It isn't just the South

 "For us in the South, the family is a field where craziness grows like weeds", Jim Grimsely.

10 Books Anyone who Knows a Gay Man and Every Gay Man Should Read

1.   Dream Boy by Jim Grimsley
2.   Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story by Paul Monette
3.   Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir by Paul Monette
4.   Last Watch of The Night: Essays Too Personal and Otherwise by Paul Monette
5.   Love Alone: Eighteen Elegies For Rog by Paul Monette
6.   Reflections of a Rock Lobster by Aaron Fricke
7.   The Best Little Boy in the World by Andrew Tobias
8.   Queer in America by Michelangelo Signorile
9.   Comfort & Joy by Jim Grimsley
10. City Of Night by John Rechy

What words could describe or explain my delight with this?

What Marley Said:

Marley

As certainly as if he were speaking English, Marley came up to me on the couch tonight, and dropped his red ball in my lap.  It is one of those hollow balls with a hole in it just large enough for one treat to fall out of it, if it is rolled just the right way.
Marley put his 2 front paws on the couch, and got eye level with me, and looked at the ball, then looked at me, at the ball, then me.  Then he just stared at me, and what I heard him communicate to me with his body language was this, "Hey, guy, this thing is broken.  Usually every morning when you leave this place, I stay here and roll this thing around, and delicious little chunks of things fall out of it.  Well, I am telling you it is broken, because for the last two days, nothing has fallen out of it.  So please fix it guy, please, please, please!!!  Today I had to get into the sink and get a double walled, insulated cup out of there that looks like it cost a lot of money, and I had to eat the whole thing, and it wasn't even delicious.  So please guy, fix this ball so it works when you leave.  Thanks, I'm going to leave it here with you for a minute."
If Marley could have shrugged his shoulders while he looked away to the left and raised his eyebrows, he absolutely would have.

Song Dedication: Lonnie Appleby

I don't know why this song reminds me of Lonnie, perhaps it is because the perfect hair and outfit of the really cute lead singer looks like it could have been stolen right off of Lonnie any Saturday night before 1995.  Maybe it is the way Lonnie used to walk into the bar, as if he was always walking to the beat of this song.
Lonnie has always had all the style and class of a tuxedo model, and the mouth of Mae West.  He is one of my favorite people ever.

More news on Marcellus Andrews

15 seconds ago

• Thanks for posting this Jim. Waterloo police have not indicated that they are pursuing this as a hate crime, nor have there been any leads. This isn't NYC, it is Waterloo, Iowa. They need to find these kids.
• 

  Waterloo teen dies from beating injuries

  wcfcourier.com
  
  

Song Dedication: Stacie O'Connor to me

Stacie gave me this song the same night I gave her my song to her.
I love this song, and it has been on every playlist I have had since then.

Song Dedication: Scott Dolch

Scott Dolch is one of the smartest guys I've ever known.  One night in the fall of 1990, he was dropping me off at home, and he asked me, "do you like any country music?"  I thought he was crazy, he had to know I didn't like country, but he gave me this tape, and told me to listen to it and I might change my mind.  He told me how it wasn't country really, but blah blah blah, I stopped listening.  He was my friend, so I took the tape.
That tape began a life long love affair with strong female voices and singer/songwriter style songs.  It lead me to the Indigo Girls and Disappear Fear, and strangely to the Avett Brothers 20 years later.  That's not why Scott is smart, but because he is smart, I listened to something I may never have, if anyone else had given it to me, and it changed the way I feel about music.

Song Dedication: Billy Graham

If love and amazing sex were enough to make a relationship last forever, I would still be with Billy Graham.  I love Billy today as much as the first moment I laid eyes on him in his waiter's uniform in a Dubuque, Iowa restaurant.  Love and great sex can't make a relationship last forever, but Billy is one of the great loves of my life, and I will never for a moment regret knowing him.  This song makes me think of Billy whenever I hear it.  I am just sorry it couldn't be sung by someone with enough passion to rise up to the lyrical meaning of the song.  And the bleep word is FUCK, but the way she sings it, it could just as easily be sew.

Marcellus Andrews, 19, Murdered for Being Gay in Waterloo, IA

This child was murdered in IOWA this week for being Gay.

Read the story on Towleroad Marcellus Andrews Murdered

This is the town where Michele and Marcus Bachmann have been spreading their anti-Gay bile for months.

I have a feeling we would have heard more about this kid's murder in Iowa if he were white, or rich, or both.

Keep checking this blog for updates.  If the Waterloo Police do not act to quickly arrest and prosecute the murderers, we will appeal to Iowa's Attorney General to take over the case.

Song Dedication: Stacie O'Connor

Are you lucky enough to have a friend that fate brought you?  I am that lucky.  Stacie O'Connor has been my friend for more than half my life.  She is the kind of friend that I don't need to see or talk to every day, or every year, but I know that my feelings for her are so deep and intimate, that proximity is not a requirement of our friendship.  Her love and friendship are so important to me, they are one of my most prized possessions.  I would not have made it through my early 20's were it not for her love and support.  I gave her this song when she went off to be with her husband, and I was afraid that because of the itinerant nature of my lifestyle, I would never see her again.  It is not really a song that either of us would love because of the style of music, but the words were perfect.

Song Dedication: Duane Smith and Jeff Hildreth

This is the first song Duane gave me.
I love this song.
I gave it to Jeff Hildreth in the early 2000's, when I made him a Blue Eyed Boy CD, or if I didn't, I meant to.