Pic of the Day

Summer Debate

I watched the debate, fell asleep towards the end, and didn’t have time to write a proper post. I hope everyone is enjoying the summer.

Pic of the Day

Pic of the Day

Rough Trade

As I said Friday, I went to the Burly Bears: Rough Trade get together. I arrived at Red Square and paid my cover charge, got a drink, and looked for the Burly Bears. I saw no one that fit the bill. I sat outside and listened to the band that was playing. Nothing seemed to scream Burly Bears. Then I spotted a group of guys come out and smoke that looked the part, but then they disappeared. I knew there was supposed to be a DJ and there wasn’t one in sight. I ended up texting a friend of mine that is familiar with all things Burlington and asked her if I was missing something. Was there a secret room somewhere? She said there was a small room kind of hidden in the back for parties. She was right, you could smell the men before you got there. I have to admit it’s an intoxicating smell: sweat, testosterone, and manliness. I remember it from the first time I entered a gay bar in New Orleans. I’d finally found it, but what exactly had I found? 

The room was full of old men and young men, but nothing in between. Some were dressed in rough trade outfits, others were not. I did wear my black t-shirt, jeans, and boots, so I wasn’t totally out of place. (No picture, I completely forgot t get someone to take a pic of me.) However, I felt out of place. I knew no one there, and I’m a fairly shy person. One guy introduced himself, and I said my name back, then he walked off. I thought I might talk to other people, but everyone seeemd to know one another, and I might as well have been invisible. I’m just not that good at these things. I stuck around and people watched for a while, but eventually I was just bored. I finished my drink and after about an hour and half decided to head home.

I had fun watching the go-go dancer and some of the people watching. Next month will be “a trip to Rio: Carnival.” That might be fun. We’ll see if I go back. I’m thinking I’ll give it at least another try. The problem with Burlington, and Vermont in general, it’s a small place and everyone knows everyone, and it can be quite difficult for a newcomer. I do a little better with the drag queen events because I can take a female friend with me (I have no male friends up here). Also, I know some of the drag queens. The drag queens are friendly; the gay men, not so much. I’m not going to give up though.

Pic of the Day

From the Beginning

For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. (KJV) ( 1 John 3:11 ) 

Why does the apostle John repeat that we must love one another even though we have heard it from the beginning?  It's because of the importance of the message.  Other things get in the way, our minds get distracted, our selfish desires begin to overwhelm us.  Perhaps this is a message that fades over time and we need to remind ourselves over and over to love others more.  Is there someone you are angry at today?  If so, how can you show them your love, even though you are frustrated? 

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Moment of Zen: Coffee

Pic of the Day

Burly Bears

“Giving Trade, bitche$” Thats the headline for the party tonight. The Burly Bears is a group that puts on a monthly gay men’s party in Burlington at Red Square, a bar on Church Street. I’ve never been to one of their parties and this will be a first for me. Each month has a new theme. This month’s theme: Rough Trade. It’s 21 and over and $5 at the door. Proceeds going to People with AIDS Center Vermont!

Originally a coded term referring to a sexual partner, or alternatively, an economic exchange involving sex, today gays say Trade to evoke a hot guy who looks ready to “do business.” Rough Trade suggests a guy who is dangerous and masculine and maybe Gay for Pay.

Tonight the Burly Bears want everyone “bringing the Trade, honey!” They say to “Get that street corner attire ready and sprinkle it with some sweat and desperation and a hint of glitter, haha.” They’ll have the incomparable DJ Stephen Wallace (Montreal) spinning his characteristic sexy set!!

I can’t wait. I have my outfit ready.

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Looking Back

I’m not sure I understand how someone could just miss a meeting, but our caterer did. It’s not like I can say, we’ll go with someone else, because it’s the university caterer and we aren’t allowed. So I had to reschedule for Monday. I did, however, convince my boss that things were better done my way. If I’m going to be the public programmer, then let me do the programming. Furthermore, there are more complications to the traveling show. So my day was not fun, like I’d anticipated. 

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Looking Forward

Today might actually be a fun day at work. I get to plan food for several upcoming events. I have my ideas of how things should be done and since I am the public programmer, I will be getting my way. Quite honestly, being from the South, I know how to throw a classier party than Yankees do. We just do things better. Besides, some of my coworkers have tried to step on my toes with regard to some of the planning, but I called the meeting today and I will set the agenda. It’s all going to be good, especially when I’m planning it, lol.

Pic of the Day

On Clothes

On Clothes

 by Kahlil Gibran

And the weaver said, Speak to us of Clothes.

     And he answered:

     Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful.

     And though you seek in garments the freedom of privacy you may find in them a harness and a chain.

     Would that you could meet the sun and the wind with more of your skin and less of your raiment,

     For the breath of life is in the sunlight and the hand of life is in the wind.

 

     Some of you say, “It is the north wind who has woven the clothes we wear.”

     And it say, Ay, it was the north wind,

     But shame was his loom, and the softening of the sinews was his thread.

     And when his work was done he laughed in the forest.

     Forget not that modesty is for a shield against the eye of the unclean.

     And when the unclean shall be no more, what were modesty but a fetter and a fouling of the mind?

     And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

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Whatever Floats Your Boat

Saturday night, a coworker and I went on a nighttime cruise on Lake Champlain. It was called Whatever Floats Your Boat 3.  The night was a LGBTQ+ dance party on the Spirit of Ethan Allen, the ship that sails on Lake Champlain. Nothing says summer more than dancing under the stars. All three decks of the boat were filled with hundreds of LGBTQ+ folks mixing, mingling, and dancing the night away. Captains Nikki Champagne and Emoji Nightmare were our fabulous hosts for the evening. A dance party with DJ Crystal Jonez and variety show featuring drag, music, burlesque, comedy, and poetry was our entertainment. We mainly watched the variety show. As with all variety shows I’ve ever been to, there was some hits and misses, but overall it was a fun night.

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Control Yourself

Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.(KJV) ( Ephesians 4:26-27 ) 

Festering anger only leads to resentment and irritability, which break down relationships. While some distance may help temporarily, don't allow the issue to go unresolved. God provides peace, grace and forgiveness to all of us, and desires us to extend the same acts to others. If you're experiencing these moments with your spouse or kids, apply this tool given to us by God.

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Moment of Zen: Sleep

Pic of the Day

Psychics, Mediums, and Boats...Oh My

In October, we are having two psychics/mediums come to the museum to commune with the spirits associated with some of our objects. While I’m skeptical about much of this stuff, there have been some unexplainable things that go on at the museum. I’m actually on my way now to meet with on of our psychics/mediums. I’m not really sure what to call her. Anyway, it should be an interesting day.

Tomorrow night should be interesting as well. I’m going on a two hour gay cruise of Lake Champlain: Whatever Floats Your Boat 3. It should be a blast. There will be a dance party, a variety show, and one deck just for chillin’. I’m quite excited. Hopefully, it won’t be too hot.

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Barry

The remnants of Hurricane Barry will be passing over Vermont the next few days. That means a low pressure system is moving through. I’ve been through enough tropical storms and hurricane to know what’s coming with the low pressure systems: sinus headaches. I had to leave work early yesterday because of one. The pressure around my eyes was causing pounding pain. I hate tropical weather, and thank goodness, it rarely comes to Vermont. However, come it has. We are even expecting a heat wave this weekend. Thank goodness I have an air conditioner now. Does anyone else get affected by weather like this?

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Bored

Yesterday, I had several little articles to write for work. I got them finished fairly quickly in the morning because I was anticipating having to be in a short movie they were filming in the museum yesterday. Luckily, I got out of having to be in the film. However, that meant I had very little to do yesterday afternoon. The worst thing about being really bored is that it can give me a headache which is what happened yesterday. Starting mid afternoon and lasting until I went to bed, the headache droned on. Sadly, it looks like today will be another unexciting day.

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Bright Walls

Bright Walls
by Richie Hofmann

It was not penitence I sought, standing outside
the bedroom in the old apartment

where you had spent the night alone.
To bend, to kneel before some greater force—

that was no longer what I wished.
Clouds blew in from the coast, and I felt

the sun abandoning the window behind me,
making the bright walls suddenly colorless,

obscuring everything, for a moment,
that I wanted. When I finally entered,

I saw you still asleep—a wet strand
of hair tucked behind your ear, the husk

of your body—and lingered there for a minute,
before walking upstairs to shut the windows.

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As I Lay...

As I lay in bed, I’m wondering what the future holds this week. I have a couple of things that need to be written and a few meetings, but otherwise, who knows what’s going to happen. The funny thing is that I have an appointment to see a psychic medium on Friday. She will be doing a special program for us at the museum and we are going to meet with her to map things out.

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Always Be

Rejoice evermore. (KJV) ( 1 Thessalonians 5:16 ) 

Can you find happiness wherever you are in life? If so, this is a powerful lesson that will bless you throughout life. Otherwise, we will runaway from relationships, environments, jobs, or even cities to escape unhappiness. Ultimately we never deal with our unhappiness and carry it around to the next friendship, job, or marriage. It's helpful to recognize joy, embracing contentedness, or stop comparisons that cause you to be dissatisfied with your life. Practice identifying your joy in life. 

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Moment of Zen: Pizza

Pic of the Day

Health Update

The provider I saw yesterday (I couldn’t get in to see my doctor, so I had to see on of his PAs) gave me a new and stronger antibiotic, both to take orally and to put drops in my ear. By nightfall, my ear was feeling much better. Hopefully that will continue. Earaches are one of the worst pains, especially when the swelling reaches down to your jaw. It can make eating miserable. But I am feeling better now.

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Working Order

All my complaints yesterday are pretty much in working order again, except for my ear. At one point yesterday the pain became almost unbearable. I had to cancel my hair appointment and my date. I also had to call my doctor. I needed to know if they could do anything about the pain or give me some advice. He said to keep an ice pack on it and to keep taking pain medicine on a regular basis. Basically, don’t let the pain relief from Tylenol or Advil wear off. They also moved up my appointment from 3 pm to 10:45 am today. I’m assessing how I feel right now, and will decide soon if I will go to work or not this morning. If all is okay after the doctor’s appointment, I may go in then, but it’s according to the pain level.

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How I Feel

Not too well, to be honest. The putting in of the temporary crown was an ordeal. By ordeal, I mean that it took nearly two hours to do. It wasn’t painful except for the Novocain shots. Otherwise it was just boring and uncomfortable. As for the earache, it still hurts quite a bit. I can’t even close my mouth all the way because the swelling goes down into my jaw. Not to mention that it hurts to eat. Earaches are just miserable. At least some of the swelling has gone down, but not by much. And then there is my back. Monday evening I was getting in some groceries when all of a sudden my lower back started to spasm. Now every step I take hurts. It’s ok if I’m still, but moving is painful. It did get some better yesterday, but was hurting when I went to bed last night, oh and let’s not forget that along with the earache, I have a headache that just won’t go away, I’ll probably have it until my ear clears up. 

Yet, I have to go into work anyway and be productive. Today, I have two meetings. I guarantee they will be boring. Then I go get my haircut in the evening. After that, I sort of have a date, but only if my back is feeling better.

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Book of Statues

Book of Statues
by Richie Hofmann

Because I am a boy, the untouchability of beauty
is my subject already, the book of statues
open in my lap, the middle of October, leaves
foiling the wet ground
in soft copper. “A statue
must be beautiful
from all sides,” Cellini wrote in 1558.
When I close the book,
the bodies touch. In the west,
they are tying a boy to a fence and leaving him to die,
his face unrecognizable behind a mask
of blood. His body, icon
of loss, growing meaningful
against his will.

About This Poem
“I was eleven years old when Matthew Shepard was murdered in 1998; he died on the twelfth of October. Around the same time, I was working on a school project on Italian Renaissance sculptures, so many of which depict male nudes. These two events are linked in my mind, as I think it was the first time I began to glimpse the costs of being a body that desires.”
—Richie Hofmann