Gay N Gay: 2007

Odi Et Amo

Another of my book reviews for Gay Community News, published in 1984 or so.Joseph Torchia had written one earlier novel, The Kryptonite Kid, about a possibly gay boy, Jerry Chariot, obsessed and fascinated with Superman. It was much more fun than As If After Sex, and its ambiguity about the protagonist's sexual orientation (reasonable enough, considering that he was just a kid) , made it

Odi Et Amo

Only His Hairdresser Knows For Sure

I just realized that this blog would not be complete without this song. You know what we've been learning, this past year especially, about guys who go out of their way to make fag jokes, make a big deal of their manliness, etc. Look at Frank's cute little pony tail in this clip. Work it, girl!

Only His Hairdresser Knows For Sure

Rapture

A few days ago I finally read John Okada’s groundbreaking 1957 novel No-No Boy (reprinted in 1979 by the University of Washington Press). I’d seen used copies around for years, then read about it in Elaine Kim’s Asian American Literature and realized it was something I should read. It was rediscovered in the 1970s by young Asian American writers looking for forebears, which led to its

Rapture

Small, But Most Sympathetic

Another of my book reviews for Gay Community News, published in 1984 or 1985. I'm posting it out of chronological sequence (of course I've done that before anyway), but it seemed appropriate to put it here now since the author died recently. I'm pleased too that I could add a link to David Jackson's letter to the New York Review of Books, critical of Farnan's homophobia and of her conduct after

Small, But Most Sympathetic

Of Relatives And Relativism

On Christmas Eve I listened to our community radio station’s weekly program on African-American affairs. This week the topic was Christmas, naturally, and the format was a roundtable on Christmas memories and traditions. One of the speakers, a man known on the station as the Deacon, interrupted his reminiscences of school Christmas parties to claim that you’d get a “phone call from the ACLU” if

Of Relatives And Relativism

Locking the Closet Door From Both Sides

Back in 1971, when I first began telling my straight friends that I was gay, I was prepared to deal with either hostility or acceptance from them. So I was surprised when my friends responded, first, by not believing me, and second, by explaining it away as something I was just saying to be different. Of course the years of hidden longings and crushes I’d struggled through were invisible to

Locking the Closet Door From Both Sides

The Lesser Evil?

Oh, dear. Fred or Cthulhu? Fred or Cthulhu? I have less than eleven months to decide!(via IOZ)

The Lesser Evil?

Oh, dear. Fred or Cthulhu? Fred or Cthulhu? I have less than eleven months to decide!(via IOZ)

Enjoying the weather in Florida

Sorry for the lack of posts. My parents were vacationing in Florida between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I decided to join them for a little more than a week in Little Torch Key. We were about 25-30 miles north of Key West. I missed the worst week of weather so far. Yeah!We went on the ghost tour. What fun. It was dark, and the stories were great. The one that really freaked me out was a

Eighty Percent Of Americans Consider Themselves Above Average

I work as a dishwasher in a cafeteria, and we see a lot of wasted food on dirty dishes. One night my helper, a gay male student, was so outraged by the mess that he screamed, “This is retarded!” I thought that was pretty funny, given how much yammering I hear in the gay community about hate speech, so I assumed my Old Hoosier Voice and said, “Now, there ain’t nothin’ wrong with bein

Eighty Percent Of Americans Consider Themselves Above Average

Packing Tips

Packing too much will cost you more money. That's for sure. There fore we must do the packing strategy that allow us to bring things that we need during the travelling. Ignore the "what if..." that mostly happened to all travellers.Heres' the complete list what we might consider could help you to pack for your backpacking journey. Its not a "must" to carry things here on the list, but this might

Condolance for Maria's Father

Yesterday afternoon i were shocked with news from Maria that her father was in coma because severe heart attack.We cry and hugging each other so tight, at my working desk.At 6.10 pm when we went to our room at base camp, she phoned me and said her father already passed away, in Medan.I know her feelings, it's really hard to loose someone that you love so much.Today she fly back to Medan and

Day 65 Rug Hooking Progress

I had more done than I thought when I reviewed my last entry so here's another picture. I'm beginning to think the hit and miss is too large. If I make it smaller, I will have to add additional borders to keep the finished size. I need to start thinking about this now because the worse thing that can happen is that I finish hooking the entire inside area and I don't have a clue what I want to

Not much rug hooking, lost in Computer Land

Sorry for the lack of activity. I haven't been hooking all that much. My goal for this winter is to rewrite my website, www.cindigay.com. I started this website almost 7 years ago and it has become disorganized and needs an update.I have to learn new software and I've been playing around with adding video. You have seen some of that in the past posts. I'm beginning to understand how to get it

Vin Audenaire

Another of my GCN book reviews, published in 1982 or early 1983. Turns out I was wrong about Chester Kallman's not rating his own biography: his friend and, later, stepmother Dorothy Farnan, published one in 1984. (I reviewed it and will eventually post that review here.) Thekla Clark's Wystan and Chester: A Personal Memoir of W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman (Faber and Faber, 1995; Columbia

Vin Audenaire

Second Attempt at Video

The Maybe Islands

The Stone Gods by Jeanette WintersonLondon: Hamish Hamilton, 2007(to be published in the US by Houghton on April Fools Day 2008)I first encountered Jeanette Winterson through her first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, a fairly naturalistic account of growing up lesbian in a working-class Pentecostal family in northern England. After that I read her novels more or less as they appeared in

The Maybe Islands

Day 050 Rug hooking all weekend

This weekend my husband and I rented videos and stayed home. I was able to hook for hours and hours. I got a lot done, but I am determined to get to the half-way point (of the center) before I take it off the frame.The rug is now large enough to drape on the ground as I hook. The cats, Georgia and Gracie, now have enough room to share. Georgia is almost two years old and was a good companion

Incase of Emergency

Penting untuk di ketahui oleh setiap perempuan, sebab banyak kejadian penculikan terhadap perempuan sekarang makin sering terjadi bahkan di siang hari.Oleh sebab itu kita harus mengetahui hal2 di bawah ini untuk menghadapi situasi berbahaya yang mungkin bahkan bisa mengancam nyawa kita.Setelah membaca 9 tips penting di bawah ini, foward tips ini kepada seseorang yang kamu sayangi. Tidak ada

Day 44 Georgia loves my hooked rugs

Here's a full shot of the progress on the rug. Whenever it is on the floor, the cats are willing to keep it company.

Day 44 of rug hooking: Rose improvement

Rose - beforeI did not want to hook the rose the same way I hooked in the stair riser, Queen Anne Rose. I did hook it differently, but I did not like it at all. I let it go and continued to hook. I hooked another one with more pronounced lights and darks, but it still did not work. Once I had a quarter of the center of the rug finished, I realized the problem was that the rose was too

A Day Off

Yesterday I traveled to Columbus with my daughter, Jenny. We went to the From our Hands show. It was great to see everyone.On the way home, we made an impulse decision to go to Home Goods. This store is not in NW Ohio and we had passed it up many times on our way to Easton. Well, quite some time later, we were ready to head back home. We found many great treasures, including a white ceramic

I'm So Confused! The Whole World Is Spinning!

Oopsie! Tom Tomorrow is P.O.'d about the right-wing radio claim that Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign neglected to leave a tip to the Iowa waitress who served her at a Maid-Rite diner. "Well, big effing surprise," Tom huffs: "like pretty much everything else you might hear on right wing talk radio, it was not only untrue, it was demonstrably untrue." Of course I agree about the reliability

I'm So Confused! The Whole World Is Spinning!

Travelling for girls 101

Memang ini bukan pertama kali gue berangkat ke luar negri (cieee ! gaya banget ngomongnya !).Gue gak bakalan melupakan milis indobackpacker yang telah membantu banyak dalam hal informasi terkini tentang backpacking.Nahh.. gue mau share beberapa tips yang gue pake kalo berangkat ke luar negri.1. A Good Planned travel/itinerary. Artinya, semua harus sudah terencana, mulai dari budget, akomodasi,

Day 38 of rug hooking: Resolving the Large Leaves

The large leaf motif is one that I have not hooked in my study pieces so this was new territory. I hooked the two shown first. I added two different wools around the veins just to break up the area. The fill area of the leaf was so large. I did not like either solution.Next I hooked the veins with the vein color only, no secondary color. The vein was a bit harsh. Then I decided to try just

Why God ?!! why??

Planning a vacation is hard enough.. especially if you're on a tight budget. Everything have to be on details.It is seemed harder if you're planning to traveling in Indonesia.. I know some of you will disagree with this. But with 3 million rupiah i am sure could go to Singapore and stay for a week ! 3 million to Bali ??? less than 3 days for sure.Not mentioned the accommodation.Browsing..browsing

If It's Not One Thing, It's Another!

Another of my GCN book reviews, from 1981 or 1982.A Smile in His Lifetimeby Joseph HansenHolt, Rinehart & Winston, $13.95 hardcover292 pp. Last summer Mike Peters of the Dayton News published an editorial cartoon of a woman who, though “underpaid, sexually harassed, passed over for promotion and stuck in a stereotyped role,” opposes the ERA. Why? “She likes being treated special.

If It's Not One Thing, It's Another!

Day 36 My temporary rug hooking set up

I actually rearranged this corner of the living room. This way I can hook whenever I have a few spare moments. They really add up. The wire shelving is the same shelving I use in the studio. It can be set up and torn down in just moments. See my website for more details. Click on the rug eSchool and take a look at the pictorial tour of my studio. They are old pictures. I have actually added

Day 35 Still rug hooking the scrolls

The design of this scroll is based on the porch supports at the Chalfonte Hotel in Cape May, NJ. I fell in love with this hotel and the area the first year I taught at the Rugs by the Sea rug camp. It is held every year in September. There are two weeks of instruction offered. See the teaching schedule on my website for more information on this camp and others.I started the hit and miss that

Shall The Pot Contend With The Potter?

I started to write a paragraph or two as an update to the previous posting, but as usual it grew and grew into a separate post. Jeffrey Weiss (who, I should mention, sent me a nice e-mail defending his case after I mentioned him in the previous post) commanded J. K. Rowling to shut up and recognize that “until those books were published, the characters and settings were yours to command and

Shall The Pot Contend With The Potter?

The Unbearable Straightness of Harry

Last week in New York City, J. K. Rowling announced to an audience of fans that Albus Dumbledore, late headmaster of Hogwarts, was gay. Pardon me if I’m underwhelmed, and not very moved by Rowling’s generosity in giving the world one more deeply closeted gay character, and a solitary token at that, but the British gay movement response was predictable: “a spokesman for gay rights group Stonewall

The Unbearable Straightness of Harry

kangen........

da hampir 2 bulan petualangan berakhir....kesibukan diplant dan kegiatan yang ketinggalan menyita waktu dan saat waktu sudah luang, kembali terbayang saat snorkeling or hanya berjemur di pantai........PENGEN!!!!!!!apalagi foto2 yang terpajang didesktop laptopku yang....tidaaaaaakkkk!!!!aduh, doain ya spy tabungan cepat penuh lagi so bisa ngatur rencana lagi tapi kayaknya taon depan ga bisa euy,

Day 22 Rug hooking the scrolls

I really like to hook the scroll. I am using two rows of random golds filled with my favorite gold/green combination. A darker vein down the center gives some definition. I am still experimenting with which wool to use for the vein.

700+ pictures and experiences

When we got back to work, we still feel dizzy of vacation.We can't even believe its all over.For weeks, on our working place, we try to collect all pictures fro our flash disk, and camera memory, and it comes with amazing number of pics, more than 700 pics !!I don't even feel that i took so many of them, and we obviously delete some of them when we went to Chiang Mai. That time Maria told me that

Christopher Hitchens, the Ann Coulter of the Alcoholic Left

O Cthulhu, I've put Hitchens's name into the title of a post. Who knows what I'll do next?My fellow atheists are such a disappointment to me. For example, this morning on Avedon Carol's Sideshow blog, I read this account of Hitchens's performance at the Freedom from Religion Convention:He told us what the most serious threat to the West was (and you know this line already): it was Islam. Then

Christopher Hitchens, the Ann Coulter of the Alcoholic Left

Day 10 Rug Hooking Progress

I began hooking the scroll.

Stop Necking With That Dog, Beryl!

Another book review for GCN, published sometime in 1981.STOP NECKING WITH THAT DOG, BERYL! or,YOUR MAJESTY IS LIKE A DOSE OF CLAPA Liar’s Autobiography, Volume VIby Graham ChapmanMethuen, Inc.240 pp.$13.95 hardcover Since I am not, never have been, and do not expect ever to be a fan of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, I approached the task of reviewing Graham Chapman’s autobiography

Stop Necking With That Dog, Beryl!

Day 7 Rug Hooking the rose

I am not happy with the rose. I will try to hook it another way when I do another. For now, it will stay as it is. If I rip it out now, I will not have a record of what DOES NOT work. Knowing what does not work is often as important to know as what does work.

Day 5 Rug Hooking Continued

I took the rug downstairs. This was no easy task. The backing alone weighs 20 pounds!I wanted to be sure that the rug was going in the direction I wanted. You can see my couch with the footstool in front of it. I am pleased with it so far. I am now very anxious to get it done.

Day 5 Rug Hooking Progress

Hooking has gone fairly easy, but I did my home work before I started. I knew how the motifs hooked up and how all the wools worked together by doing several "study" pieces. You can see the hooked pieces I mention below by visiting the links that follow.I designed a stair riser, Queen Anne Rose, with some of the motifs that I wanted to use. Next I hooked a footstool, Square Pocketful, using

Day 1 of rug hooking: Putting the pattern on the backing

October 1, 2007 This is the pattern design now. The borders will probably change as I go. It took me a full day to prepare the backing. I had to iron it because it was folded badly for a long time and some of the creases were quite sharp. Next I zig zagged the edges with my 1975 sewing machine that is in desperate need of an adjustment. That took forever. Then I traced the pattern onto red

Absolut Buttcrack

One rainy night in 2000, I sat in a gay bar in Chicago having a glass of wine and watching music videos. It was a weeknight, so the Closet was busy but not packed: there were people sitting on either side of me at the bar. Two videos stand out for me in memory of that night. One was of Taylor Dayne, a woman whose music I knew very slightly. It was a big production number, with Dayne slinking

Absolut Buttcrack

His Horrible Old Condition

My second (and final) review of Burroughs for GCN, after Port of Saints. Published in 1981.After I'd mailed off the review, I found a book on Burroughs, With William Burroughs: A Report from the Bunker (Seaver Books, 1981), by a British celebrity journalist named Victor Bockris. Printed on page 32 was a photo of Burroughs with his companion/amanuensis James Grauerholz, looking at a mockup for

His Horrible Old Condition

Pollyanna Karenina

Selfish and Perverseby Bob SmithNew York: Carroll and Graf, 2007376 pp. When I first noticed the title of Bob Smith’s new novel, I thought someone had written an unauthorized biography of me. But it had laudatory blurbs by writers I respected, such as Armistead Maupin, so I checked it out of the library anyway. And you know something? It was a pretty good read.Smith was a founding member of

Pollyanna Karenina

Nineteen Eighty-Four and a Half

At the time I wrote this review, I hadn’t yet read Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, though I’d read quite a lot of Bradbury’s work in junior high and high school. I recall starting Fahrenheit 451 once, maybe in my freshman year of college, but didn’t get very far. I think I found it weak compared to Huxley and especially Orwell. I finally read it this past summer, and will write more about that

Nineteen Eighty-Four and a Half

Shame, Shame, Shame, Shame On You!

Recently I was reading Mary Gail Frawley-O’Dea’s Perversion of Power: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church (Vanderbilt UP, 2007), and found this interesting passage on page 58: It is important to remember that the shame and potential danger were man-made, not God-given, attributes of the body. Mark Jordan, professor of religion at Emory University, reminds us: “Certainly it is not God who is

Shame, Shame, Shame, Shame On You!

singapore ciaooo...batam lagi!!!!!!!!!!

Singapore-Batam 4 September 2007Sleeping beauty selama di hostel dan bangun jam 8 pagi masih dengan males2an ikutan sarapan gratis dari hostel. Mulai beres2 dan check out jam 10 menuju ke Harbourfront naik taksi kembali dan fico merasa kehilangan pasport dan ternyata dia letakkan didalam backpacknya dan butuh waktu 10 menit (thx to supir yang ingetin, untung gw da prepare didalam tas kecil!!),

Stuck in Batam (...& sick)

The best thing about going from Harbour front ? they checked your luggage in.I don't have to carry my 23kg's back pack while i try to wake up from the flu medication. Hehehehe...But the sun is still shining, i feel happy because finally the trip is almost over..During the ferry trip i were just sleep, while Maria awake and listen to her MP3. I just feel exhausted, and maybe because the weather at

Back to singapore again

Back to civilization again ??I don't know if shopping centers counts as civilization (for girls yeahhh, hehehe).This morning i wake up too early. There's few girls just got back from party, and they were so late, and NOISY to the hostel.So we decide to just take a bath and get out from the hostel at 6.15 am. We left some of our biscuits there, too much to carry.Theres a tuk2 outside the hostel.

chiangmai-singapore

Chiangmai-Singapore 3 September 2007Penerbangan jam 9 pagi tapi kita da membuka mata jam 5 pagi dan jam 7 kurang sudah ready menuju ke bandara karena khawatir ga dapet tuk2 or songthew. Ternyata pagi2 songthew or tuk2 da berkeliaran dan tuk2 dengan sombongnya ga mau nganter ke bandara yang dekat (cuma 10 menit) ga kurang dari 60 baht dan tiba2 songthew lewat dan rasa trauma masih melekat aku coba

ChiangMai day 1 & 2: The History City

Chiang Mai City Tour a.la Fika & Mari :The famous Three King Park (With beach costumes..hehehe)Arts and Cultural Centre next to the Three king ParkWalk 20-30 minutes and from the park, you will find night market open from 4.30 pmBurger King Night Market Chiangmai (Halal problem ? ..solve! just order french fries and chicken/cheese burger)Night Market from Burger king Level 2Wat tour day 2Wat

girl power...

...read fico's story "we were sent to police!!!"...I'm cool now but really I was MAD!!!!I supported you fico...we can't let people bother and we just be silent.very amazing last trip in thailand end in police station with stupid, annoying songthew driver that can't defenced himself because he was guilty.so you guys, don't be afraid to say NO and FIGHT if you are in right side.go girls!!!!!!!!!!

We were sent to police !!

Okay this is what happened if a fraud songthew guy want to messed with two Indonesian girls.It wasn't nice at all.The story begun when we just finished visiting Wat Phrasingh. We decide to go to Doi Suthep by our own in stead taking tours. After went to seven eleven infront of Wat Phrasingh we ask an old white guy about the songthew that goes to Doi Suthep. He said it wont be more expensive than

From bangkok to Chiangmai

I have huge back pack on my back(80ltr), one in front of my chest (30ltr)and we still had to drag other bag (50 ltr) to the MRT station, and then sub way. Have to walk on sky walk before reach the subway.Nightmare !Its the other price to pay when you're a shopohoilic. I got tshirt for my family, sisters, evern small tedy bear for my niece.We check out at 10.30 from Central Shukumvit 25. We had

crazy chiangmai.....

Bangkok-Chiangmai 31 Agustus 2007 Kita berangkat ke Chiangmai naik kereta setelah survey dan beli tiket satu hari sebelumnya di stasiun Hua Lampong (cuma ada 1 stasiun kereta, kita kemaren naik BTS dan lanjut naik MRT tapi dari stasiun .... ke stasiun Hua Lampong lumayan jauh so selamat berjuang kalo punya bawaan kayak kami kemaren). Kita memilih kereta 2nd class sleeper rapid train (491 baht)

bangkok oh bangkok

Phuket-Bangkok 27 Agustus 2007 Check out hostel jam 12 siang so kita harus ngungsi lagi menuju kota lain...BANGKOK.... Kita rencananya ke Surat Tani dulu naik bis dan lanjut naik kereta mpe Bangkok tapi gw bilang ma fico, kalo gitu kita bakalan capek banget harus angkut segala bawaan yang tiba2 jadi bertambah dengan hebatnya karena bawaan orok wanita yang hobi belanja so gw memutuskan dan dikit

Last day fun in Bangkok (full of bling2)

Istana Raja (King Palace)Megaaaahhh nyaaa !Om yang jaga tempat kediaman keluarga raja...Emaasss ???Yesterday is very exhausted day.But as always we did it with fun !We went thru the same activity like the other day, went to the Chao Phraya River using MRT and sky train from Shukumvit.We already know where we should stop at, at 8th pier and then walk outside the pier to the street. And the grand

Bangkok and tour to the wat wat (???)

We just got back from "wat tour".. we did it our self. From were we stay (Shukumvit soi 25 "Shukumvit Centre" is the hostel name) we took MRT from Asok to Siam and then change into Silom line at Siam to Saphan Taksin and then go down to lower level to the pier (Central pier/Sathorn Taksin).We choose the express boat (13 baht/trip) cause its have flat fare, the other one ferry price is 100 baht

Bangkok City of Pretty boy

The bus fare from Phuket to Bangkok is 626 baht, and its 15 hours journey. Two time stop and each stop is about 15-20 minutes. The stopping place is clean, its where we eat.We finally arrive to Bangkok, City of angels. Its really similiar to Jakarta i think.We arrive at 4. 30 am. The lights still on. An there's already so many people on street. Just the same like jakarta.Maria already ask the bus

phuket.. buh bye !

Last day in phuket, we only have couple hours to stay here.We decide to go to Wat Chalong, the biggest temple here in Phuket. We see the tample on the way to Kata/Karon Beach, its beautiful !After went to Wat Chalong we must rush back to catch our bus to Bangkok..We back to our hostel at 11 am. We must repack our things.At night actually we've been talking again about the way we go to Bangkok.

fotooooooooo di phuket!!!!!!!!!

kenangan indah di Phuket!!!!!!!!

Krabi-Phuket 24 Agustus 2007Hari pertama kita ikut tour 4 pulau, lalu besoknya keliling kota dan lusanya ke pulau Phi2 dan langsung menuju Phuket naik bis minta dianterin ma jemputan tour ke terminal bis sekitar jam 4 sore. Ada kejadian lucu buat dikenang sodara2 ”backpack nya Ms. Fico, talinya sobek....huaaahhh karena kebanyakan bawaan kale J”. Naik bis kita hanya bayar 115 baht sedang kalo

Views From a Window

Published in GCN, April 11, 1981. At 82 Vidal is still alive and kicking, despite recent knee replacement surgery, and despite my occasional disagreements with him I still admire him. He's one of the writers from whom I've learned the most, and he still makes me realize how little I've accomplished.Views from a Window: conversations with Gore Vidaledited by Robert J. Stanton and Gore VidalLyle

Views From a Window

pasar malam phuket....

dasar mang bawaan orok tempat baru ya....bukan nyasar se tapi dipeta kita liat ada night bazaar ternyata kita da jalan setengah jam itu klab malam...tidakkkkkk!!!!!!balik arah mo ke phuket shopping center da jalan jauh trus pake nanya ma bapak2 lokal yang ga ngerti english cuma ngerti kita cari jalan waktu nunjukin peta ternyata gak buka karena sabtu-minggu ada pasar malam...tidakkkkkkkkk!!!!!ada

Special Phuket

Last night we just can't do anything else than get shower and just had some sleep, wake up at 7 am, still we can't stay at bed more than that (working habits).We were starve to death that we went downstairs nexdoor to beloved 7 eleven and grab some juice and bread for breakfast.Its very couzy at Phuket Backpacker hostel. We eat our breakfast infront of computer, browsing, since its free charge

jalan2 di phuket town, small city so u can walk around depan Baan Iyara, Krabi me-fico and my Phuket Night Angel :). Thank you! cerita selanjutnya ntar aja ya........

Phi2 tour & Morning Phuket ! (Day 1 Phuket)

Woah... last night was incredible journey. From Krabi to Phuket by bus. It took us 2 hours ride from Krabi to Phuket and the bus ticket only 115 baht.Our other option is by shuttle bus but the price is twice more expensive 350 baht. We choose public transport.. its a journey full of adventure.. so.. adventure here we go ! going with economic class bus !We finished our Phi2 tour at 3.30 pm (

foto.....

dibelakang itu temple di krabi, keren juga di foto dari jauhhabis snorkeling, capek banget so waktunya foto2.gw lupa nama pulau ini :)my first snorkeling.it was great....you should try it!!!!!!!

Amazing phi2 and journey to phuket !!

Pagi yang cerah.. kami berangkat ke Phi2 island dengan tur yang sama Barracuda tour (andalan !!!) hehehe..Cuaca panas banget, di pagi hari matahari dengan jor2an menyinari pagi yang indah di krabi.Kami udah packing sejak semalam. Sebelum packing kita jalan2 dengan motor matic yang kita sewa di Baan Iyara (mahal bo ternyata! 300baht, seharusnya 100-120 udah dapat 24 jam/1harian). Kita rada bingung

foto2 lagi!!!!!!!!!

4 ISLANDS TOUR...tgl 23 augcuma 600baht bisa kemana2, asik banget dan telah menghitamkan kulitku dengan sukses.SELAMAT!!! PHI PHI ISLAND TOUR...tgl 25 augperjalanan di mulai di maya beach, pantai yang rameeeeee banget.baru kali ini gw ke pantai kayak ke pasar aja.lo bisa liat orang dari banyak negara tapi semua pada cuek karena pada ga mo rugi kali ya, disini bisa berenang dan snorkeling.. tebing

Day 2: Krabi town is small

We woke up not in rush today.We were planning to do our own city tour around Krabi. Yesterday is hell of fun day, and we need to do something that wont made us exhausted or get water splashes for today.We need to get rest for tomorrow because tomorrow is a big day.We will go to Phiphi Island, i've been waiting this for so long. I want to do more snorkeling for sure if i went there. It said as the

Day 1, Krabi Thailand & Four Islands Tour

Today when we were woke up, we feel extremely excited. We get up little bit early, eating noodles as breakfast and vitamin C as we will get lots of fun in the sun.The Baan Iyara hostel is really comfy, and not so much noisy so we could sleep very well. Its very clean and neat too (most important thing !). I'm just thinking where in Indonesia you could have a room with air conditioner, hot shower,

foto2........

pengalaman pantai dan keliling pulau gw ceritain kronologis berikutnya...tungguin ya.... baan iyara hostel sekitar jam 7 malam. Dijemput naik BMW bo'...just what a night de waktu itu...oia, kita dapet kamar private buat berdua...yippiii ada internet gratis di terminal, tapi ya itu tulalit so ga berguna juga :( berangkat ke krabi, thailand naik tiger airways, tgl 21 aug sekitar jam 5 sore,harus

thailand...here we're go........

Singapore-Krabi 21 Agustus 2007Sekitar jam 1 siang balik ke hostel karena penerbangan jam 18.00 tapi harus tiba 2 jam sebelumnya so ngambil barang dulu dan balik arah lagi menuju stasiun, seharian itu pokoke capek banget da, keringatan bisa seember kayaknya mana bawaan berat banget. Kita menuju Changi airport pake MRT dan naik bis menuju Budget Terminal (ikutin aja arah dari bandara changi, mudah

Start:Jambi-Batam-Singapore day 1

Lets the journey began…. This noon my mom and my younger sister drive us to Sultan Taha Airport. Our flight is at 3.10 pm with Mandala Airlines. I already book this flight month before. I did that because its pretty close with the end of school holidays. I’m just afraid that we’re not being able to get one if we just “go-show” to the airport. My mom is still sick I could see that on her face, but

From Singapore to Krabi

Our flight is at afternoon. So we went out at 8.30 from Betel Box on a mission to find a digital camera for ms. Maria.But first we went to Bugis square and took some of pictures. We eat our lunch at Bugis Mc D. I even meet Nana, my cousin from Malaysia, its a huge supraise that she and her family went to Singapore the same day with me. They went to Singapore just for shopping.Shortly we arrive at

Singapore indah!!!!!!!!!

Singapore 20 Agustus 2007Tiba di HarbourFront jam 19.20 (berarti jam 20.20 waktu Singapore), melewati imigrasi, gw ketemu ma ibu2 yang cerewet, waktu ditanya gw nginap dimana, gw bingung karena gw ga tau alamatnya cuma ingat nama hostelnya doank, mungkin karena banyak yang ngantri so dia ga bawel lagi…uhhggg… Langsung menuju MRT (kereta bawah tanah) mo ke Betel Box Hostel (www.betelbox.com) di

Bye2 indonesia!!!!!!!!!!!

Aktifitas perjalanan jambi-Batam-Singapore-Thailand-Singapore-Batam-jambi dimulai dengan persiapan segala sesuatunya dari 7 bulan sebelum keberangkatan (segitunya…he2…). Soalnya kita booking lagi promosi budget flight pake Tiger Airways (Jetstar Airways juga murah kok). Jambi-Batam 20 Agustus 2007 Tanggal 20 Agustus kita berangkat naik Mandala Airlines (rada mahal dan perubahan harganya ga

Fiskal ohh Fiskal

Banyak banget yang nanyain soal fiskal, memang agak membingungkan dan agak gak adil banget sebab gak tiap daerah gratis lewat Batam ke singapore.Data di bawah ini aku ambil dari milis indobackpacker. Mungkin bisa bantu teman2 semua yang pengen keluar negri tapi bingung soal fiskal.Oh ya besarnya fiskal itu beda2. Kalo di Jakarta kena Rp 1 juta. Tapi kalo lewat batam kenanya Rp 500,000,- Mungkin

Harumph!

On second thought, I figured this diatribe should be posted separately from the book review.My blog entry "Gay Christians Say the Darnedest Things" was linked by slacktivist in July, which led to a brief and interesting exchange of comments there. Some commenters complained that I don't enable comments here, a matter which I've mentioned but not really explained before. Reading the slacktivist

Harumph!

Fiddling While Faggots Burn

Published in GCN in April 1981. Soon after I wrote this I began serious research on Christianity -- the history of the New Testament, the origins of the Jesus cult, and particularly Christian teachings on homosexuality -- in preparation for a projected book, Like Father, Like Son: An Attack on Christianity. I never quite finished it, but I did more reviews on religion-related books for GCN and

Fiddling While Faggots Burn

Now, More Than Ever

Now that the Democrats have shown conclusively that it is useless to vote them into office, there remains the question of 2008. I've encountered a surprising number of liberal Dems who apparently believe that Bush will be running again. "I want to see him defeated in 2008," they tell me grimly. So much for "reality-based"! (These are the same sort of people who believe that the US didn't

Now, More Than Ever

A Dark and Stormy Night

This review was published in GCN on April 14, 1981. The answer to my offhand question in the body of the review is that "Vincent Virga" is not a pseudonym. Virga is a successful book designer and picture editor, and he went on to write two more novels: A Comfortable Corner (1986), about a contemporary gay male couple troubled by one partner's alcoholism, and Vadriel Vail (2001), another

A Dark and Stormy Night

lama...

lama banget nunggu tgl 19, waktunya gw cuti dan melakukan perjalanan tgl 20...hmmm...my first backpack experience..wish me luck.da gak sabar banget pengen melepaskan lelah selama shutdown plant dan reset pikiran gw yang uda dikacaukan ma Zidar :(.tunggu cerita gw ya....SEMANGAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What Is "Community"?

I just got out of an interesting gay chat room discussion, which is something of an event in itself. The availability of cheap Internet access that doesn’t tie up your phone line makes it possible for many gay men to log in to a chat site, then leave the program running in the background while they work on other things, hoping that Ryan Philippe or Hugh Jackman will send them a private message.

What Is "Community"?

Betelbox Hostel Singapore

I book Betelbox Hostel today via mail.My last trip to Singapore so impressive, i like to stay in that hostel. The front desk is very helpful and friendly. They also had an amazing cat, i love that huge cat !!! Smart cat, his name is lucky.I stay for several days, five days if i am not mistaken. I never been to Singapore, and i don't know anyone there. I thought i would be lonely and it wont be

Last preparation ! (Part 1)

Hahahah !! sounds really great ?!!Maria staying at my house from July 24 until 31. We were doing our final preparation. It's quite scare me how we found that we weren't doing anything yet.. not literally.. but we haven't pack a things !!!So we start shopping for our needs.We bought tank tops, and shorts. Not much. I only have 3 new tops and one shorts. Maria have two new t-shirt, girlie tshirt (

i'm in...

hi guys......Gw temannya Fico...pastinya kalo pada baca cerita dia 'ngeh' keberadaan gw :).Btw, Ms Fico....ngapain lo nyebut2 nama gw, mana lo mimpiin gw gak seru lagi lagian ntar + terkenal aja gw...he2...akhirnya gw ikutan blok ini...belon ada cerita jalan2 se..ntar lagi de..just wait and read pasti SERU!!!!c u..........

He Do The Police in Different Voices; or, Cap'n Billy's Whizz-bang

Published in Gay Community News in 1981. I guess they liked it, because they sent me Burroughs's next book, Cities of the Red Night, to review later.Port of Saintsby William S. BurroughsBerkeley: Blue Wind Press$15.95 cloth, $5.95 paper In William S. Burroughs’s autobiographical first novel Junky, first published in 1953, there is a confrontation between the author-surrogate William Lee and a

He Do The Police in Different Voices; or, Cap'n Billy's Whizz-bang

Intermezzo: Mimpi Aneh

Hehehe... buat posting sengaja dalam bahasa Indonesia.. terlalu norak buat di publikasikan dengan bahasa Inggris.Semalam mimpinya aneh bo ! gini kronologis mimpinya :Mimpi dalam pesawat.. waaah gilaaa jadi juga gue berangkat !! everything is so perfect (perasaaan gitu deh). Pesawatnya oke, makanannya enak, pramugarinya ramah, yang duduk di sebelah cowok cakeeepppsssss (namanya mimpi bo ! jangan

Mandala airlines online

Sucks...Bad words but it was sucks...I try to get the ticket online, the price for the one way ticket from Jambi to Batam is Rp 297.500.10 minutes flight.. and i pay as much as if i go to Jakarta with 45 minutes flight.Plus... i thought that Mandala online system just like any other international online booking, we pay half, and pay the other half when we go.. or pay with credit cards.. its not !

Arf! (Not To Be Confused With Woof!)

Originally published in Gay Community News, April 1981.The Dog, and Other Storiesby Joseph HansenSanta Monica CA: Momentum Press64 pp$3.50 paper If you’ve enjoyed Joseph Hansen’s mystery novels, you will probably be interested in this collection of his short stories. All but one were published before 1970, the year Fadeout, the first Dave Brandstetter novel, was published, and none in my

Arf! (Not To Be Confused With Woof!)

Wadaaaww !!!

Few weeks ago i just learned that the airplane ticket from Batam to Jambi is TWICE price of ticket Jambi to Batam.. how's that could HAPPENED ????!!!AAAAAAWWWWW!!! aw..aww..awwwI try not so worry about it since i had someone who could book it with cheap price (??) but i doubt that he will give me cheaper price than the net offers.I already told Maria about this, and also that we had to change few

What Happened

Originally published in GCN around 1980. Since then I've read a few more of Miller's novels, and though I still like What Happened (his last novel), I can't quite see how he got a reputation as a novelist. Miller had a very distinct writing voice, and once I saw how consistently he'd used that voice in his earlier work,What Happened seemed less fresh. On the other hand, his 1971 coming-out in

What Happened

Ode On a Grecian Urning

Published in GCN in July 1980 (I remember working on it in their office while visiting Boston that summer). So far I haven't read any more of Patrick White's books, not even the memoir in which he wrote about his homosexuality.The Twyborn Affairby Patrick WhiteViking Press, 1980$14.95One reason writers must write to satisfy themselves is that they can't be sure of satisfying anyone else. This is

Ode On a Grecian Urning

If Nobody Else Jumped Off a Bridge, Would You?

One of the pitfalls of promiscuous reading is the multiple contacts. You read one book, it leads you to another, and another. Thousands of contacts in a lifetime, Dr. Kinsey! And sometimes you feel cheap and used afterwards. I picked up Sandra Lipsitz Bem’s The lenses of gender: transforming the debate on sexual inequality (Yale University Press, 1993) because I’d seen it cited here and there

If Nobody Else Jumped Off a Bridge, Would You?

New back pack !

Well.. this is not exactly the type of backpack that i just bought ! it was much bigger. I finally had my own 50 liters back pack, that made my mom wondering and ask "where do you go ? you seemed not planning to go back home aren't you ?" It's a joke, and i don't need to answer that (hahahahahaa !) The price that i got is Rp 99.000,- Extra cheap for a bag that could carry alot. I'm only

Online bookings for Thailand trip !! cheap !

Okay.. so we already set the dates, we booked few things already.. I think it’s a great deals. Just check this out !Sing-Krabi (one way, Tiger Airways, one person) : S$ 56 (Rp 330.400)Baan iyara hostel in Krabi for 3 days + airport pick up (two person, not incl. breakfast) THB 1450 (Rp 420.500)Four Island half day tour with long tail boat (2 person including lunch, fruits, and bottle of water)

When Anyone Says “God”, I Keep My Hand Over My Wallet

E. Lynn Harris is improving as a writer. I read several of his earlier novels, mainly out of a sense of duty, trying to keep my finger on the queer zeitgeist. He’s very much in the Harlequin tradition, African-American subdivision, except that his sculpted Nubian princes fall in love with each other. If we could just get a gay black Jennifer Crusie, now, I’d be a major fan. But Harris has the

When Anyone Says “God”, I Keep My Hand Over My Wallet

I Enjoy Being a Girl!

Tomorrow (June 28) will be Gay Pride Day, the 38th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, so it’s as good a time as any to reflect on how far we’ve come since then. And it’s true, the possibilities for gay people in the US and in many other parts of the world have increased a great deal since 1969.People have a tendency, however, to see change as monolithic, evenly and instantly distributed

I Enjoy Being a Girl!

Not That There's Anything Wrong With That!

Published in GCN, April 1980. At least one more book on the straight woman/gay man constellation appeared in the 1980s, and I was given a review copy but I don't think I ever finished the review. The archetype persists, through Will and Grace to numerous pop books on gay men and women, like 1997's Sex Tips for Straight Women from a Gay Man, written by (you guessed it) a gay man and his straight

Not That There's Anything Wrong With That!

Backpacking First Aid

Since i were young i kind of wonder why my parent took days to prepare a journey to mountain or to national park in my province, at least a day before. There's so much to be pack beside clean clothes.All we want is perfect holidays. Being sick or injured not in our plan.But in case that's happened we should prepare some additional for our journey.. just in case !Having some basic first aid

Tolliver Always

2007 has been a pretty good year for gay fiction, with a number of important (to me, anyway) writers putting out new work: Neil Bartlett’s Skin Lane, Emma Donoghue’s Landing, Samuel Delany’s Dark Reflections, Sarah Schulman’s The Child (which I haven’t seen yet). In the past week I’ve read two new novels that update established characters, long-awaited by their fans (including me). According to

Tolliver Always

The Grand Old Party

Published in GCN, April 1980. I was embarrassed, as I was typing this in, to notice that I wrote confidently about the bulk of Maugham's writing as if I knew it. In fact I'd only read Of Human Bondage, and one or two his stories, and though I've had his collected stories on my shelves for many years, that is still all I've read. Time to do something about that, I guess.Maughamby Ted

The Grand Old Party

Takeoff and Touchdown

Lesbian writers have had a lot of influence on me, ever since Jill Johnston's 1971 "Lois Lane Is a Lesbian" essays in the Village Voice prompted me to come out. Since then, lesbian writers have written many of my favorite books, whether about gay men (The Front Runner, Memoirs of Hadrian, The Persian Boy) or about, well, lesbians. From Kate Millett and Isabel Miller to Sarah Waters and Alison

Takeoff and Touchdown

Not For the Squeamish

In his audio commentary for the Korean DVD of Kim In-shik's Road Movie, film writer Tony Rayns describes the opening sex scene as "brutal." May I comment that I don't see it that way? In the first place, this scene and the later one with a worker in a teahouse look less "brutal" than acrobatic to me; sort of like Dae-shik's Homo-Aerobic Workout Video. I'm reminded of the way many viewers

Not For the Squeamish

Going again !

This August i will go on my backpacking journey.. again !I will go to Singapore and Thailand with one of my friend Maria. We will start the journey at August 21, 2007 until September 4, 2007.The travel initerary are:Jbi-Batam-Singapore-Krabi-Phuket-Bangkok-Chiang mai-Singapore-Batam-JbiThis is not the first time for me, but it will for Maria.I hope this journey will be AWESOME. Specially because

Seeds And Stems Will Rend My Hems

Published in GCN, 15 March 1980. After writing this review I found a long article in Rolling Stone, from which I learned that "K. Levise" was Ryder's wife Kimberley. Ryder, born "William Levise, Jr." told the interviewer that the songs on How I Spent My Vacation were indeed born of his own experience, including a long-ago affair with politico John Sinclair of Detroit's White Panthers (and

Seeds And Stems Will Rend My Hems

Skin To Skin

I just finished reading two new gay-themed novels from the British Isles. The first, Neil Bartlett's new novel Skin Lane (London: Serpent's Tail, 2007), doesn't seem to be scheduled for US publication (it's not listed on Amazon US), though the copy I read lists the price in US dollars as well as English pounds.Bartlett first came to my attention with Who Was That Man?: A Present for Mr. Oscar

Skin To Skin

The Girl in the Basement

This was the first book review I wrote for Gay Community News, a Boston gay liberationist newspaper published from 1973 to 1992. The review appeared in the fall of 1979. I haven´t changed it except for to correct punctuation here and there. Gertrude Baniszewski, I learned while preparing this post, got a second trial in 1971, and her sentence was changed from life without parole to 18 years to

The Girl in the Basement

By Their Fruits Shall Ye Know Them

When Brokeback Mountain became a middling hit a couple of years ago,there was speculation that its success might inspire Hollywood to dust off some long-stalled gay projects. Patricia Nell Warren's 1974 novel The Front Runner, about the love between an Olympic runner and his coach, or Peter Lefcourt's The Dreyfus Affair, about the coming out of a gay pro baseball player, were titles I saw

By Their Fruits Shall Ye Know Them

Stopping Bravely At The Surface

Lamenting gay men's shallow obsession with looks is always good for livening up a slow session in a chat room or for taking a break while guy-watching at the bar. Of course, the complaint is almost always about other gay men's shallowness. I can't recall ever having heard someone moan, "I'm so shallow -- all I care about is looks. Personality doesn't matter to me at all." Very often the

Stopping Bravely At The Surface

Hiding From Their Own Shadows

What's wrong with this picture? In 1972, a gay twenty-year-old visiting Manhattan has only one night to "find others like myself":Yet in an era before gay community centers and programs, or gay bookstores and the right kind of titles to line their shelves, where was a young queer person to go? All I knew -- all I had ever heard about -- were the seedy gay movie houses near Times Square. With

Hiding From Their Own Shadows

Impossible Desires: Queer Diasporas and South Asian Public Culturesby Gayatri GopinathDurham NC: Duke University Press, 2005Okay, what I want to know is: How could Gayatri Gopinath write a book on queers in the South Asian diaspora without even mentioning Chutney Popcorn? I suppose it could be argued that Nisha Ganatra's desi-dyke indie film doesn't merit the extended discussion Gopinath grants

The Blind Man and the Elephant

Love in a different climate: men who have sex with men in IndiaJeremy SeabrookLondon and New York: Verso, 1999.In a major city there's a park where men go to look for sex with other men. These men vary in their motives, and the kind of sex they're looking for. Some are apparently masculine, others apparently effeminate. Some are here because they aren't married, or aren't living with their wives,

The Blind Man and the Elephant

Gay Christians Say the Darnedest Things!

I suppose my all-time favorite is the student who stood up in the audience during a dormitory forum on gays and Christianity, identified himself as a gay Christian who knew his Scriptures very well, and proceeded to denounce the "Saint James Version" of the Bible, much to the amusement of the fundamentalist students present. (It wasn't only the name of the translation that he got wrong.) But as a

Gay Christians Say the Darnedest Things!

Where to begin?

Just in case anyone else stumbles onto this, including myself during a bout of amnesia, I plan to use this blog to post whatever screeds, polemics, meditations, and suchlike I don't know what else to do with. I've been writing at a number of things for the past few years but have not been able to find a place to publish them, because they're too long, or not timely, or too far from the mainstream