I’d wake up early to make this guy a pot of coffee.
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Saturday morning coffee
Saturday morning comics
This week’s Saturday Morning Comics includes an update from Casey At The Bat which had been on a bit of a hiatus but published a sweet holiday comic last week, which I wanted to share with you. If you forgot where Casey At The Bat left off last you can see the previous comic here.
CASEY AT THE BAT is a comic strip follows the adventures of a young, gay man [Casey] and his friends in life, love and sports! You can learn more about Casey by visiting, caseyatb.com.
Click on this week’s comic to enlarge
BosGuy reviews G2O Spa & Salon
G2O Spa and Salon on Newbury Street in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood has been operating (initially under the name Giuliano Spa) since 1994, and it has been at its current location (278 Newbury Street) since 2010.
The full service spa offers all the traditional services you would associate with a spa and salon as well as several unique treatments you won’t find at other spas in Boston but for this post I want to focus on my 1-hour full body massage.
I will start with my only criticism of the entire spa experience – the somewhat chaotic surroundings on their ground floor where you first enter and pay before leaving. Fortunately once you leave the ground floor all the noise and chaos goes away. The facilities are excellent and I especially appreciate their spacious men’s locker, which have private showers (which I used after my massage).
My masseur Bill Engvall met me as I came out of the men’s locker room and brought me down to the third floor. After a quick consultation, he left the room so I could slip off my G20 robe and sandals and get onto the heated bed. I had mentioned to Bill I spend a lot of time hunched over my laptop at a desk job so he focused on my neck and lower back.
I feel like every masseur has their own technique but I evaluate a massage based on how attentive they are to areas that need attention and ultimately how refreshed / relaxed I feel after the massage concludes. Bill did a great job and while I was showering off the massage oils, I noticed a marked improvement with my arms and shoulders flexibility. Even better I slept deeply and woke up uncharacteristically refreshed and less grumpy than usual.
A 60-minute massage at G2O starts at $125 and a 90-minute massage starts at $175 and while this may not be something you can do regularly, it is a wonderful treat especially in the winter when the air is so dry and it is so cold out.
BosGuy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars, Awesome.
G2O Spa & Salon
(617) 262-2220
278 Newbury Street (thru the end of 2017)
NOTE: In January G2O will leave 278 Newbury Street and expand into space above the Tannery on Exeter Street. One assumes the new space will be even nicer. I look forward to visiting it in the new year and sharing an updated review.
Other Spa Reviews
Miniluxe 60-minute pedicure a.k.a. “foot facial”
étant 30-minute aromatherapy hand & foot massage
bliss spa Boston 75-minute massage a.k.a. “blissage”
Cabral Wellness Institute massage
étant 60-minuteSwedish massage
Furry Friday
This is a Furry Friday selfie at its best. Have a happy and safe holiday weekend.
What to do this weekend
It is the final weekend of 2017 and there are a ridiculous number of parties and events happening. I’ve only captured a fraction of what is happening in Boston, Providence, Provincetown and Ogunquit below for you.
If you’re up in Ogunquit be sure to check out Mainestreet’s NYE party Fire & Ice, in Provincetown A-House will be packed for New Year’s Eve celebration, in Providence check out EGOs NYE Block Party and in Boston while there are a lot of choices the largest party will be Chris Harris Presents New Year’s Eve Party at Paradise open til 4AM.
Boston’s largest NYE Party will be at Paradise
First Light celebrations start Friday morning and conclude with free fireworks on the beach on Monday, January 1 in Provincetown
Queer Inclusive Climbing Klub (QuICK) Pizza night and climbing club at Brooklyn Boulders in Somerville
Illusions Holiday Show is at The Crown & Anchor on Friday in Provincetown
Casual Fridays is a weekly dance party with no cover featuring DJ Begbick at the Alley Bar in DTX
New Year’s weeeknd in Provincetown has a bunch of parties to check out
NYE Weekend at Shipwreck Lounge invites you to join them Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Provincetown
Well Strung: Home for the Holidays perform on Saturday at Town Hall in Provincetown
Miss Richfield: Fall on your knees is Saturday at 7PM at the Sage Inn in Provincetown
New Year’s Eve Eve is a party hosted at the Oberon on Saturday starting at 9PM in Cambridge
Dont Ask Dont Tell: Luminous ft. Leah V & Dirty Charity is at Great Scott this Saturday in Allston
Grunt is a weekly dance party with no cover for burly men and their admirers, starting at 10PM at the Alley Bar in DTX
Saga Saturdays Boston’s biggest gay dance party at Paradise in Cambridge
The Donkey Show: NYE Ed. join the cast for the final performance of 2017 and ring in 2018 to your favorite Studio 54 music at the Oberon in Cambridge
The biggest party in Providence is at Club EGO with special guest AJA
EGOs NYE Block Party starts at 9PM and will take over Richmond Street (w/ heated tents) and a special performance by RPDR, AJA in Providence
NYE: Farwell to 2017 is at dbar on Sunday starting at 11PM in Dorchester
The Alley’s NYE Bash will have DJ Steve Marsden playing all your favorite music on Sunday in Boston
New Year’s Eve celebration at the A-House in Provincetown
Fire & Ice is Mainestreet’s New Year’s Eve bash in Ogunquit
Chris Harris Presents New Years Eve is Boston’s largest LGBTQ dance party at Paradise (open til 4AM) in Cambridge
Send me information about your upcoming programs and events in my blog’s comment section or message me the details on Facebook.
Under attack in 2017: LGBTQ organizations see increase in donations
This past year many in the LGBTQ community have felt under attack. GLAAD details many direct and indirect things that President Trump has done and said over the past year here; a few highlights include:
- Minutes after being sworn into office, any mention of the LGBTQ community were erased from White House, Department of State, and Department of Labor websites.
- This past summer President Trump bans transgender service members from serving in “any capacity” in the U.S. military, threatening to fire 15,000 currently serving troops over Twitter.
- This fall Trump becomes the first sitting president to speak at the Family Reseach Council’s Values Voter Summit, a convening of fringe groups united around discrimination against LGBTQ people.
Couple these with the 50+ actions and comments highlighted on the GLAAD page with the fact that hate groups like Neo Nazis and the KKK have been provided a platform, that they regularly use to thank President Trump and it isn’t a surprise that many in our community are upset.
Clinton’s abysmal loss came as a shock to our community and after coming to terms with the election results it appears that many of you are once again opening your wallets to resist. An annual analysis of LGBTQ movement by the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) finds revenue and individual contributions for LGBTQ organizations are on the rise again. You can read MAPs key findings press release here and download their report here.
Vintage gay
This picture is from the Instagram account @LGBT_History and shows Milt & Chris celebrating Christmas in 1954. I love this photo of these two guys (and their little kitty on Chris’ lap).
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.
Words to live by in 2018 from Alexander Woollcott
“All the Things I Really Like to Do Are Either Illegal, Immoral, or Fattening.”
Alexander Humphreys Woollcott was an American critic and commentator for The New Yorker magazine and a member of the Algonquin Round Table. I had never heard of him until I stumbled upon a brief post with the quote above on The Wow Report.
I am dying to use this at a cocktail party so please don’t steal my thunder if you see me out. That goes doubly to my friend Robert who is better known as Etiquetteer, who I have no doubt knows all about Mr. Woollcott.
This week on Instagram: yoyoha
When I was growing up I use to draw all the time. For some reason I stopped but I never stopped appreciating the art form – no matter what shape it takes. Josh Hara’s account features drawings on coffee cups with a bit of humor like this one which espouses the benefits of a morning coffee and the problems that can happen later in the day after having a martini or two. The account is one part artistic and one part humorous – check it out.
Follow him on Instagram here, instagram.com/yoyoha.
Do you like this weekly post? 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.
“Welcome to Phallusopolis“
Escape the chill at the Gardner museum
Photo from instagram.com/gardnermuseum
Boston’s weather forecast for this coming week (and likely the next many weeks) is bone chilling cold. However, that doesn’t mean you cannot get out and forget about the crazy cold gripping the city. It just means you have to be a bit more creative about choosing what you do.
One of my favorite museums in Boston is the Isabella Stewart Gardner, located in the Fenway (about a 5-minute walk from the MFA). Once the home of the wealthy arts patron, Mrs. Isabella Stewart Gardner, it was transformed into one of the nation’s more quirky museum which has objects of art dating from Roman antiquity to 20th century American artists like John Singer Sargent.
The home, which looks fairly plain from the Fenway, is actually modeled after a Venetian Palazzo and was designed by Willard Sears, a prominent architect at the time who also went on to build the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown. The home was built to house Gardner’s growing art collection and was modeled after the architecture in Venice (one of the Gardner’s favorite cities).
The centerpiece of the palace is the courtyard where the stonework arches, columns, and walls create an unforgettable impression. And for those looking to forget about winter, no place in the city is more comforting. Surrounded by a world class art collection you can smell the flowers in bloom, see the tiny grassy patch and hear water cascading from a Roman fountain. Its the best therapy you can get for chasing away the winter blues and far cheaper than a therapy session.
If you’ve never been or if you need to forget about this ridiculous cold, plan on visiting the Gardner Museum.
Gay youth are 4x more likely to consider suicide
There is never a good time to bring up a difficult topic but while I revel in the holidays – a lot of LGBQ youth find this time especially difficult. So even though it may seem inopportune to broach the subject, I wanted to share a report that has found a “startling rise in U.S. suicide rates” and more disturbing is the news that LGBQ teens are at far greater risk.
Researchers from San Diego State University recently conducted an experiment, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, to analyze suicide attempts among America’s youth.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and questioning teens were found to be more than four times as likely to attempt suicide.
The risk for gay, bisexual and questioning males was even higher, with nearly 39% of bisexual boys indicating they had considered suicide. Researchers lacked data on gender identity or trans youth, who may have an even higher risk.
I don’t think that my friends and family who are not LGBTQ can quite fathom the impact the messages coming from the Trump administration have. I was traumatized by the AIDS crisis and Reagan’s heartless response in the 1980s and it breaks my heart to think that in many of today’s youth may feel the same way. While it truly does get better, when you feel isolated, telling someone to hang in there isn’t exactly a hopeful message. We need to do more for these kids. If you’d like to read the article that inspired this post, click here. If you’d like to help, you can volunteer or make a donation to The Samaratins and or The Trevor Project.
Temptation Tuesday
This gorgeous Brazilian is named Thiago Zanini just in case you were curious.
Adam and Andy Christmas edition
James Asal Jr. has treated us to a Christmas special that I think you’ll enjoy if you’ve been following the latest storyline.
ADAM & ANDY is set in the fictional New England town of Woodfield, CT. You can learn more about this strip and purchase Adam and Andy cartoon collections by visiting their website at adamandandy.com.
Click on the individual comic strips to enlarge
Merry Christmas!
BosGuy 