bostonman

Not yet - though meetings off of Craigslist weren't guaranteed either, lol. I've been corresponding tonight with a guy who seems like he's serious about meeting. I'm also already seeing a few ads that are clearly from guys who were advertising on Craigslist as well. It's clearly a legit site.

"Congress may override a presidential veto with a 2/3 vote in both houses." So what good would a veto really do, considering the overwhelming vote tally for the bill? Unless a good number of congressmen have since reconsidered?

Just so twisted that this bill may be about to be signed by a president whose affair with a porn star is huge current news. Will the president even WANT to sign a bill that may, by extension, curtail aspects of internet porn? Maybe he should make a deal with Stormy about this...

Doublelist is clearly in its infancy - it wants to be a site close in form to the Craigslist personals, though it's not quite there yet. I've already placed/answered a few ads there and talked to a few guys about hooking up, so it's legit - just that they're clearly still developing it. But, it's definitely welcome.

I’m a newbie to the idea of the so-called “dark web” - but from what I’ve been trying to read about it, it does not sound like a place for a novice. Can we be sure a Tor site would be safe to visit? (For us, I mean - not meaning if the site would be safe from Big Brother.)

I'm actually really envious of you guys who got "dry" orgasms before being able to shoot. I wish that had happened to me...

I remember playing with myself as a kid, but I didn't understand the idea of the classic back-and-forth motion until a neighbor boy showed me, when I was about 13 1/2. By that time I knew I was interested in guys, though I didn't officially decide to call myself "gay" until I came out in the summer before my senior year in high school. But back to the story - this neighbor boy was a slightly older teen. I was going through puberty but wasn't ejaculating yet (no wet dreams that I was aware of either), and he and I had already done the "show and tell" thing once lol - and so somehow I wound up asking him if he could shoot cum yet, and what it was like. He was willing to show me. I watched as he stroked himself - it was amazing to watch, and of course it was an instant learning curve in how to masturbate. One fun memory I have is that while he stroked with his right hand, he had his left hand up on his chest, near his heart. I asked him why he was doing that, and he said because he liked to feel his heartbeat. I thought that was cute. And sexy too. He didn't cum for me that time - well, he got himself to the edge, and let a little stuff ooze out, but he was afraid to make a mess lol. But this wasn't the only time we did this, and the next time he went all the way and let me see it, aiming it onto his tummy and chest, wiping it up with kleenex after. Seeing that first cumshot was a pretty powerful image. In another after school meeting with him, around the time I turned 14, he wound up helping me shoot MY cum for the first time. That was, of course, an even more powerful experience - one I will of course never forget.

There was a time when I thought HourBoy seemed like a good site. It would be great if they could build themselves back to something viable - though in this current climate, I wouldn't be surprised if it just folded.

I joined, out of curiosity. (I'm a client, not a sex worker, but I'm of course assuming that the site might be beneficial for clients too, and that we can all help each other as one community.) Problem is, I have no idea on earth how to use this site, or even what it does or is supposed to do. I get that "switter" is clearly a play on "twitter," but the interface of the site seems to have all sorts of bells and whistles that do nothing but confuse me. I hope that as the site really gets off the ground it will become more self evident how to use it. In the meantime I wish it well, and I'll check in now and then to see if it develops into something that even a "computer illiterate" can use lol.

Seems to me that the price listing section is now gone - it had been accessible on the app version of the site, but not now. (I still see instances where fees are listed in the escort's written description, but I'm sure those will be gone soon.) Also, the app is now using the term "gay porn movies" where it used to say escorting, in the "available for" list. I only noticed that today - I think it's brand new. Slowly but surely the site is transforming...so far the changes seem fairly minor (having the fee listings gone is an inconvenience but not the worst thing in the world), but how far will they go before it's unrecognizable?

All in all, a success, IMO. Certainly the best of the recent NBC live musicals. With a live orchestra this time, to boot. (Usually they're prerecorded.) David Leveaux's direction worked very well for the most part - a few missed opportunities here and there, or moments that felt unfinished - but really quite well done, and inventive. The final scene was extremely well done. There were only two vocal weak links in the cast - one, as I predicted, would be Norm Lewis, who is a wonderful baritone, but who had to really grunt the lowest notes that, for me, define Caiaphas' musical characterization. The other, unfortunately, was John Legend, who just didn't have the "classic rock tenor" voice to do Jesus' high-lying music justice. "Gethsemane" - the dramatic high point of the score for him, was just not anywhere in his wheelhouse. However, Lewis did have a credible poise about him as Caiaphas, and I was impressed with Legend's take on the role in general - just that he couldn't sing it the way I feel it should be sung. Brandon Victor Dixon, therefore, easily stole the show from Legend - which isn't hard to do anyway, as Webber sets it up for Judas to have some of the biggest moments. Dixon's voice is much more versatile, and he was clearly having fun playing the tormented soul. A huge triumph for him. Sara Bareilles sang Mary with ease, and didn't overplay the role. Now that she has 2 musical theatre roles under her belt (she also stepped into the leading role in her own show, Waitress, on Broadway, for a time), I'm hoping she'll get offers to do more. Ben Daniels was a strong Pilate, even if he did overdo it vocally in his last few lines. The other supporting players were all spot on. And then there was Alice Cooper. And talk about professionalism - he opted for the "less is more" route (as compared to, say, Josh Mostel's over-campy version in the original film) and it was perfection. The problem with the campier approach is that it makes one forget that Herod was a king - even if he was crazy, he did have power over Jesus, and the campier the song, the less sense of authority, no matter how fun. Cooper got it, though. He simply let Rice's satirical lyrics and Webber's music-hall pastiche music provide the fun - and he played the song simply and with poise. The song was no less funny, but it also had bite. To me, this is how it should always be done. If the audience reactions were sometimes over the top, I also assume they were prompted and scripted. Much of it did add to the "rock concert" feel of the event. Though I do have to say that I think the phrase "concert musical" (or "in concert," in this instance) should now be not only retired, but banned. I have no fucking idea what it means anymore, and it's clear to me that directors don't either. WAY too many commercial breaks - but at least we didn't get the hyped up, hopped up fanboy/audience "behind the scenes" mishegas that we got for the NBC Hairspray, etc, every time they went to a commercial. I'm glad that NBC decided to give us JUST the musical this time. And I hope they stick to that. This is a score I've always loved, since I first heard it as a teen. People may ridicule Webber, but I've always thought that his collaborations with Tim Rice are among his best works - and tonight's version reminded me of just how powerful it can be. (I'm tempted to say "I laughed, I cried, and it was miles better than Cats" lol.) I did enjoy it, I was emotionally moved, and I'm ultimately very glad they attempted it. This one really worked.

Also, though I do love Norm Lewis, I'm curious to see how he'll do with the low range that Caiaphas is supposed to have. I'm not sure he sings that low. Perhaps Philip Boykin (currently in the Broadway revival of Once On This Island) isn't as well-known, but he's got those notes down there...it would have been fun to hear him in the role.

So I guess it's a "concert" version - not sure what that ever means anymore. But I sure hope it's less over-produced than the NBC live musicals have become lately. All the extra hullaballoo during breaks, etc. (For instance, I thought their Hairspray was pretty well done - for once - but they really overdo the hopped up stuff in and out of commercials, which ruins the flow even more than just having commercials would.) The original film version of Superstar was nicely inventive, if a bit odd at times, but its concept didn't distract from the story or the drama. (It actually added a bit of its own, especially at the end.) These recent live set of NBC musicals have varied from good (Hairspray) to average but stiff (The Sound Of Music) to downright awful (Peter Pan), and I just hope maybe if they trust the material this time and just let the performers sing, it'll be a respectable show. We shall see...

I have it. I don't know if it's going to wind up "safer" or not in the current climate, but it works just fine. And just like the mobile app version, you can see rates listed, etc. I'd recommend it.

. Right. This is not a new change. It’s been my experience in general that when an ad has expired, the contact info (on that red “contact me” link) is no longer made available. The escort has to renew the ad in order to have it working properly again.

from Joe Jackson's "Night And Day" album, which became a hit when I was about to start college. The breakout song was "Steppin' Out," there was "Real Men" which became a bit of a gay anthem, and then there was this:

Ha! Carbonation makes me burp too much, lol, so I don't tend to drink a lot of soda. But I do sometimes. Or, along with my love for coffee, I have a collection of flavor syrups like you would see in a coffee place nowadays. So sometimes I'll do what they used to call an "Italian Soda" (they still might call it that) - seltzer, some flavored syrup, and sometimes a bit of cream or milk. Another thing I love is what the Greeks call "cafe frappe" - which is not the same as a frappuccino, though it's a form of blended coffee drink. Very refreshing, especially as a summer drink. I spent a summer in Greece some years back, and practically lived on them, lol.

For my experience - prices are still listed if you use the app version (I have an app on my desktop as well as on my phone). It's been a while since one could see them otherwise. If they are editing rate info from the ad text itself, indeed that may take a while, given the number of ads out there. If an ad expires, contact info is withheld (there's a prompt that explains that). So far I have not seen any changes in the last week or so (i.e. proactive changes because of this new bill). Obviously changes may be on the way, of course. In the meantime, I had never used a vpn before, and just tried one this week. The one big change I see through a vpn is that you can see the text comments in the reviews, if there are any. Which is nice.

I drink a lot of coffee. I also drink a lot of iced tea (though I make that decaf, where I tend to drink regular coffee). If it's gonna kill me, it's sure taking its own sweet time doing it. I'm not stopping anytime soon. Coffee has become my mainstay at work - my students and theatre colleagues know that I'm never without a mug of coffee - usually Starbucks - in class or rehearsals, etc. Which has led to many class/show gifts of new coffee mugs, Starbucks gift cards, etc.

In my experience, it was only the "generou$" ads, but that counts, of course. I don't know of any professional male/male escorts who were blatantly using the site for advertising. There could have been more aggressive use of that in the straight ads, I don't know. I tend to think that CL relied on its users as self-moderators, rather than anyone from the site being in charge of ad content. One could flag an ad as inappropriate - for many reasons, but certainly any nod to "$" could result in a flag. I suppose that CL felt it was easier to shut down the entire personals category rather than to take a more aggressive approach towards policing the site. In my experience, in about 2 years of using CL for hookups, I would say that I got more responses asking me if I was generous than I saw ads that hinted at pay for play, though I certainly did see some of those too. Perhaps CL shut down the ads for that reason - that they knew readers were soliciting more than the posters were. In any case, my own experience is that the "$" ads/responses were not a HUGE part of things, proportionally - but it was certainly there. And if this is going to be a zero tolerance law once it is signed, I guess CL felt the only was to fix potential legal issues was just to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

I didn't start hiring until after I was online. I was used to phone lines, newspaper personal ads, and of course, human interaction in terms of hookups before that. Just that it's been so wonderfully easy online, lol. Don't worry - I'm calm. Just not liking that the government is potentially forcing these changes. Feels like a real loss of freedom.

Yes - and I think I've heard various conjectures as to what happened...though the most credible seemed to be about some unkind comments he made about her in public, I think. (I can't remember specifically - but maybe you know?) I have heard (I think this is attributed to Laurents) that Merman's initial dismissal of Sondheim composing Gypsy went something like "no unknown is going to write this score FOR ME!!!" - and Sondheim remembered that "FOR ME" when he helped put together "Rose's Turn"... (Could be apocryphal, but it's a fun story...)

From Finishing The Hat: "Originally, Arthur [Laurents], Jerry [Robbins] and the producers had asked me to write the music as well as the lyrics for the show - but Ethel was reluctant to take a chance on an unknown composer and suggested Jule Styne. Arthur tried to persuade me to write lyrics only, but after West Side Story I was afraid of being pigeonholed forever as a lyricist...so I refused. It was Oscar who convinced me otherwise..." This is essentially always the version of the story I've heard, in various forms. Sondheim was already on the gig before Merman had said anything, and it seems she then only had say on the composing side of things. She may have acquiesced that this Steven guy she didn't know could stay on as lyricist, but she didn't pick or suggest a lyricist - he was clearly already hired. I doubt she "requested that Sondheim only write the lyrics" as you said - I would assume she only went along with the idea because he had already been offered a job with the writing team - and Laurents, Robbins, and the producers, who had hired him, weren't going to let him go entirely. She probably had no real say in the matter. I tend to think that if she did, she would have also requested a lyricist she knew very well, instead of a relative newbie. However (also in a detailed description in Finishing The Hat,) Sondheim DID write the music for "Rose's Turn" - mostly adapted from Styne's tunes, of course, but arranged and routined by Sondheim and Jerome Robbins in a late-night session. So he did have a hand in the music, just a little. There's also a story that intimates that Sondheim may have written both music and lyrics (it's unclear about the music) to an intro verse to "Some People" shortly before opening - he felt the transition from dialogue to song was clumsy and needed that extra bit of help - but Merman refused to learn it - it was too late in the process for her to add or change ANYTHING in her material. As Sondheim relates in the book Sondheim & Co, he was then told the story of Merman refusing to sing a perfected new refrain by Irving Berlin for "The Hostess With The Mostess" - declaring, "call me Miss Bird's Eye - this show is frozen!!"

Merman didn't yet know who Sondheim was. Most people didn't, as he really didn't get the billing and credit he deserved for his lyrics to West Side Story, only 2 years before Gypsy. I don't think Merman "requested" anything of Sondheim - what she requested was a composer she already knew and trusted, to write a score that would fit her. I don't think she had any say in who the lyricist would be. We may forget that Sondheim was still just a kid then - and not a "name" yet. Had producer Lemuel Ayers not passed away in 1955, there's a good chance that Sondheim's first professional show, Saturday Night, would have been on Broadway that year, and he would have had something to his credit as a composer. But as it is, there wasn't a full production of that show until 1997. But even with his wonderful lyrics for West Side, Sondheim was still an unknown, and there's no logical way that Merman would have "requested" he do the lyrics. Only perhaps that she ok'd his participation once it was set. She was really only concerned about who was writing the score.

We all felt, in the context of the moment, that that's what that was, but Herman tried to explain later than it wasn't, and I believe him. I think what he was trying to get at was that musicals (and musical theatre songwriting) in general were changing beyond his generation's style, and that it was a real surprise for him that people still wanted to hear his style of "old-fashioned" writing. In context, it felt like a dig because Sunday In The Park was his obvious contender - but his comment was meant to be more an affirmation than a swipe. Though it's easy to see why we would think otherwise.