Who Sounds Gay?

A 2015 op-ed from the New York Times explores the question:

 

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Sunday Drive: This Is My Song (Finlandia)

The poignant hymn, most apropos today, as performed by British octet Voces8:

 

Lyrics from the YouTube summary: 

Verses 1&2 by Lloyd Stone, v.3 Blake Morgan, Voces 8 tenor  

This is my song, O God of all the nations, 

A song of peace for lands afar and mine. 

This is my home, the country where my heart is, 

Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine. 

But other hearts in other lands are beating, 

With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine. 

My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean, 

And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine. 

But other lands have sunlight too, and clover, 

And skies are everywhere as blue as mine. 

*This is my song, O God of all the nations, 

A song of peace for their land and for mine. 

So let us raise this melody together, 

Beneath the stars that guide us through the night; 

If we choose love, each storm we’ll learn to weather, 

Until true peace and harmony we find, 

This is our song, a hymn we raise together; 

A dream of peace, uniting humankind. 

*modified from Stone’s original poetry 

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Waitin' for the Weekend

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In Memoriam: The Innocents of Uvalde

I have no words for this unspeakable horror, only tears. And rage at the unspeakable politicians who allow these massacres to go on and on, and do nothing about it.

FYI:  Contrary to what President Biden and Senator Chris Murphy have said today, these mass shootings do not happen "only in America."  They have been happening all over the world in the last quarter-century, even in totalitarian states like Russia.  But other countries have done something about it.  Here are a couple of Wikipedia articles for further reading and reflection:

• Mass shooting (with links to articles on individual countries) 

• Overview of gun laws by nation 

• The Gun Violence Archive has a wealth of verified statistics on mass shootings in the U. S.

Update:  See hotheaded Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke get in the face of bobbleheaded Governor Greg Abbott:

 

And watch the running sore known as Senator Ted Cruz flee from questioning by a British newsman:

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Bluebonnets

The state flower of Texas, in case you didn't know.

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Sunday Drive: Bach, Air on the G String

Water Lilies - The Clouds, Monet, 1903

For my truckbuddies, five minutes of tranquil beauty - as performed by Hauser.

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Waitin' for the Weekend

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Old Gays Look Back at Their Younger Selves

No comment. 

 

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Sunday Drive: The Supremes Sing Rodgers and Hart

Even in a world of woe, there must be times of refreshment and joy.  I always get a lift when I listen to one of my favorite albums by the fabulous Supremes, which was released in May, 1967 - fifty-five years ago, strange to say.  

(Where does the time go?  Not until old age do you realize how very fleeting it is, and how short a span is one human life:  like the grass of the field.)

I did not know till now that they also did a TV special featuring the songs from that album; here is an excerpt, with the late, great Bobby Darrin joining in on a few numbers.  I hope you enjoy this fragment of musical history as much as I did.

You can listen to all the album tracks, plus others that were not included on the original release, on YouTube here.

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Waitin' for the Weekend

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Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love

Your Head Trucker is out of the loop, so he just now discovered that two Texas guys. Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell, have recently published a high-quality book containing hundreds of old photographs of male couples from the 1850s to the 1950s.  Sweet.  Signed copies of the book, as well as selected prints, can be purchased on their website here.

Some of the photos have circulated on the internet for many years, but others are new discoveries.  I understand that all the photos were scanned in ultra-high resolution prior to publication.  Not all of these couples were necessarily gay - though some very obviously were - but on the whole, it's a delightful record of a century of male couples in loving poses.

First, here's how Hugh and Neal met:

And here's how they started their collection:

 

And this is a video sampler of some of the 3000-plus photographs in the collection:

 

Apparently, a documentary film is in the works, but I can't find it on YouTube yet.

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Sunday Drive: In the Garden

Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae sing the beloved 1912 hymn:

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Waitin' for the Weekend - Limited Edition

N O T I C E   T O   O U R   C U S T O M E R S

Your Head Trucker is pleased to announce that the Blue Truck has received clearance from the CDC to resume offering a selection of hot men, subject to availability.  Supply-chain issues may preclude weekly deliveries, however.  As always, we guarantee satisfaction or your money back.

Note:  This offer limited to one order per household.  The Blue Truck assumes no liability for use or misuse of our products beyond the point of delivery.  Unpackage with care and follow all directions.  PPE gear not included.  Swim at your own risk.

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Being Homosexual

I hadn't planned to run a series of gay documentaries on the Blue Truck, but I guess YouTube finally figured out that I am gay and is now pushing a lot of these in front of me.  This one is an HBO documentary, first aired in May 1984:  a very different time for gay people.  Video quality is not great, but it's watchable, and still relevant to our experience in many ways.

By the way, the gay man in the screen shot below, identified only as Tom in this video, was Dr. Tom Waddell, founder of the Gay Games.

For the record:  In 1984, President Reagan was starting his fourth year in office, the word condom had never been said on television, and the AIDS crisis was a growing menace, still largely occurring in the big, far-away cities. What we had heard about it down here was damn scary, but what caused it and what to do about it were still uncertain. There were no antiviral treatments, so the diagnosis was a death sentence. The term safe sex was not yet in common parlance.  Rock Hudson's diagnosis was not made public until a year later, a few months before he died.  

If you want to revisit the plague era, here's a compilation of gay-related clips from the NBC news archives spanning the whole decade.  In some ways, it was a very different era; in others, not so much, maybe.  We still have to deal with the haters and the homophobes, who nowadays are constantly inflamed by social media and fanatical "news" channels - but at least for now, the law is on our side.  I sure hope it stays that way.

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The Pork Boys Do Easter, 2022

 A few pics of our Easter feast this year.  Click any picture to enlarge.

Prologue:  Homemade bread and store-bought wine for Maundy Thursday.

Our custom is to have a white table for Easter.  It looks particularly pretty in the afternoon sunlight.

M.P. made the centerpiece of colored eggshells and artificial flowers.

Appetizers!  Clockwise from the left:

1.  Fried won tons - a favorite of M.P.'s

2.  Deviled eggs, which we both love, surrounding assorted olives and bits of fontina cheese.

3.  Chicken puffs - delicious swirls of choux pastry filled with minced chicken and gently warmed in the toaster oven to give them a light, delicate crunch.

--continued after the jump--

Sunday Drive: It Might As Well Be Spring

Beautiful Shirley Jones sings the Rodgers and Hart tune on the Danny Thomas Show, 1959:

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