bostonman

There are no words. As sorry as I am for Ian's passing, you helped to give him life, and that's something I know you'll never forget. Ian is certainly smiling on you.

All through my grade school years (from 4th grade on, I think), getting naked for changing/showers in gym class was what it was. In our school system, we were in gym classes strictly by grade, so it wasn't quite like your experience. I seem to remember we were all nervous about getting naked at first, but eventually it wasn't such a big deal (though never entirely comfortable either). I'd say it tended to feel like some kind of rite of passage. Of course, for those of us with feelings for the same sex (I was aware of myself in 4th grade to an extent though I wasn't acting on those feelings yet), it was always a bit more awkward - though I'm sure even the straightest of kids had some curiosity about other boys' bodies at that age, for someone like me who really wanted to look openly but knew I couldn't, it was always weird. Though I do have memories of seeing my first uncut guy in 4th grade (some of the boys were making fun of him - but I was secretly fascinated lol - I bet they were too, actually), and then also I remember when a friend of mine (a boy named Tim that I had a crush on, and did get to fool around with just a very little - and he was nicely hung for his age too) got a boner in the gym showers, and got teased for it. Aside from moments like that, lol, I always hated the whole gym experience. I haven't set foot in a grade school locker room in ages lol - but I take it that in many places, communal showers aren't used any more? Frankly, I applaud that. I'm not against nudity by any means, but to EXPECT all grade schoolers to HAVE to shower together, etc? I tend to wish that we had had the choice not to in my day. If youngsters are allowed private showers nowadays, I think that's great.

Ha! To an extent - but this ad really takes it too far. Who the fuck wants to listen to that??

Someone please tell me WTF is with this Progressive ad? And why is dumb twink wannabe Jamie now a dumb squealing eunuch? Can it get any worse?? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqobY3r203k

And what exactly was Spongebob, lol? One could say that about the production values to a good many shows that get successfully produced all the time. (Even some of the big classics - bring up My Fair Lady and immediately get told there's no costume budget for that, lol.) I wouldn't worry. Also, most designers would much rather find their own solutions than attempt to just try to copy the originals, and I agree with that. There are always wonderful creative and viable solutions besides the original Broadway designs.

I'm sure they are counting on the tour quite a bit. They're also going to be fast-tracking the rights out to schools/youth theatres, which is a wise move. I also think they should allow colleges to do the show - I think it could be a huge camp/nostalgia kind of show for college groups. Seems to me that Spongebob was more of a critical success than Seussical was. I happen to love Seussical, warts and all (sorry, that's a reference from another kid-friendly musical lol), but it had a tough time finding itself in its original tryouts and run. I don't think Spongebob had the same trouble in development. But yes, Seussical has certainly redeemed itself, and I assume Spongebob will too. I tend to think that ultimately it's ticket prices, not show quality, that makes it hard for kids' shows to last. Though Disney had certainly had some successes. (Frozen is far from universally loved and yet we assume it's going to run for quite a long while.) I can think of other worthy kid-oriented shows that have either done poorer, or have never made a run for Broadway. A Year With Frog And Toad is a charming piece that probably should have stayed off-Broadway and reaped more attention there, instead of moving to Broadway. Honk (the source of the earlier "warts and all" quote) has never played NYC but is a wonderful show that is still quite popular with schools and community groups. And writing team Pasek and Paul (the scores for Dear Evan Hansen, La La Land, and The Greatest Showman, along with some other theatre pieces) have written a very clever, tuneful stage version of James And The Giant Peach that is starting to make the rounds but will probably never play Broadway.

He really goes by "drek"?? Some escorts really come up with unappealing names, lol.

Brand new guy on RM - I like his ad though I wish he went into more detail. But on the surface he seems like an average decent guy, which does appeal to me. Anyone see any red flags or have any other thoughts? I did leave him a message and haven't heard back yet. Not sure if I'll take the plunge or not, but figured I'd try to find out more... https://rentmen.eu/ZacharySpade

I have to confess - I finally saw a few episodes of this the other night. HATED it. Just absolutely hated it. (My parents are fans of the show - they're sitting there laughing at everything, and I'm just wishing we could put something else on...) The only funny thing for me was the very obvious - the contestants' complete and utter ineptitude at baking. But that joke wears thin, particularly as you realize that that's the only point of what they're doing. (In fact, I would not be surprised if they are explicitly told to make as many mistakes as possible.) Nicole Byer is horribly obnoxious. Frankly, so is that French poseur she co-stars with - even if he actually is a renowned chocolatier. A TV personality he is not, IMO. I think the real problem is that I can't tell if this show is supposed to be a parody of itself or not. But either way, I don't think it succeeds. Ick.

I think that for most people, texting is easier done in short bits of conversation - you're not being expected to write in any real detail. It's great for a quick or last-minute note (giving a heads-up to my colleagues that I'm going to be late, or a quick check-in about something with a friend, etc), but if I actually want to CONVERSE with someone, I'd rather have the freedom of typing emails on the full-sized keys at my desktop, etc. Yes, it's possible to have a full conversation through text, but I find it a bit more of an effort to do so. In initiating a talk with an escort, I find texting is generally about "wassup? Rate is $250 R U into it?" - which may get the basics out but it's rather impersonal - whereas with email I feel freer to spread out a bit and actually ask questions about activities, discuss what I'd like, and maybe even gab a little, which always helps make it feel like we're going to have a more friendly time together. That said, there are people who email in the same laconic way that they text, lol - but what I'm trying to say is that I think the format of email can invite a more thorough conversation.

They're doing it while they're in the crowd?

I don't speak French - I'll confess that my knowledge of the language stems much more from French opera than anything else lol. But given that, the mention of "guere" did remind me of a wonderful pun in Les Mamelles De Tiresias (play by Apollinaire, 1903/1917, Opera by Poulenc, 1947): Écoutez ô Français la leçon de la guerre Et faites des enfants vous qui n’en faisiez guère.

It's an emphasis on the negative. I don't know what "bareback" is in French, but if you said "je ne [bareback] pas" he'd understand that it's something you emphatically never do.

Has anyone met this guy? I'd love to possibly explore some roleplay/fantasy ideas with him, but I'm not interested in going under hypnosis to do it. It's a little hard to tell if the hypnosis is something he expects to do or if it's just an option. Anyone know?

I had a similar thing happen in a non-escort situation recently. I contacted a guy online, we had very similar interests and got into some very hot talk about some roleplay fantasies we'd explore together. This was on a Friday night, and he even emailed me early the next morning to continue the conversation. Then at one point that day, the conversation just stopped. Cold. I emailed him a few times over the next few days - no response. I was actually rather upset because our conversation had been very intense and it really felt like we were majorly clicking. I let it go. Then recently - it had been about 2 months since the initial conversation - he emails me out of the blue. Claiming he had family issues to deal with, and was very sorry that he had been out of touch. (As far as I know he's a gay male in his mid 20's - no marriage or anything like that - so this wouldn't be a "dodging the wife" kind of thing. I figured it was an illness/death or something - understandable. He didn't elaborate, I didn't pry.) I told him I had been bummed he had disappeared, but was glad he wrote back. We started up talking again, picking up where we had left off with barely a hitch. After that night (it's been about 2 weeks now), haven't heard from him since. Same M.O. - he just stopped emailing - no heads up to say he might not hear from me, etc - just nothing. Again, I checked in once or twice - nothing. I fell for it, whatever it was. When he emails me again in another few months, no doubt, I won't be responding back this time. It's a shame, because the talk was incredibly hot - and very specific and detailed in terms of what we both liked. And he did seem to make it clear that he wanted to meet - that this wasn't just talk. But I guess ultimately it was. In this day and age, I don't think there are many situations (even "family issues" etc) where one can't simply send even a very quick email, or txt, or whatever, to say "sorry, really busy, will be back in touch soon, just wanted you to know I'm still interested" or whatever. So I have to think that this "family issues" thing was just a flimsy excuse, and that he's either intentionally playing me, or that he's just in it for the fantasy talk until he gets off, or whatever. A real shame. But I have to let it go.

Yes. Hence the use of the word "unprecedented" lol. I agree with you that it's certainly an odd choice, even if I feel that Hamilton deserves the attention it's gotten. Maybe it's more about the zeitgeist than the purpose of the awards.

Gay. Like others here, I'm not so sure about "queer," especially as I tend to think it's taken on a political edge over time. I can't stand all the acronyms. I understand that's very un-PC of me, and that various groups may feel I'm disrespecting them, but I'll say it again. I can't stand the acronyms. And while we're there, I'm very sorry, but I can't do the gender pronouns thing either. Just can't. I'm ok if you want me to refer to you as the opposite gender or as neither, but I'd rather someone just tells me that, rather than spouting a list of pronouns after their name. It feels very impersonal and pretentious to me, and it makes me feel like I'm back in an elementary school English class. There must be a better way.

Yes, but perhaps an additional slight twist in the fact that Cher is one of the producers of The Cher Show, a musical about Cher, which just had a tryout in Chicago, and will be previewing on Broadway by the time of the awards. Cher does not appear in the musical, but she is portrayed by 3 actresses, which prompts me to want to rename the show Cher and Cher Alike.

Summer of 1986, and my first summer out of college, doing summerstock in Maine. Amazed to find myself the only gay guy in the company, lol. So I was a bit thrown when a bunch of us went to a nearby bar one night, and all of a sudden one of the guys suggested we get poppers. How was I to know that what he meant turned out to be essentially Margarita shots, lol? I can't remember when I first encountered poppers - it must have been during college at some point. But I hate them with a passion. Just the residual smell of them in the room turns me off. Also, my experience with them is surely the opposite of what is intended - the guys I've been with who have insisted on doing them all have seem to have had major issues with getting it up.

Opposite take. I used to share an apartment with 2 lesbian friends. (Well, to be more accurate, a lesbian friend and her girlfriend). They loved watching gay male porn. Now, my friend was bi - in fact I'm still good friends with her ex-husband...I believe the gf was more gay than not. But somehow they found man/man sex very erotic. I tend to think that the stereotype of men liking to watch 2 women in bed is more about the fantasy of joining in with them - I don't think this was the raison d'etre in this case. But, to continue the French, chacun a son gout...

I'm really glad you're getting yourself settled again. Hope you will still come east every now and then...:D:D

Awful that this happens at all, but yes, I can be sure that bullying like that does go on in the biz more than we are aware. It's a power play thing, just like sexual harassment, what we all know goes on. (I'm still waiting for the current zeitgeist to catch up to someone on Broadway who was the male casting couch for a very successful long-running show.) Last summer, Tom Wopat was arrested at a local regional theatre for groping women in the cast, along with drunkenness and other untoward behavior. Years ago, when I was working at the same theatre company, a lead actor recreating a major role he had played on Broadway (I won't reveal the name, though he's not a big "star," more a name that just theatre people would know) slept his way through the chorus (female AND male, from what I understand), leaving a distraught young actress in tears on closing night (he had promised her the world, of course, and then - well, of course she was really just another notch in his belt), and, if the story is really true, a room full of used condoms where he was boarding. Creep. Talented, but what a fucking creep. I don't know if the Wopat situation has ever gone anywhere - he might have settled, etc. But the positive thing of it all was that one of the women he had harassed was the one to call him out. And this was a few months before #MeToo came to be. Looking back, I think I can actually say that I've been in a bullying situation twice - once by an actor who thought he was god's gift to everything, and once by a director who was similar. But as I look back, neither situation was much more than annoying and detrimental to the work - I was never actually physically threatened, etc. But both were extreme power plays by people who were ultimately very insecure, and in both cases, I just ignored things as best I could and did my job. Nothing ever got anywhere close to the extent that Jeff Loeffelholz suffered. The situation with the actor did make me ponder leaving the biz (something I quickly talked myself out of), but nothing was pushing me towards anything like suicide. My heart goes out to Jeff's family and friends. We do have to find a way to make sure he did not take his life in vain.

For me, the most brilliant (and really toughest to watch) moment in the film is the last few minutes. Daring, in terms of how it's filmed and how Chalamet goes with the emotional risk of it - and it's so intensely emotional, and universal for anyone who has lost a lover, straight or gay, especially in our youth. Blew me away.

Yes, true. Even if "Sweet Caroline" may have some questionable creepiness in it, lol. (Of course, it's also heard at all Sox home games, lol.)

Appropriate, yes. But I have to confess I've always hated this song. No malice intended.