TruHart1

Once again, small BOOK SPOILERS below: But! That is part and parcel of the book and the film, my dear friend @Gar1eth! Elio is actually moving through a new developmental stage in his life. He meets, is sexually intrigued by, and becomes completely obsessed with this "confident, cold, somewhat aloof" Americano. He finally initiates the seduction of Oliver himself, though Oliver would have held himself in check were it not for the active sexual pursuit by Elio, who, in the novel, compares himself in a portion of the book to how he feels that Oliver may actually be an older version of himself. I must be candid here. At 17, I had obsessive sexual crushes on a number of my fellow high school male students. I actually kept a list of all the guys I lusted after, which I found just a little while ago! I was raised far too strictly religious, feeling my fantasies were sinful to ever actively pursue, though I did masturbate constantly thinking of these young classmates of mine. If I'd been raised like Elio, in an openly permissive atmosphere, with parents who happily let me experiment sexually, who knows? ...and before you bring up the age difference, I have never forgotten the insatiable lust I felt for my 23 year-old junior high gym coach when I was but 14 years old. My sexual fantasies of him after I witnessed him changing out of his street clothes into gym clothes, (yes, he was naked as he changed and showing a soft but very impressive endowment, along with putting on a jockstrap, highlighting his absolutely perfect ass!) became to me the most exciting sexual image I had ever seen over the following 10 or 15 or so years, and the basis for many, many masturbatory fantasies, which I still recall as being tremendously memorable! I still recall, how when a gym classmate at the time announced that this coach was a newlywed, having just married his wife over the previous summer, I felt a bit of jealousy and a frisson of forbidden sexual excitement as I imagined him (one of my many, many masturbatory fantasies about him!) having intercourse with his young wife, though I had never seen her! He was my sexually ideal man well into my thirties! Some of my most memorable escort hires have made me recall him, too, since a number of them have a body as gorgeous as his was back then!!! So all this to say how much I have identified with Elio in the novel and the film! It does not hurt that I have lusted after Armie Hammer myself since way before he was in The Social Network, perhaps imagining he and I married to each other myself in my own alternate universe! :) TruHart1

So, you prove my point! As I was trying to say, it is in your viewpoint that a 17 year-old with a 24 year-old "doesn't seem quite right." Thus the biblical story comes to mind of Susannah, who is condemned by the church Elders for innocently bathing naked in the creek behind her house, but being accidently seen by them, stirring up prurient, sinful thoughts in them, and causes them to drive her out of their congregation. The sin (or perverseness!) is not in Susannah, but in the Elders' minds. Besides, I already know your opinion about Timothée stealing your husband Armie, (in that parallel universe! ) so this feeling of not seeming quite right appears pretty personal from where I stand. My opinion is that Call Me By Your Name is in no way, shape, or form, a depiction of paedophilia by any true definition of that word! TruHart1

Though Lolita portrays a 36 or 37 year-old man (in first person narration) who is sexually obsessed with and actively pursuing a 12 year-old girl, I would never equate Humbert Humbert's sexual obsession with 24 year-old Oliver's simple sexual attraction (which he keeps completely in check at the beginning --- so well, in fact, that Elio constantly has doubts whether Oliver has any attraction to him at all!) to Elio, who at 17, begins to become obsessed sexually with Oliver and then Elio becomes the active sexual pursuer. Maybe if Oliver was portrayed as being sexually obsessed with Elio, actively trying to seduce him, there might be a slim case for this story being "pervy," but the fact that Elio is three years older than the legal age of consent in Italy and there is but a seven year difference between them, the idea that this story portrays any "perversion" can only be attributed to a reader's or film-viewer's personal sexual hang-ups, in my opinion. TruHart1

BOOK SPOILERs --- SPECIFICALLY AUDIOBOOK SPOILERS Here is an impressive fan video which uses Armie's narration of the book (Elio's words) with bits of the film: TruHart1

André Aciman at the Toronto Film Festival, 2018: "Intimacy is a strange little beast because you can start being very intimate with someone at the beginning of the relationship and contrary to what the trajectory is, people become less and less intimate. They begin to shut the door to the bathroom when once upon the time the bathroom door was open and I´m talking from personal experience. And it´s very strange. Intimacy is the ability to be completely ductile to the other person. The other person is just basically pours and you pour into them. It is, among other things, the absence of complete shame vis-à-vis each other. In point of fact the intimacy is irreducible. You cannot define it. It´s the ability to just become the other person and to want the other person to take over whoever you are to the point where there is no such thing as you and me. Now this is difficult to occurring because every day we go to work, the one goes to work, the other one goes to different job, comes back tired. But the intimacy is the ability to cohabit completely. And what is beautiful, it occurs especially when we are very young and the doors that we build between individuals are very thin, they are paper thin walls. And I love this idea because eventally those doors will become harder and harder to open and we become sort of locked onto ourselves which is not a great thing. But I do think that what Oliver and Elio do have is a complete intimacy. There´s no shame between them. They´re calling each other by their own names! How more embarrassing can it be? Seriously? You are calling me by your name?! But it means something. And if you think about it in the moment of passion when you call the other person by your name you´re giving them the biggest gift that you can ever give. You are me. I happen to like myself. And therefore I´m giving you the best thing there is in the world. How can it be better than that?" TruHart1

Personally, I had a fantastic, wonderful first hire experience with Derek a few years ago. A year later we had an appointment all set and he completely flaked. I might try again, but with a back-up plan for the possibility he might no-show! He was tremendously exciting in bed, highly interactive and completely committed to giving me a real BFE! He was candid about loving sex with both women and men and about his partying habits, including admitting that there were some mornings after he'd partied that he was just not able to get out of bed. I don't think I'd ever call him straight. Omni-sexual? Absolutely. My strongest feeling was that Derek Atlas simply loves sex in all forms! TruHart1

Tomorrow should be interesting: a jury of which at least half have been able to watch everything that has gone on during the season, including things like Ross's lies to manipulate so many behind their backs, one more voted out of the house first, before leaving the final four, who will all participate in the final HOH competition, the winner of which will send two out of the house, choosing who they want to sit with for the final two, and the winner to be decided by the nine jury members. With this cast, almost anything can happen and probably will! TruHart1

Thank you @bashful, for reminding me of Alec Andrews. I will always feel lucky that I was privileged to meet Alec and get to know him so well on a regular basis for a bit over a year, until he retired. Not one who got away, thank goodness! I do hope he and Ryan Thick are doing well. I only ever hired Alec but every time Alec talked about Ryan, I could tell how very much he loves Ryan. Both of them are such beautiful, gorgeous men!!! TruHart1

__Celebrating Chinese New Year, Russell writes: #YearofTheDog TruHart1

Yes, he's a very masculine looking man right now. If he goes on a stringent estrogen program though, who can say? It does appear that he is searching for a sugar daddy willing to finance his MTF transition. More power to him if he can find the right financially supportive care-giver! The road to becoming what he feels is his real self will not be easy. Unfortunately it never is for trans-people. TruHart1

If you check Blake's Rentmen ad using a VPN so you may read the comments on two of the negative reviews, he appears to be a pretty bad experience: 1st reviewer, Jonniebat writes: "terrible experience never again" 3rd reviewer, uic writes: "person DID NOT look like his pictures, changed the services offered to just a massage and took the money up front and refused to refund when called out on his fake pictures" All three of the negative reviewers note that his ad pictures are not accurate! Buyer beware! :( TruHart1

Now Heath Jordan is certainly the one who got away for me. I travelled to Chicago pretty regularly but quickly found Romann, Raul G. Manzo, Dane Scott and Andrew Justice rendered me completely sated for my week-long visits there. By the time I hoped to hire Heath, he was already retiring and did not answer my initial email inquiry. I always thought from Heath's ad pictures, his porn performances and his excellent reviews on Daddy's that I would really enjoy meeting him. Alas, it did not happen. TruHart1

Here's an piece from a fangirl's vlog in Sherman Oaks about Timothée's final Q&A yesterday evening: http://www.theatreofzen.com/2018/02/coming-full-circle-with-call-me-by-your.html TruHart1

I've noticed that often the escorts who now bareback on porn videos still note in their RM ads that they will always have only safe sex. Do they always insist on safe only if a client offers more money? You'd have to ask. Personally, I always play safe so it does not change what I do with an escort, whether they do bareback or not. TruHart1

Well, all I can say is, @peterhung85 is excellent for me when we are both completely sober! I have little doubt that he is just as amazing if you've had a CC&7 or two before enjoying the Peter(well-)hung experience!!! Whether you are sober or more relaxed due to a couple of drinks, he will rock your world!!! Of course, you may take longer to reach a climax than if you are in a sober state! ;) TruHart1

Peter's positive spin on everything in his life certainly is one of the things that defines him as one of the greatest escorts available right now! That he has been an escort for so long and still defines a "good client" as everybody who is willing to spend time with him in exchange for some form of gratification just proves that he has never become jaded or burnt out. As for his CC = Connection and Chemistry definition, I personally found that he seems to effortlessly find those with the majority of his clients. Just take a look at his numerous excellent reviews (109 so far!) on Daddy's review site! I agree. Peter, you ARE the best! TruHart1

For me, having watched the Paul Show (Big Brother 19!) last summer, where the TAR Big Brother team of Cody and Jessica met and fell in love and basically endured the "hate" of the majority of Paul and his minions, I was expecting to watch this particular couple self-destruct as so many couples who come on TAR do if they haven't been a couple very long. I was pleasantly surprised by their interactions throughout the race. Yes, Jessica has quite a smart-ass mouth and was also a total wreck when trying to accomplish some of the tasks but the one time when Cody was ready to give up, (the singing of the African words and melody, along with enthusiastically dancing around) dejectedly asking Jessica, "Why keep rehearsing?" Jessica simply pulled him in, kissed him, and calmed him down so they could try once more and finally succeed! Each and every time Jessica complained she could not accomplish her half of a task, Cody always said, "No problem, I can do this!" and basically did the whole task without any complaining. They had a pretty impressive team dynamic and helped each other without argument when one or the other messed up. Listening to Evan and Henry's exit interview today, although Henry admitted that seeing the show Wednesday night, it was the first they knew he'd actually solved the puzzle before Jessica but then second-guessed himself, Evan has NOT been blaming Henry for blowing their chances to win. TruHart1

Whenever I hire a new escort, I usually have a conversation with them, face to face, about their life and what is going on with them, followed by making out, and moving on to other things we may enjoy together, always politely asking if they are ok with certain specific things, like rimming, etc. that I especially enjoy. I feel like many others do that if what happens between us gives the escort as much pleasure as he is giving me, our session has been a success and I will be likely to hire him again! TruHart1

Since Don was one of my favorite traveling guys who always came through my city on a regular basis, I checked after he hadn't visited for a while and found he no longer was advertising on Rentmen. Physically, he was a very impressive man. His endowment was impressive enough to satisfy any size queen. His lithe swimmer's body was one of the hottest I've seen and his excellent BFE, including his French kissing technique, always left me completely spent and satisfied afterwards. In addition, he has a laid-back, quirky, artistic personality that I always found a turn-on in and of itself! I'm sure glad, for me, he isn't one who got away, though I will miss seeing him. TruHart1

Yes. Henry (Team Yale) had the puzzle correct (which they showed onscreen) but then second-guessed himself and changed it before asking for the check. If I'm not mistaken, @WilliamM, each puzzle had 12 pieces, each piece with two symbols visible when they were slotted into the puzzle. Only six puzzle pieces out of the 12 could be used for the solution, but no symbol could show twice, thus only one symbol for each leg of the race was visible in the correct solution. A relatively complicated 3-D puzzle and the frustrating type of final puzzle that Amazing Race had not had for the last few seasons. It did seem this season that the producers pretty well kept all the teams together, with a few exceptions, over the course of TAR 30. TruHart1

Nyle DiMarco about being a producer and about his first encounter with "Children of a Lesser God" https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1745290125598742 TruHart1

That final puzzle really made winning this season of TAR a breathtaking finish. Until the winner realized their mistake, (two of the same symbols!) it really was anybody's game. Those are the sort of final puzzles that make the very end-game exciting in Amazing Race, though! I would have been happy with any of the final four teams winning but I felt this particular win was very satisfying! This really was one of the most competitive groups of teams in TAR history! I do wish that they had played the episodes out normally also, not doubling them up because of Celebrity Big Brother! TruHart1

Six or ten years before I ever even thought of hiring an escort, I stumbled across some online reviews of both Blake Harper and his then lover/husband Colton Ford. My narrow-minded viewpoint back then was that if a gay porn star was escorting, he must have had a drug habit he had to finance, since he was unable to live on his porn earnings. I was so clueless about this hobby. I don't recall where those reviews were, maybe Hooboy's or Daddy's but I cannot remember. Those reviews were both stimulating because they were written in graphic detail, and eye-opening because they were my very first discovery that perhaps my view on escorts as drug addicts was not correct. I knew from watching Blake's and Colton's porn videos that they were my perfect, highly sexual but unattainable type of man. When the reviewers wrote about how well they kissed, how eagerly and interactively they both enjoyed oral and anal, and how kind and even enthusiastic they were with these clients, it planted a seed in my mind that perhaps I might actually enjoy hiring someone or even getting to know someone such as them! Certainly imagining going to bed with a gorgeous porn actor who could actually enjoy his time with me did begin to change my attitude. Later, when my finances allowed, those ideas resurfaced, making me decide that I should at least hire a guy through RentBoy I found to be attractive to try it out. I hired @AresEscortNYC and the rest is history. He was wonderful and I have been completely addickted to this hobby since!!! I do think if I'd had the means and time to travel, I might have found this hobby sooner. I've no doubt I would have had great experiences with Blake and/or Colton! TruHart1

Finn certainly does the closeted, doomed officer well, unfortunately realizing too late that not all was right with Andrew Cunanan. Here is a still from that Broadway production of "Death of a Salesman," with Andrew Garfield as Biff and Finn Wittrock as Happy: ...and this is Finn from "American Horror Story: Hotel," another Ryan Murphy production: http://cdn1.sciencefiction.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/AHS_Dandy_pose.gif TruHart1

I found this article from back in December of 2017! Sounds like the Merry Widow cast and a few others had a lot of fun!!! https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/13/arts/music/metropolitan-opera-merry-widow-karaoke-susan-graham.html?mc=aud_dev&mcid=keywee&mccr=domdesk&kwp_0=689894&kwp_4=2447901&kwp_1=1034618 TruHart1