The this and that of the world from newsworthy to interesting to the mundane.
December 22, 2023
Saltburn is a fantastic
movie. I watched it tonight. It is absolutely twisted with dark humor,
though it does remind me the tiniest bit of The Talented Mr. Ripley. It might be the best movie that I've seen this year. The ending scene is pure deliciousness. (trailer) I would watch it again and I rarely watch a movie more than once anymore.
December 21, 2023
Tonight I watched the movie Maestro
about Leonard Bernstein. As with anything, the film has been criticized
on many fronts, some silly like a prosthetic nose, but we are lucky
that films like this are even made today in Hollywood. Be grateful that
not another action hero/comic book movie was made and this was instead. I
enjoyed it and there are other adults out there too that enjoy seeing
movies that appeal to adults. I recently purchased a copy of the Bernstein biography by Joan Peyser and hope to read it soon.
As expected the culture war and book banning in Georgia is moving from school libraries to public libraries that cater to all ages. Now the zealots are aiming to have gay books banned there under the same lie, "protect the children." The anti-gay sentiment attacking books is a pathetic ruse to attack gay people using any method they can. It is obvious that the people who make decisions about library funding have not set foot in a library since they were a child based on their lack of knowledge on anything about them. (article)
As
a gay southern writer, I find all of this bullshit unsettling, but also
predictable. The bigoted war against being gay will never end in my
lifetime and that's sad.
November 27, 2023
You would not expect to find much fair and decent writing in The New Yorker about the south, but this recent article, The Death of a Relic Hunter, was surprisingly good. It's a peculiar story and is so very much Georgia.
In
the 1980s we had the occasional metal detector types hunt on our family
land, with permission, and after reading this article I have to
question how honest they were about what they found. Our land was in a
good spot for hunting Civil War relics given its close proximity to the
battlefield at New Hope, Georgia. We did find some pieces over the
years.
November 21, 2023
We have reached peak silliness
in terms of protest and narcissism when people have time to waste on
the closing of a bar that hasn't even been around that long in
comparison to others in Atlanta. Cities change and that's reality
whether we agree with it or not.
Also dear news media, there is
no such community known as the "LGBTQIA+ community." That's just made up
nonsense that lumps together and dehumanizes a wide array of people
with little to nothing in common into one box. As a gay man it does not
represent me though they would claim the G is supposed to do that.
November 17, 2023
Today was the first time I've been down to the city since August when I was at Ponce City Market and the Beltline. It was a gloomy day with mist in the afternoon and it was quite nice. I was hanging out in West Midtown and Blandtown. I still have a kernel of fondness for the city, especially when it's gloomy, but I don't want to live there again.
Otherwise, I am locked away at home being extremely productive with the next novel due in 2024.
Imperial Drag - Boy or a Girl from 1996
October 15, 2023
Because we all need to be reminded that in the past, good music was made by actual musicians.
The Georgia Satellites, Keep Your Hands To Yourself
October 03, 2023
Over the weekend I had the 10,000 Maniacs MTV Unplugged album on repeat. I loved that album when it came out in 1993. It's my favorite Unplugged album. The concert captures the moodiness of the time. I can smell the fireplace of home listening to it.
I've
been out on the trails in the woods, up in the mountains and getting a
lot of writing done. It seems I prefer writing in the fall and winter
more than I do in the summer.
September 26, 2023
Book bans continue across the U.S.
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| Pensacola, Florida. Photo by me, September 2023. |
I've been back on the road, this time Pensacola. I love Pensacola. It is small enough and simultaneously big enough. It might be replacing Fort Lauderdale as my Florida favorite.
On my mind, Pete Townshend's 1980 gay song, Rough Boys. I like it.
September 13, 2023
Where book bans are going is a bad place. I am so surprised that society is staggering
backwards into the culture wars of the past. Politicians and internet
activists have way too much power and too little common sense. This is
all smoke and mirrors while the real problems in this country go
unsolved. We are a perpetually unhappy and unhealthy country bent on
self destruction.
September 12, 2023
I cannot imagine how much of a bad idea it would be to mine near the The Okefenokee Swamp.
September 8, 2023
Elton
John has finally moved out of Atlanta (Buckhead) after maintaining a
residence there since 1991. I would've loved to have seen the art
collection he had housed there which was massive. I know that he had
some Keith Haring art. The condo was featured in Architectural Digest.
I
passed by his building millions of times; it might have a great
reputation, but it is one of the ugliest buildings in Buckhead from the
exterior. Elton owned seven units in the building.
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| The Cove. |
The article linked
mentions some of his Atlanta activities, but not some of the stories I
heard. Someone told me long ago that he loved to cruise the parking lot
at the Cove nightclub. The Cove, located on Monroe Drive at Worcester
Drive on the backside of Piedmont Park, was a 24/7 club like the much
more well known Backstreet. The Cove closed in either late 1994 or early
'95 and was torn down for sewer upgrades. I remember seeing the
building in my earlier times in the city when I was in my teens, but it
was closed when I moved to the city in May 1995 at the age of
twenty-two. I was fortunate to enjoy the party at Backstreet, but I just
missed The Cove.
Atlanta has changed so much since and the
bigger skyline is nicer to look at, but I can't say the city is better.
The carefree spirit of Atlanta was long ago sold for progress.
September 6, 2023
As
I write the last novel in the trilogy I hate reliving the early 2000s.
My stomach is in knots with some of the conversations I had with my
mother that last year.
September 5, 2023
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| Charleston 2023. Photo by me. |
Charleston was a good trip a couple of weeks ago. I got a better feeling for this city after this visit. The first visit did not much impress me and I'm still more partial to Savannah.
I would never make it as "influencer" or "content creator". I'm too honest for that form of modern propaganda.
August 31, 2023
An AJC poll conducted by UGA.
August 30, 2023
Hurricane
Miss Idalia came ashore this morning in Florida and skirted us here in
North Georgia with all day light rain. There was not even a strong gust
of wind. The weather was much worse to the south.
There goes an
August that was the hottest and most humid of the summer months this
year. It was 99 degrees with a heat index around 110 last Saturday. I am
ready for autumn.
August 25, 2023
It
truly is going backwards in society when a writer is canceled at a
school speaking engagement for using the word 'gay' in an unoffensive
and historical context in front of 5th graders. This incident, as reported in the AJC, happened this week in Forsyth County, Georgia to writer Mark Tyler Nobleman.
I've
experienced the rise in homophobia in society over the past two years
including an incident in San Antonio. There have also been other more
minor incidents online and in person. The bigots are emboldened again
after a brief slumber. My personal security and awareness are higher than they've been in years.
August 24, 2023
I've been on the road too much this summer and time has flown. I was catching up with local news and saw that the Atlanta paper had reported what the theme was for this year's Pride. Oh, it is sure enough tacky; "Show up and show out," is the theme. I hope it did not take an entire committee of people to come up with that juvenile slogan.
I will be skipping Pride this year, with that unwelcoming slogan and logo. Pride appears to have become a drag pageant or worse with that militant fist and I have no desire to attend that. Not a good look for Atlanta Pride.
July 29, 2023
I watched the Belgian film Close
a few weeks ago. It was a devastating and haunting movie about the
innocent love and friendship between boys that is lost with age and
societal pressure.
Great movies are still made, just not in Hollywood.
July 24, 2023
Watching
Twitter go down in flames for the past several months has been great.
It should remind people not to get to attached to any social media
platform and count on it to promote themselves or products or maintain
relationships of any kind. There was Myspace and Friendster before
Twitter's death and there will be other services that will come and go.
Only a fool or the inexperienced would invest so much of their online
life, persona, image or business into a service that they do not own.
July 14, 2023
Peak summer arrived with June bugs in the yard, cicadas, afternoon thunderstorms and long walks.
When
it gets to be this time of year I am reminded of the 1980s summer
afternoons in Decatur County, Tennessee, the sweltering river bottoms
and the haziest skies of my life. Nothing moved from the shade to the
sun unless it must.
West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys was playing in my head on repeat then.
June 30, 2023
If I was programming, I would be all over this album (Food For Worms) by Shame. I've been listening to it for a couple of months. The best songs are: Fingers of Steel which is reminiscent of Interpol, Different Person (love that song), Alibis (awesome), Orchid (moody), Yankees, The Fall of Paul.
June 29, 2023
On repeat today and bouncing around my office.
June 28, 2023
Out
making miles yesterday in nature at a lake nearby to home while
strangers argue about nonsense online, like every day. People make weird
and unproductive choices of how to spend their time on Earth ever since
the internet became widespread.
Anyway, I'm making lots of notes and progress on the next novel.
June 27, 2023
I've been listening again to this Bright Eyes album from 2002 the past few days. Lover I Don't Have To Love is such a sexy song and so are Conor's vocals which sound like he is about to cum the entire song.
June 25, 2023
June 20, 2023
Facebook
has changed so much this year for the worse. I feel silly mentioning
how much worse it is, but it has reached new levels of being pointless.
The algorithms are such that I never see posts that I am interested in,
but pages I don't follow and ads most of the time. I also get two to
three scam friend requests a day from faux profiles promoting crypto
scams or by real people promoting a business that I would never do
business with. There seems to be no enforcement or moderation of any
kind on the service anymore. Facebook has that last days of Myspace
kinda feel about it. Perhaps people are finally tired of it?
June 07, 2023
The rise in incivility as questioned by an AJC writer.
I
disagree with all of the conclusions listed. The main factor, I believe
is social media on the internet. People are inhumane to others online
and carry that behavior over into reality. Contributing factors would be
lazy parenting, changing cultural norms and a few other reasons. When
I have to interact with a stranger online or in real life, I am very
guarded in my interactions knowing that it could turn volatile in a
split second. I hate that it has become this way, but it is not worth
it.
June 05, 2023
Duran Duran's Big Thing Tour was my first big concert at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta in 1989. Fun night it 'twas. I Don't Want Your Love and All She Wants Is were the hits. Do You Believe in Shame? was the best song on the album and very appropriate for that night. It's also one of the best videos ever made.
June 01, 2023
Some of my rear garden roses as June begins.
May 30, 2023
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| Diary from Sunny Day Real Estate, 1994 |
I'm in some 1990s time warp this morning listening to In Circles from Sunny Day Real Estate. I ask myself what was the best year that decade? Though I wasn't in radio in those years, I really liked the disconnection of 1993 and 1994. Those were some deep personal wilderness years.
May 28, 2023
An education scandal in my old home county of Paulding. You don't say?
"He said teachers he’s talked to about it feel like it reflects a culture of low standards that can permeate all level of classes, even Advanced Placement."
May 11, 2023
Every so often Rufus Wainwright's Poses album should be required listening for remedial reasons; especially the title track.
May 4, 2023
I
too have spent many hours watching old television talk shows and
lamented how public discussion and civil society have degraded. We live
in ugly times with ugly art, entertainment, architecture and streets.
I don't agree with everything in this thoughtful piece, but I agree with much of it.
Where's Johnny? On the last art of public conversation
Monday April 24, 2023
I have been very much enjoying Depeche Mode's new album, Memento Mori. The song I am liking the most is My Favourite Stranger. I don't know if alternative radio is playing this album or not, but they should be.
Saturday April 22, 2023
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| April 2023. Photo by me. |
The roses that I grew up with are blooming at my house. This bush is in its second year and is already four feet high and three feet wide. It is the prettiest rose I will ever know.
I feel like I have been home little this month with time spent in Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Alabama, Athens and Madison. There was also one afternoon in Decatur and Atlanta. Each time I am in the city, it reaffirms that I do not miss it.
Wednesday March 29, 2023
I've
done many things in the rain, but I've yet to "dance in the garden in
torn sheets in the rain." I'm still waiting since 1989.
Sunday March 26, 2023
I suppose it is one of those forgotten 90s songs? The Sugarcubes Hit. Still great.
Thursday March 23, 2023
Longtime Atlanta photographer Boyd Lewis passed away last week. He shot for Creative Loafing, The Great Speckled Bird
and other publications for decades. He captured Atlanta when it was a
much more interesting city from Buttermilk Bottom, Summerhill to
Cabbagetown. Much of his work is available through the Atlanta History
Center.
Monday March 20, 2023
This is so worth the time from Harper's.
While climate change is real, beware the zealots peddling pseudoscience
in the media because the media is laundering bad science. For many,
climate change is about accumulating power and wealth through fear.
Saturday March 18, 2023
I watched the documentary Turn Every Page - The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb last night. I enjoyed it. The beginning was too slow and as with all modern documentaries there are too many unnecessary talking heads, but it was good overall. I'm glad I stuck with it and didn't stop after the first twenty minutes.
Anyone remember Ben Folds Five? Army is a funny song.
Wednesday March 01, 2023
March already?
I watched this interview
again with Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama. There's much to be
learned from him and serious photographers in general about life.
Tuesday February 28, 2023
Save the Pinelog WMA petition.
I've hiked here a few times and it is a beautiful place. I would hate
to see it sold and developed. I would prefer to see this piece of nature
preserved for future generations to enjoy.
Monday February 20, 2023
Oh, that was such a good film; Victim from 1961 starring Dirk Bogarde.
Saturday February 04, 2023
The group think is strong on Facebook. I swear it's the same as it was in school. I'd find it funny if it wasn't so scary.
People tend to forget this.
Saturday January 28, 2023
The Underground Youth band from Berlin. Just heard of this band, but I like what I hear. It's good to hear new postpunk /shoegaze music that does not suck.
Saturday January 21, 2023
Still so good decades later and even better with strong black morning coffee. Gotan Project's La Revancha del Tango.
Wednesday January 11, 2023
Since hearing this song, Drugs, for the first time over a month ago, I've been loving it. Perhaps it's because I love Richard Butler's voice. The 80s footage of Berlin in the video is great too.
I watched the 1975 film, Nashville, this week and paid more attention to it this go around. I enjoyed all three hours of it. The movie still resonates today.