Tag: Louis Brown

Posted on

You Don’t Want to Go There, by Louis Brown

You don’t want to go there: The Dominican Republic

Though it is true Dominican men are in general very appealing to look at, so are Sicilian and Italian men. One of the reasons I originally went to the Dominican Republic was to find out how third world people survive. I have since learned that, although the Dominican Republic is very poor, it is not the poorest of the third world nations. The first trip I took back in the early 1990’s was with my union, Local 371 of the NYC Human Resources Administration.

The second time I went there in 1995 on my own I met Leonardo Rojas. He introduced me to his family. His mother, father, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers lived on a small dirt farm about 40 miles north of Juan Dolio which is on the south shore of the Dominican Republic. Juan Dolio is about 4 miles east of Boca Chica. I also observed a few other farms of various local families.

In our neighborhood in Wheat Ridge and Lakewood, many home-owners have tool sheds in their backyards. In the area of the Dominican Republic that I visited that was what one called a house, a casa. Given the occasional hurricane, and the year-round heat of the climate, I realized that is a more sensible alternative to making a home a larger structure that would eventually probably get blown away anyway is to live in a tool shed, a casa. On the Rojas farm there was no electricity or running water, but they did have a water pump with an underground spring beneath. And an out-house. There was a nice population of chickens, ducks, hogs, goats, cows and even a pony. There were about three casas.

Also, when I went the second time, I tried to relocate the hotel I originally stayed at, and a policeman who remembered it told me a hurricane had blown it away.

When Leonardo drove me about in the areas north of Juan Dolio, he told me that large stretches of land had no police which was why he could drive me about without his having a driver’s license. His family’s farm was located in one of these police-free zones.

The third time I went, I paired off with Edwin Velez at the Plaza Real Resort, again in Juan Dolio. I met his father who used to drive me around San Pedro de Macoris east of Juan Dolio especially when I needed to go shopping at Jumbo’s, the thoroughly modern Supermarket, located in that town. I was still also seeing Leonardo Rojas during my 3rd visit, and I once went with him when I rented a car to go to Jumbo’s. I told him he could do shopping for his family, and I observed what the favorite culinary treat for his family would be, and it was octopus tentacles. Can you imagine?

Also, when I was at Jumbo’s with Leonardo, I noticed a blond American doing shopping with a very beautiful Dominican man about 22 years old. I said to myself, “Gee, a gay American with enough money to move to the DR, and get himself a good-looking live-in escort, who probably was also his housekeeper”. The Dominican companion was very well dressed. At least for now I bet the blond man was happy.

The local economy for what it was, consisted of palatial casinos and hotels surrounded by luxuriant palm gardens. If and when you have to go to the bank, do not be surprised to see guards armed with automatic rifles. That was a little scary.

The Republica Dominicana is almost a paradise, a utopia, but “You don’t want to go there,” because the locals have become slighted jaded, and they have learned that the easiest way to realize cash is to con tourists. Mexico has the same problem.

About twenty-five years before my forays into the Republica Dominicana, I had a fixation on Italian men. I kept my eyes open and noticed a lot of beautiful Italian men. On my trip to Europe, I visited Rome. The policemen there are called sbirri. Men just do not get any better-looking. The sbirri were tall, dark-skinned, and mysterious in their long-caped black uniforms. My trip to Europe was mostly sponsored by Queens College, my undergraduate alma mater.

When I returned to Queens College, I took an Italian language course, and the instructor was on loan from Rome or Naples. Signore Genovese. He was amazingly beautiful and wore custom-tailored $2,000 silk suits and perfect expensive Italian shoes. Even the heterosexual men in his class took notice. The girls all fell in love with him. I fell in love with him, sort of. His skin was a dark olive hue, and I remember that, when I was looking at him, I said to myself that he was a beautiful person of color, that is to say, the puritanical racist in me said he was a person of color. We all have these irrational fears and prejudices that have been instilled in us. Of course, scientifically he was a Caucasian.

The liberal in me now says I have just engaged in a sort of evaluating people by their looks and their race, which is a sort of racial stereotyping. I should not want to go there. Still I saw what I saw.

© 30 April 2018

About the Author

I was born in 1944, I lived most of my life in New York City, Queens County. I still commute there. I worked for many years as a Caseworker for New York City Human Resources Administration, dealing with mentally impaired clients, then as a social work Supervisor dealing with homeless PWA’s. I have an apartment in Wheat Ridge, CO. I retired in 2002. I have a few interesting stories to tell. My boyfriend Kevin lives in New York City. I graduated Queens College, CUNY, in 1967.

Posted on

Escape, by Louis Brown

Garrard Conley tries unsuccessfully to escape from his same-sex sexual orientation.

Full Title of book: Boy Erased: A Memoir (2016) by Garrard Conley

Genre: Autobiography

Theme: escaping the deleterious effects of ex-gay therapy

Why notes on books?: When I find a good book, which is rare, if you read my insightful notes, when you read the book, it will be a lot easier and more meaningful.

NOTES

(1) Garrard Conly was the only child of an aspiring Baptist minister in Arkansas. His parents insisted, once they knew he was gay, that he undergo reversion therapy. Garrard was 15 years old.

(2) My guess is there are at least a couple of hundred of books written about the experiences of ex-gay therapy survivors.

(3) When he was 19 years old, Garrard Conley was enrolled in an ex-gay “therapy” program called “Love in Action” (LIA).

(4) Garrard had to enroll in LIA, otherwise his father would not pay for his college education. So, Garrard enrolled.

(5) Needless to say, Garrard fell in love with some of the other program participants who reciprocally “fell in love” with him.

(6) The intention of the author of this book is to get rid of ex-gay therapies because of the obvious (and not so obvious) harm they do.

(7) Because Garrard agrees to go to LIA, he goes to a Presbyterian undergraduate college (sometimes referred to as a seminary), but the location of the college is not divulged.

(8) While at Presbyterian College, Garrard makes friends with Charles and Dominique (he and she) who are black non-believers but who are good gospel singers. Presumably Garrard identifies with them because, like himself, these two black roommates are socially outsiders.

(9) P. 164, Garrard kisses a male art student, named Caleb.

(10) LIA forces Garrard to make a list of his sins in an MI (Moral Inventory).

(11) P. 292, reference to The Firm, a movie produced by Sydney Pollack, that we know was based on a novel by John Grisham. (Louis previously did a Plot Summary of John Grisham’s Sycamore Row).

(12) P. 274, reference to Psycho, the film by Alfred Hitchcock (which by the way I have already reviewed when the prompt was “Drain”. In the movie, the victim’s blood is filmed as flowing down the shower drain, an unforgettable scene.

(13) P. 297, reference to Dorian Gray, a novel by Oscar Wilde.

(14) Pp. 318-9, Garrard ogles J lovingly again. That is, participants in the LIA program are assigned letters of the alphabet to identify them.

(15) This book was made into a film.

(16) Another student at the Presbyterian college is David. Garrard claims that David raped him and also another underage boy. And yet Garrard attends David’s Pentecostal church.

(17) Some LIA instructors are Brother Brandon, Danny Cosby, Brother Hank, Brother Nielson, Brother Stevens and Smid.

(18) P. 92, One of the instructors, Danny Cosby, reminded Garrard of Jeff Goldblum, a character in the movie Jurassic Park. Jeff Goldblum was the skeptical guess of John Hammond and got his leg broken by a rampaging dinosaur.

(19) Back when Garrard was 15 years old, he was paired off with a girl named Chloë. Garrard’s parents expected he would marry her eventually. Garrard tried but failed to have sex with Chloë because, for obvious reasons, he was just not interested.

(20) P. 333, Love in Action was a subsidiary of Exodus International which has since gone out of business (in 1995), and, when they went out of business, they apologized for all the damage they had caused.

© 9 April 2018

About the Author

I was born in 1944, I lived most of my life in New York City, Queens County. I still commute there. I worked for many years as a Caseworker for New York City Human Resources Administration, dealing with mentally impaired clients, then as a social work Supervisor dealing with homeless PWA’s. I have an apartment in Wheat Ridge, CO. I retired in 2002. I have a few interesting stories to tell. My boyfriend Kevin lives in New York City. I graduated Queens College, CUNY, in 1967.

Posted on

Springtime for Hitler, by Louis Brown

Synopsis

Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp With Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden is a fictional musical in Mel Brooks’s 1967 film The Producers, [1] as well as the stage musical adaptation of the movie, [2] and the 2005 movie adaptation of the musical. It is a musical about Adolf Hitler, written by Franz Liebkind, an unbalanced ex-Nazi played by Kenneth Mars (then by Brad Oscar and Will Ferrell in the stage musical and the 2005 film respectively).

The play starts with the musical number, “Springtime for Hitler.” Accompanied by dancing stormtroopers, who at one point form a Busby Berkeley-style swastika, [2] the play immediately horrifies everyone in the audience except the author, and one lone viewer who breaks into applause—only for the latter to get pummeled by other disgusted theatergoers. As the audience begins to storm out of the theater, the first scene starts, with L.S.D. dressed up in full Nazi uniform and talking like a beatnik. The remaining audience starts to laugh, thinking that it is a satire, and those that had left return to the theater.

Franz, disgusted, goes behind the stage, unties the cable holding up the curtain and rushes out on stage, confronting the audience and ranting about the treatment of his beloved play. During his diatribe, there is a clank as someone strikes through the curtain, apparently with a pipe or hammer, hitting the steel Wehrmacht helmet that he’s wearing. A moment later, in mid-rant, he exclaims “OW!” and falls over. The play continues, and the audience assumes that his performance was part of the act.

The play gets rave reviews, ensuring its success (and the conviction of the producers when the fraudulent financing is discovered).

My reaction to this movie: the best scene is the dance scene in which the Nazi storm troopers do a dance routine reminiscent of dancing girls in Las Vegas or the Rockettes. They throw flowers and kisses at the audience. The monster tough guys do “girlish things,” which, in the male chauvinist rule book, is verboten, it is humiliating. Of course, that is what makes good satire, good farce and an unusually good spoof. The movie is hilarious and well written and produced.

Some notes on New York City and State

The Stony Point Center is a Presbyterian religious retreat center. I have been there several times without realizing that it was also a center for liberal and pro-gay Christian organizing. The Presbyterian Peace Fellowship has its headquarters here, and Chris Glaser does lesbian and gay positive Christian retreats here. He leads the gay Presbyterian periodical More Light Update. I wish the West had something similar. MCCR once held a religious retreat weekend at Sisters of Saint Francis. Maybe we could start organizing more gay and Lesbian positive activities there, and equivalent to the Stony Point Center back east in New York.

The pastor of MCC New York is Reverend Pat Bumgardner, Rev. Bumgardner was a Catholic nun formerly. She is religiously zealous, very pro-gay rights and she is a Lesbian. She is also an intelligent organizer. About ten years ago she arranged for Metropolitan Community Church to offer space and time for gay and Lesbian Muslims in New York City to organize. About five years ago, a gay Mosque has come into being. I wonder if this was a “Post hoc ergo propter hoc.”

© 16 April 2018

About the Author

I was born in 1944, I lived most of my life in New York City, Queens County. I still commute there. I worked for many years as a Caseworker for New York City Human Resources Administration, dealing with mentally impaired clients, then as a social work Supervisor dealing with homeless PWA’s. I have an apartment in Wheat Ridge, CO. I retired in 2002. I have a few interesting stories to tell. My boyfriend Kevin lives in New York City. I graduated Queens College, CUNY, in 1967.

Posted on

Will O’ the Wisp, by Louis Brown

I was a little surprised that so many of our authors were not familiar with this expression. When I was a child, the Will o’ the Wisp was in the category of Jack o ‘Lantern—which originally meant pretty much the same thing, flashes of light seen over swamp land—and pumpkin. It was a Halloween word. One of our authors offered “mirage, rainbow and lightning bug” as synonyms. Exactly, they all capture the idea of a fleeting beautiful object or state of affairs that you reach out for to make real, and then frustratingly it disappears or flies out of your reach.

I would offer as synonym the pop song, “Abra cadadbra, I want to reach out and grab you.”

When I was in the eighth grade, I went to science class taught by a Mr. Schiff. I blushed when I saw him. He was tall and handsome, and I wanted him to notice me. He didn’t. He was beyond my reach, a will o’ the wisp.

I am still dazzled by the John F. Kennedy White House. A handsome well-educated Irishman from liberal Massachusetts, and the beautiful, soft-spoken well-educated Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. Mrs. Kennedy promoted French studies and literature. She redecorated the White House with a French accent. It was Camelot, a “Utopia,” it was perfect. Then a jerk with a rifle blows him away, and Camelot disappears. A will o’ the wisp.

Now our Republican friends insist that our presidents be ignorant, backward and hostile to public education.

Mirage is more for the west (where we reside now). Betsy lived in swampy Louisiana for 3 years. I hale from College Point which is a small hill surrounded on 3 sides by swampland, where some interesting wildlife used to reside. The rather vast wetlands up and down the coast from Charleston, S. C. If you tour them, along your path you will discover little cabins that used to house the slaves that cultivated rice, another big cash crop back in those ante bellum days. Of course, nearby cotton was king. The tour guide will point out the very shallow ponds where the rice used to grow. The cypress trees, the flowering shrubs make the area even more beautiful and mysterious.

St. Elmo’s fire is a bright blue or violet glow, appearing like fire in some circumstances, from tall, sharply pointed structures such as lightning rods, masts, spires and chimneys, and on aircraft wings or nose cones.

St. Elmo’s fire can also appear on leaves and grass, and even at the tips of cattle horns.[5] Often accompanying the glow is a distinct hissing or buzzing sound. It is sometimes confused with ball lightning.

In 1751, Benjamin Franklin hypothesized that a pointed iron rod would light up at the tip during a lightning storm, similar in appearance to St. Elmo’s fire.

2 or 3 years ago, I did a report on male or masculine dancing, and I referred to a porno flick that I now remember the name of. The porno flick was called “Males in Motion.” Actually, it was not a porno flick though it was produced by a porno flick maker.

Actually, I was wrong, I treated masculine dancing as a brand new genre. In fact, Chippendale and Hollywood in general had male dancing pretty well developed and popularized.

We can develop the theme of disappearing aspirations when it comes to establishing an international organization with enough power to impose international peace based on a fairer economic system and cooperative governments. That is not the current situation so that we have perpetual war, in part thanks to our government’s neo-con pointless bellicosity.

© 25 March 2018

About the Author

I was born in 1944, I lived most of my life in New York City, Queens County. I still commute there. I worked for many years as a Caseworker for New York City Human Resources Administration, dealing with mentally impaired clients, then as a social work Supervisor dealing with homeless PWA’s. I have an apartment in Wheat Ridge, CO. I retired in 2002. I have a few interesting stories to tell. My boyfriend Kevin lives in New York City. I graduated Queens College, CUNY, in 1967.

Posted on

Empathy, by Louis Brown

Empathy, Sympathy and Psychological Projection.

Empathy [em-puh-thee] noun

1. the psychological identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.

2. the imaginative ascribing to an object, as a natural object or work of art, feelings or attitudes present in oneself:

By means of empathy, a great painting becomes a mirror of the self.

Sympathy

1. the harmony of or agreement in feeling, as between persons or on the part of one person with respect to another.

2. the harmony of feeling naturally existing between persons of like tastes or opinion or of congenial dispositions.

3. the fact or power of sharing the feelings of another, especially in sorrow or trouble; fellow feeling, compassion, or commiseration.

Projection: Psychology.

1. The tendency to ascribe to another person feelings, thoughts, or attitudes present in oneself, or to regard external reality as embodying such feelings, thoughts, etc., in some way.

2. Psychoanalysis. Such an ascription relieving the ego of a sense of guilt or other intolerable feeling.

Let us build a new Liberal majority Party

Through “empathy” we can identify other oppressed groups that we identify with for the purpose of building a broader coalition for the mutual benefit of all the oppressed groups. And remember, if you put all the oppressed groups together, you have a majority.

(1) Blacks have a grievance:

(a) Trayvon Martin’s assassin, George Zimmerman, goes free and shows no remorse. The oppression is overt. The murder took place 2-27-2012.

(b) The massacre of 9 church goers in a black church in Charleston, South Carolina. On June 6, 2015, there were nine black victims, church attendees. The perpetrator was Dylan Roof.

(c) The lack of real life-saving intervention in the Hurricane Katrina aftermath. Aug. 21, 2005-Aug. 31, 2005 White supremacy became obvious.

(2) Peaceniks:

(a) The George McGovern presidential campaign of 1972 showed most dramatically that a large percentage of the American public is dissatisfied with our right-wing foreign policy.

(b) Currently there are only two U. S. Senators who see the importance of future non-intervention policies. They are Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah, both are Republicans. The paucity of peace-oriented, non-interventionist representatives should be corrected. Mike Lee’s laudable isolationist policies are kept pretty much a secret.

(3) Gay men and Lesbians: us. We are mainly concerned with state legislatures passing irrational laws that discriminate against sexual minorities and are designed to intimidate us. We are concerned also with discrimination in employment and housing, for starters.

(4) Hispanics claim that lack of appropriate levels of assistance for the reconstruction of the infrastructure of Puerto Rico gives another example of white supremacy.

(5) The physically disabled claim cogently they are frequently subjected to discriminatory practices and are marginalized. See Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

(6) Women libbers claim on the work site abuse mostly by male supervisors. Also that women have been given the right to an abortion but male chauvinist conservative legislatures are taking this right away, mainly with dirty tricks. Their particular enemy is male chauvinism.

Women’s March on Washington took place on January 21, 2017, and much of their rhetoric and political positions were in opposition to the recently inaugurated Donald Trump.

(7) Muslims, Jews, Atheists all claim cogently to be oppressed minorities.

George McGovern from American historian

3. George Stanley McGovern was an American historian, author, U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 presidential election. Wikipedia Quotes

4. I’m fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.

5. The highest patriotism is not a blind acceptance of official policy, but a love of one’s country deep enough to call her to a higher plain.

6. The longer the title [of any given public official], the less important the job.

© 27 November 2017

About the Author

I was born in 1944, I lived most of my life in New York City, Queens County. I still commute there. I worked for many years as a Caseworker for New York City Human Resources Administration, dealing with mentally impaired clients, then as a social work Supervisor dealing with homeless PWA’s. I have an apartment in Wheat Ridge, CO. I retired in 2002. I have a few interesting stories to tell. My boyfriend Kevin lives in New York City. I graduated Queens College, CUNY, in 1967.
Posted on

Utopia, by Louis Brown

(1) Who was Rosemary Gianuzzi?

(a) She was my close friend who lived in Whitestone, NY, with husband Frank Mershon.

(b)Rosemary is quadriplegic.

(c) She died last Tuesday of sepsis, blood-poisoning.

(d)She was an effective advocate for the rights of the physically disabled. That was her search for Utopia.

(2) The Paramahanda Yogananda Self-Realization Center is located on Garrison Street in Lakewood. These yoga people are searching for Nirvana, their spiritual utopia.

(3) Communists are Utopians. What was the psychology of Ho Chi Minh? Politically and in the area of ideology, he was a French communist. Did he achieve his version of Utopia? No. He died 9-2-1969 of congestive heart failure before the Tet Offensive was completed though that began Jan. 30- 1968.

(4) I heard that the Italian communists are helping and advising the communist rebels in Colombia, South America, that 1/3 of Colombia is run by the Communists, another 1/3 is run by the drug lords and the other 1/3 is run by the right-wing, so-called “pro-American” government.

(5) I also heard that southern Mexico is run by a communist insurgent force called the Chiapas. Is that still true?

(6) Venezuela. Nicolas Maduro claims to be a socialist, a sort of Utopian. He is still in business. Will he be able to maintain what he perceives as his utopia, a socialist Venezuela?

(7) My personal search for Utopia included trips to the Dominican Republic, Charleston, S. C., Nancy, France and more recently Wheat Ridge, CO. A lot of war protesters went to Canada in the 1970’s.

(8) Gay Utopias:

(a) Cherry Grove: a real estate venture that was started in the 1920’s. Although it is basically a summer resort, there turned out to be broader implications. It is or was a true gay and Lesbian Utopia. It consists of a long boardwalk, and grocery deliveries are made with a motorized wagon; but otherwise there are no automobiles or motorcycles. Just Nature and geographical isolation.

(b)Nearby Isle of Pines: an even grander seaside resort which is a utopia of bisexual homeowners.

(c) New Hope, PA, and Provincetown, Massachusetts. Like San Francisco the heterosexual majority is very tolerant of gay people and support our civil rights. The gay businesses are integrated into the whole community. 

Is this Utopia?

© 29 February 2018

I was born in 1944, I lived most of my life in New York City, Queens County. I still commute there. I worked for many years as a Caseworker for New York City Human Resources Administration, dealing with mentally impaired clients, then as a social work Supervisor dealing with homeless PWA’s. I have an apartment in Wheat Ridge, CO. I retired in 2002. I have a few interesting stories to tell. My boyfriend Kevin lives in New York City. I graduated Queens College, CUNY, in 1967.
Posted on

Tears, by Louis Brown

The tragic myth of Niobe, etc

(a) The tragic tale of Niobe is one of the most memorable Greek myths, for Niobe’s story features a striking example of the consequences of hubris, a Greek term defined as arrogance or excessive pride. This myth was popular in ancient literature, poetry and art. Therefore, it is not a surprise that the legend of Niobe appears in one of our oldest and best sources for Greek myths, the Iliad of Homer.

Her father was Tantalus, king of a town above Mount Sipylus in Anatolia, but we do not know exactly who her mother was. Niobe had two brothers, Broteas and Pelops, who would later be a legendary hero and would give his name to Peloponnese. When Niobe grew up, she got married to Amphion, king of Thebes. This was a turning point in her life and a series of tragic events followed, to give her a distinct place in one of the most tragic dramas in Greek mythology. Niobe and Amphion gave birth to fourteen children, seven sons and seven daughters.

The fatal mistake and the horrible crime. At a ceremony held in honor of Leto, the mother of the divine twins, Apollo and Artemis, who was also living in Thebes, Niobe, in a fit of arrogance, bragged about her fourteen children. In fact, Niobe said that she was superior to Leto, as she had fourteen children and not only two. When the twins knew this insult, they got enraged and at once, came down to Earth to kill the children of Niobe. Apollo, the god of light and music, killed all seven of Niobe’s sons with his powerful arrows in front of their mother’s eyes. Although Niobe was pleading Apollo to feel mercy for her last surviving son, Apollo’s lethal arrow had already left his bow to find its mark with deadly accuracy, thus wiping out all the male descendants of Niobe.

Artemis, the virgin goddess of nature and hunting, killed Niobe’s seven daughters with her lethal arrows and their dead bodies were lying unburied for nine days. Turning into a rock Devastated by the slaughter of his children, Amphion committed suicide. Some versions say that he too was killed by Apollo when he tried to avenge his children’s deaths. And so it was that Niobe’s entire family had been wiped out by the gods in a matter of moments, and in deep anguish, she ran to Mount Sipylus.

There she pleaded [with the] Gods to [put] … an end to … her pain. Zeus felt sorry for her and transformed her into a rock, to make her feelings [express themselves from the] … stone. However, even as a rock, Niobe continued to cry. Her endless tears poured forth as a stream from the rock and it [her statue] seems to stand as a moving reminder of a mother’s eternal mourning. To this day, Niobe is mourning for her children and people believe that her faint image can still be seen carved on a limestone rock cliff on Mount Sipylus, with the water that seeps out of the porous rocks bearing a strong allusion to her ceaseless tears.

The meaning of the Myth the tragic tale of Niobe centered on the consequences of hybris, a strange concept in the Greek antiquity, which said that, if you act with arrogance towards the Gods, then you will be punished. Actually Niobe’s story is a classic example of the wrath of gods against human weaknesses and has been beautifully narrated in Homer’s Iliad. The tale of Niobe also finds mention in Metamorphoses, a narrative poem, written by the renowned Roman poet Ovid, who, however, has inverted the traditionally accepted order and portrayed the desires and conquests of the gods with aversion, while elevating human passions to a higher Source:

(b) O Mary, don’t you weep, don’t you mourn! Version of Bruce Springsteen

“O Mary Don’t You Weep”

Well if I could, I surely would, Stand on the rock where Moses stood, Pharoh’s army got drownded, Oh Mary don’t you weep. Oh Mary don’t you weep no more, Oh Mary don’t you weep no more, Pharoh’s army got drownded, Oh Mary don’t you weep. Well Mary wore three links of chain, On every link was Jesus name,

Pharoh’s army got drownded, Oh Mary don’t you weep. Oh Mary don’t you weep no more, Oh Mary don’t you weep no more, Pharoh’s army got drownded, Oh Mary don’t you weep. Well one of these nights about 12 o’clock, This old world is gonna rock, Pharoh’s army got drownded, Oh Mary don’t you weep. Well Moses stood on the Red Sea shore, Smote the water with a two by four, Pharoh’s army got drownded, Oh Mary don’t you weep. Oh Mary don’t you weep no more, Oh Mary don’t you weep no more, Pharoh’s army got drownded, Oh Mary don’t you weep. Well old Mister Satan he got mad, Missed that soul that he thought he had, Pharoh’s army got drownded, Oh Mary don’t you weep. Brothers and sisters, don’t you cry, There’ll be good times by and by, Pharoh’s army got drownded, Oh Mary don’t you weep. Oh Mary don’t you weep no more, Oh Mary don’t you weep no more, Pharoh’s army got drownded, Oh Mary don’t you weep. God gave Noah the rainbow sign,

No more water, but fire next time, Pharoh’s army got drownded, Oh Mary don’t you weep. Oh Mary don’t you weep no more, Oh Mary don’t you weep no more, Pharoh’s army got drownded, Oh Mary don’t you weep. Pharoh’s army got drownded, Oh Mary don’t you weep, Oh Mary don’t you weep no more, Oh Mary don’t you weep no more. Pharoh’s army got drownded, Oh Mary don’t you weep.

_______________

The phrase vale of tears (Latin vallis lacrimarum) is a Christian phrase referring to the tribulations of life that Christian doctrine says are left behind only when one leaves the world and enters Heaven. The term “valley of tears” is also used sometimes. (Wikepedia).

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His Lacrimosa (weeping) is part of his Requiem Mass 1792. Was completed by Sysmayr.

Cry Me a River Diana Krall

Now you say you’re lonely
You cry the whole night through
Well, you can cry me a river, cry me a river
I cried a river over you.

Now you say you’re sorry
For being so untrue
Well, you can cry me a river, cry me a river
I cried a river over you

You drove me, nearly drove me out of my head
While you never shed a tear
Remember, I remember all that you said
Told me love was too plebeian
Told me you were through with me

And now you say you love me
Well, just to prove you do
Come on and cry me a river, cry me a river
I cried a river over you

You drove me, nearly drove me out of my head
While you never shed a tear
Remember, I…

16 October 2017

About the Author

I was born in 1944, I lived most of my life in New York City, Queens County. I still commute there. I worked for many years as a Caseworker for New York City Human Resources Administration, dealing with mentally impaired clients, then as a social work Supervisor dealing with homeless PWA’s. I have an apartment in Wheat Ridge, CO. I retired in 2002. I have a few interesting stories to tell. My boyfriend Kevin lives in New York City. I graduated Queens College, CUNY, in 1967.

Posted on

Finding Your Voice, by Louis Brown

I find my voice most clearly at the Monday afternoon sessions of “Telling your Story”. In fact, in an ideal world, we would have generous sponsors who would give us a radio station so that, when we come in, each one of us sits in front of a microphone. Once we have told our stories, Phillip will take calls from the radio audience.

One caller calls and asks what our mission is exactly. Phillip says he has his opinion, and Telling Your Story’s corporate papers have a mission statement, but Phillip says he would like us participants to answer that question, that is those of us who are so inclined. After an hour or so of discussing our mission, the general consensus emerges that our mission is to liberate Gay and Lesbian people from oppression by developing a new mass media that different gay communities can use to communicate with one another. Another important goal is to record how gay and Lesbian people perceive the society in which they are obliged to live. Thirdly, we must develop a political liberation strategy that includes keeping close tabs on the activities of our opponents, i.e. Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council and more recently Mike Pence who, according to Donald Trump, wants to hang all gay and Lesbian people. Jokes like these we can do without.

After a month or two on the air, we get a grant to set up a political newspaper for gay people who live in the Denver area. Maybe such a newspaper already exists. This new publication should promote our gay civic groups and print gay liberation type literature of all kinds.

Other groups also perceive irrational hostility directed toward them. For instance, in the last election, when we had a choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, we did not really have an authentic liberal alternative. Was the public really satisfied with these candidates? Hillary Clinton admires the memory of Barry Goldwater and still admires Henry Kissinger. That makes her clearly a right-winger despite her dubious claim to being a progressive. Barry Goldwater, Henry Kissinger and more recently Donald Rumsfeld all became discredited warmongers. As Gilbert & Sullivan would say, “You can put them on the list, you can put them on the list, and they’ll none of them be missed, they’ll none of them be missed.

Politicians who accept their legitimacy should be discarded by the public. The peaceniks of the 1960’s and their numerous followers in today’s culture need to develop an alternative mass media outlet to counter the current blackout on real political information.

Our gay magazine or newspaper of the future should hook up with one these newspaper enterprises. Perhaps Rolling Stone, something of that ilk. Rolling Stone started up as a new independent alternate culture media tool.

And then of course the Socialists. Bernie Sanders says he is a democratic socialist but who, according to the current media, did not convince a significant number of black people that he was their candidate. I will admit I was waiting for Bernie Sanders to tell black people in a loud public way that, in addition to promoting perpetual war, capitalism promotes racism because it is very profitable. In the early nineteenth century, slavery in Dixieland was very, very profitable. Also, pitting one ethnic group against another is an easy way to break up labor unions. These are basic socialist tenets. Bernie never really developed this in his speeches.

And Bernie Sanders never really expanded on the relationship between capitalism and perpetual war. War is very profitable, and the resulting profits are more important to the war profiteers than the lives of a few million people. Of course the war profiteers eagerly purchase senators and U. S. representatives and Supreme Court Justices. To a large number of people this is all obvious and a truism, but many Americans do not seem to be aware of these purchases of public representatives.

Did you notice the large number of protesters in Hamburg, Germany, during the G-20 Summit? This indicates a large number of people recognize they are locked out of the current status quo, and they need another media outlet to promote their point of view.

Also huge protests occurred when the U. S. started the unjustifiable war in Iraq. The mainstream media made sure they were not covered. Another reason for developing a new independent media.

Thus we see the necessity for developing a new more independent alternative media. In my fantasy, I am one of the CEO’s of this alternate media. I will have found my voice. Wish me a Happy Birthday.

© 23 October 2017

I was born in 1944, I lived most of my life in New York City, Queens County. I still commute there. I worked for many years as a Caseworker for New York City Human Resources Administration, dealing with mentally impaired clients, then as a social work Supervisor dealing with homeless PWA’s. I have an apartment in Wheat Ridge, CO. I retired in 2002. I have a few interesting stories to tell. My boyfriend Kevin lives in New York City. I graduated Queens College, CUNY, in 1967.

Posted on

Deep Blue Sea – Plot Summary, by Louis Brown

Deep Blue Sea is a 1999 science fiction horror film, starring Saffron Burrows, Thomas Jane, LL Cool J, Jacqueline McKenzie, Michael Rapaport, Stellan Skarsgård and Samuel L. Jackson. The film was directed by Renny Harlin and was released in the United States on July 28, 1999.
Cast
Saffron Burrows as Dr. Susan McAlester
Thomas Jane as Carter Blake
Michael Rapaport as Tom Scoggins
Stellan Skarsgård as Jim Whitlock
LL Cool J as Sherman
“Preacher” Dudley
Samuel L. Jackson as Russell Franklin
Synopsis
At Aquatica, a remote former submarine refueling facility converted into a laboratory, a team of scientists searches for a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Fluids [hormones] from the brain tissue of three Mako sharks are harvested. Unknown to the other scientists, Dr. Susan McAlester and her partner Jim Whitlock have violated the code of ethics by genetically engineering the sharks to increase their brain size, they have attempted to achieve their objective, but at the expense of making the sharks smarter, stronger, able to swim backwards and more dangerous.
After one of the sharks escapes and attacks a boat full of teenagers (but fails when shark wrangler Carter stops it), Aquatica’s financial backers send corporate executive Russell Franklin to investigate the facility. To prove that the research is working, the team removes fluid from the brain tissue of the largest shark. While examining it, Jim is attacked by the shark and his arm is bitten off. Brenda Kerns, the tower’s operator, calls a helicopter to evacuate Jim, but as he is being lifted the cable jams and Jim falls into the shark pen. The shark grabs the gurney and pulls the chopper into the tower, killing Brenda Kerns and the pilots. As the others try to figure out what made the explosion, one of the sharks uses Jim’s body as a battering ram to smash an underwater window, flooding the facility and freeing the other sharks. Jim is killed by asphyxiation. Susan confesses to the others that she and Jim genetically altered the sharks.
Susan, Russell, Carter Blake, Janice Higgins and Tom Scoggins make their way to the top of the center. The sharks use this as an opportunity to whittle down their numbers. While delivering a dramatic speech emphasizing the need for group unity, Russell is dragged into the water by the largest shark and killed. While climbing up the industrial elevator, a ladder falls and gets wedged between the walls of the shaft, leaving them dangling over the water and the second shark. Aquatica research assistant, Janice,  loses her grip and falls; despite Carter’s attempts to save her, the shark kills her. The cook, Sherman “Preacher” Dudley, is attacked by the first shark but kills it by throwing a lighter into the kitchen’s oven that had been turned on. He then encounters Carter, Tom, and Susan.
Traumatized by Janice and Russell’s deaths, Tom goes with Carter to the flooded lab to activate controls to open a door to the surface. The largest shark attacks them, killing Tom. Meanwhile, Susan heads into her room to collect her research material, but while there, she is ambushed by the second shark. She narrowly escapes by climbing onto a table and disconnects a nearby power cable, taking off her clothes, and electrocuting the shark in her underwear, destroying her research in the process. Carter, Susan, and Preacher go to the top of the research center through a decompression chamber and swim to the surface. Preacher is caught by the third shark and dragged through the water, but swims to safety after stabbing the shark in the eye with his crucifix, causing it to release him.
Carter realizes that the third shark is trying to escape to the open sea, and that the sharks made them flood the facility so they could escape through the weaker mesh fences at the surface. In an effort to distract the final shark, Susan cuts herself and dives into the water. When she attempts to climb out, the ladder breaks and she is killed by the shark. Carter dives in to try to save her but is too late.
Grabbing hold of the shark’s fin, he is pulled through the water. Preacher grabs hold of the harpoon and shoots the shark through its dorsal fin, but the spear also goes through Carter’s thigh. As the shark breaks through the fence, Carter is attached to the shark by the harpoon. He tells Preacher to connect the trailing wire to a car battery, sending an electric current through the wire and to an explosive charge in the harpoon, killing the shark. Carter managed to free himself in time, and he swims to the wreckage of the facility, joining Preacher in time to see the workers’ boat en-route on the horizon.
© 21 Nov 2017  
About the Author  
I was born in 1944, I lived most of my life in New York City, Queens County. I still commute there. I worked for many years as a Caseworker for New York City Human Resources Administration, dealing with mentally impaired clients, then as a social work Supervisor dealing with homeless PWA’s. I have an apartment in Wheat Ridge, CO. I retired in 2002. I have a few interesting stories to tell. My boyfriend Kevin lives in New York City. I graduated Queens College, CUNY, in 1967.
Posted on

Rolling Thunder, by Louis Brown

(1) Operation Rolling Thunder was the title of a gradual and sustained aerial bombardment campaign conducted by the U.S. 2nd Air Division (later Seventh Air Force), U.S. Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (VNAF) against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) from 2 March 1965 until 2 November 1968, during the Vietnam War.
The four objectives of the operation (which evolved over time) were to boost the sagging morale of the Saigon regime in the Republic of Vietnam, to persuade North Vietnam to cease its support for the communist insurgency in South Vietnam without actually taking any ground forces into communist North Vietnam, to destroy North Vietnam’s transportation system, industrial base, and air defenses, and to halt the flow of men and material into South Vietnam. Attainment of these objectives was made difficult by both the restraints imposed upon the U.S. and its allies by Cold War exigencies and by the military aid and assistance received by North Vietnam from its communist allies, the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and North Korea.
The operation became the most intense air/ground battle waged during the Cold War period; it was the most difficult such campaign fought by the United States since the aerial bombardment of Germany during World War II. Supported by communist allies, North Vietnam fielded a potent mixture of sophisticated air-to-air and surface-to-air weapons that created one of the most effective air defenses ever faced by American military aviators.
“Rolling Thunder” was supposed to have meant in part the righteousness of big rich arrogant USA intimidating 3rd world rice peasants, with 3 ½ years of carpet bombing. Thank God the world said NO!
(2) Amos: 5:23-24: “Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. 24“But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. 25″Did you present Me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel?…
My guess is that many Christians would say that “rolling thunder” suggests that, out of wrath, God will come to earth in a mighty roar and right all moral wrongs. If we imagine ourselves as pious Christians, what would God do to judge the world leaders of today? I suggest:
(a)  Donald Trump will be spared but his Republican colleagues will be overthrown, and, because of their unrighteousness, will be tossed into the trash heap of immoral leaders. Let us judge the many Republicans over the past 60 years, many of whom either left office, were thrown out of office or who died. Their profound immorality should not be forgotten. Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew, Henry Kissinger come to mind.
(b) Vladimir Putin, as Rachel Maddow has pointed out, is a kleptocrat, meaning he is a large-scale thief. Most Russians want him out of office. Let it happen. Also he is a homophobe, let God toss him into the garbage dumpster.
(c)  Tayyip Erdogan, president of Turkey. He became president through voting fraud, religious hypocrisy and violence. Plus he is homophobic. Toss him in the dumpster.
(d)  Emmanuelle Macron of France. His sin is his backward economic theories that take France back to the 19th century. Also he is anti-union. Toss him in the trash bin.
If God performed at least this minimum of moral cleansing, I would instantly convert to Christianity.
 Wikipedia suggests “Rolling Thunder” could refer to Dylan Thomas’ well-publicized Rolling Thunder Revue of 1975. For a few months he travelled around North America promoting his music by giving live conceerts. This would have been a good study. Unlike the misnamed “rolling thunder” of the War in Vietnam, Dylan’s “rolling thunder” included a condemnation of the War in Vietnam and a reclaiming of righteousness for us peaceniks. Joan Baez, Bette Midler and many other famous singers, musical instrumentalists and entertainers got involved in this revue.
­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­________________________
Wikipedia also suggests that “rolling thunder” could refer to a Native American shaman whose name was “Rolling Thunder,” who promoted his earth-oriented religious philosophy including spiritual healing resulting in physical healing for the sick. The shaman also has the gift of prophecy. That would have made a good essay.
CNN recently put out a TV headline that read “Big Democratic victories put pressure on Trump to pass Tax Reform Bill.” If we lived in a rational logical universe, the TV headline would have read “Big Democratic victories put pressure on Trump to ditch, cancel his apocalyptically disastrous Tax Reform Bill.” As low of an opinion I have of the Republicans, nertz to the Democrats too.
© 5 Nov 2017 
About the Author 

I was born in 1944, I lived most of my life in New York City,
Queens County. I still commute there. I worked for many years as a Caseworker
for New York City Human Resources Administration, dealing with mentally
impaired clients, then as a social work Supervisor dealing with homeless PWA’s.
I have an apartment in Wheat Ridge, CO. I retired in 2002. I have a few
interesting stories to tell. My boyfriend Kevin lives in New York City. I
graduated Queens College, CUNY, in 1967.