I went to my junior prom with my friend John, who was gay. He was a year older than me and we were good friends and I needed a date, so I asked him. I think I probably knew deep down that he was gay, but hoped he wasn’t. He was so cute!
Back in the early 80s, nobody was out in high school. I had lots of male friends from choir, marching band, church and plays who later came out as gay. Thinking back, John, Jonathan, Adam, Benji, Jamie and Tommy made high school way more fun. One thing they all had in common was their ability to talk to girls. There was no awkwardness. We had so much fun and so many laughs.
I remember going into Newbury Street (Boston’s fanciest shopping street) with John and pretending we were very rich kids (like the Trumps or the Hiltons) and acting like we were about to hop into all the high-end cars. Then we would use our pathetic fake IDs to get served frozen strawberry margaritas at TGI Friday’s. I remember sitting with Jamie & Adam at the local ice cream stand blasting Bruce Springsteen and singing along. Adam was an incredible singer and always got a lead role in the musicals. John was also a fantastic dancer. We had a ton of fun dancing to 80s pop hits. We all liked to dress up and go to screenings of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” in Boston. We’d dance The Time Warp in front of the screen and throw toast at the appropriate line. Benji and I played a husband and wife (Mr. and Mrs. Squires) in The Music Man and we had a lot of fun with it. We named one of our diminutive fellow cast members “Billy” and pretended he was our son throughout the show. Billy Squires—get it? (It was an 80s thing.) Tommy was less flamboyant. He was from a large Catholic family and took church very seriously. He wanted to become a priest.
These guys were some of my best pals in high school, but there was a bit of a necessary separation after graduation. I’m sure their journeys to being who they really were wasn’t easy. Benji died in some sort of unexplained accident shortly after graduation and we all saw each other at his funeral. It was awful. Sadly, I heard that Jamie died of AIDS in the later 80s.
I reconnected with Jonathan at our 20th high school reunion and went to visit him in Chicago. I still see Adam and Tommy on Facebook and they are both married to wonderful men and doing well.
Fortunately, my romantic crush on John was short-lived. I think he tried to like me back, but it quickly became apparent that making out was just not working for us. I have no idea where he is now, but I do hope he’s alive and well and still dancing. God he was a good dancer.
OK, we have now seen all ten of the Best Picture nominees, so I’m updating my original post (in bold) below.
Because we are old (kids grown) and have plenty of time, my husband and I try to see all the Best Picture nominees before the Academy Awards broadcast in March. Here are my quick (very unprofessional) reviews.
ANORA – I thought it was just OK. My husband liked the film more than me. The last few scenes really make the film, but it takes too long to get to them in my opinion. I do not think it’s Best Picture material, but Mikey Madison (nominated for Best Actress) does give a terrific performance as a feisty New York sex worker. (We absolutely loved her in the Hulu series “Better Things” with Pamela Adlon. Go watch her in that.)
A COMPLETE UNKNOWN – I really liked it! I thought Ed Norton and Timothée Chalamet were fantastic as Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan. I have always liked folk music, so the history of the social justice grounding of the movement was interesting to me. My husband, who is more of a punk/hardcore guy, thought it was a bit boring and melodramatic.
THE BRUTALIST – Really good. It’s actually worth sitting in a movie theater for 3.5 hours to see this epic film. (There is an intermission to get up and stretch your legs.) Adrian Brody is fantastic. It’s a think piece. And worth seeing on the big screen for the Carrera (Italy) scenes alone. It will give you something to talk about at dinner. Brutalist style architecture is currently on Trump’s enemies list, so it’s au courant as well. If The Brutalist wins Best Picture, I’ll be OK with it.
CONCLAVE – I already posted about this film. We both liked it. Ralph Fiennes is terrific as the Head Cardinal in charge of overseeing the weird, secretive process the Catholic Church uses to pick a new pope. The scenes of Rome at night and the interior of the Vatican were my favorite parts. Isabella Rossellini plays a woman with the no real power (it’s the Catholic Church after all) but she plays her small part convincingly. I don’t really think it should win Best Picture, but who knows…
DUNE: PART TWO – Neither of us liked it. It’s long and boring and not our genre. In my opinion this movie is for younger people. All effects, no heart.
EMILIA PÉREZ – Really good! And so unusual. My husband said it was the only musical he’s ever truly liked. They don’t burst into big voice belting, but just kind of quietly sing/talk at key moments. It’s very effective. I actually wish we’d seen it on a big screen rather than on TV. There are a lot of dark scenes in Mexico City that would’ve been cool to see in a big dark theater. Women play all the major roles, so it passes the Bechdel Test with flying colors. I’m definitely OK with this one winning Best Picture. I heard there’s been a major controversy with one of the stars and her very bad recent tweets, but I don’t know the details.
I’M STILL HERE – This film was hard to find. We finally saw it in an AMC theater some distance from our house. If you haven’t heard, it’s Brazilian, so you have to read subtitles the entire time (unless you happen to speak Portuguese). It’s a true story based on a family whose father/husband gets “disappeared” (aka abducted and likely killed) during a time of military dictatorship in Brazil in the 1970s. Honestly, it cuts a little too close to the bone given our country’s current flirtation with dictatorship. It’s a slippery slope from granting presidential immunity and failing to enforce existing laws, to unjustified imprisonments, torture and unmarked mass graves. History repeats itself.
NICKEL BOYS – Very artsy film about a very tough subject. It’s mostly shot “as if” you are sitting in the eyeballs of the main characters—two Black boys in an abusive Florida reform school in the Jim Crow south. I have had bouts of vertigo in the past so I have a hard time watching films with jumpy camera shots, especially when they invert or spin. I had to close my eyes a lot in this one. I’m glad I saw it, but can’t say I actually enjoyed it.
THE SUBSTANCE – This is a horror movie people! Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley are fantastic, but I had to close my eyes a LOT. It’s “body horror” so a lot of gross stuff happens. If you’re OK with that, it’s worth seeing. There are a whole lot of women (including some I know and love) who put tremendous effort and money into defying nature with Botox and fillers, crazy face and body treatments, and actual scalpel surgeries. It’s a window into this mentality that goes completely off the rails as the movie progresses. Not Best Picture material, but worth streaming. (Also, tidbit for GenXers: Margaret Qualley is Andy McDowell’s daughter! She’s gorgeous like her mom, but in a completely different way.)
WICKED – I’ve already posted about Wicked. I loved it! It probably won’t win Best Picture because it was a huge blockbuster, but it probably should because it brought so much enjoyment, just like Barbie did last year. As previously mentioned, my husband doesn’t like musicals and even he said Wicked was “good.” From the moment Ariana Grande dropped down into Oz (a land of gingers) in a pink soap bubble carriage, I was all in.
Boston City Hall is the most well-known example of Brutalist architecture in Massachusetts.
And the winner is: The Brutalist – it’s a tour de force in filmmaking (made with a relatively tiny budget). I’ll see if I’m right on March 2. What are other people thinking? What have you liked?
I just read an article about Trump’s 27-year old mouthpiece Karoline Leavitt. I was surprised to learn she’s from nearby New Hampshire. (I guess I thought she’d be a Tri-Delt from ‘Bama.)
She recently had a baby and immediately returned to work, which is fine. But this fact led me to do a bit of a deep dive on her husband. Turns out he’s a 59-year old real estate mogul.
I’m sorry, but that gives me the icks. A 32-year age difference in your twenties is too much. If my daughter had a baby with a man in his sixties, I’d want my husband to punch him.
Even grosser, 72-year old Bill Belichick is dating a 23-year old. He could be her grandfather. 🤮
And while I’m at it, I read that Elon Musk’s father Errol Musk has fathered two children with his own stepdaughter. (A mere 20-year age difference between them, but still 🤮🤮)
I’ve read that “half your age plus 7” will avoid making people cringe. (So, a 60-year old could date a 37-year old.) By that rule, even if Bill Belichick lives to 100, it would not be OK for him to date a woman 49 years younger than him.
Dear Leader is 78. Melania is 54. So I guess they’ve reached the point of respectability now, but when they met he was 52 and she was 28. Borderline.
Another airplane accident yesterday, after Trump and Musk fired a bunch of critical FAA employees.
A doctor friend of mine posting this message on Facebook, after depraved anti-vax freak RFK, Jr was confirmed as Secretary of Health & Human Services:
We are so fucked. For my non-medical friends you deserve to know that so many of my physician friends are planning to leave the US, or leave clinical medicine rather than practice medicine with no research, no humanity, no respect for science, and what seems to be a deliberate attempt to make our country less healthy. This person is responsible for the deaths of children, not to mention him being a generally insane creep. Measles outbreak in Texas, TB outbreak in Kansas. Who knows what’s up with bird flu since the CDC is gagged. But sure, let’s “move away” from focusing on infectious disease.
And I don’t trust them with my money either. I downloaded my social security statement yesterday from SSA.Gov, even though I’m not collecting social security yet. Who knows what Musk and his merry band of teenage tech nerds are going to change in our accounts.
I’m not going to argue that there is no waste in the federal government (there definitely is), but I am absolutely certain that this “administration” is not motivated by a desire to protect and serve the American people. They do not care if we are safe and healthy. They are the opposite of public servants. Every single thing they do is a form of self-dealing.
On my recent trip to Key West, I ate key lime pie five times. One night, I was too full for dessert and on the last night, I succumbed to the siren call of a chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream. But every other night I felt a certain obligation to try a different version of the island’s signature dessert.
Salute! (Same owners and same “mile high” key lime pie that is served at the famous Blue Heaven restaurant)
Limes & Pies (Duval Street)
And the winner is: Red Shoe Island Bistro
The entire meal was so good, it’s no surprise their pie was perfect. It also happened to be my husband’s birthday, so the delicious pie was on the house.
And the loser is: Salute! (Blue Heaven)
The “mile high” key lime pie is basically regular key lime pie with a ton of meringue piled on top. It just doesn’t work well. It looks cool, but the meringue does nothing to enhance the flavor of the pie. Any of the many grab-and-go key lime bakeries (Kermit’s, Limes & Pies, etc) are better than “mile high” in my opinion.
There is one bakery I really wanted to try for pie, but they close early. It’s possible that Old Towne Bakery could’ve been the winner. We met the founder (and recipe developer) at his satellite location and really loved his pastries. He’s a Boston expat and professional baker who relocated to Key West years ago.
Today my baby girl turns 30 and I am verklempt 🥺. When I turned thirty, I had the cutest little 4-month old baby girl. And now history is repeating itself and my daughter has the sweetest little 4-month old baby girl. It’s a joy and a blessing almost too poignant for words. It’s like once you have a child of your own, you finally understand how much your mother loves you.
Joni Mitchell’s song The Circle Game keeps playing in my head and bringing a tear.
Yesterday a child came out to wonder Caught a dragonfly inside a jar Fearful when the sky was full of thunder And tearful at the falling of a star
Then the child moved ten times round the seasons Skated over ten clear frozen streams Words like when you’re older must appease him And promises of someday make his dreams
And the seasons they go round and round And the painted ponies go up and down We’re captive on the carousel of time We can’t return we can only look Behind from where we came And go round and round and round In the circle game
Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now Cartwheels turn to car wheels thru the town And they tell him take your time it won’t be long now Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down
And the seasons they go round and round And the painted ponies go up and down We’re captive on the carousel of time We can’t return we can only look Behind from where we came And go round and round and round In the circle game
So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true There’ll be new dreams maybe better dreams and plenty Before the last revolving year is through
And the seasons they go round and round And the painted ponies go up and down We’re captive on the carousel of time We can’t return we can only look Behind from where we came And go round and round and round In the circle game
I really do not want to leave Key West and go back to the cold and snow tomorrow. We’ve had fantastic Caribbean weather this whole week. It’s been gorgeous – day and night.
Hand-painted sign on a cute little Key West house Only 90 miles to Cuba
On the bright side, I get to see my granddaughter this weekend.
The main attraction in Ernest Hemingway’s Key West home (now a museum) is the cats. 59 of them! About half have six or more toes (polydactyls).
The story goes that a Massachusetts boat captain sailed into Key West with a white six-toed cat named Snowball. Hemingway became enamored with the cat, so when she had kittens, Captain Dexter of Massachusetts gave one to Hemingway for his sons. They named the kitten Snow White.
Hemingways is quoted as saying, “One cat just leads to another.”
The museum staff includes many world class cat ladies (and gentlemen) who love taking care of them and even sleep over in the museum with them during hurricanes.
“Papa”
My husband on the veranda of Hemingway’s Key West home
Picking up the cats is not allowed, but you can pet them
I’m not even going to pretend to be a big Hemingway fan. I vaguely remember being forced to read “Old Man and the Sea.” I’m sure he was a great writer and all, but he did have four different wives (he divorced three of them). He also collected antique birthing and midwife chairs, which seems odd (and a bit creepy) for a man.
Birthing chair at the foot of the bed in the Hemingway’s bedroom
During the American Civil War, Key West remained under Union control despite Florida joining the Confederacy. Its strategic deep-water port and existing naval base made it a crucial Union stronghold for blockading Confederate shipping in the Gulf of Mexico. Apparently some Key West residents didn’t like that and left the island permanently. (Good riddance assholes!)
Today, there is a big and thriving LGBTQ 🏳️🌈 community here. Along with all the artists, this makes for little to no open MAGA support. I have not seen one Trump hat or shirt on anyone. It’s great. There are also no Trump lawn signs or boats flying the obnoxious flag.
There is just one seedy store on Duval street, that carries the offensive paraphernalia. And because I am a leftist Boston MASShole, I had to stop and Flip the Bird to this particular retailer.
Other than this one tacky store, the coast is clear for MAGA haters to come to Key West.
Not so much for Kansas City fans though…I’ve only seen Eagles shirts. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say Key West is rooting strongly for Philly in the Superbowl.
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