This song recalls for me another springtime and the bittersweet memory of my first love, more than half a century ago. I've written about Pat before, if you care to read the story - that chaste and secret love we shared came to a sad ending, but I've never forgotten the sunshine days of fun and friendship - that special cameraderie of boys becoming men together.
Other loves and other disappointments followed; but at this late age, living contentedly with M.P., I realize how blessed I was to have those friendships and passing joys. How true the saying is - better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.
Yesterday, I happened to come across this recording by the Mike Faraci Band, a local NYC group, which is an amzingly good cover of the 1972 Badfinger original. Huh. How do those young'uns even know about such antique music, I wonder.
By the way, Mike is a man of parts: lead singer, guitarist, composer, artist, interior designer, and is highly skilled at carpentry and other DIY projects. Rather studly, too. Check out this tour of his New York City apartment - his aesthetic is not mine, but I can appreciate what he's done with colors, textures, and light:
As my longtime truckbuddies know, I've pretty much given up following or blogging about politics lately - it's all too terribly sad, and totally disgusting. But I did watch the astonishing New York mayoral returns last night, and I listened to Mamdani's victory speech; a cinematic finale to a hard-fought campaign by a political upstart.
So come January 1st, New York will have a Muslim socialist mayor from Uganda. That's a scenario even Hollywood wouldn't have tried to put over -- "What? Nah, nobody would believe that." I'm not sure what to think about it. New York, you know, is a whole 'nother world from Texas. What's normal here is considered bizarre there, and vice versa. So I will reserve judgment until I see what he does in the job.
Right now, Mamdani is an unknown quantity: a youngster with lots of idealism but no executive experience - and more than a little naivete, too. But what's apparent to all is that Mamdani is a born politico, and Fate has dealt him a mighty good hand of cards. Call it charisma. It's what makes people sit up and listen.
First of all, he's a sexy guy - handsome, smart, witty, friendly, talkative, flashing a megawatt smile often and easily. He'd be the life of any party he cared to drop in on. These things shouldn't count for much in politics, but of course they do. Imagine if an unknown 33-year-old Woody Allen had run for office, saying all the same things Mamdani has said - would he be in the driver's seat now? I think not.
Besides his looks and personality, the other thing that stands out is that he's got balls. At this dark moment in our history, when so many others who ought to be leading the resistance are quaking in their boots, afraid of the Orange Wrath, Mamdani seems ready and eager to face off with the Tyrant. No fear. No worry. Bring it on. You have to admire a guy with that kind of guts.
One more thing that stands out is his cocksure confidence that he is right. He doesn't beat around the bush; he knows what he wants to do, and states it plainly. Promising free goodies is always a crowd-pleasing strategy, on the right or the left. The possibility of being wrong or mistaken doesn't seem to enter his mind. That may show leadership ability - or foolhardiness. A little time in office running the biggest, grittiest, most contentious city in the world will surely temper his juvenile certainties.
But beyond all that, the headline of this article from The Atlantic - "Mamdani Is the Foil Trump Wants" - made me realize what the dramatic set-up is here, the protagonist and antagonist. David and Goliath. Wow. Oh wow. This will make great reading in the history books of the future. All the elements and players are coming together now, and the drama will proceed to the climax step by step.
Of course, no one can foresee with certainty the eventual outcome. But I say, firebrand socialist or not, thank God somebody is standing up for truth, justice, and the American way! Cometh the hour, cometh the man.
So go make some popcorn and stay tuned. This is gonna be quite a showdown.
These New York commuters going to and from work on July 17, 1964, remind me very much of the grown-ups in the world that I grew up in, down in a small Southern city (not a small town - there is a difference): a world that was not quite ideal and certainly not perfect - but, as these mundane scenes suggest, an intelligible world that was still for the most part orderly and coherent, where grown-ups went off to work well dressed and well behaved, and just got on with the business of living. Most of them, most of the time, anyway. The contrast between then and now provides much room for reflection.
Just mute the annoying soundtrack and enjoy a few minutes of time travel. I wonder how many things you can spot that aren't around much anymore, like newspapers.
One of the movies playing at a theater passed by the camera.
Back when talkies were the Big New Thing, Fox Movietone News put a camera and microphone on a truck and drove through the Times Square district on a day of melting snow: a fascinating glimpse of life just as it was then.
British Movietone News did something similar in London around the same time: this selection begins with the procession of King George V and Queen Mary to the State Opening of Parliament in the Gold State Coach. Also featured are the wedding of the Duke of Westminster, and Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and his Cabinet.
Last Friday, President Obama announced that he has designated the Stonewall Inn in New York City, along with Christopher Park across the street and some other properties in the vicinity, as America's newest national monument, commemorating the modern gay rights movement that began there 47 years ago last night.
The official text of the presidential proclamation is here.
Ya know, guys, it continues to take my breath away to realize how far we've come just in my lifetime - when Stonewall happened, I was a closeted, totally isolated teenager in a world where merely the word homosexual was loathsome and unmentionable. But now that I'm an old man, the President of the United States has declared a gay bar a national monument. Incredible.
As usual, the Empire State Building is lit up with the colors of the rainbow for three nights this weekend during NYC Pride. This year is the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots that mark the beginning of the modern gay-rights era. I'm sure nobody at the time ever thought they would see such a fabulous sight as this.
A quirky little art film made not long before the eighty-year-old railway was demolished in 1955. A reminder that the familiar world is always passing away, and the new is always rushing at us.
This may be old news to some of you city boys who keep up with all the latest developments, but your Head Trucker is awed by his discovery today that a new building just went up in New York City that is actually - beautiful. My God, what a concept. Here's the pics to prove it:
Ralph Lauren had the new digs put up to house his womenswear collection at 72nd Street and Madison, across from his existing store in the old Rhinelander mansion, which is now going to be exclusively for menswear. Actually, I think the new place has a more masculine look, and it sure is handsome. It's faced with Indiana limestone in Beaux Arts style - done by a New York architectural firm that up till now has been known for glass-and-steel postmodern monstrosities.
I don't care anything about Ralph Lauren's brand-name stuff - I've never seen anything he made that I had the least hankering for. But I sure do like his style of building. Who knew that this kind of construction could even be done anymore? But you see it certainly can - if people want to. They just haven't wanted to for the last sixty years or so, and more's the pity. Architecture on a human scale, with details lovingly crafted, adds a great deal to the enjoyment of life - unlike the slick, faceless, soulless creations of recent decades that have littered the urban wasteland for far too long now.
But this warms my heart, a work of fine craftsmanship - my hat's off to all the guys who worked so hard and so well on this job, especially the stonemasons and iron workers. I love it, hope more architects will be inspired to do likewise. More pics of this beauty here and here, check it out.
In the midst of anger and outrage, this heartening news: Connecticut gays and lesbians began marrying today as fully equal citizens of that state. At the moment, gay couples can marry in Connecticut and Massachusetts; Rhode Island and New York state recognize those marriages.
Civil unions equivalent to marriage at the state level can be had in Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and yes, California (called domestic partnerships there). Domestic partnerships with fewer rights than marriage are available in Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Oregon, Washington state, and the District of Columbia. No same-sex unions of any kind are recognized by the federal government, thus depriving gay couples of 1,138 rights and benefits under federal law.
But that did not deter the happy couples in Connecticut today. All best wishes to them.
And in New York City, 15,000 marchers protested the passage of Proposition 8, a huge demonstration that apparently came off very peacefully, I'm very happy to say. The LGBT community is galvanized across the country now, in an unprecedented grassroots network organized via the Internet as Rex Wockner reports, and it will be interesting to see how many turn out for the National Day of Protest called for this Saturday, the 15th.
(Pic of NYC marchers at Columbus Circle: Honk to Blabbeando)
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.
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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.
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My Story
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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.
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