October 2016
Nude male celebrities are nothing new in these parts, so this may just be another hum-drum event for you, dear viewer. However, it’s Usher, so pay some respect. While some may never forgive him for unleashing the likes of Justin Bieber on an unsuspecting world, I don’t blame him for previous wrongdoing, particularly if he’s going to treat his fans to peep-shows like the one seen here.
Winking in the cloudy distance, the Empire State Building sends its sparkling spire into the heavens, where it illuminates the misty air like a halo around its head. An empty office building across the way glows warmly against the cool shades of the fallen night. I hope that it’s empty, at least for the sake of any denizens otherwise exposed to my post-shower full-frontal display. I never like showing off to the uninvited, and such a stance is more often than not returned.
On this evening, with the quiet glow of a television set behind me, I am mostly in silhouette, and if anyone cares to trouble themselves with peeping from below, well, let them have at it. This is no place for the embarrassed or shy. A conundrum and contradiction perhaps, and if you’ve been coming here for a while you know the routine.
A New York night carries many mysteries, and even more possibilities.
Once again the race is on for our front-yard ‘Endless Summer’ hydrangeas to squeeze out a few glorious blooms before the first hard frost takes them all away. This has been happening more frequently in recent years. Though technically these plants are supposed to bloom on old and new wood (if a plant is ‘supposed’ to do anything), I’ve yet to see any substantial evidence of this. (Partly because I cut down most of the old wood anyway.) As warm and sunny as the season has shone, it’s been a lackluster one as far as hydrangea blooms go. Only the old-fashioned cream-colored variety produced a steady stream of blooms, though the lace-caps in the backyard, hidden by a fountain of Miscanthus, put on a secret show.
As if pre-empting this blog post, however, the plants suddenly developed a host of blooms these last few weeks, ready to burst forth in their soft pink hues (I gave up trying to acidify the soil long ago). It’s going to be a close-call as to whether or not they will expose their full splendor before the cold nights wither everything in sight.
Still, I appreciate the last-ditch effort, and it’s bringing a freshness to the garden at a point when I’™d all but given up on such new treats. It will be a poignant final movement in pink.
Perhaps it’s also a well-thought-out plan: at this time of the year, when the sun slants a little lower in the sky the light is brilliant for illuminating and enriching this kind of color. Everything happens for a reason, especially in the garden.
This post is in no way meant to imply or inspire an acceptance of Uggs, which I find to be one of the more egregious fashion blights to take over the nation. It will never reach the proportion or offensive stature of, say, Crocs – but it’s bad enough. That said, here’s some free advertising because we are about to dive end-zone-first into football season.
Here we have Tom Brady and Julian Edelman in a tongue-in-cheek take on what is likely a rather accurate rendering of their relationship. I just want to know two things: who designed that gorgeous room? And may I join in the fun? I’ll be quiet, I promise. (Wonder if Mr. Brady gets as naked as this if the fire gets too hot…) PS – One more question: where is THE GRONK?
Check out the fun below:
There’s no good reason for not watching this amazing film until now, but I just saw ‘Carol’ and you should stop what you’re doing and watch it too. Well, hold that thought. It’s actually got a big holiday background to it, so wait a month or two, but definitely queue it up. Two of my favorite performers – Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara – give nuanced, subtle, and mesmerizing performances as two women caught up in a love affair that was not possible in its time. Definitely food for thought on this National Coming Out Day.
Dearest. There are no accidents and he would have found us one way or another. Everything comes full circle. Be grateful it was sooner rather than later. You’ll think it harsh of me to say so, but no explanation I offer will satisfy you. Please don’t be angry when I tell you that you seek resolutions and explanations because you’re young. But you will understand this one day. And when it happens, I want you to imagine me there to greet you, our lives stretched out ahead of us, a perpetual sunrise. But until then, there must be no contact between us. I have much to do, and you, my darling, even more. Please believe that I would do anything to see you happy. So, I do the only thing I can… I release you. ~ Carol
Though it’s Tuesday it certainly feels like a Monday, and having just returned from a wonderful vacation in Maine, I’m feeling lazy enough for a recap. Since today is National Coming Out Day, why don’t we do a big gay recap?
Focus on the host portion of this hosta, and forget any similarity to hostility. Words are tricky that way. Deceitful little things. Unlike this beautiful hosta, whose enchantment is magnified in the second photo, thanks to the droplet-adorned accoutrement of falling rain. If it seems like I’m hanging fruitlessly onto a summer that long ago departed, it’s because that’s exactly what I’m doing. No shame in my Wilson Phillips game. Sing it Carnie!
The sins of Christopher Columbus are being celebrated today, but since you can’t discover what someone has already discovered, I’m going to take the day and dismiss the honor as we move forward by looking back. Our typical Monday recap begins now.
It started with this glorious bit of pornography.
An impromptu visit to New York City illustrated how much wonder there can be in a single night.
It also showed what happens when there is no sleep.
There are naughty books in this world. (Or are there?)
Though limited, there were Hunks of the Day, and they included Jason Morgan and Ed Harbourne.
Here is a glimpse of the glory that is Ogunquit, as our real lives intersect with my online adventures. We are scheduled to depart this lovely town tomorrow, as our annual fall visit comes to a close, and we do so with our usual tinge of sadness. Still, there is something of comfort in such beauty, and we always leave a little richer than when we arrived.
At the edge of land, the light is magical. Where the sea greets us, whether in peaceful slumber or tumultuous rage, there is the crux of life.
We will be back when things awake again… in the spring.
Across the street from my childhood home, there was a rose garden. My parents did not grow such exotic beauties – content with their vegetable plots and swaths of impatiens – so I’d sneak over and spend hours walking the stone paths among the plants, bending down to inhale the intoxicating fragrance, doing my part in plucking off the Japanese beetles, and basically having the time of my life.
I enjoyed the solitude as much as the beauty, and though my heart wanted to burst for all the wonder and prettiness around me, I didn’t feel the compelling need to share it with anyone.
That would come later.
Back then, it was enough to experience the garden on my own, this secret space where I could be entirely at ease, luxuriating in my solitude, the sun and the sky as my only quasi-companions. On a summer day, when other boys would be playing ball or rambunctiously bandying about, I found safety and solace here.
Behind a gate, a patch of mint ran wildly into the shade beside a stand of arborvitae. It formed a living wall of green, like some formal maze at a grand estate, and I thrilled at such secluded secrecy within secrecy. Slipping into the space, I felt relief from the midday sun. I brushed some of the mint with my hand, allowing the aroma to rise and refresh.
This was where I would find home.
The Delusional Grandeur Tour: Last Stand of a Rock Star begins its final leg today. I feel like there should be some grand dramatic gesture here, but most of the drama has already occurred. This is sort of the calm aftermath, like the receding waves of a retreating tide. When you see the final pages, the absence of a full-on finale may make more sense. I’ve found that the most powerful revelations usually do not come about with a bang or a big event – they happen slowly, over time, and any deep-seeded change or transformation, such as what happens to the very land we walk upon, takes years and years to find full fruition.
That is very much the case as the last chapter of The Delusional Grandeur Tour is presented in the next few weeks. You’ll find here a return to my childhood passion – flowers – and within that a return to what I’ve always held sacred. The last two decades have found me on numerous journeys, each rife with the intent to find myself, or in some instances to completely escape from myself. I’ve created an image and a persona that was my way of dealing with pain and hurt, suffering and angst, giddiness and joy, pleasure and desire, longing and desperation, loneliness and love in ways that weren’t always healthy, or even rooted in reality. Not that it was all a dream, nor was it all very real.
My ‘tours’ were escapades that amounted to little more than traveling to see friends in different places, to lift the mundane and reach a higher level of entertainment. Mostly, they were done to deal with a world that grows dimmer by the day, to try to attain enough delusions to disguise the fact that we are all not superstars.
Perhaps I went a little too far…
But what purpose does a flower have other than to show off?
What is it about a flower that so soothes us?
Its beauty, its fragrance, its perfect form?
The wonder of its growth, of how it all began and how it came to such a point of prettiness?
It is all of these things, but it is also something more.
No flower lasts forever.
The very notion of its fleeting and ephemeral existence is a lesson in grace and humility.
It is also a lesson in bombast, and how to put on a show.
Flowers don’t have time to do anything but shine and entice.
Their purpose is to make an impression, a lasting impression that secures the propagation of their species.
Because of that, they are made more beautiful.
Just like the best moments in life.
The very shortness of their duration is why we love them so.
There is something soothing in such a finite experience… and something sad too.
Following the lime-green petals of a zinnia, we go around the circle of life.
Whorls of spinning repetition, repeated rows of endless segments – they all lead back to before.
Somehow, though, we have never been here.
The cycle of a year is a similar journey.
Here is the spring, followed by the summer.
Here is the fall, coming before the winter.
And here we arrive at the spring again.
It’s the same but somehow different, and it always feels new, no matter how many times we go around.
More on that mysterious titular acronym in a few posts… for now this is a tease for the next installment of The Delusional Grandeur Tour: Last Stand of a Rock Star. As we near the end, the trajectory has come around not just to the beginning of this particular tour, but back to the start of that which originally inspired and thrilled me. In this case, a love of nature and flowers.
A scene of simplicity and beauty.
The magic of transformation.
Our delusions have one final chapter in which to resolve themselves, but before we lose ourselves on this last road, let’s look back at where we’ve been…
THE DELUSIONAL GRANDEUR TOUR: LAST STAND OF A ROCK STAR
01) Intro/Curtain – Part One, Part Two, Part Three
02) Sunset Pool – Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five
03) On The Road Hotel – Part One, Part Two, Part Three
04) Rock Star Addict – Part One, Part Two, Part Three
05) Animal Demons – Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five
06) Steam Punk Birdcage – Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four
07) Red Riding Wood - Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five
08) Winter Top Hat - Part One, Part Two
09) Warrior Retribution - Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six, Part Seven, Part Eight
10) Cologne Glamour Fashion - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
11) Samsara Healing Water - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
12) Spring Thaw Salvation - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
