Born On This Day- November 30th... Gay Ally Elliott Blackstone

Our allies can come from the most unexpected places & change the daily lives of gay people through the dignity that they bring to the work they do.

Sgt. Blackstone was born in Montana on this day in1924. After finishing high school, he served in the Navy during World War II. He joined the San Francisco Police Department in 1949.

Sgt. Blackstone was a pioneer of community-based policing, once remarking that being a cop was like being "a social worker with a badge." In 1962, after the "gayola" scandal involving police demanding payoffs from gay bar owners, he was appointed the first SFPD liaison to the gay community. He was present during a police raid of a gay New Year's ball in 1965, where an officer shoved his wife, assuming she was a drag queen.

Asked why he, as a straight man, took such an active role on behalf of gay & transgender people, Sgt. Blackstone replied, "Because it was the right thing to do."

Blackstone was the 2006 San Francisco Pride Parade Grand Marshal. He also received commendations from the California State Senate, the California State Assembly, & the San Francisco Human Rights Commission.

He says he was just doing his job, although at the time police brass gave him no support.


Elliot Blackstone planted a seed to grow San Francisco into a city that was welcoming & a place that all people are treated equal. He became the first retired officer to receive a commendation from the Police Commission. Blackstone was the first police liaison to the GLBT community in 1962, after a bribery scandal involving gay bars & the police. At that time, the issue for gay rights at the department was different.

Blackstone: "They hated me. They thought it was wrong for a policeman to associate with these faggots, but they needed help, so I helped."


Blackstone worked with what were then called "homophile" organizations, such as the Mattachine Society & the Daughters of Bilitis, to end police entrapment of gay men in public bathrooms. He trained police recruits on how to handle the community by bringing in gays, lesbians & transgender people to talk about their lives.

He helped establish an anti-poverty office in the Tenderloin that employed transsexual workers. When the city was unwilling to pay for hormones for transgender people, Blackstone took up a donation at his church & distributed the drugs for free. He attended gay galas and was the face of the department for the community. He was a pioneer & somebody whose amazing accomplishments have been forgotten for too long.

Blackstone fought against prejudice & stigma at a time when the rights of gays were ignored, & helped to create a ripple of positive change.

Elliot Blackstone died in late October 2006 at the age of 82.

Kerala paintings

As I was producing my series of oil paintings on Kerala, India, I posted some of the larger ones, which I tend to tackle first. Having dealt with the 2 metre and 1 metre jobs I finished with a series of small (for me) paintings (40 x 40 cm). These are almost more of a challenge than the larger canvases because there's nowhere to hide - they are snapshots of my interpretation of the South Indian landscape.
Pleased to say the exhibition which ran from mid-July to mid-September at Francis Kyle Gallery in Mayfair, was a success given the economic climate - all of the larger canvases sold.
Here are the titchy ones:

Claude Monet (Rouen Cathedral)

Author Hermione Cameron is, as I am writing this, walking in bitterly cold weather from London to Monte Carlo to raise funds for the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) in memory of her husband Steve who died recently. A couple of days ago Hermione had reached the city of Rouen in Normandy where she visited the Cathedral.
In the 1890's Monet created a series of thirty paintings of Rouen Cathedral. The series captures the façade of the cathedral at different times of the day and year, and reflects changes in its appearance under different lighting conditions.
Historically, the series was well timed. In the early 1890s, France was seeing a religious revival and the subject was well received. Apart from its religious significance, Rouen Cathedral, built in the Gothic style, represented all that was best in French history and culture, being a style of architecture that was admired and adopted by the rest of Europe during the Middle Ages.
When Monet painted the Rouen Cathedral series, he had long since been impressed with the way light imparts to a subject a distinctly different character at different times of the day and the year, and as atmospheric conditions change. For Monet, the effects of light on a subject became as important as the subject itself. A selection of the Rouen series is shown below.
If you're able to make a donation, however small, to Hermione's fund for the RNLI please go to this link: www.justgiving.com/Hermione-Cameron

Born On This Day- November 26th... Artists & Friend George Segal

"I'm trying to be a human being. I used to idolize artists as demigods, I thought when I was younger that was one of the most magnificent ways a man could spend his life, I still think so, inspite of everything, I don't know why. But gradually it has dawned on me that that art is made by men, not gods or demigods, & ...I'm simply a man speaking to other people."

Straight but not narrow, what a perfect description of a gay rights ally, a casual, approachable man known for his sense of humor, George Segal worked for much of his career in a 300 foot long former chicken coop on his farm near South Brunswick, N.J. He applied Johnson & Johnson cotton bandages dipped in plaster to the faces & forms of family members, friends, neighbors, & friends in the art world. His wife, Helen, whom he married in 1946, was one of his most frequent subject models, having first sat for her husband in the 1940's & 1950's when he was still a painter. They remained together until his death at 76 in 2000.



I am a real fan of the ghostly sculptures that I have viewed in museums & as public art. George Segal was the most important pop sculptor of his time. I the monument he had created in Sheridan Park to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots.


Like so many of Segal's sculptures, Gay Liberation is unassuming, simple plaster casts of ordinary Americans: a pair of women sitting on a park bench & 2 men standing in front, the historic Stonewall Inn in the background. You might not notice anything unusual about the sculpture at first, but if you study it, there is something going on, something that takes a few moments to register: these are casts of gay couples in caring, romantic poses, the embraces of committed relationships, of deep love & companionship. A man firmly holds the shoulder of his lover; a woman has her arm on the lap of her partner, whose hand is resting on hers.

The couples in Gay Liberation are ordinary, designed to depict gay relationships as normal, a revolutionary statement for a mainstream artist when the 1st version of the sculpture was created in 1983. Segal's sculptures have always appeared to me as petrified remains of ancient Romans left in suspended animation after the explosion of Pompeii. Just like the volcanic dust in that ancient Italian city, they give the viewer imprecise, impressionistic figure. Physical gesture is often the main symbolic force in his work, & Gay Liberation is all about touch, & tender embrace.


Segal created sculptures of everyday American scenes & people: Walk, Don't Walk, depicts pedestrians, whitewashed, like a plaster leg cast, waiting to cross a street, & The Diner, with a man ordering a cup of coffee from a waitress, Segal was sort of the Norman Rockwell of pop sculpture for the 2nd half of the 20th century. It seems significant that in 1983 he had already sought to include gays as a part of his vision of the USA.

Gay Liberation brought protest. Segal: "Early on, local residents, mostly aging Italian Catholics, objected furiously to gays moving into their neighborhood, flouting their religious beliefs. I even got a letter threatening to blow up the sculpture when it was installed. Mayor Dinkins finally approved the installation. At the dedication on June 23, 1992, amazed at the lack of religious protest, I asked a local resident, how come? He laughed & said that the older protesters had mostly died; the younger ones were indifferent. But protests started pouring in from gays. What right did I, non-gay, have to make a sculpture on this subject? Why wasn't a black lesbian woman included in the sculpture? Why weren't all the gay groups consulted? The cacophony was shrill, & nowhere was there any mention of freedom of expression or any discussion of delicacy, restraint, regard for fellow human beings, and a long list of values important in my life."


Gay Liberation has had a a bit of a tough life. In 1994, a bunch of frat jocks at Stanford University decided to take out some frustration on an earlier cast of Gay Liberation, which has been installed on the campus since 1984. The vandals, including the championship football team's quarterback & linebacker, were at the center of a national scandal that, ironically, garnered more media attention than any real-life gay-bashing ,short of murder, ever could. The Stanford installation was the first public monument to gays in the USA, & the deeply embarrassed university took the attack seriously. For ramming the sculpture with a park bench & soaking it with paint, the men were prosecuted & sentenced to a year of probation & community service, which the judge suggested ought to include a gay studies class.


Segal: "The statement I tried to make in the sculpture is not a political one. It's rather a human one regarding our common humanity with homosexuals. I'm distressed that disagreement with the statement took this violent, brutal form." In 1987, someone spray-painted "AIDS" on the statue's male couple.


Segal's sculptures of gays, which are on view for the tourists, children & teenagers who visit Greenwich Village & Stanford University each year, are an important contribution to the mainstream works of art & literature that make an extra large affermation to the self esteem of young people who are discovering their sexuality.


Gay Liberation, with its subtly powerful embraces of gay couples, suggests that, rather than the classic stereotypes of loneliness & mental illness that have for too long been falsely associated with being homosexual, a normal, caring relationship with society is within reach. Thank you, George Segal, for your art & your humanity.

Wayne Thiebaud (cityscapes)

In the last of three postings on the paintings of Wayne Thiebaud (cakes, landscapes, & cityscapes) I'm taking a look at some of his cityscapes. Based on San Francisco with its dramatic hills where the roads rise and fall quite precipitously in places, they're a fanciful and exaggerated version of the reality.
For biographical information on Thiebaud see my two previous posts.

Bruno Tonioli Turns 55 On This Thanksgiving Day. I Know That I Am Thankful For Gay Italian Dance Judges.

 From the Give Up Clothes for Good campaign to raise money for cancer research.

For me, Dancing With The Stars (always a show that sought to stretch the very definition of the term- STAR) finally really jumped the shark this season. It was the Bristol factor, for sure. I was not happy to share a night of TV viewing with call-in fans who have no fear of celebrating mediocrity. Her mother has followers that support her because: “She is just a regular person. Sarah Palin is just like us.” Excuse me, but I want my leaders to be the brightest of the bright. I don’t want them to be anything like me. I want them to have studied Constitutional Law at Stanford, Yale, Princeton, or Harvard. I want them to have practical experience on many levels… & I want my finalists of DWTS "Stars" to be terrific dancers.



Bruno Tonioli makes the show really just sing out. His critiques make me laugh, but put out with the Italian accent, they reach a whole new sublime level of wit. He used that wit to beat his childhood bullies.


Toniolo was born in Ferrara, northern Italy, the only child of a poor bus & seamstress who also made car upholstery. The family lived with his paternal grandparents until Bruno was 12.


Toniolo: “Other babies learn to stand & then walk. I just danced. At the age of 3 I would leap on the table & dance if I heard music. It was something I had to do, as if my legs were moving for themselves. We didn’t have a television until I was seven but my father loved Fred Astaire & Gene Kelly. I used to watch Hollywood musicals at the cinema & in the evenings I would go to the ballroom & watch my parents dance.”


He also knew from an early age that he was gay, not so easy in macho Italy during the 1960s. Toniolo:“It was frightening. I really was the only gay in the village. Everyone was football mad but I just wanted to watch musicals & look at art. I was labelled ‘the queenie guy’ & ‘the queer’, which was the worst thing anyone could say in Italy in those days.”


Much of the bullying came from the fact that he studied dance. Toniolo: “The really good-looking girls liked to hang around with me because I always danced really well but this made some of the lads jealous. One night they chased me out of a club with a broken bottle & pinned me up against a wall. I managed to chat my way out of it with a bit of wit “imagination but I was very lucky. I realized then I had to reinvent myself. So I grew my hair, started smoking, always wore the latest gear & had the best looking girls as my friends & I became very popular just by putting on an act. Instead of being an object of derision I became an object of admiration so the bullies couldn’t attack me any more.”


He never discussed his sexuality with his parents: “It was not in the realm of things my parents could compute.” Years later they came to stay with him in London when he was living with partner Paul. They were together for 20 years but he now resides alone in North London.


Toniolo believes they knew: “I never had a girlfriend & there were always men hanging around the house. I don’t think they were ashamed but I do think they were worried about what people would think.”


In 1972, when the film version Cabaret was playing, Toniolo saw it many times & it helped him decided to be a performer. His parents refused to send him drama school, & left for Rome to study ballet, & at 18, he moved to Paris to dance with La Grande Eugene Company. 2 years later he moved to London.


In 1983 he appeared in the pop video for Elton John’s hit I’m Still Standing, dancing in a leotard & hot pants. He went on to become a choreographer & did the dancing for the film Absolute Beginners, a favorite of mine, & for music videos, stage shows, & tours for artists such as Tina Turner, Sting, Elton John, The Rolling Stones, Freddie Mercury, Boy George, Duran Dura, & Bananarama. Film credits: Ella Enchanted, The Gathering Storm, Little Voice, Dancin' thru the Dark, Enigma, The Parole Officer & What a Girl Wants.


You look like a crazy bear lost in a swamp.”


“The cha-cha-cha needs a slut.”


About Apolo Ono & Julianne Huff: “They made love on the dance floor!”


"Do you have extra batteries in your pants?”


“You look like you’re riding a bike.”


“Your rumba was so hot, I need an ice bucket.”


“I want you to be a dirty girl.”


 “I want you to push more on the sex and become more dirty.”


To Drew and Cheryl: “You 2 can ride each other like no other!”


“Kristi Yamalicious tonight!”

To Niecy Nash after shaking her stuff during her jive: "There was so much going on on the upper deck, it was hard to look anywhere else."


To Jake Pavelka after he put his pants back on about 2 seconds into his "Risky Business" cha cha: "Jake, you cheeky bugger! Why did you put your pants on?"


To Kate Gosselin on her uber-low energy during her foxtrot: "Dahling, I think Tony could have more life with a frock on a coat hanger."


Another Gosselin zinger (because one is simply not enough): "What you need is a postmortem, not a critique."


To Nicole Scherzinger after a tango (delivered with unbridled enthusiasm while standing up): "2 players at the top of their game! Riding the fine line between love & hate, bursting with sexual tension!"

Born On This Day- November 25th... John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr

The above photograph, torn from People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive 1998 issue, was on my fridge for half a decade before it tuned yellow & brittle. You see, I really loved him. I loved his father & his uncles. I adored his mother. I admire his sister. I do not believe in Monarchy, unless I end up to be the Monarch, but I was fascinated & drawn to our country's close-to-being-royalty. The entire big brood: Shrivers, Bouviers, Radziwills, Smiths, Lawfords. I like to think that most of them were honorable.

I watched him grow up, & then I watched him grow up. I started tearing out photos of him from magazines.

Back in the 1980s, as I saw it, there was a huge cosmic error that I didn't have John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. as my boyfriend. On that summer day in 11 years ago, his tragic death knocked the wind out me & at first I didn't believe it was true, & then I actually grieved, cried & felt sick.  He was a lawyer, a publisher & I pilot. He would have been 50 years old today. Can you even conceive of how hot he still would have been? Can you imagine what he might have achieved?

My Screen Goes Dark

I love reading other blogs & getting to know interesting, opinionated people from around the world. Even a decade ago, I never would have imagined a world like the one we live in today. We are all so connected & yet so hostile to anyone who is seen as different. Despite all the knowledge at our fingertips, we continue to live on a planet torn apart by religious fanaticism, fellow humans killing each other, passing laws & attempting to make life miserable for those that they find contrary.

I write these words as I agonize over the fact that my beloved laptop is dying. When I open the applications, the screen is often to0 dark to read or see the cursor. My 6 year old Dell XPS M1210 will finally open with a clear view about every 15th try. I tried not turning it off, but it will sometimes go dark while I am using it.

The Resume Photo Of Your Host a 25 Years Ago.

Composing & posting on Post Apocalyptic Bohemian gives me clarity, helps me work out my priorities & just plain makes me happy. That anyone reads it seems like a little miracle to me. I may soon loose the amazing device that opens the world to me. This scares & confuses your bohemian host. If I loose you for a while, dear readers, it is not by choice, I am not ignoring you, & I will miss reading you & I will miss you checking in on me. A new computer seems close to impossible at the moment, but I am always up for a miracle. They have touched me before.

Thankful

My tea's gone cold, I'm wondering why

I got out of bed at all

The morning rain clouds up my window

& I can't see at all

& even if I could it'd all be grey,

but your picture on my wall

It reminds me that it's not so bad,

it's not so bad

I drank too much last night, got bills to pay,

my head just feels in pain

I missed the bus & there'll be hell today,

I'm late for work again

& even if I'm there, they'll all imply

that I might not last the day

& then you call me & it's not so bad,

it's not so bad &

I want to thank you

for giving me the best day of my life

Oh just to be with you

is having the best day of my life

Push the door, I'm home at last

& I'm soaking through and through

Then you hand me a towel

& all I see is you

& even if my house falls down,

I wouldn't have a clue

Because you're near me &

I want to thank you

for giving me the best day of my life

Oh just to be with you

is having the best day of my life

Dido

 2001

Born On This Day- November 23rd... Bruce Vilanch

Large, Jewish, hairy & very funny, Bruce Vilanch has rarely been seen in public wearing anything more formal than blue jeans and one of his many smartass T-shirts. His own website calls himself- "the man who put F U in funny."

 

Vilanch's career as the man who writes funny things for funny people to say began when he was writing celebrity features for The Chicago Tribune, & schmoozing with whatever celebrities or semi-celebrities were in town. It was there that he met then-struggling nightclub singer Bette Midler, & the pair became fast friends. It was Vilanch who gave Midler some helpful career advice: "You’re pretty funny. You should talk more onstage". He wrote for Midler's 1974 Broadway show, Clams on the Half Shell, then moved to Los Angeles to write for The Brady Bunch Variety Hour. When that show ended, Vilanch wrote jokes for anyone who'd hire him, including Lily Tomlin, Billy Crystal, Roseanne Barr, Rosie O'Donnell, Paul Reiser, Elizabeth Taylor, & Robin Williams. He wrote Midler's Divine Madness act of 1980 & has been the Oscar Broadcast head writer, pulling off quips backstage, on the fly. Vilanch is a notable “script doctor”, who is brought in to punch up other writer’s screenplays. A prolific comedy writer, his resume includes classics like The Paul Lynde Halloween Special, The Star Wars Holiday Special & The Brady Bunch Hour, plus numerous awards shows, including several Emmy winning gigs with the Oscars.


He was head writer & a panelist on Hollywood Squares for 4 years, writing gags for the other panelists while his friend & client Whoopi Goldberg ran the show. Vilanch has also toured as Edna Turnblad in stage productions of Hairspray, shaving off his trademark 30 year old beard. A 1999 documentary, Get Bruce, chronicled Vilanch's day to day life. He has the amazing distinction of having acted in Mahogany & Ice Pirates. Vilanch works tirelessly for gay rights.