“To me, as a gay boy, hugging another boy was perfectly natural. It always has been, it always will be. I always felt instinctively somehow that people would disapprove and say I was naughty. And I always felt instinctively that I knew what I wanted and I was going to have it and all those disapproving people could just go suck eggs and pound sand. Even at the height of the worst spiritual and sexual repression that Oklahoma and its churches could dole out, my inner belief has always been the same. There’s nothing wrong with me. I’ve known who I am and what I wanted since I was at least five. And everyone else who is not onboard with that can go over Niagra Falls without a barrel.”
Category: California
Movie Night: Strait Jacket
“The bonuses here are George Kennedy as a farmhand foreshadowing by 22 years Billy Bob Thornton in 1996’s Swing Blade (“I like them French fried potaters.”), all the Pepsi placement, and Lee Majors in pre-Six Million Dollar Man mode, along with his very hairy chest, fluffily rising and falling just before the axe falls.”
Movie Night: Thieves’ Highway
“Thieves’ Highway is a classic Noir tale of truckers and apples and greed and sex and San Francisco and California and highways and death.”
Movie Night: Hot Millions
“There’s a lot more than just smiles to recommend this one–ts droll English humor, its glimpse at fashions and designs and trends of 1968, the fantastic acting of everyone, including the performance of Bob Newhart, whose movie outings are often forgotten, the sarcastic wit and the satire–it’s a long list and will need a second viewing to get it all.”
Where Are the Bodies? We Have an App for That.
“The information presented is stark and perhaps unsettling.”
Party Like It's 1999
Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, February 8, 2016
Add One More to the Pile
This evening’s mail brought, finally, an official copy of our California marriage certificate, which is one of only 18,000 gender-neutral, Constitutionally equally protected, legally recognized marriages. (The copy pictured here has some personal details blanked out, such as birth dates, addresses, witnesses, and parents.) I post it here as a big ol’ kiss off to…
East Bound and Down
One week from tonight, we will have begun our journey out of California … for the third, and hopefully last, time. We’ll be on our way to Nashville, Tennessee, to take up a new, and hopefully less stressful way of life. Frank starts a new job with Vanderbilt University on 15 Dec. I will start…
Wednesday
This pic pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the weather this week. It actually got hotter after I took this picture; it was 114 degrees later in the afternoon. God, living in the valley is hell.
Rarin' to Go
Gavin Newsom, the man who presided over our first civil union ceremony when he was still a San Francisco supervisor, wants to get a jump on gay marriages «the evening of 16 June», instead of waiting for the next morning: ‘San Francisco officials have asked the state for permission to begin marrying same-sex couples a…
Happy New Year
As the sun sets on what was a truly nasty year for us, we wish you a much more wonderful 2008!
Merry Christmas 2007
Merry Christmas from our house to yours!
Rock and Roll
Just felt my … fourth (? yeah, fourth) … California earthquake. «A 5.6 which was reportedly on the Calaveras Fault five miles from Alum Rock, near San Jose» (Link no longer active. —Ed.). Frank and I were sitting on the couch with Fergus, who was … well, cleaning himself in a delicate spot, shall we…
Fresh Start
The principal called this morning as I was getting ready for yet another doctor’s appointment and asked if I were still available. We arranged an interview for 13:00. The interview last about 30 minutes or so and then he went and called a couple of my references, which were very positive (he said). He offered…
About My Disgust …
Since we moved to Brentwood just last 24-Jul (was it just 10 short months ago?!), the following has happened, in no particular chronological order: •My dog has been poisoned and died; •My partner has been viciously attacked by a police dog while standing lawfully in the middle of our living room (eight stitches, by the…
Disgust
There comes, in pretty much every town I’ve lived in, an extended moment, usually early on, where I truly detest the people in the town. I’m currently in the midst of one of those moments with Brentwood. I’ll get over it. Maybe.
Life in Brentwood. Yes, Indeedy.
I started a new teaching assignment last week: 60 sixth graders in two classes. They’re an energetic, fun, and talented group and I like them all very much. I’m happy to have the job and finally feel up to being an actual teacher in charge. It’s had its rough moments, of course, behavior-wise; this is…
Contrails in the Moonlight
While soaking my weary joints in the hot tub tonight, there was a beautiful, round full moon directly overhead. As I lay steeping in the 103-degree heat, clouds of steam swirled up into the sky and the last leaves on the tree in the front yard fingered out the light from the streetlamp; it was…
Orion, Warrior of the Night
The clear, cold night sky above, a hot tub sending clouds of steam up into it, warrior Orion guarding all below. A late fall night in California. The hot tub is one of about only three places where I get relief these days (the other two being the jacuzzi tub in the bathroom and the…
Hot
Currently in Brentwood:
About the Banner
That photo in the previous banner was of the temperature reading on the Jeep as we entered Brentwood. It was 114 degrees Fahrenheit when we got here …
It's Hell Being Offline
Posting and pictures have been temporarily disrupted because internet service hasn’t started at the new house. I’ll have things to post, especially pictures, hopefully later today as our service provider gets its act together. Things are good, but we’re very tired and sore. We are in Brentwood, the dog has his backyard, the stuff arrived…
Supercomputer Flash Mob
A gigaflop flash mob at the University of San Francisco’s Koret Gym yesterday. My time in 503 has demonstrated that I’m no computer science natural, but I still think this is pretty darn cool.
Traffic Nightmare
I get homesick for the Bay Area every now and then, but not on days like this: Officials are continuing their negotiations with a man who has been standing on a railing on the westbound side of the Bay Bridge near Treasure Island since about 11 a.m. today, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Virgil…
Your Travel Guide to Baghdad-By-The-Bay (2002)
‘I sat in the Delhi airport and watched the big electric clock in the departure hall that tells passengers when to board. I thought I imagined that time was moving in fits and starts: 1:12 a.m. for fifteen minutes, then 1:27 for another twenty, 1:47 … Closer inspection revealed that the clock was not plugged…





