happy birthday

just called my friend John Ericson on his 90th

Cinema Diverse

with Michael Carroll Green who once again put together a sterling edition of one of the nation's premier lgbt film festivals

with the Payson brothers ("Throuple")











with 3 actors with 3 names: Alec Manley Wilson / Justin Xavier Smith / Christopher Grant Pearson ("Shared Rooms")

with director Casper Andreas who had 2 films in the festival

Melina

my precious girl died 10 years ago today

Edward Albee (1928-2016)

my memory is that I read Albee before seeing his plays. I think it was my freshman year. the teacher was Stanley Solomon. "The Zoo Story" was a slap.

some years later I saw the playwright for the first time -- cruising at Julius. I recall being jealous of the boy with whom he left. a couple years after that I was the object of his cruising -- on the streets of Manhattan. but it was a fun game that went nowhere.

over the years I saw many productions of many of his plays. & then I lost interest in him as an artist. what I shd do now is go back to all his plays to reassess the whole career. he derves that.

a difficult day

my mother was born 95 years ago in a suburb of Akron. this is her first birthday since her death. usually I'm in Ohio celebrating with her.

line from a dream

"an hallucination of birds"

Hugh O'Brian (1925-2016)

I've told this story before but I never tire of it.

the summer I was 16 I went to Cain Park to see Bob Hope. also appearing on stage with him was Hugh O'Brien. afterward I was looking for Hope to get an autograph.  somehow I managed to get backstage. & there I found an open door. I went in. it turnd out to be a dressing room & there was O'Brien looking glorious in nothing but his tighty whities. I no longer recall what I said but that image of him has been a powerful visual all my life.