Currently Reading ...

... some ...
will maintain that the swift oars

of our fleet are the finest sight on dark earth; but I say
that whatever one loves, is.



Sappho

Michael Tolliver Lives

Armistead Maupin started writing Tales of the City as a serial in San Francisco newspapers in the mid '70s. It starts out with straight Mary Ann Singleton arriving in San Francisco on vacation from her life in Ohio. She instantly falls in love with the city and decides to stay. She rents an appartment and starts to get to know her neighbors. They turn out to be a diverse group of straight, gay, bisexual, and transgendered free spirits. While each character is fleshed out in mostly equal three dimensional detail, gay man Michael Tolliver quickly becomes the heart and soul around which everything else revolves. He's a sweet, genuine soul without pretense trying to rise above his conservative Southern upbringing and find love and a place for himself in the world.

Even though Armistead Maupin has stated his intention that Michael Tolliver Lives is an independent novel that stands alone from the series, in reality it is an extension. All the main characters from the series appear. And even though backgrounds are provided, I don't think you can fully appreciate the emotional impact of this book without having read the previous six. But the good news is the series is a very easy, entertaining read. The first four books have very short chapters and are mostly dialogue. I've always admired Maupin's writing and how he's able to create such rich characters without much descriptive prose.

The sixth book, Sure of You, ends in the early '80s. Michael Tolliver is happily setting up house keeping with his partner, but he's HIV+ and doesn't know how much time he's got to enjoy his hard won happiness. So for those of us that read all of the books many times and have loved the characters, especially Michael, the publishing of this book is very much like finding out that someone we lost track of, and missed, and always wondered if the new medications found him in time, but we were afraid they hadn't when so many were lost; lives. If that makes sense to you, then maybe you understand why I was crying before I started reading it.

In the '50s and '60s, when Lord of the Rings was gaining popularity, Frodo Lives!! was often seen as graffiti. Like Frodo, one quickly gets the sense that if Michael Tolliver can't do it; can't find love and happiness and a place for himself; then no one can.

For this book, Armistead Maupin has switched to first person, telling the story directly from Michael's point of view. Michael is 20 years older, doing well on new meds, and enjoying creating a life with a new, younger man. He's still best friends with Brian Hawkins and he still looks after his former landlady, Mrs. Madrigal. His father died a few years ago and his mother is in a nursing home and failing. Michael goes to visit her with his new husband and she shocks him by asking him to be in charge of her Living Will. The only question this book asks is: What will he do when he gets the call that his mother has died, then gets the call that his spiritual mother may not make it through the night?

Bloggers New Toy

Blogger has a new toy called "Blogger Play". By going to this web site: http://play.blogger.com/ you will see a slide show of photos that have been uploaded to Blogger within the past few minutes. You'll see faces, places, art, and objects from all over the world. It's a fascinating, mesmerizing look into human life on this planet. You can speed it up or slow it down and stop it and go back. There's a "show info" button that will pull up some basic information from the blog the photo is posted on. And if you click on a photo the entire blog it's from will pull up for you. Blogger uses an algorithm to filter out any obscene material, but occasionally an "R" or even an "X" rated photo might show up. I haven't found it to be a big deal. Check it out and let me know what's the coolest thing that you come across.

Downtown Trees

The Santa Fe Depot Fountain

Video from 12/24/06

Blogger recently added a video upload button. Now I can post my own videos directly to my blog without first boring everyone on YouTube. This video is from my trip last Christmas Eve to Mt. San Jacinto State Park at the top of the Palm Springs Tramway. I previously posted a slide show of still shots from that trip with my friend Stan. For the video I just stood in one spot and slowly turned around in a circle so you can see the whole landscape and hear the children's voices.

My September 11th Story

Like December 7, 1941 and November 22, 1963, anyone old enough to remember September 11, 2001 will never forget what they were doing and how they experienced the events that day.

I was living in Vista, California, having moved with my partner at the time to the San Diego area from Central Illinois just a few shorts weeks prior to 9/11. Brian had returned the night before from a week long business trip to Germany. I hadn't found a job in California yet. We had just gotten out of bed and were heading towards the bathroom and kitchen when the phone rang. I answered it and found myself talking to his mother who was all in a panic. She knew he'd been out of the country but didn't know he was back and was worried he was on one of the flights. I quickly got Brian on the phone with his mom and I turned on the TV. At 7am West Coast time only 1 tower was damaged and both were still standing. I remember watching the news with a sense of unreality and thinking the newscasters were having just as tough a time trying to make sense of it all and come up with something meaningful to say. It wasn't until much later, after more information was available, more images came in, and both towers fell, that it all sank in. To this day any image of the burning or collapsing towers is very upsetting to me.

Some time in the early '90s I took a trip with friends Deborah and Peter to New York City to see our friend Janet in her Carnegie Hall debut as the soprano soloist in Verdi's Requiem. During that trip we had breakfast at the top of the World Trade Center and very much enjoyed a view that's no longer there, except by helicopter. Now I automatically date any image of New York City's skyline as to whether it's before or after September 11, 2001.

What's your 9/11 story?

And for those of you who remember, I'd also love to hear your stories about the day Pearl Harbor was attacked and the day JFK was assassinated. What were you doing? How did you hear about it? How did you feel? What was the reaction of those around you? How has it affected you since that day?

For SKEA

Sail Boats on San Diego Bay

" I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain."

James Baldwin

I recently added Enya's most recent CD, "Amarantine", to my music collection. According to Wikipedia it won the Grammy for Best New Age Album for 2007. The music is gorgeous and filled with Enya's trademark Celtic New Age harmonies, orchestrations, and rhythms. I love her music and am happy to have some new songs of hers. However, I haven't noticed any groundbreaking departures from her previous albums.

Now if only someone could convince Sade to put out something new.

Just in Time

I recently went with my friend Steve to Palm Springs to help him and Michael put in landscaping. After hauling decomposed granite all over the yard all morning in the desert heat and humidity (thanks to Hurricane Dean), we showered, changed, and headed to a great deli Steve just discovered. While driving to lunch we were listening to Michael's favortie radio station, which plays, according to Steve, "old lady music". My ears pricked up when I heard a distinctive voice singing one of my favorite songs and I asked, "is that Judy Garland?" And they listened for a minute and agreed it was. And they asked me which movie the song was from. And I answered that it wasn't from a movie but from her television show. Michael observed, "Tim, were you alive during her television show?" I was, but just. So Michael said I had completely redeemed my gay card.

Needless to say, I was quite relieved. They're always threatening to take it away since I'm not obsessively neat, I'm not a great dresser, and I'm not much at interior decoration. But I am a friend of Dorothy.

When I was taking voice lessons many years ago, I picked up the sheet music to this song and was not impressed. By itself it's a fairly simple song without much to grab your attention. But Judy Garland wasn't just a little lady with a big voice who wore her heart on her sleeve. She also had an amazing ear that enabled her to stay with an orchestra through very complex arrangements. Many arrangers will change keys in the middle of a song to add some energy to it. For Judy, Mort Lindsay created this arrangement that changes key 4 times. And she's not following the orchestra into the new key, she's going there first. For 2 of the key changes she doesn't even take a breath. While holding a note she just kicks it up a notch. And after all that, to end as solidly as she does is not as easy or inevitable as she makes it look.