Some Random Wednesday

I cant sleep very late when there is someone else in my bed.

Last night as I was getting comfortable in my room, the door buzzed. I wasn't expecting anyone but I looked out the window to see who was there... It was Mark!! He just surprised me by showing up at my door. I love when he does that! We settled in for the night, watched a few cartoons (Drawn Together is just plain crazy), watched a couple episodes of Planet Earth, talked a bit, laughed a bit and then passed out... I love those nights with friends that are just pure utter relaxation.

So this morning I was pretty sure that Mark was going to do the usual... breakfast and then head out. I talked him into going over to North Beach for breakfast at "Mama's" He had some decadent breakfast thing and I had a burger. After breakfast we started talking about leaving the city, maybe he and I going on a road trip somewhere. Of course he works, his dad is in the hospital... so he isn't going to be able to go anywhere anytime soon.

So we decided to go to the mall... ugh, so New Jersey... and do a little window shopping. On the way there was my chance to put my silver tounge to work and get him to hang out with me all day. A thought came to me... Boardwalk. The Santa Cruz beach boardwalk to be more specific. I sold it to him like only I know how to do... I don't remember exactly what I said, but I know I did mention the hundreds of shirtless boys on summer break. So we stopped by my house, got him a pair of shorts and we were on our way by one in the afternoon.

The drive down there is beautiful, rolling hills covered with every type of tree there is. Glimpses of crystal mountain lakes between the trees. It was the weirdest day... When we woke up at ten it was foggy and overcast... but warm. When we finished lunch it was sunny and hot... Halfway to Santa Cruz it looked like this... clouds, rain, dark... yet warm.


We came up on a hiway sign that said the next off-ramp was Winchester Drive. Mark said he needed to pull off to get gas... I said, as long as we are pulling off, why dont we go see the Winchester Mansion! It is something I have been wanting to see ever since I heard of it right after moving here seven years ago. So we pull into the first gas station we come to and I went inside to ask how to find the Mystery Mansion. The guy behind the counter said take this road that you are on for another two miles and it will be on the left hand side of the road.


This mansion is one of the grandest, most opulent, and freaky buildings I have ever been in. First, if you ever do go see it... take the paid tour. It is $23 but totaly worth it. The history that comes along with this mansion is one of those stories that may never die. This woman, the widow of the Winchester millions was thirteen kinds of crazy. And all the employees know all the crazy shit she pulled! She would eavesdrop on the servents and if they looked up to see if she was there she would fire them on the spot. Plus almost everything in the house has thirteen of something... that was her favorite number and she made the builders put it everywhere.



Yeah... she believed that she was being haunted by the ghosts of all the people killed by the winchester rifle. And like any sane person, she sought the advice of some sort of old west psychic. This psychic (who had regular seaonces in the house, in a hidden room) told the widow that in order to silence the voices of those ghosts she would have to keep building and adding to the eight room farmhouse every hour of every day for the rest of her life. She lived to be 82. The eight room farmhouse became a one hundred and sixty room mansion for the unstable. Doors that opened onto walls, windows in the floor, and staircases that went nowhere but to the celing. And it was never finished... parts are still under construction... parts will never be finished. Then there are the grounds, the gardens, and the behind-the-scenes tour...



The angles of this mansion are all out of whack. You have to see it.



After we left the house of oddity.. we drove the rest of the way to Santa Cruz. If you have ever seen the movie "The Lost Boys" then you know what Santa Cruz is like. It is a total beach bum kinda place with an amusement park serving as the jewel of the town. It is a little bit surreal, like stepping back into your childhood for a moment. You cant help but have fun, play the games and waste your money on temporary happiness. Mark and I had a lot of fun. Played a lot of games and even rode a couple rides... and then reality had to rear it's ugly head. Stupid body. I couldnt fit on one of the rides. Couldnt get the buckle clipped and had to walk away while Mark rode it without me...hmmm...sigh.



When we got to Santa Cruz I ran directly into a friend of mine that apparently had moved to Santa Cruz two weeks ago. Weird timing. Todd walked around with us for a while and then went off to play volleyball. When Mark and I had had our fill of the rides and kids on the boardwalk, we wandered over to where Todd and a bunch of gay guys had taked over the volleyball nets. It was a cool experience, about thirty gay guys that just wanted to hang out at the beach... weekly. Mark kicked off his shoes for a couple games, and I enjoyed watching the hot shirtless gay guys bouncing with their balls.


Come on... I had to put one sex reference in there... I would lose my gay male audience if I didnt!!!


So all in all Mark and I had our little road trip and got away from the city. We had some much needed mindless fun. And all on some ramdom Wendesday.

Beautiful Boys #02

This is my beautiful boy Tristan

some long lost friends stopped by for a day...

Michael Toliver Lives. He sure fucking does!

The very first time I can remember seeing a gay person on tv in a positive light was when I first watched the miniseries "Tales of the City". The two sequels were just as important to me... and then there were the books. I went into a crown bookstore deep behind the orange curtain of Republican/Christian ideals and proudly bought the books... wondering all the time if they knew what I was buying and what it meant about me.

Armistead Maupin has created a real work of art with his Tales of the City series. The latest book, picking up literally 18 years after the last one, may possibly be the masterstroke that keeps Maupin at the fore front of gay literature for years to come. All these books introduced at least one new character per book... so now all the originals are dying off and fading away in glory... while leaving this rich tapestry of sub-characters that you just don't want to see to go. So Maupin has set himself up to have another fifty books from these people.

Today I read it... yeah, the whole book. I couldn't put it down. When it comes to the people he writes about... you just cant hear enough. It's like running into a really good old friend and him telling you what the old gang is up to... It just gives you that rush of humor, joy and nostalgia all at once. That is what it is like going back to 28 Barbary Lane. This book was a perfect combination of wittiness, humor, tragedy and poetry.

"Some years back, when I was still single, the charm of the city was wearing thin for me. All those imperial dot-commers in their SUV's and Hummers barreling down the middle of Noe St. as if leading an assault on a third world nation. And those freshly minted queens down at Badlands, wreathed in cigarette smoke and attitude, who seemed to believe that political activism meant a subscription to OUT magazine and regular attendance at Queer As Folk night."

Ok... this is kinda coincidental... I just wrote a blog like this... about what I call "Baby-Gays". Naturally anyone that agrees with me I am going to remember their point of view. And use it to further my own!!!

" I wasn't feeling guilty. What I felt was the depletion of my memory bank, a hunger for more memories to hoard. I like remembering Mona... the Mona that stays with me is the late seventies model: loose-limbed and free as a sailor, with coils of lava-red hair radiating from her head. I can even remember the telltale sound of her footsteps (both the manic and depressive varieties) on the boardwalk at Barbary Lane. Mona had a full seven years on me back then, so I'd felt like her little brother. Now that I've passed the age she was when she died it's deeply unnerving to realize that she's becoming my little sister.

The same is true of Jon, my first partner - only more so, of course, since he's now been gone for - Jesus! - almost a quarter of a century. How impossibly young we were then. Jon was a gynecologist (I know, I know) and a lovely guy inside and out, if a little buttoned-down around the edges. Had he not died but simply moved to a distant city, I wonder if we'd recognize each other today were our paths to cross at a B&B in P-town, say, or an RSVP cruise to someplace warm and homophobic. Would there still be something he could love - that I could love, for that matter - or would we just swap email addresses and walk away, preferring to remember the old version of ourselves?

The young version, that is.
The only version I have left of him."

Maupin has a talent for writing in a way that when you read his work it feels like you are reading a letter from a friend. All these people that I have loved for so many years... I finally get to hear the end of their story. And they are joyous, and heartbreaking... and while your favorite of them may not have died in a grand sweeping journey or ended up quite the way you though... they still feel like your friends.

It still feels like these are real people and that is what happens to real people... they go on to live their lives. Not everything is story worthy, not everything goes into building a plot, and you don't end up where you thought you would with anyone... ever. Still they were your friends, and your family and they are still the people that you want to be there at the very end.

Thanks Armistead... You gave us an amazing journey, and friends so real I will miss them forever... Now, time to start a new one with all of our old friends new friends.

Beautiful Boys #01

I am somewhat of a novice photographer... Following is the first in a series of beautiful boys that have posed for me. I promised not to publish any risque photo's of them... but I think these photo's are great... and that they wouldnt mind.

Let me know what you think...

Mark

Daddy... is this what heaven is like??

My sweet darling Mark.

Mark is one of my best friends. He is having some problems right now... mostly with his family.

A couple weeks ago Mark's dad was in a car crash. Both his arms and legs are broken... broken ribs... practically in a full body cast. To make matters worse he is confined to a hospital bed in Sacramento... nowhere near where Mark and his family live.

This is he and I last halloween. What is a witch without her
naughty flying monkey?? Let me tell you, by the end of the
night... I think I had a little monkey crush!!

So I just want to put this post up so that any of you that actually read my blog can send some good vibes his way. His family is being pulled in every direction and he is just barely hanging on.

I love this kid... a lot... and it hurts to see him going through what he is going through.

So send him some love.

Tell me that face is not one of the most beautiful faces
on Earth!! Don't you just want to pinch his cheeks!!!