Tuesday, January 1, 2002 … a restful day; Bryan and I have just signed a new two-year lease.  Around 7 pm, we return to Pangea.  We had simply signed for the bill for our New Year’s Eve dinner; it was $77 plus tip, so an even hundred bucks.

Unfortunately, although I didn’t mention it, the kitchen had been quite rushed and the food really wasn’t very good.  Bryan had blackened tuna which was the butt end and had a huge piece of bone or gristle in the middle.  My pork loin was extremely dry.  Oh, well, it’s to be expected on that type of night; this evening the total is $33 plus tip and the food is much better.

Wednesday, January 2 and lunch is Thai at the Red Lantern. This place is perfectly price-proportioned with an appetizer, entrée and Thai iced tea coming to ten bucks each, including tax.

Then Mexican food for dinner at El Cantinero; this really is good food.  I have the mussels in a cilantro sauce for an appetizer while Bryan sticks to chips and their very chunky salsa. Then it’s a combo platter for him and chicken in a reduction sauce with more cilantro for me.

We watch a video of the English film “Saving Grace” starring Brenda Blethyn and writer/producer Craig Ferguson, about what would happen if a genteel but bankrupt British widow’s only means of income was a secret garden of expertly cultivated cannabis.

Thursday, January 3 and if we were in Boston, things might have been different, as one of the great bands of the 80s music scene, Jeff + Jane, were making a very rare appearance at the Milky Way in Hyde Square, JP.  Boy, I would have loved to have been there, particularly as I often presented the band live at Spit during the time I managed the club.  But you can still buy their recordings; check out their website and get some now!  As Jane Hudson wrote,

Check out our new incarnation.  It sounds like Punk/Wave, guitar-based, and grooving.  Some of the great old songs too like “Pound Pound” and “Abadan” as well as “Gertrude Stein” and “Los Alamos.”  We really did have a great time, and the audience just loved it!  Shrieks and hollers heard all around.  It’s great to be playing in the Rentals mode again.  Stripped down and fierce.  We like the basic, minimal engine of the music as a power trio.  It grooves.

Friday, January 4 and our website of the day is Dear Friends: American Photographs of Men Together 1840-1918.  These pictures are from the collection of the International Center of Photography.  The exhibit is also available as a book from its curator, art historian David Deitcher; from Abrams, it costs $35.  According to the home page:

This is the first exhibition to explore the role of photography in commemorating affection between men in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  This installation of highly suggestive and ambiguous photographs demonstrates the extent to which the interpretation of images depends upon shifting social values.

Also dealing with the 19th century, Love Stories: Sex Between Men Before Homosexuality, “delves into the diaries and correspondence of more than a dozen same-sex love affairs” including Harvard undergraduates, sailors, and of course Walt Whitman.  Written by Jonathan Ned Katz (author of the seminal Gay American History), it is available from the University of Chicago Press for $35.

Saturday, January 5 and dinner is at Pangea.  Our video is the Ed Harris vanity project, Pollack; it is a biopic of the relationship between artists/lovers Jackson Pollack and Lee Krasner.  It also reminds us that vanity projects are not designed to be enjoyable and this one isn’t.

Plus, why do these actors not know that they can just act (as Sir Laurence Olivier so famously said to Dustin Hoffman)?  Harris had to gain fifty to seventy pounds of pure flab to show the aging process.  Quite gross, really.

Sunday, January 6 and it’s the Church of the Ascension for me.  Celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany (Rite I), the rector is joined in this service by Brian Lathrop+; highlights include some brilliant organ pieces by Maurice Duruflé and César Franck.  If you have become interested in Episcopal worship, click on this superb web page about what to expect at an Episcopal church.

For dinner, we order take-out Thai from Siam Lemon Leaf, next door to Pangea.  It’s the second season premier of Queer as Folk on Showtime.  This hasn’t changed much since last season; Pittsburgh is still the hottest gay resort in America and all the boys get naked at some point in the soap opera.  But we do like Randy Harrison as Justin and Sharon Gless as Debbie.

Monday, January 7 and the next time you have nothing to do and you’re sitting in front of the computer, you can do a little research on Chinatown in New York City.  Bruce Edward Hall is a freelance writer and fourth-generation Chinese-American living in the city.  He is the author of Tea That Burns: A Family Memoir of Chinatown.

Tuesday, January 8 and if you are still up surfing the web, the Urban 75 Photography Gallery has pages of links to geographical locations, such as New York City, and Chicago in the US, London, Brighton, and Brixton in the UK, and Paris, France.

Urban 75 is an “e-zine featuring direct action, rave, drugs, photos, bulletin boards, games and more.  This site is strictly non-profit - no banners, no tie-ins, no ads, nothing.”  So we love them!

Also, George L. Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, announces his retirement, Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s dies and I end my stay at Church Publishing.  Friday will be my last official day.  I am, of course, disappointed but my future is in a different direction.

Wednesday, January 9 and today is the feast day of Saints Polyeuctus and Nearchus, two men who were canonized as a couple.  A new day dawns; I make the important decision to continue my education as planned, at night and part-time.  I meet Bryan for lunch at the diner at noon; this, along with our cigarette breaks, will be one of the things I miss most about working across the street from him.

Enterprise is a repeat, but The West Wing and Law & Order are new.  The first show, about the censure of the President, is as strong as ever, while the second has a story line that is so morally ambiguous (about the confidentiality of priest and parishioner) that it never quite gels.  Dinner is Bryan’s superb rendition of Kraft macaroni and cheese.

Thursday, January 10 and my brother Mario would have been 45 years old today.  That said, my parents are dealing with it and have grown immensely in the last year as a result of his passing.  A horrible price to pay for education.

Bryan and I are at work at 9 am, but for me the morning simply consists of packing up my office.  Five full file boxes!  Who knew one could accumulate so many personal items in less than a year.  A sad, sad thing indeed.

But by noon, I’m done and Bryan and I are taken out to the diner by Tony Jewiss+.   Then, a lazy night of pasta with a sauce of zucchini and onions, followed by a new Friends, Will & Grace and ER.

Friday, January 11 and exactly four months since 9/11.  Do you notice how some people use 9-11 and others the slash?  What will it be in the future?  In honor of that event, here is a link to “September 11, 2001: Gay Victims and Heroes” by Michael Lombardi-Nash, PhD of Jacksonville, Florida.

On a lighter note, here is the parody of the “Banana Boat Song” called “Osama bin Laden, Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide” with Colin Powell on vocals and George Bush on percussion.  In entertainment news, Bryan tells me that Esquivel has passed away.  Dinner is at Mie; we bring home a piece of tuna sashimi for Rosebud who consumes it immediately!

Then, So Graham Norton, in the episode with Glenda Jackson and Jackie Stallone.  At the time of the taping, Jackson was running for mayor of London (obviously, she didn’t win); so Graham placed a call to the mayor of London, Kentucky for fun!  And while on hold, the radio was telling a story of cross-dressing day in Kentucky.  Graham couldn’t have planned it better if he tried.

After the show, there’s a brief interview with Norton on BBC America.  He’s just dressed in a designer white t-shirt, but we finally see that under those shiny suits is a Chelsea boy body!  Gorgeous arms!

Saturday, January 12 and the feast of Saint Aelred of Rievaulx; in 1985 Aelred was adopted into the calendar of the Episcopal Church.  Because of his writings, which affirm the love between men, he has become the patron of Intergrity and other gay Christian organizations.  Aelred wrote, “It is no small consolation in this life to have someone who can unite with you in an intimate affection.”

We take the bus to Cranford where we are spending the night.  My parents had told us about Mezzogiorno in Scotch Plains; we were lucky enough to get one of the last tables and found a very good Italian restaurant as our reward.  It doesn’t have a liquor license, but one just requests a bottle and they call the liquor store nearby which delivers the bottle. Certainly saves money.

I had cockles (tiny baby clams) steamed in a white wine and garlic sauce followed by braciola with green beans and penne.  Bryan had grilled Portobello mushrooms then jumbo shrimp scampi.  Mom had a creamy potato and leek soup followed by fried jumbo shrimp.  Both shrimp dishes had very fine seafood; indeed, all the seafood we tried was perfect.  Dad had fried calamari in a light batter, followed by linguini and baby octopus.  At least this time the seafood was chopped up!

Marie makes the desserts there; Bryan was very happy with his Amaretto cheesecake and me with a lemon gelato, but the winner was Dad’s ricotta cheesecake, so good I got a slice for the next morning.  Indeed, I had thought that Lanza’s, near us in the East Village, had the best ricotta cheese pie; this was far superior and I did not think that was possible.

Sunday, January 13 and the four of us are out at 10 am for a ride to the Jersey shore near Atlantic City.  Well, not AC, really, but just south of there, to the cemetary where my brother is buried.

Because of the cold and the wind, we only stay a few minutes and then stop for lunch at the historic Tuckahoe Inn, “overlooking the scenic Great Egg Harbor Bay” in Beesley’s Point.

What an enjoyable place; very South Jersey with great specials for very reasonable prices from your host Tyson Merryman.  And make sure you try the clam chowder “New Jersey style.”  That means a cross between Manhattan and New England styles, and extremely good.

Expect a wait if you want to sit on the porch overlooking the boat dock and outdoor deck with live music in the afternoons.

Monday, January 14, the NY Times Metro section has a story on Janet Kraft+ (sister of actor Matthew Broderick), and her trials and tribulations at Grace Church and in the Diocese of New York.

Mrs. Kraft now works at Grace Van Vorst Church in Jersey City, after being hired by the bishop of the Newark diocese, John Croneberger.

Tuesday, January 15 and I get a phone call from Fr. David MacDonald.  I had been hoping to shepherd his book through CPI; now I had to tell him that I was no longer there.

He and his wife Betty have moved from the US Virgin Islands; he is now the rector of Saint Luke, Denison TX.  This is a strong Anglo-Catholic parish with an energetic parish day school.  He will be quite an asset to them.

Before eating, we stop at the world-famous Strand Bookstore, where Bryan is looking for a book on Arts and Crafts furniture.  Dinner is at Mee Noodle Shop, then a new Smallville and Judging Amy.

Wednesday, January 16 and, as usual, my pasta sauce is a result of what we have to work with; I start with a large onion and fry it with sweet sausage stuffed with cheese and parsley.  The wonderful aroma tells us that we’re going the right direction.  From the refrigerator, we get some sun-dried tomatoes, pitted calamata olives, vine-ripened tomatoes and crushed garlic.  Finally, I add a small can of Muir Glen tomato sauce (that’s our standard brand with good value and consistent taste) and let the mixture sit.  Yes, this is going to work indeed.

In episodic television, sometimes there is no need for a strong plot and a new episode of Enterprise is one of those.  Everyone gets a few lines, there’s a bit of character exposition, but the villains show no particular motive and are gone by the end of the hour.

Still, an easy way to kill time before The West Wing, a new episode.  Tonight’s plot revolves around the writing of the State of the Union address.  Finally, Law & Order about the insurance industry and their response to experimental drugs; again, same old story but with the weekly dead body.

Thursday, January 17 and I meet Bryan for lunch at Confetti; we pick up airline tickets for a four-day trip to Wisconsin (near Green Bay) to see his grandmother Pat Truckey (Pam’s mom), her husband Nap, and Uncle Paul and his family.  Then Thai food from Siam Lemon Leaf before new episodes of Friends and Will & Grace and ER.

Friday, January 18 and I’m off to Dr. Jose Cortes.  And here’s the news:  After just short of four months of treatment, I am beating Hep C.  Yes, the baseline was 49,000 copies and now it’s down to less than 600.  I have already been vaccinated against A and B so, once treatment is done eight months from now I will be clean of all three!

Once Bryan gets home at 5, we do dinner at Pangea (tuna steak for him, roasted bistro chicken with zucchini, black olives and onions for me which is very good).

We watch the final episode in the latest So Graham Norton series with Richard Wilson and Joan Collins, along with Cossacks in thongs and the ping pong girl.  Yes, an Asian woman who shoots out a ping pong ball to set off fireworks on stage.

Saturday, January 19 and we’re supposed to meet up with Jeff Berlin and his wife, Robyne Tanner, who are down from Boston, but it never happens.  J+B start off in Times Square but wind up on an express subway that lands them in Chinatown.

Somehow, they find Australian food at Eight Mile Creek in the middle of Little Italy on Mulberry Street before going to see Mamma Mia on Broadway.

Bryan and I had originally thought that the four of us would catch Rick Berlin and his band, the Shelley Winters Project, playing on the Lower East Side at the Luna Lounge; unfortunately, the snow (which really never accumulates more than an inch) and the play stop us from seeing him once again.

Sunday, January 20 and another lazy day; we miss J+B, with whom we were going to have brunch but by the time we hear from them, at 2 pm, we’ve gone out to the Lunch Box.  Their phone message indicates that they’re only a few blocks away at ABC Carpet & Home.  We decide that the next time they’re down, we’ll make specific plans to meet up.

Later, I take Bryan out for a light dinner at Holy Basil, perhaps the finest Thai restaurant in the East Village.  Bryan has their signature dish, Pad Kapraw.  Formed into a cylinder, this is sliced crispy duck sauteed with holy basil leaves, onion and chili pepper, and extremely tasty.  I have the Kang Ped, chicken in a red curry.

After dinner, I watch Queer as Folk.  The music in this episode is exemplary, including Stephin Merritt’s When My Boy Walks Down the Street (from the Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs), and the Stranglers’ No More Heroes.

Monday, January 21, Martin Luther King Day … Can it be that we managed to spend the whole weekend doing nothing?  True, true.

In a blast from the past, I had been trying to find out what had happened to my friends Dini and Windle, two of the singers of Boston’s infamous Human Sexual Response; the last that I saw of them, they had a big old house on top of a hill in Provincetown.

About a year ago, I heard from Tom Yazbek, a former Spit employee.  He led me to Paul V., whom we mentioned in the September 2001 page; with my “blessing” he has single-handedly kept alive Spit and TVOD in the Los Angeles music scene.

From him, I find out that Dini Lamot, who has been traveling the country as Musty Chiffon, and Windle have purchased the Hudson River Theater, just north of NYC, where they have been introducing the area residents to Karen Finley, Kate Pierson, Joey Arias and more.  Since Hudson NY is also a good area for antiques, Bryan and I will hopefully make plans to go up and visit.

Tuesday, January 22 and my return to student life at New York University and the School of Continuing and Professional Studies for my Master of Science in Publishing.  My first class (I’m taking two each semester) is Financial Analysis; yes, I’m learning about accounting.  I had watched my bosses constantly pouring over budgets at my last job and so this will be useful in my learning a common language.  And although this isn’t exactly my field, the teacher, Ed Reiner, strives to make it interesting.

After class, Bryan and I celebrate with dinner at Zito’s on First Avenue and catch a new episode of Judging Amy.

Wednesday, January 23 and a return to my chiropractor.  I’d seen Dr. Charles Sallahian earlier in 2001 but insurance only covers so much, so I had to wait until the new year to start seeing him again.  OK, say what you will about chiropractors, they’re certainly good at massage!

Bryan and I watch a new episode of Enterprise.   Since West Wing was a repeat, we went to Pangea where we split a salad, he had spaghetti Bolognese, and I had linguine with garlic and mussels.

Thursday, January 24 and Tony Jewiss+ writes to say he had to put his cat, Flaco, to sleep last night.  Enjoy your pets while you can!

I have a fifteen minute cell phone chat with David Littler; it amazes me how many Episcopalians cannot find work within the Church.  Bryan gets home at 6; we just lie in bed for the whole evening, even though Must See TV is all repeats.

Friday, January 25 and in Episcopal news, we hear that the Very Rev. John B. Chane, a 57-year-old dean of Saint Paul’s Cathedral in San Diego CA, who supports the ordination of non-celibate gay men and lesbians, was elected bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington DC.  Regarding his support, Chane has said:

Our teaching on holy baptism is that when you are baptized, there is no such thing as second-class citizenship.  You are a full member in the body of Christ.  The real test is not their sexuality.  It’s: Is this person going to be a wholesome example to Christ’s flock?

It’s a quick dinner at Pangea before we watch So Graham Norton (with Catherine Deneuve and Zandra Rhodes, again).

Saturday, January 26 and our trip to Lambertville NJ and New Hope PA, a central area for antiquing just outside Trenton.

But first we stop at Don’s Jaguar Service, just outside of Lambertville.  This is a very unusual dealer; the reason we stopped was the sight of a Mini, actually, almost a dozen of them, some brand new and some from the 70s.  But all of them were in incredible condition.  Who wouldn’t want one of these cute cars?  They also had an odd assortment of other older vehicles, including a Bricklin and an unused DeLorean.

Our first mission is lunch, so we stop at Ennis & Karen on North Main for great soup and sandwiches.  Everything else in the area might be expensive, but this quaint shop isn’t one of them.  Also recommended is the Artfull Eye for prints.

The Episcopal church in Lambertville is Saint Andrew.  We check out a bunch of stores but this is an area for window shopping; you’ll find no great bargains as there have to be a hundred dealers.

But we do get a bottle of Pickapeppa Sauce from Jamaica at Suzie Hot Sauce and a new cat toy for Rosebud at Meow Meow, just over the bridge in New Hope.  And, yes, the Cartwheel is still the gay bar in town.

On the way back home, we stop at David Rago, one of the premier auction houses, but it’s closed.  We are, however, greeted by the pastor of the Second English Presbyterian Church of West Amwell when we stopped to admire the Gothic Revival structure and its cemetary, the final resting place of generations of the family Holcombe.

We get back to Cranford in time to have dinner with my folks, which means Italian food.  There was a German-American restaurant, Hayek’s, in town for many years which finally closed; taking its place is Triestina Ristorante.  It specializes in Northern Italian food, indeed, most of the staff is from around Yugoslavia.  And it is obviously an immediate success, as there’s a line by the time we leave.  But the food is just ok, and the service lackluster.  Bryan’s pork chops, in particular, are quite dry.

Sunday, January 27 and the anniversary of a Superbowl Sunday in 1997, when Bryan and I met at a brunch and began our long relationship.

It’s such a stunning day, that we decide to walk around Chelsea and then the East Village.  We decide to go for a walk looking for food; this leads us down to Fourth Street and finally back to Pangea.  Then, Queer as Folk.

Monday, January 28 and at 6 pm, I put on my suit and go for class number two, Marketing 101 taught by Kitt Allan.  She is associate director of marketing and editorial development for John Wiley and Sons, a prominent trade publisher, so we know we’ll learn real-world information.

Tuesday, January 29 and a record-breaking temperature, in addition to being beautifully sunny; then off to school again to learn about financial statements.

May the long time sun shine upon you
All love surround you
And the pure light within you
Guide you all the way on.

Incredible String Band, A Very Cellular Song (lyrics by Mike Heron)

Wednesday, January 30 and a great day to surf the revamped website of Out magazine.

We watch new episodes of Enterprise, with crewmembers stuck aboard a sinking Klingon ship, The West Wing and Law & Order.

Also, since I have not mentioned Leonard Cohen in the last month, here is his entry at Biography.

Thursday, January 31 and Must See TV has a new episode of Friends and Rosie O’Donnell guest stars on Will & Grace.  Rosie’s role is the most interesting as she plays a gay mother of a 12-year old boy, who has remained in the closet for all of her son’s life.  And as art imitates life, the NY Daily News reports that she will come out in her forthcoming memoir.  A source tells the paper,

She comes out, but she’s very matter-of-fact about it.  She may be thinking that if she doesn’t make a big deal out of it, she minimizes the backlash from gay activists who might say, ‘Where the hell have you been?’

Adelante!  Hombres.  Sailors.  Comrades. I know your mind.  I know your heart. I know your answer.

Big Daddy:  Now, why do ya drink?!
Brick:  Give me my crutch.
Big Daddy:  Tell me first.
Brick:  No, you give me a drink first and I’ll tell ya.
Big Daddy:  Tell me first!  First you gotta tell me!
Brick:  All right, disgust!
Big Daddy:  DISGUST WITH WHAT?
Brick:  You strike a hard bargain.
Big Daddy:  Boy, do you want liquor that bad?
Brick:  Yes sir.  I want liquor that bad.  (Big Daddy hands him his crutch.)
Big Daddy:  Now tell me, what are you disgusted with?
Brick:  Mendacity.  You know what that is.  It’s lies and liars.
Big Daddy:  Who’s been lyin’ to ya?  Maggie?  Has your wife been lyin’ to ya?
Brick:  No.  Not one lie, not one person.  The whole thing.

Big Daddy:  Mendacity.  What do you know about mendacity?  I could write a book on it.  Mendacity.  Look at all the lies that I got to put up with.  Pretenses.  Hypocrisy.  Pretendin’ like I care for Big Mama; I haven’t been able to stand that woman in forty years.  Church!  It bores me.  But I go.  And all those swindlin’ lodges and social clubs and money-grabbin’ auxiliaries.  It’s got me on the number one sucker list.  Boy, I’ve lived with mendacity.  Now why can’t you live with it?  You’ve got to live with it.  There’s nothin’ to live with but mendacity.  Is there?

Tennessee Williams, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”

“What do you want to do?”  “Whatever needs to be done.”