BSR

I've lived in two gayborhoods: NYC's West Village in the mid-1980s & Boston's South End in the 1990s. Both neighborhoods have since become so upscale that the largest demographic group shifted from gay to f*cking loaded, LOL. "Ghetto" is such a negative, depressing term, and I certainly never felt like I lived in a ghetto. It was fun to see the neighborhood get great new restaurants, shops, and cafes. It was also depressing to get priced out of both gayborhoods, but alas, all good things must come to an end.

Rafa just pulled out of the Canadian Masters1000, citing the foot injury that took him out of Wimbledon & the Olympics. Let's see if he plays Cincinnati.

Still a teenager for another week, Jannik Sinner becomes the youngest winner of an ATP500 tournament since the category was created in 2009. He jumps 9 spots to a career high #15 in the ATP singles ranking. Finalist Mac McDonald jumps 43(!) spots to #64. The way the singles rankings are determined are a little nutty right now because they still include results from 2019 (Covid f*cked up everything). A more accurate indicator of how well a player is doing is the Race to Turin ranking, which counts just points earned from the start of 2021. In the Turin race, Sinner is #10 and Mackie is #30. Unrelated to the DC Citi Open but not important enough to start a separate thread, Novak has officially withdrawn from the Cincinnati Masters1000 tournament. So either Novak enters the Winston-Salem 250 (unlikely) or he goes into the US Open without playing a competitive match in a month.

Thanks for posting about Jordan because I wouldn't have heard about his story otherwise. You have to worry about the future of any baby left at the door of an orphanage. Jordan was very lucky to be adopted by such a great dad.

Ah, my favorite TV couple ever! Both guys smokin' hot with sizzling chemistry. As over-the-top as much of Oz was, I found the love story between Beecher & Keller surprisingly understated and believable.

I agree with this one thousand percent. Moderator’s Note: Please no politics in the Lounge.

Oops, spoke too soon. When I wrote the previous post, Rafa was up 6-2 1-0 and looked like he was cruising. Then Sock came back, won the 2nd set, and Rafa eked it out in a 3rd set tiebreak. Today he got beaten by Lloyd Harris, who is having a pretty good season, but I'd still call it a pretty big upset. The DC tournament director must be bummed because Rafa's practice sessions were drawing bigger crowds than some (most?) of the matches, LOL. Ah well, not a disaster considering that Rafa is coming back from injury. He has plenty of time to sharpen his game before the US Open. Better than Federer, who just withdrew from both Canada & Cincinnati. No official on whether Fed plays the USO, but it's not looking good.

I hear the tournament is buzzing over Rafa. It's the first time Rafa has ever played DC, and IIRC the first time any of the Big 3 has played DC. Poor Jack Sock, he's getting clobbered by Rafa right now. Sock was ranked #8 in late 2017-early 2018 but suffered a thumb injury that knocked him out of the ATP rankings entirely. He is currently #192 and was lucky to get a wild card into DC, but horribly unlucky to draw Rafa in the 2nd round. The Big 3 rarely play ATP500 tournaments. They play Halle and Queens because they need matches on grass before Wimbledon, and they often play Dubai because Dubai pays them jaw-dropping appearance fees. But I don't think DC paid Rafa much if anything because they don't have much of a budget. DC just lucked out that Rafa was looking to get back into form after an injury layoff -- he skipped Wimbledon & the Olympics because of a foot problem.

As much as I'd love to see the guys in Speedos, I'd be OK with board shorts since that'll what most guys wear to the beach. But come on, could they at least lose the shirts?!

That link didn't work for me. Lets see if this one does: https://rent.men/Hazam

Zoinks! For such a fit & trim guy, Vincent Riendeau is in dire need of an XXL Speedo.

Thanks for the pic, because I had only seen Ozzie as an older man. Yeah, the apples definitely did not fall far from the tree.

In terms of physical attractiveness, Sam Mikulak & Max Whitlock are about tied for the gold in World's Hottest Gymnast (not an official Olympic event, although it should be). But then I hear Max's accent & just melt.

Totally agree about Jason Mamoa. Regardless of hair length, just not my type at all. If Ryan Gosling knocked on my door wearing nothing but a towel around his waist, OK, I'd let him in (I'm so damn weak), but why so many find him so gorgeous is beyond me. The biggest one in this category for me is Zach Efron. Granted, the body is impressive, but his looks -- just so not for me.

I don't think we add extra caffeine to coffee beans in America. The difference is that Europeans tend to consume dark roast (all espresso drinks obviously but even brewed coffee) whereas Americans drink light roast. The longer beans are roasted, the darker they get and the more caffeine gets broken down. Mind you, I think you can buy extra-caffeinated coffee in America, but it's rare.

The injury was in his left shoulder. I believe he destroys rackets with his right arm. I do feel bad for Stojanovic. First, Novak plays like sh*t in the semifinal, then withdraws from the bronze medal match. Mind you, Team Australia was strongly favored to win. Besides being the #1 in singles, Barty is also a top doubles player and Peers is a doubles Slam champion (2017 Australia Open) whereas Stojanovic is a lower-ranked doubles player and Novak for all his singles prowess is actually a really awful doubles player. Nonetheless, I'm sure Stojanovic would have appreciated at least the chance to win a medal.

That was bad reporting by the French sports daily l'Équipe. They later issued a correction and an apology, but not until after dozens of other news outlets already published the story. Novak did talk about pressure is a privilege (don't know if Billy Jean King said that or just tries to take credit for it), adding that without pressure we wouldn't have professional sports. But he in no way connected it to Simone Biles. I saw the l'Équipe tweet where they acknowledged their mistake (my decades-rusty high school French can still make out simple stuff).

I haven't been able to watch the matches, but it sounds like the Olympics were a disaster for Novak. First, he loses in the semifinal, ending his chances for that elusive gold medal. Then apparently Pablo Carreño Busta (a player he should be able to beat with one hand tied behind his back) plays the match of his life & denies Novak a consolation bronze. Adding insult to injury, I read he played like sh*t in the mixed semifinal, killing his chance of a gold there. As if all that weren't enough, he defaults from the bronze medal match in the mixed with a shoulder injury. I'm baffled that Novak even entered the mixed, a move the Serbian team opposed (funny how 20-time Slam champions always get the last word). Given how much he struggles in the heat & humidity, you'd think he'd want to save all his strength for the singles. All around, the Tokyo Olympics is something he'd like to erase from memory as soon as possible. Apparently both Carreño & Zverev were reduced to tears after their wins over Novak. I don't know if they were so emotional because it's the Olympics or simply because they beat Novak, who has been invincible in the Slams this year. Carreño had never beaten Novak in a completed match (his one "win" over Novak was the disqualification at the USO), and Zverev hadn't beaten Novak in 2.5 years. *sigh* I just hope Novak can rest up and get himself together for the US Open. With the intense pressure of the calendar-year Grand Slam, Novak will feel he's carrying an anvil on his back. The two defeats in Tokyo will give not just Carreño & Zverev but all the top players the belief that they can beat Novak. If Novak somehow wins in New York, it will be a truly monumental achievement.

Of the 14 Adria players, 10 are from former Yugoslavia countries, 4 from other countries. But even many of the Serbs/Croats live elsewhere. Novak himself lives in Monte Carlo and trains a lot in Spain (the house he bought in Marbella is jaw-dropping), where the infection rate was (and still is) sky-high. I agree, what Novak did was truly boneheaded. I wasn't trying to make excuses for the guy, just tried to present what went into his thinking.

As to your first point, I don't think it's a big deal if for the next few years a person's sex life (because there's no romance) is exclusively gay4pay encounters. Much beyond the short term, however, I think a person would need more of a connection. That said, I don't know @studchaser. Maybe he doesn't need or even particularly want romance. Regarding your second point, I'm sure there are plenty of times a gay escort has zero physical attraction for a male client but, as you said, finds something attractive about that client: nice guy, great sense of humor, intelligence. Why can't that be true of a straight escort with a male client? I've known plenty of young straight guys with such a strong sex drive they could get off with a coffee table as a sexual partner. If instead of a coffee table, his sexual partner is a well-to-do gay man with a sharp wit, even better. A while back, I had a chat with a stripper who for whatever reason really opened up to me. Even though he was straight, he was in a long-term, committed relationship with an older gay man. It turns out that this guy had a pretty tough time of it growing up, much of his childhood in foster care. He said that his partner was the first person who truly cared about him. They lived in a town in Massachusetts where even the cheapest house costs a pretty penny, so the stripper was well taken care of financially. From his tone and the way he talked about his partner, he was emotionally well cared for also. Like the great sage Joaquin Andujar used to say, "You can sum up baseball in one word: ya never know."

Hindsight is 20/20 vision. At the time the Adria Tour was held, the Covid infection rate was extremely low in Serbia, and the government didn't impose any capacity limits, social distancing, or mask mandates. Novak was trying to do something positive for tennis and for Serbia, and all the proceeds were going to charity. Well, it all blew up in his face when most (all?) the Adria participants tested positive for Covid. Yes, truly a boneheaded move by Novak, but that's easy for me to say now.

As a die-hard Novak fan, I'm sad he lost because the gold medal matters so much to him. But my personal opinion? Meh, I don't really care. Tennis at the Olympics is a quirky event. Sure, some great players have won gold (Steffi, Rafa, Serena) but so have some far-from-great players (Nicolas Massu, Marc Rosset, Monica Puig). Juan Martin del Potro achieved tennis immortality when he won the 2009 US Open; gold medalists Massu, Puig & Rosset did not. Mind you, at the US Open I'll be rooting for Novak like a madman because Slams do matter, and winning the calendar-year Grand Slam is the ultimate achievement in the sport. The Olympic gold medal is the ultimate achievement in track & field, swimming, gymnastics, and so many other sports -- but not in tennis.

I think the issue is availability, not cost. My cousins in the Philippines were itching to get vaccinated yet received their 2nd shot just a few days ago. Are you sure the vaccine was available in all countries in time for athletes to have gotten their 2nd shot at least 2 weeks before traveling to Japan? A few athletes have had to drop out because of positive Covid tests, some before traveling to Japan, some in the middle of competition. I hate to think of the disappointment of training so hard & sacrificing so much, just to get eliminated by a Covid test.

Worked like a charm. Thank you!

Gosh, I really overcomplicated things, didn't I? Let's see if it works. The following video is the Ballet Nacional de España dancing sevillanas, a variety of flamenco. With most sevillanas pairs, the woman tends to be very good whereas the man, uh, not so much. Don't ask me why Spanish men are so subpar at sevillanas. In the video, the woman is the best sevillanas dancer I've ever seen, but more impressive is that the man is almost as good as she is.