Time Travel Thursday

Time Travel Thursday, 04/17/14

 

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For the Boys

I always loved this commercial.....although I had also always wished that a guy had done the voiceover....so I redid it myself.....for th'boys.   Hope you like.

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You Can't Please Everyone

Death brings out the best and the worst in people.   I've seen it in action (as I'm sure you have too) all my life.  So when my mom died I was prepared (mentally) for problem siblings and other relatives to cause drama.    I ended up being suprised anyway as the people I expected to cause trouble after her death did not, and the one person I let my guard down with, did.   It's just how it goes.   

Silly me though, I did think after the funeral there wouldn't be anymore drama.  

Silly....silly me.  

With nary a word from anyone in the last seven months, when I told my siblings and family members I was going to carry out my mother's final wishes and scatter her ashes in Nebraska, it didn't go over quite so well with a few of them.   I should add I gave them plenty of notice like almost 4 months...but that didn't matter. 

One message read "I think that should be a family event and youre taking that away from me and everyone else that loved her. I dont think what your doing is fair."  

Excuse me???? I thought that was what I WAS doing!  Keep in mind, the person who wrote the above,is a grown woman with 2 children.

Some people just want an excuse to cause pain.

I bent over backward after my mom died to make everyone happy. I included those who in reality shouldn't have been included.  I made sure everyone left with something to remember her by when they had largely ignored or hurt her over the last two decades.   I also allowed some of those people to take way more things than they should have yet all I heard in the ensuing months was either grumbling or silence.   Don't get me wrong....I'm not upset over the 'things'...after all it's just stuff.  What bothers me is the gall some people had during such a sad time.

My conscience is clear. 

I've notified everyone and given them the same opportunity to come and join in.   That's only fair, and mom would have wanted that.

My solace comes in knowing this is the last time I will have to speak to many of them and I'm fine with that.   I honestly want most of these ties to be cut and I know that sounds sad....but these are not nice people.

I'm reminded of the saying  "You can't please everyone", and truthfully you shouldn't really try.

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Hooked On Bravo

I admit I'm hooked on Bravo.   The Real Housewives of Orange County, New Jersey, Tabitha Takes Over, Shahs of Sunset, Million Dollar Listing, Jeff Lewis Designs....I love them all.   (Excluding Millon Dollar Matchmakers Patti Stanger and Tardy For the Party Kim Zolciak...those bitches are dead to me)   My current obsesion is the Bravo promos for this season and they are fun!  Featuring a surreal vibe, over the top acting and a fun song by Will-I-Am & Mylie Cyrus.... Andy Cohen is showing an aweseome chest and abs (I think he's adorable), Heather (RHOOC) is delightful w/the coconut, then there's  Jenni and Jeff and ZOILA!!!!  Who knew Zoila could 'get down'!  All of them are so much fun!!!  Whenever the promo music comes on, I rush to the TV.  No lie.   These promos are definitely like crack to me...or even more potent like chocolate!  I am most definitely a Bravo fan!

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Photograph of Zen

Sometimes a picture comes your way across the vast span of the internet that is so wonderful, so moving, so insanely perfect and thrilling you just have to put it up on your desk top and look at it for awhile.  Examine it.  Soak it all in.  Revel in the composition, the colors, the subject and format.   Such a picture deserves an introspective spirit and effort to relish the story of it's inception, it's journey and it's future.  It covers all the senses, touching the mind and the soul at the same time.  Yes it's a rare zen moment frozen in time..... This, is just such a picture.

 

This masterpiece is an OMG pic from the 80s.....it's just......so oddly insane.  Mohammed Ali, Hulk Hogan, Cyndi Lauper, Liber-freakin-ace and some chick named Wendy Richter.  It's 1980's 'camp' at it's very best in my view.  

According to a friend of mine, It's a promo shot from an early Wrestlemania. Hulk Hogan was champ, Richter was women's champ, Lauper was involved (Capt Lou Albano was dad in Girls Just Wanna Have Fun vid) and may have been managing a wrestler at the time, and Ali and Liberace both performed at the event.

Does it get any better than this???  Lib looks halfway butch w/that pose (fur and diamond rings notwithstanding).

I LOVE it!

 

source: James St James on worldofwonder.net

 

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Happy Birthday Harvey!

Happy Birthday to one of the most incredible talents in our lifetime.   Playwright, Actor, Activist....the one and only Harvey Fierstein turns 61!  Check out these vids of a ground breaking interview from 1983 with Barbara Walters, and present day with Thomas Roberts & w/Cyndi Lauper talking Kinkyboots!

 

 

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Time Travel Thursday

 Time Travel Thursday 6/6/2013

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New Camera

The camera I was gifted for my birthday came today and of course the first pics and vids were of my pugs.  Introducing Parker 8 months, and Mugsy 14years.

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Lord, It's Me Again....Geoff

Please excuse the mess as I move back in. 

 It's been over six months since my last post, and I sort of took a little 'vay-cay' from life after my mom passed, but I'm excited to blog again. 

If you're a returning blog buddy, thanks for checking back!   If you're a new potential blog buddy or even a lurker, forgive me if a few links are messed up a bit this first week.   Either way, thank you again for stopping by!

Geoff

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OUR Artist of the Week: George Quaintance

 

George Quaintance was born in Page County Virginia, June 3, 1902.   He was a gay American artist, famous for his "idealized, strongly homoerotic" depictions of men in mid-20th-century physique magazines. Using historical settings to justify the nudity or distance the subjects from modern society, his art featured idealized muscular, semi-nude or nude male figures; Wild West settings were a common motif. His artwork helped establish the stereotype of the "macho stud" who was also homosexual.He was an influence on many later homoerotic artists, such as Tom of Finland. 

He was raised on a farm and as a young man displyed a talent for art, and though closeted he was described as "obviously and actively homosexual".   Quaintance studied at the ARt Students League where he threw himself into multiple disciplines including painting, drawing and dance.  After a brief marriage and stint as a hairstylist in the 1930s, his first art assignments were anonymous advertising contract work.  By 1934 he had begun to sell freelance cover illustrations to a variety of 'spicy' pulp magazines with names including Gay French Life, Ginger, Movie Humor, Movie Merry Go-Round, Snappy Detective Mysteries, Snappy Stories, Stolen Sweets, and Tempting Tales. These were sold at burlesque halls as well as under-the-counter at discreet newsstands.

 

 

In 1938, he returned home with his companion Victor Garcia, described as Quaintance's "model, life partner, and business associate", who was the subject of many of Quaintance's photographs in the 1940s.

 In 1951, Quaintance's art was used for the first cover of Physique Pictorial, edited by Bob Mizer of the Athletic Model Guild. In the early 1950s, Quaintance and Garcia moved to Rancho Siesta, which became the home of Studio Quaintance, a business venture based around Quaintance's artworks.

George Quaintance died of a heart attack on November 8, 1957



source material: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Quaintance
http://www.georgequaintance.com/
http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/sex/all/05065/facts.quaintance.htm

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I've Lost My Mom

I've mentioned my mom before on this blog, and taken care of her for many years.   The truth is she took care of me too.   It hasn't always been easy, in fact at times it's been a nightmare, but through it all she was my mom. 

This morning I found her in the bathroom between 3 and 4 AM, and she was gone.   My heart is broken and I feel so lost.   Rest in peace Mom.  I love you with all my heart.

Beverly Joan --

July 1931 -October 2012

 

(photo taken May of 1985)

 

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Can't Make Someone Love You

It's no secret I wear my heart on my sleeve.  I feel things deeply, often too deep.    I haven't posted in what...a month almost (?) because a lot's been going on. There's the consistent "drama with my mama"...I don't think will ever change until she passes on-- and while that's painful and draining it's nothing compared to the end of a relationship.   

D and I broke up a few weeks ago, only to come back together and agree to try again.   I didn't handle it well at all....I felt so many things.  Abandoned, alone, a chump.... mournful of the loss of my best friend and of course a whole lot more.  I think he agreed to 'try' because he was worried about me...(I'm a crier, sue me), and that adds another layer of hurt ...and embarrassment.   

 

Right now, communication has dwindled (his choice),  and I'm just waiting for the hammer to fall on his end.     The truth is, it's pretty much fallen on my end too, but there's that small albeit desperate part of me that holds on to the hope that it will work out (which I know it wont).

 

You can't make someone love you.

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Austin Police Dept, "It Gets Better"

Touching addition to the "It Gets Better" project from the Austin Police Dept.  Well worth the watch.  Video after the jump.

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FB Faves From Today

Favorite FB pictorals tonight! Just had to share.


 

 

 

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She's Baaaaack!

The most infamous intern in the U.S. is back on the radar after 20 years, and who could blame the buxom, raven haired, thong sharing cigar molester?   Monica Lewinsky is shopping a book deal about her torrid affair with Bill Clinton and could receive a large paycheck in the proces ....to the tune of about 12 million bucks.  Not a bad payday eh?

I watched her interview all those years ago with Barbara Walters, and I even bought her first book.  And if I'm being honest, I also felt sorry for her.    Of course now that she's an adult she's a little steamed about Bill Clinton getting off scott free after the scandal while she was forced to wear a scarlett letter A, hence the tell all.  Do I feel sorry for her now?  Well........maybe a smidge.   

The young chubby girl with the beautiful smile from...Oregon was it?  Got a pass because she was young and stupid.   Today...she's a wife and mother and should know better....but whatev.  Maybe Monica does deserve a payday after all the humiliation she had to put up with from Kenneth Starr.....I just don't want this to impact Hillary's bid for President in 2016. 

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Time Travel Thursday

I'm not sure how I forgot TT Thursday last week, but I did.   This is a classic military photo with a little something extra way before DADT.  A little drama, a little passion and a whole lotta chutzpah, dontchathink?

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If You Have the Stomach

So the ladies of The View decided to discuss Mitt Romney's '47 %' video.  Just reading that caption and seeing Hasselbeck's picture I can actually hear that harpies voice about to say something typically stupid.    Hasselbeck: "I also think there's a general feeling that with more and more people becoming dependent on government that by next July we could perhaps be celebrating "Dependence Day" and not "Independence Day" in this nation."  Video below if you have the stomach.

 

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Bitch Hit The Road & a Emergency Vet Trip

Today is going to be a busy, busy day and I already have the stress headache and bloodshot eyes to prove it.    Earlier this month I wrote a post "It's Just a Part of Life" where I talked about my mom's healthcare attendant.    I whined about how if I just outright fired her, the ensuing temper tantrum from momalah would be a nightmare.  So instead of nipping it in the bud...I hit the 'passive agressive' switch and became a cold hearted SOB.  Yesterday it sunk in and she quit...but I'm still in the dog house lol.  

 

The day started normally, but Dawn was extra quiet when she arrived.   I saw her doing dishes......notice I said 'doing', not 'washing'.  She was holding them under the faucet and running a sponge over them.  Not exactly sanitary in any sense of the word.   So I mentioned something to momalah because if I gently and sweetly said it to Dawn there would be hysterics.....and somehow the bitch overheard.    Five minutes later she was in the back of the house doing....I dunno what and all the sudden she appears almost powerwalking through the house...out the door....into her car...and drives off.   

 

Her boss calls an hour and a half later and say's she quit, so momalah tells the boss how much we all love dawn and how she won't have anyone else blah blah blah and would she have Dawn call her?  

 

Shit.

 

Dawn calls and proceeds to tell mom how horribile I am, my sister is, and how she L-O-V-E-D her....but she just couldn't be miserable.  So my mom tells her how she agrees with her, that she'll fix the problem because we really are horrible and please please please take the day to think about it and come back.  

 

After that call, I excused myself ...called Dawn in private and told her she was not welcome to come back.  Then I blocked the bitches number and sought cover.   To say it was a rough night is being kind, screaming phone calls demanding I apologize went on literally for HOURS.  My mother definitely has a screw loose.

 

Add to the above, my beloved pug is sick...either a virus or something neurological and I have to take him to the Vet today and my stress level is through the roof.  Thank God my sister (AKA She who shall not be named) stayed the night at our mom's house to calm her down.   

How's your tuesday?

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OUR Artist of the Week: Yankel Feather

Many Artists might be tempted to create a personal history or back story resembling Yankel Feathers as it affords the sort of providence that is sure to increase a talented painters work. For Yankel Feather however the truth of his history is a genuine and fascinating footnote to an incredible and prolific artist in every sense of the word. That is why Yankel Feather is OUR Artist of the week!

Yankel Feather was born in 1920 in Toxteth Liverpool. He was the youngest of seven children and the family was very poor. A self taught painter, Yankel began to paint as a young age and pursued his art with a solid determination despite such tragedies as an absent father and the death of his mother when he was fourteen years old.

His early life was spent as a struggling painter and it wasn't until 1940 that he had his first solo exhibition at a book shop in Manchester. Yankel Feather became part of the artistic bohemian fringe while working as a Telephone Operator and during this time he took studios at Park Walk in Chelsea in the 1940s and exhibited at the renowned Helen Lessore's Beaux Arts Gallery in London during the 1950s

During the 1960s and 70s Feather was popular and well known, owning night clubs and antique shops. Among his friends were George Jardine, Brian Epstein and the Beatles to name a few.

Yankel Feather was a prominent artist and eventual succesful business man. He was also openly gay and during his lifetime found love with two long-term partners, Bill King and Terry Arbuckle with whom he shared his home in Brighton. According to wikipedia, Yankel Feather expressed his sexuality in a series of simplified linear paintings. Feather is listed in the directory of Modern British Painters and his work is enjoyed by many collectors including Ringo Starr.

Yankel Feather died April 18th, 2009. His estate is managed by his surviving partner and committee.

 

 

 

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I Don't Buy It

I do a lot of reading...perhaps too much for it all to sink in sometimes and recently I've read a few articles BY gay people asserting there is no such thing as the "Gay Community".  That the very notion is an urban myth akin to the 'Gay Disposable Income'.

They even profess we don't NEED a gay community anymore.   

I don't buy it.  

 

It's easy to become jaded, and God knows as a group we gay men are easily susceptible to that condition, but there are so many beacons of light out 'there' in the rainbow world and we need to remind ourselves of that.  

 

So "Where is this gay community" you ask?   You'll find it with you, me, our friends and family that get together for dinner, or deliver meals and medicine to homebound people in need.   The gay community is evident when we're fundraising for charity, and coming together to demonstrate or fight for, our rights. 

 

If you say there is no gay community, have you ever made the effort to visit a Gay Community Center?  Have you ever darkened their doorway to volunteer or take part in the social programs they offer?    If there isn't a LGBT Center in your area, have you thought about starting one? 

 

For those queers who look down their noses and say "I am much more than  'gaaaay'.  I don't 'deeefine' myself by my sexuality plus the notion of community is outdated"...I just shake my head.  

 

I don't buy it.

 

Of course being gay is only a "part" of who you are...just like your skin or your brain is a "part" of you who are...and BTW... where exactly would you be without one those parts?  That new argument by young LGBT'Q's is just naieve and stupid and an excuse for whatever they're too lazy to commit to.

 

We need a sense of community however you may define it.  We need it as a part, and as a distinction of the community at large we live in. 

 

If you don't want to be defined by your sexuality stop chasing tail every fucking minute of the day, step outside yourself and do something worthwhile!   And while I'm on this roll, us old gay men? You know, in our 30s and on up?  We need to start leading by example and mentoring these young queerlings because their view of the world is very distorted. 

 

The facts are:

 

We are unique. We are beautiful. We are talented, we have MUCH to contribute to society and each other.  We ARE a community with value and dignity, and we are STRONGER together, as a community,  than as individuals.  

 

Believe it and start acting on it.  

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