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Gay Song One – Quelle Tragédie, Lol

Gay Song One – quelle tragédie   Note: for this series of postings, the term 'Gay Song' refers to music written to/for/by or about Gay men or women. A second category also deals with music identified as Gay because it speaks to the heart of the Gay Experience.   So to make this easier, I will call them Gay in the 1st Degree (to/for/by/about), or Gay in the 2nd Degree (like Judy Garland singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow).   ---   My first selection is definitely Gay in the 1st Degree! We

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Gay Song Seven – “You're the cutest jailbird I ever did see”

. Gay Song Seven – “You're the cutest jailbird I ever did see”   Note: for this series of postings, the term 'Gay Song' refers to music written to/for/by or about Gay men or women. A second category also deals with music identified as Gay because it speaks to the heart of the Gay Experience. So to make this easier, I will call them Gay in the 1st Degree (to/for/by/about), or Gay in the 2nd Degree (like Judy Garland singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow).   ---  

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AC Benus in Essays

Gay Song Five – Bing Crosby Goes ' Gay For Pay '

Gay Song Five – Bing Crosby goes 'Gay for Pay'   Note: for this series of postings, the term 'Gay Song' refers to music written to/for/by or about Gay men or women. A second category also deals with music identified as Gay because it speaks to the heart of the Gay Experience.   So to make this easier, I will call them Gay in the 1st Degree (to/for/by/about), or Gay in the 2nd Degree (like Judy Garland singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow).   ---   Gay in the 2nd degree is Bing Crosby's glo

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"Don't Panic!" – or, how to read a screenplay

"Don't Panic!" – or, how to read a screenplay   In a scene from the pen of the immortal Douglas Adams, we are presented with this image:   "Ford!" he said, "there's an infinite number of monkeys outside who want to talk to us about this script for Hamlet they've worked out."   Adams’ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (London 1981) explains that the situation of the monkeys with movie ambitions is merely temporary, and is one of the unavoidable res

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" In The Flesh, " Homophobia And The Zombie Menace

In the Flesh, Homophobia and the 'Zombie Menace' July 13, 2013   The Setup:   What's so wrong with being Gay? In this day and age, with advances on all fronts towards the common acceptance of something that really is no big deal – equivalent to a person's height or eye color – does hatred and ignorance-based fear of 'gay as a disease' have any cultural grounding? Does it lurk in the subconscious like a repressed but recurring nightmare? I am an odd duck; I know that.

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Gay Song Three – Love Betrayed

Gay Song Three – love betrayed   Note: for this series of postings, the term 'Gay Song' refers to music written to/for/by or about Gay men or women. A second category also deals with music identified as Gay because it speaks to the heart of the Gay Experience.   So to make this easier, I will call them Gay in the 1st Degree (to/for/by/about), or Gay in the 2nd Degree (like Judy Garland singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow).   ---   Will Young won the first ever Pop Idol television show in

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Gay Song Four – Rolling Stones

Gay Song Four – Rolling Stones   Note: for this series of postings, the term 'Gay Song' refers to music written to/for/by or about Gay men or women. A second category also deals with music identified as Gay because it speaks to the heart of the Gay Experience.   So to make this easier, I will call them Gay in the 1st Degree (to/for/by/about), or Gay in the 2nd Degree (like Judy Garland singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow).   ---   "I'm a lonesome schoolboy, and I just came into town" is h

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The Amazing And Wonderful Famous-Barr

The Amazing and Wonderful Famous-Barr   As I begin posting my series of Christmas short stories and novellas set in this department store, I am struck by how paltry and sad the Wikipedia entry is for this amazing company. In an effort to improve that article, I have created this short summary, which I hope to tweak and eventually add to wiki.   My information comes from first-hand sources, primarily documents made by the company, such as employee newsletters and handbooks, an

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Gay Song Two …oh Daddy…

Gay Song Two …oh daddy…   Note: for this series of postings, the term 'Gay Song' refers to music written to/for/by or about Gay men or women. A second category also deals with music identified as Gay because it speaks to the heart of the Gay Experience.   So to make this easier, I will call them Gay in the 1st Degree (to/for/by/about), or Gay in the 2nd Degree (like Judy Garland singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow).   --- Ed Sheeran's phenomenal live performa

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Gay Song Six – Kissing Her Brother Paul

Gay Song Six – Kissing her brother Paul   Note: for this series of postings, the term 'Gay Song' refers to music written to/for/by or about Gay men or women. A second category also deals with music identified as Gay because it speaks to the heart of the Gay Experience.   So to make this easier, I will call them Gay in the 1st Degree (to/for/by/about), or Gay in the 2nd Degree (like Judy Garland singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow).   ---   This youtube creator has made a really cool video

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More Altitude of Love

...for a special someone...     Sonnet   … no rights have I to feel a certain way, … no claim not pleading in pentameter, … no earthly grip or hope my words will sway, or trace the scope of their parameter. Like a lawyer, skirting nine tenths of the law to avoid thoughts of what I don’t possess, my sad voice still reaches out to draw belief in your heart for the love I confess. … although no claim I have to your control, … alt

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Some Classic Tanka

Tanka Some translations from the Hyakku-nin Isshu, or The Issue of a Hundred People       51 by Fujiwara no Sanekata   Why so strongly red, As if I could tell of them That sad mogusa[1] Retains their own way of pain And like love, must endure it.       52 by Fujiwara no Michi-Nobu   If the morning breaks, The coming things are all there, Whitened by their length And all by the look of things, Is nothing but morning light.       53 by Udaisho Michi-Tsuna no Hana   Little by lit

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Coming Out, And " The Closet "

. Coming Out, and "The Closet" An historical review on the semantics of the terms This piece cannot be as extensive or elaborate as I would like, for I lack further resources to research the subject, however, in preparing the seventh and final screenplay for The Secret Melville series, I once again encountered the phrase "to come out" in a clear LGBT context in that author's work. I wonder if straight people are even aware of it? Aware that there is a massive current of denial

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AC Benus in Essays

A Full-Stop

Ode to the caesura. It brings our thoughts to a stop. It laps at our minds like a sop. And halts coloratura.         How glad the many millions      of notions are prevented       from finding full expression       in the boundless words of the world,      for then, once spilled on paper,      how might we ever gather them up again;       how might the bottle be re-plugged;      how might the heart be re-assembled,      if fancy-fr

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The First Thanksgiving (And The Second, And The Third…) With A Recipe!

The First Thanksgiving (and the Second, and the Third…) by AC Benus     What Thanksgiving is Not   An amazing holiday like Thanksgiving must have an amazing history, and it does, but it's probably not the history you think.   I've seen them. We've all seen them: the articles that spring up this time of year as abundantly as roast turkey recipes. They are usually titled with holier-than-thou disdain: "First Thanksgiving had No Cranberry Sauce!" or "First Th

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The Desolate

Here's a poem and my translation of it.   El Desdichado de Gérard Labrunie, ou Gérard de Nerval   Je suis le Ténébreux – le Veuf – l’Inconsolé, Le Prince d’Aquitaine à la Tour abolie: Ma seule Etoile est morte – et mon luth constellé Porte le Soleil noir de la Mélancolie.   Dans la nuit du Tombeau, Toi qui m’as consolé, Rends-moi le Pausilippe et la mer d’Italie, La fleur qui plaisait tant à mon coeur désolé, Et la treille où le Pampre à la Rose s’a

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Rhyming Is Fundamental

. Rhyming is Fundamental   I'm no great Rhymin' Simon, and make lots of 'mistakes' that would cause academics to wag boney fingers at my poetry night and day, but I do know something about the basics. I thought I'd share some information and thoughts on how you can be more comfortable making your own rhymes. I'm not going to present these ideas in a 'right or wrong' method. Rules exist to be broken, but artistry means you know what you are breaking and do it deliberately.

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Poetry Prompt 2 - Haiku

Here's my own attempt, as I rarely write Haiku     Nature Haiku:   A poppy amongst The bushes of rose, will bow When a chill winds blows.       Urban Haiku:   Shy dog and hydrant Stand off 'neath the noonday sky – Which one will get wet?     _

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Thanksgiving and the Adhesion Among Men

. Thanksgiving and the Adhesion Among Men     @Parker Owens brought a certain song to my attention yesterday. I did a little digging on The Vacant Chair and learned a thing or two. Although the lyrics portray a Civil War family mourning the loss of a beloved son, the poem was actually written in tribute to love. Henry Stevenson Washburn was 48 years old when he met and watched 18-year-old John William Grout lead a charge and die in the Battle of Ball’s Bluff. The young lieute

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Excerpt Two From Becoming Real

Excerpt Two from Becoming Real:   Hello, all! The book club this month is featuring my collection of coming out stories, Becoming Real. I will be live to chat on the 31st, but for those of you who may not know what to expect from the work, I think I will post a few sample excepts. These are a personal sampling, and just meant to give you the flavor of the seven short stories through the lens of some of my favorite moments.   Please enjoy, and please leave comments if you have any.   Thanks

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Paragraph 175...

Thank you to those who have read "Something to Share…", and especially to those moved to leave comments. They are deeply appreciated, and deeply felt, and Zombie's relaying how Holocaust survivors, 'liberated' by the allies, were herded back to brick-and-mortar prisons, made me think of Paragraph 175.   For anyone who has not seen this documentary, you need to. Klaus Müller, an out filmmaker, was driven to capture the voices of those who Gay man and women who survived. In 1999 very few were le

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answers to a quiz

I posted a little quiz in a status update. Here are the answers, and thanks for looking.     Original question: A little game – can you name two of the ways in which W. S. Gilbert (as in Gilbert and Sullivan fame) changed and contributed to everyday English? One is a two-word expression he coined, and the other has a definite Gay connection!     Answer one: Two word expression = "hardly ever." It all has to do with seasickness. In H.M.S. Pinafore, the chorus of sailors takes umbrage at the

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Zaïde, A Matter Of Style

OK. So last week Netflix delivered to my doorstep the 2006 Salzburg production of this German-language opera by Mozart. It - the production – was so German, I mean, wow. Every single one of the male characters, except one, were in a constant and slow amble all over the stage wearing giant papier-mâché heads! Sometimes the heads came off so they could sing; sometimes, not. Here is a sample. Please note the out-of-scale elements (all unexplained within the drama…), and the title character's partic

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The Altitude Of Love

The Altitude of Love   maybe it's something more than faith... beyond mere heartbeats and belief... maybe this love is an absolute. I want it to be.   I feel you so near to me all the time I can see how it's already a conclusion and not a supposition. I need it to be.   those are the things I mean when I say "I love you."

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BBC Show - In the Flesh

Anybody watch "In the Flesh"???   It is about zombies, and two 'partially deceased' boys who get a second chance at love.   Let me know, I want to discuss it with folks!!! I really do...

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