Monthly Archives:

December 2018

Tiny Threads: An Insignificant Series

It’s almost soup season. My first will be a split pea soup using the hambone from dinner a few nights ago.  What is your poison?

#TinyThreads

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As the Holidays Swell, a Recap

Having just returned from a Boston Children’s Holiday Weekend, my brain and body are equally tired, so before I go into that happy story let’s have a quick recap of the week before. 

Every once in a while I get a hankering for one of these

This year’s Christmas tree came from our own front yard. 

Holiday revenge or redemption, and what exactly is the difference?

Where beauty meets function, and you meet a perfect holiday gift idea

The wonder of a Christmas tree, even after all these years. 

Harsh Christmas reality check

Holiday levity.

The 4th Annual Boston Children’s Holiday Hour took place… more on that later. 

Fifteen years of ALANILAGAN.com, and fifteen favorite posts

Midnight magic

A nude attitude.

Justin Hartley naked, preparing for his stripping Santa scene. 

These #TinyThreads are on the verge of breaking. 

Holiday hunks included Jason Momoa, Don Lemon and Sam Tsui.

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A Stripping Santa: Justin Hartley

Justin Hartley has already been named a Hunk of the Day here – and not just once, but twice. That puts him directly in line for the coveted and rare three-time HOD. This isn’t quite that post, rather a holder with a stripping Santa theme for the season. Taken mostly from his naked romp in ‘A Bad Moms Christmas’ these GIFs should keep things merry and bright. It’s important to keep the twig and berries properly maintained. Manscaping matters

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Tiny Threads: An Insignificant Series

What is the point of desiccating perfectly good fruit in the sun? I’m talking to you, raisins and sun-dried tomatoes. You gag me.

#TinyThreads

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Shades of Nude

For the longest time I fought against the fashion notion of nudes. The shade I mean (obviously, as I have no issue with nudity – my own or anyone else’s for that matter). In fact, nakedness has always been celebrated here. But for fashion choices, the palette of nudes that has been so popular in recent years has always seemed a little dull and safe for my taste.

The only way to combat that is to add a little Tom Ford label (his underwear collection incorporates various nude shades) and some sequins and ostrich feathers. If you must drape yourself in nudes, you might as well sparkle and float in the air. The hint of the outfit here will give you an idea of how I’m planning on hosting this weekend’s Children’s Holiday Hour in Boston. Just because they’re kids doesn’t mean they don’t deserve something fabulous.

I’ll wear it again for a more low-key gathering this season. With accents of rose gold, even I can work a nude attitude.

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Midnight Crux

On the border of the midpoint of the month, this midnight marks the halfway-demarcation of December. We have not yet begun winter officially, which is a bit of a drag. How can we get to the end when we haven’t even started yet? Not to worry, in less than a week we will be there, the beginning of that cold and barren stretch of time where we mark the days and hunker down in bundled-up misery. Andy and I will become even more home-bound, filling the weekends with the cooking of soups and comfort food, the dishes that take hours to slowly braise, inviting friends and family over to join, or simply enjoying the quiet snow-bound hours with ourselves. Winter must be handled delicately. Mind over matter.

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15 Years & 15 Favorite Posts

In honor of this website’s fifteenth anniversary, Skip suggested I do a ’15 Best Posts’ collection highlighting what I’ve created here. While the archives only go back to 2010 (I hated keeping extra posts around and would simply delete them all and start over every year for the first decade or so – oops!) there have been some decent and worthy entries in the last few years to make this compilation possible. I don’t know if I’d call them the best – ‘favorite’ might be a better term – but everyone loves a simple superlative, so for Skip’s sake here are the Top 15, in no particular order:

  1. Drowned WorldIt’s impossible for me to choose my favorite Madonna Timeline – how do you choose a favorite child? And among such sparkling jewels as ‘Vogue,’ ‘Like A Prayer,’ ‘Express Yourself,’ ‘Ray of Light,’ ‘Live to Tell,’ ‘Crazy For You,’ ‘Erotica,’ ‘Survival,’ ‘Music‘ and ‘Rebel Heart‘ it was difficult finding the one single emblematic song to represent my life-long love affair with Madonna. The entry for ‘Drowned World: Substitute for Love‘ may come closest.
  2. Twisted Sleighride ~ Since we’re in the season, this Christmas-tinged memory is a happy childhood memory, even with its undercurrent of winter mystery.
  3. Heart of Sequins ~ From a very young age I knew I was different. A few others saw it as well and celebrated who I was before I even realized it.
  4. Why I Get Naked Here ~ The title says it, even if I’ve toned down those skin-baring ways.(After years of indulgence and gym-avoidance, it’s better to let the male celebrities get naked and nude for the time being.)
  5. Moon and FagWhile matriculating at Brandeis, I thought I made a new friend. Until he said the f-word.
  6. The First Time I Kissed A Guy ~Bittersweet and brutal, you never forget your first.
  7. Straight Ally Profile: Skip Montross ~ Kicking off a limited-series of Straight Allies, this profile of my friend Skip marked my Reddit debut, portraying the many levels of a gay guy/straight guy friendship.
  8. Gay Couple Profile ~Two photographs taken years apart sparked this sweet telling of one fine romance.
  9. Lessons in Painting ~ Chronicling my first few days transforming the Boston condo with the help of my favorite Uncle. 
  10. A Secret Kept for Two Decades ~ The secret I held in silence for too long. 
  11. Saddle Shoes and Shame ~ Once upon a time I was not so brave in wearing whatever I wanted. 
  12. Remembering the Art in a Hot Shower ~ Memories of a seventh grade art class come flooding back in the warmth of a hot shower. 
  13. The End of My Delusions ~ The grand finale to ‘The Delusional Grandeur Tour,’ this relatively-simple post encapsulates that long-winding journey. 
  14. A Summer Break ~ The first summer I took off from blogging began with this ending. Of course I came back as promised, but I definitely missed it. 
  15. A New Year ~ Last but not least, this was the start of our 15th year of ALANILAGAN.com. 

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Nine Children & Nine Adults

Today marks this year’s Boston Children’s Holiday Hour, and it looks to be one of the largest we’ve ever thrown, with eighteen people cramming into the two-room condo (one room of which will be off-limits ever since a knocked-over candle wax mishap – karma for my brother and I spilling a candle-lit potpourri pot at the Ko house as kids). That means eighteen people in one room and a mini-kitchen. It will work. It has to. I’m not sure about the clean-up, but Suzie won’t leave me high and dry, especially since the sink will be filled with water as it doesn’t quite drain properly. Ahh, mayhem at the holidays

Other than the larger influx of my favorite people, the event will pretty much remain the same: families are encouraged to explore Boston for the first part of the day, and when that magical siesta hour approaches (3 PM or thereabouts) they’re welcome to stop in for some hot chocolate and marshmallows, mulled wine (Christmas-in-a-glass), and general merry-making. To make dinner plans easier, we’ll either order a pizza and/or send the festive troops on their way. The company is what makes this holiday hour(s) so fun, and since I haven’t seen some of these wonderful folks in a couple of years, it’s going to be a grand reunion. They will be coming in from all over: Albany, Detroit, Washington, Syracuse – and even South Africa. I hope Boston can handle all the bonhomie.

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Holiday Levity

As an antidote to this morning’s brutally honest post, I give you this light-hearted piece of whimsy. Everyone loves making fun of a T. rex’s shortcomings, so have at it.

In the words of Karen Walker, it’s funny cause it’s sad.

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Tiny Threads: An Insignificant Series

The days of three-way calling are long gone.

Still, I remember them with a smile.

Click twice.

#TinyThreads

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Christmas Reality Check

This is not a feel-good Christmas post.

If you’ve come here looking for holiday spirit or happiness, move along.

Seriously, keep going. Do not pause here. Do not read further. Come back another time. Closed.

Anyone who remains is going to get an earful of Christmas sass and a slap of cold hard truth.

When I was a kid, my favorite television episodes were those that had a holiday theme to them. Some tied in little variations of the Scrooge story, some threw in the birth of Jesus, some just made their usually-snarky villains experience a momentary reprieve from their evil ways – a softening and brief suspension of their otherwise-integral shit-stirring.

I loved these episodes because they made it seem like Christmas had the power to change an asshole from an asshole into a decent person. They made me believe that redemption was possible, that it was never too late to become “nice” and “good” and all that stuff. And for one shining sitcom/drama moment, maybe it was.

The funny thing about this televised version of Christmas, as well as the real-life commercialized extravaganza itself, is that for that one moment you start to believe that most of the world is good, that most people will, if given the choice, do the right thing. And it makes you feel good.

Then a day passes.

Then two.

Soon it’s New Year’s Day and all you do is make wishes for your own self, your own wants, your own resolutions and desires. You forget the good that Christmas briefly brought. You forget and you forget and all that is left is some dim memory of happiness that you will attempt to rekindle next year.

There are worse things, I suppose. But not after you realize what you’re doing. Not after you realize how it works, how hollow it all ends up being. Once you realize that, you are complicit and guilty of the game. That’s why some people have children, I imagine. To start it all over again. To try to make the good stick. To try to make the good into something real and lasting.

But it isn’t.

It wasn’t.

It never will be.

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Tiny Threads: An Insignificant Series

Me, at work: “I think my hearing’s going. Thank God.”

#TinyThreads

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In the Heart of a Christmas Tree

When I was a little boy, one of my favorite things to do in the days leading up to Christmas was to crawl beneath the Christmas tree when it was lit at night and look up into the branches. From this interior vantage point, I was both secretly concealed (I always liked to be hidden) and afforded views no one else had. I was within looking out, and that’s one of the best views to have.

Behind the thick exterior of pine needles, the inside area opened up. Where less light reached, a thinning of branches occurred. Foliage wise, the interior of a Christmas tree can be hollow. One could see clearly the beauty of the trunk, the architecture of the branches and the congealed rivulets of sap. One could follow in the footsteps of chipmunks and squirrels, tracing how they might climb and disperse to evade predators, or where they might hide their plunder. Illuminated by Christmas lights, the natural beauty of the tree found particular splendor. I stayed there, pondering the prettiness of the season, holding onto my childhood because I already knew that life would only get more difficult. 

The heart of a tree is a private place, and only in such secrecy could I be comfortable enough to show my pain.

This year I remembered the balm of being in the midst of such beauty.  On a night otherwise filled with sadness, I pulled a pillow from the couch and worked my way under the lower limbs of the tree. I looked up and into the branches closest to the trunk. This tree that I’d grown for fourteen years, this perfectly-imperfect piece of nature and wonder – it held its sharp needles tightly to itself, as dearly as I held onto childhood memories. 

No matter how old I get, there is still wonder and pain there. Here. 

Beneath the prickly boughs, salty gratitude and anger like the sea rolled over my face.

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Holiday Gift Idea: M’s Handmade Boxes

When the junk drawer spills over its allotted space, or the bedside table begins dropping spare change, pens, and collar points with every push of the snooze button, it’s time to pocket the debris and put it into something pretty. Enter M’s Handmade Boxes. Created with care and precision by her own hands, the boxes that Meredith Butler makes are works of art that double as functional storage space. These are exquisite pieces of handmade beauty that make ideal gifts during this holiday season – and any time of the year for that matter. 

Meredith makes 17 different styles of boxes at the moment, with paper procured from around the world – Japan, Brazil, England, India, Nepal, Zimbabwe and the United States. She’s used everything from a vibrant Nepalese gingko pattern to maps of familiar places such as Boston, Venice, New York, Chicago, London and San Francisco. Birdcages and plum blossoms adorn practical tissue covers, while some of the square boxes look like gloriously-bound books – perhaps a nod to her work in a Library Preservation Laboratory. That experience informs the carefully-crafted and curated collection of boxes Butler has assembled. 

Some tell us a story, some are simply soothing to see. Some have compartments, divided by further beauty, while some have insides that are more pretty than their outsides. An oblong box featuring Katazome Blue Leaves is lined elegantly with navy book cloth; a group of intriguing triangular containers can be made with tassels or ribbon. Each one is a unique creation as worthy of exhibition as they are of usefulness. 

In a time of clutter and distraction, a pretty box is a sure-fire solution for gaining a sense of order, and maintaining organization with something beautiful. This is also a perfect find for those looking for  meaningful work of beauty and art. When human hands have taken the time and care to conjure something full of delight, a bit of that spirit imbues each piece. The world needs more of that kind of magic.

{This weekend, Meredith will be bringing her handmade boxes to the CraftHoliday Boston event taking place at the Hynes Convention Center. A detailed schedule of her other shows, along with a gorgeous collection of her work, may be found at her website for M’s Handmade Boxes.}

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Tiny Threads: An Insignificant Series

Rarely does anything good come of a text thread with more than five people on it.

#WhittleMeThis

#TinyThreads

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