film- Sunset Boulevard, it is scenes of Queen Kelly that her character, Norma Desmond, is watching & von Stroheim plays her butler in the Billy Wilder classic. Her performance is astounding.

This photo of Gloria Swanson standing in the rubble of the newly demolished Roxy Theatre in NYC is the seed of the idea & the inspiration of Stephen Sondheim's 1971 musical- Follies.






Sarah Vaughan possessed a glorious alto voice that was so heavenly that she became known as The Divine One.




She was a Grammy winner The National Endowment for the Arts presented her the highest honor in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award. Sarah sang & recorded from 1942 until her diagnosis of lung cancer in 1989.

Happy Birthday To One Of My Favorites- Austin Pendelton

My first professional role was as Motel the tailor in Fiddler on The Roof, in one of the very first non-Broadway/non-touring company productions of this warhorse. Austin Pendleton was the first performer to play the part, in which he had one of the play's best non-Tevye songs- Miracle of Miracles. We both received strong reviews for our work, but I had no idea at the time, in a few years our paths would cross.

He is one of those great working character actors that audiences know, but don’t seem to recall the name. He has hundreds of theatre credits all over the USA, as an actor, director & playwright. Just recently Pendleton appeared in Brecht's Mother Courage & Her Children with Meryl Streep & Kevin Kline, & in Romeo & Juliet, both produced by The Public Theatre at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. In 2009 Pendleton directed Uncle Vanya (a role he himself played to great acclaim) at the Classic Stage Company starring Maggie Gyllenhall & Peter Saarsgard. Also last year Pendleton starred in the Off-Broadway production of Love Drunk, & in the summer of 2009, he appeared as Herbie in Wyoming Performing Arts Institute’s production of Gypsy. Pendleton then went on to direct Tennessee Williams' autobiographical play Vieux Carré at The Pearl Theatre Company off-Broadway. In January & February 2010, Pendleton directed 2 plays: Bus Stop at The Olney Theatre & Golden Age at The Philadelphia Theatre Company. In April 2010, Pendleton will appear off-Broadway in the romantic comedy of Limonade Tous Les Jours by Charles Mee.  he is a long time member of the Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble. Pendelton is always working; what more could an actor wish for?

Hollywood has been less generous to Pendleton. He was cast in a small role in Skidoo (1968), often considered one of the worst film of all time, & a low point in the careers of most of its participants: Jackie Gleason, Groucho Marx, Carol Channing, & Otto Preminger. I first noticed Austin Pendelton for his hilarious & original turn in one of my favorite films- What's Up, Doc? (1972). In The Front Page (1974) he was very strong as a condemned killer plagued by a bad head cold on the eve of his execution. I loved him in HBO's Oz as the mentally unstable murderer William Giles, & he was the voice of Gurgle in Finding Nemo.


In the mid 1970s, he was my acting teacher at HB Studios in NYC. He was the best theatre teacher I have ever had, & I there are many people that I have known & worked with through the years that would have to admit that I could have used some strong acting instruction at times. His advice & guidance were always kind, gentle & on the mark. I don’t know anything of his private life; I very much doubt he is gay, although he has been associated with may productions with gay themes. He turns 70 today.

Quote Of The Day

Margaret "Maggie the Cat" Pollitt: "You can be young without money, but you can't be old without it."

"I Have Always Depended On The Kindness Of Strangers"

In my fairly large collection of favorite gay writers, there is my holy trio: Truman Capote, Gore Vidal, & Tennessee Williams. Today marks the 99th birthday of Mr. Williams. I wish he could be here today to celebrate at Post Apocalyptic Bohemia. He would have liked it; I am a big ol’ enabler.

Tennessee Williams was passionate, brilliant & prolific, breathing life into characters like Blanche DuBois & Stanley Kowalski in the American classic- A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE,. & like his best characters, he was troubled & self-destructive, an abuser of alcohol & drugs. He won 4 Drama Critic Circle Awards, a Tony, 2 Pulitzer Prizes, & the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was derided by the critics & blacklisted by the Roman Catholic Church, condemning his work as “revolting, deplorable, morally repellent, & offensive to Christian standards of decency”.


Thomas Lanier Williams was born in Columbus, Mississippi in 1911, the son of a shoe company executive & a Southern belle. Williams described his childhood in Mississippi as happy & carefree. His sense of belonging & comfort were lost when his family moved to the urban environment of St. Louis, Missouri. It was there he began to look inward, & he began to write “because I found life unsatisfactory.” Williams attended 3 different universities, & briefly worked at his father’s shoe company. He moved to New Orleans, which began his lifelong love of the city.


His first critical acclaim came in 1944 when THE GLASS MENAGERIE opened in Chicago & moved to Broadway. It won a Pulitzer Prize, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. The film version won the New York Film Critics’ Circle Award. At the height of his career in the late 1940s & 1950s, Williams worked with the great artists of the time, including Elia Kazan, the director for stage & screen productions of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, & the stage productions of CAMINO REAL, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, & SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH. Kazan also directed Williams’ shocking screenplay BABY DOLL.

In 1961, his longtime lover-Frank Merlo died of cancer. Merlo's death left Williams with a deep depression that lasted more than decade. He bacame quite insecure about his work, which was sometimes of inconsistent quality .Williams began to depend on alcohol & drugs & though he continued to write, completing a book of short stories & another play, he had begun a downward spiral.

In the 1970s, Williams wrote plays, a memoir, poems, short stories & a novel. In 1975 he published MEMOIRS, which detailed his life & discussed his addiction to drugs & alcohol, & his homosexuality. In the winter of 1983 Tennessee Williams died in a New York City hotel room filled with bottles of booze & pills. It was in this sort of desperation that Williams would so honestly write about & show his genius.

I find his 25 full length plays to often be melodramatic & overwrought, & yet hauntingly lonely, lyrical, powerful, & hypnotic. I started reading him in my early 20s & he continues to fascinate.

Born On This Day- March 25th... Gay Icon Reginald Kenneth Dwight

"I think Jesus was a compassionate, super intelligent gay man who understood human problems. On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving & forgiving. I don't know what makes people so cruel. Try being a gay woman in the Middle East ... you're as good as dead."

A man who changes his name from Reginald Kenneth Dwight to Elton Hercules John cannot be anything but gay, & Elton John with the flamboyant eye glasses, extreme shopping habits (he & husband- David’s household expenses are said to be more than 2 million dollars a month) & multiple platinum record sales, is certainly out & proud gay.



Reginald Kenneth Dwight knew the road he was to travel travel early in his life, winning a scholarship to Royal Academy of Music at 11years old. Until he started working with lyricist Bernie Taupin, with whom he had the biggest hits of his career, Elton had many jobs: he ran errands for a London publishing house, played piano in a hotel,  he played backup for Patti LaBelle & The Bluebells & recorded cover versions of pop songs to be sold in supermarkets..


 His first album was released in 1969, & between 1972 & 1976 there was no stopping Bernie & Elton. The year after he co-wrote John Lennon's comeback single, Whatever Gets You Through The Night, Elton's Captain Fantastic album became the 1st LP to go straight to #1 in the USA. Although his career took a dip at the end of the 1970s, MTV helped send the singles from his 1983 album Too Low For Zero back to the top of the charts. Sir Elton has sold more than 250 million records in a career that just entered its 5th decade. His single Candle in the Wind 1997, which he sang at Princess Diana’s funeral, is the best selling single of all time. He has had more than 50 Top 40 hits. Sir Elton has won 5 Grammy awards, an Oscar, a Golden Globe, & a Tony Award. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.


Because of his admitted bisexuality (he later admitted that it was a compromise, because he was afraid to admit he was gay), Elton lost many of his fans. In 1984, with much turmoil in his personal life (bulimia, cocaine addiction & alcoholism) Elton married German sound engineer Renate Blauel, but the union was short & the couple divorced in 1988. Elton later admitted that he knew he was gay before he tied the marriage. Now in the 21st century, Elton has been in a stable relationship for more than 17 years with filmmaker David Furnish. They married in December 2005. Elton: "Every Saturday for 16 years, we've sent each other a card, no matter where we are in the world, to say how much we love each other. We've never been jealous. We talk about the sexual side of things, things that normally would have frightened me before."

He raises millions of dollars every year with his charity- the Elton John AIDS Foundation, hosting an annual ball at his Windsor mansion that is attended by the great, the good, and the terminally glamorous. He continues to be a champion for LGBT rights.

My favorite Elton John song is Friends (1970) from the film about yong love of the same name. I was 16 when it was released, & it remains a favorite.

I hope the day will be a lighter highway

For friends are found on every road
Can you ever think of any better way
For the lost & weary travellers to go

Making friends for the world to see

Let the people know you got what you need
With a friend at hand you will see the light
if your friends are there then everything's all right
It seems to me a crime that we should age
These fragile times should never slip us by
A time you never can or shall erase
As friends together watch their childhood fly

Bernie Taupin

From The Post Apocalyptic Bohemian Archives

Happy Birthday, Margarethe Cammermeyer!

I am old enough that when I first grappled with coming out, I had an inner dialogue that went something like- “at least you are relieved from the obligation of having to get married, sire children, or serve in the military'. This was important in 1968, at the apex of the war in Viet Nam. I had no intention of serving in combat in Southeast Asia. I was working the angle of possibly joining the Coast Guard with the idea of serving in the chorus or orchestra. It then occurred to me to just come out as a homo & get rid of 2 big problems in one giant, brave action. As it happened, I was very lucky to have my draft number be 311. Now in the 21st century, gay people fight for their right to serve in the military, get married & have families.

Most of us have some degree of control over how & when we come out as gay, not Grethe Cammermeyer. In 1987, Norwegian-born Grethe Cammermeyer: Vietnam veteran, divorced mother of 4, a colonel & the head nurse in the Washington National Guard, fell in love with Diane Divelbess, a Mormon-born artist. In 1989, Cammermeyer had applied to the War College & was in the middle of an interview for top-secret clearance when she had to decide between making the truthful statement that she was a lesbian or denying that truth & advancing toward her dream of promotion to general. Her integrity won her a court martial & eventual separation from the military she had dedicated her life to  (her many honors included the Bronze Star for Meritorious Service in Vietnam).

The resulting investigation went slowly, even as the debate over gays in the military heated up. Cammermeyer, discharged in 1992, sued & won. In a bombshell decision, a federal judge in Seattle declared her discharge & the ban on gays unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ultimately upheld the ban, but Cammermeyer served out her military career. She retired to the home she & Divelbess built on Whidbey Island in 1997 & found a new career in activism &. politics. She wrote her autobiography- Serving in Silence, which was  the basis for the Barbra Streisand produced film of the same name, starring Glenn Close & Judy Davis. The film won 3 Emmys.

Grethe turns 68 today & she continues to speak out on DADT, as the issue has never been more in the forefront of the news media.

Rollins Reduced, Reused, Recycled and Recovered. Well not really reduced. The opposite of that.

Alright, this was supposed to just be my project 365 photo, but it kind of turned into a good blog entry... so I'm pasting it over here with bonus information; I generally like to keep 365 succinct- except this once. Not all of you follow my 365 (BASTARDS! I mean, hey- that's okay, you have a lot of blogs to visit. I totally understand. *teeth grind*), so I thought I'd talk about it here. Plus here, I can post the ridiculous photo I took of Henry Rollins because it's not against my weird personal 365 rules that are forever changing and making me paranoid.

Breakfast! Also, you will notice a stamp on my lovely manhand (probably, there won't be offers of hand modeling gigs pouring in after this) from the Henry Rollins spoken word tour, a show that I went to yesterday thanks to friends, Janet & Steffan! (Who I now owe a sock beast) It was fantastic. Ironically, Ann Coulter was speaking at another event in town. OH to have those two in a room together! It's the only way I'd pay to see Ann Coulter, the she-devil (unless is was a mean spirited roast or public head-shaving, I'd totally go to that). Anyhow, I got a message to be AT the venue immediately if I wanted to go, and I did my best to materialize on the spot with zero speeding tickets. HENRY ROLLINS? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME??!?!

The show was 3 hours, spoken word. Kind of like a motivational sermon from an Icon of Punk. And he was really great, very interesting, outspoken and dammit, he was right about things. I was particularly impressed with his story about the time he walked directly up to Than Shwe's Limo and flipped him the bird, 5 inches from his face for being a conniving and cruel despot. It was so brilliantly American and reminiscent about why we like having our neighbors to the south. Props, Americans!

The message: Feed your own mind, question what you're told and don't be a jerk to people, mixed in with some colorful anecdotes and opinions. It was an eclectic potpourri of his ideas that ranged from football/people watching parties at William Shatner's house to human rights and filesharing music with remote teenaged Sri Lankans, self education and why it's okay for him to teach your children to shove beans into their sinuses, the internal struggle that stemmed from his guest judging RuPaul's drag race and the fact that every nation is full of the same humanity & vulnerability and we don't have to be afraid of badguys all the time- but don't take his word for it, go see for yourself. A well rounded show, is what I'm saying.

I took one super crappy picture that made Mr Rollins look like one of those Halloween-Leaf-Bag people doing the robot... from which you could argue that it was a setup and that I didn't see Mr Rollins at ALL because clearly I went to see a bag of leaves with a tape recorder in it.. or that I am just crazy, so I opted for a hand-stamp photo instead for my photo of the day. We can't have anyone questioning my sanity now, can we? No questions about it; it's questionable. >:D That's how I like to keep it... But I still like the hand stamp picture better.

The stamp reads, "Spectra Sonic". I kind of wish it was a tattoo.

Born On This Day- March 23rd... Famed Illustrator Joseph Christian Leyendecker

The Husband & I have a lovely J.C. Leyendecker coffee table book that has provided a great deal of viewing enjoyment. We had a framed print of one his advertisements for Ivory Soap. This print portrays an improbably handsome jazz age man preparing for his bath (the picture is now in my friend Jake’s handsome & masculine bathroom). This piece is virile & All-American, & yet homoerotic & stirring. Leyendecker was the most famous American illustrators during the first half of the 20th century, the Golden Age of American commercial illustration.

A copy is now on display in Jake's bathroom

Leyendecker was responsible over 400 covers for leading magazines of the era, including The Saturday Evening Post. He created powerful advertising images like the Arrow Collar Man, an icon of masculinity, & the first male sex symbol & the first male advertising star. Ironic… Leyendecker was a homosexual & the model for the Arrow Collar Man was his lover. Leyendecker was drawn to depicting men in locker rooms, clubhouses, & workshops, extraordinarily handsome young men exchanging inexplicable glances. Few images are more overtly homoerotic than advertisements for Gillette in which scantily clad men teach each other how to use disposable razors.


Joe Leyendecker was born in Germany in 1874; his parents immigrated to America when he was very young. He grew up in Chicago. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago & spent several months in Paris in the 1890s with his younger brother Frank, also gay & also an artist. The brothers eventually moved to New York as they started to get more commissions.

In 1903, a striking young man appeared at their Greenwich Village studio.. His name was Charles A. Beach. Frank immediately hired him in Joe's absence. When Joe returned, Frank graciously allowed his brother the use of his model. Joe & Charles Beach were inseparable, both personally & professionally, for the next 48 years. Joe was 29 & Charles was 17 years old.

In 1914, the Leyendeckers brothers, & Beach, moved into a large home that served as their art studio in New Rochelle, New York, where they would reside for the rest of their lives. They hosted large parties attended by notables from all walks of life including F. Scott & Zelda. Frank died in 1924 of drug addiction. In the 1930s Leyendecker’s commissions began to dry up. Norman Rockwell, who was obsessed with Leyendecker & was very much influenced by him, supplanted him as the best-known illustrator in America.

Leyendecker, who was always very shy, would spend the last years of his life secluded in the house he had built in New Rochelle. He died in 1951. Charles Beach destroyed all of Leyendecker’s papers & unseen works on his death. Beach died a few weeks later.