The weather in Boston has been wicked gawjus. There is no other way to describe it. If you are in New England I hope you are able to enjoy the day. Sergio and I have headed to Provincetown for the day with our house guest. I hope you are having a great day wherever you are.
Maybe I should call this week’s post, snuggling Sunday.
Last year’s mancandy friendly video seems like a nice post for you on a Saturday evening. I hope you are enjoying the long Labor Day Weekend if you are in the US.
Saturday, September 12th hundreds of swimmers will partake 1.4 mile swim across Provincetown Harbor – otherwise known as the 28th annual Swim for Life. The annual event raises funds for vital year round services for AIDS, women’s health and the Provincetown community. I want to wish my friends who will do the swim next week much luck and fun in this annual tradition.
For more information visit: swim4life.org
Last week Eater Boston shared the details on 25 restaurants that are planning to open this fall in Greater Boston in their post, The Boston Restaurant Opening Guide, Fall 2015.
For those of you who don’t want to read the long post here are some highlights. Two restaurants in the South End will open (both interestingly enough are Italian). The first is The Aquitaine Group’s newest restaurant, La Motta’s which is described as “Bronx-style” Italian-American restaurant. La Motta has a mid-September target opening and will be in the space formerly known as Union. The second restaurant, SRV (Serene Republic of Venice), describes themselves as a wine bar on the FB page. This restaurant comes from Coda Group and targets an October opening on Columbus Ave near Mass Ave.
What is missing from EaterBoston’s list and which I had fully expected to see is news that Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe’s reopening. After serving the South End for nearly 90 years the owners closed their neighborhood restaurant. Weeks after that announcement last summer news came that the owner of Stella had purchased the space and planned to remodel and upgrade the space before reopening under the same name. There has been painfully little news since then. Anyone aware of what is going on or when this too may re-open in the South End?
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Casey At The Bat is a comic strip follows the adventures of a young, gay man and his friends in life, love and sports! Casey At The Bat is the work of the very talented Bob Glasscock who resides in NYC.
You can read back issues and order Casey At The Bat volume 1 from his website, caseyatb.com.
Click on the comic strip to enlarge
ADAM & ANDY is set in the fictional New England town of Woodfield, CT. You can learn more about this strip by visiting, adamandandy.com. To see previous Adam and Andy cartoons link here.
This photo came courtesy of Twitter bud @onerebeldevil. It seems like a good bonus fur post for what is the likely last weekend of summer. Have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend if you live in the US and are reading this post.
The US is gearing up for Labor Day Weekend. For those of you who have a long weekend ahead of you, I wanted to wish you a safe and fun time with family and or friends. We will be hosting a friend visiting from Miami by way of Paris.
One year ago tomorrow, September 4, 2014, Joan Rivers passed away. Say what you will about her, but I loved this woman. Joan Rivers was a trailblazer who had an amazing sense of humor. Above, is one of my favorite Joan Rivers quotes.
I don’t normally write about events outside of New England but because I love San Francisco (what gay doesn’t -right) and because the organizers were so nice about reaching out to me I couldn’t resist doing my part to help.
California Independent Film Festival
September 10 – 16, 2015
Opening night features Tab Hunter Confidential; screening begins at 7:30 PM. In the 1950s Tab Hunter was number one at the box office and on the music charts. He was Hollywood’s most sought-after star rumored to have been linked to Natalie Wood, Debbie Reynolds and Sophia Loren. Nothing, it seems, could damage his career except for the fact that Tab Hunter was secretly gay. In Tab Hunter Confidential you will meet the real Tab Hunter as he shares his story of being a happy, healthy survivor of Hollywood’s roller coaster.
The California Independent Film Festival Association(CAIFFA) is part of an amazing worldwide community; a unique collaboration of multi-talented filmmakers that takes place in three theaters: Castro Theater, Orinda Theater and Rheem Theater. You can see the full line up of films and purchase tickets by visiting their website, caiff.org.
I recently finished reading an entertaining mystery that takes place in the fictional, New England town of Idyll, Connecticut. The 280 page book published by Seventh Street Books and written by Massachusetts author, Stephanie Gayle was a quick and easy read that I thoroughly enjoyed.
The story centers around the new Chief of Police who moved from NYC and is tasked with solving the town’s first murder in years. Complicating the investigation is the fact that the Police Chief, Thomas Lynch, meets the victim hours before her murder but cannot share that news without revealing his greatest secret: he’s gay. A ghost from Chief Lynch’s past haunts him, while he tries to solve the town’s murder, but to do so he has to learn to avoid the advances of Donna Daniels, a middle aged waitress who has eyes for the Police Chief and an ever growing pile of paperwork, Mrs. Dunsmore, the town’s local busy body and precinct’s bureaucrat threatens to bury him under.
Idyll Threats is available for sale, starting September 8th. You can pre-order or purchase this detective murder mystery on Amazon.com or locally at Porter Square Books in Porter Square, Cambridge.
Earlier this week several prominent LGBT blogs wrote about the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) report that suggests the Religious Freedom Restoration Acts passed in 21 states (and counting) will define the new battle lines in LGBT rights in the US.
With marriage equality mostly settled, religious conservatives are claiming their “religious freedom” has been violated and are looking to create exemptions to discriminate against LGBT people. Cultural conservatives through out the 20th century have used “God” and “The Bible” as reasons to oppose and violate laws including a women’s right to vote, civil rights and interracial marriages.
“Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.”
-Judge Leon M. Bazile, January 6, 1959
A rash of RFRA’s that increasingly target the LGBT community have been passed recently (e.g. Indiana RFRA law which ultimately was rolled-back – in part). Signaling cultural conservatives are looking to use these acts and the courts to institutionalize discrimination under the pretense of “religious freedom”.
Since the start of 2015 lawmakers in 17 states have introduced religious exemption proposals in response to the spread of marriage equality. Below is an image that MAP shares in their report. Select their link above to learn more.
BosGuy 