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I was already planning on a trip to Micheal's today when I opened my daily astrology email and found this:

"The day belongs to you, STEVE, and you will probably be proud of yourself today. If you have been trying to focus on a creative project for some time, it will most likely be very easy. The people close to you will be very interested in what you are trying to accomplish and will give you all the space you need to attain this goal. This will be a very satisfactory day for you!"

I guess that I now have no choice. To paraphrase a couple of movie priests from the 70's, "The power of Crafts compels you!"

When I got cable a few months back, I did so with the understanding that I would be strong enough to know when to pull the plug on it if it became necessary to do so.  Last week, I came to the conclusion that that time had come. When I get depressed, I channel-flip. I will sit on the sofa and spend too much time flipping along the dial without stopping for very long on any one channel.

Today, I had them take out the cable. it feels odd, but it feels good as well. I'm not without entertainment. I have Netflix and I'll get a Roku for streaming sometime next month. I have two box sets SF and Horror DVDs, each with fifty flicks in it, that I bought on the cheap when Borders was cllosing. Lots of cool schlock, Love that stuff.

I'm glad that I tried cable again and I'm also glad that I could walk away from it.

By the way, today's movie was Antarctica, an LGBT themed film from Israel. I highly recommend it.

In most cases, love is not a romantic comedy. Stop playing games and just tell them how you feel. Good or bad, you've said your piece.

Lief, Evelyn. "Every Fourth House." Generation New York: Dell Publishing Company, Inc., 1972

Edited by David Gerrold

Even in more evolved times, a television can be a sanctuary from the world.

Rechy, John, "Love In the Backrooms." Men On Men 4, Best New Gay Fiction New York: Plume,1992

Edited by George Stambolian

In the foggy place that is my past, I can't remember if Armistead Maupin or John Rechy was the first openly gay author that I encountered, but it was The Sexual Outlaw, written by the latter, that helped me in the early days of coming out, back in the late 70's. By accident, I left a copy of the book laying behind the counter of the fast food place that I worked. One of my coworkers picked it up and asked whose it was. I fessed up that it was mine. He thumbed through it for a minute or two, then dropped it like it had been burned. He asked if that meant that I was gay. For the first time that I can to this day remember, I said "yes." He gave me grief for a couple of days, then dropped the subject.

Published in 1977 by Dell, a mainstream publisher, The Sexual Outlaw is a book about casual gay sex in public places and the thrills and the dangers that came with it. It was graphic and very, very real. For a gay kid on the cusp of his 20's, this was an incredible thing to read. The story in this post  begins in 1992. The narrator is looking back to the times of Outlaw. "In this time, of daily dying and grieving, there are memories that emerge constantly of a former time, memories of intimate strangers glimpsed only briefly, most often within shadows." Times had changed and this was Rechy's acknowledgement of that change.

Sontup, Dan. "One-Armed Bandit." I Am Curious (Bloody). New York: Dell Publishing Company, Inc., 1971

The listed editor is Alfred Hitchcock, but his name and image were licensed for this and many other collections. The editing was likely done in-house. That said, any one of the books in this series offers a very good selection of both contemporary and classic mysteries. Even the collections done under his name for children, Haunted Houseful and Monster Museum for instance, were without a doubt the best of their kind at the time of their release.

As to the story itself, it deals with, yes, a one-armed bandit and just another day at the "office." Oh, and he also learns a valuable lesson about assumptions.

One more thing about the book. At the time of its publication. the title was a parody of a very controversial movie of the time, I Am Curious (Yellow). Go ahead. Look it up. Get it on Netflix. It's still out there.

Nobody's perfect.

Seriously.

Let me repeat that.

Nobody is perfect.

Coward, Noel. "The Wooden Madonna." The Collected Stories of Noel Coward. New York: E. P. Dutton, Inc, 1983

No editor listed.

Young Aubrey, out of shear luck, is on the path to become a very successful playwright. The problem seems to be that eh only had one good play in him. His sister send on a tip to through Europe to observe people in the hope that he will become inspired. He finds that to be the case. Then he meets Mr. Edmundson...