this is fyf

It's a good weekend for pharmaceuticals.

Today's forecast - Thursday, June 21, 2012

Today's forecast - Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Photo by Robert Barone of his mother at Jones Beach in 1950.

Today's forecast - Saturday, June 16, 2012

There's a stork in the East River right now!

Correction haiku:  

With just a little regret

we must now confess.

It's no stork! It's an egret.

Thank you to Epicharmus on the Twitter.

Let's start talking about The Mormon Agenda, shall we?

When the Mormons attacked us via Prop 8 in California, they demonized gays in media assaults preying on the fears of people who are easily influenced by those types of things.  Now that "one of theirs" is running for President, where are our "Mormons are freakshows" advertisements?  Seriously, they declared war on us, and we're letting this battle go without screaming to the hills that Mitt Romney is a lunatic in crazypeople magic underpants?  It's time to end this war with concise victory.

Isn't it time to use one of their own weapons against them?  The ads in California featured massive doses of conjecture to stir up fears.  The dark shadow-voices of commercials would speak of The Homosexual Agenda.  

What about The Mormon Agenda?

• Will the Mormon Church rebaptize all deceased Americans as Mormons?
• Will Mormon schools receive more funding than traditional Christian schools?
• Your Children will have to learn about Mormonism in school.
• Teachers will have to teach children about Mormonism.
• Do Mormons pledge allegiance to the flag?
• Mormonism claims there are prophets living today.  Who are these prophets and does Mitt Romney consult with them?
• Who are these Mormon Prophets that Romney follows?
• Who are Anne Romney's sister wives?
• Have we seen an actual Marriage Certificate from the Romneys?
• Why have we forgotten that Mormons once declared war on the United States of America?  (No, really, why have we?)

What do we really know about these Mormons, anyway?  

That's the only question to which we really need to lead.  Is this tactic "insensitive" or "mean"?  Is it really less moral to demonize a lifestyle choice (religion) than a genetic attribute (sexual orientation)?  No, it's not, so don't seeing it as stooping to their level; see it as looking a combatant squarely in the eye.

Grace Jones performed at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee today.

And what did you do today?

Well, it was going to take something major major to get us posting again.  Maybe this is it?

Weekend viewing: "Portfolio", 1983

Facebook is taking ads from sex clubs. Part two.

Sex addict tags Queens.

Pickle?

President Obama knows some fundamentals of reading.

[Obama] called House Republicans’ budget a “Trojan horse” for “Social Darwinism” that is “so far to the right it makes the Contract with America look like the New Deal.” He also mocked Mitt Romney for calling that budget “marvelous,” a word “you don’t often hear when it comes to describing a budget … a word you don’t often hear, generally.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/74793.html#ixzz1r1HIjyof

Um, hey Netflix? Just, um, no.

"A Bigger Splash" is now available via Netflix streaming.

 

 

"A Bigger Splash" semi-documents three years in the life of David Hockney.  Titled after the painter's 1967 painting (above), it's beautifully shot, although there is sometimes not much happening.  Reviews from 1974 seem to concur.  If you have an interest in Hockney or art and fashion of the early 70's or just want to see what fashion shows were like back when they were fun, you should check it out.

Will suicide in gay men increase as the population ages or will something new emerge?

[T]he suicide seemed to have been carried out with methodical precision. On an island in the kitchen, Mr. Bergeron had meticulously laid out his papers. There was a pile of folders with detailed instructions on top about whom to call regarding his finances and his mortgage. Across from that he placed the title page of his book, on which he also wrote his suicide note. In it he told Mr. Sackheim and Mr. Rappaport that he loved them and his family, but that he was “done.”

The Times covers the life of a 49-year old therapist in Chelsea who committed suicide around New Year's after writing “The Right Side of Forty: The Complete Guide to Happiness for Gay Men at Midlife and Beyond.”  In his suicide note he called the book "a lie based on bad information".

The gay population of a generation was decimated by AIDS.  As part of the first of part of a new generation for whom HIV was tamed (a bit), there are growing numbers of gay men in their forties.  In the past gay suicide by men over forty was something that happened in percentages above the norm.

The newer generation does have advantages over the past ones though.  There is burgeoning equality and more opportunities to create lives that exist outside of just the gay/sexual segments of one's life.  

In the past it was older gay men who were patrons of the arts.  They were an outsized segment of the arts audience, and art was influenced by that.  As we grow older, what will the new older gay generation become?  We'll be looking at that more in the days and months to come.

We took the month of March off to refresh and retool a bit.  Regular postings will resume tomorrow.

"Jump (For My Love)", The Pointer Sisters, 1985

Fun fact:  the original title was just "Jump", but the title was changed to avoid confusion with another song title "Jump" released earlier in the same year.  The Pointer Sisters otherwise would never be confused with the Van Halen brothers.  As there are no great songs about "Leaping", here it is, your Leap Day Song.

Oscars-Schmoskers (Yes I'm a day late, but it's cuz I'm on jury duty!)

No shade to either The Artist, which has a significant number of very attractive men associated with it, nor Meryl Streep, who certainly deserved at least two of her three Oscars, but The Oscars are now officially meaningless (assuming they were of significance to begin with.).

Flavorpill breaks down the debacle that was The Oscars of 2012.

Facebook is taking ads from sex clubs.

 

 

 

 

 

This was a surprise.  Facebook, which doesn't accept pictures of male butts (or of women breastfeeding), will accept ads from sex clubs.  The above ad from East Side Club popped up in the strangest place, the profile picture of a straight male friend.  

Here is Wonder Woman as interpreted by Korean anime circa 1978.