Renowned actor and hearthrob Richard Chamberlain has died at his home in Hawaii, two days before his 91st birthday. The handsome star of stage and screen came out as gay in his 2003 autobiography.
Excerpt from a Television Academy Foundation interview in 2010 about life in the closet and coming out:
I well recall when Chamberlain was TV's popular Dr. Kildarefrom 1961 to 1966 - but I don't remember watching his show. My family watched the swarthy Ben Casey instead.
I liked Chamberlain a lot better with hair on his face, as in the costume dramas of the 1970s (The Three Musketeers, The Four Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Man in the Iron Mask). Now that was entertainment!
Ya know, fellas, I can't keep up with all the bad news, even if I wanted to. Our national nightmare keeps spiralling further and further into polymorphic perversion and raving madness. And did I mention all deliberate stupidity with malice aforethought? Between bouts of nauseated disgust and horrified astonishment, I have to turn my mind to pleasant subjects before it goes right off the rails. So I intersperse my news & opinion posts with more inspiring thoughts, or pretty things, to keep myself calm and stable here in the happy little cottage M.P. and I share. Maybe you can relate.
A few noteworthy political items follow, just for the record.
In the third of his four lectures on the history of homosexuality in early modern Europe, Sir Noel Malcolm eludcidates the very different patterns of male-male sexual behavior between Southern Europe and Northern Europe. He also examines the camp behaviors and cross-dressing that occurred in the "molly houses" (somewhat equivalent to gay bars) in early 1700s England.
Along the way, he demolishes the pernicious assertion of Michel Foucault and other writers that "homosexuals" by whatever name they were called simply did not exist in the pre-modern era. Of course they did. We have always been part of the human race, a natural variation, just as in the animal kingdom. See my recommended reading list under Sir Noel's first lecture here.
There are some very timely thoughts in Father David's homily on yesterday's Gospel lesson, Luke 13:1-9:
At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them--do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."
What I Say: Father David is a brilliant man, a fine speaker; but his thoughts today leave us up in the air. Christianity, in my view, is not so incomprehensible as he seems to suggest. There are mysteries and imponderables; but the essential message of Christ seems clear and plain to me: trust in God and do good, loving your neighbor as yourself. This message was also given by the Hebrew prophets: What doth God require of thee, O man, but to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with thy God?
Here is a favorite psalm of your Head Trucker's which also bears a timely message for us today. The painting beautifully illustrates the storm recorded in Luke 8:22-25.
Let's begin the first Sunday of spring with a breezy little version of the old standard by Jack Jezzro and Beegie Adair. We've got 64 degrees and blue skies here in Texas, heading up to a balmy 82. I hope all my truckbuddies are enjoying fair weather and feeling fine today.
Clint Collide celebrates the male gaze. Boy howdy!
Historical note: The height of fashion when I was in high school, say from 1965 to 1969, is exmplified by the two young men at the :30 mark. A very neat look: the still-short hair parted on the side and falling over the forehead a bit; shirts tucked in, even when not in school; belt worn at the traditional waistline, instead of down around the hips; and tapered legs ending a couple inches above the ankle, the better to show off your cotton socks, which came in a rainbow of colors in the late 60s. It was extremely chic to have your socks match your shirt, so it looked as if you were poured into your pants. Though outside of school, it was de rigeur to wear your penny loafers without socks - and believe me when I tell you, there is nothing quite so enticing as the sight of a well-turned bare ankle, preferably tanned from spending weekends in the sun. Seriously.
Contrary to careless artists' depictions, men and boys and even hippies did NOT wear bell-bottoms in the 1960s, at least not in the Deep South where I grew up - but go study some movies made in the 60s and you will find confirmation. Girls started with the bell-bottoms in 1965 or so - a la Cher - but we guys had to wait until the fall of 1969, and even then, what the stores were selling were flares, not true bell-bottoms, which were hard to find, even in jeans. I remember all this distinctly, since I was at the age when fashion first becomes all-important to a young (gay) man.
The hair got a little longer year by year, and then in the fall of 1969, mustaches and mutton-chop sideburns were all the rage for those who could grow them. I was still shaving just once a week or so, bummer. Plus I was in a very strict, fundamentalist church which forbade long hair and all such sinful things (the Bible says!).
(O/T) But I made up for it later, after I left the church:
Junior college graduate, 1977
Ready for fun in the sun, spring 1979 - my arms and legs were hairier than they appear in the strong sunshine.
Another bright spring day in 1979, before I came out. Twenty years later, I was getting a cowboy buzz cut. (See photo under "My Story" in the sidebar > > >) Nowadays, it's anything goes, I guess.
Sir Noel is soft-spoken, so when I watched it, I turned up the volume, slowed the playback speed to 85%, and turned on the captions - which, however, are often ludicrous when he is quoting a foreign phrase. I'll be posting the rest of the series once a week.
You can see last week's episode here, along with my recommended reading list in gay history.
Special Report: Just how do those crazy, wild-eyed, radical homosexuals go about destroying the American family, bringing down the wrath of God, and ruining everything for everybody? See the facts for yourself in this Blue Truck report . . .
In spring, teh gayz get all misty-eyed at the thought of a rainbow of blooming flowers in the yard. So these boys went a-huntin' for plants and bulbs this past weekend, and added some new ones to their cabin garden, up in the scenic North Georgia mountains. They also did a bit of renovation work in the upstairs bathroom. A sweet couple - I admire their manual skills and home-loving hard work.
M.P. and I used to go plant shopping in the spring, but we're older and tireder now, and once we get down on the ground, we can't get back up again! We really need to find a studly sturdy young man to help with the lawn and garden this year - can't pay much, but we'd feed him well.
Rachel Maddow reports: Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) last week loudly called out Republicans in Congress who are enabling the Trump-Musk attack on Social Security. Finally, someone in Congress got hot and bothered!
Jim runs a vintage radio repair shop in a small town north of Toronto. He rightly feels utterly betrayed by America right now.
[America] has become a predator and we have become prey. . . The trust between me and Americans is gone, and it will never come back. I won't live long enough to ever trust them again. We've been played for fools by the Americans.
This American is deeply ashamed and totally disgusted, Jim, by what the American Tyrant is doing to your country and all our friends around the world. There is no excuse, no good reason for it, just one evil man's greed and lust for supreme power over the whole North American continent. I know saying "I'm sorry" isnt good enough.
But please remember, all of you out there, that half of us VOTED AGAINST THE TYRANT. We foresaw clearly what he would do if elected. And we are all outraged at the way he is destroying our own government day by day. We share your hurt, your anger, and your dismay. We just don't know how to stop him yet. We are sheep without a shepherd at the moment.
Notice the difference in the popular vote - only 1.5 percent. So never forget there are many millions of Americans who oppose the tyranny. From Wikipedia.
But you have to stand up to the bully. The only thing any bully respects is strength, and a punch in the nose. We know you have to protect yourselves, so do what you have to do. Don't go down without a fight. We'll understand, and keep praying for a speedy return to "sunny ways" between our nations.
P. S. -- I must not omit to say Thank You, Canada for all your many acts of kindness and brotherhood over the years. I well recall that your people in Tehran sheltered some of our people during the hostage crisis back in the 70s. And how you sheltered hundreds of our stranded citizens during the no-fly period after 9/11. And how I watched and wept with joy when your Parliament legalized gay marriage long before it was possible down here. This Southerner couldn't live in your fierce winter climate - but I've kept a friendly eye on Canada for many years now. You're my secret valentine. God bless and protect you all.
The subject has always been fascinating to your Head Trucker, for obvious reasons, and I have read quite a bit about it. Sir Noel looks just as you might expect an Oxbridge professor to look: old-fashioned haircut, wire-rimmed glasses, and slightly rumpled suit; but he's not stuffy at all, and he really knows his stuff, so what he has to say is well worth your time.
This lecture gives an overview of same-sex relations in the Mediterranean countries in the early modern period (the era formerly known as the Renaissance). Sir Noel is soft-spoken, so I turned up the volume, slowed the playback speed to 85%, and turned on the captions - which, however, are often ludicrous when he is quoting a foreign phrase. I'll be posting the rest of the series once a week.
Bonus: Your Head Trucker recommends these books for further reading in gay history.
Allen Bernstein, Millions of Homos (Our Queer America), 1940 (unpublished typescript available in PDF format).
Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization, 2003. (A 640-page masterpiece, surveying homosexuality in major cultures from East to West, and from antiquity to the 18th century.)
They are trying to break this agency in order to turn the public against it, so they can privatize it, liquidate it, and steal at least a portion or all of the 2.7 trillion that’s in the trust fund.
--Martin O'Malley, former Commisioner of the Social Security Administration
Deadline White House:
Morning Joe:
Just wait till Ma and Pa in Hooterville, or Houston, stop getting their monthly checks and have to pay the doctor in cash. If this horrific news doesn't provoke a spontaneous MAGA uprising against the Tyrant, I don't know what will.
And what's happening with all your personal records in the federal files? Who's got all the private, personal information about you now, and what will they do with it?
Not to mention that the Tyrant and his filthy-rich hitman are doing their damnedest to crash the whole American economy. It won't hurt them a bit; and they don't give a damn who suffers from their orgy of destruction. I'm afraid it's going to be a long, dark night ahead, fellas. Buckle up and hang on.
After his baptism, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread."
Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'"
Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours."
Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"
Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"
Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.
--Luke 4:1-13
"Through compassion and self-giving, through self-emptying and generosity, we are invited to glimpse this ultimate reality . . . . 'In Christ, God becomes human so that humans may become God, sharing in the diving nature.'"
I'm sure all my truckbuddies will join in my condolences to Dolly - a longtime supporter of the gay community - who lost her huband Carl this week after 60 years of marriage. What a blessing.
I couldn't watch the Tyrant's speech last night - it nauseated me. Bernie's response is golden. I might quibble over the nuances of some of his proposals, but he is holding up the torch of American democracy, and God bless him for that. Bernie is a great patriot, a real American, keeping hope alive.
Moulton, you may remember, made an unauthorized trip with former Rep. Peter Meijer to see firsthand the conditions facing our troops during the Afghanistan withdrawal in August 2021, which I blogged about here.
I could say more, but I cannot improve on the eloquence of the Blue Dot in Texas, who tells it like it is:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, harmony; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that I may seek not so much to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
.
We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.
and welcome to the Blue Truck, a blog for mature gay men with news and views on gay rights, history, art, humor, and whatever comes to mind. Plus a few hot men. The truck's all washed and gassed up, so hop in buddy, let's go.
CAUTION: For mature gay men only beyond this point. Some posts and links may not be suitable for children or the unco guid. You have been warned.
Insert valid picture ID with date of birth now, or click here.
My Story
click photograph to read
Churches say that the expression of love in a heterosexual monogamous relationship includes the physical, the touching, embracing, kissing, the genital act - the totality of our love makes each of us grow to become increasingly godlike and compassionate. If this is so for the heterosexual, what earthly reason have we to say that it is not the case with the homosexual?
It is a perversion if you say to me that a person chooses to be homosexual. You must be crazy to choose a way of life that exposes you to a kind of hatred. It's like saying you choose to be black in a race-infected society.
If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn't worship that God.
