Inspirational

Ok, so the guy in this video goes out of his way to say that he is straight, but I can still dream, right? Well, straight or not, he's hot (and he totally looks like he's visualizing topping someone at the phrase "so in love when we're together" at 1:45 into the song).

Click below to see more, er, "inspiration"....

No More Shirtless British Guys?

Britain's Daily Mail reports that authorities around England are considering laws that would ban men from removing their shirts in certain public places. Calling the behavior "anti-social," the police are hoping to use the new authority these laws would provide to force men such as these....





....to go back inside and spare the public from involuntary regurgitation. Nicholas Bennett, the former government minister who is leading the charge to enact these laws, says that such displays of flabbiness hurt businesses and sometimes result in aggressive behavior. Said Bennett: "It is an unfortunate thing, but those men who like best to bare their stomachs are the ones who have too much stomach." Read the full article here.

At press time of this blog post, rumors were circulating that an alternate law was being considered that would give discretionary authority to the gay population rather than police as to whether or not a man could remove his shirt. If approved, this measure would allow licensed gay men to require a man to put his shirt back on (or in serious cases, just to go home). But it would also allow the "torso inspector" to perform random, unannounced inspections of men on the street and have them remove their shirts when appropriate as part of citywide "beautification projects."

Click below to see examples of some of the promotional literature that argues for the merits of allowing (or even encouraging) certain acts of shirtlessness, so long as it is overseen by qualified licensed professionals...

31 Things About Me

Today is my birthday. My life has been an amazing adventure so far, and I enter this next year of my life with a greater awareness of how blessed I am than ever before. This past year was, without a doubt, the most difficult year of my life. From intense personal loss that resulted in pain beyond anything I had imagined and upheaval in every area of my life, to major financial straits for my employer that has increased the stress and decreased the enjoyment of my job, to watching some of the dearest people in my life deal with startling and devastating news, the past year is one to which I am glad to say goodbye.

But, having spent so much of the past year down in the valley rather than up on the mountain, I have been able to view my life from a perspective I had not given much consideration before. And it is here in the valley that I have realized that my life is filled and overflowing with friends and family who love me!

Perhaps this is such a simple concept that I ought to have learned it many years ago, but it was not until this year that it began to sink in that there are people who, when they think about me, that emotion of love wells up within them and stirs them to act in good ways towards me. It seems perfectly natural to act in unselfish and self-sacrificing ways towards those who I love: my parents, my brother, my grandmother, numerous dear friends in Chicago and elsewhere. But to actually think and ponder on the fact that many of those people, when they think about me(!), something moves them from a place deep inside, and they give to my life without thought of getting anything in return. What did I do to deserve even one of these people in my life, and yet I have not one, but many, who act toward me with this type of love.

So, to those of you reading this who are dear to me (and I hope I have lived in such a way that you already know who you are), thank you for helping me through this past year. I hope that, as I find myself daily gaining ground and ascending out of the deep valley, I will have opportunities in the coming year to show the same love to you that you have shown to me. It is my hope and prayer that we will share that love in circumstances where both are experiencing celebration and comfort. But, should you find yourself down in that valley, here's someone who has spent a lot of time there recently, and I am glad to go back with you and come alongside and show you the way back out again.

Recently I shared this video of Savage Garden's song "Crash and Burn" with a friend going through difficult circumstances. It has been one of the most significant songs in my life, and, on today my birthday, I post it here as a promise to my loved ones in the year to come (note especially the various quotes on the screen throughout the video and the beautiful, heart-moving sign language at the end).

And finally, here is my 31st birthday "31 Things About Me" list (done in the style of the popular '50 Things About Me' lists). Prepare to be fascinated.

1. I was 13 years old before I saw snow fall from the sky.
2. This month (July 2006) begins my 25th year of playing the piano.
3. If I had been a girl, my name would be "Amelia Elizabeth" (its meaning is almost the same as my given male name).
4. Every male in my generation on my dad's side of the family is gay.
5. One month to the day before my 28th birthday, I did several things for the first time....I went to a bar for the first time (Spin was the first...gay or straight), I drank alcohol for the first time, and I danced for the first time (yes, I had a sheltered life to that point).
6. I have lost 50 pounds since January 2005 (from 215 to 165).
   
7. On my 21st birthday, I flew to Africa for the first time.
8. While living in Africa, I have eaten numerous unusual delicacies, including monkey, termites, and dog.
9. I am an ordained (though not currently practicing) minister.
10. I have visited and photographed the gravesites of over 1,000 notable historic figures.
11. I have never had sex with a woman (haven't even gone so far as to kiss a woman sexually, for that matter).
12. As that likely indicates, I am undoubtedly a Kinsey 6.
    
13. I was salutatorian of my high school graduating class. Of course we only had 25 students, so it's not as impressive as it may sound.
14. I have never had a broken bone nor sprained anything in my life; however, I have had several significant head injuries (yes, that does explain a lot, I know).
15. One of my head injuries left me with partial hearing loss in my left ear. But I'm too stubborn to wear a hearing aid.
16. I love reading, and I am always in the middle of 5 or 6 books at a time.
17. In the realm of fiction, I love classic literature, and my favorite authors are William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.
18. In the realm of non-fiction, I love reading about US presidential history (have a large bookcase filled with presidential books).
19. My interest in presidential history extends to my travels: I have visited the gravesite of every deceased US president and all but 3 of the deceased vice-presidents. I have also visited over 130 homes that presidents lived in and all of the presidential libraries save one.
20. When I began my freshman year of college, I was one of only three students in the entire men's dormitory to have a personal computer at school (it was a top-of-the-line 386 computer....so impressive...lol).
21. I am a hopeless romantic.
22. During my seventh grade year of school, I played safety on my junior high school's football team. That was the last time I played on an organized athletic team (though I was statistician for both my high school and college soccer teams).
23. O17
24. I am the only member of my immediate family who has traveled outside of the United States (with the exceptions of visits to Niagara Falls, Canada, and Tijuana, Mexico).
25. I used to be obssessed with Garfield when I was in high school. Seriously, my entire bedroom (walls and ceiling) was covered with Garfield posters. But then I discovered porn.
26. I like porn. It keeps me out of trouble.
27. If I could choose any occupation in the world, I would be a US Senator.
28. I have physically hit another person only one time in my life (when someone my age and twice the size of my brother was beating up my brother).
29. People often describe me as even-tempered or laid back.
30. This post is taking a whole lot longer than I expected.
31. My motivation for starting and maintaining this blog is that one of my life goals is to write a book and have it published by a major publishing company. So I thought that, since my current job does not include much writing, this blog can be a good way to force me to write consistently and to be creative on a daily basis.
    

Homophobic Chicago Radio V103 Muzzles Jody Watley

Palochi reports that R&B artist and Chicago native Jody Watley, who sang "It All Begins With You" at the opening ceremony of Gay Games VII at Soldier Field in Chicago last week, was forbidden to speak of her upcoming Gay Games appearance by Chicago's V103 radio station ("Today's R&B and Old School") during an interview she graciously consented to give them. Apparently, the radio's DJ, who is a friend of Watley's family, told her before the interview that the station manager had demanded that he instruct her not to mention the Gay Games but rather only speak of her (much less significant) appearance at the Virgin Records store. Watley complied with the injunction but later spoke of her disappointment to a reporter at Soldier Field: "It just sort of reaffirms a narrow mindedness and a close mindedness that I think is very unfortunate."

I will readily admit that I was unfamiliar with Jody Watley before hearing her sing at Soldier Field, since I am not very knowledgeable about R&B music. However, after reading about her here, I must say I am very impressed with her. She seems to be a very compassionate and principled lady who has taken risks in her career to speak out for equality both in her life and her lyrics, long before it was as accepted as it is today. She has been heavily involved in fundraising for AIDS research and relief in Africa, and from what I saw on the video clip that I will include later in this post, she seems to be a very sincere and thoughtful person.

I can't improve on what Palochi wrote in his post, so I reproduce the last part here:

If you’re a listener of V-103, feel free to let them know what you think of their tactics.

WVAZ-FM V103
233 North Michigan Ave, Suite 2700
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 540-2000
http://www.v103.com/main.html
V103 is a Clear Channel Communications Property
Earl Jones, Regional VP/Market Manager
Angela T. Ingram, VP, Communications
Elroy R. C. Smith, Operations Manager
Armando Rivera, Asst. Program Director

Please be aware that parent company Clear Channel’s WKSC (KISS-FM) in Chicago is the home for “Pride Radio.”

As usual, they want our advertising and marketing revenues. But when it comes to community…

And thank you, Ms. Watley, for being such a phenomenal artist and for all you’ve done over the years to show your support for my community. You’re a class act.

Click below to see "behind the scenes" of Jody Watley at Soldier Field...

And, for further reading check out this article on Keithboykin.com.

Blog Stroking: Naked Came I

I have been meaning for a while now to start a new feature on my blog called "Blog Stroking," in which I will occasionally praise others' blogs that I have found enjoyable and hopefully show my appreciation by sending a couple readers their way.

When I saw this post titled "Racism is Ugly," I thought this would be a great time to mention Naked Came I, a blog run by a guy named Tim in Washington, D.C. As he describes it, his blog is about "Gay porn, gay male nude photography, movies, politics, the labor movement and Washington, D.C." I enjoy it because it is random, going from relaxingly-shallow to profound and insightful (sometimes within the same post). I appreciated the boldness of the aforementioned post, in which he speaks of the stereotyping of Asian men in the US that so often crosses the line into the realm of racism. And simultaneously, I appreciated the pictures he included to bolster his argument.

And, he is a Battlestar Galactica fan, so bonus points for that as well! So, check out Naked Came I. I think you will like it!

Gay Games Closing Ceremony

Saturday afternoon concluded a great week in Chicago, as we were privileged to be the host city of the Gay Games VII. At 3 pm, I joined my brother and my visiting friend Melo (pictured above) for the closing ceremonies of the Games at Wrigley Field.

Now, after the problems of the opening ceremony, in which the program started out great but quickly lost steam and became quite boring for far too long, I was a bit concerned about whether or not they would learn their lesson and make the closing ceremony any better.

And, I will gladly say that they did a much better job in most respects. Personally, I would have been happy for the program to be entirely entertaining without any of the "political rally" stuff, but I understand and appreciate that there were likely many there who felt that to be very important, and I think they did a good job of keeping it in balance and not letting it go on and on and on and on like in the opening ceremony. In particular, the speech by Leigh-Ann Naidoo I thought was captivating and powerfully-delivered.

But, I am getting ahead of myself. The ceremony began with the entrance of all the competitors from the games. Unlike the opening, where each country or US state was introduced individually (which took a long time but had a wonderfully-satisfying conclusion with the pride flag of lights that they created), this time they just all came out in a huge stream from two entrances in the outfield.







And, the procession was the very first thing while spectators were still coming in and getting settled, done while the Gay Games VII Mixed Chorus sang several very nice and fun songs (though when they sang 'Seasons of Love' from Rent, that got a little bit too gay for my taste...just kidding, of course).



Following the processional, BETTY performed a unique and very cool version of the US National Anthem, certainly not your typical performance of the tune, but far more entertaining than most.



Next, Dylan Rice and Chuck Panozzo performed a song called "The Faces of Victory" that was written for this ceremony. It had a nice tune, but they were apparently having problems with the sound set-up, because most of the words were kinda muffled. After the song came one of those moments when you have no doubt this is a gay event, the performance by the various cheerleading teams that had come in for the Games, presented ever-so-stereotypically to the song "Dancing Queen." Actually, although the cheerleaders get their fair share of ribbing (humorously, even from us gays), the performance was well done and quite impressive.


*Note - The video clips in this post were not filmed by me, but all the photographs were taken by me.

Then, just as the ceremony was hitting full stride, they brought out the two directors of the Federation of Gay Games who gave their obligatory welcoming speeches (i.e. - 'pat ourselves on the back' speeches). They spared us from the tediousness of the opening ceremonies, but they still had nearly killed the momentum of the program when Poppy Champlin came out with a great comedy routine (the second-best of the night).



We breathed a sigh of relief as Poppy kindly got us back into the spirit of fun in which we came to the ceremony. But then, they brought out the cast members of The L Word (Pam Grier, Marlee Matlin, Daniela Sea), and they were awful. For people who supposedly are so talented and are in the business of entertainment, they were one of the most boring and unprepared parts of the entire show. It seemed as if the only reason they were out there was because they were famous, so write-ups about the event would mention they were there.

As we were about to doze off, they introduced a group of belly dancers, who might as well have been a Cubs game for all the interest it generated from the crowd. By this time, I was about to have flashbacks to the interminableness of the opening ceremonies, especially when I saw the next program item was greetings from about 10 politicians. Mercifully, only one spoke, and her job was simply to introduce each of the others for applause, after which they left.

Desperate for something to salvage the show before it became as uninteresting as stories of Rosie O'Donnell's love life, we found ourselves looking to a very unlikely hero, Chicago's very-own and oft-mocked ROTC (Righteously Outrageous Twirling Cops), who performed a routine to "Don't Leave Me This Way." All I can say is, I offer public apology for any disparaging comments I made about the ROTC in the past. They were thoroughly entertaining.



Next came a short speech by Billy Bean and his introduction of South African Olympic volleyball player Leigh-Ann Naidoo, who gave a powerful and moving speech about the need to continue working for equality around the world. It accomplished in five or six minutes more than about two hours' worth of the opening ceremony that was dedicated to the same topic.

Her speech was followed by the ceremonial ignition of the flame (I'm not even going to joke about that, way too easy). This may very well have been the low point of the ceremony, as some group banging drums (I think they were at least; we could vaguely hear something coming from the field) stood out there and pounded away with no audio support from a single microphone. The sound was almost completely lost and certainly had no impact when, in their dramatic conclusion, they all lifted their hands simultaneously and the little flame popped out of the torch. Instead of being dramatic, it was almost comical.



Fortunately, during these intermittent dull moments, we were entertained by a couple drunk guys who seemed to be enjoying every moment of the show, so it was bearable.



Finally, we got to the stuff that can make any gay event successful: divas, dance music, showtunes, sexual humor, hot gay cowboys, and Cyndi Lauper. The run began with performances by Ari Gold and Kristine W (I hate to suggest she was overdressed for the occasion, but I'm sure she wanted to look fabulous).







Sharon McNight performed "Impossible Dream" (beautiful) and "Stand By Your Man" (fun, especially watching the guy in the row ahead of us trying to sing along when he knew only about half the lyrics). This led in to one of my favorite moments of the ceremony, the DC Cowboys. As Sharon McNight left the stage, the theme from Brokeback Mountain came over the speakers, and two cowboys came from opposite sides of the field, met, and made out passionately, to the cheers of all of us who still fantasize that someday, somehow, our Heath Ledger will come. They were joined by the rest of the DC Cowboys who did some totally fun dances, including one to (of course) "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy."





They were followed by the comedy of Ant, who was very funny. I loved his arguments that gay people, rather than being inept at sports, very likely were the originators of many of the sports (such as boxing... "two topless guys, in silk shorts, fighting over a belt and a purse" or baseball..."nine men running around diamonds, trying to get into a batter's box").

Next were two guys that I have never heard of before, Eric Himan and Levi Kries. Perhaps I am just ignorant about them, but neither of the two who were with me knew who they were either.



The songs were fine, though it would have sucked to be them, since everyone in the place knew what was coming next...



Yes, Cyndi Lauper, the headliner of the show, came out in a dress that the Statue of Liberty would wear if she was a lesbian, performing "True Colors" and "Shine." Interestingly, she was the only part of the ceremony that was not announced by the PA speaker. I thought that was a pretty cool compliment, as if to say, here is someone who needs no introduction. The crowd loved her, of course, and she was a great way to close out the entertainment of the show.



The remainder of the ceremony was the routine that closes out events of this type. The Federation of Gay Games flag was brought out onto the field by representatives of Chicago, led by Mayor Daley, and it was passed to representatives of the city of Cologne, Germany, where the 2010 Gay Games will be held.









Mayor Daley said more well-prepared and thoughtful remarks, receiving the warmest ovation he has received recently, I am sure. He then declared Gay Games VII to be over, at which time the unremarkable flame unremarkably went out. He then passed off to Elfi Scho-Antwerpes, the Deputy Mayor of Cologne, who gave a speech that went a bit too long. However, I had to admire the courage of someone who would stand up in front of such a large crowd to give a speech in a language that was obviously not her first.



As the flag and representatives left the field, the chorus sang "Take the Flame", the official anthem of the Gay Games. Then, in what may very well be the most anti-climactic (and, frankly, odd) conclusion ever, interpretive dancers performed some sort of dance, after which they grabbed armfuls of little pom-poms that were supposed to look like torches, I guess, and handed them to people in the first rows of the stadium seats, as "Amazing Grace" was sung. The pom-poms were, of course, immediately swallowed by the size of the crowd, and then it was over. No big impressive finale, just the PA guy thanking us for coming.=





All in all, though, in spite of a few hiccups, the ceremony was enjoyable, entertaining, appropriate in length (just under 3 hours), and memorable.

I left the place feeling rather melancholy, knowing that such a time I may never see again in this life, but yet I was enriched by the experience and determined to be a more involved and dedicated member of the gay community.

Just kidding.

Actually I was just dying for a drink by that point.

In conclusion, here are two final video clips. The first is a nice 8 minute montage someone put on YouTube that shows highlights from the entire ceremony. Nicely done:



And then, because you can never have too many Brokeback Mountain tie-ins, here is a clip of a male couple competing in the figure skating competition this week: