Grandmother

Forty-one years ago today, my maternal grandmother (my Nanna) died. She had been in a coma for six weeks after being found on the floor of her kitchen having suffered a stroke. Nanna was the only one of my grandparents I ever knew, the other three having died during the war and before my birth.

Nanna was fifty-nine when she died, the same age that I am now. I was her first grandchild, the object of her overwhelming love. When she died, I was an eighteen years old university student, a gay man at a time when it was illegal to engage in homosexual acts and very few men were out as homosexual to the wider community. The few who were out in those days were almost always 'artistic' and often effeminate.

Whereas I don't think of myself as being old today, Nanna seemed then to be an old lady. It is interesting how much has changed in those forty-one years concerning attitudes to homosexuality, people's life spans and concepts of age.

Would Nanna have loved me less had she known? Maybe she did know?

The Narcissist

Last night, Mk and I saw The Narcissist at the Drama Theatre in the Opera House. A gay political staffer has a bet with his female best friend as to which of them will be the first to land a boyfriend before the end of the year.

The Sydney Theatre Company blurb asserts "this politically incorrect comedy of manners promises to be one of the funniest nights you'll have this year!"

Well....not Mk nor myself.

Mk was stony faced throughout and felt the play was juvenile and the worst example of the No Sex We're British style of 1970s humour. Unlike Mk, I thought there were a lot of funny lines in the play but they fell dead for me because of the way the play was performed.

The lead actor played his character in mincing gay style somewhat like the Jack McFarland character in Will and Grace. This irritated me and detracted from any appreciation of the lines he was delivering. Adding confusion to the mix, the second male character flounced on stage at his first appearance and for the next fifteen minutes I assumed he was meant to be gay too until it dawned on me from the unfolding action that he in fact was a straight character, albeit rather juvenile.

The narrative was muddled with inconsistencies and changes in the characterisations mid stream added to the mess.

It was a disappointing night for us both although, to be fair, all around us in the packed auditorium were having a rollicking good time and clearly found the play hilarious. Perhaps this work is how straights imagine or expect all gays behave.

The most interesting aspect of the night for Mk and myself was keeping an eye on Richard E Grant, the British actor, who is in Sydney to play Professor Higgins in a revival of My Fair Lady. Grant sat in front of us and we tried to gauge how he was enjoying the work. Neither of us observed him to laugh at any stage. He applauded the cast politely at the end and then like us made a speedy departure. Perhaps he had a dinner date.

Eagle Eye

In Eagle Eye, Shia LaBeouf is a low achieving drifter and Michelle Monaghan a single parent who are thrown together on the instructions of a disembodied voice representing an unknown organisation.

The pair become unwilling partners steered through increasingly dangerous situations by the voice for purposes they do not understand.

They are not the only ones.

In the style of modern Hollywood movies, the viewer of Eagle Eye is presented with a noisy, high tech, heavily edited series of adventures full of confusion such that I had little idea of who was doing what to whom.

The one thing I was certain about was that I shouldn't think. The action on screen defied all logic. When towards the end, pieces of the jigsaw were revealed and the overall premise of the film became clearer I realised that the movie was a modern take on aspects previously covered in movies such as No Way Out and even 2001 A Space Odyssey.

Steven Spielberg is the Executive Producer, so the film is slick and stylised.

There are many males in the cast, enough to suit most gay tastes, although for the most part they flash across the screen in a flurry of activity.

Terrorism, Grievance, Fire?

Yesterday morning a series of fire engines raced along my road in the general direction of Bondi Junction. The sound of the sirens of fire engines and police vehicles is common in my area but the number of vehicles yesterday morning was unusual and for a while I wondered whether there was a major fire at the Westfield shopping centre.

Later in the day I was caught in major traffic delays around my home and then on the return journey found my street blocked off by the police. I still didn't know what had happened as I hadn't heard any news bulletins.

I subsequently heard about this event. The suggestions seemed variously to be possible terrorism or political act (both since discounted) or possibly grievance following loss of a job.

UPDATE: Police allege in court proceedings that the individual's grievance relates to an unsuccessful workers compensation claim.

Paul Newman 1925-2008

Paul Newman has died of cancer aged 83.

Memorable for many things including those beautiful blue eyes, playing Elizabeth Taylor's closeted gay husband in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and hit movies such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting.

He founded a line of food products whose entire proceeds of more than $100 million dollars he donated to charity.

This quote taken from Towleroad;

Newman: "I'm a supporter of gay rights. And not a closet supporter either. From the time I was a kid, I have never been able to understand attacks upon the gay community. There are so many qualities that make up a human being... by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant."

Hawks in an upset

Hawthorn Hawks have beaten hot favourites Geelong Cats in this afternoon's AFL Grand Final.

The Cats, the defending Premiers, had lost only one match all season but the Hawks proved too strong on the one day that counts the most.

Cute Guy Investigation: New York

I have never seen CSI: New York but having just noticed a reference on another blog to Eddie Cahill, who is an actor in this series, I will certainly be keeping an eye out for it in future.

Cahill has an Italian mother and an Irish father, a heritage which must surely contribute to his gorgeous looks and attributes.

Slap and tickle

Would you believe that when I googled for a gay slap and tickle image this was one of the photographs offered? The photograph appeared in a blog with a notation as homoerotic slap and tickle!

All because I just wanted to let my readers know that I enjoyed a moment of outdoor slap and tickle in the Spring sunshine late yesterday afternoon. And yes, it was a more homoerotic experience than what appears above.

Cute boy...out of season?

I took this photograph from Stunning Sexy Guys because I agree that the boy in the photograph looks hot.

But something else about the photograph interests me. I wonder what the season is when the photograph was taken?

Look at the photograph closely (or click on it to enlarge) and you see that the boy and some others in the background are wearing T-shirts and short sleeves as if in summer, yet others in the background are wearing heavy clothing as though it is winter.

Regardless, it is the boy who interests me most ;-)

A new meaning for edging?

I would travel more often by train if the Sydney network followed the lead of its British counterpart above.

He's having a ball...

Carsten Ball seems to have come from nowhere into Australia's Davis Cup team and at the age of 21 has performed admirably in our loss to Chile at the weekend.

I took notice of Carsten not just because of his success at the weekend in a losing side but also because he looks pretty good. According to his profile, Carsten is 1.90m tall and weighs 82kgs. Those are attractive stats.

Like me, Carsten is left-handed and I find that we have the same birthday too. (It's just that I am 38 years older, to the day!)

Summer is coming

No other reason for posting this photograph other than he looks good (especially when you click to enlarge).

God of Speed

My current read is Luke Davies' God of Speed.

Davies is the author of Candy which became a movie starring Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish. I attended a conversation with Davies at the Sydney Writers' Festival in May and was attracted to his honest and self effacing account of his drug addicted youth and his blossoming writing career.

In God of Speed, Davies delivers a fractured (drug induced?) first person narrative of reminiscences by the movie and industry mogul Howard Hughes.

I'm about two thirds of the way through the book and so far Hughes seems to have slept with every famous and quite a few wannabe famous actresses of his day. And David Duchovny thinks that he's a sex addict?

Overcoming jealousy

I finally got around to visiting Mk in the apartment he has moved into with Rs. This was months after the first invitation to tea to celebrate (with Mk's other friends) the big move which I shamefacedly avoided because I was too mean spirited to expose myself to their joy.

At that time, I was jealous.

A ridiculous thing because even then I was well over Mk as a possible love interest and not into Rs either.

This invitation was to make up for that missed opportunity and also to enable Mk and I to work out our subscription to the Sydney Theatre Company for its 2009 season.

Mk and Rs were gracious hosts. I brought a cake and they provided an excellent coffee. I was relieved that the earlier jealousy pangs had subsided. I took in images of their domestic bliss (romantic sideboard photos, loving glances exchanged by the 'newlyweds', the slide show of their shared travel experiences, the double bedroom etc) without that fateful feeling of my stomach knotting.

Thankfully I didn't sense that newlyweds' attitude of pity for the single man left behind that I have sometimes experienced with straight friends after they have married.

I can move on.

Facebook....schmacebook...

I notice a few bloggers posting about Facebook lately. Some are getting into it and some are getting out.

I've been there, done that.

I signed up about a year ago, became instantly addicted and within days turned to disillusionment by the stream of emails, updates and the like that flooded in from 'friends' around the world demonically acquiring contacts like a magnet attracting paper clips.

Facebook must be a spammer's delight.

Blogging hurts sometimes........

I checked a blog I read regularly yesterday and found the message

Blog has been removed
Sorry, the blog at xxxxxx.blogspot.com has been removed.

What has happened? Has someone at Google arbitrarily removed the blog? If so, why?

Even more perplexing and sometimes hurtful is the message that tells me a blog I have been reading regularly for months is suddenly available by invitation only and apparently I am not invited. And I don't know why?

I got the message...

A Government health advisory notice in a toilet on the road to Darwin.

The Google Meme

This is my first go at one of these Meme thingies. I've taken this one from Steven who got it from....well you can guess the rest.

A) Answer the questions below. Do a “Google” image search with your answer. Choose a picture from your first page of results. Do it with minimal words of explanation.

B) Tag 5 people to do the same once you have finished answering every question. Like Steven, I won't tag anyone but if you want to play, consider yourself tagged and leave me a link.

1) The age you will be next birthday: Sixty.


2) A place you want to travel to: Alaska.


3) Your favourite place: Cinema


4) Your favourite food: Rissoles.


5) Your favourite pet: Golden Labrador.


6) Favourite colour combination: Blue and Yellow.


7) Favourite piece of clothing: Jeans.


8) Your all time favourite song: I Want To Hold Your Hand.


9) Favourite television show: Kath and Kim.


10) First name of your first significant other: Eamon.


11) Which town do you live in: Sydney.


12) Your screen name/nickname. Victor


13) Your first job. Hardware store salesman.


14) Your dream job: Champion cricketer.


15) The one bad habit you have: Laziness.


16) Worst fear: Snakes.


17) Thing you would like to do before you die: Marry (civil registration) my dream man.


18) The first thing you would do/buy if you get $1,000,000: Faint.


19) First thing that comes to mind when you think of your significant other: There is no man at the moment.


20) What present would you like to buy for your next birthday: Plasma flat screen television.