Conner

Chapter 2 was excellent. Picturing Neil as Brad's "maid", apron and all, just about killed me. That would so work for me. I'm thinking there's got to be an explanation for Robbie hanging in there with Neil. My best guess is that Brad overwhelms him to such an extent that he's totally fearful of being with him. I really want to kick Robbie's ass ...or better yet, spank his ass. Max is a sweetheart. I'm thinking he's gonna fall for Brad big time. I can definitely see them together. It strikes me you've had a lot of flirting experience, Mark. The "flirt" lines are great. Conner

You didn't skip a beat at all, Mark. Great opening chapter. Sexy Jack is back! Sweet! Exit stage right for Neil couldn't come too soon. What a jerk! Mind you, given his looks and body, he'll always have someone to whine at for sometime to come.......so long as it isn't Robbie. Brad has matured rather nicely....still has his edge, though. The younger Brad would not have allowed Neil to live. My only regret is that I missed the last two years of Brad being "single". Conner

I enjoyed the ending immensely. It was definitely realistic. Two young men in love, not in the best of times, wanting to be together but doubting their own ability to get through the next 4 years with a 4-hour drive or so between them. It will be the biggest challenge that either has faced so far. It is going to be tough...and, yes, they are both going to fail. Will there be more deals and compromises? I don't know. Hopefully, Armand's words to Brad about forgiving and love will help both of them give their best. I'm curious if Robbie will find Ace a support or not at Stanford. Maybe Ace will be too busy sampling all the east coast goods. I hope to see sexy Jack and Claire in the next story as well. You're right, Mark, you can't have a story in the 80's without dealing with AIDS, gay male characters or not. I hope you've noticed that I'm talking about "when" the next story comes out and not "if" it comes out. Thanks for Be Rad, Mark. It's an excellent piece of work. Conner

Superb chapter, Duncan! Apart from the fact that just about everyone, including me, has predicted or is hoping for a Luc - Matt relationship, it strikes me that such a relationship seems too "easy" a way to take the story. They can definitely support each other, for sure, but they both need to become reasonably "unwounded" first and stand on their own. Neither has a lot going for them. Both of them are very private with their feelings. Neither of them has any significant support system in place at the university i.e. friends, family. I truly fear for Luc. I don't believe he's going to make it. Conner

I get that this story is not going to go out "like a lamb." That's a good thing. What's that line...so many men, so little time. I guess this had to be in the cards for Brad and Robbie. What's surprising was having Robbie be the instigator. I'm glad that Robbie was honest about it....well, I guess he should have come clean a little sooner. As always, Brad's on the offence. He's never been the "wait and see" type. I'm trying to decide if Brad has some sort of strategy in mind or whether he's simply doing the goose/gander thing. Conner

...and to think I knew you when... Congrats, Mark!

Another super chapter, Jack! Forget all that action/thriller stuff. Bring on the romance for Thad. Let's get Bryan back from school asap. Conner

That was a tough one. There'll be no reconciliation now between Brad and Billy. It's times like this when you look back to see if you couldn't have handled things differently. Frankly, I'm surprised at Brad's lack of reaction. Billy's dead. It's a good time to stop hating someone. I'm thinking Brad will eventually regret not having "completed" with Billy. I hope Mouse can walk by the next chapter.

Eric messed up, plain and simple. Why "mother" him? All I'm hearing are excuses for his behaviour. Excuses speak to "sentencing", not to innocence or guilt. Eric clearly knew that Jansen had feelings for him. Eric's state of mind was "I need to know." On top of all that, given the agreed upon buisness relationship, Eric was in a position of trust, if not in fact a position of authority vis-a-vis Jansen's dancing career.

Eric was a total dork. Jansen is not one of his female groupies. And that's exactly the way he came across to Jansen. "let's f**k, I need to know if I like this." Why didn't Eric talk to Chase or Brandon first? I'm really pissed.

Super chapter, Mike! Jayce is gay! This story just got hot! I have my fingers crossed for Trent, too. More Trent. More Trent. More Trent.

Brad's 18. Pay attention, Mark. Ok, a quick review of the 15 second battle: Brad starts with a sucker punch to Billy's jaw just as he (Billy) turns around; then Brad knees him in the balls...twice. Billy adopts the fetal position on the floor and Brad gets at least one kick in while he's down breaking his nose. It was not an honourable battle, that is for sure. It was retribution, plain and simple. Brad also admits that, given Billy's broken arm, he was dealing with a weaker opponent. I'm satisfied that this sort of fight is not beyond a 17 or 18 year old, especially given the circumstances. This reaction was most certainly not beyond Brad. His ego is more than healthy, in spite of being gay in 1980. He has JP to thank for that. One of the hitches is Billy is family. Brad has a strong sense of family. Yet, it doesn't seem that was taken into account before he acted the way he did. Brad's hurting. I get that. But even Brad acknowledged to himself (several chapters ago) that he needed to spend more time with Billy. Billy was a loner. Also, there was no way that Brad was able to divorce himself from how Billy was treating Mouse. There's no doubt that he wanted Billy to pay....and pay dearly. Once you throw in his mother's actions vis-a-vis him and Billy, Brad's fight with Billy was inevitable. Brad hasn't shown any remorse whatsoever for the way he injured Billy. He seems immune to having any recriminations of any kind. The end justifies the means. Frankly, I'm surprised Ace didn't take a tougher stand toward Brad when it came to the nature of the fight. Maybe that's still to come. I hope so. I also found JP's reaction to Brad's actions very disappointing. Billy is also his son. The sad thing is Brad's developing an attitude that he can do no wrong; and that includes bearing any reprecussions or consequences resulting from his actions. Ace needs to kick his ass.

This is not CJ. I can vouch for that. Trust me. Besides, this particular goat has just jumped up onto a rock from about 4 or 5 feet below. That's right, there is no cliff. I happen to know this particular area. Trust me. Look at it, what goat in his right mind would be so perched on an actual cliff. The goat is going forward...exactly where did he come from? Goats never jump backwards. Trust me. I got you back, goat-buddy!

I have this urge (need?) to talk some more about Ryan, specifically what I see as his view of homosexuality and the process he needs to go through to get back on track with Jake. I don't see Ryan as being homophobic, at least I don't anymore. He definitely has his views on what's masculine and what isn't. For Ryan, even acting gay (what he perceives as gay) doesn't fall within his model of masculinity. Ryan has the usual stereotypical perception of gays as have a lot of straight dudes. Gay is first and foremost feminine, definitely not masculine. Males should be masculine, anything less is gay. That seems to be his biggest criticism..."stop acting like a fag." Ryan hasn't gone down the path, even in his own mind I think, that gays are sick or evil, or whatever. Nor does he wish them physical harm. It seems he has never had to deal with homosexuality directly. It's never been plunked on his doorstep before. He probably thinks about homosexuality as about as often as he thinks about world hunger. It doesn't keep him up at night. Now it's staring him in the face. His best friend is gay, a friend who's been an anchor in his life for a long time. In Ryan's mind, the irresistable force just ran into the unstoppable force. His life went into permanent short-circuit. The first few days, he probably did his best to not think about it. Denial can be a blessing....at least for a while. Of course, we all know that Chole wasn't about to let him linger there for any length of time. Then the anger showed up. I'm sure he started with, "Why is this happening to me?" Other questions might have included, "How am I supposed to react? Why didn't I see this coming? How is this going to affect my life? What does my life look like without Jake in it? How can I fix this?" Somehow he gets to this question, "Jake's a good guy; why did this have to happen to my best friend?" That's when he became redeemable. I'm sure part of his emotional battle is that he feels helpless. There's nothing he can can do to fix Jake. There's no going back. He has to change and he doesn't know how. I loved it when he told Jake that he had just robbed his future wife of the one emotional talk that he (Ryan) had in him. Conner

I was really dreading chapter 34, back to school and all for Brad and Robbie. By the end of that chapter things had turned out much better than I thought they would....particularly the last paragraph. You know things are better when your libido returns. The last several chapters have been tough as far as the story line goes, especially Mouse. Apart from that, I'm still enjoying the story immensely. The great dialogue and humour are ever present. Kudos to Lark for his teasing line to Brad...not too eloquent, but insightful. Conner

Sweet, sweet chapter, Jordan. On top of that, humour is everywhere. I'm loving it. Yes, Jake was a bit of an ass over the whole dollar store thing.....but, I'm going to cut him some slack. I mean, Ryan has been his best friend, like forever. Was Jake supposed to learn sensitivity being around Ryan all those years? I think not. And, besides, Jake did finally get it and apologized. Shane's a sweetheart. He's so in tune with what Jake is going through - both the gay/boyfriend thing and the Ryan thing. I'm just hoping he'll survive all that. No Chloe. Ok, the closing scene with between Jake and Ryan was superb. I felt a lot of the tension ease...especially in me. It seems I'm totally invested in how that relationship turns out. I mean, the straight friend is usually a jerk. Actually, Ryan is a jerk but he seems redeemable. The other thing is, Jake needs him in his life...he's still an anchor for Jake as he deals with all this. Thanks, Jordon. Conner

Great video!!! I have heard of warming up a nice piece of beef liver.

Fight club for gay boys? My head hurts. It's your fault. Some of my best friends are insane. I liked the spin Matty put on it...hurting the ones you love. The imagery was effective. I liked the cat. I have to decide whether the emperor is wearing any clothes.

Geez, I voted ages ago but didn't post my favourite. :wacko: Savage Moon is my fave. GFD is a close second. Billy Chase is very entertaining.

I was going to suggest that Jane be thrown into the volcano, but that might just make the volcano more eruptive. Helen showed excellent tolerance in not ripping her a new one. Actually, I found that whole scene sad. I understand that she's anxious, but she's gone totally neurotic. Her behaviour is what I call "crazy-making". I'm hoping Helen will get her alone at some point and talk some sense into her before she totally blows it with her sons. Who cares what Scar's plan is, I'm still trying to figure out what the lemons are for. :wacko: I'm also wondering if the media people scrambling to get to the island will catch on that the band is there. I hope not. They'll end up interviewing Jane. Of course, that's when Helen will cause her excrutiating pain. Conner

25 was a sweet sweet chapter. Great dialogue, sex, cute stuff. a touch of violence and some excellent lines...who could ask for more! I really liked (both from Brad, of course): and I'm enjoying Claire's character. She's a sweetheart! Conner

Needless to say, it was a pleasant surprise to see chapter 24 posted so soon. I hate having to hold my breath. When Robbie exits from JP's study and announces the good reverend's proposition, I damn near died laughing. Who cares if it's true? Good one, Robbie. I'm glad that Frank got his priorities straightened out. It's cool to have straight sex in the story. Obviously, the gay dudes aren't the only ones getting laid. Superb chapter!

Chapter 7 was excellent! Great dialogue.

Well, you did say that you had plans for Jake. Poor dude. It's hard not to be sympathetic with him despite his messed-up behaviour in recent chapters. He needs serious support right now. It's great that Robbie grew a pair and stood up to his parents, something he couldn't have done without Brad's support. I really enjoyed watching Robbie's mom go nuts with her anger and frustration. All things considered, though, I was surprised at Frank's behaviour. It seems he's a wee bit pussy-whipped. The story's going great! Conner

Great chapter, Jack. I especially enjoyed the dialogue. Oleg is one cool dude. He's mine, he's mine, I tell you. Can someone have a freudian slip when reading? When George said he drove a "gray Honda". I read "gay Honda". Conner