A reminder that links now open in new windows, and are rarely connected to advertiser-supported sites.  Try them and encourage their existence.

Sunday, September 1 and I spend the morning at Jim and Jamie’s, having brunch.  In the evening, listening to music, I have a bottle of 1997 Riserva from Mantellassi, a Morellino di Scansano.  Quite good!

As a side note, Jerry Lewis is still doing the annual Labor Day telethon for Muscular Dystrophy, as I notice while switching channels.  What surprises me is that he doesn’t look like himself; instead he’s about 300 pounds!  It turns out he’s been suffering from pulmonary fibrosis and the extra weight is a side effect of the medication!  Yikes!  Thom Lane wrote:

You know that Jerry Lewis was too ill to go on at the London Palladium this month.  MC Bobcat Goldthwait then proceeded to bring on a friend from the audience to replace the King of Comedy – “a large hairy man with an axe to grind” ... Tony V.  [Ed.: Yes, there is another one, a comedian!]  Also, If you watch the Soprano’s, Frank Santorelli was beaten up just for being so dumb.

The “other” Tony V. said, “My heart was pounding, but I feel absolutely no pressure.  However you act, I already have a story to tell.  I headlined at the Palladium.” He did about twelve minutes, with jokes like, “I will be the first to admit that Stephen Hawking is one of the most prolific thinkers of our time.  That being said, what else does he have to do?”

Monday, September 2 and I’m up around 8 am for coffee with the folks before returning to the city.  Dinner is at Pangea; I’m the only customer there!  I have a pina colada with Asian spring rolls and the peppercorn steak salad.

Later, I listen to Throbbing Gristle’s United and Hot on the Heels of Love (recorded at Industrial Records in September 1979) as well as Leonard Cohen’s The Guests, Jefferson Airplane’s You are the Crown of Creation, Ozzy Osbourne’s Mama, I’m Coming Home, and Roky Erikson’s Splash 1.  I also see an old clip of me on the Good Day Show in Boston talking about Spit.

Tuesday, September 3 and I watch A Composer's Notes: Philip Glass and the Making of an Opera, the documentary on Akhnaten, produced and directed by Michael Blackwood in 1985, as it is produced simultaneously in Germany and the United States.

Glass provides ongoing commentary as the viewer is taken from background research in Egypt, to staging and preparation, including discussions with both directors and leads, to opening nights in Stuttgart and Houston.  I notice Philip and friends exiting De Robertis pastry shop, about a decade ago, and find out that he worked for Richard Serra for three years, and even over the course of a decade it’s still fascinating and I still love Akhnaten !

Wednesday, September 4 and I’m up for my first breakfast at the NYU dining hall across the street.  This is my first full day of work at Scholastic, proofreading teachers’ materials for pre-Kindergarten.  I walked both ways and later have dinner at the dining hall again; eight dollars for all you can eat.  What a deal!  Then I have a couple of drinks and think.

As I once created the persona of Tony V and stepped into it, now I hope to leave my last life behind and walk into the persona created by my website.  This new apparition should have as much depth as well; my attempts at leading a complex life have only led to grief.

Thursday, September 5 and I go to the gym before walking to work.  Once again, it’s Scholastic all day before a meet and greet at the SCPS offices in mid-town.  Yes, it’s my first class of the fall semester, my third, and I’m taking the introductory course in publishing with the director of the masters program, Robert Baensch.  After taking the subway home, I have dinner at Pangea.

Friday, September 6 and another day at Scholastic; when Bryan gets home, he invites me to Pangea for a pina colada and calamari.  Something amazing happened on this day, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  Let Jeff Marshall and Alli Wong tell you what happened:

We took a trip back to Hawaii over the last two weeks and while there we got MAUI’d.  Yes, that’s right, MARRIED!!!

We have been together for 16 years and wanted to do something that was all our own.  We decided that getting married in Maui would be a wonderful way to have the simple, uncomplicated wedding we really wanted.

So we did it!  At Kapalua Bay, on a bluff overlooking the ocean, at sunset.  Really cool Hawaiian minister, simple ceremony.  It couldn’t have been any more special.

Saturday, September 7 and brunch at the Telephone Bar & Grill followed by pina coladas at Pangea.  I have dinner at Veselka, which is not very inspiring at all.

Recently, David Littler went to a funeral at All Saints, Beverly Hills for Jim Wharton; his companion of some fifty-plus years is William Frye, retired from television and movies.  He did some of the early television shows and produced Airport 1975 and Airport 77.  David wrote to say:

Nancy Reagan (with four Secret Service men), Delores(Mrs. Bob Hope), Frances (Mrs. Edgar Bergen, and mother of Candice Bergen), and a bunch of others of that ilk were at the Memorial Service this afternoon.  Gabri Ferrer (son of Rosemary Clooney and Jose Ferrer, and a godson of Bing Crosby) carried the Pascal candle and read the Prayers of the People.  Ferrer is married to Debby Boone, daughter of Pat Boone.

Bill Givens, Peter, and I sat together; as they say in the Old South, we were “in high cotton” (or what passes for it in LA – perhaps “medium cotton” by New York standards).  The choir sang a motet, “Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart” to “Slane” as arranged by John Rutter.

Afterward, Nancy “held court” sitting in the back seat of her (new?) Mercedes.  After looking at all the women there, I have concluded that they are all from some cookie cutter mold.  They are blonde with somewhat puffed hair, thin, wearing very tastefully plain dresses that cost the earth, simple jewelry, and faces that show the effects of the plastic surgeon’s scalpel!  Ah, Southern California society.

In the bulletin this morning, the following people (among others) made contributions in Jim’s memory:  Shirlee (Mrs. Henry Fonda), Jane Wyatt Ward, Mrs. Randolph Scott and Betsy Bloomingdale.

Sunday, September 8 and I go to Webster Hall to see Ari Up, of the Slits (her mother Nora is married to John Lydon), the Toilet Boys (“Is it KISS?  I thought it was Poison!”), and Nina Hagen (with a very handsome guitarist, Dave Noble).  I see some other people I know, but even though I’m wearing an original TVOD t-shirt from 1978 [see logo at top of page], no one recognizes me.

Still, Ari Up puts on an incredible show; she says, “now people are ready for my punky mixture of dub, dancehall, hip-hop and drum ‘n’ bass.”  I wish she hadn’t gone on so early.  She also says, “People think I’m an alien; but really I’m down-to-earth.  Kill them with love.”  Nina, however, disappointed me, as she was too spacy and didn’t do enough hits.

Monday, September 9 and Bryan goes back to work while I go to the gym.

Back at the apartment, I see an envelope for Kieran Culkin; yes, the brother of Macauley lives in our building, just down the hall on our floor!  Kieran currently stars in “Igby Goes Down” with Bill Pullman, Susan Sarandon, Ryan Phillippe, Jeff Goldblum and Claire Danes.

Tuesday, September 10 and a quiet day for me.  Later, I answered the cell phone to find that Bryan’s grandmother, Pat Truckey, whom we visited in Wisconsin in February, had passed away.  Also, I get an email from Roman Zajac, my college roommate from Dow Street.  He writes,

“I will tell you this, I think about all of us often, if not each day in some way.  There are so many tangents from those ‘bolus of life’ days that it is just the way the synapses fire in my aging mind.   There is thread and that does not break, it’s there and it carries that genetic coding of our friendship through all the days of incommunicado and resurfaces strong as ever when radio silence is broken.”

To which I responded: “I so, so agree with you.  It took a few years after school for life’s lessons to catch up with me.  And so, as I said to Bob a few months ago, I wasn’t able to enjoy the pleasure that you all provided in the way of pure friendship.  Nonetheless, it has provided me with grounding and education for all these years since.”

Wednesday, September 11 and the first year anniversary of the attack on America ... and I still cry.  I watch some 9/11 programming for most of the evening.

TIME said that “artist Robert Rauschenberg’s cover collage, encapsulating the loss and sorrow of 9/11, met with a mixed reaction.  But closer to ground zero, a New Jersey librarian welcomed the gentle memorial: I saw so many horrible pictures last September.  Thank you for not putting on a horrific picture.”  Also, a year later, over 50,000 people have visited September 11, 2001: Gay Victims & Heroes; you should too.

Thursday, September 12 and I spent much of the day doing some proofreading before my second week’s class.  Dinner at Pangea.  Ben Lynch writes to me:

My, what fly times, too!  The essential conundrum to our lives as humans is that life is understood retrospectively, but must be lived prospectively.  So, while things may feel inalterably dark today (a sentiment I strongly detect both within and between the lines of your diary), the uncertainty of what tomorrow may hold could be a blessing.  Keep on, my old friend, keep on.  More later........  ben

Friday, September 13 and only two months to go before the release of Star Trek: Nemesis.  “In darkness, there is strength.”  Click here to see the trailer.  Bryan leaves for the weekend; he is going to Wisconsin for his grandmother’s funeral.

Mapping Public Theology: Beyond Culture, Identity, and Difference by Benjamin Valentin is my second assignment for Laura Hudson, the Managing Editor of Trinity Press International (part of The Morehouse Group).   There is a fuller review below, but my comment is, “A very interesting book.  Rather like a piece of porterhouse steak, certainly not a light vegan meal.”

Saturday, September 14 and and since I’m alone I have a late lunch at Pangea.  My plan is to spend the rest of the day in bed, which I do, watching movies.  My two favorites are “Moon over Parador” (directed by Paul Mazursky) and “The American President.”

I still find the former extremely funny; Richard Dreyfus is an actor on location in a banana republic who is hired by the local Secret Police to double for the dead dictator.  It also stars the late Raul Julia and Sonia Braga with cameos by Jonathan Winters and Sammy Davis Jr.

The latter is one of the most romantic films I have ever seen.  Michael Douglas is presidential and Annette Bening has one of her best roles ever.

At 10:30 pm, I called Thom Lane for our annual three-hour phone call.  The cell phone battery even died during it!  He was one of the only people I could think of calling to discuss certain things without having to be told how I had to do this or do that.

Sunday, September 15 and I had shut off the lights at 2 am, with Rosebud climbing in to join me; it was noon when I had brunch at the dining hall.  B and I have a drink at Pangea, the rest of the evening spent watching television.  And can it really be 25 years ago, that I sat with Howard Devoto for 3 hours on T.V.O.D. on WMBR [mp3] ?

“I think I’m coming down with something new.
I’m running errands for your friends I hardly know.
I used to know your name, I used to know this place;
my skin … remembers.”

Monday, September 16 and dinner with Bryan at MaryAnn’s and then drinks at Dick’s.  Jim Fouratt sends us this quote from Martin Luther King in 1963:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.  Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction....  The chain reaction of evil – hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars – must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.

Tuesday, September 17 and lunch at the diner.  Go to first class of Managing the Publishing Enterprise.  Dinner after is at Pangea (not very good chicken enchiladas, decent chicken curry salad, two gin martinis and a glass of red with the chocolate cake).  Earlier in the day, I e-mailed Bryan:

i know i'm not supposed to live in the past, but i was just remembering the sunday brunch where we met ... i was late since i had the annual trinity meeting and you were at the other end of the table ... but i had to see if bryanj was really as cute as he said in his posts ... and then, of course, we had to leave for separate parties

the moment i came around the table to introduce myself to you, i fell in love with you ... i have been in love with you since that second and i am as much in love with you this second ... you are my friend ... you have enriched my life in ways that no one ever has or ever will

Wednesday, September 18 and I am in New Jersey for dinner at my parents, with the artist Frank Loyacano and his woman friend, Janet.

After they leave, I watch the second season premier of Enterprise.  Brannon Braga, the producer, said, “the Suliban get the upper hand, a Vulcan tribunal puts the Enterprise’s mission on trial, and everything goes to hell.”

Thursday, September 19 and the first half of the evening’s class is taken up by a guest speaker from Oxford University Press.  I was to have dinner with Michael Alago but miss him and have dinner at Pangea with Bryan instead.  Alago is paying respects to Marianne Faithfull, who is performing at the Irving Plaza and staying at the Chelsea Hotel.  She told the New Yorker [from whence the caricature au droit]:

I never used to stay at the Chelsea because of all the drugs, when I was trying to get off drugs.  It was much too Sid and Nancy.  I never saw the film; I lived the film.  But it’s brighter there now, less heavy, lighter.

Friday, September 20 and I drive to Cranford.  Seeing my junior high school open, I walk in.  Everything is exactly as I remember, though I haven’t been there since 1969!  All the historic moments of my young life, replayed as I walked around, especially since nothing had been done to the building besides maintenance since then.  Dinner with my parents at Novita, in Westfield; pretty, but not very exciting food.

Saturday, September 21 and during the day is a wedding reception in Easton, Pennsylvania for my second cousin Chris and Davie Jo.  At the party, I see my cousins my cousin Carol and her friend John, Patty and Sam, along with various aunts and uncles.

I’m at Jim and Jamie’s for dinner; they’re having albacore that was caught just a couple of days ago off the coast of New Jersey.  That is a photo of their mansard roof home, which they are restoring to the way it originally looked when built around 1870.

Sunday, September 22 and I return to New York.  Bryan and I have pina coladas and pasta at Pangea.  At night, I rotate between the Emmy Awards, an intimate performance with Coldplay on MuchTV, and ABBAmania (with that very nice Stephen Gateley of Boyzone performing).  I found an odd, fictional (at least I hope so) webpage regarding a Stephen Gateley and Graham Norton interview.  It is rather salacious, so be forewarned!

Allison Janney received two statues for her role as CJ Cregg in The West Wing (which won numerous awards).  Also, Stockard Channing picked up two awards, one for The West Wing and one for her role in “The Matthew Shephard Project.”

Monday, September 23 and B invites me to lunch at the Red Lantern for Thai food.  They’ve raised the lunch special price just enough to not make it worthwhile.  I stop at a Hallmark store and getting Bryan a card that puts into words all that I’ve been trying to say about being there for him.  It makes for a very pleasant lunch, I think.  In the evening, we discuss American versus Islamic values and the like.  I’m up most of the night, except for a nightmare where I’m trying to wake up and just can’t, as if I were in a coma.  Lovely.

Tuesday, September 24 and I leave for the Variety Theatre, just across the street on Third Avenue.  There I meet some of my classmates [see class assignment below].  A new play by Thomas McCormack, “Endpapers” is “an insider’s look at the world of publishing.  When the founder and CEO of a small, prestigious, but financially unstable publishing house announces his retirement, it’s the start of a story of character and power – what it takes to be a CEO, and what it takes away.”

The playwright spent forty years in publishing before retiring, in 1997, as CEO of St. Martin's Press.  What I find interesting is the direct comparisons between many of the characters and the real people I worked with at Church Publishing, right down to the abrupt leaving of the publisher.  For that, the play gets an A+; otherwise a B for acting and B- for writing and plot, even though there’s surprise twist at the end.

Wednesday, September 25 and tonight, a new episode of Enterprise; it’s told in flashback as T’Pol tells the story of her great-grandmother’s visit to Earth as part of a Vulcan ship that has to crash land in Pennsylvania, near the coal-mining town of Carbon Creek in 1957 (prior to First Contact). Jolene Blalock plays her ancestor and it’s a rather nice costume drama, if not amusing or dramatic.

Then, at 9 pm, the two-hour season premier of The West Wing.  And it scores a home run before the season has even gotten going!  I think Lily Tomlin will be very enjoyable as the President’s new secretary this year.  President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) tells this memorable quote:

Sustain hope in this winter of anxiety and fear.  More than any time in recent history, America’s destiny is not of our own choosing.  We did not seek nor did we provoke an assault on our freedom and our way of life.  We did not expect nor did we invite a confrontation with evil.

Yet the true measure of a people’s strength is how they rise to master that moment when it does arise.  Every time we think we have measured our capacity to meet a challenge, we look up and we’re reminded that that capacity may well be limitless.

We will achieve what is great.  This is a time for American heroes and we reach for the stars.

Thursday, September 26 and my fourth week of Robert’s class.  This evening he has a guest speaker, a recent graduate from the program.  I have a travel recommendation.  I rented a room for the night at the Union Square Inn, for $135.  It reminds me of the small hotel that Bryan and I stayed at in Milan.

From 11 pm until midnight, I speak with Mark Hoffmann on my cellular; it’s the longest time we’ve spoken in probably five years.

Friday, September 27 and I leave for Cranford at 5 pm.  When I get into my parents’ house, I take my temperature and find I have a fever of over 101 degrees!  Mom makes spaghetti aglio e olio and then a fever of 101.7 all night, until it breaks in a pool of sweat around 2 am.

So instead, let us listen to Henryk Górecki’s Symphony #3 with Dawn Upshaw.  It is the second movement of this “holy minimalist” which will tear at your heartstrings.

Saturday, September 28 and I install The Rite Stuff at Jim Lenney’s.  I have a brief lunch at the Cranford Diner with mom before taking the train back into the city.  By the time I get in, Bryan has already left for the planetarium with his new friends.  Indian food from Indian Village (assorted appetizers and chicken saag curry).

Sunday, September 29 and once a month or so, about a dozen people (including my parents) get together for dinner at a home or go out to eat; they were shipmates on a cruise to Italy last year.  This evening, they have chosen Trattoria dopo Teatro.  We spend about three hours together; I can see why my parents like them.  As for the food, it’s good but not great although the wine is fine and martinis … well, let’s just say I could have cut back on one or the other.

Monday, September 30 and the month comes to a whimpering close.  I have breakfast at the dining hall before my 3 pm orientation at the gym.  Dinner is at Pangea; a glass of red wine with a filo dough appetizer and chicken pot pie.

Finally, in my quest for all things TV, this week’s Advocate ran an article on Billy Ingram, gay, former punk rocker and author of TVparty!  I usually don’t give props to any site with popups, but this is quite the repository of television information so I have to share the website with you.

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

“Endpapers”

When I worked for a small publishing house a few years ago, the publisher was about to take early retirement.  But having led his small staff of a dozen people for over twenty years, he had still not established a plan of succession.  In the end, this led to a power struggle between the managing editor of the house, who had no desire to be the business head, and the marketing director, who wanted to be but didn’t have the skills.

And then there were the three editors, of which I was one, and our various support staff (administrative, copyright, and publicity).  It wasn’t more than a few months after the publisher’s leaving, and the subsequent discovery of financial instability, that at least one editor (me) was gone and the board of directors had brought in an outside financial manager, who just happened to be highly literate, to be the house’s overseer.

Imagine my sense of shock and déjà vu, then, when on Tuesday, September 24, I attend a performance of a new play by Thomas McCormack at the Variety Theatre in the East Village.

“Endpapers” is described by the producers as “a story of character and power – what it takes to be a CEO, and what it takes away.”

The playwright spent forty years in publishing before retiring as CEO of St. Martin’s Press in 1997.  What I find interesting is the direct comparisons between many of the characters and the real people with whom I worked, right down to the abrupt leaving of the publisher.

Indeed, that is its strength and its weakness.  As an example, there are two women whose main role is to back their candidate for publisher.  And although I found each of them to be a dead ringer for two women with whom I worked, in the interest of political correctness and perhaps a greater depth of character, they could have been less shrewish.

As for its stated goals of examining management, leadership and succession, I found that it used the words but didn’t deal with them in the plot.  The two candidates for succession were such stereotypes that it was obvious that one was under-qualified to manage (and was indeed correct in not trying to pursue it) and the other was dealing with the wrong product.

Especially considering that the playwright spent the last few decades surrounded by writers, the script suffers from stodgy writing.  The daughter of the publisher repeatedly uses clichés such as “Nor should I.”  Although Jane Austen is referenced repeatedly, the writing style shouldn’t have been.

As for the stage set, I have seen a, well, variety of plays at the Variety, and though spare, lighting effects allow all the action to happen on one set without curtains.

Because I can attest to the fact that there are real publishing houses with characters that, in many respects, were identical to true people, the play gets an A; otherwise a B for acting, which was often perfunctory.  And though there is a supposed “surprise twist” near the end, I thought it was obvious in the first five minutes of the play and so it gets a B- for writing and plot.

Mapping Public Theology: Beyond Culture, Identity, and Difference
Benjamin Valentin (Trinity Press International, 208 pp, $26)

Valentin explores the ways that Hispanic/Latino theology can overcome its fractious nature and strengthen its relevance to society.  Rather than embracing identity politics, Hispanic/Latino theology needs to move beyond narrow categories to speak to larger issues such as the political economy and classism, engagement with public policy, and racial and ethnic social relations.  Hispanic/Latino theology must address a wider audience on social justice and provide broader visions of social and political emancipation.

Benjamin Valentin is Assistant Professor of Theology and Culture, Andover Newton Theological School, Newton Centre, Massachusetts and co-editor (with Anthony Pinn) of The Ties That Bind: African-American and Hispani-American/Latino(a) Theologies in Dialogue (Continuum, 2001).

It bridges the world of theology to other disciplines, making the case for the political potential in pan-ethnic identity formations and the public discourse that shapes them.
– Milagros Pena, Associate Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies, University of Florida