This guy knows how to strike a pose while wearing a kilt. What do you think about this week’s photo?
Monday morning mancandy
May this morning’s post distract you from the fact that it is a Monday morning.
Halloween in Provincetown
Halloween in Provincetown a.k.a. “Spooky Bear” can be an amazing experience. It combines the theatrics and creativity you only find in LGBTQ enclaves in major cities like NYC and Los Angeles with small town charm and quirkiness. I don’t know if there is another small town in America (Ptown has < 3,000 year round residents) that can compete.
Unfortunately, the pandemic will inevitably blunt the experience for anyone planning to visit next weekend. All large-scale events and traditional parties hosted each year have been cancelled. If you’ve not heard, many businesses closed prematurely for the season (including huge venues like the Crown & Anchor) and several businesses are going out of business (I will miss Bodybody and their post season sales terribly).
The Provincetown Guild has a complete list of businesses that remain open through Halloween weekend, and I recommend you check this out if you’ve yet to make plans but are contemplating spending next weekend in Ptown.
Oh yeah, and as a sidenote, MaineStreet in Ogunquit has closed for the season. Can we all agree that 2020 really stinks and we need someone who can end this f*cking pandemic!
Scruffy Sunday
Hey Lex, it’s time to wake up. Rise and shine.
Saturday morning coffee
This week’s post is for all of you who like to have your coffee with a washboard stomach.
Saturday morning comics
ADAM & ANDY is set in the fictional New England town of Woodfield, CT. You can learn more about Adam and Andy and purchase a copy of “the definitive collection of Adam and Andy” by visiting, adamandandy.com.
Click on this week’s comic strip to enlarge
Click here if you would like to see the previous Adam & Andy
HBO Max’s: Equal
HBO Max’s new docudrama Equal premieres tonight and sets out to tell the story of LGBTQ+ liberation in America; a rich, volatile, and ongoing struggle full of victories, defeats, and a great many heroes that until recently were intentionally erased from history.
“In 1952, admitting to being gay would get you 15 years in jail“
Perhaps people take for granted their history, associating it with boring classroom lectures (“Bueller… Bueller… Bueller”, but I digress). However, if your history was taken from you or erased as is the case with many LGBTQ+ people then you are a group without an identity.
It is from the past that we learn, so by removing stories like the 1966 uprising at Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco or learning about the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis and trailblazers like Bayard Rustin and José Sarria we are left with a poorer understanding of the LGBTQ+ community.
Erasing the history of the LGBTQ+ (or any minority) community is quite insidious. It makes it harder for the larger population to accept you because without a history there is no point of reference, no legacy, no lessons learned – in short no progress. So it is important for the LGBTQ+ community to know and share their history. It helps the next generation realize they are not alone, kills the isolation that drives people into the closet and hopefully changes the perception of others who don’t identify or know of people in the LGBTQ+ community.
Check out Equal which is available today, October 22nd, on HBO Max.
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Early voting at Fenway Park
I have voted in every Presidential election since I’ve turned 18 years old but this year I participated in early voting for the first time. I have to compliment Mayor Marty Walsh, The Boston Red Sox and all the volunteers at Fenway Park for how they managed early voting last weekend. According to Boston’s public radio station, WBUR-FM, 4,000 people voted there.
I wanted to vote early and the opportunity to do this at Fenway Park was just too tempting. Early voting was available at Fenway Park last Saturday and Sunday and turnout was through the roof. When I arrived at Fenway Park just prior to the polls opening, the line nearly wrapped around the entire ballpark. I was unsure what to expect and was pleasantly surprised that I was able to vote in less than 1 hour despite the hundreds of people queuing.
My compliments to Mayor Marty Walsh, The Red Sox organiztion and volunteers who made voting at Fenway Park so easy and accommodating.
There is a common saying in Boston that “Fenway is where I pray”, and I did although this time my prayers were not focused on the Red Sox. My prayer went something like this, “I hope Donald Trump loses by historic proportions and the Republican party loses seats in the US House of Representatives as well as their control of the US Senate. Lastly, I prayed Americans will not look away after November 3rd and will remain engaged to hold our politicians accountable for their actions, because elections matter.“
For more information about early voting in Massachusetts, which runs from October 17 through October 30th visit my earlier post, Early voting in MA starts October 17, 2020.
Make sure you speak to your friends and family and remind them to vote.
Vintage gay
I dedicate this weekly post, featuring vintage gay photographs, to the men and women who lived in a more critical time where being true to yourself and loving who you want wasn’t always an option and came at a great price. Do you have a photo you would like to share? Email me at bosguymail@gmail.com.
This week on Instagram: jamiemalcolmbrown
Jamie Malcolm Brown is a drone and landscape photographer in Western Mass who takes amazing photos like the one shown above from Amherst, MA. If you like what you see here and on his Instagram account (link provided below), you can order prints.
As you might imagine, this account is filled with spectacular photos. The changing fall colors of New England are eye-popping when shot from his drone and make for a delightful distraction in my Instagram feed.
You can follow this week’s featured account on Instagram here, and you can check out previously featured IG accounts here.
Caption this photo
Hopefully the caption I’ve shared below inspires you to offer up a caption or two of your own. Leave a witty or funny caption as a comment for this post, and I’ll approve it for readers to enjoy.
I know I’ve shared this before but I recently stumbled upon the photo and thought it worthy of a repost.
“Now I can see it”
Book review: The Girl in the Boston Box by Chuck Latovich
I just finished reading local author, Chuck Latovich, debut novel, The Girl in the Boston Box. The 400+ page book published in Cambridge by Way We Live Publishers tells the story of two people living in Boston and Cambridge. One is a down-and-out gay man (Mark) who is estranged from his family and wallowing in self-pity after a break up and the other is a young woman (Caitlyn) studying architecture history at Harvard, who is intrigued by a rumor that some nineteenth century Boston architects may have built hidden rooms in homes of wealthy Bostonians called a “Boston Box”. Initially thinking these were part of the Underground Railroad, her research points to a far more salacious and disturbing reason for these hidden spaces. Mark and Caitlyn’s path ultimately cross as the result of a murder and an unexpected connection between the two and the victim.
This is an enjoayble read filled with short, punchy chapters that kept me reading late into the night. Murder mystery and detective literature fans will enjoy the twists and turns of this well written story. I loved how Latovich used Boston and Cambridge as the backdrop with much of the story taking place in the South End, Fenway and Harvard Square neighborhoods.
This book can be purchased online at Amazon but you can also check with your local bookstore to see if they will order you a copy.
Temptation Tuesday
It has been quite a while since I’ve featured the Instagram couple, Justin and Nick. I don’t know much about them other than the fact that they love to take photos like this and post them on their Instagram account, which is probably why they have so many followers.
