Merril Mushroom's "How to Engage in Courting Rituals 1950s Butch Style in the Bar: An Essay" (1982) is a masterpiece.
I need to dig out my copy of All the Sad Young Men by Anonymous, not to be confused with All the Sad Young Men by Fitzgerald (or with the song), because its uneven but entertaining tale of gay life in late ‘50s NYC includes a rather wonderful bit where the narrator resolves to finally check out a gay bar, gets picked up by a handsome Black dude who takes him home, has a pretty good one-night-stand and smokes marijuana with him; the punchline is that later, talking things over with a bar regular, he is shocked to learn that none of that happened randomly-- he’d inadvertently signaled interest by his drink order, and that it was just very good luck that the guy, who happened to own the bar and most of the block, liked his apparent nerve. The narrator’s guide tells him he could easily have been targeted for mugging, blackmail or worse when he came to the neighbourhood, but now that he’s favourably impressed the ruling queen he’s under protection.
I cannot remember ever before reading about Marchesa Luisa Casati,
The AGO has a couple of portraits of her. I think they’re in the same gallery with Otto Dix’s picture of Dr. Heinrich Stadelmann.
I am indeed watching HBO and Sky's Chernobyl (2019), which turns out to contain Stellan Skarsgård and Emily Watson as well as Jared Harris. I’m always torn between fascination and squick when it comes to radioactive disasters, so I may stick to reading your review.
no subject
Merril Mushroom's "How to Engage in Courting Rituals 1950s Butch Style in the Bar: An Essay" (1982) is a masterpiece.
I need to dig out my copy of All the Sad Young Men by Anonymous, not to be confused with All the Sad Young Men by Fitzgerald (or with the song), because its uneven but entertaining tale of gay life in late ‘50s NYC includes a rather wonderful bit where the narrator resolves to finally check out a gay bar, gets picked up by a handsome Black dude who takes him home, has a pretty good one-night-stand and smokes marijuana with him; the punchline is that later, talking things over with a bar regular, he is shocked to learn that none of that happened randomly-- he’d inadvertently signaled interest by his drink order, and that it was just very good luck that the guy, who happened to own the bar and most of the block, liked his apparent nerve. The narrator’s guide tells him he could easily have been targeted for mugging, blackmail or worse when he came to the neighbourhood, but now that he’s favourably impressed the ruling queen he’s under protection.
I cannot remember ever before reading about Marchesa Luisa Casati,
The AGO has a couple of portraits of her. I think they’re in the same gallery with Otto Dix’s picture of Dr. Heinrich Stadelmann.
I am indeed watching HBO and Sky's Chernobyl (2019), which turns out to contain Stellan Skarsgård and Emily Watson as well as Jared Harris.
I’m always torn between fascination and squick when it comes to radioactive disasters, so I may stick to reading your review.